"It is an intelligence relationship that predates even the Five Eyes: the UKUSA alliance that began, naturally enough, in secret in 1946. But this week the strain of trying to be the closest security ally to a freewheeling White House has begun to show. Britain, it emerged, had quietly suspended intelligence cooperation with the US in the Caribbean because London does not consider the deadly US military campaign against ships accused of drug trafficking to be in line with international law."
"That amounts to an extraordinary open fissure in a close working relationship at a time when the US is increasing its military buildup, expanding its controversial campaign in the region with an attempt to threaten Venezuela. I'm not sure if there is a previous example of this happening in the public domain. Turning off the tap completely is pretty rare, said Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank and a former civil servant."
An intelligence partnership dating to 1946 underpins UK–US cooperation through the UKUSA alliance and the Five Eyes network. Britain suspended intelligence sharing in the Caribbean because London judged a US military campaign against vessels accused of drug trafficking inconsistent with international law. The suspension reveals an unusual public rupture amid a US military buildup and an expanded campaign that includes moves perceived as threatening Venezuela. Modern intelligence increasingly relies on sophisticated surveillance and listening technologies that Five Eyes partners supply from strategic locations such as Akrotiri in Cyprus and Caribbean island territories. The relationship was reforged after 9/11 and ran throughout the long war on terror.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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