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In 2013, the US intelligence agency NSA pressured its British colleagues at GCHQ to actively block the Guardian from publishing Edward Snowden’s revelations. That’s according to a new book by investigative journalist Richard Kerbaj.
The then head of British intelligence, Iain Lobban, refused this request. Lobban would like to maintain good ties with the NSA, but thought intervening in a British newspaper’s reporting was going too far.
Investigative journalist Richard Kerbaj writes in the new book The Secret History of Five Eyes, which appears today, on cooperation between Anglophone intelligence services. Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and the United States combine their activities within “Five Eyes”.
Snowden first worked in 2013 with a limited group of journalists, including the Guardian. Revelations about the NSA’s unprecedented thirst for data have shocked citizens. Intelligence services have had to be more accountable for their investigative work, but at the same time they have been given many new powers.
We have written extensively about Edward Snowden and the impact of his revelations on, among other things, legislation concerning the Dutch intelligence services.
Lobban felt that it was not GCHQ’s job to help mitigate the consequences of an NSA data breach. Then Prime Minister David Cameron was more lenient towards the Americans: this led, among other things, to a mind-blowing visit to the office of the Guardian, where a laptop was destroyed in the basement in the presence of the editor in leader at the time, Alan Rusbridger.
According to Kerbaj, only the British criticized the NSA nets when the Five Eyes met in Australia in late 2013. Other Five Eyes members reportedly feared offending America and losing access to intelligence. More on the Guardian
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