-Caveat Lector- Euphorian spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site and thought you should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited Observer site, go to http://www.observer.co.uk Blair fury over terror warnings to the public Security breach hits Foreign Office Kamal Ahmed, Antony Barnett and Martin Bright Saturday December 21 2002 The Guardian Tony Blair has intervened to prevent the Government's war on terror policy descending into chaos after senior officials admitted that the public was being unnecessarily scared about the level of threat to Britain. He made his move as fresh evidence revealed that Foreign Office computer systems used to disseminate intelligence material, have suffered a series of security breaches. Officials had to suspend the system for three days late last year because they were so concerned that it was leaking information. As Ministers warned Downing Street and Cabinet Office officials that they were in danger of 'scaring the public witless' with a string of terror alerts, The Observer can reveal that Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's Director of Communications, gave civil servants a dressing down over security briefings that were not cleared with Number 10. The briefings led to a series of headlines suggesting that Britain was on the brink of a terrorist attack. Officials also said that 'sooner or later' a terrorist would get through and that it was time to build up a system of 'national resilience', where people learned to live with the terrorist threat. One Cabinet Minister said there was a degree of 'macho posturing' over the threat of the terrorist attacks. 'The problem is that a lot of this is leaving the public concerned about what actually is going on,' the Minister said. 'If you don't have something concrete to say, then don't say anything.' Blair was left 'angry and irritated', according to one source, after he felt he was answering questions during Prime Minister's Questions last week without a full knowledge of two briefings given by the Cabinet Office, in charge of British security issues, and the Foreign Office, on Iraq, an hour before he arrived at the House of Commons. At the following morning meeting of Government staff, Campbell said that there 'was no point in having a strategy' for telling the public the latest details of the terrorist threat if departments started operating unilaterally. Last night the Foreign Office said that it was investigating new evidence obtained by The Observer that highly sophisticated computer systems used to convey sensitive intelligence material did not work properly. A spokesman insisted: 'Our systems for handling classified information are among the most secure of any used by diplomatic services worldwide. We take any breach of security very seriously.' A whistleblower contacted The Observer with the evidence a few weeks after confidential Foreign Office documents appeared on a website which showed that a year before 11 September the sys tems were experiencing serious problems. The whistleblowersaid he had decided to speak out because he was worried about the possibility of a threat to national security. Last month the Foreign Office was criticised for failing to warn tourists about the danger of travelling to Indonesia in the run-up to the Bali bomb atrocity. Almost 200 people, including 26 Britons, died in the massacre on the holiday island in October. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, has studied the concerns raised by the whistleblower. He is writing to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, demanding to know whether these computer problems were responsible for the lack of clear travel advice in relation to both the bombings in Bali and in Mombasa, Kenya. The Whitehall source claims that at the end of last year the system was shut down for three days after a blunder allowed hundreds of pieces of top secret material to go astray. Some documents included highly clas sified information on codewords used by MI6. The source claims there is such a lack of trust in the system, called Aramis, that intelligence officers downgrade the security status of classified documents so they can read them on their PCs. This means that top secret material is being used on systems that are easy prey for hackers. The source said: 'When MI6 wants to pass on grade A intelligence material it can do so quickly and efficiently. Once that information has arrived at the Foreign Office, however, it is anyone's guess where it goes from there.' Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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