Derek Pasquill was a Foreign and Commonwealth Office man to his core. He was born to a diplomat father and service wife, weaned in its embassies, trained in its boarding schools and polished by its fine minds until he was ready to represent liberal Britain to a hostile world.
The FCO was the only institution he really knew, and he took its benevolence for granted. His mother was German and his parents did not want to spend their days at drinks parties with cliquey expats who would not treat the overwhelming majority of their compatriots as their social equals, let alone foreigners. They toured his father's postings instead.
When he was on holiday from his English boarding schools, they took him to the Roman ruins at Baalbek in Lebanon and the palaces of Ctesiphon, Iraq. Pasquill had an isolated but privileged childhood and he looks back on it with gratitude. His whole life had been leading him towards a career in the diplomatic service. It was his natural home.
Today, the FCO views him as the most devastating whistleblower in its recent history....
Derek Pasquill (born 11 January 1959 in Osterode am Harz, Germany) is a former British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) civil servant who became known as a whistleblower.
He graduated from the University of East Anglia and worked in the FCO unit focused on engaging with the Islamic world. In 2005–2006, he leaked confidential documents (memos, letters, and emails, mostly classified no higher than “Confidential”) to journalist Martin Bright. These concerned UK government policy on contacts with radical Islamist groups (including the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt) and awareness of CIA extraordinary rendition flights.
The material underpinned articles in The Observer and New Statesman, plus the Policy Exchange pamphlet When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries: The British State’s Flirtation with Radical Islamism. Revelations included FCO engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, heavy reliance on the MCB as a interlocutor, internal assessments that the Iraq war was fueling radicalism among British Muslims (contrary to some public government claims), and limited official knowledge of US rendition practices.
Pasquill was arrested and suspended in January 2006 for alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act. He was later charged with six counts of making damaging disclosures. The prosecution collapsed at the Old Bailey in January 2008 after the Crown said late-disclosed internal FCO documents undermined the claim that the leaks damaged national security or international relations; senior officials had privately viewed the disclosures as potentially prompting useful debate. He was acquitted and described the outcome as complete vindication of actions taken in the public interest.
Despite the acquittal, he was dismissed for gross misconduct in August 2008 after a lengthy suspension. He challenged this via an employment tribunal under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (arguing victimization for protected whistleblowing), but the case was withdrawn in February 2010 without costs awarded.
In his own account (“I had no choice but to leak,” New Statesman, 2008), Pasquill said doubts grew while working on a Festival of Muslim Cultures and after the 7/7 bombings; he believed the engagement policy was potentially catastrophic and that the issues needed public scrutiny rather than remaining with a small group of officials. The leaks are widely credited with contributing to a later policy shift (under figures such as Ruth Kelly and Hazel Blears) that reduced reliance on certain Islamist organizations.
His Wikipedia article was deleted; an archived version exists on Wikibin. Public information about his life after the early 2010s is limited. Other people with similar surnames (e.g., musicians or athletes) are distinct.
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My comment: Pasquill seems to have been on the right side of this one. Namely: don’t cosy up to radical Islamist nutters! More: his whistleblowing had an effect. For the good. British officials reduced contacts with radical Islamists. One does wonder why the officials were so keen on such contacts in the first place. Naivety? Ignorance? Misplaced empathy? Themselves Islamists?
Also: I’m thinking there’s been backsliding since whatever distancing took place. If it even did so. As the Chinese phrase has it: “if you don’t keep rowing you’ll go backwards”. 逆水行舟 不进则退.
