Print document
 54 of 94 
 
“Despite the lessening of tensions of the Russian intelligence, gathering operations continue
unabated”.
and, indeed, it is an important part of this case that they were going on in August last year and, but
for the defection of Mr. Oschenko, the defendant would have passed over this material in Harrow
on the Thursday before his arrest. That is what she says at 181.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: Yes. You really rely upon when she says,
“This is particularly true in the science and technology field where classification of individual pieces
of information is not necessarily a true reflection of their work in the community”.
and that is a small and exceedingly innocuous piece, to give that evidence?
THE SOLICITOR GENERAL: Yes, the jigsaw piece.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: Yes, I follow the way you are putting it. What about Mr. Gordievsky
then?
THE SOLICITOR GENERAL: Mr. Gordievsky gives extremely detailed evidence and will do on
oath and will, therefore, authenticate on oath his knowledge of Soviet tradecraft and give the most
detailed concrete examples, or deal with the specific concrete examples in the course of this case.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: If they were given in public why would that prejudice national security?
THE SOLICITOR GENERAL: Because it would demonstrate to other hostile intelligence agencies
the extent of our knowledge about Soviet tradecraft at the material time.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: The point that Mr. Tansey is making is that once it is known that Mr.
Gordievsky has come over to the west the assumption is that everything he knows has been gleaned
by the west, so it is not telling those who might be enemies of this country any more than they
strongly suspect already.
THE SOLICITOR GENERAL: In my submission that is not the point. The point is what is the likely
prejudicial effect of his giving evidence on oath in this Court, and the consequent publicity from
widespread publication of his evidence. It would demonstrate to other hostile intelligence agencies,
not the K.G.B. of which he was a member, but other hostile intelligence agencies, the extent of our
knowledge about the Soviet tradecraft which may well be of use to them. It would taken together
with Mrs. C’s evidence demonstrate the depth and extent of that.
MR. JUSTICE BLOFELD: I see how you put it, in which case I have got the point. All right, Mr.
Tansey, that has clarified what I wanted to know. I hope it has for you too.
MR. TANSEY: Yes, my Lord. So far as Mr. Gordievsky giving evidence, Mr. Gordievsky is a
regular contributor about K.G.B. and Soviet-West relations in television and newspapers. In fact,
only a month ago, or something like that, he was writing a letter to the Evening Standard. So, this is
a man who is constantly in the public limelight seeking publicity, writing books, not under a
pseudonym but under his own name, and all the time is writing about USSR and tradecraft
techniques. He is a man for whom publicity is the essence of his life and, consequently, we submit
that everybody knows who is interested, and I stress who is interested, that Mr. Gordievsky must
have spilt the beans about K.G.B. tradecraft to MI5. Everybody knows that because that is the
http://www.purepage.com