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British Army officer arrested over military secrets leak

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British Army officer arrested over military secrets leak

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Old 10th Feb 2009, 02:00
  #61 (permalink)  
 
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Following orders blindly leads only in one direction and plenty ended up there halfway through the last century.

Yes, feel free to spill classified info., or it's a one way slippery slope to Mein Ehre Heisst True.

So sophisticated, such progressive thinking. Pardon us old fashioned hillbilly Septics our reluctance to share, say, all F-35 design info. with thusly enlightened 21st century foreigners.
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 02:09
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In 1936 the National Executive Committee decided to dissociate itself from a speech in which Cripps said he did not "believe it would be a bad thing for the British working class if Germany defeated us".[1] Cripps was an early advocate of a United Front against the rising threat of fascism. In 1936 he was the moving force behind a Unity Campaign, involving the Socialist League, the ILP and the Communist Party of Great Britain, designed to forge electoral unity against the right. Opposed by the Labour leadership, the Unity Campaign was a damp squib: Cripps dissolved the Socialist League in 1937 rather than face expulsion from Labour, though Tribune, set up as the campaign's propaganda organ and bankrolled by Cripps and George Strauss, survived (and survives to this day). ...

When Labour won the 1945 general election, Clement Attlee appointed Cripps President of the Board of Trade, the second most important economic post in the government. Although still a strong socialist, Cripps had modified his views sufficiently to be able to work with mainstream Labour ministers.

...

In 1946 Soviet jet engine designers approached Stalin with a request to purchase jet designs from Western sources in order to overcome design difficulties. Stalin is said to have replied: "What fool will sell us his secrets?" However, he gave his assent to the proposal, and Soviet scientists and designers travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with Cripps and request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, Cripps and the Labour government were perfectly willing to provide technical information on the Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal-flow jet engine designed by RAF officer Frank Whittle, along with discussions of a licence to manufacture Nene engines themselves. The Nene engine was promptly reverse-engineered and produced in modified form as the Soviet Klimov VK-1 jet engine, later incorporated into the MiG-15 which flew in time to deploy in combat against UN forces in North Korea in 1950, causing the loss of several B-29 bombers and cancellation of their daylight bombing missions over North Korea.[4] ...

Stafford Cripps - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 07:29
  #63 (permalink)  
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In a paper a couple of days ago I read that the Lt Col had given different figures to a different Aid Worker. Their compound were next to each other and it was his job.

Now all those ready to hang him for divulging classified information - if it is your job to brief the press etc then you will have access to a whole raft of information to do your job. Some, indeed perhaps much, will have a protective marking on it. It is your job to select information that can be released into the public domain. At his rank he would have no one aboove him vetting what he could extract - we just don't have the manpower for censorship control.

The majority of protectively marked documents, certainly from Secret down, do not break out individual items in a document as being more sensitive than other. Some TS, and some more thoughtful authors, qualify each paragraph; this is hugely helpful. Where this is not done it becomes a judgement call.

I know of one, hugely caveated Secret document where it was spotted that one word was out of place. That one word made its sentence Top Secret and the whole letter was upgraded; I knew however that it would be possible to extract most information at a lower level.

I submit that there is no case to answer, certainly not on the facts as leaked so far.
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 12:53
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There may or may not be a case against the individual. Presumably there was enough evidence or suspicion to start such proceedings.

The larger issue on this thread is the agreement with the idea of leaking restricted information is acceptable for a military officer.

Have standards slipped that much?
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 14:00
  #65 (permalink)  
 
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In my experience, once the military decides it wants to proceed with one of its various kangaroo courts, even if fresh evidence comes to light which totally exonerates the individual they're trying to persecute (yes, I did write persecute, not prosecute), rather than breathing a sigh of relief and saying "TFFT - we can drop this now", they'd sooner push the case to the limit rather than be seen to lose face for bringing a false charge. Most victims will let them do that just to get it all over with - whereas if they dig their heels in and employ a defence lawyer, the case will probably be thrown out (with substantial damages) in the first few minutes.

I anticipate that the Lt Col, given a lawyer of even moderate capability to assist with his defence, will run rings around the prosecution case.

Military 'justice' hasn't moved forward much beyond the famous Blackadder court scene, believe me! "March in the guilty bastard and his lying friends" isn't so far from the truth.
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 18:52
  #66 (permalink)  
 
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.

.

So sophisticated, such progressive thinking. Pardon us old fashioned hillbilly Septics our reluctance to share, say, all F-35 design info. with thusly enlightened 21st century foreigners.

As some of us have been trying to point out to the great unwashed on "another" thread....
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 21:02
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There may or may not be a case against the individual. Presumably there was enough evidence or suspicion to start such proceedings.

The larger issue on this thread is the agreement with the idea of leaking restricted information is acceptable for a military officer.

Have standards slipped that much?
Standards went out the window when a certain Blair waved around a couple of dossiers claiming Saddam Hussein had WMDs capable of use within 45 minutes, that we could go to war without a UN resolution, that attacking Iraq would not increase the terrorist threat to the UK.....

These are grubby little pointless wars and if the Colonel got fed up spinning civilian casualty statistics - lying - to please his masters in Whitehall and Washington, then good on him. I'm sure the jury (do we still have those in Gross Brittania?) will agree.

Integrity is a personal quality, and personal qualities are absent from this generation of political and military leaders.
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Old 10th Feb 2009, 23:08
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that we could go to war without a UN resolution
Well, it is undoubtedly true, isn't it. We and you did.



Integrity is a personal quality, and personal qualities are absent from this generation of political and military leaders.
I'll give you that regarding politicians.

Regarding British or American military members, I believe you are wrong.

Divulging classified without the proper authority is a bad thing.

One of those black and white issues for me.

As the officer in question is British, I'll leave you to him.

But with the "well, it's ok because he thought the info deserved to be out there" attitude, is troubling.
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Old 11th Feb 2009, 03:16
  #69 (permalink)  
 
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"But with the "well, it's ok because he thought the info deserved to be out there" attitude, is troubling"

Whilst I hate the descriptor and bearing in mind some of the previous posts it's an "outside the box" sort of thing so it's not a surprise you are having difficulty with it BH

PS Where did you buy your "Anti Spam Post Alert" software from as it would be great to see if there is a UK equivalent somewhere
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Old 11th Feb 2009, 21:47
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One surefire "anti-spam" mechanism is to disclose shared classified information, and even worse, to condone that behavior.
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Old 11th Feb 2009, 22:59
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Totally agree but where did you buy the software
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