Short: UK spied on Kofi Annan
Martin Nicholls and agencies
Thursday February 26, 2004
The Guardian
British agents spied on the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, in the
run-up to the Iraqi war, former international development secretary
Clare Short claimed today.
Ms Short made the claim while being interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme about the implications of the collapse of the Official
Secrets Act case against GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun.
Asked whether British agencies had been involved in spying activities
against Mr Annan, Ms Short - who quit the cabinet in protest against
the war - said: "I know, I have seen transcripts of Kofi Annan’s
conversations.
“Indeed, I have had conversations with Kofi in the run-up to war
thinking ‘Oh dear, there will be a transcript of this and people will
see what he and I are saying’.”
Ms Short was asked whether she believed that British spies had been
instructed to carry out operations within the UN on people such as Kofi
Annan.
She replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
Ms Short was asked whether she knew about such operations when she was
in government.
She said: “Absolutely, I read some of the transcripts of the accounts
of his conversations.”
Asked whether she believed that was legal, she said: “I don’t know, I
presume so. It is odd, but I don’t know about the legalities.”
The news is likely to dominate the prime minister’s monthly press
conference this morning.
He is also set to face questions on the collapse of the Gun case. Ms
Gun had been accused of leaking a secret email from US intelligence
services allegedly requesting UK help in bugging UN delegates ahead of
the Iraq war.
She admitted leaking the e-mail, which she said “horrified” her, but
the case against her was dramatically dropped yesterday with
prosecutors refusing, despite concerted pressure, to say why.
Her lawyers speculated it was because they had demanded the government
disclosed advice it received from the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith
QC, on the legality of going to war on Iraq. Ministers have repeatedly
refused to make the advice public.
Disclosing it to Mrs Gun’s legal team could have led to the government
facing fresh public scrutiny of the case for war but withholding it
would have allowed Mrs Gun to argue she could not receive a fair trial.
Downing Street yesterday refused to comment on the case and Mr Blair’s
official spokesman said: “This is a matter for the CPS.”
Barry Hugill, of the human rights group Liberty, which was part of Mrs
Gun’s legal team, said: "Given the events that have surrounded
Katharine Gun’s trial and the memo that she leaked revealing the
request from the Americans to bug the security council, it does not
come as a great surprise to hear this.
"It is very difficult to understand how this sort of bug can in any way
whatsoever help defend the national security of the United Kingdom.
“There are clearly questions to be answered.”
Mr Hugill said: "Clare Short has done what Katharine Gun did. She has
technically breached the Official Secrets Act by revealing evidence of
the activities of British intelligence services.
“If the government were as foolish as to try and prosecute Clare Short,
Liberty would certainly act in her defence.”
Comment:
This comes as no surprise to the aware Islamic politicians who know that the bond which exists between western nations is one of benefit and nothing else. They have no permenent friends or allies only interests e.g Saddam was a friend one day and now hes the evil dictator. When the west preaches honour, dignity, human rights, International law etc we the muslims should show the contradictions in their application by the west and also show them the Islamic definition of some of those terms from the Islamic sources.