opinions-political-dontTrustGovernments

note that Blair didn't deny the charges

and, lower down in the article, is something old that I missed: a British intelligence service worker reported last year that during the run-up to the Iraqi war, the U.S. NSA requested British help in bugging the diplomats of "swing countries" in the security council votes on the war resolutions (Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Chile, Mexico and Pakistan)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/26/international/europe/26CND-BRIT.html?hp

Ex-Minister Says British Spies Bugged Kofi Annan's Office By PATRICK E. TYLER

Published: February 26, 2004

LONDON, Feb. 26 A former member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet asserted today that British intelligence services conducted electronic surveillance of the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The former minister, Clare Short, who is still a member of Parliament, received a harsh rebuke from Mr. Blair, who told a news conference later in the day that he would not comment on any allegations about espionage operations, but he accused Ms. Short of endangering Britain's national security with "totally irresponsible" remarks. Advertisement

At the United Nations in New York today, Mr. Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said at a news conference that it would be illegal to conduct bugging operations on the premises of the United Nations and that Mr. Annan would be disappointed if Britain bugged his conversations.

Mr. Eckhard said efforts were under way to insure the security of Mr. Annan's confidential conversations, but he refused to say whether any bugging devices had been found during "sweeps" of Mr. Annan's office.

"We're throwing down a red flag and saying that if this is true, please stop it," Mr. Eckhard said.

The United Nations news conference added to the diplomatic embarrassment for Mr. Blair, who was said to be outraged that a member of his own Labor Party had spoken publicly about one of the most sensitive types of espionage in the diplomatic arena.

Michael Howard, the Tory opposition leader, called today's developments "a complete mess" for Britain.

The diplomatic tempest began when Ms. Short, who initially supported the war but later resigned from the cabinet after the fall of Baghdad, told a BBC radio interviewer this morning that transcripts of Mr. Annan's private conversations were circulated last year among Mr. Blair's cabinet members.

"I read some of the transcripts of the accounts of his conversations," she said, asserting that Mr. Annan's office was bugged. "These things are done, and in the case of Kofi's office, it's been done for some time."

She said she was so certain of the surveillance that she recalled "having conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war, thinking: `Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people see what he and I are saying.' "

Ms. Short's remarks reflected the continued hemorrhaging of secrets related to espionage conducted during the bare-knuckled political debate at the United Nations in March 2003 as the Bush administration and Mr. Blair's government sought to overcome resistance from France, Germany, Russia and a number of smaller states that were opposed to a resolution that would authorize the Iraq war.

A resolution in November 2002 had given the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein one final opportunity to comply with demands to disarm, but some Security Council members asserted the resolution carried no "automatic" authorization for war if Iraq did not comply.

A second resolution, favored by Britain and the United States, failed and the legal basis for the war was inferred from previous United Nations resolutions and from Iraq's failure to comply with them.

Today's embarrassing episode is another corrosive element in postwar diplomatic relations that are still intensely focused on how to reduce the violence in Iraq and rebuild the country. More troubling for Mr. Blair was that Ms. Short's blunt disclosure which a number of experts said appeared to be a violation of the Official Secrets Act underscored the unpopularity of the war in Britain a year on and the bitterness that has developed between Mr. Blair and the sizable contingent of rebels within his own Labor Party.

The revelation of targeted espionage in the executive suites of the United Nations building came a day after Mr. Blair's government had declined to prosecute a 29-year-old government linguist, Katharine Gun, who admitted leaking details of another bugging operation, also aimed at the United Nations, during the war debate last year.

Ex-Minister Says British Spies Bugged Kofi Annan's Office

Published: February 26, 2004

(Page 2 of 2)

Ms. Gun worked for the intelligence agency known as General Communications Headquarters, which intercepts and decodes communications. She was she was "shocked" when she received a copy of a top secret message from the United States National Security Agency requesting British assistance in conducting electronic surveillance against the diplomats of "swing" nations Angola, Cameroon, Guinea, Chile, Mexico and Pakistan whose votes were critical to passing a war resolution. Advertisement

She then leaked the message to the British Sunday newspaper The Observer and turned herself in for arrest.

Ms. Gun's lawyers were preparing a defense that she felt it was necessary to expose what she believed was espionage activity that fell outside international law. As part of her defense, her lawyers were going to insist on seeing the full private assessment of Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, on whether Britain could go to war without specific authorization from the Security Council.

The British government's reaction to these disclosures also sharply contrasted with the era of the cold war, when significant breaches of secrecy like Ms. Gun's and Ms. Short's most often resulted in immediate censure and prosecution, a move that was regarded as necessary to maintaining discipline in the intelligence services in the face of serious threats to national security.

Today, Mr. Blair said major threats still exist, but he offered no coherent explanation on the change in policy with regard to enforcing some level of discipline, expect to say that the Official Secrets Act perhaps needed to be reviewed.

"In an era of global terrorism where we know there are highly dangerous and repressive states out there developing weapons," Mr. Blair said, the work of the intelligence services "is even more necessary than before" and "vital" to "the protection of this country."

He said the events of the last 24 hours showed "that we are going to be in a very dangerous situation as a country if people feel that they can simply spill out secrets or details of secret operations."

But when pressed on why British prosecutors had declined to bring Ms. Gun to trial, Mr. Blair said the case was dropped because of the "interplay between evidentiary issues and the legal framework." He said he could go no further and insisted that he had played no role in the decision to drop the case.

A number of political analysts pointed out that the prosecution of Ms. Gun, who said she had acted out of conscience to expose what she considered illegal espionage activities, would have re-ignited the debate over the war in Iraq at a time when Mr. Blair was trying to move the country on to a new domestic agenda.

But Ms. Short's intervention today demonstrated how difficult it is for Mr. Blair to get beyond the war.

The prime minister accused his critics today of using "conspiracy" theories, allegations of government lying and wrongdoing as "cover for people who want to have a debate about the rightness or wrongness of the conflict and we should have that."

"It is actually a debate on was it right to remove Saddam Hussein the way you did or should you have waited and given the inspectors more time," Mr. Blair said, adding, "That is the heart of the debate."