Cold Comfort
Incredibly, it appears that poisoned umbrellas have given way to poisoned sushi….plus ca change.
Watching the magnificent escapism of the film Casino Royale at the weekend, I could not help but recall my own non-involvement with the security services. There was a don in my college at Cambridge who allegedly did the recruiting (no, the Soviet recruiting was many years before!). Several of my friends were invited to his rooms to discuss their future over a glass of sherry. I never was – much to my then disappointment.
After the end of the Cold War, intelligence gathering became increasingly dependent on sophisticated technology like high vision photography. Regrettably, human intelligence gathering in some of the recent hotspots has been virtually non-existent. In this vacuum, hugely misleading information was dispensed about Saddam Hussein’s capabilities by certain Iraqi exiles.
Our intelligence services are now vitally important again, as we confront new forms of terrorism. They need adequate resourcing but what they also need to know is that politicians will never again bend their assessments to justify the politicians’ objectives. If we are to deploy our armed forces again based on intelligence assessments, the British people must be assured that these assessments are totally unspun.