MI6 Spy Revealed on Wife's Facebook Page

There is no free lunch.  There is no Santa Claus.  And apparently there are no longer any cool British spies.  That bit of fiction was wiped away last week when the new chief of MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service had his vacation photos pasted all over… his wife’s Facebook page.

Sir John Sawers is currently British ambassador to the United Nations and he takes over as “C” or chief of MI6 this November.  The Mail on Sunday reported that despite the security implications, Lady Sawers revealed on Facebook the location of the London flat used by the couple and the whereabouts of their three children and of Sir John’s parents.

On June 16, the very day Sir John’s MI6 appointment was announced, she posted 19 pictures of the couple on holiday with their friends in the West Country earlier that month.

The following day, she added a further 26 pictures, including one of Sir John playing on the beach in his swimming trucks, posing  with his wife and children and chatting with friends and his mother.

Lady Sawers’ Facebook ‘friends’ have also used the account to send messages of congratulations to Sir John on his new job, with one relative joking that he will now be known as ‘Uncle C’.

Granted the Cold War has been over for years but the details of your top spy’s personal life was usually the kind of thing that was kept under wraps.  Ken Clarke, a Conservative legislator, said: “In the old days we used to keep the name secret, all photographs were banned — and I never really believed that the Russians didn’t know who the head of MI6 and MI5 was.”

Referring to the MI6 chief, Patrick Mercer, a Conservative member of Parliament who is chairman of the counterterrorism subcommittee of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “A great deal of taxpayers’ money has been spent over the past several decades making sure he and his family are protected from security compromises. Well, it doesn’t seem to be very relevant any more, does it?”

The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, called for an inquiry into whether Sawers should still be allowed to accept the job.

“Normally, I would welcome greater openness in government for officials or politicians but this type of exposure verges on the reckless,” said the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, Edward Davy. “The prime minister should immediately commission an internal inquiry as to whether this has breached the security of the incoming head of MI6 too seriously to allow him to take up the post.”

Foreign secretary, David Miliband, played down the seriousness of the affair. Deploying some distinctly undiplomatic sarcasm, the foreign secretary told the BBC: “You [are] leading the news with … the fact that there’s a picture that the head of the MI6 goes swimming. Wow, that really is exciting. It is not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks, for goodness’ sake let’s grow up.”