in part:
The Daily Telegraph, a right-leaning British newspaper, said Friday that intelligence sources told the paper that Spicer and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, have apologized for the claims.
“The apology came direct from them,” a source told the paper.
In Washington, a senior White House official said that British officials had “expressed their concerns” to the White House, which responded by saying that Spicer had only referenced a story, not endorsed it.
“Ambassador Kim Darroch and Sir Mark Lyall expressed their concerns to Sean Spicer and General McMaster. Mr. Spicer and General McMaster explained that Mr. Spicer was simply pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story,” the official said.
Analysts said that GCHQ’s unusual reaction was an attempt to distance itself from the raging debate in the United States.
“They really don’t want to get drawn into the toxic contest going on between the administration and the intelligence agencies in the U.S.,” said Ewan Lawson, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. “They want to put some pretty clear space between them.”
He noted that the agency’s quick, robust statement was unusual, but to stay silent would have given “space to conspiracy theorists.”
David Omand, director of the GCHQ from 1996 to 1997, called the White House remarks “absurd” when asked about them by The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/17/britains-gchq-breaks-its-silence-to-slap-down-claim-it-was-involved-in-trump-wiretap/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_britain-1045a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.ef98700c828c
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