Sir John Scarlett | intelNews.org

News you may have missed #0227

December 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

British politicians sue CIA over rendition flights. A group of British members of parliament, led by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, has filed a complaint in a district court in Washington, DC, asking for a judicial review of secret agreements between the US and UK on renditioning terrorism suspects.
US DHS broke domestic spying rules. The US Department of Homeland Security gathered intelligence on the Nation of Islam for eight months in 2007, and broke the law by taking longer than 180 days to determine whether the US-based group or its American members posed a terrorist threat.
Expert says UK ex-spy chief misled Iraq War probe. Sir John Scarlett, Britain’s former spy chief has misled the Iraq inquiry by exaggerating the reliability of crucial claims about Saddam Hussein’s ability to launch weapons of mass destruction, according to Dr. Brian Jones, the leading UK Ministry of Defense expert who assessed the intelligence behind London’s decision to go to war in 2003.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Andrew Tyrie, Brian Jones, Chilcot Inquiry (UK), CIA, domestic intelligence, extraordinary rendition, Iraq Inquiry (UK), Iraq War, lawsuits, Nation of Islam, News, news you may have missed, Saddam Hussein, Sir John Scarlett, UK, UK Ministry of Defence, United States, US Department of Homeland Security, Washington DC

Former MI6 head testifies in UK Iraq War commission

December 9, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Sir John Scarlett

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Sir John Scarlett, who until recently headed MI6, Britain’s foremost external spy agency, chaired the country’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in the run-up to the Iraq War. He was therefore in charge of an influential government report, produced in September 2002, which argued that Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction constituted an immediate threat to Britain. As part of the official inquiry into Britain’s entry in the Iraq War, Sir John testified yesterday about the controversial report, known as ‘the dodgy dossier’, which has been criticized as a monumental intelligence failure that helped drag the country into an unpopular war. The former JIC chairman admitted that British intelligence services were aware before the War that Iraq had dismantled its long-range missiles and thus had no way of shooting its chemical munitions at distant targets, including Britain. Read more of this post

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Adam Holloway, Chilcot Inquiry (UK), intelligence failures, Iraq, Iraq Inquiry (UK), Iraq War, JIC (UK), MI6, News, Saddam Hussein, Sir John Scarlett, Tony Blair, UK, UK Joint Intelligence Committee

News you may have missed #0189

November 18, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Somali youths from Canada may have joined Al-Shabab militant group. It’s not only Somali-Americans who are going back to Somalia to join Al-Shabab. Canadian officials are worried the same thing may be happening in Toronto.
New website examines intelligence contractors. The website Spies for Hire is a new project by Tim Shorrock, which aims to track the America’s most important intelligence contractors. The website expands on Shorrock’s 2008 book, Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.
MI6 chiefs to testify about Iraq War fiasco. Past and present chiefs of MI6, including Sir John Scarlett and Sir John Sawers, will be among the first witnesses to give evidence to the official inquiry into Britain’s entry into the Iraq War, it was disclosed on Monday.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with al-Shabaab, Canada, intelligence outsourcing, Iraq War, MI6, News, news you may have missed, Sir John Sawers, Sir John Scarlett, The Party of Youth (Somalia), Tim Shorrock, Toronto (Canada), UK, United States

News you may have missed #0063

August 10, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

UK government ministers, MI6 boss, reject torture accusations. Britain’s home secretary, Alan Johnson, and foreign secretary, David Miliband, have rejected claims that the UK operated a “policy to collude in, solicit, or directly participate in abuses of [war on terrorism] prisoners” or to cover up abuses. The outgoing director of MI6, Sir John Scarlett, has also said that there has been “no torture and there is no complicity with torture” by British agents.
Ex-spy may succeed Kazakh leader. An unnamed senior security official may eventually succeed Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan for 20 years.
Congressman tells Holder to widen torture probe. Several news outlets are verifying earlier rumors (reported on by intelNews on July 13) that the Obama Administration is considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the use of torture by US intelligence agencies after September 11, 2001. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, has said he wants US Attorney General Eric Holder to extend the rumored investigation beyond CIA interrogators, and determine whether high-level officials of the Bush administration committed war crimes.