Lesson number one for any future "intelligence" advisors: Don't splash your personal information all over the web, and whatever you do, don't allow this photo to ever be shown in public.
A newly-appointed top British intelligence advisor raised eyebrows Friday after colourful and indiscreet details of his personal life were revealed -- on his own website.More at the Times Online and the Daily Mail.
Alex Allan's website gives details including his home address and his wife's mobile phone number.
Allan was appointed Thursday as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the body which provides senior ministers with the latest assessments from Britain's security services.
The crucial role of the JIC was highlighted after the 2003 Iraq conflict during a scandal over alleged press manipulation of its advice on the reasons for going to war. Past chairmen have tended to keep a very low profile.
But on his website 56-year-old Allan details his love for the cult US band The Grateful Dead and reveals a picture of his former self in 1969 with microphone hair, flares and Paisley-print cravate strumming on a guitar.
And like a sketch from the hit British comedy series Monthy Python's Flying Circus, he is also pictured in a pinstripe suit and bowler hat, windsailing to work on the River Thames past parliament during a train strike in the 1980s.
For a man whose watchword should be discretion, the career civil servant's west London address and wife's mobile number were easily accessible through the website, at http://www.whitegum.com/, called "Alex and Katie's Home Page."
The Daily Telegraph quoted one unnamed senior security official as saying the personal information and photos contained on the site was "a very serious breach".
"Mr Allan is a target for terrorists and having this information in the public domain is a very naive move on his part. He may well now have to move," the official was quoted as saying.
Cross-posted at A Tangled Web.
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