2 • ABDICATION CRISIS
ABDICATION CRISIS.During the history ofMI5, very few constitu-
tional crises have occurred during which thedirector-general of the
Security Servicehas expressed concern about whether he should ac-
cept instructions from the prime minister.Sir Vernon Kellhad not
harbored any reservations when asked to investigate the background
to the Cato Street Conspiracy and the corrupt behavior of Maundy,
but in the period leading up to the abdication of King Edward VIII
in December 1936, he consulted widely to be satisfied that Stanley
Baldwin had demanded that MI5 tap the telephone of the king’s mis-
tress, Wallis Simpson, and to place her and her social contacts under
surveillance. MI5 andSpecial Branchultimately reported that she
was simultaneously conducting an affair with a Group Captain Trun-
dle but was not engaged in espionage.
ABDOOLCADER, SIRIOJ HUSEIN.A junior civil servant working
in the Motor Licensing Department of the Greater London Council,
30-year-old Sirioj Husein Abdoolcader was the son of one of Malay-
sia’s most distinguished advocates, Sir Husein Abdoolcader. He had
come to England in 1957 to read for the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, but
opted to stay after he failed his law exams. As a clerk, Abdoolcader
had access to the registration details of specially flaggedMI5sur-
veillance vehicles, and he was recruited by Vladislav Savin of the
KGB’s Londonrezidenturain March 1967. He was betrayed by a
KGBdefector,Oleg Lyalin, and was arrested in September 1971 at
his office in County Hall. When searched, Abdoolcader was found to
be carrying a list of MI5 car index numbers on a postcard addressed
to Lyalin. He pleaded guilty in 1972 to breaches of theOfficial Se-
crets Actand was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
ABEAM.Code name for adeceptionscheme undertaken in the Middle
East over six months in 1941, intended to promote the idea that there
were airborne troops based in Egypt planning to launch an attack be-
hind the lines in Italy. Devised by ColonelDudley Clarke, the plan
was to exploit Italian fears, known from intercepted enemy wireless
traffic, of just such a surprise. In support of it, Clarke invented a non-
existent FirstSpecial Air ServiceBrigade and used ingenious meth-
ods to persuade the enemy it was training in parachute and glider
techniques in the Transjordan desert. Captured enemy documents
suggest thatabeamsucceeded.