Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation after sensitive Nato military plans turned up on the Internet, an MoD spokesman said today.
The inquiry was ordered after a nine-page document detailing rules of engagement for Nato soldiers serving in Kosovo appeared on the computer screens of a London publishing company, according to The Sunday Telegraph.
An MoD spokesman said: "We have been made aware of a computer virus being found which contains text apparently relating to military matters and this has been determined to originate from outside the UK.
"Appropriate measures have been taken to investigate the matter."
Nato spokesman Jamie Shea told The Sunday Telegraph: "If it proves true that a Nato document has got into the public domain, it will be a matter of great concern to us.
"These are sensitive Nato documents. We would like to keep them classified and prevent them being comprised."
The document features the "Rules of Engagement for Land Operations", which cover the circumstances under which "appropriate measures, including the use of deadly force" may be used, the paper says.
It tells Nato troops they should hand over war criminals to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia within 48 hours of capture.
According to the newspaper report, a military official ruled out the possibility that the document had been obtained by sophisticated hacking into military computers.
It had ended up in the public domain "by mistake" and the investigation would try to establish how that had happened, he said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments