Former Defense Secretary Sir Grant Shaps has defended the decision to keep a data violation secret by incorporating details of thousands of Afghans and some British authorities.
In his first interview since going public, Sir Grant reported that the BBC had “fully justified” in favor of taking precautions, his attention was to “sort the dirt and save life”.
Many people were judged to have serious losses or even the threat of death as the Taliban demanded vengeance against those working with the British government during the conflict.
He said that the prohibition blocking of Breech was “implemented” by his predecessor and believed that it should stay in place at that time.
A “Super -in -Innovation” -a type of gagging order that prevents reporting of prohibitory orders – Was lifted earlier this week,
Sir Grant was appointed as the Defense Secretary in August 2023 – just after the discovery of Breach and as the order was given, it was stopped from being made public.
He told the program of BBC Radio 4 of Radio 4 that “had to face whether it would get out of that list and people will be, murder and executed as a result, or to do something to save and save those lives, I now explain in this interview why this interview was needed, people were killed and people were killed in comparison to this interview.
He said that he was surprised that this order lasted for so long and thought, because the risks began to decrease, it must have ended last year.
Sir Grant was also asked that the intelligence and security committee, which investigated security services, was not informed, about which he replied “even a sign of being around it … it meant that the risks were incredibly high”.
He said, “” which was briefed “was decided by conversation with the judges,” he said: “You can argue that the circle should be widespread”.
During the 20 -year war in Afghanistan, the data of around 19,000 Afghans working with the British during the 20 -year war was applied to the UK, which was inadvertently leaked in February 2022.
More than 100 UK details were also releasedWith detectives and special forces.
After lifting the super-director on Tuesday, a secondary prohibitory orders stopped the revelations about the individual agreement of special forces and security services of the UK.
But it was also raised on Thursday that the barrister representing a group of modes and media organizations reached an agreement, which meant that journalists could report additional facts.
Violations were not discovered by the government until August 2023, when someone in Afghanistan posted a share on Facebook and indicated that he could leave the rest.
This discovery forced the government to secretly establish the Afghanistan response route (ARR) – a rehabilitation plan for the affected people, who were not told about the violation despite their risk of safety.
The scheme has already allowed 4,500 Afghans and family members to visit the UK and expect 2,400 people at an estimated cost of £ 850m.
Casual leaks were the result of someone working in the UK special forces headquarters in London, inadvertently emailing a person out of the government over 30,000 rehabilitation applications, thinking that he was sending data to just 150 people.
The Ministry of Defense has refused to say how many people in Afghanistan may suffer loss as a result of data violation.
The Taliban government said on Thursday that it had not arrested or monitored the leak -affected Afghans.
But relatives of the nominated Afghans in the leaks told the BBC that they are still afraid of their family in the country, saying that their nominated relatives were intensified after the leaked by the Taliban.
