British Intelligence Laptop Stolen at Station
LONDON (Reuters) - British police said Friday they were hunting a thief
who had stolen a
secret service computer containing confidential information on Northern
Ireland.
The laptop computer was snatched while an employee of Britain's domestic
security service,
MI5, was buying a ticket at London's Paddington train station.
``I can confirm that a laptop computer was stolen from the security
service employee on March
4 at Paddington Underground (station),'' said a government official who
declined to be
identified.
``The information contained in the laptop was well protected and we
believe it to be secure.
We are not prepared to discuss the nature of the material.''
The information on the computer was understood to be heavily encrypted and
was related to
the situation in Northern Ireland, but not to refer to the state of the
peace process or any
guerrilla threat.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said
officials were
always concerned at the loss of any sensitive material,
but they were
confident it was secure and that national security had
not been
threatened.
``We believe this is an opportunistic theft and not a
deliberate attempt
to gain access to security service information,'' he said.
Asked why agents were walking around with security information on
computers, the spokesman
said there were strict procedures for moving classified material. ``You
can certainly say
they've been tightened since this incident,'' he added.
The Sun newspaper said a squad of 150 police were working around the clock
to catch the
thief. Before the start of the 1991 Gulf War in Kuwait and Iraq, a laptop
said to have contained
war plans was stolen from the car of a Royal Air Force officer, who lost
his job as a result.
The latest theft comes as the peace process in Northern Ireland is in
disarray.
Last month Britain decided to suspend a fledgling home-rule government
over lack of progress
on disarmament by Irish Republican Army guerrillas.
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