GCHQ dabbles in dark arts

UK spy agency GCHQ tried to prevent a Harry Potter book from being leaked online, according to its publisher.

Reminding people that the listening post doesn't use its extraordinary broad powers solely in the pursuit of terrorism, publisher Nigel Newton of Bloomsbury recalled how he was approached in 2005 by GCHQ after the snoops thought they discovered an early copy of The Half Blood-Prince online.

Someone from GCHQ then read out a page from the book to an editor, who said it was actually fake, Newton told Australia's ABC radio. The Sunday Times asked GCHQ for a comment and it responded: "We don't comment on our defense against the dark arts."

Which is pretty funny if you choose to forget that the agency claims it scours the internet and stores vast databases of information on everyone solely in the pursuit of, er, serious crime and terrorism. ®