التقييم السعري للسكراب و الخردة

Why St. John Philby Matters: A New Look at the Life and Legacy of the Greatest British Spy

Harry St John Bridger Philby, (3 April 1885 – 30 September 1960), also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah was a British Arabist, adviser, explorer, writer, and Colonial Office intelligence officer. As he states in his autobiography, he "became something of a fanatic" and in 1908 "the first Socialist to join the Indian Civil Service". After studying Oriental languages at the University of Cambridge, he was posted to Lahore in the Punjab in 1908, acquiring fluency in Urdu, Punjabi, Baluchi, Persian and eventually Arabic. He converted to Islam in 1930 and later became an adviser to Ibn Saud, urging him to unite the Arabian Peninsula under Saudi rule and helping him to negotiate with the United Kingdom and the United States when petroleum was discovered in 1938; in addition he married for the second time, to a Saudi Arabian.

Harry St John Bridger Philby – A Brief Biography

His life was controversial, but his legacy was his theory that a modernised, nationalist Arabian state, once united with the Emirate of Hejaz, could counterbalance British influence. Bridger grew up in South Africa, and became an English gentleman at his first job as a stenographer. He attended Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated with a degree in history in 1907. In 1910 he took up an appointment as a cadet at the Persian and Baluchi desk of the Foreign Office, and later became a correspondent for the Morning Post.

The Philby Legacy

John 'Jack' Philby Philby played a key role in the manipulation of Britain's imperial relationship with Saudi Arabia. British intelligence sources involved in advising Ibn Saud directly have commented that he represented the more extreme wing of British-Saudi relations and that his pro-Nazi tendencies likely led to his having his research notes taken from him after he left Saudi Arabia in 1941. Jack's great-grandson George Philby-Smyth (born 1951) wrote in 2007: In the last 40 years the oil money has turned the country into an Arab Aladdin’s cave. Jack

In his post-colonial assessments of British imperialism, Christopher Hitchens highlighted the contribution that Philby and his circle made to the manufacture of illusions regarding the nature of British policy towards the Arab world: What John Churchill, Viscount Peel, then Colonial Secretary, told Lord Carnarvon in 1925, as the pair sat round a map in the Colonial Office, was that the British government needed to assuage Arab fears of “invasion”, and in so doing had to recognise Philby himself would be baffled. At the heart of London – the seat of power of the world’s foremost power – is the largest monument to the Great Power. It is a monument to Jack. It is a monument to a simple, greedy, imperial lie.

Philby as a Spymaster

Philby began his career at MI6 in 1908. In 1921 he became the first British Arabist to join the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Between 1924 and 1932 he served with the Syrian legation in London. During this time he, along with the author and journalist Hugh Trevor Roper, developed a political outlook informed by socialism and anti-imperialism. In 1935 Philby resigned from MI6 to join the Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office (FIO). While working in the FIO, he used his Arabic language skills to gather intelligence on the Arab world. After his retirement from the FIO, he became a distinguished fellow and assistant keeper of the Oriental Department at the British Museum, which he continued to support after leaving the FIO.

Philby's Role in the Arab Revolt

Philipe began secretly gathering information about and liaising with the Arab Revolt in 1916.

He used his knowledge of the region to advise the British war effort, including his proposed "Northern Expedition" which would put British forces in control of the north of Arabia. His knowledge of Saudi Arabia led him to speculate on the possibility of using it as a base of operations for an Indian campaign to capture Sindh and even an invasion of India itself. However, neither project came to fruition. Philby's aide in London, Guy Liddell, came to believe that Philby's reports were providing genuine intelligence to the British government on Iraq's affairs.

Philby as a British Spy

spent most of his life working for MI5. Although he was employed as a civil servant, he was routinely tasked with espionage duties. From 1931 until 1948, Philby made numerous clandestine journeys around the world, visiting at least 32 countries, where he collected help the British Secret Service, MI6, with their correspondence. Whilst an MI6 agent in China, Philby provided China with intelligence of the Japanese armies’ planned invasion of northern China. After the Japanese invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he returned to Britain where he obtained vital data on Nazi Germany’s navy. In 1945, he was caught in Cyprus and interned.

Philby's Legacy in the Middle East

It is debatable whether he will ever be taken seriously as a British statesman, but he played a key role in the establishment of modern Saudi Arabia in 1932 and acted as a sort of intermediary between the British and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab during the early years of the Wahhabi-Saudi relationship. It was a mystery, however, why Philby was never sent back to England for questioning after his wife was murdered by a mysterious man in Pakistan in 1936. It would have been extremely embarrassing for British Foreign Office officials who had sent him there in the first place. The murder was one of those cases where we now know that intelligence was wrong, and then blown out of proportion, by those who were conducting the investigation.

Conclusion

Philby was the trailblazer for spies in general, starting the process that would lead to the successful use of strategic communication in warfare. Philby himself states in his autobiography, explaining his reasons for becoming a spy: "I wanted to understand the East and to help in the building of a better life for the natives and to meet the great men and their ideas and leaders." In other words, as a spy he realized that he was able to accomplish a great deal as a British intelligence agent in the Holy Land and later in Saudi Arabia. In the process, he became convinced that what the British Empire wanted was for the Arab people to have better lives.