MI6 Chief Addresses Terrorism, Iraq, Iran, Torture in First Public Speech

Sir John Sawers, chief of Britain’s MI6 secret service since June, made his first public speech, addressing the need for secrecy, the role covert intelligence-gathering played in Iraq and Iran, and the UK secret service's position on torture.

The speech is the first by the chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the service’s 100-year history. Until 1994, the British government did not formally acknowledge SIS even existed.

Sawers spoke, he said, because of public interest in the SIS, which played an essential role in the recently published British National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Sawers wanted to assure the British public that SIS operatives were accountable, though secretive.

“Let me say this SIS is a service which reflects our country. Integrity is the first of the service’s values and I am confident that, in their efforts to keep Britain safe, all SIS staff acted with utmost integrity a close eye on basic decency and moral principles,” Sawyer said in a BBC video clip.

 

No Secrecy, No Safety

Sawers explained that secrecy is a necessary part of intelligence-gathering, not a cover-up of unsavoury activities.

“Secrecy is not a dirty word. Secrecy is not there as a cover up. Secrecy plays a crucial part in keeping Britain safe and secure,” in a text of the speech in the UK Guardian.

“Without secrecy, there would be no intelligence services, or indeed other national assets like our Special Forces. Our nation would be more exposed as a result.”

Despite more being known about MI6 now than ever before, Sawers said the workings of the SIS needed to remain secret. In effect, he asked the British people to trust MI6 to do the right thing in the best interest of the safety of the nation.

 

Terrorism, Iraq, Iran

“Most people go about their daily work not worrying about the risk of a terrorist attack. That a bomb may have been planted on their route, or hostages might be seized. I'm glad they don't worry about those sorts of things: part of our job is to make people feel safe.

“But those threats exist,” Sawers said. “Over a third of SIS resources are directed against international terrorism. It's the largest single area of SIS's work.”

The UK government is currently holding hearings in the “7/7” incident, when four suicide bombers set off explosive devices in the London Underground, killing 52 people on July 7, 2005. Sawers used this attack to justify the need for constant secret surveillance.

Sawers also emphasized that intelligence failures led to problems with dealing with Iraq. Britain was a strong supporter of the United States in invading Iraq because of supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction, which it turns out never existed.

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