2 |
Decision-making within government
(ii) in the
interests of national security;
(iii) for
the purposes of the prevention or detection of a serious crime;
or
(iv) for
the purpose of any criminal proceedings …”
70.
The Chief is
required to make an annual report on the work of the Service to
the
Prime
Minister and the Foreign Secretary and “may at any time report to
either of them
on any
matter relating to its work”.42
71.
As a later
version of the Cabinet Office document National
Intelligence Machinery
states, the
Agencies are responsible for evaluating and circulating their
“mainly single-
72.
Intelligence
collected by the three Intelligence Agencies – SIS, the Security
Service
and the
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – is passed directly
in the
form of
reports to customer departments in government. Those reports assist
decision-
making.
They also contribute, with other sources of information, to
longer-term analysis,
including
Assessments issued by the JIC.
73.
Lord Wilson
told the Inquiry that Mr Blair’s travels overseas to secure support
for
action
against Usama Bin Laden had had an impact on the relationship
between No.10
and the
Intelligence Agencies.44
Sir Richard
Dearlove, Chief of SIS, travelled with
Mr Blair
and had, in Lord Wilson’s words: “seized his chance, quite
understandably,
and got to
know the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister got to know
him”.
74.
Asked about
the pressures on SIS as a result of their success in producing
material
for the
dossier, and when Mr Blair was relying on them and had put them on
a pedestal,
Sir Richard
Dearlove told the Inquiry that was:
“… a
fragile and dangerous position, as one was well aware at the time.
I don’t deny
that. But
such are the events of government sometimes.”45
75.
Asked about
his joint visits to Washington with Sir Richard Dearlove, Sir
David
Manning
told the Inquiry that they “probably reflected the new weight that
the intelligence
Agencies
had in the system” after 9/11:
“It’s in a
sense inevitable because the Americans chose to play it this way.
[George]
Tenet
[Director of the CIA] is an absolutely key figure … and we have to
find our
42
Intelligence
Services Act 1994.
43
Cabinet
Office, National
Intelligence Machinery, 19
November 2010, page 36.
44
Public
hearing, 25 January 2011, page 28.
45
Private
hearing, 16 June 2010, page 64.
46
Private
hearing, 24 June 2010, pages 9-10.
279