Top-secret Joe Biden document found in street
Neil Johnston | The Telegraph
Wed, April 12, 2023 at 8:45 AM MDT
Police officers are investigating a security breach after a top-secret document with details of Joe Biden’s visit to Belfast was found on the street in the city.
A member of the public discovered the document, containing a detailed itinerary of the trip and the £7 million security operation, which has been described as a “ring of steel”.
BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show reported that the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) document included the names of some officers involved in the security operation, as well as the telephone numbers and contact details of senior officers.
Police officers in Northern Ireland already have to take extra precautions because of the threat from dissident Republicans.
PSNI said it was investigating the security breach. On Wednesday, Mr Biden gave a speech at Ulster University to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The police briefing note gave details of the security measures under the name Operation Rondoletto and was found by a Belfast resident, who gave his name only as Bill.
He handed it to the Nolan show and told the programme: “It does seem highly sensitive, a sensitive document giving details of closures, who the commanders are, phone numbers, it’s giving you so much detail on officers who are out on service. It’s a bit crazy it’s lying about the street.
“I literally came out of my home and was driving up the street and I saw the document, strangely in the street where I live. I stopped and picked it up and there it was and the first thing I noticed was it was a PSNI document with sensitive on the top and there are five pages of it giving full details of the stay at the Grand Central Hotel of the president of America.”
Mr Nolan said it was a briefing document that went through all the deployments and “lists and names every PSNI officer is in charge of the different streets”. Bill said he believed it could have put officers at risk.
“If you look at the last paragraph, it gives you the contact details of the commanding officers and there are phone numbers on that as well,” he said.
“For me, if this had settled in the wrong hands maybe at an earlier time, it doesn’t bear thinking about when you think about the lengths they will go to try and kill police officers.”
In a statement, a PSNI spokesman said: “We are aware of a security breach. An investigation has commenced and we have notified the senior information risk officer.
“We take the safety of visiting dignitaries, members of the public and our officers and staff extremely seriously and will put the appropriate actions in place.”
The discovery comes a day after four suspected pipe bombs were found at the scene of an illegal march in Londonderry.
Police were attacked for a second day in Londonderry on Tuesday as officers made safe the crude homemade devices just hours before Mr Biden arrived in Belfast.
The devices were found at the city cemetery off the Creggan estate, where only the previous day hundreds took part in a dissident republican march and were urged to “join the IRA”.
The terror threat level in Northern Ireland was raised from substantial to severe last month.
Det Ch Insp John Caldwell, a top detective in Northern Ireland, remains in hospital after being shot in front of his son at a leisure centre in Omagh in February.
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