Tag: MI5

The leaving party took place on 16 April 2013 when Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the most senior public prosecutor in England and Wales. Starmer recorded in his Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) hospitality register that he had “drinks” with “Sir Jonathon [sic] Evans KCB”. KCB stands for Knight Commander of the Order […]

The greatest challenge, the most important task, facing security and intelligence agencies should be to identify threats to the public from genuinely hostile forces, ranging from state agencies to violent individuals motivated by extreme ideologies.  Their biggest temptation is to use the special resources and laws – the privileges – at their disposal to amass […]

Scores of MI5 files on two of the most sensational political and security scandals in the history of modern Britain – the Profumo affair and the Cambridge spy ring – were released at the National Archives on Tuesday.  But they are so heavily redacted that it is clear those that would cause the most damage […]

A file released on Tuesday by the National Archives, titled “Allegations concerning a possible coup in 1968”, reveals how rattled MI5 and the Home Office were many years later about conspiracies that have never been properly investigated. The declassified file refers to discussions about how to topple the then Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson. Wilson […]

Much publicity was given recently to the apology by political and religious leaders in Northern Ireland for the horrific sexual and emotional abuse young boys in care homes had suffered over many years.  But on one notorious home, the subject of a cover-up that remains unexplained, there was silence. The public apology was recommended more […]

At least ten people with alleged or known links to British intelligence agencies or covert warfare now hold key roles overseeing government. The murky past of some of these figures means they are strictly off limits to full public scrutiny. Some might think this makes them an odd choice to enforce accountability.  Here’s a short […]

A British court has ruled that a review of undercover policing compiled by MI5 at the height of the Troubles nearly 50 years ago will stay secret.  The verdict marks the end of a freedom of information battle between Northern Ireland’s police and Declassified UK. It comes as a blow to legacy campaigners and bereaved […]

Declassified UK’s chief reporter enters the Kafkaesque world of official secrecy as he tries to uncover the British state’s involvement in a notorious terrorist bombing for which no one has been held to account.

The new head of MI6 says his agency will monitor other countries’ climate commitments, but the UK’s intelligence agencies are refusing to provide any information on their own environmental footprint.

The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester terrorist attack shows no sign of investigating the UK’s covert role in the Libya war of 2011 — in which the Manchester bomber had fought. He is one of four terrorists from that conflict who went on to slaughter 63 people, mainly Britons, in separate attacks — and they may even have received military training from UK-allied forces.

On the centenary of Ireland’s partition, Northern Ireland is changing. But the lessons from its recent violent ‘dirty war’, in which British agents colluded in killings, risk being ignored by the current British government.

The need for proper scrutiny of the UK’s security and intelligence agencies, such as MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the military’s special forces, is becoming increasingly urgent. A number of practical measures would make these agencies more transparent and accountable to the public.

Britain’s intelligence agencies are teaching the next generation of spymasters from some of the world’s most repressive dictatorships, it can be revealed for the first time.

British diplomatic files about Saudi Arabia and mercenaries are among over 6,000 documents recently censored from the National Archives – by an ‘independent’ oversight panel containing former spies and government officials.

There is money and power in identifying Russia and cyber attacks as the key security threats facing Britain — but not in addressing the more important issues of pandemics and climate change. Former UK intelligence chiefs are personally profiting from the ‘revolving door’ between government and business, and the public is paying the price.

The risk of a global pandemic that could kill hundreds of thousands of British people has been raised by UK policy-making officials for more than 15 years without the UK’s security and intelligence agencies prioritising the threat, new analysis shows.

Their role, and desperate attempts at denial, notably in seizing two Libyan dissidents and handing them over to the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi’s secret police, is one of the most shameful episodes in the recent history of Britain’s foreign adventures. And it is far from reaching a conclusion. British ministers continue to break a promise […]

British foreign secretary Dominic Raab recently described the “rule of international law” as one of the “guiding lights” of UK foreign policy. By contrast, the government regularly chides states it opposes, such as Russia or Iran, as violators of international law. These governments are often consequently termed “rogue states” in the mainstream media, the supposed […]

The stories — which quote former or current members of the army, navy and special forces, as well as MI5, MI6 and an ex-senior civil servant — have averaged one every six weeks since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party in September 2015. There have, however, been significant spikes in frequency during […]