VINCE Cable has called for "proper political oversight" of the intelligence services in the wake of disclosures about the collection of communications data by the Government's secret eavesdropping station GCHQ.
The Business Secretary said The Guardian newspaper had performed "a very considerable public service" in publishing secret material leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, which revealed the extent of mass surveillance programmes operated by the US National Security Agency and Cheltenham-based GCHQ. He confirmed reports that Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was seeking a rethink of how politicians oversee the intelligence service.
Mr Cable's comments came as a senior Whitehall security expert said the Snowden leaks amounted to the "most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever".
Sir David Omand, the former head of GCHQ, said the leak of files by the former US intelligence operative eclipsed the Cambridge spy ring, which saw five students recruited as Soviet spies.
Earlier this week, MI5 head Andrew Parker said the Snowden leaks were a "gift" to terrorists. His comments sparked criticism in some quarters of The Guardian's decision to give Snowden publicity.
But Mr Cable defended the newspaper, saying: "I think The Guardian has done a very considerable public service. The conclusion that Nick Clegg came to and set out this morning is that we do need to have proper political oversight of the intelligence service and arguably we haven't done until now.
"What they did as journalists was entirely correct and right. Mr Snowden is a different kettle of fish."
Aides to the Deputy Prime Minister told The Guardian that Mr Clegg was considering how to update the legal oversight of Britain's security services.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article