Data leak endangered Afghan lives, then gagged: secrecy or state failure?

In July 2025, it came to light that a list of Afghans who had assisted the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan was leaked through inadvertence in 2022. The British Government sought and obtained a superinjunction from a judge, which forbade the media from reporting the data leak or, indeed, the injunction itself. The grounds given for this were that reporting it would jeopardise the lives of 19,000 people.

The United Kingdom was part of the International Stabilisation Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) from 2001 until its dissolution in 2021. After 9/11, the United States became the first—and so far the only—NATO country to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter. This means an attack on one is considered an attack on all. That obligated all NATO countries to dispatch forces to assist the United States of America in battling the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. There were 22 NATO members at the time. Even countries where the mission in Afghanistan was unpopular, such as Poland and Romania, sent troops. Several countries joined NATO during those 20 years.

In 1949, when NATO was founded, the United Kingdom was among the founding members.

In 2022, a civil servant at the UK Ministry of Defence accidentally published a list of Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and their relatives, as well as Afghans who had worked as interpreters for the British Army and their kinsfolk. These people were eligible for evacuation to the United Kingdom and for asylum. The relatives were taken out because of the possibility of vendettas against them. Blood feuds are the norm in Afghanistan. Moreover, in that land, family is everything.

The data leak occurred in the early weeks of the Ukraine War. The British Defence Secretary at the time was Ben Wallace. Wallace is a former army officer and the toast of grassroots Conservatives. He was given pressing invitations to submit his candidature for the leadership of the Conservative Party, but he declined. Wallace’s reputation has been impugned as a result of the data leak.

There is some debate about how many of the people on the list of 19,000 really were in the ANA or were interpreters or relatives of either. Some claim that Afghans who wanted to live in the United Kingdom managed to get their names onto the list. Once the list was leaked, they could claim they were in mortal peril and that the UK was obligated to bring them to safety.

Tens of thousands fled Afghanistan to Pakistan, which is not much safer. A large minority of Pakistanis openly sympathise with the Taliban despite its numerous terrorist attacks in that country. The Taliban could track people down and slay them in Pakistan.

Some Afghan refugees have spent years in Pakistan awaiting relocation to the United Kingdom.

There is a suspicion that the superinjunction is more about sparing the blushes of politicians and civil servants than about national security. This is a common pattern in British politics.

In August 2021, the USA pulled out of Afghanistan. President Donald J. Trump had agreed to a deal with the Taliban in February 2020. The United States would withdraw from the country in 18 months if the Taliban desisted from attacking NATO forces. The Taliban was not required to refrain from attacks on the ANA. This suited the Taliban. They husbanded their forces and bided their time. They calculated that, deprived of NATO support, the ANA would be quickly defeated. As NATO desisted from attacking the Taliban, the Taliban consolidated their control over certain regions. Their opium poppy production ensured them ample revenue.

Joe Biden enacted Trump’s withdrawal plan. When he was Vice President during 2009–17, he is said to have been deeply sceptical of the Afghan mission and to have advocated withdrawal in private. If Trump had not made such a deal with the Taliban in 2020, Biden likely would have in 2021. But Biden could correctly claim he was simply implementing his predecessor’s agreement. Joe Biden could have shredded the deal, but to do so would have been bad faith. Moreover, it would have condemned the United States to an endless war.

There were unedifying scenes of people fighting to get into Bagram Air Base. They were crammed onto planes. The British Prime Minister at the time was Boris Johnson. His girlfriend allegedly intervened to have the dogs evacuated in preference to people.

The victory of the Taliban in August 2021 was swifter and more decisive than had been foreseen. In 1989, the Soviets pulled out of the country. Yet their communist allies held Kabul for a further four years. Some had thought that the Afghan Government would hold Kabul for at least a couple of years after ISAF left. In fact, the Taliban entered the capital even before ISAF had departed.

Some in Britain argued that the UK should take in a large number of ANA soldiers. The special forces were said to be superb. The British Army has severe difficulty with recruitment and retention. They argued that allowing ANA soldiers, particularly special forces, to join the British Army would be a significant boost to Britain. However, some in the British Army fulminated against this.

The Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) are the British Army’s elite units. They were deployed in Afghanistan. Allegations have come to light of hundreds of murders perpetrated by them. This is not about slaying foes in combat, nor is it collateral damage or an innocent mistake, as inevitably transpires in the fog of war. The accusation is that members of the SAS and SBS deliberately killed civilians, knowing them to be civilians, including little boys and geriatrics. To make it seem permissible, they sometimes planted weapons on their victims afterwards and took photos. ANA soldiers knew about this and were on some of these missions. Some in the SAS and SBS feared ANA men testifying against them in court.

The ANA and the Afghan Government still control 5% of Afghan territory. It is holed up in the Panjshir Valley, meaning ‘five lions’ valley. This is where Ahmad Shah Massoud held out in the 1990s after the triumph of the Taliban. The Afghan Government, which lost control of most of the country, still holds the United Nations seat for Afghanistan. Afghanistan has embassies all over the world, still run by the lawful government of the country.

Russia recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan in July 2025. This demonstrates egregious cynicism. Putin often rails against ‘Islamic extremism’, which means any Muslim he happens to dislike. There is a Sharia state on Russian sovereign soil: Chechnya. Here, women are legally required to wear a hijab, non-halal food is forbidden, girls are sometimes forced to marry old men at 14, the authorities murder homosexual men with impunity, wives are not allowed to leave violent husbands, and so forth. If someone is an average Muslim—or even a secular Muslim—he or she will be demonised as an ‘Islamic extremist’ if they want independence for their nation or support Ukrainian freedom.

The Labour Government in the United Kingdom is floundering. It has caused economic shrinkage and a rise in unemployment. It has raised taxes to pay doctors more. But doctors are about to strike again. Labour has passed oppressive laws. The Labour Party has caused illegal immigration to increase. It has also failed to reform the ever-expanding welfare system. Therefore, the data leak is a gift to Labour. Labour likes to talk about it as an instance of Conservative ineptitude and mendacity.