Latest news with #Triples
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Afghan soldiers affected by data leak could receive £20k compensation
The veterans minister has met Afghan troops whose personal details were leaked ahead of an expected compensation deal. Al Carns staged talks with former Special Forces soldiers on Saturday before formal negotiations around payouts begin. The meetings with the 'Triples' – a name derived from the code numbers of their units – took place at an Afghan community festival in Birmingham. According to legal sources, defence chiefs intend to make an offer to the Triples to settle out of court, in a bid to cut out law firms. Direct payments from the UK Government to the Afghans of around £20,000 have been mentioned.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Afghan troops whose personal details were leaked may be in line for a £20,000 payout, sources say
The veterans minister has met Afghan troops whose personal details were leaked ahead of an expected compensation deal. Al Carns staged talks with former Special Forces soldiers on Saturday before formal negotiations around payouts begin. The meetings with the 'Triples' – a name derived from the code numbers of their units – took place at an Afghan community festival in Birmingham. According to legal sources, defence chiefs intend to make an offer to the Triples to settle out of court, in a bid to cut out law firms. Direct payments from the UK Government to the Afghans of around £20,000 have been mentioned. Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines officer who served with some of the Triples in Afghanistan, said it was 'great to sit down with some of my Afghan friends'. He added: 'We talked about how they're finding life in the UK, mental health and importantly how many would be interested in serving again in one form or another.' Ministers have pledged to play hardball in a bid to reduce the costs of the leak. Mr Carns (pictured speaking with British Army personnel in October last year), a former Royal Marines officer who served with some of the Triples in Afghanistan, said it was 'great to sit down with some of my Afghan friends' At one point ministers signed off an estimate of £7billion, which they say includes all the Government's Afghan schemes. Law firms such as Manchester-based Barings Law are confident they can obtain much more than £20,000 on their clients' behalf. The firm's Adnan Malik said: 'The Government claims they will not be paying compensation but are trying to make a secret agreement. ' The Ministry of Defence said: 'Throughout our relocations scheme, we are honouring the commitment to those brave Afghans that supported the UK mission.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Spies and SAS personnel among 100-plus Britons included in Afghan data leak
Details of members of the SAS are among more than 100 Britons named in the database of 18,700 Afghans, the accidental leak of which by a defence official led to thousands being secretly relocated to the UK. Defence sources said the highly sensitive document contained names and email addresses belonging to people sponsoring or linked to some individual cases. Personal information about MI6 officers was also included. The identities of members of the SAS and MI6 are a closely guarded secret, and the possibility that such information could have ended up in the public domain was a source of significant official concern. SAS and other special forces officers were involved in assessing whether Afghans who said they were members of the elite 333 and 444 units, known as the Triples, were allowed to come to the UK. Defence sources said the dataset also referred to a 'secret route' that Afghans could use to come to the UK. This week it emerged that the Ministry of Defence had obtained a superinjunction preventing the disclosure of the leak and that a £2bn-plus scheme had been created to relocate some Afghans affected by the breach to the UK to protect them from the Taliban. That superinjunction lapsed on Tuesday, when a high court judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, concluded after a government review that the threat to the 18,700 Afghans was no longer very significant. Some of the remaining restrictions were relaxed on Thursday after another court hearing. The MoD said it would be possible to publish additional descriptions about contents of the database. In a statement on Tuesday, after the unprecedented superinjunction was lifted, the defence secretary, John Healey, offered a 'sincere apology' on behalf of the government for the data breach. He later told the Commons that the spreadsheet contained 'names and contact details of applicants and, in some instances, information relating to applicants' family members, and in a small number of cases the names of members of parliament, senior military officers and government officials were noted as supporting the application'. 'This was a serious departmental error,' he added. Parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), which monitors the UK spy agencies, said it would scrutinise the affair, following on from an inquiry announced by the Commons defence select committee. The ISC asked that all intelligence assessments that had been shared with high court in secret now be shared with the committee. Its chair, Lord Beamish, asked why 'material relating to the data loss' could not be shared with the committee early given that it routinely reviews classified material. The MoD welcomed the proposed review. '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,' a spokesperson said. The decision to seek an injunction preventing the disclosure of the data breach was first taken by Ben Wallace, then the Conservative defence secretary, in August 2023, when the MoD first became aware that the personal information had leaked to a Facebook group. A judge then ordered that the injunction remain secret, turning it into a rarely used superinjunction. Wallace's immediate successor, Grant Shapps, sought to maintain the gagging order until the general election in July 2024 while developing a secret relocation scheme for about 15,000 Afghans affected. The day-to-day task for developing the scheme was handed to one of Shapps's deputies, James Heappey, the then minister for the armed forces. On Thursday, in a social media posting, Heappey said the scheme was discussed in the cabinet's domestic an economic affairs committee. He said the committee 'tried to extend entitlements by smallest number possible', as led by legal advice, with little resistance from other members of the government. 'I don't recall fierce opposition. There was frustrated resignation that it was necessary,' he said. It can now be reported that the leaked data included the names, email addresses and phone numbers for thousands of Afghans who had applied to come to the UK under an existing relocation scheme designed for those who had helped the British military. In some instances the data contained further written information about their case and status of their application – focused on whether they had in fact helped the UK or British forces in Afghanistan – but it did not contain addresses or photographs. This week Afghans affected by the breach received a message addressed from the UK government, sent in English, Pashto and Dari, that warned the recipient's email address had been used to make a resettlement application and that some personal data may have been compromised. Details of the breach were limited, but recipients of the email – some of whom remain in hiding from the Taliban in Afghanistan – were advised 'not to take phone calls or respond to messages or emails from unknown contacts' and to limit who could see their social media profiles.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
More than 100 British government personnel exposed by Afghan data leak
A catastrophic data leak by a Ministry of Defence official in February 2022 exposed details of tens of thousands of Afghans seeking refuge in the UK due to their links with British forces. The breach also compromised the identities of over 100 British government personnel, including MI6 spies, SAS members, members of parliament, and senior military figures. The leak led to 16,000 affected Afghans being evacuated to Britain, with 8,000 more expected, and was subject to an unprecedented two-year superinjunction preventing publication of details. Defence secretary John Healey confirmed the exposure of British officials' names, while the Intelligence and Security Committee demanded immediate briefings and intelligence assessments regarding the superinjunction. Former armed forces minister James Heappey criticised the Ministry of Defence's "flawed" decision-making on sanctuary applications for Afghan special forces, known as the Triples, whose payments by the UK government were initially denied but later confirmed.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Ex-minister claims he was misled over fate of Afghan elite soldiers abandoned by UK and exposed in data breach
A former defence minister has claimed he was misled over the rights of hundreds of Afghan special forces soldiers to be brought to safety in the UK, as revealed by The Independent. Former Tory armed forces minister James Heappey, who oversaw the cover-up of a major data breach which impacted 100,000 Afghans and cost the UK £7bn, has apologised and admitted 'we let the country down'. But addressing the fate of Afghan special forces known as 'the Triples', who were abandoned by the UK in the country despite being targeted by the Taliban because of their role training and fighting side by side with British forces, Mr Heappey has suggested that he was misled over their eligibility to be brought to safety. He said: 'An aside on Triples. I pushed and pushed within the MoD for clarification in response to what was said in press, parliament and by campaigners. Again and again, I said in public what very senior officials and military had briefed me. It is hugely frustrating that proved to be wrong.' The Independent spearheaded a campaign urging the government to grant members of the Triples sanctuary in Britain after many were left stranded and in danger, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. Now, it has emerged that around half of the commandos initially identified for relocation to the UK were affected by the breach, which became the subject of a draconian superinjunction amid fears the dataset could fall into the hands of the Taliban. Mr Heappey conceded: 'The debate over the Triples (a group of around 1,500 Afghan special forces who'd worked alongside UK military)... by early 2024, it was clear MOD decision making on these troops was flawed & would need review with an expectation many would now be deemed eligible.' Meanwhile, Mr Heappey has broken cover on his involvement in the cover-up of the major data breach in February 2022 when an official sent an email containing a document with the details of 33,000 records, and the details of more than 18,000 Afghans who had applied to be brought to safety in the UK. In response, the government set up a secret route for 24,000 Afghans to be brought to the UK and obtained an unprecedented super injunction to prevent reporting or even discussion of what had happened. Mr Heappey said the data breach revelation was 'gut-wrenching' and apologised for his part in the scandal. He said: 'I'd like to add my sincere apology to those of other current & former defence ministers for the data breach which compromised details of so many applicants to the ARAP scheme.' He described his frustration at 'struggling' to resettle legal Afghan claims because the system was being overwhelmed by illegal arrivals. Mr Heappey said: 'It was gut-wrenching to find out that someone in MoD had screwed up so awfully, although I also came to find out subsequently that they were incredibly dedicated to those we served with in Afghanistan. 'Few had done more to get people who served alongside our special forces out of Afghanistan. It is incredibly unfair that someone who'd done so much good and changed so many lives deservedly for the better, should also be responsible for [the operation codenamed] RUBIFIC. 'But worst part of all, of course, was the mortal danger we feared this breach presented to ARAP applicants whose details had been compromised. 'The intelligence assessment was clear: if the Taliban got their hands on the list, violent and even lethal reprisal was likely.' He made it clear that the decision to cover the scandal up in the courts with a super injunction was not his decision, in effect pointing the finger at defence secretaries Grant Shapps, Ben Wallace and former prime minister Rishi Sunak. Similar points have been made by former home secretary Suella Braverman who noted that her opposition to what was being decided was closed down once the super injunction came into place. Mr Heappey said: 'Others made decision over injunction but for what it's worth, I agree that it was needed. Whether it needed to be extended is moot - arguments are finely balanced. I'd left Govt by time of the Court of Appeal extension. And, of course, it was extended after election too. 'The anger across Govt at the MOD over the breach was palpable and justified. There were some pretty choice words offered in meetings. But the suggestion I was driving a new entitlement for those not eligible for ARAP or ACRS but affected by the breach is untrue.' Sir Ben, who was defence secretary at the time the initial legal order was sought, has said he takes full responsibility for the leak. Mr Shapps has so far stayed silent on the issue.
