Declassified UK obtains first evidence of the environmental footprint of Britain’s surveillance agency, GCHQ, which shows its staff are flying nearly three times more than the average Briton annually, raising questions about the scale of its global base network, which has never been officially acknowledged.
On the centenary of Ireland’s partition, Northern Ireland is changing. But the lessons from its recent violent ‘dirty war’, in which British agents colluded in killings, risk being ignored by the current British government.
A shocking story of how a special squad of Britain’s Metropolitan Police, in collusion with MI5 – the domestic ‘security’ service – secretly infiltrated hundreds of UK political and campaign groups, and the question of whether the spying continues. As told by Asa Winstanley, who has personal experience.
The new ‘authorised history’ of GCHQ, Britain’s largest intelligence agency, ignores or simply dismisses its most controversial activities as supposed scandals, giving a thoroughly one-sided account of the spy agency.
The official inquiry into the 2017 Manchester bombing has yet to probe the links between the terrorist, Salman Abedi, and UK covert action during the 2011 war in Libya – yet there is no point in the inquiry unless it asks difficult questions the British establishment would rather avoid.
Internal emails from GCHQ show the organisation decided it ‘will not be engaging further’ with Matt Kennard, Declassified’s head of investigations, the day he published what the agency privately disparaged as a ‘negative long-read’ about its secretive schools programme.
Britain’s largest intelligence agency, GCHQ, is refusing to publish details of its bases in Oman, where it is believed to operate three surveillance sites.
Three intelligence officers tell Declassified UK that Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, tracked and arranged the arrest of Michael Adebolajo in Kenya, contradicting MI6’s testimony to two intelligence oversight reviews.
The need for proper scrutiny of the UK’s security and intelligence agencies, such as MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the military’s special forces, is becoming increasingly urgent. A number of practical measures would make these agencies more transparent and accountable to the public.
US and Kenyan diplomatic and intelligence officials tell Declassified UK why the CIA set up a covert paramilitary counter-terror team, how it flies recruits to the US for special training, and why Britain helps gather intelligence on targets.