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 <title>open Democracy News Analysis - Intelligence and Security Committee leaves public in the dark, SpyBlog  - Comments</title>
 <link>http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/spyblog/2008/07/16/intelligence-and-security-committee-leaves-public-in-the-dark</link>
 <description>Comments for &quot;Intelligence and Security Committee leaves public in the dark, SpyBlog &quot;</description>
 <language>en</language>
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 <title>Stonemason on &quot;Intelligence and Security Committee leaves public in the dark&quot;</title>
 <link>http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/spyblog/2008/07/16/intelligence-and-security-committee-leaves-public-in-the-dark#comment-464415</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;
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Proposition ..... &amp;quot;Perhaps the Intelligence Agencies do not trust the rest of Whitehall .............. etc.&amp;quot;
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&lt;p&gt;
Lets be considered in a response to the proposition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thinking ............still thinking ........... thought it through ........
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&lt;p&gt;
Would you trust Whitehall with SECRET information?
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</description>
 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:20:44 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Stonemason</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">comment 464415 at http://www.opendemocracy.net</guid>
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<item>
 <title>Intelligence and Security Committee leaves public in the dark, SpyBlog </title>
 <link>http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/spyblog/2008/07/16/intelligence-and-security-committee-leaves-public-in-the-dark</link>
 <description>&lt;p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://p10.hostingprod.com/@spyblog.org.uk/blog/&quot;&gt;SpyBlog&lt;/a&gt; (London):&lt;/strong&gt; We would have liked to have been able to comment on the latest &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/intelligence/annual_reports.aspx&quot; target=&quot;_iscr&quot; title=&quot;Intelligence and Security Committee reports - new window&quot;&gt;Intelligence and Security Committee&amp;#39;s Annual report&lt;/a&gt;, which &lt;strong&gt;appears to have been leaked&lt;/strong&gt;, at least in part to The Guardian newspaper, but it does not yet appear to be online on the Cabinet Office website.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
The Guardian is running a story on the cancellation of phase 2 of the delayed  SCOPE intelligence sharing computer system: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/16/terrorism&quot; target=&quot;_th&quot; title=&quot;The Guardian - Multimillion pound security project shelved by ministers - new window&quot;&gt;Multimillion pound security project shelved by ministers&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;
Perhaps the Intelligence Agencies do not trust the rest of Whitehall with their intelligence sources, and do not want SCOPE to be rolled out to thousands of people.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
The House of Commons is &lt;a href=&quot;http://services.parliament.uk/calendar/2008/07/17/events.html&quot; target=&quot;_pc&quot; title=&quot;House of Commons business Thursday 17th July 2008 - new window&quot;&gt;due to debate&lt;/a&gt; the (usually heavily censored) Intelligence and Security Committee&amp;#39;s Annual Report tomorrow, Thursday 17th July 2008, but obviously the general public are not to be allowed to participate, or to lobby their Members of Parliament ahead of the debate.
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			&lt;em&gt;Thursday 17 July 2008&lt;br /&gt;
			&lt;/em&gt;
			&lt;/p&gt;
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			&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
			[...]&lt;br /&gt;
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			&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
			Motion: to approve resolutions relating to the Intelligence and Security Committee&lt;br /&gt;
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			&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
			Debate: on the Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report 2007-08&lt;br /&gt;
			&lt;/em&gt;
			&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
			&lt;em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
			[...]&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;
How does leaking details from this (censored) Annual report, only to favoured mainstream media journalists, ahead of the supposedly informed debate in the House of Commons, but not making it available to the public via the world wide web, give the impression of anything other than media spin and a deliberate attempt to hide bad news ?
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
This is &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; acceptable behavior for a Parliamentary Committee which is supposed to perform some sort of independent scrutiny on behalf of the public, but who seem instead to collude with the Executive branch of Government and the bureaucracy, in keeping as much information as possible from the general public, and even from other Members of Parliament.
&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
 <comments>http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/spyblog/2008/07/16/intelligence-and-security-committee-leaves-public-in-the-dark#comment</comments>
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 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:53:37 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>SpyBlog</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">45451 at http://www.opendemocracy.net</guid>
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