GCHQ : The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency

June 13, 2010

They've got your number
-----------------------

There's no hiding from the prying eyes of the pathologically secretive 
GCHQ. But how crucial is it to our security ?

Max Hastings

The wartime exploits of Bletchley Park bring a glow of pride to British 
hearts. Even if the Russians did most of the fighting and the Americans 
paid most of the bills to defeat Hitler, we supplied the brains and 
devised the machines that enabled the allies to read the Nazis' mail. We 
are much more equivocal, however, about the doings of GCHQ, Bletchley's 
modern incarnation. Anybody who cares about civil liberties feels uneasy 
about the notion that this vast organisation, now housed in "the 
Doughnut" outside Cheltenham, is eavesdropping on the telephone calls 
and wireless traffic of the world. We know that we need to defend 
ourselves against terrorists. But the costs to privacy and democracy are 
high.

Richard J Aldrich is an outstanding analyst and historian of intelligence,
and he tells this story well. Since 1945, even the most cash-strapped
governments have funded GCHQ lavishly, as Britain's strongest card in
preserving the Atlantic alliance. "The intelligence exchange with the
Americans is perhaps the last bastion of the 'special relationship',"
said the Foreign Office's intelligence co-ordinator 30 years ago; this is
still true. The imperial legacy left Britain in possession of real estate
around the world ideally suited for electronic listening posts...../snip/


- GCHQ : The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency 
  by Richard J Aldrich
  HarperPress £30 pp666


http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_reviews/article7146996.ece