John Scarlett
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Sir John McLeod Scarlett, KCMG, OBE (born August 18, 1948) is head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). Prior to this appointment, he had chaired the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).
[edit] Biography
Fluent in Russian, Scarlett was educated at Epsom College and Magdalen College, Oxford where in 1971 he received a first class degree in History. Shortly afterwards, he was recruited by MI6 and served in Moscow, Nairobi (1973-1976) and Paris.
In 1994, after a tit-for-tat row between the UK and Russian authorities, Scarlett was asked to leave Moscow where he had been MI6's "station chief". (Read: Moscow's Experience with the Current MI-6 Chief).
He retired from MI6 as Director of Security and Public Affairs in 2001. He took on the role of head of the JIC just three days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The normally secretive intelligence services were thrust into the public gaze in the Summer of 2003 after the death of the eminent government weapons expert, Dr David Kelly. Kelly had been found dead in the Oxfordshire countryside near his home, after being exposed as the source of allegations that the government had "sexed-up" intelligence regarding existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The "classic case" was the claim that Iraq could launch Weapons of Mass Destruction "within 45 minutes of an order to do so" - Dr Kelly had privately dismissed this as "risible".
Scarlett gave evidence at the Hutton Inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Kelly's death. It became clear that Scarlett had worked closely with Alastair Campbell, then the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy, on the controversial dossier, with Campbell making drafting suggestions which the inquiry found may have "subconsciously influenced" Scarlett and the JIC. This influence may have had deleterious effects on the quality of the assessments presented in the dossier. For instance, the Intelligence and Security Committee made several criticisms in their report "Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction — Intelligence and Assessments":
- "As the 45 minutes claim was new to its readers, the context of the intelligence and any assessment needed to be explained. The fact that it was assessed to refer to battlefield chemical and biological munitions and their movement on the battlefield, not to any other form of chemical or biological attack, should have been highlighted in the dossier. The omission of the context and assessment allowed speculation as to its exact meaning. This was unhelpful to an understanding of this issue."
The Butler Review specifically stated that he should not resign as head of the Joint Intelligence Committee and he became the head of SIS on 6 May 2004.
[edit] Knighthood controversy
Scarlett's appointment as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2007 was criticised in the media by some who believe that certain honours have been given unfairly to officials and supporters loyal to the government during the 2003 war in Iraq. Scarlett, while Chairman of the JIC, was the principal author of the September Dossier, a document partly by which the Prime Minister justified to Parliament the invasion of Iraq and which was later found to be "flawed" by the Butler Review (see above). However, despite the claims of preferential honours, the award of a KCMG is normal practice for all heads of SIS and senior FCO and UK diplomatic officials.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Richard Dearlove |
Head of SIS 2004 - Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
