🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <715092656.11378@minster.york.ac.uk> martin@minster.york.ac.uk writes:
>segr@nessie.mcc.ac.uk (Simon Read) says:
>> Subject: GCHQ's location.
>>
>> No big secret!
>>
>> GCHQ is near Cheltenham. It's an enormous group of buildings,
>> shouldn't be hard to find. I think there are even signposts.
>
>Actually it isn't all that long ago (approx 7 years?) that the UK
>government refused to officially acknowledge that this `enormous group
>of buildings' existed, let alone say what they were for!  A fact that,
>I believe, caused great amusement to people who lived in Cheltenham and
>saw it every day!!!

	This pales in comparison to that legendary statement in
	the "Spycatcher" trial when the U.K. attorney-general admitted
	that although Sir Martin Hollis hade been head of MI6 "it did
	not mean that the organization existed before he was director-
	general or that it existed after he retired from the position."
	(I paraphrase).

	While we're on the subject, is Stella Rimington really Margaret
	Thatchers' evil twin?

	Alec.

Then there's the famous story about the time they were building CIA
headquarters, and a local real estate developer wanted to know how
many employees would be housed there, so he could plan some residential
developments nearby. He was completely stonewalled, so he called the
Soviet Embassy and they told him. They had it just about dead on.

David

In article <1992Aug31.105853.17069@cas.org> jac54@cas.org () writes:
]	This pales in comparison to that legendary statement in
]	the "Spycatcher" trial when the U.K. attorney-general admitted
]	that although Sir Martin Hollis hade been head of MI6 "it did
]	not mean that the organization existed before he was director-
]	general or that it existed after he retired from the position."
]	(I paraphrase).

I forget if it's the same scandal or a similar one, but in about 1986 a
British politican was quoted as saying that his organization hadn't been lying,
but "we were being economical with the truth" :-)

-- 

				Pray for peace;      Bill
#Bill Stewart 908-949-0705 wcs@anchor.ho.att.com AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ
# Any technology distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced ...

In article <1992Sep1.225348.4590@cbnewsh.cb.att.com> wcs@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (Bill Stewart 908-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs) writes:

   In article <1992Aug31.105853.17069@cas.org> jac54@cas.org () writes:
   ]	This pales in comparison to that legendary statement in
   ]	the "Spycatcher" trial when the U.K. attorney-general admitted
   ]	that although Sir Martin Hollis hade been head of MI6 "it did
   ]	not mean that the organization existed before he was director-
   ]	general or that it existed after he retired from the position."

This is a masterful example of the British Civil Service at its best.

   I forget if it's the same scandal or a similar one, but in about 1986 a
   British politican was quoted as saying that his organization hadn't
   been lying,  but "we were being economical with the truth" :-)

Actually, it was the the head of the British Civil Service (a
non-political, career civil servant) who said in court that he
personally "had been economical with the truth" wrt to his previous
day's evidence. This was because he was trying to avoid political
embarrassment for Mrs. Thatcher during the Spycatcher.

BTW, the British government is coming close to formally acknowledging
the existence of its security services. New offices for MI5 and MI6
are being built across the River Thames from the Houses of Parliament.
This "disclosure" is also remarkable in identifying their offices.

What's all this got to do with sci.crypt?

		Jim