Secret UK Files on Terrorism & Al-Qaeda Found on Train

Source: Al-Manar TV, 15-06-2006

The Independent on Sunday said it was handed secret government documents detailing the UK's policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering that have been found on a London-bound train.

According to the daily, the government papers, left on a train destined for Waterloo station, on Wednesday, contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body created to combat financial crime and the financing of terrorism. The confidential files also outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. They spell out methods to fund terrorists, and address the potential fraud of commercial websites and international internet payment systems. The files highlight the weakness of HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC) IT systems, which track financial fraud.

This latest security gaffe involving top-level government documents is the second breach in the past. The Government is already investigating the loss of other files by a senior intelligence officer in the Cabinet Office, who is understood to have been suspended. This official also left documents, containing a damning assessment of Iraqi forces and a Home Office report on "al-Qaeda vulnerabilities", on a train. They were handed to the BBC.

Late Saturday, a Treasury spokesman said the government regretted the latest incident. "We are extremely concerned about what has happened and will be taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen in the future."

Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, said people would be "alarmed" at this latest revelation. He said that until an inquiry had established how the leaks happened, "no official no matter how senior should be allowed to take classified or confidential documents outside their offices for whatever reason. "Our enemies don't even need to hack into our computers; they apparently just need to travel on public transport."

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, Conservative shadow security spokesman, said: "We've now had eight major breaches that we know of in six months.The government needs to get a grip in order to protect this sort of sensitive information and the British public."

She called for "cleared and trusted" supervisors appointed to "supervise handling of government information inside the machinery of government on a daily basis".