18/05/2008
NEWS STORY
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The Mosley saga has taken yet another unbelievable twist following claims that one of the five prostitutes to service the FIA President in a Chelsea apartment in March is married to an officer serving with MI5, the British counter-intelligence and security agency.
The intelligence officer, who cannot be identified for security reasons, resigned from his position after it was revealed that his wife was one of the five prostitutes who took part in a sado-masochistic sex session subsequently 'exposed' by the News of the World.
In a week in which Radovan Novak, the general secretary of the Czech Automobile Association, has apologised for suggesting that (McLaren boss) Ron Dennis might have been behind the 'sting' which caught Mosley, Whitehall, following this latest revelation, was quick to claim that it too was not involved. "Any suggestion that the service was involved in setting up Mosley is total nonsense," a senior Whitehall official told The Times.
However, the same official, then admitted that that an MI5 officer had resigned after his wife's involvement in the orgy became known. "I cannot talk about individual cases," he told The Times, 'sister' paper to the News of the World, "but we do expect high standards of behaviour from all staff at all times, both professionally and privately. In any case, where a member of staff is believed to have fallen below those standards, action will be taken."
At a time when there is mounting pressure on his position as head of World Motorsport, ordinary citizens will no doubt be far more concerned that a member of our intelligence service could be compromised in this way. It is believed the operative, who only resigned once confronted with evidence of his wife's involvement, had been involved in various surveillance operations involving al-Qa'eda suspects, Russian spies and high level criminals.
Revelation of the MI5 link to the Mosley saga has led to Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, having to inform Gordon Brown and (Home Secretary) Jacqui Smith, that one of his agents was 'involved', an admission that will send shockwaves through the intelligence service.
According to The Times, it is the MI5 agent's wife, using the name Mistress Abi, who caught the orgy on film and subsequently sold it to the New of the World. And while there is no suggestion that the intelligence officer was personally involved, it should not be forgotten that his position with the British government's spy agency would give him access to the very best surveillance equipment and personnel available.
This latest revelation comes at a time when Mosley has written to the various FIA Club Presidents warning them that F1 is under threat, and bearing in mind this latest twist in the saga, this paragraph from the letter, which Pitpass has seen, puts a whole new, somewhat sinister, slant on things.
"I think it is also important to recognise that there has been a struggle for control of Formula One that goes back to the original Concorde Agreement in 1981. More recently it involved the major car manufacturers threatening to launch a break-away series. During my period as FIA President the economics of Formula One have changed beyond all recognition. We are now dealing with a sport involving billions of dollars and interests that would like nothing better than to remove the FIA from the Championship entirely. I have been determined to fight for the rights and role of the FIA in Formula One and it is possibly for this reason that I have been subject to a gross breach of privacy with the aim of undermining my Presidency. I believe, therefore, that whatever the EGM decides, it should not act in a way that rewards those who have deliberately set out to destabilise the FIA at such a crucial time in its history."
It should be remembered that when the story first broke, Mosley claimed he was the victim of a surveillance by "a group specialising in such things for reasons and clients as yet unknown".
Whatever one might think of Mosley's predilection for sado-masochistic sex, one has to admit that there is clearly much, much more to this than meets the eye.