LONDON
Heads of the UK's spying agencies, Sir Iain Lobban, the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Andrew Parker, the MI5 Director General, and Sir John Sawers, Chief of MI6, will be quizzed by the a parliamentary committee, Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) later on Thursday.
Heads of country's intelligence agengies have given evidence in private for many years, yet this will be their first coming together in front of public. Chiefs will reply the questions of MPs about the spying activities, yet it drew attentions as the questioning will be taking place meanwhile the documents leaked by former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is still the topic of many agendas.
Documents leaked by Snowden to the British newspaper the Guardian revealed that UK's intelligence agencies listened to the phone calls of various countries with its ally, the US. The claims by the documents made tensions running high between the UK and Germany. Moreover, the UK government stated that there would be no comments on intelligence matters.
The Committee which will quiz intelligence heads of the country for about an hour and a half will be chaired by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former British Foreign Secretary. The GCHQ make sure the safety and security of the country's cyber connections and infrastructure, while MI5 protects national security against threats from espionage, terrorism and sabotage and MI6 collects UK's foreign intelligence.
According to the Daily Telegraph article which was published on Wednesday, "British spies from GCHQ" were able to tap into 14 undersea cables which pass through Cyprus from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, accessing tens of millions of emails, telephone calls, instant messages and other web-based traffic." The claims also started to appear on Turkish media.
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