Code word Gospel: How UK secret service caught soldier selling plans to ‘save Lebanon’
At lunchtime on March 16, 1965, Chief Inspector Jock Wilson of London’s Special Branch followed his suspect through the streets surrounding London’s Charing Cross Underground station. Under the railway arches nearby, he witnessed Peter Sydney Allen exchange envelopes with another man. It was time to move in. He arrested Allen, a soldier and desk sergeant working at the Ministry of Defence who had…
On March 16, 1965, Chief Inspector Jock Wilson of London’s Special Branch observed Peter Sydney Allen, a soldier and desk sergeant at the Ministry of Defence, exchange envelopes with a man near London’s Charing Cross Underground station. Allen was subsequently arrested and detained alongside Major Abdul Hafidh Khazal Al Abbassi, an assistant military attaché from the Iraqi embassy.
Al Abbassi was allowed to leave when his official car arrived, but Allen was charged with selling state secrets to agents from Egypt and Iraq. The documents Allen handed over included top-secret plans for US and UK assistance for Lebanon in the event of an attack on the government, amongst other files. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his actions.
The operation to apprehend Allen, known by the code word Gospel, is detailed in newly released documents from the UK’s National Archives, shedding light on the security lapses within the Ministry of Defence during the Cold War era.
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