2009-04-09 19:22:53.654314+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
Bob Quick, Britain's most senior counterterrorism officer, forced to resign after carrying a secret document in plain sight where it was revealed when he was photographed by the press, causing a set of raids to have to be executed early. Remember John Deutch and his bungling with the CIA? Looks like Britain one-upped us.
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2009-04-09 19:44:12.086297+00 by: petronius
Aha, but in a spy novel the slip would have been planned in order to mislead the villians into changing their plans, thus falling into the trap set by MI-6 and M. It's reminiscent of The Man Who Never Was. During the war the Brits also sent through a chain of double agents a very old map showing a path through the desert with hard packed sand, perfect for tanks. It was only when Rommel got deep into it he found if filled with impassable soft dunes.
Sigh... if only.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-04-09 20:12:41.407188+00 by: Dan Lyke
I was gonna say that it's hard to imagine that those who seek to destroy us would believe that we've put Inspector Clouseau in charge, but it appears that we have.
And given that they're allegedly trying to blow up airplanes by lighting their shoes on fire, maybe the best explanation for this whole thing is that life really does imitate a Peter Sellers movie.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-04-09 23:42:12.056647+00 by: TrevorM
Are you in the mood for another almost laughable "conspiracy theory"? OK. I believe that displaying those papers so prominently in front of 10 Downing Street, where they were guaranteed to be photographed, was deliberate. To quote Andy Hayman, a former Assistant Commissioner Special Ops at the Met Police, it was an incident "so difficult just to pass off as human error" (The Times, April 9 2009). I agree with him, it doesn't look like an error. My guess is that Bob Quick found a quick way out, a relatively honourable departure, while his pension provision was still intact. We may find out one day why he chose to go while the going was good.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-04-10 02:07:09.433683+00 by: Dan Lyke
Hmmm... Good theory, Trevor. I wonder if pushing the raid operation up might have also been a helpful side-effect?