Subject: [NEXTEL-1] MI5 accused of trying to bug US London embassy]

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2003 13:09:31 -0500

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1076567,00.html

MI5 accused of trying to bug US London embassy

MI5 accused of trying to bug ally

Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday November 3, 2003
The Guardian

MI5 planned to bug the London embassy of one of Britain's allies in the
so-called "war on terror", it was disclosed yesterday.

It was approached by the man in charge of restoring the embassy, a project
which began in 2001, according to Whitehall sources last night.

The initial approach met with no response, so the man went to the CIA, who
suggested he should contact Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, according
to the report.

Eventually MI5 recruited the man, gave him the codename Notation, and
allegedly asked him to bug the embassy and take confidential documents.

It also allegedly planned to take away confidential documents on the pretext
that they would be destroyed by a reputable waste disposal firm.

However, unknown to MI5, the agent had once been sectioned under the Mental
Health Act. Under growing pressure he refused to go ahead with the
operation, and claimed that his MI5 handlers had bungled it.

He has told the embassy concerned, and the US embassy in London, about the
operation. He has also written to Ann Taylor, the MP who chairs the
parliamentary intelligence and security committee.

Whitehall sources refused to comment on the operation yesterday, although it
is clear that it has caused the government acute embarrassment.

"Notation" arranged for MI5 officers posing as his workmates to have
unrestricted access to the embassy, it is claimed.

It is not the first time that the security and intelligence agencies have
recruited people undertaking work in official buildings belonging to foreign
governments. During the cold war they recruited a man installing a central
heating system at the Soviet trade mission in Highgate, north London.

Peter Wright described in his memoir, Spycatcher, how MI5 had bugged allied
embassies in London, as well as the Egyptian embassy during the 1956 Suez
crisis.

A more recent example of western intelligence agencies planning aggressive
operations was disclosed this year: the American national security agency
mounted surveillance of UN security council members while Washington was
trying to win votes in favour of the war on Iraq.

A secret NSA memo suggested bugging the offices and homes of diplomats from
a number of neutral countries. A foreign agency - believed to be the British
GCHQ - was asked for "support" in the operation.

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