Britain's Top Intelligence Officials: Snowden's Leaks Extremely Damaging

Britain's most senior intelligence officials said the leaks by fugitive former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden have been extremely damaging to British information-gathering operations, including in monitoring terrorists. 

Iain Lobban, the head of U.K. Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, told a panel of politicians here on Thursday that his agency's work is dependent on intelligence targets being unaware or uncertain of the methods used, and of their success. He said that as a direct result of media reports about the leaked material in recent months, his agency has seen near-daily discussion of the revelations in specific terms among some intelligence targets—including terrorist groups in the Middle East and South Asia.

Iain Lobban, the head of U.K. Government Communications 

Headquarters, known as GCHQ

"We have actually seen chat around specific terrorist groups, including closer to home, discussing how to avoid what they now perceive to be vulnerable communications methods or how to select communications, which they now perceive not to be exploitable," Mr. Lobban said. "The cumulative effect of the media coverage, global media coverage, will make the job we have far, far harder for years to come," he added. 

It marks the first public response by his agency to the widespread public criticism of its mass surveillance techniques, which were disclosed by Mr. Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor.

Andrew Parker, head of Britain's domestic spying service,

and John Sawers, head of foreign spying, at Thursday's

panel.

[...] 

Mr. Lobban's comments to the U.K.'s Intelligence and Security Committee during the roughly 90-minute session were echoed by the heads of the U.K.'s domestic and foreign spying services—known as MI5 and MI6, respectively—who also faced a grilling by the panel on Thursday. 

The Snowden leaks "have been very damaging," said John Sawers, the head of the MI6, or Secret Intelligence Service. "They put our operations at risk. It's clear our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al Qaeda is lapping it up."

Read the full story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here.
Please follow us on Twitter here.