Dear Editor,
“We would want a response because we believe that MI5 and Scotland Yard are not satellites above the British Government,” was how Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan responded to the alleged bugging of the Pakistani High Commission in the United Kingdom during 2001. A similar report in the British media during 2007, said Indian intelligence clumsily bugged British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s hotel room in Delhi during the British Prime Minister’s visit to India during 2001. The report contends that Blair’s entourage found the eavesdropping devices, but decided not to make a fuss.
Embassies and diplomatic missions have through the ages been prime targets for espionage. A recent associated press news release stated that Egypt had since freed Iranian diplomat Qassem al-Husseini after arresting him on allegations of spying. Egyptian State Security Agency says the suspect collected sensitive information in order to “harm the interest of Egypt.“ The recent revelation that former Commissioner of Police Winston Felix had approached the United States Embassy during his tenure for assistance to have his office checked for eavesdropping devices tells of the lengths some would go to pursue their nefarious objectives.
More troubling though, is the fact that the police and perhaps the Joint Services do not have a ‘competent’ technical surveillance countermeasure (TSCM) technician to perform those functions.
This has implications for our national security.
Yours faithfully,
Clairmont Featherstone
