Off icer in shadowy Army unit ‘pressured veteran who reported his security blunder’
A SENIOR officer at the Army’s secret psychological warfare unit has been ticked off after losing a dozen of his business cards in the street – and then using military police to pressure the veteran who raised the alert.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Burridge, a commander in 77th Brigade which is leading efforts to counter Covid-19 disinformation, dropped a pile of cards carrying his office and mobile telephone numbers and his email address earlier this month.
They were spotted on a street in Cottesmore, Rutland, by an Army veteran. Fearing a possible security breach, he picked them up and contacted Alfie Usher, a former soldier who runs the respected military Facebook group Fill Your Boots.
Using the number on the card, Mr Usher contacted Lt Col Burridge and was surprised when the officer initially denied losing the cards and claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.
He relented only when the email address and phone numbers were read out to him but then angrily said he was ‘busy fixing Covid’ before abruptly ending the call. Mr Usher then received a number of mysterious phone calls from military police officers demanding to know who found the cards.
When Mr Usher asked for an official case reference number, they refused to provide one.
Given the shadowy nature of 77th Brigade’s work, Army chiefs are said to have expressed disappointment about how Lt Col Burridge handled the incident, not least because Mr Usher subsequently posted a three-minute video on Fill Your Boots detailing his experience. It has been watched more than 50,000 times.
Mr Usher last night declined to comment, but says in his video: ‘He’s [Lt Col Burridge] embarrassed himself. I tried to do him a favour my letting him know.
‘Instead he said, “How dare you speak to a lieutenant colonel like that,” and hung up on me. Then he got the RMPs to call my office when they don’t have jurisdiction over civilians.
‘It only takes one officer to display such a lack of humility to let down all the others. He only had to be civil and say thanks.’ General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the General Staff, last month revealed that 77th Brigade was being used to combat disinformation about the spread of the virus. The unit is understood to have teamed up with the security services to thwart Chinese and Russian online propaganda.
Formed in 2015, 77th Brigade is based at Denison Barracks in Berkshire. It specialises in psychological warfare, including using Twitter and Facebook to challenge false claims about UK Government policy.
The Mail on Sunday revealed in December 2018 how 77th Brigade had been targeted by Russian state journalists who were questioned and photographed by Army soldiers for loitering near the base and filming through its barbed wire perimeter fences.
Last night an Army spokesman said: ‘We are aware of an incident regarding some lost business cards which has been resolved appropriately.
‘We are not prepared to comment further on an individual’s personal information.’