| Intelligence and Security Committee - Annual Report 1998-99 | ||||||||||||
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From the Chairman: the Rt. Hon. Tom King, C.H., M.P. INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE
70 Whitehall 6 August 1999
The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, M.P. I enclose the fourth Annual Report of the Intelligence and Security Committee on the discharge of our functions under the Intelligence Services Act 1994. Subject to any consultation with the Committee as provided for in section 10(7) of the Act, we hope that it will be possible for you to lay our Report before each House of Parliament at an early date. TOM KING INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY COMMITTEE The Rt. Hon. Tom King, CH, MP (Chairman)
In our last report we confirmed the importance of continuing high quality intelligence and security services for our country. The Cold War may have ended but significant threats remain, and new ones are arising. Intelligence is crucial to our ability to counter them, and it is a constant challenge to ensure that it is adequate for the task. Today's world is a highly charged environment, with financial, political, military and social pressures combining to produce instability and disorder. Last year we drew attention to the question of humanitarian and peacekeeping tasks for our Armed Forces. This year saw the violent upheaval of Kosovo, with the sustained air campaign leading on to a substantial deployment of British troops into the territory. Last year we warned that the risk of proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons had sharply increased. This year saw the detonation of Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons, and thus two more members joining that previously exclusive club. Last year we spoke of the scale of terrorist attacks around the world, which averaged 60 a week, and of increasing concern over Islamic terrorist threats. This year saw the attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam which killed 220 people and wounded 5000 and which confirmed the scale of the threat posed by Usama bin Laden and other Islamic groups. Last year, in describing the problem of serious crime, we highlighted the trade in drugs and the traffic in illegal immigrants as major challenges. This year, in spite of continuing effort, we see no improvement in these areas. Rather the reverse has occurred; in addition there has been an extremely rapid growth in cigarette smuggling Critical to our security as well is the proper protection of secret information. In the past year the obtaining of US nuclear secrets by the Chinese, organised Russian hacking into vital US defence secrets, and the intended betrayal on the Internet of possible members of SIS by a disaffected former member, were most unwelcome setbacks. This briefest of snap shots shows all too clearly how unstable and dangerous is our present world. Our safety depends on good intelligence and security, and it is vital that these agencies are properly maintained and funded in a sustainable way. That is the responsibility of Ministers and of those in charge of the Agencies. It is our responsibility as a committee to hold them to account. The following pages describe how we have sought to discharge this task.
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