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Are the West's Secrets Safe in the Hands of Britain's Politicians?

Jamie Dettmer

   Are the West's secrets safe in the hands of Britain's politicians?

   It is a question Britain's intelligence officers are asking themselves
   -- so, too, their counterparts in the 'Five Eyes' intelligence-sharing
   relationship that includes the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
   It's a tie-up that's been called the most successful espionage alliance
   in history.

   Not since the 1970s, when some British MI5 officers thought Labour
   Party leader Harold Wilson, who won four general elections, and his
   most trusted advisers were KGB assets have Britain's spooks been so
   uneasy about their political masters. The worries about Wilson and his
   aides at that time provoked treasonous plots by conservative-leaning
   rogue elements of the security agencies, which even drew in members of
   Britain's royal family.

   As Britain heads into its most consequential election possibly in the
   last 100 years, a vote that will determine whether Britain will leave
   the European Union or not, fears are mounting within the country's
   security circles that Britons can't trust their own leaders. This
   includes both those at the top of the country's main opposition Labour
   Party as well as among the ruling Conservatives, a party once
   synonymous with Queen and Country.

   For the past year, a former head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency,
   Richard Dearlove, has led a chorus of intelligence warnings about
   Jeremy Corbyn, widely seen as Labour's most leftwing leader since the
   1920s, and his clique of advisers. Last month, Dearlove said in a TV
   interview he was "troubled" by Corbyn's "past associations," sparking a
   furious reaction from senior Labour lawmakers, who warned of 'deep
   state' meddling.

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