114 • COUNTER-GANGS
COUNTER-GANGS.One of the more controversial tactics adopted
by British Intelligence during thePalestineMandate was the intro-
duction of ‘‘counter-gangs’’ intended to intimidate theIrgunterror-
ists. Led by the former director of combined operations, GeneralSir
Bernard Fergusson, the counter-gangs were accused of assassina-
tions and abductions, the same strategy applied by their adversaries.
Two teams of 10 men each, led by Alistair MacGregor from theSe-
cret Intelligence Serviceand Roy Farran from 2ndSpecial Air Ser-
viceregiment, were deployed against the Irgun, but the policy was
abandoned after the abduction and murder of an Irgun suspect, Alex-
ander Rubinowitz. Farran was charged with the murder in October
1947 but fled to Damascus; Fergusson persuaded him to return to
face a court-martial, which subsequently acquitted him.
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE.The discipline devoted to penetrating
the adversary’s intelligence structure and protecting one’s own orga-
nization is known as counterintelligence, and within British Intelli-
gence, responsibility for such operations has been divided between
the Security Service and theSecret Intelligence Service(SIS). Con-
fusingly, before and during World War II, SIS’s counterintelligence
section was designatedSection V, the Roman numeral five being the
cause of considerable misunderstanding and confusion for outsiders.
COUNTERTERRORISM.Responsibility for countering terrorism in
the United Kingdom traditionally has been in the hands of the police
but in December 1989, under the terms of the Security Service Act,
MI5was given the lead role, and the Terrorism Act (2000) enabled
the home secretary to proscribe certain named groups or their fronts,
such as Fatah, Hamas, and Hezbollah, and to close their bank ac-
counts. The list of proscribed groups extends from the obvious, such
as Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda, to the Kurdish Worker’s Party
(PKK), the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (the
DHKP/C) in Turkey, and even more obscure Macedonian, Albanian,
Chechen, and Kashmiri rebels.
Some of these groups are generic and accommodate numerous
splinter groups, in much the same way that the Palestinian cause at-
tracts activists from across the spectrum, with some, such as Shaqaqi
(Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and the Abu Nidal Organization (also