A rare public scripted Q&A of the Security Service's Director and the full title is:...
Type: Posts; User: davidbfpo; Keyword(s):
‘I'm proud of how MI5 responded to the Salisbury attack'
A rare public scripted Q&A of the Security Service's Director and the full title is:...
Out of the shadows 'C' speaks in public
A rare public speech by 'C', the head of SIS, at his old university this week and the BBC story does not reflect all he said. The BBC's headline was: 'Alex Younger: MI6 chief questions China's role...
What a New Study of British Spies Reveals About the CIA
A very short article that ends with:
Link:https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169655
The Five Eye’s video
A video (1h 15m) of a Policy Exchange event yesterday, where five who should know spoke: a former Australian Prime Minister, a former Canadian PM, a ret'd US diplomat and Deputy NSA, a former New...
The UK was involved, nay complicit in US rendition and torture
Finally after a long procedure, gathering evidence and questioning in private; with some official hesitation over publication - plus a refusal to answer their urging that a criminal investigation was...
The Five Eye’s intelligence sharing network
An interesting article, with both UK & US ex-intelligence directors commenting, on the Five Eyes...
Intelligence, Attlee and the Brook Report
Dr Dan Lomas (again) has a commentary which opens with:Link:https://history.blog.gov.uk/2018/01/16/intelligence-attlee-and-the-brook-report/
After the eventual WW2 successes, notably cracking the...
New Approaches to Intelligence Oversight in the U.K.
I am always curious when a former British "insider" publishes an article abroad. This time it is the barrister David Anderson, who until recently as the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation...
JTRIG: dirty tricks on-line
Spotted via Twitter a PPT presentation and talk in Germany about JTRIG. The source is:Their introduction to the 31 minute...
Snowden Doc Reveals How GCHQ/NSA Use The Internet To 'Manipulate, Deceive And Destroy
Copied from a 2014 post in the Snowden thread to act as an introduction to the next post: ...
Unravelling the tangled web
A curious article via Twitter by a serving GCHQ official, which opens with:
Link:https://quarterly.demos.co.uk/article/issue-12/unravelling-the-tangled-web/#article-footer
An authorised "doughnut" history
Very few noticed this and no, it has nothing to do with the current spat over President Trump's allegations:Link to a...
Learning from an old wound
Hat tip to WoTR for this American author's commentary on intelligence after Chilcot, admittedly with an American application and he ends...
Lessons to be learnt (again)
From a short article by an academic and he concludes:Link:https://theconversation.com/chilcot-scolds-britains-intelligence-community-for-its-role-in-the-iraq-war-62078?
HUMINT: Yet all he had done was, it seems, watch a Hollywood movie.
Not a good day for the "spooks", especially SIS (aka MI6):Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36713003
MI5 & GCHQ collect data: 97% not viewed
A consistent theme in domestic digital collection and surveillance is whether it is needed by the "agencies". Shining a spotlight into this murky area, with an agenda, is this report by The...
Freedom and security. Neither can be absolute or guaranteed
Published in Prospect is an article by John Sawers, ex-SIS (MI6), entitled 'Security first, freedom will follow' and subtitled 'New technology helps our enemies as well as us and raises new questions...
20% of GCHQ intelligence comes from hacking
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/12154733/Fifth-of-GCHQ-intelligence-comes-from-hacking.html
The BBC report is longer:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35558349
'One of the single most insightful documents leaked since 2013'
A UK GCHQ document led to this response by Professor Thomas Rid, Kings War Studies, on Twitter:It appears that a BoingBoing story is the original source and...
MI5 Director live Q&A on BBC Radio today
A long serious Q&A today on BBC R4, with the MI5 / Security Service Director Andrew Parker; a first and in places of note. The audio is 22 mins long:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p032qcgm
...
How British (GCHQ) spies really spy
The full title of an article in 'The Register' is: How British spies really spy: Information that didn't come from Snowden:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/23/how_spies_spy/?page=1
The author...
Moderator's Note
I have copied a small number of posts to here from the intelligence arena, where former senior British intelligence officers have spoken or written.
This thread should be read in conjunction with...
Values and Order: a spook speaks (MI6 / SIS)
Yesterday Sir John Sawers, the recently retired SIS (MI6) Chief, gave the annual Kings War Studies Lecture, he used the title The Limits of Security and a transcript is...
We deal with the Russia we have, not the Russia we’d like to have
A phrase taken from Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6 (SIS), in his lecture @ Kings War Studies:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/16/west-vladimir-putin-john-sawers-mi6-europe
The...
Understanding digital intelligence from a British perspective
Professor Sir David Omand has written a short commentary, it reflects his years as an "insider" and his studies since. He remains a stalwart defender of what GCHQ in particular has been...