Jonathan Evans’ rejection of claims that MI5 helped “cover up” details in the Binyam Mohamed alleged torture case shows a hint of frustration behind a cool exterior, reflects Samira Ahmed.

Jonathan Evans’ denial of a cover-up in today’s newspaper is the kind of public statement I imagine he did not expect to have to make.

For the head of MI5 has marked out his leadership of the intelligence service by choosing to speak publicallyon his terms about the agency’s anti-Islamist terrorist operations. It’s been a deliberate and subtle strategy to coopt the media and through them the public into understanding, supporting and crucially trusting, his agency’s work.

Just over three years ago I happened to be present when Mr Evans – only a few months into his appointment as director general of MI5 – launched his new strategy; granting a kind of celebrity style “audience with” experience.

It was all clearly planned for maximum impact and maximum control: The date – October 2007; the place – a central Manchester hotel; the occasion – the annualSociety of Editors conference; a gathering of journalists from all over the UK.

As the organiser led him to the podium no one had any idea who he was – an ordinary looking man in the best tradition of George Smiley.

But as he was introduced, as the surprise key note speaker, the excitement in the room was palpable. A couple of hundred hacks from the smallest local newspaper to the biggest national news providers getting a simultaneous exclusive!

We would be analysing it in every detail immediately afterwards over lunch, looking for little giveaways in body language or facial expressions. But of course, he didn’t give anything away that he didn’t want us to take away.

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Even before he spoke, Mr Evans was in complete control of the situation with an audience so excited and grateful to have access to him at all.

Polite,  but frustratingly concise he peppered his speech with juicy revelations and claims: That “al-Qaida” is not just an inspiration to bomb plotters in Britain, but actively planning future outrages;  that accurately counting active terror cells is not possible, because of the huge number of people at their fringes (2,000 people under surveillance); that Islamist militants are grooming teenagers as young as 15; that the threat is growing across Europe, with recent plots allegedly intercepted in Germany and Denmark; and that M15 is still tackling a significant problem with Russian espionage.

This was a news event that informed and teased in equal measure; questions we could ask, but answers were off the record.

But most editors seemed willing to let that go, in gratitude; one newspaper editor asked eagerly what we could do to “help” MI5 in tackling home-grown extremism and terrorism.

Strategy change
Since that speech there have been several successful convictions: over the airliner liquid bomb plot, of individuals in possession of jihadist and bombing making manuals and material.

The government’s prevent strategy has developed to target the radicalisation of children (something Mr Evans had raised as a serious concern).

So a year ago (in January 2009) came an update, and, crucially, for journalists who wanted more – a further openness.

The director general gave in person separate interviews to all the national newspapers, answering questions about whether he watched “Spooks” as well as getting across what he wanted – an update on the level of  threat.

He reported a significant success in cracking down on active plots, cited 85 successful convictions, which he said had had a “chilling effect on the enthusiasm of the networks”; and said the intelligence services had a tighter focus on Pakistan to where, he said, three quarters of plots could be traced.

The newspapers duly reported it all.

One year on, to have to declare through the pages of a newspaper that some recent reporting of alleged collusion in torture is “so far from the truth that it couldn’t be left unchallenged”, reveals a hint of frustration beneath the cool exterior.

It’s not quite annoyance with the news media for biting the hand that feeds them – three public interviews or statements in more than three years isn’t exactly a feast.

But clearly the focus on torture, despite MI5 denials is not “on message”.

Mr Evans warns in his Daily Telegraph article today that the focus on alleged torture is a dangerous diversion: “our enemies will also seek to use all tools at their disposal to attack us.”

Far from asking what they can do to “help” the fight against home-grown terrorism, the article implies, some editors are doing the opposite.

Assuming you accept the denials of knowledge or collusion in torture, there is a genuine point of public interest: are bleeding heart liberal journos ignoring the genuine threat and suspicion that got these detainees arrested in the first place?

Mr Evans’ article is an attempt to alter the strategy and go over the heads of journalists straight to the British public.

There is, coincidentally, an overlap with the concern expressed by Gita Sahgal – who’s been suspended as head of Amnesty International’s gender unit, for criticising the human rights charity’s links to what she called “supporters of the Taliban” such as former British Guantanamo inmate Moazzam Begg and a charity supporting a number of radical Islamist “hate” preachers and jailed al-Qaida members.

When MI5 kept official silence, it didn’t matter, but now that “friendly” reporters have gone “rogue” against the service, the latest public statement shows the director general of MI5 knows he isn’t in control of the story.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/a+surprise+meeting+with+the+mi5+chief/3538242