The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
76.
Sir David also
commented that:
“… after
9/11 you see a completely new emphasis in Whitehall from Ministers,
and
indeed in
terms of budgetary provision, for the Agencies. The fact that they
had
become the
natural interlocutors of key players in the Bush Administration,
and …
given …
much higher priority for resourcing … reflect[ed] a sort of shift
in weight in
77.
Asked whether
Sir Richard Dearlove spent more time with Mr Blair than
his
predecessors,
Sir David commented that he did not know; but:
“Richard
was certainly part of the group the Prime Minister consulted
regularly,
and …
had access to the Prime Minister … pretty much when he wanted
it.”
78.
Asked for his
observations on how the relationships between the
intelligence
services,
in particular Sir Richard Dearlove, and Mr Blair, Mr Straw and
himself had
changed,
Sir David told the Inquiry:
“… because
the whole terrorism issue moved so rapidly up the agenda,
and
because
there is a sense that we are vulnerable to asymmetric threats in a
way
that we
haven’t been in the past, there is a new recognition of the
importance of the
Agencies, a
new willingness among Ministers to fund and resource the
Agencies,
and a much
greater dependence on advice from the Agencies on threats that are
not
the
conventional threats that we have been used to.
“… in
addition … you have two rather remarkable personalities as the
Heads of
[their
respective] Agencies, Richard [Dearlove] and Eliza
[Manningham-Buller]
… and if
you find that the American system is using the Agencies really
rather
extensively,
then it does change the pattern and the way we work, partly
because
the
Government puts much more emphasis on the Agencies and much less,
in my
view – and
I think it’s a mistake – on the traditional departments, but partly
because
we don’t
have a lot of choice because this is the sort of network that’s
developing.
“… in a way
I think you have to accept that the Heads of the Agencies are
much
more like
the traditional Permanent Under Secretaries, that their departments
are
frequently
better funded to deal with these issues than the traditional
departments
are, have
more resource, can act more quickly …
“So I think
there has been a shift in the way that Whitehall operates, and I
think it
is
inevitable that, as a result of that shift, the Heads of the
Agencies have greater
weight in
the system …”48
47
Private
hearing, 24 June 2010, page 10.
48
Private
hearing, 24 June 2010, pages 43-45.
280