After expulsion of hundreds of embassy-based spies, Kremlin is using riskier and less conventional methods
A developing Russian campaign of arson, sabotage and even murder plots has left western intelligence agencies alarmed over the past year.
The ramping up of activity has come as the Kremlin’s spy apparatus recovered from the initial shock of seeing 450 agents posing as diplomats expelled from Europe in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former Australian PM witnessed ‘shocking act of perjury’ and says MI5 are still trying to hide something
The former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the UK government of hypocrisy and concealment over the way it continues to block the release of secret files about the Spycatcher affair.
Before entering politics, Turnbull was a barrister for Peter Wright, a retired senior MI5 intelligence officer who revealed a series of illegal activities by the British security services in his memoir Spycatcher.
Continue reading...Release of intelligence year after death ‘casts doubt’ on security service’s previous claims about British spy in IRA accused of murders
The police chief investigating murders allegedly carried out by Freddie Scappaticci, a British agent in the IRA known as Stakeknife, has expressed alarm that hundreds of pages of files providing “new investigative leads” have been found by MI5 a year after Scappaticci’s death.
Sir Iain Thomas Livingstone, a former head of Police Scotland who leads Operation Kenova, has written to the Northern Ireland secretary of state to highlight the troubling timing and warn that the new intelligence raises questions about MI5’s previous claims of knowledge about Stakeknife.
Continue reading...Ministers considering more funding to protect important research sites, with China seen as a particular concern
MI5 has warned universities that hostile foreign states are targeting sensitive research, as ministers consider measures to bolster protections.
Vice-chancellors from 24 leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, were briefed on the threat by the domestic security service’s director general, Ken McCallum, and National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) chief, Felicity Oswald.
Continue reading...More than 250 people join group action claiming security service failed to take steps that could have prevented 2017 bombing
Hundreds of the Manchester Arena bombing survivors, along with relatives of the victims, have launched legal action against MI5, claiming it failed to take action that could have stopped the attack.
More than 250 people have joined the group action against MI5 and have submitted their claim to the investigatory powers tribunal, which hears complaints against the intelligence services.
Continue reading...Victims’ families say Jon Boutcher’s report into British spy proves state and IRA were ‘co-conspirators’ in murder
The police chief who led the inquiry into a murderous British spy in the IRA known as Stakeknife has condemned MI5 for stalling his investigation, as his report was hailed by victims’ families as proof that the British state and the IRA had been “co-conspirators” in murder.
Jon Boutcher criticised attempts “to undermine me and the investigation” and spoke of a delay strategy deployed by the secret services as he revealed that agent Stakeknife had probably killed more people than he saved in the service of the British state.
The army’s claim that Stakeknife saved “hundreds” of lives was “implausible”, “rooted in fables and fairy tales” and should have rung “alarm bells”. He said it was probable that the handling of Stakeknife “resulted in more lives being lost than saved”.
Stakeknife was involved in “very serious and wholly unjustifiable criminality, including murder”.
There were several cases of murder where the security forces had advance intelligence but did not intervene in order to protect sources.
Boutcher had “extremely fractious spells” with the secret services. He was forced to hold several meetings with MI5 to raise “concerns regarding access to information, its decision to classify as ‘top secret’ an accumulation of ‘secret’ documents, the fact that solicitors representing former security force personnel had been given greater and unorthodox access to MI5 materials and my concern that its strategy was one of delay”.
When Operation Kenova tried to submit evidence files in October 2019 to prosecutors on Scappaticci and members of the security services relating to cases of murder, abduction and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, that “MI5 informed us that the building’s security accreditation had expired and we therefore could not proceed”. The evidence was finally submitted in February 2020.
Continue reading...National Archives papers show prime minister tried in vain to avoid inquiry over Peter Wright’s memoirs
Margaret Thatcher was “utterly shattered” by the revelations in Spycatcher, the memoirs of the retired MI5 officer Peter Wright, files released publicly for the first time reveal.
The files also reveal the dilemmas faced by Thatcher’s government in its futile battle to suppress the book, including whether to agree to the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer mediating an out of court “solution”.
Continue reading...Counsel for ex-MI5 officer Peter Wright suggested role for Australian media tycoon but idea was swiftly rejected
The Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer was suggested as a mediator in the fight by Margaret Thatcher’s government to prevent the publication of Spycatcher, the memoirs of former MI5 officer Peter Wright, according to newly released official papers.
The offer was made by Wright’s Australian counsel – and future Australian prime minister – Malcolm Turnbull as part of a proposed out-of-court settlement, files released by the National Archives show.
Continue reading...Heads of MI5 and FBI say Jewish communities and other groups may face danger from lone actors, Iran or militants
The heads of MI5 and the FBI have issued an unprecedented joint warning that the threat of a domestic terrorist attack could rise as a result of the crisis in the Middle East.
The counter-terror chiefs said Jewish communities and organisations, as well as other groups, may face a heightened danger from lone actors, Hamas militants and Iran on British or US soil.
Continue reading...GCHQ, MI6 and MI5 propose weakening safeguards that limit training of AI models with bulk personal datasets
The UK intelligence agencies are lobbying the government to weaken surveillance laws they argue place a “burdensome” limit on their ability to train artificial intelligence models with large amounts of personal data.
The proposals would make it easier for GCHQ, MI6 and MI5 to use certain types of data, by relaxing safeguards designed to protect people’s privacy and prevent the misuse of sensitive information.
Continue reading...Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri wants to bring case examining alleged role of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ in his mistreatment by CIA
A Guantánamo Bay prisoner tortured by the CIA has accused British intelligence agencies of complicity in his mistreatment in a new case before one of UK’s most secretive courts.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who is alleged by the US to have plotted al-Qaida’s bombing of an American naval ship, is seeking to persuade the court to consider his complaint against MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
Continue reading...National Cyber Security Centre urges operators of critical national infrastructure to prevent hacks
The UK’s cybersecurity agency has urged operators of critical national infrastructure, including energy and telecommunications networks, to prevent Chinese state-sponsored hackers from hiding on their systems.
The National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ, issued the warning after it emerged that a Chinese hacking group known as Volt Typhoon had targeted a US military outpost in the Pacific Ocean.
Continue reading...Death of Freddie Scappaticci, who always denied he was mole, puts question mark over inquiry into his alleged crimes
The man said to be the British army’s most important agent inside the Provisional IRA has died, putting a question mark over the inquiry into his alleged crimes and the role played by security forces.
Freddie Scappaticci, a west Belfast former bricklayer who was alleged to have been a top mole known as Stakeknife, died and was buried last week, it emerged on Tuesday. He was in his 70s.
Continue reading...Bombing inquiry brings call from terror watchdog for franker approach at spy agency
Britain’s terror watchdog has called on the security services to ensure they promptly share any intelligence requested by MPs investigating the fallout of the Manchester Arena attack.
Last week’s public inquiry concluded that MI5 had missed a significant chance to take action that may have prevented the 2017 bombing that killed 22 people.
Continue reading...People who lost loved ones and their representatives speak out as MI5 is accused of a ‘devastating’ failure
Families of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack accused MI5 of a “devastating” failure after an official inquiry found the spy agency had missed a “significant opportunity” to stop the blast carried out by Salman Abedi. Here, they respond to the inquiry’s verdict:
Continue reading...Comments come as official inquiry finds agency missed ‘significant opportunity’ to prevent 2017 atrocity
The families of victims of the Manchester Arena attack accused MI5 of a “devastating” failure after an official inquiry found the agency missed a “significant opportunity” to stop the deadliest terror plot in Britain since the 7 July 2005 attacks in London.
A public inquiry led by Sir John Saunders concluded that there was a “realistic possibility” that the bomber could have been thwarted if the security services had acted more decisively on intelligence.
Continue reading...Victim’s mother expects ‘catalogue of mistakes’ to be exposed in Sir John Saunders’ report on 2017 atrocity
The mother of a victim of the Manchester Arena attack has said she expects “a whole catalogue of mistakes” to be laid bare when a landmark report on the atrocity is published on Thursday.
MI5 is braced for criticism from the report, which will examine whether the deadliest terror attack in Britain since 7/7 could have been prevented.
Continue reading...Party member lodges a complaint about the security services ignoring attempt of Russian infiltration into the Conservatives
MI5 repeatedly refused to investigate evidence that an alleged Russian spy was attempting to cultivate influence with senior Conservative politicians and channel illegal Russian funds into the party, a Tory member has alleged in a new complaint lodged with the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT).
Sergei Cristo, a Conservative party activist and a former journalist with the BBC World Service, has lodged a complaint with the investigatory powers tribunal, filing the case after corresponding with the chair of parliament’s intelligence and security committee, Conservative MP Julian Lewis, who recommended he take the information to the authorities.
Continue reading...Persian language channel said threats to journalists had escalated in response to coverage of protests
Armed vehicles have been deployed outside the Iran International television studios in London after two of its journalists were threatened by Tehran, the channel said.
There were about seven vehicles outside the studio in Chiswick Park, west London, after “severe and credible” threats were recently made against two of the UK-based channel’s journalists, one of its spokesmen told AFP.
Continue reading...Files on Russian intelligence officer and ‘lady-killer’ Eugene Ivanov littered with reports of drunkenness
Eugene Ivanov, the Russian spy at the centre of the 1963 Profumo scandal, was a philandering alcoholic whose weakness for women and drink M15 hoped to exploit to get him to defect, but who ended up toppling the Macmillan government by chance, according to newly released intelligence files.
He arrived at the Russian embassy in London as assistant naval attache in 1960 but M15 suspected he was an intelligence officer, partly because he didn’t seem to know much about ships and also he carried an umbrella.
Continue reading...