UK's Part-Time Intelligence Watchdog Thinks Twice-Yearly Inspection Of Spy Services 'Sufficient'
from the satisfied dept
As Techdirt discussed back in March, oversight of the UK’s intelligence services is essentially one person, working part-time, one of whose techniques for establishing whether everything is being conducted according to the rules and the law is to take the word of the heads of the services that it is. The Right Honorable Sir Mark Waller — for it is him — has now issued his annual report on the UK’s Intelligence Services (pdf). Despite Snowden’s revelations of massively-intrusive spying on the entire UK population, and much of the world besides, Waller apparently doesn’t feel that he needs to change the way he does things:
When I first took up my role I was concerned that twice yearly inspections and a sample of warrants might not be sufficient. However, taking into account the method of my review as set out in Chapter 2, the robust and rigorous internal compliance tests and assurances, and the culture and ethos of the intelligence services, I am satisfied that it is sufficient.
Here’s a sample of his general attitude to the services he is supposed to be watching over:
The same ethos of honesty and integrity run through the service whether at Head Office or overseas. Having interviewed officers posted to these stations I was satisfied that they had no desire to act otherwise than in accordance with UK law and standards.
Perhaps because of that touching faith in the “honesty and integrity” of the UK’s spies, Waller sees no problem with statements such as the following:
I required the Home Office to provide me with a list of every new warrant issued since the last list was produced, and all extant or cancelled warrants, as well as any warrants which may have been refused by the Home Secretary. The list set out the type of operation with notes on each case. The list of warrants issued by the Home Office and the list I received from MI5 corresponded. I was satisfied that both had provided a full and complete list.
He may well have been “satisfied”, but how could he know the list was “full and complete”? And how can he exclude the possibility that there were operations carried out illicitly, without warrants? Since they wouldn’t be on any list, he would naturally be unable to spot their absence. Despite this pervasive complacency, there are one or two signs that Edward’s Snowden’s string of revelations have at least raised questions in Waller’s mind. For example, there is an entire chapter entitled “Media Allegations”, where we read:
I have discussed with all three intelligence services [MI5, MI6 and GCHQ] the impact of the revelations made by Edward Snowden. The heads of each agency clearly set out during the public evidence session before the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) on 7 November 2013 how alerting targets and adversaries to UK capabilities means that it becomes more difficult to acquire the intelligence that this country needs. The agencies provided me with clear evidence to substantiate this. In the interests of national security, I am not in a position to give further detail in my open report.
What’s interesting here is that Waller doesn’t even try to address the central issues raised by Snowden’s leaks concerning massive and disproportionate surveillance by the UK; all he says is that the heads of the services offered evidence that revealing details would make it harder to carry out spying — possibly true, but irrelevant.
Another tiny sign that even the UK’s intelligence watchdog is slightly concerned by what Snowden has told us is the following note in the report:
I have recommended to all the agencies that separate consideration be given to the individual privacy being invaded as part of the test for proportionality. In all cases I want to see this set out separately in the application for these intrusive techniques and to see this wording reflected in the warrants.
Of course, that recommendation is completely toothless: the UK’s spy agencies can simply claim that they have “considered” privacy issues before merrily spying on everyone as before.
All-in-all, the Intelligence Services Commissioner’s report gives the impression of someone doing their best to provide scrutiny of the UK’s spying activities, but hopelessly out of their depth in the digital world. The report is focused on traditional warrants, and on whether they contain errors — usually minor clerical ones. It ignores the larger question of whether the warrant system is adequate to address things like GCHQ’s Tempora program, which is capable of downloading, storing and analyzing huge quantities of the world’s Internet traffic, or the recently-revealed interception of all the UK’s Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube traffic using the legal fiction that these are “external communications“.
Moreover, even in the unlikely event that the Right Honorable Sir Mark Waller woke up one day with a burning desire to scrutinize these kinds of activities, it seems unlikely he would be able to do so on the basis of a twice-yearly inspection.
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Filed Under: gchq, inspection, mark waller, surveillance, trust, uk, watchdog
Comments on “UK's Part-Time Intelligence Watchdog Thinks Twice-Yearly Inspection Of Spy Services 'Sufficient'”
Efficient!
That’s considerably more efficient than our Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which involves paying quite a few people to sit around full-time taking the word of the heads of the services.
Since it’s now clear that the job can be done just as well by just one person working part-time, perhaps we should fire everyone but Dianne Feinstein and cut back her hours and pay? 🙂
Re: Efficient!
In a move complementing NSA developments, I would suggest replacing the Intelligence Watchdog with a life-size cardboard Luc Picard.
More would be useless, since the spy-agencies know we’re coming, less would expose the oversight for what it really is: window-dressing.
Re: Re:
The oversight has already been exposed for what it is. 😉
Seems to me a wall would do a better job at being a watchdog.
Re: Re:
The constitutions of purportedly free countries are walls. The watchdog is needed for detecting erosion and blowing the horn on it.
A Parallel Experiment with your Daughter
1. Check-Up Twice a year on her.
2. Gettin Fat, we’ll email her some supliment spam.
3. Gettin Pregnanat we’ll email her some raffle tickets for a condom.
I think Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickenson had it when he sung dat tune, bring me your daughter bring me your daughter to the slaughter.. and I forget…. I forget …. the rest of the words.
yeah the sheriff Of HUddersfield BUUUUUURRRRRRRRPPPPPPP!!!! replace with FFFFFAAAAAAAARRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT!
we’re on a mission from Agenda 21….
allow me to fix that headline for'ya...
Fox thinks chicken coop security is ‘Great!’
another bone idle, uppercrust twat who hasn’t got a clue what’s going on and has no intention of trying to find out! goes to show what he and the rest of his kind think of the UK population and many of the other country’s that are equally as spied on!
Re: Re:
It does sound like his parents were adherents of tradition, and firmly believed that the best way to ensure the intellectual superiority of the upper class was for siblings to marry.
Its a job...
Methinks t’would be very interesting to learn how much this man is paid yearly for his twice a year morality synopsis of the world’s second nosiest eavesdroppers’ global surveillance activities.
It would also be interesting, I’d think, to learn what he does for the other 363 days of the year.