406 • PALESTINE
molehunts, are Christopher Hill,Iris Murdoch,Jenifer Hart, Ian
Milner,Tom Driberg,Bernard Floud, Phillip Toynbee, and A. J. P.
Taylor. TheKGB archivesdeclassified in Moscow refer to the Ox-
ford Ring and identify the leader only by his codename,scott. See
also CAMBRIDGE FIVE.–P–PALESTINE.Security operations in Palestine during the British Man-
date fell to Security Intelligence Middle East (SIME) with support
from the British-run Palestine Police and anInter-Services Liaison
Departmentoffice in Jerusalem during World War II. In addition,
Bernard Fergussonran a military ‘‘counter-gang’’ unit targeted
against theIrgunand theStern Gang. Information about Jewish po-
litical extremism was gleaned from anMI5 source, codenamed
snake, and from intercepted Zionist wireless traffic circulated under
the code nameispal.
The Jewish campaign for a homeland in Palestine was suspended
during World War II but reinstated in 1945, supported by veterans of
the Jewish Brigade, formed in 1944, and members of theHaganah.
British Intelligence lost Desmond Doran of theSecret Intelligence
Service, killed in a grenade attack on his home in Haifa, and two
members of SIME, hanged in retaliation for the execution of Jewish
terrorists.
To limit the illegal emigration of Haganah-sponsored refugees
from Europe, SIS conducted a sabotage operation against ships in
the Adriatic, headed byHarold PerkinsandDerek Verschoyle, that
succeeded in planting a limpet mine on the S.S.Pan Crescent.
PANAM 103.The sabotage of PanAm flight 103 from London to New
York in December 1988 with the loss of 259 lives prompted the
largestMI5investigation ever undertaken. The Boeing 747 was de-
stroyed over Scotland by a bomb, consisting of one pound of plastic
explosives concealed inside a cassette recorder that had been placed
in a suitcase and detonated over the town of Lockerbie, killing a fur-
ther 11 residents. The case resulted in the trial of two Libyan intelli-
gence officers at a Scottish court empaneled in Holland. After 84