SNIFFING
THE BRITS

So was Tony Blair one of those prim and proper, well-behaved Brits, or was he the deviant, philandering finger-sniffing sort? The National Security Agency might know, but they’re not saying. Isn’t it enough, though, to learn that one of Bush’s staunchest allies in his catastrophically misguided assault on Iraq was being kept under the watchful eye of American intelligence?

As administration lackeys feel safer biting the vile hand that’s been feeding them for the past eight years, David Murfee Faulk, a former U.S. Navy communications officer, has gone on record with claims that the NSA had kept a dossier on then-U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s “private life.” Additionally, Faulk says the NSA monitored phone calls between Iraq’s first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer, and al-Yawer’s then-fiancée, the contents of which Faulk described as “courting, wooing and pillow talk.”

While there’s nothing on the books against poking around in the personal lives of foreign leaders, the U.S. and U.K. have had a long-standing agreement not to sniff each other out.

“If it is true that we maintained a file on Blair,” said one CIA official, “it would represent a huge breach of the agreement we have with the Brits.”

The NSA has refused to confirm Faulk’s accusations, but insist they operate only as law allows.

by SCOTT SAXON