'CHURCHILL SOLUTION' TO FILLING TOP POST IN INTELLIGENCE IS SOUGHT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96B01172R000300030030-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2007
• Sequence Number: 30
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2007/12/14: CIA-RDP96BO1172R000300030030-3
7 - if 1.1~
SSecurity tussle
1 he Foreign Office is campaign-
ing to keep Mr Patrick Wri ht,
its man on the Joint Intelligence
Committee, as its chairman
after implementation of the
reform suggested by the Franks
Report - - page S
urch:1a S~al
Wing top
By Peter Hennessy
The Foreign and Common-
wealth Office is fighting a
determined campaign to keep
Mr Patrick Wright. its man on
the Joint Intelligence Com-
mittee (JIC), as its chairman
after the reform suggested by
the Franks report and accepted
by the Prime Minister on
Tuesday is implemented.
If the Foreign Office wins,
and Whitehall insiders think it
has a chance in spite of Mrs
Margaret Thatcher's legendary
antipathy towards it as an
institution, Mr Wright would
chid his other responsibilities,
Chirglly as the Foreign Office's
link man with the secret
intelligence gathering agencies,
and move into the Cabinet
Office full-time. The JIC and its
supporting organizations are
Cabinet Office bodies.
A second possibility, which
inight have attractions for the
Prime Minister, is to persuade a
retired Whitehall"war-horse",
of whose record she approves,
to return and do the JIC job. In
the past she has summoned Sir
Anthony Parsons as her foreign
affairs adviser in Downing
Street, sent Sir Oliver Wright to
the Washington embassy and
brought hack Sir Antony' Duff
as security and intelligence
oordinator in the Cabinet
Office.
Such a move would accord
with advice offered her by Mr
Harold Macmillan at the
tio
r^a
`Pug' and a possible heir:
Lord Ismay (left) and Nlr
Patrick Wright
beginning of the Falklands
conflict "to find a Pug". The
former prime minister had in
mind a figure cotnpariblc to the
late Lord lsmay (known as
"Pug"). Military Secretary to
the War Cabinet. 1939-45, who
filletted the enormous bulk of
intelligence and strategic advice
protlered to Sir Winston Chur-
chill, and generally acted as his
eyes, ears and early warning
device.
The field of potential Ismays
is small, given a candidate's
need to possess inside know-
ledge of both the producers and
consumers of British Intelli-
gence. The most obvious choice
is Sir Frank Cooper, who retired
as Permanent Secretary to the
Ministry of Defence last month
and who is a great favourite of
Mrs Thatcher's.
Other runners could he Sir
Dick Franks, who retired as
Director-General of the Secret
Intelligence Service MI6. in
1981 or Sir Brooks Richards,
former security and intelligence
coordinator in the Cabinet
Office. The present incumbent
of the Word nt;'tor's post, Sir
Antony Dull: is highly regarded
by the Prime Minister and may
be asked to transfi't' and run the
new JIC job in, although he is
planning to retire in the spring.
If Mrs Thatcher follows the
prescription of the more radical
internal critics of the JIC, whose
Co inplainis arc longstanding
and predate the Falklands crisis,
the shake-up of Whitehall's
central intelligence machinery
'ould he profound,
Theirjobspccitication is fora
powerful indis idual who would
keep a close e \e on the present
intelligence groups, the engine
rooms of the .loint. Intelligence
Organi,ation, which teed the
JIC, and throur,h it. ministers,
with assessments' of what the
mass of raw intelligence really
means.
His, second task would be to
improve the JIC's crisis man-
agemeirt capability, to stand
back from the immediate rush
of events to assess longer term
significance as ~\cll as advising'
on the day-b\-day response.
The .1 IC 1 ,61. c\:ample. took quite
a time to get a grip on post-
Solidarity dc.cfopmcnts in
Poland in 1981.
The third r?oic the Prime
Minister has already conceded:
direct, personal access to her at
all times.
Approved For Release 2007/12/14: CIA-RDP96BO1172R000300030030-3