Editing Clare Short (section)

====Bugging of the UN====
{{Main|Spying on the United Nations}}
On 26 February 2004, Short alleged on the [[BBC]] ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' radio programme that [[MI6|British spies]] regularly intercept UN communications, including those of [[Kofi Annan]], then [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|Secretary-General]].<ref name="bbc-20040301">{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3488548.stm|title=UK 'spied on UN's Kofi Annan'|date=26 February 2004|publisher=BBC  |access-date=23 April 2008}}</ref> The claim was made the day after the unexplained dropping of [[whistleblowing]] charges against former [[GCHQ]] translator [[Katharine Gun]]. Reacting to Short's statement, [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Tony Blair]] said "I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible, and entirely consistent [with Short's character]." Blair also claimed that Short had put British security, particularly the security of its spies, at risk.<ref name="guardian-20040226">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/feb/26/iraq.iraq|title=Short claims UK spied on Annan|author=George Wright, Martin Nicholls and Matthew Tempest|date=26 February 2004|work=The Guardian |location=UK|access-date=23 April 2008}}</ref> The same day, on the BBC's ''[[Newsnight]]'' programme, Short called Blair's response "pompous" and said that Britain had no need to spy on [[Kofi Annan]]. Blair did not explicitly deny the claims, but [[Robin Cook]], the former [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]], wrote that in his experience he would be surprised if the claims were true.

A few days later, on 29 February, Short appeared on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s ''[[Jonathan Dimbleby (TV series)|Jonathan Dimbleby]]'' programme, on which she revealed that she had been written to by Britain's most senior civil servant, [[Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)|Cabinet Secretary]] [[Andrew Turnbull, Baron Turnbull|Andrew Turnbull]]. Turnbull's confidential letter (which Short showed to Dimbleby, and which was quoted on the programme) formally admonished her for discussing intelligence matters in the media, and threatened "further action" if she did not desist from giving interviews on the issue. Turnbull wrote that she had made claims "which damage the interests of the United Kingdom", and that he was "extremely disappointed". The "further action" referred to in the letter has been interpreted as threatening either Short's expulsion from the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] or legal action under the Official Secrets Act. Either course of action have been without recent precedent; at the time, no Privy Counsellor had been expelled since [[Sir Edgar Speyer]] was accused of collaborating with the Germans during the [[First World War]]. On 1 March 2004, a Downing Street spokesman refused to rule out such a step.

However, in the same interview with [[Jonathan Dimbleby]], Short backtracked on her claim about British agents bugging Annan. She admitted that the transcripts she saw of Annan's private conversations might have related to Africa and not to Iraq.
Asked whether she could confirm that the transcripts related to Iraq, she said: "I can't, but there might well have been ... I cannot remember a specific transcript in relation, it doesn't mean it wasn't there." Short also admitted that her original claim, on the ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme, that Britain had eavesdropped on Annan, may have been inaccurate. Asked whether the material could have passed to the British by the Americans, she said: "It could. But it normally indicates that. But I can't remember that."<ref name="guardian-20040301">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1159241,00.html|title=Top civil servant tells Short to shut up|author=Nicholas Watt|date=1 March 2004|work=The Guardian |location=UK|access-date=23 April 2008}}</ref>