Mick Smith - Times Online - WBLG

Whistleblower Reveals Forces Computer Virus Linked to Russia

The Ministry of Defence and a large number of RAF bases and Royal Navy ships have been hit by a computer "worm virus" that is alleged to have been sent to a Russian internet server. The allegations have been made to Conservative MP Mark Pritchard by a whistlebower inside the MoD who is concerned over its failure to take cyber security seriously. Pritchard said the official “told me he could not say whether there was any evidence of active Russian involvement but that email traffic from some RAF stations was sent to a Russian internet server.”

The Idiocy of Scrimping on Intelligence Analysis

Defence chiefs appear to be as concerned as this blog over plans to cut 121 jobs among the Defence Intelligence Staff analysts who warned that the government’s dossier on Iraq was wrong. They have apparently ordered a rethink of the assault on the Defence Intelligence Staff, part of a “streamlining” of government departments ordered by Gordon Brown when he was chancellor, describing it as a risk too far. I am told that the intelligence services watchdog, the Intelligence and Security Committee, has taken evidence from Chief of Defence Intelligence Air Marshal Stuart Peach with MPs on the committee expressing concern over the plans and that officials have warned internally that the cuts mean vital intelligence will not be adequately assessed and “in some cases may not even be read”.   

MoD civil servant gets more for back strain than soldiers disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan

You really, really couldn't make it up. A Ministry of Defence civil servant who suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome and depression received £217,000 in compensation last year. Another MoD civil servant received £202,000 for “back strain due to lifting a printer". Meanwhile a soldier who suffered third degree burns over 70 per cent of his body in a Taliban rocket attack in Afghanistan is awarded £98,000. Another who lost the use of a leg and a hand as well as suffering serious internal injuries when he was mortared in Iraq get £57,580. These are not figures made up by the media, they come from the 2006/2007 annual report of the MoD Directorate of Safety and Claims. Unbelievable, truly unbelievable.

Looking After Our Forces the Swiss Toni Way

The government has been insisting for months that the defence budget is on the rise, that Gordon Brown loves the forces, and the very idea of defence cuts is absolutely absurd. But a leaked document passed to the Sunday Times shows that to be complete and utter tosh.

The Disgraceful Way We Treat Our Servicemen

Getting information out of the Ministry of Pretence (MoD) is difficult, even if you’re an MP, as a series of recent responses to parliamentary written questions show. From these questions we now know what the Royal British Legion has been saying for some time. The system of compensation for servicemen and women wounded on active duty, and for their dependents if they should die, is an absolute disgrace and is clearly designed to save the MoD money rather than improve the lives of those who risk life and limb on our behalf.

The Yes Minister Manoeuvres Used by MoD Civil Servants to Force Drayson Out

The full story behind the decision of Lord Drayson to quit as defence equipment and support minister can finally be told, having been covered up to prevent further embarrassment to Gordon Brown. A number of defence and industry sources said last week that Drayson had stormed out of the MoD after a series of rows with its most senior civil servant over his attempts to revamp defence procurement. His departure followed a testy meeting with Des Browne, defence secretary, who refused to back him in the rows with Bill Jeffrey, the MoD’s permanent under-secretary. The truth behind his subsequent departure contains all the elements of a classic episode of the BBC television series Yes Minister.

How Drayson Came Close to Doing a Hezza

Fresh detail of the shock resignation of Lord Drayson has been passed to this blog, revealing quite how close he came to stomping out of the MoD in fury at what he saw as the refusal of Defence Secretary Des Browne to back his plans to revamp the pathetically useless MoD procurement system. Less than a week after Drayson quit, Bill Jeffrey, the MoD's most senior civil servant, was told off like a naughty schoolboy after trying to bounce his department's performance report past the Commons Defence Select Committee. The two traumatic blows to the MoD's already tattered reputation have left the department in turmoil.

The Appalling Way In Which We Treat Our Forces, and Their Families

One of the first jobs as a defence correspondent concerned a new book on the use of British and Australian troops to test the effects of the Pacific atomic bomb tests, which had provoked outrage in Australia. The foreign desk asked me to get the MoD response to the claims – true of course, and in fact long known and accepted – that these soldiers were being used as guinea pigs to test the atomic bomb. Whenever a negative story about the MoD appears in the media – so pretty much on a daily basis – the MoD works out so-called “lines for use” in response to press inquiries about the story. The MoD “line for use” in response to the claims was to denounce any suggestion that they had used the soldiers as guinea pigs outrageous. “We weren’t testing the effects of the explosion on the soldiers themselves," the press officer told me. “We were testing its effects on their clothing.” I really havent made this up. It is exactly what the rather embarassed press officer was forced to say!

Fiasco in Iran Part II: The Ministry Fights Back

The fiasco that was the decision to allow the sailors and marines arrested by Iran to sell their stories has led the MoD to draw up hopelessly restrictive, and totally unenforceable, regulations preventing servicemen and women from talking about issues related to their work on internet forums or blogs. Simon McDowall, the MoD’s Director-General Media and Communication, who oddly as the man in charge appears to have been nowhere when the decision to allow the sailors and marines to sell their stories was taken, tells us “there is now far less of a chance of having the kind of mishaps that we had with Iran now there are clear guidelines", as if somehow, that whole fiasco was the result of soldiers posting on the irreverently named ARmy Rumour SErvice, AARSE, or airman on the RAF’s similar and somewhat enigmatically named E-Goat.

Helping Veterans the MoD Way

Yet another extraordinary decision from the Ministry of Pretence which is refusing to back down on its demand for £10,000 from the Army Benevolent Fund. It sent the registered charity a demand for the cash after the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst hosted the fund’s Music on Fire charity show held on three nights last September. The ministry is anxious to blame Gordon Brown for the fiasco. A host of stars including Patti Boulaye and Judy Dench gave their performances for free. But Derek Twigg, who as Veterans Affairs Minister is supposed to protect the interests of the people who are helped by the fund, insisted there can be no exception to the rules. “Under Government Finance Accounting regulations, there are no special arrangements for the treatment of charities, whether service or other,” he said primly. “The fact that a charity is to be the main beneficiary of a good or service is not sufficient justification to introduce a special charging regime or to set charges aside.” Despite a string of protests since, the men from the ministry are still blaming Gordon and still refusing to back down. Funny that, because as I recall, after this blog made a fuss about the charges for the event at which Chandler Biddis won his wings, the ministry did back down and wrote off the cost. But perhaps that was just the guilt coming out.