MOD / FCO lose data on a stick - prime Minister lied to House of Commons about plans for military training camp for Taliban in Musa Qala

Independent today Revealed: British plan to build training camp for Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

Gordon Brown The Prime Minister made a statement to the UK Parliament on 12 th December 2007 : "Our objective is to defeat the insurgency by isolating and eliminating their leaders. We will not enter into any negotiations with these people."Hansard 12 Dec 2007 : Column 303

He was tackled about this by David Cameron ..."Press headlines say clearly that the Government plan to talk to the Taliban, but the Prime Minister said in his statement that “we will not” talk to “these people ..... can the Prime Minister clear this up and tell us what he will do to investigate how this took place?"

In response the Prime Minister reiterated ..."Let me repeat what I said in my statement—that our aim is to isolate and eradicate the Taliban insurgency and to isolate the leadership. We are not negotiating with the leadership and we do not propose to do so." Hansard 12 Dec 2007 : Column 310

ooops ..... Having mislaid a memory stick - the contents of which have been revealed by The Independent - they can now publish today, evidence that the UK Gubment were actively in detailed discussions directly with the Taliban leaders , plans to build a Taliban training camp outside Musa Qala, in Helmand, for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides, intelligence sources in Kabul have revealed. The plans were discovered on a memory stick seized by Afghan secret police in December and involved a UK plan to use bands of reconciled Taliban, called Community Defence Volunteers, to fight the remaining insurgents.

The Afghan government claims they prove British agents were talking to the Taliban without permission from the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, despite Gordon Brown's contrary claim.

The British Government (apparently) insist President Karzai's office knew what was going on. But Mr Karzai has expelled two top diplomats amid accusations they were part of a plot to buy-off the insurgents.

The Independent go on to claim that President Karzai's political mentor, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, endorsed a death sentence for blasphemy on the student journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh last week, and two British contractors have been arrested in Kabul on, it is claimed, trumped up weapons charges. The developments are seen as a deliberate defiance of the British.

The (un-encrypted and therefore easily read files) computer memory stick at the centre of the row was impounded by officers from Afghanistan's KGB-trained National Directorate of Security after they moved against a party of international diplomats who were visiting Helmand.The computer stick contained a three-stage plan, called the European Union Peace Building Programme. The third stage covered military training.

The memory stick revealed that $125,000 (£64,000) had been spent on preparing the camp and a further $200,000 was earmarked to run it in 2008, an Afghan official said. The figures sparked allegations that British agents were paying the Taliban.

A ministry insider said: "When they were arrested, the British said the Ministry of the Interior and the National Security Council knew about it, but no one knew anything. That's why the President was so angry."

The Western delegates, Michael Semple and Mervyn Patterson, were given 48 hours to leave the country on Christmas Day. (See Lord Patel Dec 26th)Their Afghan colleagues, including a former army general, were jailed. The expulsions coincided with a row within the Taliban's ranks which saw a senior commander, Mansoor Dadullah, sacked for talking to British spies. One official claimed the camp was planned for Mansoor and his men.

Afghan government staff also claimed the "EU peace-builders" had handed over mobile phones, laptops and airtime credit to insurgents. They said the memory stick revealed plans to train the Taliban to use secure satellite phones, so they could communicate directly with UK officials.

It is claimed that the British Ambassador, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, cut short his Christmas holiday to meet President Karzai and "spell out the Foreign Office paper-trail" which diplomats claim proves his government had agreed. They met twice, Mr Semple and Mr Patterson left the country.

The Independent provide this timeline ;
* December 11

British and Afghan troops take Musa Qala, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand, after President Hamid Karzai reveals that a senior Taliban commander swapped sides.

* December 23-24

The acting head of the EU mission, Michael Semple, and the third-ranking UN diplomat in Afghanistan, Mervyn Patterson, hold talks with local dignitaries and Taliban sympathisers in Helmand. Afghan secret police arrest their colleague, General Stanikzai, and seize a memory stick containing plans for training camps.

* December 25

Semple and Patterson are given 48 hours in which to leave Kabul and leave 48 hours later.

Perhaps they should get back to messengers carrying messages in a forked stick.

Lengthy, detailed piece about this over at Moon over Alabama with excellent and informed comment.

"Dodgy Dossier" lies must be published says the Information Tribunal ... Chris Ames and the lies of Captain Scarlett, Alastair Campbell , Tony Blair

Today by the government argued that releasing an early ( and so far secret) draft of the controversial dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) prepared by the then-Foreign Office press secretary, John Williams on 7 and 8 September 2002 would not be in the public interest.

It preceded what the government would later claim to be the first draft, written by Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett on 10 September, his chum Alastair Campbell, another serial and serious liar, also denied outright that there was such a document.

The Information Tribunal has today ordered the Foreign Office to disclose the document which can then be compared with liar John Scarlett's 10th December draft.

This ruling upholds the decision by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas last May , that the Williams draft "might be capable of adding to the public's understanding of the issues in question".

The "dodgy" dossier was finally published on 24 September 2002, two weeks after Scarlett’s “first draft”, and was central and critical to the lies, deceit and dishonesty that characterised the Government's case made to Parliament t illegally invade Iraq ... which had been decided by Presdient Bush and Tony Balir in April 2002 when they met in Texas.

The inquiry by Lord Hutton - which largely cleared the Government - was not handed the draft or address the questions which it might raise, according to the Tribunal.

The ruling - which follows an initial Freedom of Information (FOI) request from dogged campaigner Chris Ames in February 2005 (subsequent to a refusal from (then) Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to produce it) - states that there should only be a "very small redaction in the manuscript annotation - a handwritten note to be redacted which the Foreign Office claimed would be damaging to international relations." before it is disclosed - a claim that it did not make at the time of its initial refusal. The information is "not central to the purpose or content", the Tribunal states.

The Tribunal is also very critical and scathing about inconsistencies in the government’s evidence. They repeatedly observe that the main Foreign Office witness, Stephen Pattison, its Director, International Security, “was not involved at the time and volunteered no information about the source of his information”. It states that “it is a matter of concern that the information given to the Information Commissioner on the very nature of the information in dispute was apparently different to the evidence given to us.” (Which is effectively calling him a liar)

These comments relate directly to the role of the Williams draft in the production of the dossier. The FCO had told the Commissioner that Scarlett commissioned Williams to write the draft but subsequently changed its story. (Which is effectively calling them liars)


The tribunal refers to Pattison’s “assertion” that the draft was “not used in the dossier drafting process.” It commented that he was “apparently unable to identify any source for the assertion quoted above among either those who were so involved or from any contemporaneous document.” (Which is effectively calling him a liar)

MP John Baron , Conservative, Billericay (Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth last week said his information about lack of equipment in Afghan was "Absolute Bollocks") said: "This decision lifts the lid on government efforts to cover-up the role played by spin doctors in producing the Iraq Dossier.

"I am now pressing the Foreign Secretary immediately to make public the Williams draft, so that we can assess for ourselves the significance of this document in the run up to war – a war which we should never had been party to.

"The Tribunal agrees that the Williams draft could have played a greater part in influencing the drafting of the dossier than the Government has so far admitted - even to the Hutton Inquiry. The Government cannot hide this document any longer."

The Government can (and probably will) appeal to the House of Lords.
PA report

Chris Ames explains the significance of the decision of the Tribunal to force the Foreign Office to release the secret draft of the Iraq WMD dossier at the New Statesman.

The full text of the Tribunal decision is available here. PDF warning!!