Kim Philby was the British MI6 officer — its deputy director — secretly recruited by the KGB in college and run as a mole for decades. In John Kiriakou’s telling, the cruelest twist is that Philby was counterintelligence chief James Angleton’s best man and the godfather of his child — his koumbaros — even as Angleton, obsessed with moles, suspected everyone but him.[1][2] When suspicion finally fell on Philby, he was removed and sent to Beirut; tipped off by another mole, he excused himself from a Christmas party at the British ambassador’s residence, climbed out the bathroom window, and fled to the Soviet embassy. Six days later he surfaced at a Moscow press conference and later lectured new KGB officers.[3][4] In the same conversation, Kiriakou also discussed Operation Paperclip, the program that brought Nazi scientists to the United States after World War II.
Kim Philby
The British MI6 deputy director secretly working for the KGB — and, in John Kiriakou's telling, James Angleton's best man and his child's godfather; his decades of betrayal broke Angleton, and he escaped from Beirut through a bathroom window to Moscow.
References
- ↑ Austin and Matt, 2026-02-12 — 32:10 on YouTube · Transcript
- ↑ Austin and Matt, 2026-02-12 — 32:43 on YouTube · Transcript
- ↑ Austin and Matt, 2026-02-12 — 33:16 on YouTube · Transcript
- ↑ Austin and Matt, 2026-02-12 — 34:18 on YouTube · Transcript
Categories: People