US Breaks Agreement With British, Secretly Spies On Blair

An ex-navy communications officer, David Murfee Faulk, is stating that U.S. intelligence spied on British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Faulk worked at a National Security Agency listening post in Georgia.

Great Britain, of course, has probably been the most loyal ally to the United States in the Iraq War. If Blair was spied on, it would be a major break from a joint American-British agreement not to spy on each other. It also would be a major embarrassment to George Bush.

Blair was given the code name anchory. His private calls were targeted.

Patrick Mercer, a member of the British Parliament said:

“I would have hoped the Special Relationship between our two countries would have precluded this sort of thing but, knowing a bit about this particular world, I suppose nothing should surprise me about the things spies get up to.”

Last month, Faulk reported that US intelligence spied on American soldiers, journalists and aid workers in Iraq.

The UK’s Daily Express reported that not all spying involved security or strategic matters:

He (Faulk) also said US spymasters bugged telephone conversations of Iraq’s first interim president, Ghazi Al Yawer.

He said he heard “pillow talk” while assigned to monitor Al Yawer in his role as an Arab linguist.

Mr Faulk said he was one of as many as 3,000 linguists at Fort Gordon. He said pillow talk or “sex talk” would be recorded and passed around as gossip during smoking breaks.

The Telegraph reported on the NSA’s strategy for eavesdropping.

While running the NSA, Gen Michael Hayden, now the CIA director, told Congress that the organisation’s eavesdropping targets were carefully chosen.

“It’s not for the heck of it. We are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al-Qaeda and office must be one of those organizations associated with al-Qaeda. If the accusations of spying are true, it is going to be interesting to hear Bush, Hayden and the rest of the NSA’s higher-those organizations who are affiliated with it,” he said.

If Faulk’s accusations of spying are true, that puts him at odds wiht Hayden. It is going to be interesting to hear Bush, Hayden and the rest of the NSA’s higher-ups explain this away.