George Blake and why, a campaign was started by Norris McWhirter's Freedom Association and Graham Riddick, Conservative MP for Colne Valley, to have Pottle and Randle arrested. The police still refused to act, and a Scotland Yard source was quoted in December 1988 in the Daily Telegraph as saying, "The case has been thoroughly inves- tigated and there was found to be in- sufficient evidence to merit furtber action. Unless further evidence is forthcoming, that remains the case. Evidently, the police were reluctant to get involved in what was increas- ingly seen as a politically motivated campaign to have Pottle and Randle However,the DPP intervened, seemingly in response to 111 Conser- On April 27 1989, Pottle and Randle published their book. On May 4 1989 they were arrested. They were charged in July 1989 with an which carries a five year sentence, and with two offences under the two year sentences as well as un- The trial is set for Tuesday April 241990 at the Old Bailey and is ex- vative MPs signing a Parliamentary motion demanding their prosecution. Criminal Law Act which both carry pected to last two weeks. arrested and charged. limited fines. Patrick Pottle the Official Secrets Act as a result of open secret that Randle and Pottle secret, in 1988 Pottle and Randle tended to publish the full story of events in their book The Blake Escape Blake was serving a 42 year prison sentence, at that time (1961) the longest sentence ever handed down by a British Court, having pleaded guilty to 14 charges brought against Pottle and Randle are long-stand- ing peace campaigners, involved in the direct action initiatives of the *Committee of 100'. In the early 1960s they were serving sentences for charges brought against them under carrying out acts of civil dis- obedience at various military instal- They met Blake in Wormwood upon their release worked with Bourke to help George Blake to escape from prison. Randle drove Blake out of Britain hiddden in a secret compartment in a camper van. From East Germany, Blake es- caped to Russia where be still lives For many years it has been an had helped Blake escape. Lacking any bard evidence, however, the After many years of the 'open were explicitly named in the Sunday Times as the people who had helped Blake escape. In November 1988, in an interview in the Observer, they As it became known that they in- police could not bring a prosecution. openly admitted their participation. him under the Official Secrets Act. Wormwood Scrubs in October defence Patrick Pottle and Michael Randle, together with Shaun George Blake, the MI6/KGB double agent, to escape from Bourke (now dead) helped lations in Britain. 1966. Page 10
22 years. When Sean Bourke published his book in 1970, of in the Blake case again, but Michael and myself just kept a low profile. We sometimes maybe going to meet Blake in purposes, it didn't interfere was published which all but issued a statement which didn't PP: We had kept quiet for course there was some interest would meet and lalk about Moscow, but to all intents and Then, in 1987 when a book named us, and then the Sunday Times actually named us we with our lives. 40 AGENTS BETRAYED Miners 2am: .... Torchlight police hunt for nature boy Tony DAILY EXPRESSA FEATURES * CHINE THEY SAT TREATING THIE 14 SHE PIN New shock spy Blake over either Michacl or myself consider ourselves way sympathetic to the kind of communism that has been practised in the Soviet Union or elsewhore. We have always opposed the nuclear policies of our own country and we have always, just as strongly. opposed the nuclear policies One of the principles we estahlished way back in the 1960s in the Committee of jection to. Communists being 100 was that we had no ob in no of the Soviet Union. Certainly, would
volvement. But then the press began to spoculate as to our They speculated about us being KGB agents. Then there were stories that we were really MIG It even got to the point where we were the dupes in the middle of a joint KGB/Ml6 plot. There were ganised by the Labour Party - Tom Driberg only honourable thing to do was to write a belped either deny or confirm our in- motives, about other, totally in- nocent, people being invovled. even stories that the whole thing had been or- and a number of others. So we felt that the book explaining how and why we agents. Blalro Inses appeal what we regarded an political offences and we certainly regarded Blake as a political prisoner too. It really was a gut reaction we had to his We were not aware of these things at the time, but we later found out that other people who had done cxactly the same thing as him Hysterla of the cold war press at the Blake case, June 1961 grotesque sentence. RIODESIA: DECISION DAY OF 1452 1 think that even they accept that we are label has stuck with us. can romember when we organised a demonstration in Red Square The editorials in Pravda echoed Indeed, its ironic that this pro-Moscow A SOR- genuinely opposed to all of them. posed the workers" bomb' as as the 'capitalists" bomb, We have a long record of opposing the human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, and in many ways I don't think that even the right wing press consider us to be In any way sympathetic to the Involved so long as they op- Soviet Union, or KGB agents. the in Moscow. 1 much
decinion to publish our version of the story. Blake escape, We hoped that this would kill tives, like the idea that all our actions had proved that peace activists were spies using Of course, we knew that in taking the If you feel that you have done things in the past that you value, and you now find them being devalued by people trying to taint you, the only way out is to publish your side of things. It wasn't an easy decision, as we had a good idca of what the end result would be. We thought about it for several months before off the spoculation going around as to our mo we ran the risk of very likely going to prison. funds from Moscow. deciding to publish. aristocratic English family. He wasn't part of him. He was an obvious person to pick on to were given or at least offered immunity from prosccution. Philby didn't take the offer, but Blunt did, and they were then allowed to carry on with their normal lives as if nothing had But you see, you have to remember that forcigner, he didn't come from some semi- that 1930s, privileged, Cambridge clite and he was half Jewish, which I'm sure didn't help set an example. There wouldn't be an outcry in high places, there wasn't going to be anyone saying. "Oh, poor old George" like Blake wasn't English, he there was for Philby Blake Blunt happened. and I see no difference helween a xpy operating belong to groups which are self appointed the kind of things that the British press said about us. Only this time, of coursc, we were the running dogs and lick spittles of the American imperialists, so I don't think that you can really make us out to be either pro- for Britain and a spy operating for Russia. To me they te just as evil as one another. They governients within governments. Their very existence depends upon keeping the Cold War So when it came to George Blake, we didn't say. 'Oh, look, there's a Russian agent who we must help. We thought of him as a human being who was as much a victim of the Soviet or pro- Westem, for that matter. going.
Page 11 Michael Randle at press conference opposing invasion of Czechoslovakie RS INTERP WAR HE JUS GENTLANA OrE FIT ON didn'T have friends in a foreigner and was high places. He was Michael had helped secret that you and publish your book, SO: It was some still the only real Blake escpe. So evidence against thing of an open which to date, Is treated as such. why did you you? that when he did exactly the same thing out of PP: Blake was not a typical agent. You into hetraying their own country, That's what he war employed by the British secret service very thing he was involved in. His role, as a double agent, was to entrap foreign nationals to do. It gust struck us as being so hypocritical political conviction, they gave him forty-two Michael ared Thad just heen imprisoned for SO: What was it about Blake and the situa- have to go back to that time to really under stand what happened to Blake, back to the at tion he was in that made you sympathetic SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 23, April 1990 mosphere at the height of the Cold War. to him? years.
FEATURES two QCs. They have raid there me two lines of defence. We can either PP. We were given Tegal aid and so we have maintain what we said in why do you want to con- duct your own defence? SO: On what basis are yourselves in court and you going to defend defence.
ty and give all the reasons Now Michacl and I want to take a third course and the book is untrue and on those grounds we will get off. Or we can plead guil- for doing it in mitigation.
people in English public life who weren't MIS or Mid agents during the war. Look at all the television people and writers - they all seemi PP: Onc of the main things we said in our hook is that those are totally unelected or- ganisations. There not answerable to anyone. thing about them. You can't quote them on There's one thing we say in our book - people might think it a little naive - but if only one government would actually stand up We're getting rid of our security services, then I think you could actually start to get rid of it In time there must be a cam- PP: Absolutely none. On a personal level I regret all the hassle of the last couple of years. I'm not looking forward to the idea of going to prison. But the idea of breaking Blake out was absolutely right. Eve seen him recently: I can't see that there would be any one who would prefer to see him rotting in gaol rather you can't challenge them, You can't print any he has lived a happy life for the last 24 years - SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 23, April 1990 SO: The way these people operate is totally Photos from The Blake Escape by Pat Pottle and Michael Randle, undemocratic. Do you see yourselves as paign to get rid of the whole thing. Harrap, £12.95 SO: Do you have any regrets? taking a stand on this issue? than living in Moscow. to have been at it. anything: Wormwood Scrubs: "I can't see anyone would prefer to see Blake rotting in gaol" and say think really gets up their noses is that we've PP: When I worked with Pertrand Russcil, pealing on behalf of somebody who had been sentenced to hard Iabour. He would get these letters back from Khruschey saying 1 can't work out why you've taken up the case of this verts and speculators. Bur because they held Russell in such high regard we must have been successful in getting 20 or 30 people Al the time of the invasion of Czechos- Michael and I were involved in demonstrations here but also in Prague, Mos- cow and throughout the world. We then he- came involved in smuggling pamphlets into castern Europe. Many of people who are now in power in Czechoslovakia, like Havel, were PP: I would hope it would. But it's so in- graned in society. I can't think of many he used to send off letters to Khruschev ap man. He's a sexual pervert...", or a speculator. memhers of the groups we were smuggling to. They were never anything else. Always per SO: Do you think with the change of politi- cal culture in the last that spying will end? references. They're now in power and you and has now come to the forefront in this ments in Eastern Europe. What are your are potentially going to be put in prison. links with these movements, and how do SO: What has emerged from your book SO: These are people are like character case is vour links with dissident move- PP: I'm not complaining about that you see the Ironles connected to that? knew what we were doing. written a book about it. lovakia, sal, the Portland spy ring... To admit in 1970 fools in the cyes of the Americans. So I think nyms for Michael and myself. He described the end we have to defend ourselves. The lawyers will come in useful when the trial ments, the main ones of which will he put by us. We shall argue that the police and MIS and Mid were certainly aware of our existence as early as 1966. They made a conscious decision not to prosecute us in 1970 because it would have exposed the absolute cock up that that two people that had been in prison with Bluke, had sent him Christmas cards, actuadly broke him out of prison - well it would have made the security services look complete were the considerations when they PP: Sean Bourke, the main person who broke Blake out, wrote a book in 1970 called The Springing of George Bloke using pseudo- everything about us. A boy scout could have PP: Sometimes I dream' about it. I get this idea that we can tell the jury what we did and they'I say "Oh yeah, we agree with that - thai was great, But being realistic, every attempt we make to tell people what we did and why we did it, the judge is going to tell us to shut up. I think we will be found guilty What I starts. There will be a numbor of legal argu- I think you have to go back to the period You had Burgess and McClean, Philhy, Var- they had made in their investigations in 1966. SO: What do you think the outcome of the SO: What makes 1970 such an important decided in 1970 not to prosecute us. rent you in those kind of openly say to the jury that right that you broke the law. to argue that you were right whole process of law. In can't repre- we did do these things we are accused of, but that we case, Once you accept to do so goes against the court case Is going to be? worked who we were. think they were made the security turning point? Lawyers things to do. Page 12 think
WII East German workers wear a change of Helmut? Chancellor Kohl campaigning for restorationist CDU in Rostock