Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from GCHQ insists Hague

GCHQ has not been using a controversial US internet monitoring programme to dodge tough legal checks on their activities, William Hague has insisted.
Foreign Secretary William Hague appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show.Foreign Secretary William Hague appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show.
Foreign Secretary William Hague appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show.

The Foreign Secretary refused to confirm or deny details of the eavesdropping agency’s links to the Prism spy scheme, but said the law-abiding British public had “nothing to fear” from their work.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, he also confirmed he would be making a statement to the Commons on the issue tomorrow.

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Mr Hague said: “As someone who knows GCHQ very well... the idea that in GCHQ people are sitting working out how to circumvent a UK law with another agency in another country is fanciful. It is nonsense.”

The Cabinet Minister declined to confirm that he had personally authorised engagement with the US Prism programme.

But he said checks in place in this country, including reviews of decisions by the Interception Commissioner, were strong.

“That legal framework is strong, that Ministerial oversight is strong,” he said.

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“The net effect is that if you are a law-abiding citizen of this country going about your business and personal life you have nothing to fear about the British state or intelligence agencies listening to the content of your phone calls or anything like that.

“Indeed you will never be aware of all the things that these agencies are doing to stop your identity being stolen or to stop a terrorist blowing you up tomorrow.”

Mr Hague said it would “defeat the object” to reveal how GCHQ or the security services work, because it would help terrorist networks, criminal networks, and foreign intelligence agencies.

“If actually we could tell the whole world, or the whole country how we do this business I think people would be enormously reassured by it and they would see that the law-abiding citizen has nothing to be worried about,” he said. But if we did that it would defeat the object. This is secret work... it is secret for a reason.”

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The existence of the Prism system was disclosed by The Guardian and The Washington Post.

It is said to give America’s National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI easy access to the systems of nine of the world’s top internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Skype.

It was reportedly established in 2007 by President George Bush and renewed last year under Barack Obama to allow surveillance of live communications and stored information on foreigners overseas.

The row crossed the Atlantic after The Guardian said it had seen documents showing that GCHQ had access to the Prism system since at least June 2010.

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Last night the newspaper named a 29-year-old American who works as a contract employee at the NSA as the source of its disclosures. Itsaid it was publishing the identity of Edward Snowden, a former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, at his own request.

“I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” Mr Snowden was quoted as saying.

GCHQ refused to comment directly on the report, but insisted that it operated within a “strict legal and policy framework”.

But Business Secretary Vince Cable said it was possible that the Prism system had allowed the Government to operate a covert “snoopers’ charter”.

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He said there were two key issues: “One is that the Americans have developed this very sophisticated Prism system, which enables them to get access to data in other countries, with or without our knowledge. And there is a separate issue about whether GCHQ were involved in some collaborative exercise,” Mr Cable said.

Comment: Page 10.

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