‘Britain is the poodle of the U.S.’

The British parliamentâ„¢s spy watchdog has described the UK government as Å“the poodle of the U.S.” as far as recent revelations about two countriesâ„¢ espionage activities are concerned.

The parliamentâ„¢s Intelligence and Security Committee is demanding that spies working for the UKâ„¢s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) answer about millions of dollars they have received from the U.S. and what they had to give in return.

According to former CIA contractor and National Security Agency (NSA)â„¢s employee, Edward Snowden, Britainâ„¢s GCHQ had received 96 million pounds from the U.S. government over three years. Now, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, chairman of the parliamentary spy watchdog, said the government must expound on the conditions under which the sum had been spent.

This comes as Labour MP Paul Flynn said the revelations convinced us that Britain was Å“the poodle of the US”.

Å“I donâ„¢t think anyone had any inkling of these payments. Clearly we fool ourselves that we have an independent foreign policy,” he said.

The UKâ„¢s collaboration with the U.S.â„¢s Prism spying scam, under which the NSA could collect data from every citizenâ„¢s phone calls and Internet activities, is now being probed by the Intelligence and Security Commission.

Sir Malcolm said he was not surprised that the GCHQ and the NSA had been collaborating.

Å“Iâ„¢m not remotely surprised that for a number of years GCHQ and the NSA have had a number of joint projects in which they co-operate together with substantial resources to do their joint projects.

Thatâ„¢s something we have investigated, taking evidence from both GCHQ in London and the NSA,” said Rifkind.

In June foreign secretary William Hague was grilled by MPs about Britainâ„¢s involvement with the U.S.â„¢s NSA program.

He claimed that all the data obtained by British agencies from the U.S. Å“is subject to proper UK statutory controls and safeguards”.

MOL/HE