Brown to create US-style national security council
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Your support makes all the difference.Gordon Brown is to set up a US-style national security council, which he says is needed to deal with modern threats to Britain.
The Prime Minister is warning that the security council will have to defend the country against a new range of threats, much broader in scope than previous terrorist attacks.
A security document due to be published tomorrow says the new threats to security include climate change, increasing competition for natural resources, migration, and a potential flu pandemic. Protecting systems against the threat of computer warfare will be a priority. The CIA and the Pentagon are understood to have tested their defences against internet hackers following devastating computer attacks on Estonia which collapsed their Web system.
Figures in the Bush White House believe the attack on Estonia may have been carried out by Russia, although that has been denied by Moscow.
A British hacker was also arrested last year and faces trial for allegedly breaking into the Pentagon computer system. In Britain, attempts to hack into MPs' computers at Westminster last year were traced back to China, causing fears over the vulnerability of sensitive information.
Ministers, defence and intelligence chiefs and some experts from outside government may be brought together on the new council, which will co-ordinate the work of the intelligence services, the Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development.
Mr Brown is also expected to announce that the Intelligence and Security Committee, now chaired by Margaret Beckett, will be made a select committee of the Commons.
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