21st Century Wire says…
(courtesy of RT – Machon begins at 5:45)
Former MI5 officer Annie Machon is without a doubt, a very brave lady. Some of the whistleblowing on her previous employers MI5, whom recruited her in 1991, include the following…
Lying to government by MI5
IRA bombs that could have been prevented
Secret MI5 files held on the very government ministers responsible for overseeing the intelligence services
Machon revealed that security services lie to their governments and that in certain historical instances, ‘attacks’ could have been prevented. Now, let us appliqué this to recent events such as the London Westminster attack, Stockholm, most recently the Champs-Élysées attack; in fact, apply this to the vast majority of these so called ‘lone wolf’ guerilla style attacks that have been occurring in Europe and elsewhere internationally not only the past years, but some decades.
Being in the shoes of an individual like Machon, and her former partner and fellow whistleblower David Shayler, means you’re literally looking over your back for the rest of your life and in certain cases (including interviews) take care in being safe as to not encroach too deeply on where patterned events ultimately lead to. It’s understandable in Machon’s case that she indeed has to take care not to exactly ‘spell things out’ for the public as it could lead to an unfortunate end like Gareth Williams, an SIS MI6 agent found padlocked in a bag with the key inside.
What we’re getting to here, and one of the main criticisms of Machon interview above, is that (a.) we’re steering away too quickly from incredibly important subtleties and nuances within reports surrounding the intelligence services knowing about these so called attackers and failing to intervene in places such as the epicentre of British politics and security, Westminster (which is minutes walking distance to both MI5, MI6, and Great Scotland Yard respectfully) and (b.) when we speak about the security services ‘drowning in data’, as Machon pointed out, it begs the question, but weren’t these data dripping platforms alloted to the intelligence services for our ‘safety’. One thing is for certain, the agencies don’t seem to be complaining.
In one sense Machon says,
“When are they going to ‘buck up’, get their act together and actually start focusing on the people who pose a threat rather than rather than hoovering up all our information via this mass surveillance infrastructure they’ve built.”
But then says,
“…the intelligence agencies are drowning in a tsunami of information which means they can’t then target their resources effectively, against those who are highlighted as being a real danger to our society…”
The reporter does well to ask ‘Why would they let him [attacker] slip through the net, as it were‘, Machon again responds back to say that it’s because of the ‘wealth of information’ that the intelligence services aren’t able to ‘do their job’. Machon is in once sense condemning the security services ‘not being able to do their job‘ whereas they are duty bound to, but then on the other hand it sounds apologist to keep pointing back towards the swamps of data, which Machon says are an ‘infringement of civil liberties‘ and ‘a waste of time‘, which the vast majority of people could agree with.
The security and intelligence services worldwide have made incredible technological leaps forward with surveillance since 2001 alongside the extra funding and power given to them. We’re talking about people, such as GCHQ and the NSA, who stole the master keys of every known SIM card for mobile devices from its international makers, Gemalto.
We’re also talking about agencies who know about extremely dangerous individuals who roam freely (coincidentally with mental health issues in cases), try to acquire these people as ‘assets’ and then are ‘off their top game’ when something goes badly wrong, i.e. a serious attack involving the public.
Hasn’t improved I.T. and invention from security manufacturers allowed the intelligence agencies like MI5, MI6, and in France’s case, the DGSE, to better manage the huge amount of data they have to trove through to target individuals. Why should the public be apathetic to the agencies ‘drowning in data’ when our privacy is virtually empty in this day and age to ‘protect us’.
We’re receiving very mixed and ‘safe’ commentary from Annie Machon with respect to this interview which only circles us back to the perpetual ‘why’ as these attacks continue.
For further reading we suggest to read the excellently compiled articles by 21st Century Wire’s Shawn Helton, regarding the places where Machon would find it difficult and dangerous to go, like the subject of Gladio.
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