In addition to being sassed by British Prime Minister David Cameron and called out by London Mayor Boris Johnson on the first day of his overseas tour, Mitt Romney also accidentally revealed some top secret information, telling reporters that he met with Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, and “discussed Syria and the hope for a more peaceful future for that country.” Though this was not made clear in James Bond films, apparently even discussing meetings with MI6 officials is a faux pas in Britain.
As the Guardian’s Tom McCarthy explained, “this isn’t like bragging you just met David Petraeus. The British take on the national secret intelligence service comes with an extra-heavy dollop of the whole secret thing.” The Wall Street Journal reports that both parties were predictably tight-lipped about the incident later. A Romney adviser said, “The governor expressed who he met with today,” and an aide in Britain’s foreign press office wouldn’t even confirm that the meeting ever happened, saying, “Sir John Sawers meets with lots of people.”
