I WAS NEVER BUGGED, SAYS HAROLD WILSON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050082-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Sequence Number: 82
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2007/06/21 CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050082-9
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SUNDAY TIMES (LONDON)
31 JULY 1977
its xti- , i A/ 0 wa. till x - f - ir. 4L i A
J i 'T at a.~
By Sunday Times Reporters
SIR HAROLD WILSON last night
called for an inquiry into reports
that his study at No. 10 Downing
Street and his room at the Corn-
mons had been bugged by our
own security services. He ridi-
culed the idea, first reported in
the.Daily Express.
Sir Harold said nothing about j
his alleged suspicions of MI5. A
Sunday Times inquiry (page 3) `
has, however, established that:
1 Sir Harold did indeed find a
hole in the wall behind a Glad.
stone painting in his study.
2 He did express to his aides the
suspicion that a metal device in
the hole was something to do
with bugging.
3 He did say he would call in
experts to check the hole.
Sir Harold Wilson, in his
exclusive statement to the Press
Association, said: "The reports
in the Daily Express of yesterday
and today I find incredible. Had
this electronic surveillance been
in force, I should have known.
At no time were there any
serious suggestions that this was
happening.
"Neither the Home Secretary,
nor the head of the security
service-or for that matter any
of his very responsible officers
would have considered such
action for one moment. If anyone
at a lower level had sought to
engage in a private enterprise
.operation 'it hvou:Id have been
known.
"It would have been Illegal
and unconstitutional: moreover
any interference, such as that
suggested, with any MP's phone
would have been a clear breach
of Parliamentary privilege.
"Yesterday, the Prime Mini-
ster rightly asked that anyone
with hard information about
such alleged operations should
report it to the Home Secretary
for investigation. Since I have
never had reason even to sus-
pect' that these activities were 11
going on, I have no such inform-
ation to lay before him. But I
shall be happy to have an early
discussion with him on the
issues raised. Cleary, allega-
tion; such as these in Friday's
and Saturday's papers must
investigated.
" MIr Chapman Pincher I
Long been known to have hh
close contact with certain of t
officers. of the security serv,.
and I have known him
enough to be sure that whatet
his sources - right or wrong
he would not pr`.nt such a No
if he did not, believe it.
Since contrary to everythii
known to me and my Numuer
and Cabinet Office advisers, is confident of h s facts, it
essential that the information
his possession must be ma.
available to, and fully inve~
gated by, the Home Secretar
TF.Ei.
are four possible
answers to the conundrunt of
Harold Wilson and the alleged
bug nag of his studies at Nun:-
ber Ten and the House of Com-
mons. One anso?er is that
Wilson, under the strain of
or'xce, lapsed into a state
approaching paranoia, and the
eavesdropp irg existed only in
his imagination.
The second is that the Dime-
tar General of the Security
Service, Sir Michael Hanley, did
sanction the bugging of the
Prime Minister a step so extra-
ordinarT that only the most
press g evidence could have
war ranted it.
The third explanation is that
Nilson was indec e, bugged by
members of one of the several
t;rti : agencies capable of
mounting such surveillance, but
that it was an unauthorised
operation. Finally, it is possible I
that Wilson was bugged-but by I
the Soviet KGB, which means 4
there was a catastrophic
The first two of those explana-
tions-,'-at Wilson's judgment I
became unbalanced; or that the
Security Service did bug him-
are not mutually exclusive, of
course. But they are distinct;
and unless the distinction is kept
in mind it is impossible to sift
the aI1e ati;n; that have
enierjed so far.
Beca::se the allegatiors t selves fall into two pans, liarold
Wilson aansc f has asserted that
he Caine to believe no*. only that
the Security Service Wag inco-n-
peter.t. but t .:t a faction r.!:hin
it Was Co .~D:ring a?ain huh
sn I his clout ento!Ira,e.
Approved For Release 2007/06/21 : CIA-RDP99-00498R000100050082-9