British spy loses secrets in a handbag

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Sunday Times

April 26, 2009

British spy loses secrets in a handbag
Isabel Oakeshott and David Leppard

A BRITISH 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.

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.

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.


Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6169077.ece

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. Oh, dear .............

If only Monty Python were still making movies ..................

[WriteDown]

2. Surely...

They'll make her pay back those millions in spades for the cost of the lost operations and the lives put in danger. :sarcasm:

[greiner3]

3. How hard is it going to be to prove;

That karl rove knew the secrets were in there vs. him taking the bag because it went so well with his pumps?

[Algorem]

4. Good God,man!Bloody awful.

Bad show.Not cricket.

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. If only they had heard of PGP encryption

OR any encryption at all! Why are these bumbling idiots still in the employ of the gubment???

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

11. When you say "Open Source" around any government agency...

People physically recoil in horror. They could be 256-bit encrypting their info with GnuPG for free. But no.

Because they are too fucking stupid.

[Cronus Protagonist]

13. Yeah, but don't they even have their OWN encryption?

That's unforgivable.

[skamaria]

6. OMG!

The drug wars going to hell in a handbag...

[FloridaJudy]

7. Please tell me the handbag was found

At Victoria station. The Brighton line. And contained the manuscript of a three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality.

[Sal Minella]

24. In the cloakroom. Yes, please.

Inappropriate parentage for a fiance perhaps, but great comedy for the rest of us.

[FloridaJudy]

25. The line is immaterial!

To be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it have handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution, and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?

[Sal Minella]

27. You are a wonderful Lady Bracknell.....*applauds*

She might have been in a better mood if the market hadn't been out of cucumbers for her sandwiches....not a one to be had.....

[RC]

8. Whacky Jacqui is involved? Losing the bag can only be a good thing.

Really.

[Vidar]

9. I wonder what the Frivolous Organised Crime Agency has to say about this?

[ohio2007]

10. What ? Was he HIGH ? nt

[Demeter]

12. The Importance of Being Earnest! Oscar Wilde Lives!

In that comedy of manners, it was a baby in a handbag!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. That was my first thought, too: "A HAAAANDBAG?"

:-)

[fedsron2us]

21. Spy was not Lady Lancing by any chance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Lancing

[nilram]

15. Loose chips sink ships!

[struggle4progress]

16. Why's a 3 year-old tale, about MI-6 agent-lady losing vital info in her purse, floated now? Is MI-6

in the news for anything else? Why, yes they are:

David Miliband claims of US threat over torture case 'slippery', court told
* Richard Norton-Taylor and Ian Cobain
* The Guardian, Thursday 23 April 2009
... A separate high court hearing yesterday was told that 17 MI5 and MI6 officers are to be accused of involvement in the extraordinary rendition and torture of seven British citizens and residents. Lawyers for the seven, who include Mohamed, said they had been victims of "systematic misconduct" by the security and intelligence agencies as well as the Foreign Office and Home Office. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/23/david-miliband-binyam-mohamed-torture

Quick! Look over there!

[CJCRANE]

22. Good catch. A good old-fashioned "cock-up" works everytime.

Gets everyone up riled up and distracted...and it's believable too because you can quote the cock-up theory:

"Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor#Cock-up_theory

[Judi Lynn]

17. Bumbling agent lost ‘crown jewels’ of drugs war

From The Sunday Times
April 26, 2009

Bumbling agent lost ‘crown jewels’ of drugs war

The panic spread fast when an undercover British officer mislaid key secrets in a Colombian airport
Isabel Oakeshott and David Leppard

AS the plane from Ecuador began its descent into the Colombian capital of Bogota, Agent T must have felt a shiver of excitement about her new assignment.

She was being posted to the drugs capital of the world — where she had secured a role gathering intelligence in the war against the global cocaine trade worth £50 billion a year.

An undercover customs officer with Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), she would be responsible for dozens of undercover agents providing vital information on Colombia’s drugs cartels. The job involved liaising with MI5 and MI6, the British security and intelligence services, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In her handbag was a memory stick full of secret information that she had personally downloaded from computer systems at her old office, the Soca station in Quito, capital of Ecuador. On it, sources say, were “Soca’s crown jewels” — the names, code names, addresses and operational details of dozens of Soca officers and confidential informants.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6169946.ece

[SWr]

18. why

Tell me why she's still employed?

The Times says they are negotiating her future. WTFK is that ... colossal incompetence and she keeps her job?

Sounds like she put a lot of lives in danger because of her stupidity.

[LeftishBrit]

19. LOL - it's not really funny but it's just that it's getting to be a habit!

Officials have left CDs containing huge amounts of personal data about British citizens lying around on trains, etc.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Anti-drugs agent 'left memory stick on bus in Colombia'

Anti-drugs agent 'left memory stick on bus in Colombia'
A British intelligence officer undermined a large anti-drugs operation in South America by leaving a computer memory stick on a bus, it has been claimed.
By Daily Telegraph Reporter
Last Updated: 5:47PM BST 26 Apr 2009

The blunder risked the lives of dozens of undercover agents and their informants whose details were contained on the stick, according to reports.

Security bosses were forced to suspend operations against drugs barons in Colombia and relocate the compromised agents, amid fears that they would be targeted for retribution.

An officer working for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) left the memory stick in her handbag on a bus after landing at El Dorado airport in Bogota, where she was to start a new position working with MI5 and MI6 to gather information on the cocaine trade.

She had downloaded the information from a computer at her old office in Quito in Ecuador, it is claimed.

After the scale of the security breach became clear she was recalled to London to explain her behaviour and face disciplinary action, although she remains employed by Soca.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/5225655/Anti-drugs-agent-left-memory-stick-on-bus-in-Colombia.html

[bemildred]

23. Yawn.

Professional alarmists become alarmed at their own incompetence.

[yardwork]

26. How is this worse than outing Valerie Plame?

Plame was responsible for hundreds of agents in Europe, and outing her put them all at risk. Further, she was outed deliberately, not as the potential result of a stupid mistake.

It's interesting that the whole world agrees that this was a colossal blunder, but what about Plame?

[Turbineguy]

28. Serious Organised Crime Agency

do they have a Humorous Organised Crime Agency as well? Does "Organized" refer to the agency or crime?