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| News |
| MI6 phone-tap Attorney General of Gibralter |
| In a major spy scandal dating back to August 1999, it has been alleged that a former Attorney General of Gibraltar was bugged on orders from MI6. Chris Clark described as a professional phone-tapper and burglar, told a major media source that he "attached two UHF radio transmitters, each no bigger than a cigarette lighter, to the telephone lines" of the home of the Attorney General, John Blackburn Gittings. Mr. Gittings resigned as Attorney General 11 months prematurely in strange circumstances. What the public in Gibraltar was told at the time was that the resignation followed differences of opinion between Mr. Gittings and the British Government, which had appointed him in the first place. In London, however, it was leaked to certain media sources that contacts between Mr. Gittings and some of his former clients was thought to be inappropriate. He was a leading criminal lawyer in London before he took the Gibraltar post. Now, professional phone-tapper and burglar Clark has alleged in a sworn statement that he was paid �2,500 to bug the home telephone of Mr. Gittings. Clark says he was told that "the job had been commissioned by British intelligence because they had become concerned about alleged links between Gittings, a former criminal defence lawyer and underworld figures." Gittings, now a high court judge in Botswana, said that he was told by Joe Bossano, then Chief Minister, that he had been the target of an MI6 operation. The ex Attorney General is considering legal action against the Foreign Office for invasion of privacy. Under the front page headline "MI6 paid for dirty tricks, says bagman", the paper gives details of other clandestine operations said to have been commissioned by MI6 in other countries. But one of his biggest regrets was his involvement in the Gibraltar case. "In hindsight, that operation was illegal and morally wrong," he said. The paper says that MI6 is facing embarrassment over the claims by Clark that he was paid to carry out dirty tricks for the British Government. A Foreign Office spokesman gave the standard reply that they "do not comment on operational intelligence matters." |