Posted on 07/05/2009 11:17:45 AM PDT by Schnucki
The wife of the new head of Britain's spy agency posted pictures of her husband, family and friends on Internet networking site Facebook, prompting astonishment among security experts and calls for an enquiry.
Sir John Sawers was appointed last month to take over as head of the Secret Intelligence Service in November. The agency, popularly known as M16, has emerged from the shadows in recent years but its employees are still bound by strict secrecy rules.
In what the Mail on Sunday called an "extraordinary lapse", the new spy chief's wife, Lady Shelley Sawers, posted family pictures and details of where they live and take their holidays and who their friends and relatives are.
The details could be viewed by any of the many millions of Facebook users around the world, but were swiftly removed once authorities were alerted by the newspaper's enquiries.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband made light of the incident. He denied there had been any security breach and gave the incoming spy chief his full support.
"It's not a state secret that he wears speedo swimming trunks. For goodness' sake, let's grow up!" Miliband told the BBC.
Security experts were aghast.
"It is a most distressing and unfortunate security lapse that will take a great deal of money to put right," said Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies.
Glees said the Sawers family would almost certainly need to be re-housed and the children may require extra protection.
The incident was the latest in a string of security blunders, lapses and leaks by officials that have embarrassed the government of embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The timing, less than two weeks after Brown launched Britain's first national cyber security strategy, was particularly inopportune.
The Mail on Sunday, publishing the story on its front page and the pictures on a double-page spread, said the information "could potentially be useful to hostile foreign powers or terrorists".
Edward Davy, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, called on the government to launch an inquiry into the matter and question whether Sawers was up to the job of running Britain's oversees spying operations.
"Normally I would welcome greater openness in government for officials or politicians, but this type of exposure verges on the reckless," he said.
what a retard
The man married an idiot.
...or...they could just give his job to some other bureaucrat!
Er. he even.
fiancee?
Shouldn't that be "MI6"?
She probably figured it was impossible for anything bad to ever happen to her — much like a lot of young ladies in the USA who vote for people like Obama.
Am I six? LOL
My personal feeling about most of the Social Networks is that they are often a place for dissemination of soft Porn or a time waster that provides an alternative to actual productive, physically active endeavors.
This must be an XK Red 27 technique. And whatever you do, don’t call Lady Shelley stupid.
I thought Europe was past that man and wife thing. Why is he even married, and shouldn’t that have raised flags over there?
Mr. Manfrengensengen I presume?
Shouldn't that be "MI6"?
It could have been worse. M6 I, for example.
If I am not wrong Ms Sawer just cost her husband his job.
The only real way to rectify this, is that he is replaced by a new “Mother”. (pardon my arcane reference! :o)
That’s what I originally thought. But now there’s a very active conservative community there, including a FR group. Just about every major conservative columnist and writer has a presence there.
And it’s a very good way to disseminate conservative ideas to other FB friends who see your postings and updates. I think it’s a valuable and powerful tool.
“That’s what I originally thought.”
I still think most of the stuff on these Sites is just a product of boredom, Dr. Spock inspired narcissism or deviant morays. To me another they are another example of the bad that comes with the very much good of the Internet.
I do see your point, esp wheb you hang out on some teen and young 20s pages. But there is a very large community of serious minded people on FB, on a completely different plane than the rest of the trash. I think it’ll be very useful as 2010 approaches.
Given that the new chief was already a prominent public servant (long-serving diplomat), and had occupied a number of high-profile posts, it’s difficult to see what security breach was involved here - his domestic life was already in the public domain.
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