Darragh MacIntyre’s BBC documentary, The Secret Army: The True Story of a Film Made Inside the IRA, was fascinating not least for what it left out. The threads are there for a curious journalist to pick up should they be so inclined.
The era that The Secret Army takes place in has yet to be deeply examined in the wider public realm, pop culture having spent more time on the European front of the Cold War, and not so much in the Middle East, African, or Latin American spheres.
As a somewhat myopic result of focusing on the East-West conflict, the intelligence battles involving the revolutionary groups of the 1970s and 80s often gets overlooked as a footnote to the bigger war.
The Secret Army is the curious tale of a possible Mossad-led intelligence operation in Northern Ireland that used unprecedented access to the IRA provided by a CIA consultant. However, if The Secret Army was the product of intelligence activity, the film itself would not have been the end goal. Nor would the IRA have likely even been the actual target of the operation. The Provisional IRA instead would have been a back door to the real prize: Gaddafi.
At the time of filming, the CIA had been badly burned by British intelligence and did not trust them. They had warned the Brits about the Cambridge spies and were spurned, leading to disaster for the US’s Russian operatives. They were dealing with Vietnam and had little support from the British on that front. The “special relationship” was full of distrust and suspicion, and did not lend itself to the spirit of intelligence sharing that is more common today. Additionally, sentiment in America at that time was far more sympathetic, if not to the IRA, to the raison d’erte of the IRA.
Plane hijackings were a regular occurrence during this time, which also shifted and concentrated the CIA’s focus. Africa and the Middle East would have far more interest than Belfast or Derry – except for where they intersected. In the early 1970s, that overlap was in Libya.
Rather than The Secret Army film being a CIA driven operation, it is more likely, however, that the CIA consultant J. Bowyer Bell's access to senior levels of the IRA was the prompt for activity that Mossad agent, the Nazi hunter Zwy Aldouby, engineered.
Prior to his book about the IRA, Bowyer Bell had written extensive histories on Israel and the Arab world. This cannot be a coincidence vis his relationship with Aldouby, who had built up a legend as an Arab American journalist with radical ties. Was Bowyer Bell aware of Aldouby’s Mossad history?
Certainly he was not introducing Aldouby to his IRA contacts as a Mossad agent. Aldouby’s legend would have been a door-opener, especially when meeting and interviewing men like Joe Cahill, who is seen in the film. From what MacIntyre has discovered in chasing The Secret Army, it appears Mossad had the senior agent in this operation.
Mossad’s interests in a mission of this kind are obvious. An opportunity to track weapons, routes, players, and training levels at the end point would be of immense interest to Israel.
Gaddafi expressed support for the IRA in August 1971 after seeing Joe Cahill give a press conference about internment. A Pan-Celticist activist in Ireland, who had been a Nazi collaborator in Breton, Yann Goulet, long friendly with various IRA figures, was asked by the Libyans to connect them with the Provisional IRA. He introduced Joe Cahill to their Algerian emissary in December, 1971.
All of this would have immediately attracted Israeli attention, and could have been a possible catalyst for sending Aldouby the Nazi hunter to Ireland with Bowyer Bell the international historian under the pretext of a film that was never intended to be released.
Many questions arise from MacIntyre’s research. The documentary mentions the film being sent to London for processing. Did Mossad have The Secret Army film developed in London as a way to stop the weapons flow? If so, it would appear the British response, typically, was to use the proffered intelligence goldmine to cultivate agents instead of taking definitive action. Did Aldouby sell the film to the British? Was the intervention of British intelligence a cover story given by Aldouby?
Whatever occurred may have likely contributed to the poisonous relationship between Mossad and MI6, which would continue to deteriorate throughout this period as both sides consistently withheld vital information from each other.
Mossad retained more than a passing interest in the doings of the IRA, related to gun running from Arab states, and would later be involved in surveillance that led to the Gibraltar SAS shoot-to-kill operation. Rather than deal with the British directly, they passed their information to the Spanish, who then relayed it to the British.
For the IRA, the film was a potential fundraising gift; a piece of propaganda guaranteed to raise hundreds of thousands, if not more. The downsides would not outweigh the prospective profit. The thing about the so-called Secret Army was that it was never that secret. The IRA would be running the same risk doing what they were doing whether it was on film or not.
As it turns out, regardless of whether the film was used to turn people, it wasn’t used to prosecute anyone so the immediately visible cost was nil. Long term, it is hard to say whether anyone who may have been turned by the British because of the threat of arrest due to the film evidence wouldn’t have been turned at some other point by a similar threat of arrest. It also raises questions about exactly who people may have been cultivated by, for surely it would not have been the British alone using the film as leverage.
Apropos the overall intelligence value of the film, the damage potentially done - not solely to the IRA - is incalculable. Whether the British were turning people for their own ends, or Mossad was cultivating assets and information as an alternative route to Gaddafi, the PLO, and others, the leverage created by this film could be immense.
A fascinating history is yet to be written about the IRA, the PLO, other factions and revolutionary groups, Mossad, the CIA, the British, and the competing intelligence wars. Much more detail needs to be confirmed to make any definitive conclusions. If the iceberg of the Stakeknife saga is any indication of what was actually going on at the time, this hidden history – the sheer amount of agents running around – would be a destabilising shock.
Perhaps MacIntyre’s documentary should have been called The Secret Battle, given The Secret Army film was a set-piece in service of a much larger secret war.
As a somewhat myopic result of focusing on the East-West conflict, the intelligence battles involving the revolutionary groups of the 1970s and 80s often gets overlooked as a footnote to the bigger war.
The Secret Army is the curious tale of a possible Mossad-led intelligence operation in Northern Ireland that used unprecedented access to the IRA provided by a CIA consultant. However, if The Secret Army was the product of intelligence activity, the film itself would not have been the end goal. Nor would the IRA have likely even been the actual target of the operation. The Provisional IRA instead would have been a back door to the real prize: Gaddafi.
At the time of filming, the CIA had been badly burned by British intelligence and did not trust them. They had warned the Brits about the Cambridge spies and were spurned, leading to disaster for the US’s Russian operatives. They were dealing with Vietnam and had little support from the British on that front. The “special relationship” was full of distrust and suspicion, and did not lend itself to the spirit of intelligence sharing that is more common today. Additionally, sentiment in America at that time was far more sympathetic, if not to the IRA, to the raison d’erte of the IRA.
Plane hijackings were a regular occurrence during this time, which also shifted and concentrated the CIA’s focus. Africa and the Middle East would have far more interest than Belfast or Derry – except for where they intersected. In the early 1970s, that overlap was in Libya.
Rather than The Secret Army film being a CIA driven operation, it is more likely, however, that the CIA consultant J. Bowyer Bell's access to senior levels of the IRA was the prompt for activity that Mossad agent, the Nazi hunter Zwy Aldouby, engineered.
Prior to his book about the IRA, Bowyer Bell had written extensive histories on Israel and the Arab world. This cannot be a coincidence vis his relationship with Aldouby, who had built up a legend as an Arab American journalist with radical ties. Was Bowyer Bell aware of Aldouby’s Mossad history?
Certainly he was not introducing Aldouby to his IRA contacts as a Mossad agent. Aldouby’s legend would have been a door-opener, especially when meeting and interviewing men like Joe Cahill, who is seen in the film. From what MacIntyre has discovered in chasing The Secret Army, it appears Mossad had the senior agent in this operation.
Mossad’s interests in a mission of this kind are obvious. An opportunity to track weapons, routes, players, and training levels at the end point would be of immense interest to Israel.
Gaddafi expressed support for the IRA in August 1971 after seeing Joe Cahill give a press conference about internment. A Pan-Celticist activist in Ireland, who had been a Nazi collaborator in Breton, Yann Goulet, long friendly with various IRA figures, was asked by the Libyans to connect them with the Provisional IRA. He introduced Joe Cahill to their Algerian emissary in December, 1971.
All of this would have immediately attracted Israeli attention, and could have been a possible catalyst for sending Aldouby the Nazi hunter to Ireland with Bowyer Bell the international historian under the pretext of a film that was never intended to be released.
Many questions arise from MacIntyre’s research. The documentary mentions the film being sent to London for processing. Did Mossad have The Secret Army film developed in London as a way to stop the weapons flow? If so, it would appear the British response, typically, was to use the proffered intelligence goldmine to cultivate agents instead of taking definitive action. Did Aldouby sell the film to the British? Was the intervention of British intelligence a cover story given by Aldouby?
Whatever occurred may have likely contributed to the poisonous relationship between Mossad and MI6, which would continue to deteriorate throughout this period as both sides consistently withheld vital information from each other.
Mossad retained more than a passing interest in the doings of the IRA, related to gun running from Arab states, and would later be involved in surveillance that led to the Gibraltar SAS shoot-to-kill operation. Rather than deal with the British directly, they passed their information to the Spanish, who then relayed it to the British.
For the IRA, the film was a potential fundraising gift; a piece of propaganda guaranteed to raise hundreds of thousands, if not more. The downsides would not outweigh the prospective profit. The thing about the so-called Secret Army was that it was never that secret. The IRA would be running the same risk doing what they were doing whether it was on film or not.
As it turns out, regardless of whether the film was used to turn people, it wasn’t used to prosecute anyone so the immediately visible cost was nil. Long term, it is hard to say whether anyone who may have been turned by the British because of the threat of arrest due to the film evidence wouldn’t have been turned at some other point by a similar threat of arrest. It also raises questions about exactly who people may have been cultivated by, for surely it would not have been the British alone using the film as leverage.
Apropos the overall intelligence value of the film, the damage potentially done - not solely to the IRA - is incalculable. Whether the British were turning people for their own ends, or Mossad was cultivating assets and information as an alternative route to Gaddafi, the PLO, and others, the leverage created by this film could be immense.
A fascinating history is yet to be written about the IRA, the PLO, other factions and revolutionary groups, Mossad, the CIA, the British, and the competing intelligence wars. Much more detail needs to be confirmed to make any definitive conclusions. If the iceberg of the Stakeknife saga is any indication of what was actually going on at the time, this hidden history – the sheer amount of agents running around – would be a destabilising shock.
Perhaps MacIntyre’s documentary should have been called The Secret Battle, given The Secret Army film was a set-piece in service of a much larger secret war.
⏩Carrie Twomey hates Illinois Nazis (just like the Blues Brothers)
I beg to differ.....western military intelligence have always worked closely. For the Brits it would be entirely feasible to get the yanks to do this t.v stunt as they knew the Irish were naively still believing the yanks were on their side and thus would be less suspicious than if it was a Brit crew. The notion that Mossad/CIA couldn't get the film recordings out of Ireland without showing the Brits is fanciful as well.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the Brits sponsor such an elaborate stunt? Well according to the documentary the other night, shortly after the film crew left the Brits kicked on with dismantling the he 'no go' areas........could it have been a simple exercise to determine how potent the IRA was behind these no go areas and thus act accordingly before moving in? No better way than to have a t.v crew do the Intel for you......and what was shown on t.v the other night would have had Brit generals purring and guffawing at the time. One thing is for sure mcguinness never read the 'art of war'!
Why wasn't MMG picked up for this?
ReplyDeleteGood review but I thought the documentary an anticlimax... it reveals the early amateurish fervor of IRA members used as pawns in a wider intel network. Bower-Bell and Aldouby could also have been scouts for international illegal gun dealers simply getting into a newly emerged market.
ReplyDeleteThe connection with the murder of comrade Gaddafi is fascinating!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xr7Bm6i32k
Zwy Aldouby, was my father, I was interviewed in the documentary. My own theory is that the intelligence agencies worked together. I ponder which one coordinated it. With all the different intelligence agencies they could have an international spy gala and ball in Belfast.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that the information was given to the Spanish. My father served three years in a Spanish prison after a failed attempted to kidnap a top nazi and bring him to justice. I don't think my father would have Spanish intelligence on speed dial.
The film was commissioned by the IRA for fund raising. However, I think the IRA marketing department should have had their pay docked. Instead, footage of unmasked IRA people led them to be compromised.
P.S. I hate nazis from Illinois as well.
Carrie Responds
DeleteThanks for reading the piece, Ilan. Your father had quite the fascinating life. It certainly would be interesting to discover if your father's involvement with Ireland and the IRA lasted longer than the making of the film! However, there is no doubt the Gibraltar operation involved a different team of operatives
Carrie I was a little child at the time in NY. I don't think there was much of a time span from the time he finished with the IRA and his time in NYC. That said, who knows? Anything is possible.
ReplyDeleteMy father told me that he felt a lot of "hate" living with the IRA (not towards him).
ReplyDeleteSomething else...speaking about Nazis from Illinois. My father had a brother who as an infant the nazis threw against the wall and murdered. (not in Illinois just for clarification)
ReplyDelete