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News > World

UK Army Whistleblower: Unlike Snowden, I Want More Security

  • The British nuclear submarine HMS Astute can carry up to 48 nuclear warheads.

    The British nuclear submarine HMS Astute can carry up to 48 nuclear warheads. | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 February 2016
Opinion

Former British Royal submariner William McNeilly said the U.K. does not need nuclear weapons for economic and military reasons.

Ahead of the British parliament vote on Britain's renewing the country’s nuclear weapons, Royal Navy submariner-turned-whistleblower William McNeilly told Russia Today in an exclusive interview that leaders in the United Kingdom need to “wake up” as he spoke of the economic advantage of nuclear disarmament.

McNeilly became the center of controversy in the U.K. in May 2015 when he leaked a report he had prepared exposing dozens of safety and security failures in one of Britain’s Vanguard submarines in nuclear Trident base.

“I didn’t release my report to discredit the Crown,” McNeilly told RT’s Rob Edwards. “I didn’t release my report to discredit the Royal Navy. I released my report because safety and security is not being taken seriously. Because it’s a risk to the people and a risk to the land.”

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He spent three months researching and investigating the nuclear base and its submarines as part of his job after which he concluded that basic safety and security measures were lacking in one of the British Army's most sensitive and important departments.

He spoke from his hometown Belfast after he was discharged from the army and barely managed to avoid prison. He has been called a traitor, a Russian spy and a crazy person, allegations he denies.

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He told RT that comparing him to the likes of Edward Snowden and other well-known whistleblowers was not accurate. In fact, unlike Snowden and Chelsea Manning, he wanted more security. “But if you actually look at what I did and what they have done, you’d start to see that we’re polar opposites.”

Snowden and Manning “released information because of their concern for too much security, which I believe would put people at risk.” McNeilly maintains “ (I) released information for a concern for security. I wanted security increased. I wanted the defense of the country increased … Maybe that is why we were treated different.”

He went on to make his case against nuclear weapons from both an economic point and a military one.

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“Think about the cost. What else wins votes? Making cuts doesn’t win votes. They don’t have to make as many cuts if they cut out Trident. We’re talking about 100 billion pounds (US$140 billion) … It’s not good for the U.K. in any way. You’ve got floods, police, fire brigade, NHS, our real defenses that we use every single day that people need. People don’t want the boats and we don’t need them."

He added that the wars that the U.K. has been involved in do not require nuclear weapons, which several decades back were crucial as part of the Cold War.

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“We’ve not needed them in the wars we’ve been fighting. Maybe we needed them in the Cold War. They have served their time, they should be given respect for what they’ve done for our country during the Cold War, but not now. Times have changed. It’s a new world and they need to wake up, create real change, create a sustainable system.”

His comments came ahead of a protest due on Saturday against the government’s push for renewal of the nuclear weapons in the Trident base.

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