The Americans didn't trust Tony Blair either

... if you believe what a 'whistle-blower' at the US National Security Agency has said. According to David Murfee Faulk he came across a personal file on Tony Blair during the course of his work at an NSA covert listening post as a US army Arab linguist. This is despite a long-standing agreement between the two countries not to engage in mutual spying in their dealings. It really doesn't surprise me though - and I daresay British espionage agents take every opportunity they get to reciprocate against US officials, including the US President. I would expect no less of British personnel, even if this is done with extreme discretion. Whilst we may be close allies with the US, and they with us, our interests don't always coincide and it is both foolish and dangerous to be deluded into thinking that they do; it seems that the US at least is under no illusions about this, if this story is true.

More understandable and obvious, perhaps, is this bizarre 'revelation' that an electric samovar, gifted to Her Majesty the Queen by a Russian aerobatic team about 20 years ago and since kept in the corner of a drawing-room at Balmoral, has been removed after a security sweep judged it to be a potential security risk, because of its 'arcane Eastern Bloc wiring'. Given that The Queen is resident at Balmoral for only relatively brief periods each summer I doubt if much of major political significance could have been overheard, although as She and other members of the Royal Family were there when Diana, Princess of Wales died 11 years ago perhaps it might have been possible to have monintored something other than the usual tedium of an upper-class family enjoying one of their holiday homes.