Britons found guilty of breaching Official Secrets Law
09 May 2007 15:11:09 GMT Source: Reuters
By Luke Baker LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - A civil servant and a political aide were convicted of breaching Britain's Official Secrets Act on Wednesday for leaking a classified memo of a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush. David Keogh, a code specialist at a top security government communications centre, was found guilty of making a copy of the memo of talks held in the White House in April 2004 and handing it to Leo O'Connor, a political researcher. Both Keogh, 50, and O'Connor, 44, had pleaded not guilty to the charges of making a "damaging disclosure". They are due to be sentenced on Thursday. Key parts of the three-week trial were held behind closed doors. The judge ruled that the contents of the memo could not be revealed, referred to or reported in any way other than as they were discussed in open court. High-level government witnesses characterised the contents as "extremely sensitive" to both U.S and British foreign policy and said the memo referred to operations by Britain's secret service, MI6, in Iraq. One witness, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser Nigel Sheinwald, who is now in line to become Britain's next ambassador to Washington, said the memo had a "direct bearing" on Britain's military presence in Iraq. During the trial, the court heard how Keogh, who was strongly against the war in Iraq, met O'Connor at a dining club in Northampton, in central England, where they both live. When the memo crossed his desk in mid-April, 2004, Keogh, who was charged with distributing it among the very small number of people who were allowed to read it, made a copy. He later handed it to O'Connor, who worked as researcher for a Labour member of parliament, Tony Clarke. Clarke, who voted against the government's decision to go to war in Iraq, found the copy of the memo among his personal files in late May 2004 and immediately called the police. When he gave evidence, Keogh said that such was his concern about the contents of the memo that he wanted it to be detailed to Britain's parliament and handed to John Kerry, the Democrat challenger to Bush in the presidential race. "It was to help my country," Keogh told the court. He also said he had never sought or received any financial reward for passing over the contents of the memo. The chief prosecutor, David Perry, cast Keogh as a rogue who had jeopardised Britain's national interests. "Diplomacy is a delicate and sensitive act and it cannot be properly carried out in our interest when what one government says to another can't be kept secret or confidential," he said.
