The existence of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was only officially acknowledged as recently as 1994,so when its chief feels impelled,for the first time in its history,to deliver a public speech about its operations,we can take it that something is badly amiss. Sir John Sawerss language… may have been diplomatic,but his message was unmistakeable. The work of MI6 is being undermined by a human-rights-obsessed judicial system while the public perception of the service is being dangerously distorted by the fixation in parts of the media with allegations of maltreatment levelled against some of our intelligence partners.
MI6 has an impressive record,yet its very success works against it. Who would have dreamt after the July 7 bombings that not another life would be lost in mainland Britain through terrorism in the following five years? This has been the case,despite reports crossing Sir Johns desk every day of terrorist plots bent on maiming and murdering. Yet the services effectiveness has fuelled the lethal notion that the terrorist threat may be somehow exaggerated. That,in turn,has led the pendulum to swing too far in the direction of the rights of terrorist suspects,and too far away from the rights of law-abiding citizens not to be blown up or shot.
From a leader in The Daily Telegraph,London
