David Davis writes a letter to the Times on the failings of the Intelligence and Security Committee

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As published in The Times:
Criticism of intelligence agencies is not ignorant. It is essential if we are to highlight when things go wrong.

Sir, Alex Carlile intimated that anybody who criticised the intelligence agencies was ill-informed. Hazel Blears did much the same when speaking for the intelligence and security committee (ISC). However, neither Lord Carlile of Berriew, during his tenure as the government’s statutory reviewer of intelligence, nor the ISC discovered the serial failures of government agencies with the “dodgy dossier” on Iraq, the failures in the period leading up to the 7/7 bombing, rendition, complicity in torture, or the astonishing levels of mass surveillance. Those misdemeanours were exposed by whistleblowers, journalists, non-governmental organisations, lawyers and MPs who were not on the ISC. These are the very people whom Lord Carlile is now accusing of ignorance.

David Davis, MP