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Posted on 07/05/2006 10:33:15 PM PDT by Stoat
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And at the very least, terrorists could use the secret information at their disposal to cripple the Government’s response to a major attack.
Armed with just a single telephone, a determined extremist could call around with bogus orders and fake information.
Security officials and resources could be tied in knots for hours.
The dossier, entitled Directorate Counter Terrorism & United Kingdom Operations Duty Officer File, was lost in a SUPERMARKET CAR PARK by Major Guy Jones, 38.
He is an Army staff officer who works for the MoD’s counter-terrorist wing.
Incredibly, he slipped the file into his gym kitbag. Then, during a shopping trip to his local Sainsbury’s in a Home Counties town, he left the bag behind the front seat of his car.
It could easily be seen by passers-by — and a thief broke into the vehicle and pinched it.
At the time of the theft, Major Jones was on duty as the military’s ranking officer to represent the entire MoD at any hastily-summoned national crisis meeting.
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| In the open ... road where a Sun reader found top-secret document dumped in a ditch |
The reader, who contacted us to highlight the security lapse, does not wish to be named.
But he said: “I found the bag just lying in the ditch by the side of the road as I was passing by.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened it up and saw what it contained.
“There it was, this secret stuff in the middle of a lot of smelly gym kit.
“Surely documents like that should not be allowed to leave a military base, let alone be put in the same bag as a gym kit and left in a supermarket car park.” The Sun will not publish any information that could harm national security.
But we CAN reveal it would tell potential enemies how quickly the military can respond to a call for help from civilian authorities.
For example, it explains how many helicopters are available to be scrambled at short notice, and how quickly they would be ready for action.
It also shows how police cars may be commandeered to whisk Army chiefs to top secret meetings at COBRA — the Cabinet Office Briefing Room.
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| ID card ... we obscured major's face |
The Prime Minister usually chairs the meetings, held a few yards from Downing Street in a suite of hi-tech offices rigged with banks of TV screens and visual aides. They are attended by senior civil servants, top cops, forces chiefs and intelligence experts to plan immediate responses to crises. The most recent meeting followed last year’s July 7 horror.
As news of the dossier blunder swept Whitehall last night, a senior security source said: “This could have been dynamite for anyone who wanted to do the nation harm.
“The document contains everything al-Qaeda or their sympathisers would ever want to know about what we do in a crisis.
“Used in the wrong way, the whole system could have ground to a halt and more lives lost.
“It’s nothing less than a public scandal — no amount of excuses can change that. The military really should know better.”
There is no doubt top brass have been hugely embarrassed by the shambles
Yet Major Jones will face NO disciplinary action.
An MoD spokesman said he followed all set procedures while the dossier was in his hands.
And he reported the file’s loss to his superiors immediately.
The Sun last night returned the dossier to the Defence Ministry’s Whitehall HQ.
The MoD spokesman said: “We are very grateful to The Sun for returning the document, which was stolen from a locked car, so swiftly. In light of the incident we have reviewed our procedures accordingly.”
The bungle follows a spate of recent security breaches and scares.
Plans to protect Tony Blair from a terrorist attack were left in a Manchester hotel in May.
The same month, files from John Prescott’s office revealing private details of senior politicians were found on a grass verge.
In April, spies lost three laptops containing vital information about al-Qaeda.
A year earlier, a man searching for computer parts at a rubbish tip was handed a laptop containing 70 secret files outlining details of an Army camp and Navy base.
Terrorist response file found by road after car break-in - Britain - Times Online
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What ever happened to the days where people would take responsibility and fix these things without always going to the media... is the almighty dollar that much better than honesty and honor these days. I fear for our own around the world. Anyone can be bought these days I suppose.
and like a good rag, they publish the plan.. How
NYTimes-ish
The fact that these twerps couln't help but put something in print about what was inside is sickening.
Get it in the right hands and shut up. No one would have known as MoD would have had to change procedures anyway.
Now every step they make is highlighted. Damned press. When will they join the fight against the ENEMY?
"The Sun will not publish any information that could harm national security."
But it had been the NY Times, the whole thing would be published in a series of installments under the heading: Government's Secret Plans to Invade Privacy and Deny Civil Liberties, part One of Seven.
Don't forget that in Jan. they found a UK Top Secret Submarine file in a pub. WTF!?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16592931&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=ship-shame--name_page.html
I disagree: I think this is actually a very good story. They talk *about* what the file contains, not actually giving any useful details. For instance, it says: "PROVIDES an A to Z telephone directory of the nation’s most important military figures, including the Defence Secretary, the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Director of Special Forces, ...." It doesn't name any names or give any phone numbers. The stuff about the choppers is similar -- any nitwit could figure out that choppers would be used in that way, and this story doesn't give any details about how they would be used, just says that the file does give details about how they would be used.
The reason I think this is a *good* story is because it alerts readers to the fact that their government has obviously screwed up in terms of security procedures to keep their own information safe! If I were a Brit, I'd be burning up the lines to my elected representatives after reading this story.
We do; the Official Secrets Act
Thanks for reading the article :-)
I had forgotten about that...thanks for the reminder :-)
Fortunately when it's left in a pub, there's no worry about terrorists getting it, them being such devout Muslims, eschewing all alcohol, sex, darts, pool, chatting up young ladies and evil activities and such...... At least until they're just about to hijack the planes the next morning.....
-ccm
That's right! The Sun managed to further embarass their government and gloat about it! I guess they have learned from the mistakes of the NY Times. How patriotic and sensible.
I'm just shooting for the moon here, but I imagine Major Guy Jones will be guarding a radar tower in Greenland by the end of the week.
Just mail him his clothes.
Agreed. Unlike some others here, it seems that you have actually read the article rather than just the title :-)
You won't easily find someone who hates the Left, the MSM, the NYT and their tactics more than I, but there is occasionally a time and a place for some unpleasant yet non-damaging publicity when it can serve a good purpose, and this is one of those times. Although the MOD's spin control may indeed be true in that there wasn't a lot of supersecret stuff in the file, it would indeed have saved a terrorist or a sympathizer a whole lot of work and perhaps given them some new ideas on some very evil things that they could do if this file had fallen into the wrong hands. Hopefully a public spanking like this will encourage the MOD to reevaluate their regulations and protocols pertaining to how various types of documents are handled. The bottom line is that unlike the NYT's exposes of late, this event has released no specific information or detail to the public and will ultimately serve to improve Great Britain's security and the overall fight in the war on terror. If the person who originally found the file had merely returned it to the owner or to the MOD, nothing would have been done about it and such an event could easily happen again, most likely with far more disastrous results.
You're probably right....there's always a need for a scapegoat in any matter such as this it seems, even if he was following regulations and did nothing wrong.
Hopefully this little event will spur the MOD to reevaluate their procedures regarding the handling of sensitive documents, and so perhaps some good will come of it all.
Too bad for the Major though....very unfortunate.
Do you want to quote the part where they 'publish the plan'?
SOCOM Ping
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