8 • AGENT PROVOCATEUR
AGENT PROVOCATEUR.The widely used French term for a pene-
tration agent deployed to collect information, often with a view to
prosecution. Because of their dubious legal status,MI5traditionally
has been reluctant to employ agents provocateurs. In 1940Harald
Kurtzwas compromised when he was deployed against Benjamin
Greene in an attempt to obtain incriminating evidence of his sup-
posedFifth Columnactivities, and in 1943 it proved impossible to
prosecute a self-confessed German spy,Ernesto Simoes, after an at-
tempt had been made to entrap him. Strict, classified guidelines are
issued to all case officers setting the conditions under which agents
may be allowed to encourage, but not incite, an illegal act.
AIR BUBBLE.Code name for anMI5investigation initiated in Janu-
ary 1964 into Dr. Jean-Paul Soupert, a French industrial chemist run
by the Belgian Surete ́as adouble agentagainst the East Germans.
Soupert had received proprietorial information from two Kodak em-
ployees,Alfred Robertsand Geoffrey Conway, and although no
classified material was compromised, the twoCommunist Party of
Great Britainmembers were prosecuted for offenses under the Pre-
vention of Corruption Act. They were acquitted, following some tren-
chant remarks from the judge about Soupert’s reliability as a witness.
AIR INTELLIGENCE (AI). The intelligence branch of the Air Minis-
try, directed during World War II by Air Commodore Archie Boyle
and then Charles Medhurst. Its sections reflected the conventional
military intelligence designations. AI was subdivided into various
branches: AI1(e) to deal with signals intelligence collection; AI1(f )
with the examination of crashed aircraft; AI1(k) with the interroga-
tion of captured Luftwaffe aircrew at Trent Park, Cockfosters; AI3
with enemy order of battle; and AI3(b) with the analysis of signals
intelligence.
AKHMEDOV, ISMAIL G.A careerGRUofficer, Ismail Akhmedov
defectedin May 1942 in Ankara, Turkey, where he was operating
under press attache ́cover as ‘‘Lieutenant Colonel Grigori Nikoyev’’
at the Soviet consulate. Although he initially approached the British,
Akhmedov opted for the protection of the Turkish Security Inspecto-
rate and remained in Turkey until 1948. There he was debriefed by