"Oversight and review of intelligence services is always difficult given the secrecy necessary for many of their activities to be carried out effectively.
But he raised many issues that are still pertinent, from Britain's future in Europe to the primacy of the City of London and the financial industry; from the threat of rising inequality to the activities of U.S. intelligence services around the world.
It said the ambassador had been told: "The activities of Russian intelligence services in connection with the forgery of Irish passports and the effective theft of the identity of six Irish citizens are completely unacceptable and not the behavior the [Irish] government would expect from a country with which we have friendly relations".
She implied further discussions were needed, with a view to placing the activities of the intelligence services on a firmer basis.
The Justice Ministry said Mr. Habré was wanted in particular because of the activities of the Chadian intelligence services under his command, which the ministry said had conducted "collective and arbitrary arrests, mass murder and systematic torture of certain ethnic groups" during his rule, from 1982 to 1990.
In the event of alarming online activity, French intelligence services could then request access to a user's personal information, including their identity.
The Germans publicly insisted that the activities of the US intelligence services in Europe be put on a new legal basis.
"The activity by [Russian intelligence services] is part of an ongoing campaign of cyber-enabled operations directed at the US government and its citizens," wrote the authors of the government report.
"It seems to me quite odd," said Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who has written several books about the Russian intelligence services, and founded a Web site called Agentura.ru, which monitors the activities of intelligence agencies worldwide.
