Secrets Of The HMS Conqueror

Revealed For The First Time: How HMS Conqueror Submarine Which Sank The Belgrano Was Sent On Spy Ship Interception Mission Just Weeks Later -- Daily Mail

* HMS Conqueror was tasked with stealing a two-mile string of hydrophones from a Polish-flagged spy trawler
* It didn't emit a signal and was designed to subtly listen to enemy submarines
* The Anglo-Americans wanted to find out how the enemy had managed to develop it
* The crew got perilously close to the trawler to cut through a three-inch-thick steel cable without being seen

The submarine that sank Argentine warship the Belgrano during the Falklands war was involved in a top secret raid to steal a state-of-the-art listening device from the Russians just weeks later, it has emerged.

Details of the daring mission in the Barents Sea, involving the notorious HMS Conqueror, have remained under-wraps for almost 30 years - until now.

The nuclear-powered attack submarine famously sank the General Belgrano on May 2 1982, killing 323 men, the day the Falklands war began.

Read more ....

Update #1: HMS Conqueror’s biggest secret: a raid on Russia -- The Telegraph
Update #2: Secrets of the Conqueror by Stuart Prebble – review -- The Guardian

My Comment: I wonder if the Russians are only learning about this now?

UK Secret Services Are Too Secret

Secret Services 'Must Be Made More Transparent' -- The Independent

The secret services must become more transparent if they are to halt the spread of damaging conspiracy theories and increase trust in the Government, claims a leading think tank.

A Demos report published today, The Power of Unreason, argues that secrecy surrounding the investigation of events such as the 9/11 New York attacks and the 7/7 bombings in London merely adds weight to unsubstantiated claims that they were "inside jobs".

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My Comment: If these agencies become more transparent .... I guess they will no longer be secret services.

The bottom line is that these agencies are watched and regulated by the politicians that we elect .... after all .... we give them the responsibility to represent us in the oversight committees that regulate the activities of these services, and they become accountable if things go wrong.

As to the assertion that transparency will help in eliminating conspiracy theories .... hmmmm .... this is something that I doubt will happen. Many people still believe that man has never walked on the moon, there was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, that extraterrestrials visiting earth are real, that .... well .... you get the picture.

Who Did U.K. Intelligence Assassinate During The Cold War?

Mr le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell, insisted, however, that there was a huge difference between the ways that Western intelligence agencies and their Soviet bloc counterparts operated during the Cold War Photo: REX FEATURES

John le Carré: 'We Carried Out Assassinations During The Cold War' -- The Telegraph

British intelligence services carried out assassinations during the Cold War, John le Carré, the novelist and former secret agent, has said.

The writer, who worked for both MI5 and MI6 during the 1950s and 1960s, said: ''Certainly we did some very bad things. We did a lot of direct action. Assassinations. Although I was never involved.''

Mr le Carré, whose real name is David Cornwell, insisted, however, that there was a huge difference between the ways that Western intelligence agencies and their Soviet bloc counterparts operated during the Cold War.

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My Comment: If so .... who did we assassinate? Naturally .... John le Carre does not say.

U.K.'s Intelligence Agencies Facing Budget Cuts

British Intelligence HQ

Anti-Terrorism Agencies Prepare For Budget Cuts -- The Telegraph

The intelligence agencies are preparing for the first cuts in their budget for more than a decade as part of the Coalition's austerity drive.

MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are drawing up plans to cope with reduced funding from next year, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

The prospect of cuts in the secret services may cause alarm after intelligence suggested there was a continuing threat of Islamic terrorist attacks in Britain.

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My Comment: I presume the threat level is also going down .... hmmmm .... NOT!

Have Islamic Extremists Been Successful In Infiltrating MI5?

Number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square,
which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. Photo: PA

MI5 Targeted By Islamic Extremists In Rushed Recruitment Drive After July 2005 Attacks On London -- The Telegraph

MI5 is facing questions over whether it recruited up to six al Qaeda sympathisers in the rush to find Islamic recruits in the wake of the worst terrorist attacks on mainland Britain for a generation.

The potential breach occurred as the security services battled to fill an intelligence gap in the wake of the July 7 2005 bombings on London's transport network which resulted in the deaths of 52 people.

The Security Service was desperate to understand why and how four men from Leeds had plotted the attacks to give them a better chance of identifying future threats.

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My Comment: From what has been said publicly by former officials who served in the intelligence services, the impression is that the British have stumbled in their anti-terror strategy and implementation. I like to believe that this is not the case, but Britain has a lousy history of letting in recruits whose interests were different from what were the objectives of Britain's intelligence services.

I lost count on the number of Soviet moles that were found within Britain's intelligence services, and if the British Intelligence culture has deteriorated further .... I could only imagine what has been brought in. What is even more worrisome .... is that in the Al Qaeda "playbook" infiltrating intelligence and military services has always been one of their strategic goals, and if there is one thing that we know about Al Qaeda, is that they are tenacious in meeting their goals.

U.K. Wasted Millions On Intelligence Network, Lawmakers Say

From The Bloomberg:

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government wasted tens of millions of pounds on a failed project to develop a secure computer network linking the main intelligence agencies, a panel of lawmakers said.

Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, the top civil servant, told the Intelligence and Security Committee that plans to extend the use of the system, known as SCOPE, were abandoned when it was discovered it didn’t work effectively across government.

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My Comment: The Brits have definitely changed from the days when Britannia ruled the waves.

Dye Another Gray: UK Spies Getting Older

The headquarters of Britain's secret intelligence service MI6 on the banks of the River Thames in London, are seen in this June 4, 2003, file photo. British lawmakers disclosed Thursday March 5, 2009, that veteran intelligence operatives are being asked to keep working after their usual retirement date to tackle an unrelenting threat from terrorism. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

From Yahoo News/AP:

LONDON – When 007 hits 65, should he be deep-sixed?

No, say British intelligence chiefs, who want their older officers to keep working, even if it means Her Majesty's secret service has spies who hobble in from the cold.

Lawmakers disclosed Thursday that veteran intelligence operatives are being asked to keep working after their usual retirement date to tackle an unrelenting threat from terrorism.

Britain's veteran spies — like all senior government staff — must step down at the age of 65, according to government policy — but are instead being kept in their posts as exceptions to the rule.

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My Comment: British intelligence wrote the book on 20th century intelligence and counter-intelligence. In today's world, the CIA, Russian intelligence .... all of the world's serious intelligence organizations first developed using the template of the U.K.

To see the U.K. intelligence community as a shadow of what it once was .... sigh .... welcome to the 21rst century.