More thrills than skills – A half-life in journalism, part 85

Over the next few weeks, allmediascotland.com is to publish, each weekday, edited extracts from the memoirs of Scottish war correspondent, Paul Harris. ‘More thrills than skills: A half-life in journalism’, is being scheduled for publication next year.

I GAVE a series of lectures on regional security and intelligence gathering techniques in the Balkans.

The lectures were given at a location north of London.

Secret and un-signposted, the facility was entered through a farmyard where battered rustics turned hay with pitchforks.

I was not introduced to the people I was addressing, although I was usually invited to have lunch with them after my presentations.

I remember one suited gent had a tie with the American flag and the initials, NSA, emblazoned on it.

“Doesn’t that stand for the National Security Agency?” I suggested.

“Yeah, I’m the boss,” came the terse response.

At that particular seminar, there was, present, the head of virtually every significant European security or intelligence agency.

Gradually, I made some interesting contacts.