Michael John Smith (espionage)
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Michael John Smith (born on 22 September 1948) was convicted of spying in the UK. In 1992, Smith was arrested, accused of spying for the
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
, and charged with four offences under sections 1(1)(b) and (c) of the UK
Official Secrets Act 1911 The Official Secrets Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo 5 c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Official Secrets Act 1889. The Act was introduced in response to public alarm at reports of wide-scale espionage, some of them ...
. Smith was convicted on the three section 1(1)(c) charges relating to "communicating material to another for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State". He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, reduced in June 1995 on appeal to 20 years. Christopher Andrew, in his history of the KGB, described Smith as "probably the most important British
Line X Line X was a section of the KGB First Chief Directorate residency organization assigned to acquire Western technology for the Directorate of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (Directorate "T"). In the early 1980s, over 200 Line X agents we ...
agent since the retirement of (Melita) Norwood".


Education

Between 1960 and 1967, Smith attended Ockendon Courts County Secondary Modern School in Essex and gained nine GCE 'O' levels and four 'A' levels. He went on to the
University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...
where he graduated in 1971 with a degree in electronic and electrical engineering.


Early politics

Smith joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...
in 1972. In 1975, he became the secretary of the Kingston branch of the
Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...
.


Employment

After graduating, Smith found employment for a short time as a trainee assistant electronic engineer at a small engineering company. In April 1972, he joined
Rediffusion Rediffusion was a business that distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, the first ITV ( commer ...
in Chessington as a junior engineer. In July 1976, he started work as a test engineer in the
quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
department of
Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comic ...
Defence Electronics at
Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party ...
, Middlesex. As a part of this role he had
security clearance A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...
to allow him access to material classified up to SECRET. From 1985 to 31 July 1992, when he was made redundant, he was a quality audit manager at the
Hirst Research Centre The Hirst Research Centre, also known as the GEC Hirst Research Centre or GEC Research Laboratories, was established in 1919 at Wembley, Middlesex, by the General Electric Company. History Formally opened in 1923, the site at East Lane, Wembley ...
,
Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
, the central research laboratory of
General Electric Company plc The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...
(GEC), which undertook a wide range of
Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...
(MoD) and commercial projects. Since at least 1977, it had been a "prohibited place" under Section 3(b) of the ''
Official Secrets Act 1911 The Official Secrets Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo 5 c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It replaces the Official Secrets Act 1889. The Act was introduced in response to public alarm at reports of wide-scale espionage, some of them ...
'' because it held classified material for the purpose of fulfilling MoD contracts. These contracts covered a range of military equipment, including the
Rapier missile Rapier is a surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army to replace their towed Bofors 40/L70 anti-aircraft guns. The system is unusual as it uses a manual optical guidance system, sending guidance commands to the missile in flight over ...
.


Espionage

The prosecutors alleged that Smith was recruited as a spy by Colonel Viktor Oshchenko (russian: Виктор Ощенко), a KGB Line X officer, who befriended him at a union meeting in 1975 and ran him until September 1979. Oshchenko defected in July 1992 and provided information that is said to have confirmed suspicions that Smith had provided information on the XN-715 radar fuse for the British
WE.177 The WE.177, originally styled as WE 177, and sometimes simply as WE177, was a series of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons with which the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) were equipped. It was the primary air-dropped nuclear we ...
free-fall nuclear bomb. The fuse was developed by Thorn EMI in conjunction with a number of MoD research establishments. Despite the fact that the most serious alleged espionage occurred whilst he was working for EMI, the trial was confined to charges relating to documents taken from GEC in his possession at the time of his arrest.


Arrest

By the time of Oshchenko's defection, Smith was no longer working for a defence contractor. The Security Service,
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
, gave him the
code name A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial c ...
Parellic and placed him under surveillance. Given the information provided by Oshchenko after his defection it was decided to arrest Smith as soon as possible. In August 1992, a member of the Security Service telephoned him pretending to be a friend of Oshchenko and suggested that they should meet. It was arranged to call Smith at a telephone kiosk near his home. The call did not take place due to a mix up, but Smith was under surveillance by the Metropolitan Police near the kiosk. When Smith returned home he was arrested. Analysis of Smith's financial affairs revealed unexplained income of over £20,000. During a search of the boot of his car, police found a plastic bag full of documents and some components. Among the documents were handwritten notes headed "Micromachining Project" and "Micron-Valve Project", and a document that an expert at the trial linked to the
ALARM An alarm device is a mechanism that gives an audible, visual or other kind of alarm signal to alert someone to a problem or condition that requires urgent attention. Alphabetical musical instruments Etymology The word ''alarm'' comes from th ...
anti-radiation missile project.


Damage assessment

The report of the
Security Commission The Security Commission, sometimes known as the Standing Security Commission,Geoffrey Philip Wilson, "Cases and materials on constitutional and administrative law", Cambridge University Press, 1976 p. 98. was a UK non-departmental public body or ...
dated July 1995, prepared after an inquiry into the case, stated that, :"The material known to have been obtained by Smith during his time at GEC which led to the charges and his conviction under the Official Secrets Act, was a mixed bag. Some was already in the public domain and some was of value more for its commercial than for its military potential. But a number of documents contained more sensitive material, relating to weapons systems. The potential damage to the UK overall including the Rapier is assessed as considerable. In the case of the other current weapon system, the detailed information contained in the document which should have been classified SECRET would have enabled an intelligent enemy to deduce operating parameters which would have allowed counter-measures to be developed. The potential damage to the national interest in the case of that weapons system is assessed as serious."


Follow-ups

On 10 January 2006, Andrew Mackinlay MP asked in Parliament for clarification as to which weapon system the most serious document in the prosecution was linked.Bandpass Filter Assembly component
Andrew Mackinlay MP asks in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
for clarification on the document alleged to be linked to the ALARM missile project. 10 January 2006 ''
Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...
'': Column 501W
Smith alleges that this document had nothing to do with ALARM, as alleged in his trial.


References


External links


Operation Billiards
Smith's blog
Oshchenko debriefings
Oshchenko's MI5 debriefings on the case
Gordievsky briefing
Oleg Gordievsky's MI5 briefing on the case

prepared before the trial

"''Analysis of Exhibited Material from a Technical Standpoint''" dated June 1993

controversial evidence that resulted in Smith's conviction

cross-examinations of Stella Rimington and Gordievsky by defence counsel

a US citizen, that he had been recruited by Oshchenko

by Mr Justice Blofeld

final judgement issued at the appeal
Ruling of the ECHR that application by Smith was inadmissible on all grounds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Michael John 1948 births Living people Alumni of the University of Surrey British people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union British spies for the Soviet Union 1992 in politics General Electric Company