This news item says that France might very well have bugged the UK Defence Minister’s office.
Unfortunately, I am having trouble confirming it. Most of the stuff I’m finding online just refers back to that single article.
Did France bug the office of a major UK minister? I would if I were them!
(Hat tip to The Last of the Few.)
Well, let us hope we return the compliment. However, I should be a little wary of Patrick Mercer and his “security” sources.
There’s an old saying that intelligence agencies have no allies. Its the agencies job to create the most accurate picture of events as possible and doing so requires knowing the secret deliberations of allies as well as enemies.
France specifically has a long history of very “realistic” intelligence actions.
I would expect our (American) intel to be fully aware of what our allies and our enemies are up to…we bug and we get bugged.
I don’t mind the French bugging us – they can keep a secret. But if the Yanks do it, China and Israel know the next day. N’est-ce pas?
How’s so, DM? Thru omnipresent Israeli Lobby, no doubt. And then who knows what those scary Israelis are going to do with the info…invade UK, probably.
I don’t mind the French bugging us – they can keep a secret.
That’s funny. I remember getting a security brief at my last duty station where the counterintel folks said that the Brits and Canadians could be trusted with almost anything other than NOFORN stuff, but that anything we told French officers would show up in everyone’s inbox. A friend who was in the military in the early ’60s said that things haven’t changed since then.