KING OF SCOTLAND YARD

‍True Spies Episode 103: King of Scotland Yard‍

NARRATOR: Welcome to True Spies. Week by week, mission by mission, you’ll hear the true stories behind the world’s greatest espionage operations. You’ll meet the people who navigate this secret world. What do they know? What are their skills? And what would you do in their position? This is True Spies. 

CARLTON KING: So that's the first time we meet these guys and they're driving Land Rover Discoveries, with bullet holes in them. So I said to him: “What's all these bullet holes?” Ah, he said: “The Yanks don't know these cars. So every time we go to a checkpoint, sometimes they put rounds in us!” I said: “So, why are we driving in ‘em?”

NARRATOR: This is True Spies, Episode 103: King of Scotland Yard.

CARLTON KING: So we were basically in the parade room, standing there, and everybody stood to attention and Des was giving out medals and stuff. 

NARRATOR: It’s 2007, toward the end of the war in Iraq. At a British Army base, the UK’s Secretary of State for Defense, Des Browne, is handing out medals. The desert air crackles with polite applause. But in Baghdad, peace is never guaranteed for long.

CARLTON KING: And the next minute, all the soldiers, they dive to the ground because they're absolutely aware of what's going on. But Des is like stood wondering: “What's happening here?”

NARRATOR: For a split second, Browne stands there bewildered as Iraqi insurgents outside the base let fly with mortar after mortar. Fortunately for him, a split second is all he’s allowed.

CARLTON KING: So myself and one of my guys, we run at him. He runs first, jumps onto Des. Des goes down and I jump on him and Des. 

NARRATOR: Two body-armored protection officers immediately cover the Secretary of State, putting their backs in the way of incoming shrapnel.

CARLTON KING: And they call it indiscriminate fire. But it's not that indiscriminate. It's actually pretty good, pretty much good on target and the rounds are coming down. Doof. Doof.

NARRATOR: Maintaining their focus in spite of the pounding mortar fire, the officers rush Browne into a secure building. 

CARLTON KING: We laid him down and we laid on top of Des. 

NARRATOR: The protection team has done their job well. The protectee - or the principle, if you want to get technical - is safe. The mortars go quiet. The insurgents have fled or been neutralized. Do you think you could have handled the situation? How good are you under pressure?

CARLTON KING: And my first reaction? I'm going to tell you absolutely truthfully. There was hard cover behind me. So as soon as the first mortar hit, my first reaction was [that] I turned to go to hard cover for myself. That was my first reaction, to look after me. Turned to hard cover, and then kicked in and though. That's not my job. So it was kind of, save yourself, No, don't save yourself.

NARRATOR: In this episode, you’ll meet a True Spy who knows the real meaning of selflessness. 

CARLTON KING: Nobody's of higher value than me. But the reality is, this is what you have to run to. If he gets killed, we are going to be there forever-and-a-day fighting some war we don't need to be fighting, right? My name is Carlton King, and I guess my claim to fame is that I served in Special Branch from 1986 through until - if you want to make it collectively - until I left the police service in 2012. Within that, I also was seconded to the Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, as a case officer, and I was in that service between 1997 and 2002. 

NARRATOR: In this episode, we’ll be following Carlton on a protection assignment that took place a few years before the one we’ve just heard. An assignment where, instead of body armor and instinct, he had to rely on wit, charm, and intelligence-gathering tradecraft to protect his principles. Get ready for a rare glimpse into a truly behind-the-scenes operation. Have you ever watched a politician touring some far-flung or dangerous locale and wondered how on Earth did they get there? No, probably not. That’s because people like this week’s True Spy make sure everything ticks along smoothly. In this episode, you’ll discover why there’s nothing harder than making something look easy. You’ll find out exactly what it takes to arrange a VIP’s visit to one of the most dangerous places on earth. Spoiler: it’s exhausting. And very, very complicated. And it’s a story that was very nearly never told at all.

CARLTON KING: Now, the Official Secrets Act, what does it basically mean? It's frankly a catch-all law that says if you - in any way shape or means - do anything that undermines the security of the United Kingdom, you can be prosecuted, basically. 

NARRATOR: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is home to one of the world’s oldest intelligence communities. It’s also one of the most secretive. 

CARLTON KING: So in Britain, it's rare for people to write about any of these agencies. When I wrote my book, I wrote it for two reasons. One, the Special Branch had been disbanded, which I thought was a very, very bad idea. And number two, I wanted people to know that black people played a part in all parts of British society.

NARRATOR: Carlton has fought long and hard to shine a light on the covert work carried out by Britain’s intelligence agencies. He’s not a whistleblower, mind. He’s done it all by the book - t’s crossed, i’s dotted. But he does believe that, where possible, the British public should be aware of the actions carried out in its name.

CARLTON KING: Now, that's not what the government thought so they tried to prevent me from putting my story forward. 

NARRATOR: Cue redactions, edits, more redactions. After four long years - and minus a spooked publisher - Carlton was forced to self-publish his memoir.

CARLTON KING: And I think that's the sort of pressure that you get in the UK when you want to speak openly about this sort of domain. 

NARRATOR: Would you pit yourself against the establishment? Not sure? Maybe you’d feel more confident if you’d spent long enough within the establishment. Because throughout his eventful life, Carlton King has worn many hats - and a few helmets, too. But the majority of his career was spent climbing the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch. The Special Branch was created in 1883, predating MI5 and MI6 by more than a quarter of a century. Its initial aim was to combat Irish Republican terrorists, who had mounted a campaign of bombings and assassinations on British soil.

CARLTON KING: And one of those places they blew up was Old Scotland Yard so they formed this body, called the Special Irish Branch, to defeat this action. It did, and the government thought it was great. We'll keep this Secret Agency and will drop the sobriquet ‘Irish’, and it was then just known as the Special Branch. So that's how it was formed. So, to explain what the Branch did, it was then part of the quadruple system of intelligence - so that was the Security Service, MI5; the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and; GCHQ, which is signals intelligence, etc. And then Special Branch. But it was the only one with executive powers.

NARRATOR: Until 2006, when it was disbanded, if you were caught spying on British soil, it would be the Branch who came a-knocking.

CARLTON KING: The Special Branch arrests them and the Special Branch brings that [case] to court. So that's the difference. They couldn't carry any firearms in the old days, the security service. The Special Branch could carry firearms as did the surveillance teams, and so on and so forth. So there are big differences with it. 

NARRATOR: Within the Special Branch, there were several specialized squads that dealt with different aspects of the national security picture. A-Squad was the team responsible for protecting Britain’s most senior politicians as well as visiting dignitaries.

CARLTON KING: Every visitor visiting the United Kingdom, either the head of state, head of government, or a [politician who might be threatened while visiting] the United Kingdom receives Special Branch protection. That's how it used to work, and I used to run that office.

NARRATOR: If you’re subscribed to this podcast, you’ll know a few standard routes into intelligence work. The military, for example, or university recruitment fairs. Carlton, however, took the road less traveled. Cue the music. It’s the mid-70s, and in a crowded pub in the northwest of England, Carlton King is manning the decks.

CARLTON KING: My job was to be a disco compere sometimes, to be a DJ sometimes, whatever. So I did most of the big stars of the ‘70s. They'd come on to do their show in working men's clubs. I introduced them and then played music at the same time.

NARRATOR: I know what you’re thinking. What kind of career path takes a Lancashire 20-something from pub discos to the Special Branch? Well, rest assured - it doesn’t get any less unusual from here.

CARLTON KING: I was spotted doing this one day by a guy who was, I don't know if you remember the strange group called The Wombles of Wimbledon Common. 

NARRATOR: The Wombles, a popular British novelty band of the 1970s, was staffed by a group of highly-skilled session musicians. Some, understandably, had loftier ambitions. One of their number planned to relocate to West Germany where he would play for the soldiers stationed at the US Army bases there and he was looking for a DJ to complement his set.

CARLTON KING: So he came to me, and said: “Listen, would you like to do this?” And I had an agent, and said to the agent: “What will happen? What will be the circumstances? What's the money like?” The money was good. So I said: "Great, okay, I'll do it."

NARRATOR: For a while, Carlton led a semi-nomadic existence touring across West Germany. Eventually, he was offered a residency at a high-end club near Frankfurt. It’s here that Carlton’s story begins to veer into more familiar territory for listeners of this podcast.

CARLTON KING: So it was a good club. They're making big money. And this one guy used to come in who was from a good family. He wanted to own a private detective agency. Now I know that sounds weird, but it is what it is. And he was like 19, 20, or whatever he was. He came to me and said: "You're speaking German fluently in the language. You’re a black guy. Nobody would think [you’re a detective]. Would you come and join me to open an agency? I said: “No.” I'd pat him on his head. He'd come in every two, three weeks, and keep asking the same question. 

NARRATOR: A detective? Carlton was all right, thank you very much. Perfectly happy just where he was. And then, the club burned down.

CARLTON KING: This guy has heard about it so he ran over to me and said: “Listen, I've heard the discos burned down. Now is your chance to come and be a detective with me.” So I was kind of: "Yeah.” I thought, why not? Let's see what he's talking about in the afternoons. 

NARRATOR: Carlton’s friend dreamed of starting his own agency, but in the meantime, he was working for a larger private detective company in a town nearby. He thought that his English friend would be a welcome addition to their roster, and was quickly proven right. Carlton was hired as a hausdetektiv - a kind of store detective with the power to detain and charge the sticky-fingered. Before long, the one-time DJ had caught the law-enforcement bug. He saw a new path unfolding before him and knew he had to take it. Through friends, he knew that the American Army bases were like small towns unto themselves, rife with opportunities for wrongdoing, and the uncovering of wrongdoers. He applied at a nearby base and was offered a job as an investigator for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, or AAFES. AAFES is responsible for providing American servicemen and women with creature comforts - from imported food to cars, and even guns. In West Germany, AAFES catered to a population of over 1.5m personnel, and their dependents.

CARLTON KING: So these are massive things - snack bars, cinemas, petrol stations. They have them all. So it's just like, it's basically their own cities. They have little cities where the Americans used to live. 

NARRATOR: Where the military police had no jurisdiction over civilians - American or otherwise - AAFES could lead investigations into shoplifting, fraud, violent crime, and trafficking within their on-base facilities.

CARLTON KING: So you work with the whole of the military from both Army and Air Force, and obviously FBI if it's civilian. So that's the way it worked. 

NARRATOR: Carlton’s new boss was a former FBI agent who was more than happy to regale his new hire with tales of the world beyond AAFES. He was particularly fond of recounting his dealings with the Met’s Special Branch.

CARLTON KING: And he said if I were an Englishman, I'd be in the Special Branch. 

NARRATOR: Intrigued, Carlton decided to take his boss at his word.

CARLTON KING: And I wrote to the Embassy, British Embassy and said - this is in Germany, where I was living - “Listen, I want to be in the Special Branch.” They sent that to the Met and the Met [wrote] back to me saying it doesn't happen like that. But if you want to be an officer, come down next time you're in the United Kingdom, which I did.

NARRATOR: In 1984, Carlton returned to the UK, and completed a six-month training course for the Metropolitan Police. As a probationary officer, he was assigned to a police station in London. At the time, tensions between Britain’s black communities and the Met - a predominantly white organization - were making headlines.

CARLTON KING: There'd been a lot of demonstrations and things like that. So I put myself forward to be on what was known as the District Support Unit, which was like a riot police training aspect. And among that, we went to various demonstrations and all sorts of various riots.

NARRATOR: As part of the District Support Unit, or DSU, Carlton was on the front line of British policing at a time of severe unrest. As one of the Met’s few black officers, this could make for uncomfortable work. In 1981, a fire in the South London neighborhood of New Cross claimed the lives of 13 young black people. Four years later, based on police inquiries, a coroner had ruled out racially motivated arson. Many in the community still believed this to be the cause of the blaze. A demonstration was held to protest the coroner’s findings.

CARLTON KING: And so, it was felt on the street level, that the police had somehow not done their work and hidden the fact that it was believed that right-wing racists carried out the action and therefore the police were seen as negative toward this situation. Now, I just happen to be at the demonstration, part of the DSU. And so we were walking by the side in all my clothing and I was spotted because, in those days, an officer who was black was extremely rare. So I was spotted by, let us say some of the more hot-headed black youth at the demonstration. And I could see they were whispering and talking among themselves, and I could see there was a problem there. And then some of them started to gee up the crowd shouting, “Judas, Judas, coconut.” Whatever, whatever, whatever. 

NARRATOR: Singled out, the crowd began to close in on Carlton. Senior policemen in the DSU made the decision to remove him from the fray.

CARLTON KING: So the superintendent actually came down to me. He was running the operation, or chief superintendent, in fact. And he said: “Listen, this is too dangerous.” So I stood down and all the crowd then started jeering and laughing: “Ah, you see, he's gone, blah, blah, blah.” 

NARRATOR: Today, Carlton is sanguine about the issue of race in policing during the 1980s.

CARLTON KING: To be fair, frankly, the racism in the police was no better and frankly no worse than in general British society. But I felt I could make a difference in the police. That's the thing.

NARRATOR: But in truth, Carlton didn’t harbor any particular ambition to stay in uniform. His heart was set on the Special Branch.

CARLTON KING: Each year, there'd be a process where the Branch would ask for individuals who wished to be selected for Special Branch.

NARRATOR: The first chance he got, Carlton submitted his application.

CARLTON KING: Once it went into the Branch, they looked at it because they put desirable criteria. And desirable criteria were things like languages, Morse Code, shorthand, writing skills, etc. That would probably narrow it down to about half of those who applied. So that half would then sit the Special Branch exam, which was basically three papers. 

NARRATOR: The Branch’s written exams tested applicants on their political awareness, their critical thinking skills, and their writing ability - essential for providing intelligence reports. In the end, only 10 applicants from across the Met were accepted into the Special Branch annually. Carlton was one of them. His route to the Branch had been circuitous, to say the least. But he couldn’t wait to get started. Carlton joined the Branch as a Detective Constable - a DC, for short. Over the following months and years, he served with various squads within the Branch, learning his trade. Eventually, he moved to A-Squad - the section responsible for protecting Britain’s high-profile politicians. 

CARLTON KING: And you learn everything about how to work protection, how you look at the analysis, how you obtain what you might need when you obtain dog searches, explosives searches.

NARRATOR: A good protection officer must gather the intelligence that will enable them to manage their operations in unfamiliar territory.

CARLTON KING: You might, if you're going overseas, what that means, who you contact, what assistance you get from other agencies, etc. So it's all about, first of all, a very strong bodyguard course. So you learn how to be a bodyguard. But more importantly, the intelligence utilized within that.

NARRATOR: Of course, it doesn’t hurt if they’re also handy with a weapon.

CARLTON KING: So you were taught by the Met firearms unit how to utilize firearms. So that was generally sidearms and machine pistols. And your shooting skills are then kept up every two months. So you learn, you keep using. And it's fast-paced shooting. It's not general shooting. It's fast-paced, close-quarter combat shooting. Shooting from the hip, shooting from the shoulder, shooting from sitting in the seat, shooting through a car windscreen. 

NARRATOR: By the late ‘90s, Carlton was a Detective Inspector, with several operations under his belt.

CARLTON KING: So I'm a DI now, in the Branch and there is an agreement made between our commander in charge of Special Branch on the head of SIS, the chief. And they said: “We'd like one of your guys with some to expertize to look at countering terrorism,” because that was the en vogue thing at the time, as it still is.

NARRATOR: In some ways, the British intelligence community is a small world. In 1997, Carlton was seconded to the SIS - or MI6, as it’s more commonly known - as a case officer working on counterterrorism. Unfortunately, the strictures of the Official Secrets Act forbid him from discussing his work there. Some things are just non-negotiable. However, during his time in the Service, he was able to cultivate a number of contacts who would prove helpful when he returned to Special Branch full-time in 2002. As the officer running A-Squad, it often fell to Carlton to attend meetings of the Royalty Ministerial Visits Committee. That’s the body in charge of deciding which government ministers are authorized to travel abroad.

CARLTON KING: And they basically make decisions and say: “Right, this person's going here. Can he or she go? Can you protect them if they do? Should they get protection, etc?”

NARRATOR: It’s now 2003, and the Allied invasion of Iraq is in full swing. The Visits Committee has convened to discuss matters of vital importance to British interests in the country. Unfortunately, Carlton King is not in attendance. He’s at the firing range.

CARLTON KING: I'd gone for the shoot to keep my capacity going and the superintendent who had gone came back and called me to the office and said: “The Americans have basically hit Baghdad. The Americans have said they're going to have a conference about what happens when the war's over.” 

NARRATOR: The American Forces have captured Baghdad and are on the brink of victory. Now, they’re preparing to portion out the contracts and assets that will sustain the occupation. But what does that mean for Carlton?

CARLTON KING: Now, as you know, all states enter the war for the spoils of war, and we were no different. And so the prime minister basically said: “We need to get somebody at that meeting, somebody of power and stature who can put down what the UK gets out of Iraq post-war.” So that role was provided to Mike O'Brien who was then at that time, the Middle East Foreign Office minister.

NARRATOR: Mike O’Brien, it should go without saying, wouldn’t be traveling to the conference alone.

CARLTON KING: So it's: “Can you get Mike O'Brien to this meeting? We don't know where it is as yet. The Americans are going to do it. We don't know where it is. We know it's in Baghdad but we're not certain where the place is.”

NARRATOR: There’s no time to waste. If Britain wants its cut from a newly-conquered Iraq, then O’Brien needs to be at that meeting. Carlton has just days to prepare for a safe ministerial visit to Baghdad. He needs to perform a thorough assessment of the dangers that face the minister in Iraq, and take steps to avoid or neutralize them. He can’t do that from Scotland Yard.

CARLTON KING: “And you'd have to leave today.”

NARRATOR: The clock is ticking. And with the kind of notice Carlton has, flying into a warzone is far from straightforward.

CARLTON KING: So I had a lot of connections in a lot of different places. And one of the first connections that I used to try and get me what I needed was an RAF contact, which I had in the Provost Marshal, for him to try and find out whether we can fly into Baghdad. Let's make it dead easy. Let's get the RAF to fly us in there.

NARRATOR: That would be easy, wouldn’t it? Far too easy. As it happened, the RAF were not currently flying into Baghdad. British operations were centered on Basra, miles south of the capital. With more time, perhaps arrangements could have been made. But right now? No dice.

CARLTON KING: I then tried, obviously, people from my old office in SIS.

NARRATOR: The SIS explained that they might be able to assist Carlton once he was in-country - but again, a direct flight was off the table. Likewise, Carlton’s contacts in the Royal Military Police stationed in Iraq were also willing to lend a hand once he was on the ground.

CARLTON KING: And they gave me the name and I'll call him ‘Jerry’. There was a guy called Jerry. They said: “If you hook up with Jerry, he's got some kit, he can help you out once you get into Baghdad.”

NARRATOR: All well and good. But to get to Iraq - to find Jerry - Carlton would have to delve even further back into the annals of his address book.

CARLTON KING: So I contacted an American friend of mine whom I had from when I used to work for AAFES. He was a military police investigator. He then was CID, Army CID, and he was heading up the protection detail of Donald Rumsfeld. So I contacted this guy. And I said: “Listen, I need to get to Baghdad. You know, what can you do for me?”

NARRATOR: Finally, some success. The American contact was willing to pull some strings for an old friend. But if Carlton was hoping for a direct flight, he was about to be sorely disappointed.

CARLTON KING: He said: “If you can get to Kuwait, I can possibly get you to Baghdad.”

NARRATOR: Well, that’s a start, at least. Confident in his ability to arrange a flight to friendly Kuwait, Carlton began to make preparations for his last-minute journey.

CARLTON KING: Okay. So now I've got to get a team together. I've got to get weapons and I've got to get myself to Kuwait tonight. 

NARRATOR: First, Carlton reached out to a friend of his, an expert driver. The kind of man you want behind the wheel when things start exploding.

CARLTON KING: So the war's still on. “Yeah yeah, of course. No problem, I'll do it.” I said: “Right, what I want you to do is get me a sat-phone, at least two if you can. Get me some body armor, if you can get it. Get me this, that, and the other.” So I sent him on a task. 

NARRATOR: In A-Squad, as in any workplace, proper delegation was a hallmark of good management. Second only, perhaps, to a keen nose for hiring the best talent.

CARLTON KING: I then saw a DI I knew who was heading up - another DI, so same rank as me - who was heading up the Defense Secretary's protection and I wanted him because I knew the Defense Secretary always has contacts in our military.

NARRATOR: Carlton’s colleague had the ear of an Air Vice Marshal in the Royal Air Force. That could prove to be a useful contact in the event that his team needed to fly internally from a British base in Basra into Baghdad.

CARLTON KING: So the three of us, this merry band, we couldn't get any body armor, couldn't get anything sorted out. We could just get sidearms. That's all we could get.

NARRATOR: But even a couple of measly sidearms can cause a world of hassle when it comes to international travel. But there was no time to wrestle with bureaucracy, however well-intentioned. Carlton would have to seek forgiveness, rather than permission.

CARLTON KING: We took a commercial flight to Kuwait on British Airways. When we landed in Kuwait with our weapons, we got nicked because we're carrying illegal weapons as far as they're concerned.

NARRATOR: Predictable. But not unworkable.

CARLTON KING: So as I said, we were arrested straight away. So we sat down. And I’d told the driver, a friend of mine, I said: “Bring some Met memorabilia with you. Special Branch memorabilia.” So he'd brought that and I said to the immigration fellow: “Scotland Yard, ex-British colony connections. So do you know what Special Branch [is]?” He said: “Yeah, yeah, we know Special Branch.” I said: “I've got some special pens here. Very few people get this memorabilia. I'm going to give you a special pen, a special holder. Can you let us through my friend?" So I managed to talk this guy through. So he said: “Yeah, Okay. So he stamped the immigration bit.” 

NARRATOR: A little bit of charm - and a free pen - can open a surprising amount of doors. Carlton and his team were through the first hurdle. But their ordeal wasn’t over. Kuwaiti customs were, perhaps understandably, nervous about allowing plain-clothed secret policemen to carry weapons in their airport.

CARLTON KING: So the customs guy said: “Okay, you can bring these weapons, but you can't carry them.” 

NARRATOR: Luckily, Carlton had thought ahead. He’d arranged for two RAF men to wait for the Special Branch team at the airport. They were authorized to carry weapons in Kuwait, and Carlton was able to hand his off to them for safekeeping. All by the book. By now, hours of precious time had ebbed away. The RAF escort drove the team to a plush hotel, where they could rest up before renewing their efforts. He invited the RAF men to join him and his team in the suite.

CARLTON KING: We're getting some food mate. You stay with us, we're going to look after you. 

NARRATOR: Carlton’s generosity wasn’t without motive. He was behind schedule, still stranded in Kuwait. His RAF escort had information that might just get him and his team to Iraq in time for the conference. Specifically, they had a line to the RAF Air Vice Marshal in Kuwait. Bellies full, they were happy to arrange a meeting.

CARLTON KING: So anyway, we get to the HQ, we drive to the HQ and the chief marshal sees us and we explain: “Mission for the prime minister, blah blah blah. We don't have anything that flies. Can you use your power with the Americans to get us on a flight to Baghdad?” “I'll see what I can do,” says the Air Vice Marshal, with his equivalent. 

NARRATOR: Back in their suite, the Special Branch team took stock of their paltry stash of equipment. They’d barely had time to charge their solitary satellite phone before Carlton’s cell started buzzing. It was the Air Vice Marshal.

CARLTON KING: He came through and said: “Listen, if you jump now, get on a flight now, you can get on this flight and go into Baghdad.” Super, fantastic.

NARRATOR: The RAF men drove the three Branch officers to a nearby American airbase. After asking a few questions, Carlton discerned that his old employers, AAFES, were running flights into Baghdad. Carlton persuaded a US Air Force sergeant to authorize the flight. This was not technically within his remit but like the Kuwaiti officials, he was susceptible to Carlton’s charms.

CARLTON KING: So cut a long story short, he does it. I don't know if he got done afterward, but he did it and he got us on the flight. 

NARRATOR: Finally, the Special Branch was airborne once again. 

CARLTON KING: We fly off. We landed in Baghdad and we landed at Baghdad International Airport. So now we're there, and there's a whole lot of soldiers lying around all over the place. 

NARRATOR: The Americans had taken Baghdad International Airport a couple of days prior to Carlton’s arrival. Air transports screamed onto the tarmac.

CARLTON KING: Soldiers got the 1,000-yards stare on them, who'd been fighting the battle.

NARRATOR: Now, Carlton needed to contact Jerry, the Royal Military Police officer who would be able to furnish the branch with more appropriate luggage - machine pistols, smoke grenades, Kevlar - the kind of things that incur serious excess baggage charges.

CARLTON KING: So I said: “Listen, let's get on the sat-phone straight away. I'll try to get to that.” The sat-phone doesn't work. Flipping heck, it's lost its charge. We couldn't charge it. 

NARRATOR: Remember, Carlton and his team had been forced to leave their hotel in a hurry. There had been no time to charge the sat-phone.

CARLTON KING: So we're now struggling, so I said: “Listen, I'm going to try and see the OSI, see what they can do. There's got to be OSI here.” 

NARRATOR: O-S-I. That’s the Office of Special Investigations, a body attached to the US Air Force which conducts counterintelligence and criminal work. A spiritual cousin to the Special Branch, perhaps. 

CARLTON KING: So I go to OSI HQ and I explain who I was and who I am, Scotland Yard. “Scotland Yard? What the hell's Scotland Yard doing here?” “This is what I'm doing. We've got it's something I can't really tell you…” “You need to tell me something, guy, or I can't help you. Nobody comes off this base. Nobody.” I said: “Well we need to get off the base.” “No, it's too dangerous. Nobody's coming off this base.” I said: “Listen, my friend, I've got a mission to do for our prime minister. I need to get off this base.” 

NARRATOR: This time, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Carlton needed to think laterally.

CARLTON KING: I said: “Well, who do I need to see?” He said: “Well, if you go and see the Colonel, maybe the Colonel could do something. He's the other side of the base.”

NARRATOR: The OSI brought Carlton another mad dash through the chaos of Baghdad International, and returned to their HQ. Carlton spoke to the Colonel in charge. Somewhat unhelpfully, the Colonel said it was fine with him - if it was fine with the OSI.

CARLTON KING: We need to get the OSI to do this for us.

NARRATOR: The OSI, unsurprisingly, had not changed their minds within the last hour. However, with the Colonel’s blessing, they were willing to perform that most essential of military duties - delegate.

CARLTON KING: So the OSI said: “We won't do it. What we'll do is, I'll send this - I'll never forget him - this specialist.” It was a sergeant. So basically, this guy details this unit, sergeant and seven, to take us on this bus.

NARRATOR: The Sergeant and his men were duty-bound to follow their new orders and escort Carlton to a more established base. But that didn’t mean they had to be pleased about it.

CARLTON KING: So they get this bus, and they say: “Right, we're going to take you down there. We'll take you to the nearest big base we've got - an American military base - which is where they have all of the connections and all of the information is coming into the command center for the area.” So these guys do not want to do it at all. And he's sweating and he's effing and blinding: “If you get me killed…” All this stuff. “What the hell are you Brits?”

NARRATOR: After a breakneck bus ride through the bandit country of central Iraq, the bus, bristling with long guns, finally screeched to a halt at the other base.

CARLTON KING: So they drive us through. We get to it and they drop us at the earliest place they can, and they turn that bus around and they fire off. So we walk up there and take a look around and we come to try and get to where the HQ place is, and somebody puts the 50 cal on us.

NARRATOR: That’s a .50 caliber machine gun. 

CARLTON KING: And says: “Who are you guys? Where are you going?” I said: “I've got a police cap on, police! Yeah. British Police, Scotland Yard.” “You sh**ing me?” “Scotland Yard, yeah, yeah, yeah.” From this bunker, he’s got: ‘Okay, come over slowly.” So we go over slowly. Me and the two guys go over there, we start talking: “Aw Scotland Yard, God damn! Let me tell my Colonel. We got some British guys here.”

NARRATOR: Once again, the Branch’s reputation preceded it. Despite the warm welcome, Carlton was glad to meet a fellow Brit at the new location.

CARLTON KING: So the first time we hit Brits, there was a guy from Highlanders. It was a Major. Great guy, Scotsman, fantastic fellow. So I said: “Listen, this is the predicament we got. We need to get out and I need to see this guy, Jerry, RMP, Royal Military Police guy. Do you know where he's going to be? Because I need to see him. I need to get stuff together to sort this operation out.”

NARRATOR: The Scottish Major explained that there was, in fact, an RMP base - in the center of Baghdad, no less.

CARLTON KING: He said: “I don't know how you're going to get there.” I said: “Listen, I need to get there right now.”

NARRATOR: One step forward, two steps back. Carlton’s progress, so far, had been physically and mentally exhausting. But the end was in sight. Because now, the Special Branch was finally able to make the call they had been trying to make since their arrival in Baghdad.

CARLTON KING: So luckily, by then, we managed to get some comms with Jerry, and he sent two of his RMPs. 

NARRATOR: Jerry’s welcoming committee left something to be desired.

CARLTON KING: So that's the first time we meet these guys and they're driving Land Rover Discoveries with bullet holes. So I said to him: “What's all these bullet holes?” “Ah,” he said, “The Yanks don't know these cars. So every time we go to a checkpoint, sometimes they put rounds in us!” I said: “So, why are we driving in 'em? Well, why are we not using an American vehicle?” “We're British!” I said: “I know mate, but is it worth getting killed for?”

NARRATOR: After countless sleepless hours, and more setbacks than he cared to think about, Carlton finally established contact with Jerry and the RMP. Now, at long last, he had access to the resources he needed to give Mike O’Brien a shot at attending the conference. Now, he could get on with preparing for the Secretary of State’s arrival in-country. You didn’t think the job was over, did you? In truth, it was only just beginning. First things first, it was time to lean on a few old colleagues.

CARLTON KING: I say: “Listen, take me to the SIS. I need to speak to the guy there.” 

NARRATOR: With his clearance, Carlton was able to request any and all intel that might help him paint a clearer picture of the threats facing O’Brien in Baghdad. And in 2003, there was no shortage of those. Next stop? His American Allies. And more gear.

CARLTON KING: So I then say: “We can't just use these two vehicles to pick your man up. It's just not enough.” I've been given a name by my American colleague from AAFES all those years back, and he gives me the name of a Hispanic American guy, a great guy, who's heading up the Army CID. And I said to him: “Listen, I'm bringing in equivalent to a five star. This guy's a big guy. What can you give me?” 

NARRATOR: Carlton secured an armed escort for his principle, complete with helicopters patrolling the skies above Baghdad International Airport. In terms of prevention, he’d done all he could. But an A-Squad officer also has to make contingencies for when things don’t go to plan.

CARLTON KING: So we do what we do. I go to the hospitals, and try and say: “If something happens, what's the connection to the field hospital? If our man gets…” And all the bits you do in protection. And all the backup that you need and people on the bridges. “Can you put some tanks on the bridges so if something happens the bridges are denied to them?” And we start putting the package together for Mike O'Brien. And then I finally get the sat-phones going and we comm. In fact, General Viggers, who was the UK General in charge of the operation, General Viggers says: “Well, I can get you back to London in full.”

NARRATOR: After a few grueling days, Carlton was able to make the necessary preparations in time for the all-important conference. The minister was primed to enter Baghdad. There was just one last teensy consideration - the actual location of the meet. If Carlton couldn’t figure that out, then Mike O’Brien would have no opportunity to stake Britain’s claim to the spoils of war.

CARLTON KING: But I didn't even know where the meet was, so I had to try and find out where the meet was. We found that it was going to be in the conference center, so I had to secure the conference center. 

NARRATOR: Hopefully, you’ll never have to secure a building full of VIPs. But here’s how it’s done.

CARLTON KING: The United States had M1 Abrams tanks, all the way through and around the building, actually. They must have used 20 tanks to secure the perimeter of that building. Then, as you come on the outer perimeter, they had military police to secure the outer perimeter of it. They were using helicopters above - at the time, probably about 15, 20 spinning around. And then, when you come into the building, you then start putting people at certain locations everywhere, all the vulnerable locations you can see. You need areas you have hardened already so if anything does happen - because anything can happen at any stage - you have hardened areas that you can already go to that you have already set aside for you and your principles. 

NARRATOR: Then there’s comms - you need the infrastructure in place to keep everyone in the loop.

CARLTON KING: It's a lot of people. They need to be connected to you. You need to be connected to them by your communications so you understand what's going on. 

NARRATOR: And last, but not least, the all-important exit strategy.

CARLTON KING: What's the way out? So do we have helis, vehicles, whatever, to get us out if something does happen? 

NARRATOR: In this case, Carlton found that the Americans had already done most of the work in terms of securing the conference center. And, in retrospect, he finds it slightly odd that the US had kept the timing and location schtum for so long - almost as though they wanted to narrow the playing field.

CARLTON KING: They probably wanted to wait. Their argument was, they said: “We didn't know until very close, ie., a day before what we could actually secure and knew was ours, right?” I don't believe that because as I said, I was there two or three days before at the conference center and the Colonel showed me around and they had it pretty much secured. So it's just the games being played. Yeah, everybody's in it for what they got out of it.

NARRATOR: Mike O’Brien arrived in Baghdad a few days later.

CARLTON KING: We set it all up with our assistance and a good job was done. Mike O'Brien was able to put what he wanted to put as far as what the UK should get out of this war. And that was the operation. 

NARRATOR: It had been a success. But Carlton was well aware that, given the slightly slap-dash nature of the operation, things could have gone much worse. 

CARLTON KING: I came back basically after that, after that operation and our woeful under-preparedness. I basically put forward a paper to a great guy who was a really capable individual, David Veness, who was head of counterterrorism for the United Kingdom, who was deputy assistant commissioner of the Met. And I said to ACSO [Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police Service]: “This is woeful. I mean, we were lucky we came back with our life. We need real equipment. We need a unit that can be made and created.” So I created a unit called the High Threat / Low Infrastructure. We did joint training with RMP and learned to use their equipment. So if anything ever goes wrong in such a high threat zone, and they are there, we can use their equipment. 

NARRATOR: Carlton’s High Threat / Low Infrastructure unit served in several more protection operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the one we heard about at the beginning of this episode. Today, Carlton lives a quieter life. As well as publishing his memoir, Black Ops: The Incredible True Story of a British Secret Agent, he’s the host of his own podcast - The Black Spy podcast.

CARLTON KING: What I aim to do with the Black Spy podcast is basically lift the light on the world of secret intelligence and national security and armed governmental personal protection operations - and where that connects with the geopolitics of the world. Because I think that people need to understand what people do, we people in this arena, do in your name. Why do we do it? Why it's important. So each episode, basically, has somebody from wherever or whatever in the world. It's an eclectic mix of individuals. They've generally got an interest in the secret world and the world of geopolitics.

NARRATOR: I’m Vanessa Kirby. Join us next week for another brush with True Spies. We all have valuable spy skills, and our experts are here to help you discover yours. Get an authentic assessment of your spy skills, created by a former Head of Training at British Intelligence, now at SPYSCAPE.com.