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New MI6 Head (1)

01 January 1991

New MI6 Head
artdoc June=1994

David Spedding, 51, has been named as the new head of the Secret
Intelligence Service (MI6). He will take over from the existing
chief, Sir Colin McColl, in September.
Spedding began his career as an intelligence officer in 1967
and spent his early years training as an Arabist at the Middle
East Centre for Arabic Studies, a Foreign Office establishment
located at Shemlan in Beirut. He then become second secretary at
the embassy in Beirut until he was - one of a number of SIS
officers - named by Kim Philby in 1971. Following Philby's
disclosure he was transferred to Santiago, Chile, where his two-
year (1972-1974) posting coincided with the CIA-backed overthrow
of the Allende government by the military dictator, General
Pinochet.
In 1978 he was posted to Abu Dhabi and between 1981 and 1983
he was at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. He
served as a counsellor in Amman from 1983-1986, a period when
Jordan was acting as a conduit to supply Iraq with western arms.
He returned to London in 1986 where he took responsibility for
Middle East affairs and was the officer in charge of covert
intelligence operations during the Gulf War. He was also in
charge of a joint operational section that liaised with the
Security Service, MI5. In 1992 he became director of operations
for MI6.
Guardian 5.3.94.; Daily Telegraph 5.3.94.

Statewatch Vol 4 no 2, March-April 1994