Blair Hit by UN Spying Claim, Attacks Accuser
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By Mike Peacock
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain spied on U.N. chief Kofi Annan (news - web sites) before the Iraq (news - web sites) war, former minister Clare Short said on Thursday, threatening a fresh crisis for Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) as he tries in vain to put the conflict behind him.
Blair declined to address the claim, beyond saying British security services acted within domestic and international law.
But the U.N. declared any such operation would be illegal.
"This is something which is not entirely surprising," Andreas Nicklisch, deputy director of the U.N.'s Brussels office told Reuters. "It's illegal of course, but it's also unnecessary because we work in complete transparency and openness."
Short's allegation comes a day after Britain dropped charges against a translator who admitted leaking a top-secret U.S. document seeking London's help in bugging United Nations (news - web sites) members in the run-up to the war.
The former aid minister, who resigned after the war but was in government during the period when London and Washington sought U.N. authorization for military action, said Secretary-General Annan's office had been specifically targeted.
"In the case of Kofi's office, it was being done for some time," Short told BBC Radio. "I read some of the transcripts of the accounts of his conversations."
Blair reacted angrily to his now frequent critic, saying she was undermining the intelligence services and British security as it faced a real threat from ruthless Islamic militants.
"The fact that those allegations were made... is deeply irresponsible," he told a news conference in his Downing Street home. "We are going to be in a very dangerous situation as a country if people feel they can simply spill out secrets or details of security operations, whether false or true."
BLAIR CAN'T SHAKE IRAQ
Iraq has become a political nightmare for Blair. Ten months after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was toppled, none of the banned weapons Blair claimed Iraq had primed for use has been found.
The premier's public trust ratings have slumped and many in his Labour Party feel betrayed to the point of mutiny.
Bob Worcester of pollsters MORI said Blair remains favorite to win a third term at next year's election but with a halved majority of 60-80 in the 659-seat parliament, from 161 now.
That could spell danger, leaving him at the mercy of a hardcore of some 50 Labour MPs so opposed to the war they are ready to fight him on any number of issues.
"Until the boil of the truth about Iraq is lanced, the prime minister can never put this behind him," Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn told Reuters.
On Wednesday, state prosecutors said they had insufficient evidence to prove 29-year-old translator Katharine Gun broke the Official Secrets Act although she freely admitted leaking a memo which she said revealed a U.S. plot to spy on U.N. missions.
At the time of the memo, Britain and the U.S. were desperately trying to persuade wavering members of the Security Council to vote in favor of war against Iraq.
Blair's opponents believe the government's top lawyer, Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith, killed the case for fear that questions about the war's legality would be raised.
Goldsmith denied the case was dropped for political reasons, or that he took the decision. "At the time we started military action it was my own considered...view that military action was lawful," he told parliament. "I believe today it was the correct legal position."
Blair's spokesman said the government would review the Official Secrets Act to see if it needed amending.
Gun, who worked at surveillance center GCHQ, said she exposed "illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. government, who attempted to subvert our own security services."
The Observer newspaper said her leaked memo showed America had wanted Britain's help to bug the offices of Security Council members -- Chile, Mexico, Cameroon, Angola, Guinea and Pakistan.
Some diplomats were philosophical. In New York, Spain's U.N. ambassador Innocencio Arias shrugged and said: "Everybody spies on everybody." |
