Charles Farr

Charles Blandford Farr
CMG OBE
Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee
Assumed office
November 2015
Prime Minister David Cameron
Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism
In office
July 2007-November 2015
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
David Cameron
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
Alan Johnson
Theresa May
Personal details
Education Monkton Combe School
Alma mater Magdalen College, Oxford

Charles Blandford Farr, CMG OBE is a British civil servant, intelligence officer, and diplomat. He is the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and Head of the Joint Intelligence Organisation at the Cabinet Office.[1] Before that, from 2007 until 2015 Farr was the Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) at the United Kingdom's Home Office.[2]

Early life and education

Farr was educated at Monkton Combe School, then an all-boys independent boarding school in Somerset. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he completed a PhD in the philosophy of aesthetics.[3]

Career

Farr worked for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in southern Africa and the Middle East[3][2] supplying money to Afghan warlords in return for stopping the production of opium.[4] Farr was MI6's director of security and public affairs at the time of his appointment to the OSCT by John Reid, then Home Secretary, in the wake of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot.[3] This role made him the senior government official responsible for counter terrorist and organised crime strategy.[5]

In 2010 Farr was the recipient of a strategic briefing paper from the Quilliam think tank, the paper being a confidential review of the British government's anti-terrorism 'Prevent' strategy. The paper was "particularly critical of the view that government partnerships with non-violent yet otherwise extreme Islamists were the best way to fend off Jihadism."[6] The report provoked protests from various groups which had been identified in the Quilliam briefing as sympathetic or supportive of Islamist extremism, and was described as "McCarthyite" by Inayat Bunglawala, chairman of Muslims4Uk and Fatima Khan, vice-chair of the Muslim Safety Forum.[7][8][7] Bunglawala added: "In effect, Quilliam – a body funded very generously by the government through Prevent – are attempting to set themselves up as arbiters of who is and is not an acceptable Muslim."[8] A Home Office spokesman told the press that the report had not been solicited but added: "We believe the Prevent programme isn't working as effectively as it could and want a strategy that is effective and properly focused – that is why we are reviewing it."[7][8] Farr has been described as a "key figure" behind the operation of control orders and 'TPIM notices', their successors.[3]

Farr was passed over for the role of head of MI6, he also failed to be appointed Permanent Secretary at the Home Office. The Guardian reported that several officials at the Home Office threatened to resign if Farr were promoted to the top job.[3]

He has been responsible for the Prevent anti-terrorism strategy, the Interception Modernisation Programme under Labour and the current Communications Capabilities Development Programme, both being projects to enable to the government to surveil the traffic data of ordinary Internet communications of UK citizens.[2] The programme has resulted in the draft Communications Data Bill 2012.[3] During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Farr was in charge of security, he was behind the siting of missiles on the roofs of residential buildings in East London.[3]

The Financial Times reported in April 2014 that Farr was one of three people shortlisted for the role of Director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).[3]

In May 2014, Farr made a witness statement on behalf of the government and the three main intelligence agencies for the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, in a legal case brought by advocacy groups including Privacy International, Liberty and Amnesty International, explaining the legal basis for the interception of electronic communications under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.[5][9] This was characterised in the media as an explanation of how the security services can legally monitor "Facebook, Google and Twitter" usage by UK citizens.[10][11][12]

In June 2014, Minister of Education Michael Gove apologised to Farr for briefings critical of him appearing on the front page of The Times.[13] This related to a highly public argument between the Home Office and Department for Education about alleged extremism in Birmingham schools,[14][15] which required the Prime Minister David Cameron's intervention to resolve and require Gove to apologise to Farr.[16]

On 23 November 2015, Farr was announced as the next Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). The JIC is part of the Cabinet Office. He will take up the appointment when Jon Day (the current Chair) retires at the end of November.[17]

Personality

In a profile of Farr, The Guardian newspaper said that "...The problem for some is that Farr is not a politician, answerable to parliament, and is certainly not a conventional civil servant. Instead, critics say, he has never stopped acting like a spy. The man who should be assessing recommendations from the security services and offering advice to policymakers, they say, behaves instead like MI6's man in government, driving forward policies that suit his hawkish agenda."[3] The director of national security and resilience at the Royal United Services Institute, Charlie Edwards, said that Farr is "...not just an effective operator in the field, he is one of the most committed civil servants you will come across...Yes, he is robust, but first and foremost he is fair and most importantly he gets the job done."[3] Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil liberties advocacy organisation Liberty, described Farr as "...the only person ever to shout at me in the Home Office. I prefer awesome power to be wielded by humbler hands and officials to be both civil and servants."[3]

Honours

In the 2003 New Year Honours, Farr was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his service as a First Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[18] In the 2010 New Year Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in recognition of his service as a Counsellor in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[19]

Offices held

Government offices
New title Director, Office for Security
and Counter-Terrorism
Home Office
2007-2015 		Succeeded by
Unknown
Preceded by
Jon Day		 Chair of the
Joint Intelligence Committee
2015- 		Incumbent

References

  1. ↑ "Joint Intelligence Committee Chair appointed: Charles Farr - Press releases - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  2. 1 2 3 Leppard, David (22 April 2012). "Chief snooper pops out of the shadows". Sunday Times. Retrieved 22 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Esther Addley (13 April 2014). "Charles Farr - GCHQ's next spymaster general?". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  4. ↑ Theresa May under fire over spy tipped to be top mandarin - and his love for her glamorous aide Mail on Sunday, 2 December 2012
  5. 1 2 Charles Balndford Farr (16 May 2014). "Witness: Charles Farr, Statement number 1 (to Investigatory Powers Tribunal)" (PDF). Privacy International. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  6. ↑ Nawaz (2012): p. 348
  7. 1 2 3 "List sent to terror chief aligns peaceful Muslim groups with terrorist ideology". The Guardian. 4 August 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 "Mainstream Islamic organisations 'share al-Qaeda ideology'". The Daily Telegraph. 5 August 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  9. ↑ Sam Jones and Robert Cookson (17 June 2014). "UK has power to monitor citizens on social media, says counter-terrorism chief". Financial Times. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  10. ↑ "Google and Facebook can be legally intercepted, says UK spy boss". BBC. 17 June 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  11. ↑ Rhiannon Williams (17 June 2014). "GCHQ sanctions spying on every Facebook, Google and Twitter user". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Owen Bowcott (17 June 2014). "Social media mass surveillance is permitted by law, says top UK official". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  13. ↑ "Michael Gove apologises over 'Trojan Horse' row with Theresa May". BBC. 8 June 2014. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  14. ↑ Benedict Brogan (4 June 2014). "Theresa May is angry. Really angry". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  15. ↑ Toby Young (4 June 2014). "Five things you need to know about Theresa May's row with Michael Gove". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  16. ↑ Toby Helm, Daniel Boffey, Warwick Mansell (7 June 2014). "Furious Cameron slaps down Gove and May over 'Islamic extremism' row". The Observer. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  17. ↑ "Joint Intelligence Committee Chair appointed: Charles Farr". GOV.UK. Cabinet Office. 23 November 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  18. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 56797. p. 24. 31 December 2002. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  19. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59282. p. 3. 31 December 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
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