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reactionary military cadres, and restraining young, radical (albeit pro-
British) politicians. Additionally, Bishop was responsible for countering
persistent Axis propaganda and eliminating covert enemy activity. In a
fundamentally corrupt society like Iraq, bribery was an effective SOE
method of securing the cooperation of such key figures in the Iraqi polity
as politicians, clerics, and newspaper editors. Even blackmail—subtle or
not so subtle—was a powerful ‘motivational tool’ occasionally applied
effectively by Bishop’s team.^28
By February 1942, Aidan Philip (Fig. 5.1) had been transferred from
Persia and was working as Bishop’s second-in-command full-time on targets
and plans, while two officers—Donald Mallett (D/Q.1) and Hugh
McNearnie (D/H.108)—briefly did propaganda work for Bishop on a part-
time basis. Mallett, an experienced journalist, was soon posted to Turkey
and then to the publicity department of the Cairo embassy; McNearnie,
under SOE cover-within-cover as an officer with the Assyrian Levies based
in Mosul, was actually SIS.^29 On the special-operations side, Bishop also
executed ‘paramilitary orders’ from the army in preparation for possible
enemy incursion. As any German invasion would most likely come from the
north, Kurdistan and the use of Kurdish guerrillas became the focus of
Fig. 5.1 Aidan
Lawrence Brade Philip,
SOE field commander.
Source: HS 9/1181/4,
The National Archives
SOUTH GATE