INDEX	April 25, 2024
How evil does a spook need to be to get disowned?
Nina Lloyd, PA 19 May 2022 3-min read BBC reports on MI5 spy who 'used status to abuse girlfriend' after ruling	So what do you have to do to get the Government to disown you if you are an MI5 covert human intelligence source (a spook)? The answer has yet to be discovered but it is clearly quite a remarkable amount. Take the case of X, for that is not his name. The BBC went to the High Court to get the right to run a story about the man, said to be a violent right-wing extremist who hoarded Nazi paraphernalia and routinely terrorised his partner. Now let's get this straight. This is not a description of the subject of an MI5 investigation. This is an MI5 spook supposedly protecting us (though quite who he was protecting us from is a mystery). All well and good. Probably every organisation has one or two odd folk amongst their employees. The difference with X is that despite the revelations Attorney General Suella Braverman sought an injunction to block a planned BBC broadcast which would identify the man, arguing it would damage national security and create "a real and immediate risk of serious or life-threatening harm" to him. The BBC on the other hand, which can broadcast the material so long as it does not identify X, argued that in addition to X's partner it had identified a separate woman who had suffered at X's hands. It needed to identify X in order to protect future potential victims. Braverman does not confirm X is a spook, though exactly why she was party to this legal action if he was not is yet another mystery.
INDEX Jonathan Brind			April 25, 2024