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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.
For what?
Publishing secret materials.
Because no-one has published secret materials.
"...a thief broke into the vehicle and pinched it."
"The Sun reader found the dossier along with the soldier’s MoD ID card and gym shorts, shirt and trainers. ...he said: “I found the bag just lying in the ditch by the side of the road as I was passing by."
Knowing the Sun, two questions pop into my mind: a) how much did they pay him for this document (i.e. not to take it to another newspaper) and b) what are the chances that the passer-by and the thief are the same man?
Just speculation. But it is the Sun...
Just a little bit more than what any of the other papers would have paid. Market forces, after all.
b) what are the chances that the passer-by and the thief are the same man?
Probably about the same chances as the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Masons and the Bilderburgers all meet together to orchestrate and micromanage all major world events.
Sorry, just pulling your leg :-)
Seriously though, it's possible although I've found that usually the true answer to most questions is the simplest one. Occam's Razor, you know. It's perfectly plausible that the thief just chose the Major's car at random, smashed the window, grabbed the bag thinking that there might be money or something saleable in it to buy drugs. Upon finding no wallet and no obvious valuables the thief just tossed the bag and went on to break into a different car. He was probably accustomed to being handled by the police and certainly didn't want to have evidence to a crime in his possession It was probably a junkie who could barely read to begin with and certainly couldn't understand the significance of what was in the file. Yes, the thief could have brought it to the Sun and then the Sun could have made up the quotes that they attribute to the 'reader' but whichever way it was, it doesn't change the relevance of the story itself or it's significance in any way. The Sun's writers could also have stalked the Major, followed him around and broken into the car when he had it parked and was in a store shopping. It could also have been a twenty-second level Mason who did it because a twenty-third level Mason told him that the Major was destined to do something in the future that would upset the Master Plan, and the Major needed to be discredited so that he would no longer be a threat. I could go on and on with this but the end result would all be the same.
Yes, his next assignment is Ice Station Zebra.
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