London
The British government has been rocked by a former Cabinet minister’s claim that British spies eavesdropped on U.N. officials before the Iraq war. Clare Short, who resigned as international development minister because she opposed the war, said last week that she had seen transcripts of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s telephone conversations. She said Britain’s MI-6 spied on Annan in New York at the request of the CIA, which is not allowed to operate on American soil. Prime Minister Tony Blair called Short’s statement “deeply irresponsible,” and other current and former ministers pooh-poohed the claim, saying they had seen no such transcripts. The government is weighing whether to prosecute Short for violating the Official Secrets Act.
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