No George Smiley's Then

OUT OF THE SHADOWS


The heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ gave evidence to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. The spiciest line was Sir John Sawers of MI6 saying that terrorists are "rubbing their hands with glee" over the Edward Snowden disclosures.

As interrogations go, it was hardly waterboarding: the committee were pretty cautious in their approach and – unsurprisingly – the nation’s most secretive civil servants didn’t give much away that they didn’t want in the public domain.

Still, the content of the meeting matters less than the fact that it happened at all. Only a few years ago, the notion of the agency chiefs appearing in public would have been unthinkable. (To outsiders, at least: MI5 actually started preparing to put its chiefs on camera almost a decade ago after 7/7.) Remember, these are organisations whose very existence has only been a legal fact since the Intelligence Services Act was passed in 1994.

Today, another bit of the mystique around our spies has been lost. Anyone watching the hearing today will have realised that these aren’t James Bond-type action heroes but sober managerial types who could easily pass for senior managers in either public or private sectors – if it weren’t for the fact that their current work is a matter of life and death.

From a romantic perspective, that’s a shame: a lot of people enjoy the notion of our spooks as derring-do types defusing bombs and whacking bad guys. But secrecy has its costs too.

First, it inflates expectations about what the agencies can actually do, sometimes to unrealistic levels. The fact that the spies are ordinary mortals with mortal limitations is an awkward fact, but one that should be presented to voters more clearly.

Second, suspicion breeds in the shadows. Because we don’t know enough about the spies and what they do, it’s easy to believe the worst of them.

Today’s venture into the daylight may not have been entirely comfortable for the intelligence chiefs, but they – and we - will ultimately benefit from it.

reality is always so much more disappointing, don't you think?  

Marky wrote:reality is always so much more disappointing, don't you think?  

Yeah Marky, I will never be able to watch a spy Film in the same light again.  I suppose it's more understandable now to wonder how a suspected Terrorist managed to walk into a Mosque with a tag on his ankle and escape wearing a Burka, James Bond would have been outside waiting for him.  

James bond would off wiped him out before it got to this stage.

kitti, I was watching a News discussion yesterday and the Government havn't got a clue how many illegals there are and this MP was saying there are many genuine immigrants who have been waiting years to have their applications processed, many now married with children who cannot travel because they havn't got Passports, pay taxes etc but cannot vote or get free prescriptions.
 
Heads should definitely roll for this state of affairs, the Conservatives blame Labour, justifiably , but the Home Office has been in power now for over 3 years and the situation is worse.!!!

Several MP's are calling for a Referendum on EU membership BEFORE the Election but not enough to make a difference .