SAS alleged unlawful killings
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Discussion

MrBogSmith

Original Poster:

4,961 posts

57 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Looks like the BBC have been tenacious and doing exactly what they should be whilst the government tries to palm them off: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62083196

Doesn’t look good at all.

Pretty stupid to try the same MO every time.

“Oh we took a detained person back in the house and he pulled a gun / grenade every time. It kept happening and we didn’t think to keen them restrained so it wouldn’t happen so many times…”

Hopefully it’ll be looked at seriously.

poo at Paul's

14,545 posts

198 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Is this the reason Ben Wallace pulled out of the Conservative leader race.....

take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey

7,270 posts

78 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Similar happened with Aus SAS a while back.

Read that this morning... Some pretty damming claims being made.

biggbn

30,080 posts

243 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Someone will be along to defend anytime now....

Electro1980

8,910 posts

162 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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The squadron involve should be invested and dealt with appropriately, but is not the major problem here. The failure of leadership is the real problem. I can see how in a war zone individuals or small groups can start doing unacceptable and abhorrent things. It shouldn’t happen, but I can see how it does. The leadership should be aware of this and deal swiftly with any problems before they get out of hand (I.e. deal with problematic behaviour before it leads to war crimes). It seems leadership were, if not complicit, then wilfully ignorant to the point of negligence.

TheRainMaker

7,647 posts

265 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Electro1980 said:
The leadership should be aware of this and deal swiftly with any problems before they get out of hand (I.e. deal with problematic behaviour before it leads to war crimes). It seems leadership were, if not complicit, then wilfully ignorant to the point of negligence.
Isn’t that the thing with the SAS and the likes, they are the thinking solider and left alone to do the thing they do best?

Who do they really answer to?

130R

6,999 posts

229 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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biggbn said:
Someone will be along to defend anytime now....
Ok I will, because:

"may have"
"evidence suggesting"
"alleged"

In 2014, the RMP launched Operation Northmoor, a wide-ranging investigation .. Operation Northmoor was wound down in 2017 and eventually closed in 2019. The Ministry of Defence has said that no evidence of criminality was found.

ZedLeg

12,278 posts

131 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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TheRainMaker said:
Electro1980 said:
The leadership should be aware of this and deal swiftly with any problems before they get out of hand (I.e. deal with problematic behaviour before it leads to war crimes). It seems leadership were, if not complicit, then wilfully ignorant to the point of negligence.
Isn’t that the thing with the SAS and the likes, they are the thinking solider and left alone to do the thing they do best?

Who do they really answer to?
They're given a lot of leeway to work on their own but they still have a mission brief and chain of command.

It's like we never learned the lessons of having the military involved in policing duties in Northern Ireland.

gotoPzero

19,906 posts

212 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Been going on since day dot. Nearly happened during Op Nimrod with millions watching.

A well known SF unit (not the SAS) had a KIA board if Afghan with lots of names on it.

Every night when they would go out on a mission they would take the unit patch and/or name patch of a soldier who was KIA off the board.

If you had cause to get an enemy kill they would then normally take that patch or name patch and move it from the "KIA" board to the "avenged" board when you returned.

It was not uncommon for a photograph to be taken and for that to be given to team mates / battle buddies etc.


wong

1,427 posts

239 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Electro1980 said:
The squadron involve should be invested and dealt with appropriately, but is not the major problem here. The failure of leadership is the real problem. I can see how in a war zone individuals or small groups can start doing unacceptable and abhorrent things. It shouldn’t happen, but I can see how it does. The leadership should be aware of this and deal swiftly with any problems before they get out of hand (I.e. deal with problematic behaviour before it leads to war crimes). It seems leadership were, if not complicit, then wilfully ignorant to the point of negligence.
Alternative view -
Could it be that they are just following leadership orders?

Or Have I read too many Andy McNab/Chris Ryan books? smile

ZedLeg

12,278 posts

131 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
quotequote all
wong said:
Electro1980 said:
The squadron involve should be invested and dealt with appropriately, but is not the major problem here. The failure of leadership is the real problem. I can see how in a war zone individuals or small groups can start doing unacceptable and abhorrent things. It shouldn’t happen, but I can see how it does. The leadership should be aware of this and deal swiftly with any problems before they get out of hand (I.e. deal with problematic behaviour before it leads to war crimes). It seems leadership were, if not complicit, then wilfully ignorant to the point of negligence.
Alternative view -
Could it be that they are just following leadership orders?

Or Have I read too many Andy McNab/Chris Ryan books? smile
If you've read more than one of each then the answer is yes wink

deckster

9,631 posts

278 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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130R said:
biggbn said:
Someone will be along to defend anytime now....
Ok I will, because:

"may have"
"evidence suggesting"
"alleged"

In 2014, the RMP launched Operation Northmoor, a wide-ranging investigation .. Operation Northmoor was wound down in 2017 and eventually closed in 2019. The Ministry of Defence has said that no evidence of criminality was found.
As a counterpoint:

BBC said:
An operations officer emailed a colleague to say that "for what must be the 10th time in the last two weeks" the squadron had sent a detainee back into a building "and he reappeared with an AK".

"Then when they walked back in to a different A [building] with another B [fighting-age male] to open the curtains he grabbed a grenade from behind a curtain and threw it at the c/s [SAS assault team]. Fortunately, it didn't go off…. this is the 8th time this has happened... You couldn't MAKE IT UP!"
It's clear that concerns were raised at the time and brushed under the carpet. The BBC aren't known for making unsubstantiated claims so at this stage I wouldn't be so bullish that the MoD investigated this fully and impartially.

Now I've never been in the armed forces and I've definitely never had to face going into enemy territory to retrieve people who are more than likely going to kill me if they see me. But at the end of the day the whole point of operations like Afghanistan is that we are meant to be better than the terrorists. And things like this bring the entirety of the operation into disrepute and just give fuel to those who say we should keep our noses out of other countries' business.

BikeBikeBIke

13,433 posts

138 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
quotequote all
take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey said:
Similar happened with Aus SAS a while back.

Read that this morning... Some pretty damming claims being made.
The Aus thing was way worse. As bad as this is they did at least *think* they were killing bombmakers (which is no excuse). The Aus guys were randomly killing for fun.

Portofino

5,130 posts

214 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Oh dear, woke BBC trying to infect the special forces. When will they stop, when soldiers are only allowed spud guns?

This sort of thing is nothing new.

Electro1980

8,910 posts

162 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Portofino said:
Oh dear, woke BBC trying to infect the special forces. When will they stop, when soldiers are only allowed spud guns?

This sort of thing is nothing new.
Is this an attempt at satire or genuine? I really can’t tell.

bloomen

9,355 posts

182 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Portofino said:
Oh dear, woke BBC trying to infect the special forces. When will they stop, when soldiers are only allowed spud guns?

This sort of thing is nothing new.
I will never, ever get the - 'they are wearing a uniform so are therefore magically exempt from committing any type of crime' that so often gets rolled out.

If allegations like this are true and provable then nail them to the wall just like anyone else.

Elroy Blue

8,818 posts

215 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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bloomen said:
I will never, ever get the - 'they are wearing a uniform so are therefore magically exempt from committing any type of crime' that so often gets rolled out.

If allegations like this are true and provable then nail them to the wall just like anyone else.
They've been thoroughly investigated and found to have no substance.
But some still want them nailed to the wall. Just in case, because someone alleged something, somewhere, sometime

skwdenyer

18,527 posts

263 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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Elroy Blue said:
bloomen said:
I will never, ever get the - 'they are wearing a uniform so are therefore magically exempt from committing any type of crime' that so often gets rolled out.

If allegations like this are true and provable then nail them to the wall just like anyone else.
They've been thoroughly investigated and found to have no substance.
But some still want them nailed to the wall. Just in case, because someone alleged something, somewhere, sometime
Is not the thrust of the article that evidence and the opinions of people close to the issue were kept away from the investigation?

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

154 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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MrBogSmith said:
Hopefully it’ll be looked at seriously.
Or hopefully not.

deckster

9,631 posts

278 months

Tuesday 12th July 2022
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LeadFarmer said:
MrBogSmith said:
Hopefully it’ll be looked at seriously.
Or hopefully not.
You think that reports of extra-judicial murder and multiple breaches of international law, followed by allegations of an institutional cover-up shouldn't be seriously investigated?