British Army officer arrested over military secrets leak
Torygraph: British Army officer arrested over military secrets leak
Senior British Army officer Lt Col Owen McNally has been arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly supplying military secrets to a human rights campaigner.
Lt Col McNally, 48, was held on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act by supplying sensitive civilian casualty figures, it is understood. The Ministry of Defence said the officer was being returned to the UK for questioning, where his case has been referred to the Metropolitan Police.
Lt Col McNally allegedly had access to the figures through his work for Nato's International Security Assistance Force, which is running military operations across the country, according to the Sun newspaper. It quoted a source as claiming he passed the details to a woman working for a human rights group in after the pair became "close" in Afghanistan.
American generals in the Afghan capital Kabul are said to be furious about the alleged leak.
Last year campaign group Human Rights Watch said civilian deaths in Afghanistan from US and Nato air strikes nearly tripled to at least 1,633 between 2006 and 2007. The group said it used "the most conservative figures available".
The MoD said in a statement: "We can confirm that a British Army officer has been arrested in Afghanistan on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act. The investigation has been referred from the MoD to the Metropolitan Police and is now under consideration. No further details will be released at this stage."
If charged, the officer will appear at the Old Bailey in London, which hears all such Official Secrets cases. He faces a maximum sentence of 14 years if convicted. Lt Col McNally joined the Army as a private in 1977 and worked his way up through the ranks before being commissioned as an officer in 1995. He is thought to be one of the Army's most senior former non-commissioned officers.
The most recent serviceman to be found guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act was Corporal Daniel James, an Army translator who worked for the head of Nato forces in Afghanistan. Cpl James, 45, an Iranian by birth, sent coded emails to about British troop movements to the Iranian military attaché in Kabul.
A a senior officer told the Sun of Lt Col McNally's case: "This is deeply embarrassing for the British Army and completely unprecedented. It mitigation, there is no suggestion that any of the figures were being leaked to the Taliban."