After Iraq WMD fiasco, MI6 faces new challenge under Sir John Sawers

Michael Evans, Defence Editor MI6 suffered a rough patch after intelligence that the agency provided for the Government’s infamous dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) turned out to be unreliable at best and unproven at worst. Intelligence is its business and if the product is suspect, reputations can be severely damaged. Despite the dossier, however — and MI6 was hardly alone in believing that Saddam Hussein was hiding his WMD arsenal — the 2,000 inhabitants of one of the most exotic buildings in London, Vauxhall Cross, have managed to restore their standing in Whitehall and overseas. Sir John Scarlett, the quietly spoken incumbent chief, introduced a tough agent-vetting system after he took over in 2004 to ensure that secret intelligence came from bona fide sources and not, as in the case of Iraq, from people... [read full story]                    

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