INFORMATION FROM foreign intelligence agencies will not be shared with the UK if there is a danger that it will be disclosed during trials, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) warned yesterday in a first ever public speech by the leader of the 100-year-old agency.
Speaking in London, John Sawers said secrecy was not a dirty word.
“Agents take risks. They will not work with SIS, will not pass us the secrets they hold unless they can trust us not to expose them. Foreign partners need to have certainty that what they tell us will remain secret – not just most of the time but always.”
The issue of disclosure featured prominently during a court action by Ethiopian-born Binyam Ahmed Mohamed, who was held in Guantánamo Bay between 2004 and 2009. Earlier this year the UK’s Court of Appeal found he had been subjected to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities”.
During the case his lawyers demanded that the Foreign Office hand over its records.
In August 2008, the High Court in London ruled that it was “not only necessary but essential” that the information be disclosed. The records were subsequently shown to his legal team, but not published.
Later the court ruled in favour of the British government, finding that it would not be in the public interest if publication damaged the relationship between MI6 and the US’s CIA.
The possibility that intelligence could be released has caused great concern, said Mr Sawers, adding that no intelligence agency would risk its sources being tracked down.
“Without the trust of agents, the anonymity of our staff, the confidence of partners, we would not get the intelligence. The lives of everyone living here would be less safe.”
He said without such intelligence the UK would be more exposed, leaving it to fight danger “on the goal-line, on our borders”.
“We can’t do our job if we work only with friendly democracies,” he said.
“Dangerous threats usually come from dangerous people in dangerous places. We have to deal with the world as it is.”
Describing torture as “illegal and abhorrent”, the MI6 chief said terrorist actions have gone ahead because to stop them would have required torture to be used.
“Some may question this, but we are clear that it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “It makes us strive all the harder to find different ways, consistent with human rights, to get the outcome we want.”
