07/11/2013 BBC News at One

The UK's spy bosses are about to be quizzed in public by MPs in an

unprecedented move. The bosses of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ will

be televised as they answer questions amid continuing damaging

revelations from former US analyst Edward Snowden.

A court martial is played a recording of the moments before a

Royal Marine allegedly shot dead a Taliban prisoner.

It has emerged the terror suspect who fled from a London mosque in a

burka has been seeking government compensation over torture

allegations. A surprise for London commuters as

the Duke and Duchess Cambridge turn up to support the Royal British

legion's Poppy Appeal. And the Olympic Torch is about to

make history, it's arrived in space ahead of its first space walk this

afternoon. Stuart Lancaster named a whole new

front row. Good afternoon and welcome to the

BBC News at One. In an unprecedented move, the heads of Britain's three

intelligence agencies will appear together in public for the first

time this afternoon. Their appearance in front of the

intelligence and Security to will be televised. The former director of

GCHQ said he hoped it means a move towards greater openness. It come

that are damaging revelations from Edward Snowden.

Today, Parliament will be host to something neither it or the watching

public have seen before. The three chiefs of Britain's spy agencies

appearing together in front of television cameras to be questioned

by parliamentarians. Andrew Parker is head of the

Security service, it deals with domestic threats like terrorism and

espionage. Sir John Sawers is the chief of MI6.

They collect human intelligence abroad from agents. Sir Ian Lobb and

is the director of GCHQ, the communications intelligence agency

which monitors phone and Internet traffic. Together the three will

talk about the threats they see and what they are doing to deal with

them. GCHQ has been the most secret but has been thrust into the

spotlight thanks to revelations by Edward Snowden whose leaks revealed

the scale of capabilities GCHQ uses in conjunction with the Americans.

Journalists who have worked with Edward Snowden said better oversight

of spies is vital. There was a system of mass spying that the

British and American people had no idea about. I believe it can bring

about accountability if there is political will. Sir Malcolm Rifkind

is chair of the committee and will lead the questioning. A time delay

on the television feed means secrets are unlikely to be spilt. The

committee itself will be under scrutiny to see if it is capable of

providing real accountability. A former GCHQ director believes this

is an important moment. This is the first opportunity the committee have

had in public to demonstrate its new role, its new status as a

Parliamentary committee. It has new powers and more resources and now it

has to convince the public it is capable of overseeing activities of

the intelligence community. Intelligence chiefs used to hide

from the spotlight, even their names were on known. Today they will be

thrust to the centre of attention in parliament meaning, for the first

time, the public get a chance to see the people who spy on Britain.

More from our political correspondent at Westminster. This

is a moment of extraordinary theatre. There is an industry of

intrigue and fascination around spying. Why? Because so much of it

happens in secret and will continue to happen in secret. In the next

hour, the three men we have been hearing about whose careers are

shrouded in secrecy, will appear here. They will face scrutiny in

front of MPs and the cameras. It will be intriguing to see what

anthers they can offer given the recent revelations romped Edward

Snowden. Intriguing will be the tone that MPs strike. Because this is

happening in public and because of the limitations of what these men

can say, to what extent will they be able to learn something? We will

learn something, no doubt, simply by seeing them. There is a back-up, if

any of the Spooks, the spies say something like a state secret, they

can pull the plug on the live TV feed. That would mean none of those

state secrets would leave the room. And you can watch full coverage of

the hearing on the BBC News Channel from 2pm.

It has been revealed in the High Court that the terror suspect who

fled from a West London mosque disguised in a burka is seeking

compensation from the government. Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, who cut off

his electronic tag before he disappeared, alleged the British

authorities were complicit in his torture in Somaliland in 2011. This

man brought this case before he went on the run, he brought it with

another terrorism suspects. Both of these men were claiming that when

they were in Somaliland they were tortured by authorities there. They

said the British were complicit. In the case of Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed,

he is naming the Foreign Office, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence

and the Attorney General. The other man is also implicating MI5 and MI6.

There was a very brief hearing this morning, very brief. Basically, that

involves whether secret intelligence could be heard at a future hearing.

The subject of his disappearance was not addressed. A military jury has

retired to consider its verdict in the court-martial of three Royal

Marines accused of murder. All three Marines, who are not being named,

deny murdering an Afghan insurgent. Audio footage of the incident which

led to their arrest had been played in court.

That was what was played in court, we can talk to our defence

correspondent. Tell us about what happened in court this morning. This

is the audio from a video which the judge last week ruled should not be

released to the media, even though it had been played in open court on

the first day of this trial. At legal argument, the audio and some

stills have been released to the media this morning. That was a small

part of around six minutes of dialogue between the three Royal

Marines which was caught on the video which itself led to their

prosecution. At the moment, the jury or board as it is known here, have

gone out to deliberate their verdict. Their verdict will centre

on the allegation that all three killed beyond known insurgent, or

were party to the killing of the insurgent in a field in Helmand

province in September 2011. What we do not know at this stage is whether

the anonymity order will be listed on the three. The judge gave his

summing up yesterday asking the board to consider the case against

each defendant separately and to use their own experience of life and the

Armed Forces when considering their verdict against the three. MPs say

nearly half ?1 billion spent developing the government's flagship

welfare reform may have to be written off. The Commons Public

affairs committee is warning oversight of the Universal Credit

scheme has been alarmingly weak. Millions of people who claim a

series of different, complicated benefits will eventually move to a

new system applying online and getting one monthly payment. The

ambitious project is called Universal Credit, but it has had a

troubled beginning. A tiny number are actually claiming it in a

handful of pilots. Braun went on to Universal Credit in September after

losing his job, he has not had a smooth experience. They said they

would get me an appointment at the job centre within two days, that did

not happen. They said they would return my phone calls within three

hours, that did not happen. MPs said ?140 million have been wasted on

computer systems. Today's report says the whole project has been

blighted by weak management. It is an unmitigated disaster of

extraordinary proportions. Ministers say they do not want to play the

blame game over what went wrong in the past, but to concentrate on the

future of this project. There is still the question of who takes

responsibility for the serious problems? Senior civil servants

still in place? Or the ministers themselves? Labour sources say there

was a concerted effort by allies of Iain Duncan Smith to shift blame

away from him towards the permanent Secretary of the department.

Ministers say they have full confidence in the top civil servant

and the new managers working on Universal Credit. We put a new team

in, a new team leader, and we reset the programmes to make sure that as

we roll it out safely and securely, it will deliver what we needed to

deliver. In greater Manchester, teams have been trying to explain

Universal Credit to the small number of people affected so far. There is

still a big question, when will this new system be ready for millions of

potential claimants? Almost one third of councils in

England are planning to increase council tax next year according to

new research. A survey by the new government Chronicle found that most

councils are considering a rise. The jury in the phone hacking trial

at the Old Bailey have been hearing house then you're in Ericsson and

the leader of the Fire Brigades Union Andy Gilchrist both had their

voice mail targeted because they both had affairs. -- Sven Goran

Eriksson. The prosecution says both of these

affairs became big news because of phone hacking. Friend Goran Eriksson

was revealed in 2004 to have had an affair. -- Sven Goran Eriksson. Most

of the evidence had been in written statements in the last few days, it

suggests that details of her mobile phone, PIN numbers for her voice

mail were done without her permission. Turning to Andy

Gilchrist, the Fire Brigades Union leader, during the strike the sun

revealed he had had an affair with a colleague in the fire brigade, some

years before it had to be said. He said he could not understand how

journalists seem to be finding out where he was at a particular time.

He felt they had access to confidential information about him.

He said he and colleagues joked that when they were leaving messages on

each other's phones that they might be being listened to by MI5 or MI6.

Tracy Holland, when she was confronted about the story, said the

journalist dealing with her from the sun said he had reported back every

night about the story to Rebekah Brooks. She was editor of News of

the World and moved to the sum at the point where this story was being

written. It is the Crown's case that she had to know about the phone

hacking. All the defendants, but in particular Andy Colson and Rebekah

Brooks denied their role in conspiring to be involved in the

interception of phone messages. They deny all the charges against them. A

20 old man has appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of two

teenage girls after they were hit by a car on Sunday morning. Our

correspondent is a Portsmouth Magistrates' Court for us. What

happened in court? This court hearing related to an incident which

happened in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police were called

following reports of a collision between a car and two teenage girls.

Olivia Lewry, who was 16, was taken to hospital where she later died.

The pair were best friends. They were described as independent and

strong minded individuals who lived their lives to the full. As news of

their deaths spread throughout the community, people left tributes and

flowers at the place of the crash. Last night, detectives announced

they had charged a 21 man two counts of manslaughter. He appeared at

court this morning and spoke to confirm his name and personal

details. He was remanded in custody and will appear in court tomorrow.

Our top story this lunchtime, UK spy bosses are about to be quizzed in

public about their work. The move follows damaging relegation is --

revelations from Edward Snowden. Still to come, something worth

tweeting about. Twitter makes it debut on the New York Stock

Exchange. Later, all the sport on BBC News,

including the latest England squad. Roy Hodgson names the players to

face Chile and Germany in friendlies as the team continues its

preparation for the World Cup. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

surprise hundreds of Londoners today as they joined poppy sellers outside

a tube station in Kensington. They travelled thereby bus to support the

Royal British Legion's Poppy appeal ahead of Remembrance Sunday. A few

milestone the Road, Prince Harry was accompanying the Duke of Edinburgh

for his visits to the Field of Remembrance.

It is that time of year when the generations stand together to

remember. In the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey, a

grandfather and a grandson. The Duke of Edinburgh, 92 now, who saw active

service in the Royal Navy in World War II, and Prince Harry, who on

Remembrance Sunday last year was serving with his regiment, the Army

Air Corps in Afghanistan. The Duke and the prince placed their

crosses, joining the many hundred already in the Field of Remembrance.

Crosses which embraced remembrance across the decades, from men lost in

the First World War on the battlefields of the Western front,

to the more recent casualties, soldiers killed serving in

Afghanistan. It was the first time the opening of the Field of

Remembrance had been attended by Harry. His grandfather had invited

him, a chance for the younger generation to become more visibly

associated with remembrance and a brawl which the Duke has performed

for years. The Duke remains very busy. He will attend five different

remembrance events over the next few days, most with the Queen. More and

more, there is the sense that the Royal family is looking to the

future, and the baton has been passed. Harry's presence was

appreciated by the veterans. I'm pleased to see him here. Why was not

expecting him to be here. Woodward told the Duke of Edinburgh was

coming. But he is one of us. He has served. The younger generation has

got to come, because Prince Philip and the Queen are getting on and it

is nice that the young ones can do it. And two more of the younger ones

were certainly getting aboard this morning. William and Catherine