Deception by Edward Lucas Read Free Book Online Page B

been a candidate for special scrutiny. Yet the checks had always been superficial. With little more than bluff, Simm had been able to escape the tightest security in what is supposedly the world’s most formidable military alliance. And what about Estonia, which prides itself on keeping its security establishment free of any ex-Soviet taint? Simm was quite unlike the bright, clean-cut, English-speaking young officials who hold most of the top jobs in Estonian public service. During the 1970 s and 1980 s, they were only children. Simm was already a grown man then – and necessarily more vulnerable to KGB pressure. That should have raised hard questions, which the incomplete and misleading ‘official version’ of the case leaked by Western officials fails to address. Did Simm have a powerful protector? Was his escape from scrutiny mere incompetence, or perhaps something more sinister? How was he recruited? What did he betray? How was he caught? And why did it take so long? These questions are corrosive and troubling, and have remained unanswered to this day. The answers involve not only secrets, but lies and blunders. Even Simm himself does not know the full truth, and would not (or could not) speak frankly to me about what he does know. But without his account, mine would be incomplete.
    It is rare for an outsider knowingly to meet a spy, and almost impossible to meet a jailed one. Once the interrogators have squeezed their subjects dry and damage-control officers have done their work, the traitor is left to a life behind bars. Spycatchers may be proud of having hunted down their quarry, but it is also their fault that the breach happened in the first place. They may worry too that the convict will try to send a coded signal to his former masters: perhaps that he has successfully concealed some vital piece of the puzzle, or has planted a particular piece of disinformation. From the authorities’ point of view, the less said to the outside world, the better. So getting to see Simm took some doing. Arrested in 2008 and jailed in 2009 , he is serving a 13 -year sentence in a maximum-security prison in Tartu, Estonia’s second city. Many Estonians hope he dies there. Even my close friends in Estonian officialdom were worried by the idea that an outsider with no security clearance, writing a book that would not be vetted by the Estonian authorities, could visit the country’s most notorious prisoner. Simm had outsmarted his colleagues over a period of many years. Maybe he would have some more tricks still to play. Another reason for Estonian caution was embarrassment. Simm’s conviction was a brilliant piece of work by the country’s spycatchers and their foreign colleagues. But the sooner the affair was forgotten about, the better for Estonia’s reputation.
    My counter-argument prevailed. Estonia aims to be the epitome of clean and open government. It should deal with the Simm case according to principle, not convenience. But practicality played a role too: concealing Simm would stoke conspiracy theories and look defensive. Sooner or later a Russian author or newspaper would be able to make contact with him and write him up as a victim, or hero. My book would put Simm’s treachery in a broader and more informative context. The result of some hard haggling was exclusive, repeated access to Simm. An official of Estonia’s security police, whom I agreed not to name, sat in on our meetings and interrupted if we strayed on to topics he regarded as sensitive (Simm seemed frustrated by this, but when I reached him later by telephone, he remained reluctant to provide any significant further information, claiming to be too frightened). I insisted that I would write what I wished: I provided no guarantee that I would submit any portion of the manuscript to any outsider; nor did I promise any veto on its contents (though I have of my own volition omitted a few names and blurred some dates). bo