Letter to the Editor

Parliamentary pressure

In Rosaleen O’Sullivan’s article titled “British court values human rights over diplomancy,” she writes that “this case is an exception to the [intelligence sharing secrecy] rule in that Britain’s reasons for releasing the information are domestic; it is not setting any true precedent for future intelligence policy.”

Her argument is that since it is the British court, not the parliament, who is asking for the release of the information, then it is different because American intelligence agencies know that they have very little control over the High Courts, and therefore they should expect this sort of action occasionally.

In other words, since the American intelligence services know very well how the British judicial system works, as long as the parliament does what it can to prevent the release, no offense should be taken by the United States.

All intelligence agencies can do is put pressure on parliament. But if indeed British intelligence really faces a potential loss, her article, in my opinion, misses the point. Hillary Clinton was likely told to put that pressure on Britain by the British intelligence itself (perhaps indirectly, by way of the CIA followed by the president or another US official).

This is opposed to the claim that she is taking a “hard-line approach to the issue because it fundamentally challenges her perceptions of how intelligence-sharing operations should be conducted.”

jerome Grand’Maison

Ph.D. candidate, mathematics