Sunday 26 April 2009

Carry On Spying...

A Britsh agent has thrown the war against drug traffickers into chaos by leaving top secret information about covert operations on a bus in South America.

In a blunder that has cost taxpayers millions of pounds and put scores of lives at risk, the drugs liaison officer lost a computer memory stick said to contain a list of undercover agents’ names and details of more than five years of intelligence work.
Less 007, more Maxwell Smart...
It happened when the MI6-trained agent left her handbag on a transit coach at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia. Intelligence chiefs were forced to wind up operations and relocate dozens of agents and informants amid fears the device could fall into the hands of drugs barons.
*sigh*

And once again, it’s Jacqui and her jowls that are in the frame:
The incident, which was hushed up by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the agent’s employer, is an embarrassment for the government. It is another blow for Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, who has ultimate responsibility for Britain’s anti-drugs operations and the safeguarding of criminal intelligence.
The most mindboggling aspect, however, is the excuse SOCA came up with:
The agency yesterday confirmed the data loss but said it had happened soon after Soca had been set up in 2006, “whilst staff were still working to the data-handling policies of precursor agencies”.
Whose data-handling policies were, presumably, quite blasé about the recording of sensitive material onto datasticks and then popping them into your handbag...?

9 comments:

Oldrightie said...

Labour=utter incompetence.

Vetnurse said...

God help lower rank police if they do anything even sniffs of wrong and they get s*it on from a great height. The higher up the pole you get it is not a longer way down you are just given a comfy seat to sit on and rest a bit.

Dr Evil said...

MI6 training, eh? Doesn't that include a course on encryption of data then? I don't work for MI6 but my reports are confidential so are sent with security tags that only the intended recipient knows and can open the document. Anything requiring more security (these are medical notes and information BTW, nothing else)gets encrypted. If I can do it a bloody secret agent should be able to do it too!

North Northwester said...

"the Serious Organised Crime Agency" - they really are good at naming things, aren't they, New Labour?

JuliaM said...

You should see the logo they had dreamed up (at god-knows-what expense).

I'm reliably informed that they are known as 'The Thundercats' as a result... ;)

JuliaM said...

Though perhaps that should now be 'The Blundercats'...? ;)

Anonymous said...

Well, got to keep the "women spy" quota i guess.

David Duff said...

Rumours that the lady concerned was blond have been rigorously denied!

Dr Evil said...

Dammit, I liked Thundercats. I used to watch it, but only because the children were watching too. You just have to force yourself. Same with Blue Peter, She Ra and all that other rubbish.