DETAILS of a spying deal between the UK and the US were made public Friday, more than 60 years after the agreement came into force.
Headed top secret, the UK-US agreement was drawn up after World War II to enable the two allies to share almost all information gathered on foreign governments, military forces and other organizations.
The seven-page document, released by the National Archives, formed the basis for co-operation between London and Washington throughout the Cold War and beyond, in an arrangement unparalleled in Western intelligence.
Ed Hampshire, principal records specialist at the National Archives, said: The agreement represented a crucial moment in the development of the special relationship between the two wartime allies and captured the spirit and practice of the signals intelligence cooperation, which had evolved on an ad hoc basis during the Second World War.
As the threat posed by Nazi Germany was replaced by a new one in the East, the agreement formed the basis for intelligence cooperation during the Cold War.
National sensitivities were overcome in the formation of the deal and it was finalized March 5, 1946, although it took 60 years for Britains Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to confirm that it even existed.
The areas covered are listed as: 1) collection of traffic; 2) acquisition of communication documents and equipment; 3) traffic analysis; 4) cryptanalysis; 5) decryption and translation; 6) acquisition of information regarding communication organisations, practices, procedures, and equipment.
The pact stressed that the exchange of intelligence would be unrestricted, except when both sides agreed that specific information could be excluded.
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