Even by conventional standards, Hollis had a far from unblemished record. From the Forties to the Sixties, the security services were hit with a series of disasters, from the case of the atomic traitor Klaus Fuchs, to the security catastrophe that was the Profumo scandal, and the defections of Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, all of whom escaped to the Eastern Bloc with ease. Throughout this period, the methods used by Hollis and his curious unwillingness to take action were the cause of consternation among many of his colleagues. The serial failings seemed to indicate that deep within the service there was an active Soviet mole who was aiding Russia and hindering Britain. Even today, thanks to the help of the Russian historian Dr Svetlana Chervonnaya, I am unearthing fresh revelations. We can now prove, for example, that such a double agent did indeed exist. Intelligence messages and a crucial Russian document provided by the former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev showed that a GRU agent codenamed Elli worked inside British intelligence...Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384646/Red-Sonia-Christine-Keeler-final-damning-evidence-Britains-biggest-traitor.html#ixzz1LnrpUUTu
Many find it hard to believe that Hollis, who was the son of a bishop, could have become a Soviet agent. Born in Wells in 1905, as a teenager Hollis was an assiduous worker. But he led a rumbustious life at Oxford, drinking heavily, and he left the university before taking his degree. Later, he would say he left Oxford of his own choice, but he never gave a satisfactory explanation of why his next move was to seek his fortune in China.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Roger Hollis, the failed student who rose to become head of British counter-intelligence
Does this extraordinary story have a parallel, now in America? The mediocre student who became the President?
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