No more mistakes!

So I'm just about to go to bed and I read a story on Yahoo (UK) news about a government official who is due to be charged after losing top secret files allegedly relating to al Qaeda, and also a report on the Iraqi armed forces.

The files were found in an envelope on a train and apparently this anonymous government figure will be charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Unfortunately the article didn't specify what exactly the person is going to be charged with.  This is important to me as I wonder to how inhumane we've become when we start filing criminal charges against a person who has made a mistake.

That's all it is, a mistake.  There has never been even an allegation that this person mislaid the files deliberately or had any ulterior motives for losing the files.

This is a mistake.  People are human.  Humans make mistakes.

How you can punish someone so severely for a genuine mistake is beyond me.

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Comments

[Jeff]

I've not heard of this story until reading it here. I can't imagine somebody leaving top secret files on a train without an ulterior motive. Perhaps there is more information pointing to this, perhaps not. Certainly, there is reason for some serious suspicion.