Parliamentary oversight of security and intelligence agencies in the EU

One of the reasons for the lack of posts on this blog the past months is that I co-authored this large study (446 pages), together with Aidan Wills, for the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE). The study came out today, and also includes a number of attachments written by national [...]

Dennis Blair: US intel relationship with brutal countries damages national interest

Quote from the NY Times Dennis C. Blair, the former top American intelligence official, said that while spy services in places like Libya and Egypt were cooperating with the United States against Al Qaeda, they were “aggressively and sometimes brutally suppressing dissent in their own countries.” “Not only did these intelligence relationships interfere with our [...]

Tightening links between the external and internal aspects of EU security

A note from the Hungarian EU presidency to the Standing Committee on operational cooperation on internal security (COSI) describes the desires of the Presidency to tighten the links between the external and internal aspects of EU security.  On the list is: * Enhancing the exchange of personal and strategic information and criminal intelligence between EU [...]

Former CIA and NSA heads on the ‘the need to know’, Wikileaks and increased information sharing

Michael Hayden and Samuel Visner have an open-ed in the Baltimore sun in which they defend wider information sharing, if aided by sound security practices and advanced technology to protect information Vital information sharing need not be a victim of WikiLeaks. The principle of “need to know” requires segmenting information according to sensitivity and topic. [...]

Will Lord Goldsmith become the UK equivalent of John Yoo?

Afua Hirsch seems to suggest so in her comment is free article in The Guardian: As the Guardian revealed yesterday, the UK authorities relied on Bangladeshi intelligence despite well-documented accounts of their use of torture. The then home secretary Jacqui Smith flew to Dhaka for face-to-face meetings with the Bangladeshi authorities. Not only did the [...]

New JSOC centre must oversee growing use of special anti-terrorism operations

AP reports that the Obama administration has ramped up its secret war on terror groups with a new military targeting center to oversee the growing use of special operations strikes against suspected militants in hot spots around the world. Run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command, the new center would be a significant step [...]

U.S. Intel Hub to Counter Islamism In Spain: Cable

The U.S. Embassy in Madrid proposed setting up an intelligence hub in the northeastern region of Catalonia to counter a “major center of radical Islamist activity,” according to a U.S. cable obtained by WikiLeaks and published Saturday by the newspaper El Pais. The cable, dated October 2, 2007, said U.S. and Spanish authorities had identified [...]

US views on Tunisia and its counter-terrorism policies

Several released cables offer a detailed view on how the US embassy saw Tunisia. The embassy calls Tunisia a ‘police state’ with little freedom of expression or association, and serious human rights problems.Cable 09TUNIS492 gives the following description of the relationship between Tunisia and the U.S. Tunisia is not an ally today, but we still [...]

EU Council conclusions on information sharing on changes in the national threat level

The Council on 2-3 December 2010 approved the Council conclusions on information sharing on changes in the national threat level, as set out in annex. The Council requests Member states to (1) inform each other of any change in their national threat level, as reflected where appropriate by the national alert level, as soon as [...]

Al-Qaida terrorist’s appeal argues that Britain was complicit in his torture

The Guardian reports that a man convicted of serious terrorism offences is to launch an appeal against his conviction today on the grounds that the British government was complicit in the torture he suffered before being put on trial. Rangzieb Ahmed, 35, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was convicted two years ago of directing a terrorist [...]