Secret U.K. documents left on train.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis

In yet another embarrassing flub involving highly classified documents and the British government, top-secret papers were left on a train in Britain not once, but two times in the same day.

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The first incident occurred on a London train going from the Waterloo station to Surrey. According to The Guardian, a senior security official left top-secret documents compiled by the government's joint intelligence committee detailing al-Qaeda activity in Pakistan and an assessment of Iraq's security forces. A passenger found them in an orange folder and turned them in to the BBC's security correspondent. One of the documents, a seven-page report on "al-Qaeda vulnerabilities," referred to assessments of the terrorist organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The document was considered so sensitive that each page was numbered and marked "For U.K., U.S., Canadian, and Australian eyes only."

After an investigation, the Metropolitan police determined that the senior official who left the files was not authorized to remove them from Whitehall. The official was suspended pending a police investigation.

According to The Times of London, there are rules for how confidential documents should be removed from Whitehall, and they had not been followed. Documents can be taken on public transport, but they have to be kept inside a locked briefcase with two straps at all times. The key should be carried in the owner's pocket, and the case must be held. Also, the papers should not be read while in transit to prevent them from being seen by other passengers or left behind.

On the same day, separate secret government files concerning Iraq were found on a train headed to London. Those documents reportedly revealed Britain's policy on fighting terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and money...