by J.N. PAQUET

Created on: April 12, 2009

No one would ever imagine that the UK terror chief could, deliberately or not, show off an ultra-confidential and ultra-sensitive piece of information to the press about a current anti-terrorist operation, which, if disclosed, could actually jeopardise the whole of the operation and put at risk the agents involved. Even in a James Bond
film

BEYOND THE FICTION

Unfortunately sometimes real life goes far beyond the fiction! Unbelievable yet true, last Wednesday,

Bob Quick, the most senior counter-terrorism officer in the United Kingdom, was photographed in Downing Street carrying two folders and a briefing paper for the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Nothing less ordinary except that the document was giving away information about "Operation Pathway" and clearly displaying intelligence about "suspected AQ (al
Qaeda) driven attack", the immigration status of the eleven suspects and the location of the targets to be raided, seven addresses in Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire.

Within a few minutes, the picture of Bob Quick carrying the secret document was available around the world and inevitably displayed
online. The document was no longer secret! John O'Connor, the former commander of Scotland Yard, has said that "you could not get a more serious breach of security".

THANK YOU HERE'S YOUR BONUS!
Bob Quick, 49, lost the confidence of the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and had no choice on Thursday but to resign from his 110,000 a year job. And expressing his "deep regret" for what happened (police raids originally planned for 2.00am on Thursday morning, had to be carried out 24 hours ahead of schedule and in some cases in public places, putting people at risk), he walks away with an "index-linked police pension" worth 110,000 a year! (or 85,000 a year plus a lump sum of about 520,000)

That's an interesting six-figure pension deal, especially for someone who has quite miserably failed in doing his job, i.e. protect the public by keeping a secret secret! And Prime Minister Brown went on saying: "I have spoken to Bob Quick this morning and I have thanked him for his years of service. He has apologised for what went wrong yesterday."

Maybe Gordon Brown should have simply said: "No, you will not receive any monies! Look, you have put the officers' teams at risk, you have put the public at risk, and finally you have put the United Kingdom at risk So I am opposed to you receiving this pension as you leave!" But would he dare?

POWERFUL PEOPLE

Basically, in the world of the "powerful

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