MI5 spying on British citizens in the 60s ?
we all love to bash the soviets and petty dictatorships with their state police and surveillance policy, but it seems that Great Britain, and no doubt other western "democracies" were pursuing the same surveillance of their population based on ideology.
I find this article below a bit worrying during an era that was promoted as the pursuit of freedom and democratic changes by the different national political parties.
BBC News - MI5 suspected Bond screenwriter was communist agent
Quote:
MI5 suspected Bond screenwriter was communist agent
Wolf Mankowitz Wolf Mankowitz was said to discuss Marxist theories with friends
The man who wrote the screenplay for a James Bond film was himself suspected of being a communist agent, newly released Security Service files show.
The MI5 file on Wolf Mankowitz, a "convinced Marxist," shows he was monitored for more than a decade.
Mr Mankowitz wrote the screenplay for the unofficial Bond film Casino Royale in 1967 and was also involved in the film Dr No.
The files are available at the National Archives in Kew.
Mr Mankowitz, who died in 1998, introduced film producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to each other.
He was subsequently involved in writing the script for their first Bond film together, Dr No.
Born in London's East End, Mr Mankowitz attended Cambridge University where he joined the University's Socialist Society and met his wife Ann, a Communist Party member.
