Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office to ensure intelligence and government services act within new law

Among organisations overseen by the IPCO are the government’s monitoring agency GCHQ, MI5, MI6, the National Crime Agency, all police forces, the Serious Fraud Office, HM Revenue and Customs, local authorities, prisons and government departments.

The body replaces the work of the previously separate surveillance commissioner, interception of communications commissioner and intelligence services commissioner.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/01/uk-surveillance-and-spying-watchdog-begins-work

An alleged British secret agent in the IRA who is accused of being linked to at least 20 murders while working for military intelligence could be charged with perjury for denying in court he was a spy, a senior UK police officer has told the Guardian.

Stakeknife, whose real name is believed to be Freddie Scappaticci, was the IRA’s chief spy catcher and received £80,000 each year as one of Britain’s most important agents within the terror group. It is alleged that his army and police handlers turned a blind eye to murders in order to promote their agent inside the IRA’s ranks.

Police are now investigating the person known as Stakeknife as part of Operation Kenova, a £35m investigation into his alleged role as an agent working for military intelligence within the IRA’s internal security department also known in Irish republican circles as “the nutting squad”.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/21/stakeknife-could-face-perjury-charges-says-senior-police-officer

MI5 reportedly opened a file on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn amid concerns over his willingness to enter into dialogue with members of the IRA.

The security agency is believed to routinely keep files on people of interest, including political activists and campaigners. Archived documents have revealed Mr Corbyn attended several events supporting the militant Republicans during the 1980s and 1990s.

An unnamed source reportedly told The Telegraph: “If there was a file on someone, it meant they had come to notice. We opened a temporary file and did a preliminary investigation. It was then decided whether we should open a permanent file on them.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said they could neither confirm nor deny who M15 kept files on in the interests of national security.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mi5-jeremy-corbyn-files-kept-ira-sympathies-a7745966.html

RELEASE: MI5/CIA's smart TV malware bug manual classified UK EYES ONLY SECRET STRAP 2 #Vault7 https://t.co/OO59OGbrgx pic.twitter.com/9wLZ6cO0ae— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 21, 2017

Today, April 21st 2017, WikiLeaks publishes the User Guide for CIA's "Weeping Angel" tool - an implant designed for Samsung F Series Smart Televisions. Based on the "Extending" tool from MI5/BTSS, the implant is designed to record audio from the built-in microphone and egress or store the data.

The classification marks of the User Guide document hint that is was originally written by the MI5/BTSS and later shared with the CIA. Both agencies collaborated on the further development of the malware and coordinated their work in Joint Development Workshops.

https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#Weeping%20Angel

Martin Ingram, co-author of "Stakeknife: Britain's secret agents in Ireland" and Kevin Fulton, author of "Unsung Hero" join Alex Jones to talk about British state involvement in IRA/loyalist atrocities for decades during the troubles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6LK43SO_vQ

A Top-secret US unmanned drone used to locate Al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan and Afghanistan could soon be patrolling over British cities to search for hidden terror cells.

The controversial move would allow MI5 and GCHQ, the Government's eavesdropping centre, to step up surveillance operations over the UK. Until now, the £23million Global Hawk aircraft has not been available for foreign sale.

However, US policy has been quietly changed and Britain is now negotiating to buy the drones.

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MI5 used hidden electronic surveillance equipment to secretly monitor 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet and at least five Prime Ministers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The extraordinary disclosure comes despite a succession of parliamentary statements that no such bugging ever took place.

And it follows a behind-the-scenes row in which senior Whitehall civil servants – backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown – attempted to suppress the revelation.

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The wife of an IRA informer has launched a High Court bid for permission to sue a man alleged to have been the highest-ranking British agent within the Provisionals.

Lawyers for Margaret Keeley want to be allowed to name west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci as a co-defendant in her damages claim against the Chief Constable.

Scappaticci, 64, denies allegations that he was the military spy codenamed Stakeknife.

Mrs Keeley, whose husband is the one-time MI5 agent known as Kevin Fulton, has issued proceedings against the police for alleged wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

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Having battled Islamic extremists, Irish Republican terrorists and Russian spies, some of the veteran intelligence officers of MI5 are encountering a foe they cannot master: information technology.

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Daniel Houghton, 25, was caught in a sting operation after allegedly approaching a foreign intelligence agency offering to sell them information he had collected while working for the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6.

The files, which belonged to the domestic security service MI5, allegedly related to the capabilities of the security and intelligence services and the techniques they have developed to gather intelligence, sources said, and were labeled “top secret” and “secret.”

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Documents reveal Italian dictator got start in politics in 1917 with help of £100 weekly wage from MI5

For the British intelligence agency, it must have seemed like a good investment. Mussolini, then a 34-year-old journalist, was not just willing to ensure Italy continued to fight alongside the allies in the first world war by publishing propaganda in his paper. He was also willing to send in the boys to "persuade'' peace protesters to stay at home.

Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who discovered details of the deal struck with the future dictator, said: "Britain's least reliable ally in the war at the time was Italy after revolutionary Russia's pullout from the conflict. Mussolini was paid £100 a week from the autumn of 1917 for at least a year to keep up the pro-war campaigning – equivalent to about £6,000 a week today."

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Just another crazy conspiracy theory? But, amid claims he wrote tell-all book that vanished after his death, it's one that refuses to go away

By Sue Reid

The day Dr David Kelly took a short walk to his death in the Oxfordshire countryside, an unopened letter lay on the desk of his book-lined study.

Sent from the heart of the British Government, the pages were marked 'personal' and threatened the world-renowned microbiologist with the sack if he ever publicly opened his mouth again.

The letter remained unopened for the seven days during the drama that would pitch Dr Kelly into the spotlight and end in his death at just 59.

No one has ever explained why the eminent scientist and UN weapons inspector did not open the letter, but everyone close to him is convinced he knew its contents.

It was designed to silence him because his Ministry of Defence bosses had discovered that not only was he secretly talking to journalists, but was also preparing to write an explosive book about his work.

It was six years ago , on July 17, 2003, that Dr Kelly was found dead under a tree on Harrowdown Hill half a mile from his family home in Southmoor. His fate has become one of the most contentious issues of recent political history and has raised profound questions about the moral integrity of the New Labour government.

The questions of why and how he died - and if he was murdered - have never gone away.

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Tony Blair knew of a secret interrogation policy which effectively led to British citizens being tortured in counter-terrorism investigations, it was claimed yesterday.

The policy was devised after 9/11 and offered guidance to MI5 and MI6 agents questioning detainees in Afghanistan that they knew were being mistreated by the U.S. military.

The British intelligence officers were given written instructions that they could not 'be seen to condone' torture and must not 'engage in any activity yourself that involves inhumane or degrading treatment of prisoners'.

But they were also told they had no obligation to prevent any detainees from being mistreated.

Tony Blair 'knew of secret policy that allowed torture of Britons' »»