Fakers A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line

by Cormac, Rory

• ISBN13: 9780198917007
• ISBN10: 0198917007
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780198917021
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2026-08-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details
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Summary

Intrigue, espionage, and deception. The truth behind 8,000 once top-secret files, so explosive their authors never dreamed they would be released.

Fakers reveals the rise and fall of the mavericks running Britain's Cold War forgery empire. Their secret mission was audacious: to disrupt and discredit adversaries across the world using phantom groups, fake sources, and counterfeit documents.

The leader was a remarkable character, wrestling with personal and professional dilemmas: Hans Welser. An Austrian refugee and one-time MI5 suspect interned behind barbed wire, Welser was a great survivor who rose to become special operations adviser to the Foreign Office, working hand in glove with MI6. His second in command was an eccentric, hard drinking, and high-flying journalist-turned-propagandist called John Rayner. Brought out of semi-retirement, for one final posting. Their team of bowler-hatted refugees, voluble ex-journalists, trailblazing women, and licentious literary sorts navigated loyalty and betrayal — both professionally and romantically — from the diplomats' attic, in the most sensitive part of the Foreign Office's secret propaganda department.

The newly declassified files expose an array of plots, some comically absurd and others dangerously controversial. The forgery empire impersonated everything from hippies and ghosts to Islamists and ballet composers in their campaign to smear hostile politicians, stir tensions among adversaries, and even stymie the career of a contentious British historian. All took place against a high stakes backdrop — both overseas as states competed beneath the looming threat of nuclear war and in the corridors of power at home where grey-suited bureaucrats circled, keen to shut down the team for good.

With timely insight into how propaganda works and how to respond to disinformation, Fakers is a thrilling journey into a secret world where nothing was as it seemed.

Author Biography

Rory Cormac, Professor of International Relations, University of Nottingham

Rory Cormac is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He writes about covert operations and secret statecraft, and is the author or co-author of six books, including How to Stage a Coup (2022), Disrupt and Deny (2018), and The Secret Royals (2021). He has presented television documentaries aired in the UK, US, and Australia, his research and commentary writing have featured in media outlets worldwide including The Spectator, and he has testified before UK and Australian parliamentary inquiries on subversion, disinformation, and electoral interference.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsPrologue: Down the Rabbit HolePart I: Forgery Wars1. The Secret Annexe2. Anatomy of a Forgery3. Drawing a Bow4. A New Front Line5. Loyalty and Betrayal6. The Master WhispererPart II: The Worldwide Firehose7. Arab Brothers8. Loyal African Brothers!9. Publicising the Tanzanian “Plot”10. The Brothers go to Kenya11. The 'Slimy Leech' of Indonesia12. Shadows over SukarnoPart III: Hubris13. Coup, Killings, and the Voice from the Well14. The Stiletto and the Sausage Stick15. Welser vs Diallo Telli vs Rhodesia vs Franco16. In the Name of God17. Send in the Hippies18. Out with the Old?Part IV: Diversification and Downfall19. Blunting Black Power20. An Existential Crisis21. Courtroom Dramas22. The Poison Chalice23. All Eyes on Ulster24. Fading Ink25. Loose EndsPostscriptBibliography