Saudi Arabia, training Saudi soldiers to set up their own intelligence capability
03/01/20 • 44 min
In this conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie, the discussion centres on Iain’s posting to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia between 1979 and 1980. Iain was based there as one of five GCHQ operatives. Their role was to train Saudi Arabia’s national guard - mainly Bedouin - on how to set up the country’s own intelligence systems.
The posting was challenging, because most of the tutees were near illiterate, and the subject matter was highly technical. The time there was volatile and part of their work was to try and intercept transmissions and movements across the 1,100 mile border with Yemen.
This longer episode sets the context of the region back to WWI and Lawrence of Arabia, Kemal Ataturk, Gallipoli and the ANZACs. It also touches on the countries and the origins of the Sunni/Shia divisions, as well as the border areas and power in the Middle East.
Iain talks of his time living in the country, the Saudi culture and his adventures into the desert with the immensely kind Bedouin and their families of nomadic camel herders.
In this conversation between Jane Craigie and her father, Iain Craigie, the discussion centres on Iain’s posting to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia between 1979 and 1980. Iain was based there as one of five GCHQ operatives. Their role was to train Saudi Arabia’s national guard - mainly Bedouin - on how to set up the country’s own intelligence systems.
The posting was challenging, because most of the tutees were near illiterate, and the subject matter was highly technical. The time there was volatile and part of their work was to try and intercept transmissions and movements across the 1,100 mile border with Yemen.
This longer episode sets the context of the region back to WWI and Lawrence of Arabia, Kemal Ataturk, Gallipoli and the ANZACs. It also touches on the countries and the origins of the Sunni/Shia divisions, as well as the border areas and power in the Middle East.
Iain talks of his time living in the country, the Saudi culture and his adventures into the desert with the immensely kind Bedouin and their families of nomadic camel herders.
Previous Episode
1950s posting to Hong Kong and Labuan
In this episode Iain Craigie talks to daughter, Jane Craigie, about his posting to Hong Kong with a secondment to Labuan. It was in the late 1950s, so WWII was still fresh in minds and diplomacy. Iain’s bases were Direction Finding (DF) Stations - rudimentary huts using HF radio. His Hong Kong posting was near the Chinese border. The conversation will take you through the importance of DF stations, how they were connected, the British intelligence interest in, and the secrecy of the Chinese; and the ‘fun’ these young RAF men had aged early 20s. Iain’s lucky still to be with us - one of their pranks was setting light to old WWII munitions’ dumps left behind by the Japanese on Labuan.
*please excuse the slight outages in audio - one of the dual mics I’ve been using has a fault. Must buy some new ones - any recommendations for an iPhone?
Thank you so much for listening, Jane Craigie
Next Episode
Iain Craigie’s early life in Morayshire - 1939-1950s
My Dad, Iain Craigie was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia where his father had worked as an engineer. In 1939, aged one, the family moved back to their native Morayshire in north east Scotland. Their first home was a rented one bedroom cottage in Urquhart, near Elgin - by then there were five members of the family, my grandfather, Naylor, and grandmother, Susan (nee Junner).
The cottage was on the flight path of German bombers flying back to base from London and Cambridge, so Iain and his brother, Grant and sister, Jean, were evacuated two miles down the road to live with Miss Jackson. She cared for them for three years, times were hard and she was typically versatile, digging up ‘tatties’ from the farmer’s fields and shooting deer to feed herself and the children.
During the war Grandad, Naylor, was posted to Palestine, when he returned, he bought a beautiful family home in Kingston on Spey. The house is Morven on Lein Road.
In this podcast Dad talks about his memories of early life in Morayshire. His schooling in Garmouth, Fochabers and then Marischal College in Aberdeen. It’s a fascinating insight into early, post-war life in rural Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
The Spy Who Raised Me Podcast - Saudi Arabia, training Saudi soldiers to set up their own intelligence capability
Transcript
Welcome to the spy who raised me podcast conversations between a daughter and her father. Yes, you've guessed it, he was a spy. My name is Jane Craigie and I'm here with my dad Craigie and we are talking about that time when he was a Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. He was actually based in Jeddah to in 1979 1980. We're going to start with a little bit of context to the region so much that we're hearing about conflict in the Middle East, stems bac
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