There is "Yet Another Foreign Media Have Allegedly Named Someone At One Of Our Embassies As The MI6 Station Chief" type storm in a teacup. This time it is regarding allegations of British official complicity in torture / mistreatment of terrorist suspects in Greece, according to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema.
Some UK media reports are talking about "D notices" (even though they have been called DA Notices for several years now. since 1993).
"A Government "D" notice requests British newspapers not to name MI6 officers, even if they are identified abroad."
How does trying to hide the alleged name of an MI6 agent abroad, from the UK public and media, add any extra operational danger once the foreign media and inernet sources have published it ?
For those of you who were wondering whether such a specfic DA Notice has really been issued, or to learn exactly what the voluntary. and, with respect to the internet, increasingly obsolete, Defence Advisory (DA) Notice system is all about, you are out of luck.
Today is a Bank Holiday and the website of the Defence, Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee i.e. www.dnotice.org.uk, seems to have either lost all its web content or it has been censored from public view, even though the webserver is still up and running and connected to the internet.
The DA Notice website is hosted by the bit of the former Defence Establishment Resereach Agency which remains in UK Government hands as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory which was not privatised to form Qinetiq in 2001.
See the Google cache for an idea of what the website should look like.
Given the propaganda nature of "cyberterrorism" or amateur "cybervandalism" etc. is it really too much for us to expect and demand , that websites run by the UK MInistry of Defence should all have proper IT security and failsafe disaster recovery plans, which actually work over weekends and Bank Holidays ?
Are our military defences similarly ineffective at weekends and on Bank Holidays ?
UPDATED with a relevant recent Parliamentary Answer to A Parliamentary Question by Ben Wallace the Conservative MP for Lancaster & Wyre, a former Scots Guards officer and an ex-director of Qinetiq,
Defence Advisory NoticesMr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Defence Advisory (DA) Notices were issued to the media in each month since January 1997; and how many were (a) DA-Notices 01, (b) DA-Notices 02, (c) DA-Notices 03, (d) DA-Notices 04 and (e) DA-Notices 05. [33063]
Mr. Ingram: The term 'DA Notice' refers only to the five standing Defence Advisory (DA) Notices agreed by the Defence Press and Broadcasting Advisory Committee (DPBAC). Changes to DA Notices are made rarely and are circulated directly to editors throughout the UK, and made available to the public through the DPBAC website (www.dnotice.org.uk). Only two changes have been made to the standing DA Notices since January 1997. In May 2000, the then DA Notice No 6 was incorporated into DA notice No 4 (sensitive installations and home addresses). In March
6 Dec 2005 : Column 1101W
2005, DA Notice No 4 was amended to reflect concerns over possible terrorist attacks on elements of the critical national infrastructure.Additional DA Notice guidance, amplifying the advice set out in the standing DA Notices, is issued by the DPBAC secretary (on behalf of the Committee) to all editors in the United Kingdom to cover specific circumstances or to meet particular concerns. Since January 1997, the DPBAC secretary has written to all UK editors amplifying DA Notice guidance on the following occasions:
1997: No record of any letters being issued
1998: No record of any letters being issued
1999: February DA Notice No 6 (two letters); May DA Notice No 6
2000: August DA Notice No 5; September DA Notice No 5
2001: September DA Notice No 5; October DA Notice No 5; November DA Notice No 5
2002: January DA Notice No 5
2003: May DA Notice No 5 (two letters)
2004: September DA Notice No 2; November DA Notice No 1
2005: August DA Notice No 2; October DA Notice No 2
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