RIP Official Secrets Act... posted by Richard Seymour

Following Craig Murray's post last week and today's leak to The Guardian, we can probably declare the Official Secrets Act a dead duck:

[A] document has fallen into the Guardian's hands that seems to explain why ministers have become so bankrupt in these failures to stem a tide of disclosures (most revolve in one way or another around Iraq and allegations of our craven relationship with the US).

Murray, abiding by official regulations, submitted his memoirs to the Foreign Office last autumn. Before sending them to the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, in December for a final ruling, an official, Heather Yasamee, was deputed to circulate each Whitehall person mentioned. In what may be the first review to decorate Murray's bookjacket, she said: "He writes vividly about his colleagues, not always flatteringly, and with much gratuitous comment."

We have obtained one of Ms Yasamee's private Whitehall letters, written last October. But publication of its contents here does not make it likely that the Guardian is in turn due for a knock on the door by Special Branch. She writes that the government is entitled to ask for alterations to passages in Murray's book that "might damage national security, international relations or confidential relationships". But this "depends on the willingness of the author to make changes".

She warns: "To succeed with any legal action, we would have to demonstrate clearly to a court that real damage would result from publication. From previous experience and advice ... we know that the damage threshold is very high for successful court action. It is questionable whether this book falls into that category." And she gives the game away by saying that it is questionable if "more public airing of Craig's alleged grievances is in anybody's interest".

Of course, this misses a very important point. Some years back, Murray's revelations would certainly have been suppressed by a complicit media, just as they comply with ludicrous D-Notices that have no legal force. The internet, and particularly bloggers, made the revelations possible, just as they made the revelations about White Phosphorus possible. One other thing occurs. The airy Oxonian condescension with which this Ms Yasamee dismisses "Craig's alleged grievances" is telling. The "grievances" relate to the government's complicity with torture, of course. To coldly reduce it to a matter of personal uppitiness, which is what is implied... well, it tells you what kind of personality succeeds in the Foreign Office. You've got to be able to separate your ordinary day-to-day behaviour from your professional role as a sociopath. About which suggestion, I am sure, there would be much snigggering if anyone in Whitehall were to read it.