By Keith Perry
New Zealand-born secret agent Richard Tomlinson is believed to have caused one of Britain's worst security breaches for years by revealing highly sensitive material on the Internet.
The renegade MI6 agent posted the identities of many serving British intelligence officers on a California-based Web site to take revenge on
his former bosses.
The Web site blew the cover of men and women in six offices around the world.
Horrified Whitehall spymasters immediately warned that the revenge campaign could endanger agents' lives.
Urgent legal action was launched in the United States to shut the Web site.
The former spy, now based in Geneva, served five months in jail after admitting breaking the Official Secrets Act in the draft of a book containing disclosures about MI6.
In London, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who has responsibility for MI6, issued a gagging order on the British media over Mr Tomlinson's latest revelations.
The alert was rushed out in a rarely issued D-notice, normally invoked only to protect state security.
The D-notices chief, Rear-Admiral David Pultertaft, said a large number of agents had been identified.
"The published contents of the Web site could be gravely damaging."
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said: "The situation regarding Mr Tomlinson is not appropriate for us to comment on. It's between him and the British Government."
A British High Commission source in Wellington said Mr Tomlinson was being viewed as a traitor in Britain.
Last week the 35-year-old threatened to "out" agents. Britain took out an order in Switzerland to close a Web site he had set up through a Lausanne Internet provider, IPWorldcom.
Mr Tomlinson then moved the pages to a site run by California-based Geocities.com but that, too, was shut after British Government lawyers stepped in.
Mr Tomlinson refused to give up and finally found another Internet service provider.
The names published yesterday came from a directory he took with him when he was sacked in 1995.
The site contained a picture of Mr Tomlinson wearing a joke hat, superimposed on a photo of MI6 headquarters. The theme tune of Monty Python's Flying Circus was played.
Mr Tomlinson arrived in New Zealand last year claiming he was being pursued by British intelligence.
He was immediately served with an injunction by both Governments stopping him from revealing any information about his spying activities while he was here.
