US spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance

[Peter Presland]

British snooping battle continues apace.
It's nice to see that the man in charge of Parliamentary oversight - Malcolm Rifkind - is the usual political placement type who won't take on the security and intelligence services, let alone try to ensure they operate within the law. Weak, weak, weak... Imo, of course.

Agreed that the prospects for meaningful oversight of the British Security/Intel apparatus are vanishingly small to zero, but Rifkind as 'weak weak weak' - not sure I can go along with that.

'Well-connected, well-connected, well-connected' more like - Top-draw Establishment in fact and put there for that very reason. He's also one of the most senior - in fact probably THE most senior - Conservative Friend of Israel and an ardent Zionist Jew, with all the egregious blind-spots and potential for dual-loyalty conflicts such a CV involves. My guess is that, in matters considered vital to Israel's 'national security interests', the Mossad would find it a straightforward matter to make this particular Right Honourable Member an offer he would not and could not refuse.

IMHO too of course.