Snowden leaks mean terrorists are changing tactics to slip under the radar, say British secret services

A senior counter-terrorism official said Snowden had helped terrorists

Stephen Phipson said terrorists were given 'full sight' of GCHQ tradecraft

The 'very damaging' leaks were published in the Guardian newspaper



Terrorists are changing tactics to slip under the radar after being given ‘full sight’ of GCHQ tradecraft by whistleblower Edward Snowden, a counter-terrorism director warned today.

Stephen Phipson, one of the Government’s most senior counter terrorism officials, said the surveillance leaks published in the Guardian newspaper had led to a ‘substantial reduction’ in intelligence on suspects as they have changed their methods of communication.

The director at the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) said the release of information from the Snowden documents had given extremists ‘full sight’ of tools and techniques used by the British listening station GCHQ, which had had a ‘severe’ effect on spying operations.

Listening post: GCHQ's headquarters in Cheltenham

He told a counter terrorism conference: ‘The leaks we have all seen in the press have made the work of the OSCT, the intelligence agencies and the apparatus of the Government much, much, much more difficult.

‘Our adversaries, the terrorists, what they now have is full sight of the sorts of tools and the range of techniques that are being used by Government and I can tell you the data shows a substantial reduction in the use of those methods of communication as a result of the Snowden leaks.

‘That makes it much more difficult to track the activity and the illegal activity of terrorists.

‘So the Snowden effect has been a very, very severe one.’

Whistleblower: Edward Snowden was a contract employee at the U.S National Security Agency

Attack: Mr Phipson described Snowden's leaks as 'very damaging'

He went on to say the swathe of sensitive information leaked by Snowden, who stole tens of thousands of confidential and top secret files, had seriously damaged national security.

‘Basically you see people using less of the methods that he (Snowden) described the Government uses to track terrorism and as a natural consequence terrorists are trying to use other methods. We have to be more agile,’ he said.

‘There is no doubt it has been very damaging.

‘When you start revealing what the Government does to stop terrorism then you are going to get terrorists using other methods to try to get around it.’



Snowden, a former American National Security Agency IT contractor, caused uproar last June when he disclosed details of the extent of surveillance and electronic intelligence gathering by his former employers and GCHQ to the Guardian and Washington Post.

The 30-year-old fled the United States where he faces espionage charges and has since been granted temporary asylum in Russia.

He claimed that the NSA was mining the personal data of users of Google, Facebook, Skype and other US companies.

Further leaks suggested the United States had monitored phone conversations of some 35 world leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, while GCHQ has been accused of intercepting millions of Yahoo webcam chats as part of massive surveillance operations.

But earlier this month a watchdog rubbished Snowden’s claims of ‘mass intrusion’ by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ into the private lives of millions of innocent citizens.

The Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Anthony May said they were not breaking the law, nor were they using US intercept material to snoop on Britons.

Mr Phipson is the latest senior figure to blast the leaks, which have been described within Whitehall as effectively a ‘guidebook for terrorists’.

Last year, Andrew Parker, the director general of MI5 said it had handed terrorists the ‘gift’ of being able to attack Britain at will.

The Prime Minister has also warned they have made the country less safe, while former defence secretary Liam Fox has accused him of treason.

Today Mr Phipson, who is the deputy to OSCT head Charles Farr, also warned that Syria is now the ‘front line of terrorism’ for Britain.