Under the gun: data leak puts spotlight on dark deeds of special forces

MP warns that unit could have its wings clipped after murder allegations

- Catherine Neilan Whitehall Editor

The special forces are coming under increasing pressure to submit to greater scrutiny and accountability than ever in their history, after the Afghan data leak.

While the leak was accidental, concerns have been raised about the decision to aggregate the data that was released, and the structural failings that resulted in potentially putting thousands of lives at risk.

The injunction sought by the then defence secretary Ben Wallace to protect the thousands of individuals exposed by the leak, and upgraded to a superinjunction by a judge was intentionally or otherwise also helpful to those implicated in the leak.

Sources involved at the time said to The Observer that the repeated extensions were sought because, as one person put it: "If you're secretly taking thousands of people out of Afghanistan without alerting the Taliban, it's a slow process." But it also ensured nobody could be held to account; not ministers, not the special forces and not the first sea lord, Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins.

Such was the veil of secrecy, the decision was taken not to brief parliament's intelligence and security committee (ISC), which has a statutory duty to oversee and scrutinise intelligence matters and receives regular "closed door" briefings from spooks. No one contacted by