A Nikon Coolpix camera which was innocently purchased on eBay for under $40 has seriously embarrassed Mi6 the bumbling British Secret Service after it was revealed that highly sensitive al-Qaeda images, fingerprints and other sensitive documents were stored in the camera’s memory Now the British police have gagged a 28-year-old delivery man from Hertfordshire in the UK from talking about the embarrassing find. However the UK government has confirmed that it’s investigating the sale of the camera.
According to British media reports the man discovered the secret material when downloading pictures from a US holiday.
Reuters reports that the camera’s memory had names of al-Qaeda members, fingerprints, suspects’ academic records and pictures of rocket launchers and missiles.
It also contained detailed information about an MI6 computer system and named 46-year-old Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who is being held at Guantanamo Bay after being captured by the CIA in 2007, the paper said.
“We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it. Intelligence officers are investigating.” The British Police said.
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing incidents that have rattled the mandarins that run the UK intelligence. Only a few weeks ago secret intelligence assessments of al-Qaeda and the security forces in Iraq were left on a train by a senior intelligence official. They have since been charged under the Official Secrets Act.
