John Adye
Sir John Adye was director of GCHQ from 1989 to 1996.[1]
Squidgygate and Camillagate tapes
In the early 1990s, Adye was involved in attempts to establish the provenance of tapes of intimate conversations involving members of the royal family, according to evidence at the inquest into the death of Princess Diana reported in the Daily Telegraph:
- Lord Fellowes, the Queen's former private secretary, told the inquest that the revelations prompted a series of high-level meetings and correspondence over who had secretly recorded them, with input from Sir Robin Butler, the then cabinet secretary, Dame Stella Rimington, former MI5 chief, and Sir John Adye, the head of GCHQ.
It was decided that there would not be a full investigation amid fears that news of any inquiry would leak out and further fuel public suspicion.[2]
In his own testimony to the inquest, Adye denied that GCHQ was bugging the royal family, which he said would have required a warrant from the Foreign Secretary.[3]
Intelligence Services Bill
In 1993 Adye gave an unprecedented press conference with MI6 chief Sir Colin McColl to welcome the Intelligence Services Bill, which put MI6 and GCHQ on a statutory footing.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Former GCHQ chief denies bugging Diana and Royal Family, MailOnline, 28 February 2008.
- ↑ Richard Edwards, Home Secretary Kenneth Clarke 'blocked Diana Squidgygate tape inquiry', telegraph.co.uk, 12 February 2008.
- ↑ Former GCHQ chief denies bugging Diana and Royal Family, MailOnline, 28 February 2008.
- ↑ Colin Brown, Battle begins over security services Bill: Head of MI6 emerges from shadows to give press conference, The Independent, 25 November 1993.
