Richard Tomlinson - Military and MI6 Service

Military and MI6 Service

In September 1989 Tomlinson joined the Territorial Army's 21 SAS ("Artists' Rifles") and 23 SAS, qualifying as a military parachutist, and radio operator. He also represented Britain in the 1990 Camel Trophy, competing in Siberia, USSR, and crossed the Sahara desert by motorcycle alone. He joined MI6 on 23 September 1991. He completed his training with MI6 and claims he was the best recruit on his course, being awarded the rarely given "Box 1" attribute, by his instructing officers including Nicholas Langman. He then served in the "SOV/OPS" department, working during the ending phases of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, before being posted to Sarajevo in 1994 as the MI6 representative in Bosnia during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. A solider who escorted Tomlinson to Bosnia described him as a "liability", a "sulk" and "totally unprofessional". although Tomlinson has disputed this. His next posting was to work as an undercover agent against Iran, where he succeeded in penetrating the Iranian Intelligence Service, presumably SAVAMA.

MI6 dismissed him on 22 May 1995 as he came to the end of his probationary period, allegedly for poor service after he became suicidally depressed following the death of his long term girlfriend from cancer. Tomlinson's handlers at MI6 felt he was an obsessive loner who was unable to get along with colleagues. One reason given was for "going on frolics on his own". The decision angered Tomlinson who felt he had been treated unfairly by his spymasters who, he claimed, had failed to take into consideration his fraught personal circumstances. Tomlinson disputed the reasons for and legality of his dismissal and attempted to take MI6 before an employment tribunal. However, MI6 obtained a Public Interest Immunity Certificate from Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Having no further legal recourse to appeal against his dismissal, Tomlinson left the United Kingdom and pursued his arguments against MI6 publicly, by publishing articles in the international press about his treatment, and began work on a book (which later became The Big Breach). Perhaps as a result of Tomlinson's campaign, during 1998 the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee recommended that MI6 should be subject to UK employment law. Employees of MI6 (and GCHQ and MI5) now have the same employment rights as other British citizens, including written contracts and access to employment tribunals. However, MI6 refused to allow these procedures to be applied retrospectively to Tomlinson's case. It is of note that MI6 have never succeeded in obtaining another PII certificate since the Tomlinson case, even though they have been subjected to more rigorous court scrutiny (for example the Inquest into the death of the Princess of Wales) than would have been involved with an employment tribunal.