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MI6 Facebook | 07/08/2009 9:35 am

Wife of Britain's Incoming Spy Chief Blows His Cover With Facebook Page

Talk about a lapse in judgment! Wife posts photos, family information on Facebook for all to see as hubby readies to take on top-secret job.
By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© Shutterstock

Some sharing is simply too much sharing when it comes to who sees what on the Internet. In this case, the wife of Britain’s incoming MI6 intelligence agency may have shared a little too much about her family on her Facebook page.

Sir John Sawers was in a bit of hot water after his wife Shelley posted information about the couple’s London apartment, their three kids, friends and where they go on vacation. She even posted photos of her hubby on the beach wearing swimming shorts, and photos of him at family gatherings. There were even comments from relatives joking they would soon be calling Sawers "Uncle C." "C" is what the MI6 chief is commonly called. Mrs. Sawers reportedly didn’t activate the privacy settings that would only let a select group of approved Facebook friends see the photos. Instead, up to 4 million people on Facebook’s "London" network could get a glimpse of the spymaster; there are roughly 200 million Facebook users worldwide. Sawers, currently the UK ambassador to the United Nations in New York, is set to take over as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, putting him in charge of all of Britain’s spying operations abroad. The Telegraph reports that there were calls from MPs for an inquiry into the lapse and questions over how the information was not picked up during the extensive security vetting process before Sawers’ appointment.

"Normally, I would welcome greater openness in government for officials or politicians but this type of exposure verges on the reckless," Edward Davy, the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman, told The Mail

The Mail says there are now fears that the blunder may have compromised the safety of Sawers’s family and friends. Mrs. Sawers’s postings also exposed the couple’s friendships with senior diplomats and well-known actors, and revealed that her husband’s brother-in-law is an associate of controversial right-wing, Holocaust-denying historian David Irving. Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, told The Daily Mail the Sawers family would almost certainly need to be re-housed and the children might require extra protection.

"It is a most distressing and unfortunate security lapse that will take a great deal of money to put right," he said.

47 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

deber B
Marjorie, "ain’t" it the truth?    Look at his record!!
By deber B on 07/08/2009 12:43 pm
C jay

People "Internet-Ignorant?" What about our US agencies without enough security to protect their communication systems? Now, that is dumer than dumb - STUPID.

By C jay on 07/08/2009 8:29 pm
Lady Gator
C Jay — Lots of scary "dumber than dumb" folk out there.  They live among us!  I think wowowow should have a question - if you could name the "dumbest of the dumber than dumb" - there would probably be at lest 485 hits.  :)
By Lady Gator on 07/09/2009 10:13 am
C Hardy
I wonder if she had another motive behind doing this. We can all pretty much bet she knew doing this was wrong and she would get busted.  Maybe she wasnt happy with hubby getting the new job and in turn she made it worse for her and her family. 
By C Hardy on 07/08/2009 10:14 am
Murphy Mac
C Hardy, I think you could be right…. but maybe more to the point… maybe she blew his cover because she just doesn’t like him!
By Murphy Mac on 07/08/2009 10:34 am
C Hardy
Murphy that could also the be case, I would hope not but you never know.  I mean I am the wife of a cop and I know there are certain things not to be discussed that may be told to me by my husband or not!  So I am 99.9% sure this lady knew what she was doing and knew exactly where it would land her and her kids and her husband, I feel it was done on purpose or maybe she is just that stupid.  I tend to think people are smarter then that but some keep proving me wrong.  :)
By C Hardy on 07/08/2009 10:42 am
Murphy Mac
Yes, C, your explanation of how you know what to keep "close to the vest" via your husband’s job is totally sensible. It could be that this woman has just cost her husband his job. No matter the reason, she truly has sabotaged her husband and his ability to help pay the bills.
By Murphy Mac on 07/08/2009 10:56 am
Lucinda Herbert
She may be passive-aggressive and decided this might well be the best way to sabotage his job — and I wouldn’t go so far as to say she disliked him, simply that she no longer wanted to live that kind of life.  Spouses at that level lead fairly lonely lives — those with the job have their spouses as confidentes at some level, but the spouses have nobody — especially if they are married to someone at the top.  Maybe she just wanted to return to her cottage in England! — seriously!
By Lucinda Herbert on 07/08/2009 9:47 pm
S G
Isn’t it possible C that she, as some do thought only her friends and family could see it. I mean I see people on here ( James you are a reporter guy so it isn’t you I speak of) who have left their real names,say where they live etc. It is too scary to do such a thing. I want to say to them hey please don’t give your info out. If I disagree with you I simply agree to disagree. Some out there on the other hand well you just don’t know.
By S G on 07/08/2009 11:00 am
Rachel F

"Isn’t it possible C that she, as some do thought only her friends and family could see it."

SG, I have to agree with you. As a programmer analyst, I’ve had the …interesting experience…of dealing with a lot of software users … it’s amazing, the things that you see. Personally, unless I see evidence of an "ulterior motive" as some have suggested, I’m inclined to think this woman simply wasn’t familiar with the technology, or as familiar as she needed to be (which, btw, doesn’t mean that she’s stupid, as some have said)…

By Rachel F on 07/08/2009 1:52 pm
S G
Exactly:)
By S G on 07/08/2009 7:51 pm
F P
Oh Oh!  She’s and he are in deep doo-doo, methinks.
By F P on 07/08/2009 10:25 am
deber B
f p, isn’t that the truth?   I cannot imagine anyone being that dumb.   Unless, of course, she is a new, young, trophy wife and doesn’t have to be smart.
By deber B on 07/08/2009 12:28 pm
Rachel F
Deber, have you worked with people learning new software, particularly those who are not particularly computer savvy? They don’t have to be stupid people, but they can do very stupid things (I know, I’ve worked with them :P ).
By Rachel F on 07/08/2009 1:53 pm
deber B
LOL…I’ve been on the side of learning new software before! 
By deber B on 07/08/2009 2:04 pm