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By Daniel McGrory and Andrew Pierce
BRITISH diplomats in Brussels head the list of envoys who are being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies, according to a leaked Foreign and Commonwealth Office document seen by The Times.
Security experts have warned senior diplomats in the Belgian capital that their e-mails may be intercepted and homes may be bugged, and that counter-surveillance “sweeps” are unlikely to succeed.
British diplomats in Bosnia and Pakistan have also been told that they are being spied upon by supposedly friendly governments, according to the document.
Concern is now so great that one of the officials in charge of Foreign Office security has cautioned envoys that the departments information technology systems are under attack and that routine e-mails to and from Whitehall could no longer be regarded as safe. Diplomats have been told that every message they send must be delivered on a secure system after one foreign government took offence at an e-mail that its agents had secretly and illegally intercepted.
The envoys at risk include the three British ambassadors in Brussels who deal respectively with the EU, Nato and the host Belgian Government, and those at the British Embassy in Sarajevo and the High Commission in Islamabad.
The new generation of spies believe they will learn far more secrets from eavesdropping on diplomats homes rather than trying to bug formal meetings at embassy buildings.
These security lapses were only discovered after ministers ordered an urgent review following the bomb attack on the British Consulate in Istanbul last November. As well as the threat from terrorist bombers, the investigators found evidence of espionage leaks.
The document seen by The Times details how Peter Millett, the head of the security strategy unit at the Foreign Office, discussed the latest spying operations last month with leaders of the Diplomatic Service Association, which represents 650 of Britains senior envoys.
The revelation comes weeks after Clare Short, the former Cabinet minister, claimed Britain was spying on Kofi Annan, the UN SecretaryGeneral, and MI5 was accused of bugging the Pakistani High Commission in London. So far, the Foreign Office has not made any public protest to the three countries named in the report.
The Foreign Office and other departments have secure systems in their buildings but staff often fail to use them when routinely sending e-mails.
There is also evidence of how spies are listening into conversations between senior envoys and visiting ministers, believing British officials and their government guests might speak more freely over dinner or drinks in the residence than they might during formal embassy briefings.
MI5 officers were sent to Brussels to investigate the bugging of offices used by British diplomats in the EU Council of Ministers building.
The Russians and the Israelis were suspected of planting sophisticated bugs in the offices of six EU delegations, including Britain, which were discovered last May.
There were also accusations last summer that the Pakistani authorities tried to bug the British High Commissioners office when a stray wire was found trailing from his desk.
The Foreign Office said of these latest spying allegations: We do not comment on leaked documents.
The reaction of foreign diplomats in Britain was summed up by one veteran envoy in London, who said: It would be a bit rich for Britain to take the high moral ground about being spied on by friends after their alleged behaviour at the UN.
March 24, 2004 at 12:17 AM in Espionage - general | Permalink | TrackBack (33) | Top of page | Blog Home