INDEX	February 4, 2024
Can law breaking spooks threaten democracy?
SOURCES	It is generally believed that the intelligence agencies bend the law. We like to think of them not as having a licence to kill, but at least a licence to deceive. So when Sir John Sawers, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) went on Radio 4's Today Programme to reveal that they disrupt and harass anyone they feel like picking on, without using any judicial process, no-one even mentioned the idea that the police should be called to deal with what was clearly an admission of directing criminal activity. Harassment is a crime. This is because we expect our spies to bend the rules a little bit since it is all in a good cause, isn't it? Perhaps not. Take the case of Hans-Georg Maassen, former head of Germany's domestic intelligence, Mr Maassen was accused of downplaying the threat of the far right when he was in post. Since leaving the job he has formed an extreme right wing party, the Values Union, and has pledged to work with the AfD, possibly the closest organisation to the Nazis in modern day Germany. But of course, nothing like that could possibly happen in Britain? About a year ago ITV screened a drama about the real life crack down on a banned extreme right wing organisation in the UK, National Action, which was said to be plotting to kill a woman MP. It was Hope Not Hate, a voluntary organisation, that did the heavy lifting when it came to investigating National Action, not MI5. Yet if MI5 has a role, which is highly debatable, it is dealing with banned organisations, since in the age of the internet spying is largely a waste of time and recent terrorist incidents have mainly been the lone wolf type (ie utterly impossible for MI5 or anyone else to predict). So the point is not do the spooks bend the law. We know they do. They boast about it. The point is what is the motivation for what they are doing? Are they protecting you and me or are they as seems to be with the case with Hans-Georg Maassen, motivated by something else?
BBC German ex-spy chief investigated for right-wing extremism
My blog Hope Not Hate and The Walk In
My blog Sir John Sawers, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), reveals that they disrupt and harass anyone they feel like picking on.
INDEX Jonathan Brind	February 4, 2024