Ex-spy chief opinion

Ex-CIA Chief: Europe Needs To Get Better At Sharing Intelligence

The bombings in Brussels this week were the third major terrorist attack in Western Europe since the beginning of 2015 and raised the question of how well countries are gathering and sharing intelligence.

Gen. Michael Hayden, who headed both the CIA and the National Security Agency, says some European intelligence agencies are good at the gathering part, but the Continent as a whole falls short when it comes to sharing.

"The quickest path to get information around Europe was to tell the Americans," Hayden tells NPR's Morning Edition.

Ex-spy chief opinion

EU security bodies “of little consequence” to Britain – ex-spy chief backs Brexit

European security bodies bear “little consequence” to British security, a former head of the UK’s foreign spy agency MI6 has said, adding his support to the pro-Brexit campaign.

Writing in current affairs magazine Prospect, Sir Richard Dearlove suggests that leaving the 28-nation bloc would not be as damaging to Britain’s security as the “Remain” campaign suggests. He argues that European intelligence institutions like Club de Berne, are “generally speaking little more than forums for the exchange of analysis and views.”

“With the exception of Europol, these bodies have no operational capacity and with 28 members of vastly varying levels of professionalism in intelligence and security, the convoy must accommodate the slowest and leakiest of the ships of state.”