528 • STRAIGHT, MICHAEL
France respond to a surprise Israeli attack on Egypt by demanding a
withdrawal and a cease-fire. The Anglo-French intervention would
thus be given the cloak of respectability and legality, using the cease-
fire, which Nasser would be bound to reject, as a convenient pretext.
White soon learned that Eden had taken Selwyn Lloyd into his con-
fidence and had used the chairman of theJoint Intelligence Com-
mittee,Sir Patrick Dean, as an intermediary to negotiate with the
French and Israelis in Paris. The Foreign Office permanent undersec-
retary, Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, had also colluded to keep those in the
know to a bare minimum. SIS’s intended role was to provide a secure
communications channel between the SIS Israeli desk, manned by
Nigel Cliveand Cyril Rolo, to Tel Aviv, whereNicholas Elliottwas
running the station temporarily, and to Cyprus where Godfrey Paul-
son was supervising the military component at the Nicosia station
that operated under cover supplied by theBritish Middle East Of-
fice.
The key figure in SIS’s contribution tostragglewas Clive, who
in 1953 had been placed in charge of the Special Political Action sec-
tion assigned the task of removing Nasser before, aslucky break
predicted, Egypt fell under permanent Soviet influence. SIS’s choice
for a replacement for Nasser, the deputy director of Egypt’s air force
intelligence, General Khalil, turned out to have acted as adouble
agent, pocketing SIS’s bribe and reporting the attempt to the Mukha-
barat. The invasion collapsed as soon as the Eisenhower administra-
tion threatened to withdraw its support for sterling and took seriously
a Soviet threat to retaliate.STRAIGHT, MICHAEL.A Soviet spy recruited at Trinity College,
Cambridge, Michael Straight—who, according toKGB archivesde-
classified in Moscow, operated under the code namenigel—was
also, briefly,Anthony Blunt’s lover and identified him as amoleto
MI5in 1964. Immensely wealthy and something of a dilettante,
Straight was born on 1 September 1916 in New York to a banker and
an heiress, but was brought up in England by his mother and stepfa-
ther, Leonard Elmhirst, who founded Dartington Hall. After attend-
ing Dartington and the London School of Economics, Straight went
up to Cambridge as a radical and was talent-spotted by Blunt, who
passed him on toJames Klugmannfor recruitment into an under-
ground cell of theCommunist Party of Great Britain(CPGB).