Mark Pritchard And His Other Jobs

Mark Pritchard And His Other Jobs

Tory MP Mark Pritchard,
who represents the Shropshire constituency of The Wrekin, is rather well
connected for someone who represents one of the countrys more rural areas. He
is also not backward in coming forward when it comes to engaging the services of
lawyers, the most recent instance being in response to an
undercover operation by the Maily
Telegraph over his contacts in Albania.
Pritchard is also a firm supporter of the security services,
and was not slow to insert his bugle into the row following the detention of
Glenn Greenwalds partner David Miranda at Heathrow Airport when en route from
Berlin to Rio de Janeiro recently. He was dismissive of Greenwalds
protests: “It may have inconvenienced
the Guardian and those that work
directly or indirectly for the Guardian”.And, of course, theyre subversive and rotten lefties, and
so dont matter. So who does matter? “But
the fact is they had concerns that there may have been somebody carrying
sensitive material that may have directly or indirectly undermined our national
security. And I'm glad the police took the action they did”. The security
services. Thats who matters to Mark Pritchard.And recently, he has “called
for a debate to reform the Official Secrets Act to ensure people are deterred
from committing treason against the country”. One wonders what his
definition of “treason” is. But that
is a side show compared to the claim made by the Tel that Pritchard is all too ready to exploit his contacts in
other countries for money, something he denies.The problem with both the steadfast support of the security
services, and the denial about his alleged behaviour as revealed in the Telegraph – together with the associated
threats of legal action – is that the
Independent has now further revealed
that Pritchard “receives fees from US
intelligence firm while holding security positions in Parliament”. Well,
well.Ali Soufan runs the Soufan Group, a private intelligence
organisation based in New York City, and “Mr
Soufan has been paying a British MP with heavy involvement in the Governments
defence and intelligence operations as well as with Nato, as an adviser at a
rate of more than £2,000 a month for 13-and-a-half hours work”. Who might
that be? Mark Pritchard, come on down!Soufan Group tells visitors to its website that Pritchard is
“a member of the UK delegation to the
Nato Parliamentary Assembly, and is also a member of the UK National Security
Strategy Committee”. Is it appropriate for someone in that position to be
trousering £27k a year on the back of his knowledge? Hopefully, more will ask
the question next time Pritchard sounds off on security matters.The Independent may have just done the Telegraph and Guardian a service there.