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A photograph was posted to Lt.-Gen. Yvan Blondin’s Twitter account Saturday from the funeral of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, killed in October by a known jihadist.

Along with the photo, Blondin wrote: “Dear ISIL, thinking of you. Some of my colleagues are in your area. Hopefully, they’ll have a chance to drop by.”

The tweet was removed on Monday afternoon.

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“GCHQ is happy to be part of a mature debate on privacy in the digital age. But privacy has never been an absolute right and the debate about this should not become a reason for postponing urgent and difficult decisions,” he said.

He urged U.S. technology companies to work with the security services, arguing that it is time they confronted “some uncomfortable truths” and helped stop their services from being used to “facilitate murder or child abuse.”

He suggested that unless they co-operate, new laws will be needed to ensure that intelligence agencies can track and pursue terrorists.

His comments are among the most outspoken yet by the security services. Tensions between them and technology companies have been growing since leaks by Edward Snowden, a former U.S. security contractor turned whistle blower.

In an article for the Financial Times, Mr. Hannigan said: “I understand why they [U.S. technology companies] have an uneasy relationship with governments. They aspire to be neutral conduits of data and to sit outside or above politics.