Fury as secret identities of SAS troops are leaked online by army association magazine in fresh data blunder that could have put lives at risk
The fresh data blunder came last year when a Grenadier Guards' in-house publication included a rollcall of the names and deployments of its most senior officers.
Ten men were listed next to the codename MAB - which is shorthand for MoD A block - the site of the UK special forces headquarters, The Sunday Times has reported.
The codename has been widely publicised online - in turn allowing any terrorist group or enemy state to work out that the troops were part of the SAS.
The document containing the information about the soldiers' identities was produced by the Grenadier Guards Regimental Association.
The group is a charitable association made up of former service members - with such organisations routinely handed information about active army personnel.
Defence secretary John Healey is understood to be furious at the data breach which comes just days after the Afghan superinjunction was exposed.
Head of the army General Sir Roly Walker has ordered an investigation into why the details of the SAS soldiers were so widely available.
He said according to The Sunday Times: 'The security of our people is of the utmost importance and we take any breach extremely seriously.'
'As a result of this incident, I have directed an immediate review into our data-sharing arrangements with our regimental and corps associations to ensure appropriate guidance and safeguards are in place to best support the vital work they do,' he added.
Meanwhile, SAS legend Chris Ryan was also concerned at the leak, and told MailOnline last night: 'There are serious questions to be answered here.
'Why is this data readily available and to who?
'This is an information management issue. Malicious or accidental insider, a breach has consequences.
'What classification is the in-house magazine and who signed it off?
'When these breaches happen, there's needs to be accountability or they will keep happening.'
The former military hardman-turned acclaimed author added: 'This is a "MABulous" blunder by the Guards - that's why they have their own squadron.'
It comes after the Mail revealed earlier this week that special forces, MI6 spies and government officials were among more than 100 Britons on the lost Afghan dataset.
It emerged that a secret operation smuggling migrants to Britain was being run by ministers after a military blunder put 100,000 'at risk of death' from the Taliban.
Ministers fought for two years to hush-up the data blunder with an unprecedented super-injunction that silenced this newspaper and other media.
The High Court was told the draconian gagging order was necessary to protect 100,000 Afghans the UK had put 'at risk of death'.
But after we were able to get access to the database and analyse it, it became clear that dozens of senior British military officers including a brigadier and government officials were also exposed.
The Mail's investigation triggered a massive secrecy row yesterday as security-cleared parliamentarians erupted in fury at being kept in the dark.
Lord Beamish, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, said: 'I am astounded at this.
'The idea that members of MI6 are on this list...We get quarterly reports from the security agencies and we have heard nothing at all. Why?'
The MOD said: 'It's longstanding policy of successive governments to not comment on Special Forces.
'We take the security of our personnel very seriously and personnel, particularly those in sensitive positions, always have appropriate measures in place to protect their security.'
A spokesman added: 'The government strongly welcomes the Intelligence and Security Committee's scrutiny of the Afghan data incident.
'Defence Intelligence and the wider department have been instructed by the Defence Secretary to give their full support to the ISC and all parliamentary committees.
'If ministers and officials are asked to account and give evidence, they will.
'We have restored proper parliamentary accountability and scrutiny for the decisions that the department takes and the spending that we commit on behalf of the taxpayer.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
13 minutes ago
- The Sun
Nato jets scrambled as Putin launches 10-hour blitz on Ukraine… while Kyiv's drones hit Moscow for FIFTH night in a row
NATO fighter jets were scrambled overnight after Russia launched a 10-hour blitz on Ukraine. Kyiv unleashed chaos in Russia after launching its own drone attack on Moscow for the fifth night in a row. 3 3 3 .
The Guardian
13 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The Tories are on the brink of annihilation in Wales – and it holds a lesson for Westminster politicians
By any measure, Kemi Badenoch's leadership of the Conservative party is not in a good place. In the last few months alone, she has been told 'her days are numbered', that she is in 'Liz Truss territory' and that she is 'hitting a new record low'. This is not a hostile audience. These criticisms come from the Telegraph, the Spectator and the Daily Express, outlets that have traditionally turned a blind eye to the most egregious Conservative leadership failings, like a blinkered parent who refuses to accept the repeated reports from teachers that their child is a bully. It's clear that what Badenoch is doing is not working. She needs to change course, not just for her own sake, but for the continued existence of her party as a political entity. In case this isn't obvious to her already (just 10% of people in the UK see her as a PM in waiting), there is a really handy example of what will happen to the Conservative party if it keeps being a Reform tribute act – the Welsh Conservative party. If you haven't paid any attention to the Welsh Conservative party, don't blame yourself, because hardly anyone in Wales has either. I have had the privilege of reporting on the Welsh Tories for a decade and they are the embodiment of all the challenges and failings of the current UK party. And when I say 'privilege', I mean it. Journalistically, it has been like shooting fish in a barrel, such is the level of incompetence exhibited by the Welsh Conservatives. But a gain for the humble hack is a loss for the people of Wales. Since devolution, Wales has been desperate for a sensible centre-right alternative that could genuinely challenge Welsh Labour, whose record is more patchy than Boris Johnson's account of Partygate. Instead, the people of Cymru have been condemned to a Welsh Conservative party that has preferred to dabble in Nigel Farage cosplay rather than genuine opposition. A party that could soon be all but wiped out in Wales. So what lessons can Badenoch learn from the situation her colleagues find themselves in across Offa's Dyke? Well, the first concerns demographics. The Welsh Conservative party is literally dying out. According to a study by Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre, in 2024 fewer than 10% of people aged under 65 in Wales voted for the Conservatives. In fact, 10% of the party's 2019 voters had passed away by the time of the 2024 election (the figure for Labour was 3%). If this trend continues, 40% of Tory voters in Cymru will have died by the next election. But surely these voters are being replaced? Well, no. If you want to see how hard the Welsh Conservatives are finding it to recruit younger people, then look no further than a fringe meeting that was held at their party conference in May. I remember looking through the programme and seeing that an event by the Welsh Young Conservatives was discussing how to attract more young people. They defined 'young' as under 45. That same conference underlined another problem: that the Conservatives scream incompetence right now. For one thing, Badenoch herself began her speech by saying how 'wonderful' it was 'to meet so many MSPs'. In Wales we have MSs (Senedd members); not MSPs (members of the Scottish parliament). The auto captions all over the hall also wrote 'whales' rather than 'Wales' throughout all of the speeches. And the lack of compassion and hope from the current Conservative party was hilariously encapsulated in the subtitles to the speech of Darren Millar, the Welsh Tory leader in the Senedd, which translated 'We are pro-roads, not just cycle paths' into 'We are pro-roads, not just psychopaths'. It also doesn't help that the Conservatives can't agree about who their Welsh leader is. In the constitution of the Conservative party, Badenoch is technically the leader of the Welsh Conservatives. However, Mims Davies (an MP in Sussex) is the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in Westminster, and Millar is the leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd. But if we accept that, for all intents and purposes, Millar is the leader in Wales (given he is the only one actually in Wales), we can see how his failure of leadership (and the failures of his predecessors) offer Badenoch a stark warning. The lesson here is that trying to mirror Reform is a losing play. Millar has continued the strategy put in place by his predecessor, Andrew RT Davies, and tried to be more Farage than Farage himself in rhetoric. Davies was investigated by the Welsh parliament's standards commissioner after he told GB News: 'Welsh Labour are dishing out £1,600 to anyone who wants to rock up and claim they are crossing the Channel illegally.' To be clear, the figure he was referring to was the Welsh government's basic income pilot, which will give £1,600 a month to care leavers and included about a dozen migrant children who came to the UK alone with no family. The Welsh Tories also show what happens when you fail to put forward any credible plans for actually governing the country. Regarding the biggest challenge facing Wales, which is the NHS, the Welsh Conservatives issued a statement saying they would 'properly fund the health service'. When asked where the money would come from, they listed a string of 'Labour vanity projects' which they would cut. Unfortunately, some of these ended in 2003. In the Senedd right now, the Welsh Conservatives are the official opposition. They constitute 15 of the 60 members (25%). Polling suggests that in the Welsh election next year they will receive between 10% and 13% of the vote. The electoral system in Wales means that any party that dips under 12% could be totally wiped out. An MRP poll in May suggested that they could have as few as three seats (and this is after the Senedd will have expanded to 96 members). These projections could be Badenoch's Welsh canary in the coalmine. I suspect she will simply say the canary wasn't determined enough, and keep on tunnelling. Will Hayward is a Guardian columnist. He publishes a regular newsletter on Welsh politics and is the author of Independent Nation: Should Wales Leave the UK?
Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
Iranian lawmaker points to regional insecurity if UN sanctions are reimposed
DUBAI, July 21 (Reuters) - Iran could withhold security commitments if European states invoke a U.N. mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, a member of Iran's parliamentary national security commission said on Monday, according to Borna news. "We have many tools in our disposition. We can withhold our commitment to security in the region, Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait as well as other maritime areas," Abbas Moqtadaei said in reference to Tehran's potential counter-measures to the reimposition of international sanctions. He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday between Iranian deputy foreign ministers and British, French and German diplomats in Istanbul. The three European states, known as E3, have said they would restore international sanctions on Iran by the end of August if the country did not enter productive talks on its nuclear programme with Western powers, notably the United States. E3 countries and Iran have in recent months held inconclusive talks on Tehran's nuclear program, in parallel to indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Israel's attack on Iran in June led to the suspension of such talks. "Europe is not in a position to endanger itself in the... Hormuz Strait when it is itself in political, economic and cultural conflicts with Russia, China and even the United States," Moqtadaei said in an interview with Iran's semi-official Borna news agency. Last week, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said Tehran would react to the three European states if they invoked the UN snapback mechanism, which expires on October 18. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the E3 lack the legal standing to invoke the mechanism, arguing that their stance on Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month made them no longer participants to a 2015 nuclear deal to which the snapback mechanism is linked. The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the nuclear pact - from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme. In the past, Iran has used the threat of disrupting maritime transit in the Strait of Hormuz or no longer stopping Europe-bound drug trafficking as a means to push back against Western pressures on its nuclear programme.
