The NOC Series by Nicholas Anderson
An intelligence officer proudly working for Queen and Country discovers everything he believed in is a lie.
Disclaimer: the UK's Official Secrets Act
The British Government's Double "Damage Limitation" Legal System
In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland it is mandatory that manuscripts of any kind by former professionals from the security, intelligence services and special forces be submitted for clearance to the Ministry of Defence, per Official Secrets Act requirements and other Secret Intelligence Service confidentiality covenants. Every state in the world has its version of same.
Likewise, a DA-Notice – assumed to stand for "Defence Advisory" – is a voluntary edict of self-censorship by British nationals who are authors of any subjects pertaining to the nation’s military- and intelligence-related matters, and are similarly reviewed by the 13-member Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee. The UK is the only country to have such a decree. British government policy is never to confirm nor deny its espionage operations, past or present – until it has been declassified.
I, herein, confirm that the content of this book is a fictional memoir and based on OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), and duly swear that because I believe in a truly democratic constitution – as it is my human right to do so – I therefore willingly refused to defer my script for analyses to both the aforementioned MOD and the DPBAC. However, if existing ops, systems, codes and individuals lives were possibly to be endangered by my actions I censored myself by replacing the word with asterisks or changing the details. For obvious reasons this was applied too for likely legal suits and other blocking devises.
I also hereby authenticate that the author’s name is a nom de plume, which I so chose to do to protect my family. Symbolically, in writing my "autobiographical tale" you are walking in my invisible footsteps.
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Introduction to the Secret World of the SIS (MI6)
"Military Intelligence" is an oxymoron, just like "Government Organization" is. A bloody game with no rules.
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland doesn’t have a logo though verification of staff on its dark green triangular badges clearly states “Semper Occultus” (“Always Secret”); doesn’t have its name on the door though it works from a crystal palace on London’s River Thames; doesn’t have to report its cheques and balances to any government ministry nor to the denizens of the Houses of Parliament it stares at across the water; and is largely unknown even to its own country’s citizens, much less the rest of the world.
The only external notion that it even exists is that its personnel’s salaries are paid by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office through Hambro’s Bank. And much like its famous American cousin, the Central Intelligence Agency, its employees are sworn to never talk or write about their work and are bound so by signing the UK Official Secrets Act.
When I first joined SIS (also known as MI6 for Military Intelligence Section Six, its original name) from the Royal Navy in 1973, following extensive training, I was originally assigned to the Special Political Action section. But within a few months it was closed down.
Most of SPA's younger officers were then integrated into a newly formed secret sub-division with no official name (to this day it still cannot be published) but was later externally known as "Operational Support Branch", an updated version of the old Section D in World War II, which specialised in sabotage. For American readers the US equivalent of the UK's now defunct SPA and SD is the Special Activities Division of the CIA's Clandestine Service, which is under the dominion of its Directorate of Operations.
I was one of the few who were actually SIS officers and not special forces-trained, so I used my head more than brawn. We were institutional killers* that undertook disruptive actions on the black, that is to say we made illegal entries across borders to perform dirty work then returned home mostly without the knowledge nor connection to the local British embassy's staff assigned to other covert affairs.
– Nicholas Anderson (pseudonym)
The NOC Series
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NOC - Non-Official Cover: British Secret Operations
Published July 2011
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NOC Twice: More UK Non-Official Cover Operations
Published April 2014
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NOC Three Times: Knock-On Effect
Published May 2016
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NOC 4: Addendum
Published January 2019
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NOC 5: The Last Non-Official Cover
TBA