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LONDON - Secret Government documents detailing Britain's policies towards fighting global terrorist funding, drugs trafficking and money laundering have been found on a train and handed to the Independent on Sunday.
The Government papers, left on a train destined for Waterloo, on Friday, contain criticism of countries such as Iran that are signed up to the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body to combat financial crime and financing of terrorism.
The confidential files outline how the trade and banking systems can be manipulated to finance illicit weapons of mass destruction in Iran. They spell out methods to fund terrorists, and address the potential fraud of commercial websites and international internet payment systems. The files also highlight the weakness of HM Revenue & Customs' IT systems, which track financial fraud.
The Independent on Sunday said it had returned the documents, and would divulge no details contained in them. This latest gaffe involving top-level Government documents is the second breach in the past week and is hugely embarrassing to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Government is already investigating the loss of other files by a senior intelligence officer in the Cabinet Office, who is understood to have been suspended. This official also left documents, containing a damning assessment of Iraqi forces and a Home Office report on "al Qaeda vulnerabilities", on a train. They were handed to the BBC.
The Government has been hit by a series of security breaches in the past year. Two disks containing the personal details of 25 million people were lost, while the details of 3 million driving-test candidates were mislaid.
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who is in Japan at the G8 meeting, has been told of the latest debacle, and his department insists steps are being taken to tighten security procedures.
Opposition politicians reacted to the latest news with astonishment. Baroness Neville-Jones, shadow security minister, said the Government needed to "get a grip" on the issue of protecting sensitive data, and lamented "yet another example of a lapse in discipline".
Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "This latest failure is extremely damaging to the Government's fight against terrorism as no one knows where the information may have ended up. This is another appalling embarrassment for an accident-prone Government."
The discovery of these files is all the more embarrassing as they relate to a global financial crime conference organised by the FATF in London this week.
Sir James Sassoon, the Treasury's Ambassador to the City, is president of FATF, the Paris-based watchdog, which has 32 members around the world.
The revelations will come as a blow to Sir James, who is hosting this week's gathering of 450 of the world's leading anti-crime experts. He is said to be furious about the latest breach.
The files include briefing notes for the closed conference to be held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre and draft speeches to be delivered by British officials at No 11 Downing Street on Friday at a reception for the most senior FATF representatives.
The FATF has already expressed its concern that Iran lacks an effective system to prevent money laundering. It wants Iran to criminalise the financing of terrorism and stop illicit money being diverted to its nuclear programme. The watchdog says this is a significant vulnerability within the financial system.
It is negotiating with countries such as China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Burma and the Comoros on their anti-terrorism policies.
- INDEPENDENT
