Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence

MUSELIER, EMILE• 383

tional Accord, an opposition group based in Wimbledon, South Lon-

don. During 2002 he acted as an intermediary, supplying information

to London and theSecret Intelligence Servicefrom his brother-in-

law,Colonel al-Dabbagh, who had commanded one of four air de-

fense units in the desert west of Baghdad.

MULLETT. MI5code name for a senior British insurance executive
named Thornton, who in 1941 was in contact in Lisbon with Dr.
Koestler, later codenamedhamlet. Born in Belgium to a British
father and Belgian mother,mullettspent most of his life in Bel-
gium, but after being cultivated by Koestler in Portugal, reportedly
was asked to take jewelry to his two children in England and estab-
lish a channel for peace negotiations.mullettreturned to Lisbon in
August 1942 under MI5’s instructions and later formed part of a net-
work with an additional member,puppet, who was also a British
businessman with interests in Belgium. In 1944mullettwas used
as a conduit for adeceptionplan codenamedpremiumthat sug-
gestedmulletthad been asked by the British government for com-
mercial information about industrial sites in the Pas-de-Calais region,
thus reinforcing the idea that the Allies intended to land in the area
onD-Day.

MURDOCH, IRIS.A former member of an undergroundCommunist
Party of Great Britaincell at Oxford, novelist Iris Murdoch was
suspected byMI5of having been a member of theOxford Ring,a
spy ring recruited at the university. Educated at Somerville College,
Murdoch worked in the Treasury from 1938 to 1944, when she joined
the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency to assist refu-
gees in Belgium and Austria. A prolific writer, she was elected a fel-
low of St. Anne’s College, Oxford, in 1948 and remained friends
withJenifer Hart.

MUSELIER, EMILE.Commandant of the Free French navy and
Charles de Gaulle’s deputy, Vice Admiral Muselier was arrested in
January 1941 and imprisoned in Pentonville and then Brixton for a
week.MI5’sKenneth Youngerand his assistants (Sir) Peter Rams-
botham andJohn Maudesuspected that Muselier was at the heart of
a plot to depose de Gaulle and reach an accommodation with the