BANGKOK, Thailand -- A former wartime British spy in Afghanistan and Pakistan for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, says he regrets disguising himself as a foreign correspondent but is proud of his espionage among mujahideen guerrillas during "the last act of the Great Game" in Central Asia.
After spying from early 1981 until the end of 1983 -- during British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's administration -- John Fullerton became a career foreign correspondent and editor for Britain's Reuters news agency for 20 years, based in Hong Kong, New Delhi, Beirut, Nicosia, Cairo, and London.
Mr. Fullerton's work as a spy among Afghan mujahideen guerrilla groups was to help "the U.K. discriminate between the effective and ineffective resistance leaders," he said in an interview.
"When I told SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) I planned to apply to Reuters, they made it abundantly clear they could have no further contact," said Mr. Fullerton, 74, now living in Glasgow, Scotland.
He retired from Reuters in 2003.
