How to deploy the SAS (Secret military anti-terror file stolen, found in ditch)

The Sun (U.K.) ^ | July 6, 2006 | TOM NEWTON DUNN, VERONICA LORRAINE,MIKE SULLIVAN

[Stoat]

Also from the Times Online:

Terrorist response file found by road after car break-in - Britain - Times Online

The Times

July 06, 2006

 

Terrorist response file found by road after car break-in

By Jonathan Richards
 

 

A SECRET dossier explaining in detail how military chiefs would respond to a terrorist emergency has been found in a kitbag dumped in a ditch.

The document, which contained information about how Cabinet ministers and leading security officials would meet to discuss an emergency, as well as phone numbers of important military figures, was stolen from a car while under the care of an army officer who works for the counter-terrorist wing of the Ministry of Defence.

The officer informed the ministry as soon as he realised that the dossier was missing. The document, which was passed to The Sun after it was found by a reader, has been returned to the department.

Last night the MoD said that security had not been compromised by the theft of the document — which had been left behind the front seat of the car in the officer’s gym kit — but that “procedures had changed” as a result of the incident.

“This was not a secret document — it was restricted, which is the lowest category of security classification,” a spokesman said. “National security was not placed at risk as a result of the theft of this document. It was stolen from a locked car and has now been returned.”

The 46-page document, entitled Directorate Counter Terrorism & United Kingdom Operations Duty Officer File, contained information on how the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (Cobra, the emergency committee) would meet, as well as a list of ongoing anti-terror operations and their code names and commanders.

It also provided an A-to-Z phone directory of the most senior military figures in the country, including the Defence Secretary, the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Director of Special Forces, as well as a list of potential terrorist targets.

The dossier also revealed the home addresses and wives’ names of the MoD’s 28 top counter-terrorist personnel, including one of the Army’s most senior brigadiers.

The dossier was lost while under the care of Major Guy Jones, an army officer in the MoD’s counter-terrorist wing, who had left it in his gym bag as he went shopping. The bag was stolen from behind the front seat of Major Jones’s car while he was in his local Sainsbury’s.

At the time of the theft, Major Jones was on duty as the ranking officer to represent the MoD at any hastily convened national crisis meeting.

A Sun reader later found the dossier with the soldier’s MoD ID card, gym shorts and trainers after they had apparently been thrown out of a car.

“I found the bag just lying in the ditch by the side of the road as I was passing by,” the reader, who would not be named, said.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened it up and saw what it contained. There it was, all this secret stuff in the middle of a lot of smelly gym kit.”

As well the phone numbers, the document also contained information about how many helicopters can be scrambled at short notice, and how police cars should take army chiefs to meetings at Cobra.

The MoD said last night that most of the phone numbers contained in the directory would have been reasonably widely known, and that the information about helicopters could easily be obtained under a Freedom of Information request.

CLASSIFIED BAG

 

• The file, marked “restricted” on the title page, was recovered from a kitbag stuffed with sportswear

   

• The 46-page dossier was stolen from a car parked at a Sainsbury’s superstore in an unidentified town in the Home Counties

   

• It contains details of anti-terrorism operations including codenames and commanding officers

   

• It lists names and home addresses of some senior counter-terrorism personnel in the MoD

[Stoat]

Oopsie!

 

[PureSolace]

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.

[bybybill]

Don`t the Brits have real laws that they enforce about publishing secrets/

[NormsRevenge]

and like a good rag, they publish the plan.. How
NYTimes-ish

[SFC Chromey]

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?

[garjog]

"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.

[Marius3188]

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

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

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.

[Mac1]

We do; the Official Secrets Act

[Stoat]

They talk *about* what the file contains, not actually giving any useful details.

Thanks for reading the article   :-)

[Stoat]

Don't forget that in Jan. they found a UK Top Secret Submarine file in a pub. WTF!?
 

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.....

[ccmay]

I think the Sun handled this pretty well. There was no specific sensitive information disclosed, but they were not shy about giving the MoD a well deserved thrashing, and came off looking patriotic and sensible. Well done Sun. There are a few prominent American papers that could learn a lesson from them.

-ccm

[midnoon]

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.

[Armedanddangerous]

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.

[Stoat]

I think the Sun handled this pretty well.

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.

[Stoat]

I imagine Major Guy Jones will be guarding a radar tower in Greenland by the end of the week.

Just mail him his clothes.

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.

[Canard]

Do you want to quote the part where they 'publish the plan'?

[ASA Vet]

SOCOM Ping

[bybybill]

Why isn`t the British Government slapping somebody?