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UK Intelligence Chiefs Criticize Snowden Leaks

Adithya Manjunath |
November 7, 2013 | 11:53 a.m. PST

Executive Producer

The GCHQ, one of Britain's three main intelligence agencies. (Wikimedia Commons)
The GCHQ, one of Britain's three main intelligence agencies. (Wikimedia Commons)

The chiefs of the GCHQ (Global Communications Headquarters), the MI5 and the MI6, Britain's three main intelligence agencies, made their first ever joint public appearance at a televised hearing to express their dissatisfaction over the leaked Edward Snowden documents and the potential repercussions these leaks might have on their work.

Sir Iain Lobban, the director of signals intelligence agency GCHQ said

"We have actually seen chat around specific terrorist groups, including closer to home, discussing how to avoid what they now perceive to be vulnerable communications methods or how to select communications, which they now perceive not to be exploitable. The cumulative effect of the media coverage, global media coverage, will make the job we have far, far harder for years to come."

Sir John Sawers, the chief of the MI6 (or the Secret Intelligence Service), added

"The leaks from Snowden have been very damaging, they've put our operations at risk. It's clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee, al Qaeda is lapping it up."

The 90-minute hearing was the clearest sign yet that intelligence organizations are angry about Snowden's leaks and the manner in which his leaks were published by newspapers across the world despite receiving warnings not to do so. The hearing also has resulted in calls for increases in control and scrutiny of the intelligence agencies' work – although the British PM David Cameron argued that the agencies are subject to proper scrutiny already.

Lobban also attempted to defuse any tension over the potential surveillance of communication made by the general public.

"If you are a terrorist, a serious criminal, a proliferator, a foreign intelligence target, or if your activities pose a genuine threat to the national or economic security of the United Kingdom, there is a possibility that your communications will be monitored and we will seek to read [them], we will seek to listen to [them]. If you're not, and you're not in contact with one of those people, then you won't be… And that's true, absolutely, whether you're British, you're foreign, wherever you are in the world."

Contact Executive Producer Adi here, or follow him on Twitter.



 

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