Britain’s secret intelligence service, MI6, pulled some of its spies from live operations after Russia and China decoded documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor.
The claim came in a report in the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper, which quoted unnamed officials from the prime minister’s office, the Home Office (Britain’s interior ministry), and the security services, Euronews reported.
“[British] agents have had to be moved and knowledge of how we operate has stopped us getting vital information,” a Downing Street source said, according to the newspaper.
Snowden leaked hundreds of thousands of documents while working as a CIA contractor two years ago. He then fled to Russia where he remains after being granted asylum. The US wants Snowden to stand trial over the leaks.
The article claimed China and Russia succeeded in decrypting some of the documents that compromised the identity of some British and American agents.
An intelligence source told the Sunday Times, “We know Russia and China have access to Snowden’s material and will be going through it for years to come, searching for clues to identify potential targets.”
But the report also quoted an official from the British prime minister’s office saying there was no evidence of anyone being harmed.
