14 DAY TRIAL // It’s possible that the British authorities have exaggerated the threat posed to national security by the NSA leaks, a former lord chancellor said.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton told the Guardian that he was skeptical of claims made by the chiefs of the GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 that the leaks are putting the country at risk and criticized the attempts to paint the Guardian into an “enemy of the state.”
“I am aware that the three heads of the agencies said what has been published has set back the fight against terrorism for years. Sir John Sawers said al-Qaida would be rubbing their hands with glee. This is in the context of maybe 850,000 people literally having access to this material,” Falconer told the newspaper.
The official believes it is inconceivable that the intelligence agencies in the United States and United Kingdom did not consider the possibility of their secrets getting out. “I am skeptical that the revelations about the broad picture have necessarily done the damage that is being asserted,” he said.
He also defended the newspapers handling the leaks, saying that as far as he’s seen, the Guardian and the New York Times have taken care to avoid any individual operative or operation so they don’t endanger lives, as per Snowden’s explicit request.
The high-ranking official also questioned the techniques used by the GHCQ to collect data. Although he is a supporter of the intelligence agencies, he believes there are now important questions about whether or not the UK’s legal framework for oversight of the intelligence services’ work in relation to the interception of communications works well.
“What the NSA data reveals is in effect bulk – and I use this word advisedly – surveillance. What the agency chiefs were saying to the ISC appeared to be in relation to that communications data: it is the way that we create the haystack within which we look for the needle,” Falconer also said.