Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Apparently the Brits are viewing this as a careless accident … Oookaaaaay …

Times Online:

Secret government files on the al-Qaeda threat and the strength of the Iraqi security forces were left on a train by a senior intelligence officer, the Cabinet Office revealed today.

The documents, both marked “secret”, were in an orange cardboard envelope left on a commuter train between London Waterloo and Surrey yesterday.

The file was found on a seat by a passenger who passed to the BBC after realising what was inside.

Scotland Yard confirmed it was investigating the loss of the documents, which the Cabinet Office said was “a matter of grave concern”.

The news emerged on the day that the embattled Prime Minister was seeking parliamentary approval for extra security powers. The Government went on to win the vote - on whether to allow police to detain terrorism suspects for up to 42 days without charge - by a narrow margin with a majority of nine.

The security breach is likely to further embarrass the Brown government, which was left reeling last year after a civil servant lost computer disks containing the addresses and bank details of 25 million child benefit claimants in the post.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We are liaising with the BBC for the return of the papers.”

The Times understands that one file is a seven-page report titled “Al Qaeda: risks and vulnerabilities” which relates to the group’s activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, while the other was an assessment of the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces.

The official involved is understood to be a very senior intelligence officer based in the Cabinet Office.

Asked how many people would have had access to the papers, a Cabinet Office spokesman said: “’Secret’ is a high classification so they would have had limited circulation.”

Frank Gardner, the BBC correspondent who received the files said that a full-scale police search was launched as soon as the loss became apparent, as officials feared the sensitive information could find its way into the wrong hands.

The document on Iraq, commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, contained a damning assessment of the capability of Iraqi security forces.

The al-Qaeda document, commissioned jointly by the Foreign Office and Home Office, was classified “UK top secret”. It was so sensitive that each page was numbered and marked: “For UK, US, Canadian and Australian eyes only.”

Both assessments were compiled by the Joint Intelligence Committee, the Government’s main advisory body on intelligence matters.

The official involved was of sufficiently senior rank to take them away from his office but there may have been a breach of protocol in removing them from a locked briefcase to read them onboard a train.

Sources said: “We have asked the police to investigate this. They will look at the process and the background. People at this level have the authority to take documents of this type out of the building provided the papers are protected.”

Oh … For the simpler … SEXY … times of the Cold War …