[ISN] Top U.K. Police Official Resigns After Security Gaffe

[InfoSec News <alerts@infosecnews.org>]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123926842112704625.html

By CARRICK MOLLENKAMP and ALISTAIR MACDONALD
Wall Street Journal
April 9, 2009

A top British counterterrorism official resigned Thursday after an 
operation targeting a group with suspected ties to al Qaeda was 
accelerated following the inadvertent disclosure of potential details of 
the raids in news photographs as he carried papers to a briefing with 
Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, the Metropolitan Police Service's most 
senior counterterrorism official, tendered his resignation to London 
Mayor Boris Johnson over the security gaffe.

A London Metropolitan Police spokesman said Wednesday that Mr. Quick 
apologized to the head of the metropolitan police force. Mr. Quick 
"accepted he made a mistake on leaving a sensitive document on open view 
and deeply regrets it," he said.

British counterterrorism units arrested 12 men with suspected ties to al 
Qaeda in raids across northwest England on Wednesday. The men arrested 
under U.K. terrorism laws, at least some of whom were Pakistani-born, 
were believed to be plotting a serious attack, said two people familiar 
with the investigation.

[...]