National Security Portillo's State Secrets

One thousand years of history under one roof.

The National Archives, a treasure house of secrets.

The records of extraordinary times and people.

These files are this nation's story, our shared past.

Documents housed here were highly classified,

intended for the eyes of only the privileged few,

protected from your sight for decades.

But not now.

I've been granted special access to files once kept hush-hush.

I'll unearth amazing tales from our hidden history.

Forget what you've been told - these documents tell the truth.

In this programme, National Security and the birth of a legend.

The secret letter that preceded

the storming of the Iranian Embassy by the SAS.

One of the terrorists was hidden amongst them

with a hand grenade in his hand,

and three of us shot him at exactly the same time.

And the moment you put a bullet in the terrorist, what...

what was your sensation, then?

Nothing really. Job done.

Thinking the unthinkable.

Churchill's plan for war on Russia, with the Germans as allies.

They don't imagine that the SS are going to be involved,

at least in the early months,

but the Werhmacht, definitely.

And a conspiracy to decapitate the British cabinet -

how violent revolutionaries plotted to take over.

This, which, er, looks strangely like a kitchen recipe,

except it's for a fire ball.

The first duty of the State is the protection of its citizens.

REPORTER: Acting on information that came through yesterday evening,

an elite group of officers from MI5,

the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist branch

and West Midlands Police gathered in Birmingham for a pre-dawn raid...

And today the State is kept very busy

with threats of attack constantly in the news.

Detectives have been combing the route of the train to London

the men took last week.

This evening, police carried out a controlled explosion

on a car at Luton station, the area remains sealed off...

For obviously reasons, national security is cloaked in secrecy.

Decades can pass before operational details are revealed.

Here in the National Archives,

I've discovered an extraordinary dossier

that sheds new light on an infamous terrorist siege

that many of us remember.

It all began when three armed men

seized the lone police guard outside the Embassy,

bundled him inside and fired three shots.

Seconds later Iranian women rushed screaming from the building,

and seconds after that the first reinforcements arrived.'

In April, 1980, armed men forced their way into the Iranian Embassy

in London, taking 26 people hostage.

They wanted to draw the world's attention to political prisoners

held by Iran's new revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.

The six gunmen demanded those prisoners' release

and safe passage out of the United Kingdom for themselves.

As millions watched the siege on TV,

another drama was unfolding behind the scenes.

The Iranians made contact with the Thatcher Government in London.

To see something on television is only half the story.

You find out the rest when you open the files.

For a start, the Iranian Embassy was considered Iranian territory

and the British Government

could only legally assault it with an invitation.

Here is the invitation,

and it was delivered in the most extraordinarily

flowery diplomatic language.

"The Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran presents its compliments

"to His Excellency, the Foreign Secretary and has the honour to draw

"draw to his Excellency's attention the incidence at this Embassy

"today in which lives of 20-odd diplomats and staff,

"including the Charge D'Affairs and several women,

"is under constant threat of death.

"It is requested that His Excellency the Foreign Secretary

"will appreciate the severity of the threat and will order

"the security forces to take all possible measures

"to safeguard lives".

That letter authorised Britain's Home Secretary

to do whatever was needed to end the siege.

In Whitehall, civil servants urgently considered how the siege

might conclude and the consequences of each possibility.

Best outcome - terrorists surrender.

Worst outcome - the emergency shoot out.

Intermediate outcomes -

let terrorists go with all hostages,

let them go with some hostages,

let them go with no hostages.

Whoever wrote this memo didn't know Margaret Thatcher.

For her, any option that began "Let terrorists go"

would have been considered as a worst option.

REPORTER: What makes you believe

-that taking over the Embassy in London...

-Yeah.

..will force the Iranian Government to carry out your demands?

-TELEPHONE:

-Er, you know, it is one of the means

that we want to send our voice to the world.

Are you saying that all the hostages are safe tonight?

-What?

-All the hostages are safe tonight?

Yeah.

In the first days of the siege, the authorities focused on negotiation,

making minor concessions such as broadcasting the gunman's demands.

As a result, five hostages were released,

but the terrorists became impatient.

On the sixth day of the siege, everything changed.

The gunmen inside the Embassy became frustrated

that their major demands were not being met.

The put three bullets into one of the hostages and bundled his body

out of the front door, threatening to kill more hostages.

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police sought the Government's

permission to hand the situation over to the British Army.

Something's got to be done because they're killing hostages,

then you've got to go in,

you've got to blow the doors, you've got to blow the windows,

you've got to attack and hope for the best.

'Robin Horsfall was one of a 40-strong SAS team

'put on immediate standby.

'As they readied themselves, their commanding officers

'gathered intelligence and planned an attack.'

There are 54 rooms in that building and five floors.

The idea was to hit every room, every entrance, every entry point

at exactly the same time to create that speed and surprise and shock.

'Robin's SAS unit was transported to London in secrecy

'and housed in the Royal College of General Practitioners,

'two doors away from the Iranian Embassy.

'Here they awaited the order to go.'

40 of us cooped up in there,

watching the Embassy Snooker Championships on television

hour after hour, the most exciting thing ever.

We got a little bit carried away occasionally, playing silly games,

drilling holes in each other's mugs of tea, and one guy got his

training shoes nailed to the floor, as soldiers do when they're bored.

Erm, the police thought we were complete and utter idiots.

'But, shortly afterwards, the SAS demonstrated their serious side.'

There they go, there they go.

EXPLOSION

At 7:23pm, Operation Nimrod began.

It put a secret and shadowy organisation

on prime-time television.

SCREAMING AND GUNFIRE

So which level were you coming in at?

I was on this level, the ground floor level, on the back door.

The assault started.

As I'm standing on the back door, the guys are abseiling

down the back of the building.

Er, Tom Morrell get his hand and glove caught in his abseil harness

and he gets stuck above the window.

The guys beneath him have gone through,

thrown in the flash-bangs, the windows have caught fire,

the flames are lapping up underneath him and he's starting to burn alive

hanging on this rope, so he's kicking himself out

away from the building,

and he's about 25 feet up above the concrete floor.

The guys on the roof, seeing him stuck, are trying to cut the rope

under tension to drop him down on the balcony.

But if they cut the rope while

he's swinging outwards, he's going to go over the balcony and die.

Er, as I'm standing there looking up at him

with nothing to do, three rounds came through the window

and I think, "Oh, the guys are in there doing their job,

"doosh-doosh-doosh" through the window.

Erm, Hector is on the radio and he goes, "Reserves go in".

SCREAMING

So we go through the door and the hostages are coming down.

One of the terrorists was hidden amongst them with a hand grenade

in his hand, and three of us shot him at exactly the same time.

SOUND OF GUNFIRE

He had 27 holes in him and he collapsed and died immediately.

And the moment that you put a bullet in the terrorist, what...

what was your sensation then?

Nothing really. Job done.

It was no more relevant than to have a slice of toast in the morning.

It was easy.

People make a great furore about

the emotional difficulties of killing somebody,

but if you've been trained to do that since the age of 15

and to do it properly and do it for the right reasons,

then it's not a difficult thing to do at all.

Early in the operation, the gunmen killed another hostage.

By the time it was over, just 15 minutes later,

five of the terrorists were dead, the sixth in handcuffs.

19 hostages were rescued and the SAS emerged as international heroes.

The reaction of the whole world was amazing.

It was the biggest news that this nation had had

since the death of Winston Churchill.

It was massive and everybody wanted to know us.

'Amongst the first on the scene to congratulate the soldiers

'was the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, who watched with them

'television reports of the operation.

'Britain's special forces had acquired a fearsome reputation.'

Do you think the operation made Britain a safer place?

The operation definitely made Britain

a safer place for a long time, cos the mythology that grew

around our special forces protected us for a long period of time.

It frightened people so, instead of mounting an operation here,

they went somewhere else to do it.

With the dramatic assault across these balconies,

Britain gained an overnight reputation

for zero-tolerance of terrorism.

The Iranians, of course,

were pleased that the siege had been lifted,

but they also had reason for complaint.

Just before the siege began, they had written to Britain's

Diplomatic Protection Group warning that they needed extra security,

saying in their letter that, "Forces hostile to Iran

"are planning acts of sabotage."

After the siege was over, the Iranians complained that,

though their letter of warning had been received, it had been ignored.

As these files show, a Whitehall official was told to investigate.

The civil servant here says, "I spoke to the Chief Superintendant

"and he categorically denied the story".

But, a few days later,

"He's checked his records and confirms that

"a letter from the Iranians was sent to the Diplomatic Protection Group".

But that wasn't the end of the correspondence,

because it's now emerged that, shortly after the British

received the warning letter from the Iranians, they had written back.

The Diplomatic Protection Group replied that it kept

the political climate affecting Iran under constant review,

and it pledged to accord to the Embassy

"our urgent attention at all times".

Unfortunately, this reassuring reply was delivered to the Embassy

only after the siege was over.

During World War II, Britain moved from the brink of defeat

to victory,

but emerged exhausted after five years of conflict.

As Hitler neared his defeat, Winston Churchill was planning

a new confrontation against a new enemy.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYS

In these fascinating files, we learn that Winston Churchill

was prepared to contemplate total war against Russia.

These files labelled, "Russia Threat to Western Civilisation"

and, of course, marked "Top Secret",

reveal the idea of opening a war against Russia

on the 1st of July, 1945.

"The overall or political object is to impose upon Russia

"the will of the United States and the British Empire."

And that is initialled WSC, Winston Spencer Churchill,

10th of June, 1945.

The assessment of the military planners is not optimistic.

"The result of a total war with Russia is not possible to forecast,

"but the one thing certain is that to win

"it would take us a very long time."

For those in Eastern Europe who may believe that the Allies

reached a pretty feeble peace with the Soviet Union

at the end of the European War, it may be of interest to know

that Winston Churchill, at least,

was prepared to think the unthinkable.

How could he contemplate another war

when we were just completing our defeat of the Nazis?

Because the Russians had imposed communism

in parts of Eastern Europe, including Poland,

which was intolerable since Britain had guaranteed Polish independence

and gone to war for it six years before.

This is a secret that's lain entombed for quite a long time

Exactly, and I believe the document that's in the National Archives

is the only one that is in the public domain.

Did Churchill mean it seriously?

I mean, I just wonder was he trying to assuage his conscience,

and he thought, "I'd better look at this and see whether it's feasible"?

Or did Churchill really believe that we could spend, I don't know,

another three or four years fighting Russia?

Of course, Churchill's passions swing high and low

during this period - one minute he's thinking he can deal with Stalin,

the next minute he's totally fed up and angry with Stalin,

so he does swing emotionally.

SOLDIER SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN

Churchill's war plans are a shock

and so is his idea of the alliance that he might put together.

One of the things that astonished me about the file, is the thought that

the German Army could fight alongside the British Army

against the Russians,

and when Hitler is scarcely cold in his grave.

Exactly.

The Germans are not designed to come into the conflict

on the 1st of July, the start date of operations.

It's thought they're going to be introduced some months later,

after the Allies have equipped them

properly and how they'd train together.

They don't imagine that the SS are going to be involved,

-at least in the early months.

-OK.

But the Wehrmacht, definitely.

MUSIC: Do I Worry? by The Ink Spots

When he received the opinion of his military chiefs,

Churchill faced up to reality.

Operation Unthinkable was unachievable,

particularly as it needed the support of the Americans,

who weren't prepared to give it.

But his fears about Stalin's aggression

proved to be well-founded.

# Do I worry?

# You can bet your life

# I do. #

Do you see it just as another example of his extraordinary

breadth of vision, that he could THINK about another war?

I think he was extremely realistic of the problems we had

with the Soviet Union then,

and, of course, as the months go on the Americans start to realise

the sense that Churchill is talking.

The Americans are waking up to the threat from Stalin,

and they have their own version of Operation Unthinkable,

Operation Pincher,

which is thinkable.

And what does that result in?

That results, eventually, in nuclear war.

# Do I worry?

# You can bet your life

# I do. #

MILITARY MARCHING MUSIC

The British have a long and proud history of peaceful protest.

No-one makes a placard better.

MUSIC CONTINUES

But some groups want nothing short of revolution.

CROWDS YELL AND ROAR

In the early 1800s, Britain was gripped by an age of austerity.

The Napoleonic Wars had recently ended

and thousands of unemployed former sailors and soldiers

came back to civvy street, trying and failing to find work.

There were demonstrations and riots.

So serious was the unrest that the Government brought in

new measures forbidding crowds from gathering in the streets.

But it was behind closed doors

that a bloody coup was being planned.

A document I've unearthed at the National Archives

reveals the horrifying plot hatched by Anti-Government radicals in 1820

to assassinate the British cabinet.

This was the Cato Street Conspiracy.

What was it all about?

Well, here are their aims expressed in a coded message.

It was sent in strips which could then be

pieced together by the recipients.

And this is an appeal to the army to "Mutiny, brave soldiers!

"The tyrants are no more.

"Make common cause with the people, think of your fathers,

"mothers and friends.

"Be just to the miseries that they have long endured.

"Be just to yourselves, be brave and be free, join the people."

Strong language indeed.

But the rebels weren't fighting a war of words.

They were cooking up something lethal,

so dangerous that its ingredients will now be bleeped.

This, which looks strangely like a kitchen recipe,

except it's for a fire ball.

-Take 2 oz of

-BLEEP,

-2 oz of

-BLEEP.

-Melt together and when beginning to cool, add 2 oz of

-BLEEP.

Make it into a ball with a fuse fixed in

-from the centre composed of

-BLEEP.

EXPLOSIVE BANG

And, if bombs weren't terrible enough,

their plans for the cabinet were grizzly.

These pike heads, 250 of them.

They are vicious little implements.

Very, very sharp, with nasty little teeth and grooves.

One of them had said that he intended to use his knife

to cut off the heads of two members of the cabinet,

Sidmouth and Castlereagh, and then to display their heads on pikes.

Despite their careful preparations, the rebels were doomed to failure.

One of their number, George Edwards, was a government spy.

He'd been feeding details of the plot to the authorities.

As the conspirators assembled in London's Cato Street, ready to start

their revolution, they were about to discover that they'd been betrayed.

Behind this tiny facade, a plot of immeasurable audacity was underway.

This was a dilapidated tenement,

a stable below with a loft above, reached by a ladder.

On the evening of the 23rd February, 1820,

the building was stormed by a dozen policemen,

Bow Street Runners,

who didn't wait for the Cold Stream Guards, who were in reserve.

During the course of the attack, a policeman was killed.

A large number of traitors made their escape,

but a smaller number was apprehended and the conspiracy was thwarted.

CROWDS BAY AND YELL

This was the very room where the police found the conspirators.

A contemporary illustration shows the leader, Arthur Thistlewood,

fatally stabbing one of the Bow Street Runners, John Smithers.

There was a scene of pandemonium.

MOBS YELL AND BAY

But at the end of it there was a cache of arms and explosives

providing easily enough evidence to convict the conspirators.

Their trial revealed something sensational.

Not only had George Edwards, the Government mole,

been spying on the rebels, he was an agent provocateur.

He'd actively encouraged them in their plans

to murder cabinet members.

Why would the Government risk promoting a revolution?

Professor John Gardner has his own theory.

I think the best way to avoid a revolution is to create one

and then to publically crush it.

In May of 1820, the five conspirators

were executed at Newgate in front of massive crowds,

it's said that 100,000 people had seen them being executed there.

And what happened is they were hanged and then decapitated.

And this had a real deadening effect, because it seemed that

the Government was so ruthlessly well organised,

that they could crush a rebellion before it had even happened.

If the idea was to discourage other treacherous plots, it was effective.

There were no executions for high treason again

until the Easter Risings in 1916.

So it's a real watershed moment. That's the last time that

anybody's executed for high treason for almost 100 years.

The Cato Street Plot was undermined

by a highly effective mole placed inside the conspiracy.

Ever since then, the authorities have been tempted to infiltrate

protest groups, fearing their radical agenda -

sometimes with highly controversial results.

ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

I'm meeting Dr Rory Cormac

at a London hotel once populated by the intelligence services.

He knows the rules of the spying game.

Is there much of a difference, really, between infiltrating

a foreign organisation, an enemy power

and infiltrating organisations at home of your own citizens?

The big difference between infiltrating foreign organisations

and domestic ones, is going to be the idea of ethics,

the idea of how right it is

to monitor and put surveillance on your own subjects.

It muddies the water slightly.

People are generally OK with the Government

doing things against people overseas.

When it's done closer to home, deeper questions get asked.

I was very struck in the case of the Cato Street Conspiracy,

it is alleged that the Government spy was actually

so much at the heart of it that there would not have been

a conspiracy, at least in that form, if he hadn't been part of it,

the Government plant.

Can you think of other instances where that may have been case?

It's an interesting allegation,

the idea of using an agent provocateur, I suppose.

And there are no other incidents I can think of

which have been proven where governments have deliberately

instigated some sort of subversion in order to clamp down on it.

It's the equivalent of the controlled explosion, isn't it?

If you know that something may go off at a time

not of your choosing, it's perhaps better to make it go off

at a time that you have selected?

Yes, and there's a perfectly logical

and valid way of looking at it.

One of the difficulties when we talk about intelligence is

so much of this stuff's classified,

and when we're looking at contemporary examples,

in operations against Al-Qaeda or whomever, we simply don't yet know,

and I for one, as a historian, am really looking forward

to finding out the files in 30, 40, 50 years' time.

I'm looking forward to presenting the programmes

-in 30 or 40 years' time.

-RORY LAUGHS

In 1820, here in Cato Street,

and in 1980 in Princes Gate,

British security forces raided London houses with deadly success.

Even more audacious was the plan in July, 1945,

to attack the Soviet Union, a raid to seize back Poland

not surprisingly codenamed Operation Unthinkable.

Unthinkable to everyone, perhaps, except Winston Churchill,

one of the boldest minds in history.