US website names MI6 officers

[sabra]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1553993,00.html

US website names MI6 officers

Monday August 22, 2005
The Guardian

An American website posted what it purported to be the names of 74 members of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, yesterday.
It was not clear last night what action British intelligence officials or lawyers will take to try to get the names taken off the website and prevent further dissemination of them. However, they are likely to conduct a damage limitation exercise and warn those individuals who have been identified. Eighteen of those named on the website have held the rank of ambassador.

....

The website lists the names under a message thanking someone who it refers to simply as "A".

It is not the first time names claimed to be of former or serving MI6 officers have been posted on an American website. About six years ago, the former MI6 officer, Richard Tomlinson, was alleged to have given a long list of names to a website address. Mr Tomlinson, who was jailed for breaking the Official Secrets Act, denied the allegation.

....

In America it is an offence to deliberately reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent. A grand jury investigation was launched after the identification of CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose name was given to several journalists by an unnamed source in the US government in 2003. A New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, was jailed recently for refusing to reveal the identity of the source.

[Rex]

1. Wow

Just wow.

[DS1]

2. Sounds like either a thread to go into Iran, or payback for the first

bullshit war. Which, of course, means absolutely nothing, but someone had to say it.

[nashville_brook]

3. i wonder what the website is. n/t

[evermind]

13. It's cryptome.org. A little more info (from my post in UK forum)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x8809

The website they mean, of course, is cryptome.org ( http://cryptome.org/mi6-list2.htm ) but they might also have meant groups.google.com, since the cryptome page references a post ( http://groups.google.com/group/uk.politics.parliament/browse_frm/thread/28f79e92fa548911/530bd2817d91fe99?hl=en#530bd2817d91fe99 ) to the uk.politics.parliament newsgroup, originally sent from a yahoo account, as the source of the new list.

The original 1999 list mentioned in the Grauniad's story is still hosted at cryptome, at http://cryptome.org/mi6-list.htm . Tomlinson has always denied being the source of that list, which was originally published by LaRouche outlet Executive Intelligence Review which (it is alleged) has been used by British intelligence services to circulate disinformation in the past.

(Edit: correct google link)

[Ian David]

4. It could also be a hoax, I hope. n/t

[Tummler]

5. I think I know that website ...

http://www.karlrove.net

[derby378]

9. Already pulled (n/t)

[Tummler]

15. I was only joking, anyway ...

:hi:

[Burried News]

6. Somebody is retaliating - who and why?

Is this payback for the DSM leak. It looks like one faction outing another. Or one country outing another?

[Burried News]

7. Other stories by same author:

http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/N_folder/norton-taylor.html

[Theduckno2]

10. I think you're on to something there.

The DSM leak was crippling to the Bush legacy and I suppose retaliation is not out of the question.

I think it's just disgusting. I realize that MI6 probably has had its share of dubious (putting it mildly) operations, akin to our CIA, but remember that they are probably responsible for WMD proliferation intel and intel on international terrorists. We will never know the amount of damage done to intelligence gathering on WMD proliferation that the Plame outing caused.

I'm all for more oversight of the intel agencies, but let them go about their work in secrecy. I for one, do not need to see those names.

[jim3775]

8. Self delete

Screw it, I dont want to get into hot water for my post.

[Burried News]

11. The AIPAC FBI thing probably has them on edge.

But 18 Ambassadors and 74 people - this is a big payback. You would think there would be a warning shot first?
Do the Israeli's see this as a step to establish a Palestinian State with Hamas recognized as a political party?
My feeling it is somebody else.

Why out them in the US? Would Britain spy on US?
There is no mention of this in Haaretz or at the BBC.

[Theduckno2]

12. The plot thickens, good posting!

It seems reasonable that these leaks don't usually happen without a cause and although the DSM leak was my first guess, your post has got me thinking differently.
It's still a disgusting thing to do, regardless of who did it, and I know I don't want to see the names.

edit: I respect your cautious self delete.

[jsamuel]

14. Maybe these are the British versions of Brewster Jennings and Plame

Maybe they were investigating the same selling of weapons through companies tied to Bush/Cheney/et al

[beetbox]

16. Dirty Business all of it- Dirty Wars

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes...known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few…No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
– James Madison, Political Observations, 1795