A SAS death squad is to be established in London - see the following article.
How long before they start the killings? And how long before other big cities get their own death squads?
How long before they start the killings? And how long before other big cities get their own death squads?
Britain: SAS military forces unit to be permanently stationed in London
By Keith Lee
5 February 2007
A unit of Britain’s elite military force, the Special Air Service (SAS), is to be permanently based in London. Its team of assassins, surveillance specialists and bomb-disposal experts will be on 24-hour alert. The Ministry of Defence has requested that the location of the unit be kept secret.
Although the SAS has been involved in several raids in London recently, this is the first time it will have a permanent base in the UK outside of its headquarters in rural Herefordshire. The unit was flown by helicopter to London in July 2005 when bombs exploded on the Underground rail network and is said to have helped police find suspects involved in a second bomb attempt and also to storm their homes.
Alongside the move of the SAS to London has been the decision by the intelligence agency MI5 to expand its networks and set up a special headquarters on the outskirts of London with teams of surveillance specialists, allowing them greater access to the rest of the country.
Both developments are in line with a major security review carried out by Home Secretary John Reid, who is calling for the Cabinet Office to be given responsibility for managing the government’s counterterrorist strategy.
Two years ago, the Blair government announced the expansion of special forces and the intelligence services as part of the “war on terror.” Extra funding has been given to four squadrons of the 22 SAS unit, the Royal Marines and the naval equivalent of the SAS, the Special Boat Service. The director of special forces now attends the Cobra civil emergencies meetings held by the cabinet office.
According to the Times, the SAS move is “intended to provide the police with a combat-proven ability to deal with armed terrorists in the capital.”
It follows outrage over the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes by armed police officers in July 2005.
Jean Charles was the victim of the “shoot-to-kill” policy, Operation Kratos, secretly adopted by police in 2003. Following the July 7, 2005, terror bombings in London, police seized the opportunity to put this policy into deadly effect. Jean Charles was covertly trailed by plainclothes officers after the block of flats in which he lived had been placed under surveillance. Despite subsequent police claims that he had been positively identified as a terrorist suspect, no attempt was made to detain him en route to the Underground station. Indeed, Jean Charles had no warning of the imminent danger to his life until several plainclothes armed officers grabbed him as he entered the train, pinned him to his seat and fired seven bullets at point-blank range into his head.
Far from retreating in the face of protests over the covert shoot-to-kill policy, the government has drafted into the capital a military unit whose primary purpose is to conduct such operations.
Shoot-to-kill operations by the SAS were long a feature of the British occupation of Northern Ireland. The SAS worked closely with the British Army’s Force Research Unit, which was one of several covert units operating in Northern Ireland. From the early 1970s, British military policy against the Irish Republican Army increasingly relied on spies, dirty operations, double agents, informers, army and loyalist death squads, in addition to 25,000 or so regular troops. The SAS and the 14th Intelligence Company both became notorious for organising the killing of republicans as part of this permanent undercover war. It was reported that officers from the FRU were involved in the killing of Jean Charles.
The SAS also specialises in covert operations and dirty tricks. As recently as September 19, 2005, Iraqi police officers arrested two undercover SAS officers at a Basra checkpoint, travelling in an unmarked car containing weapons and explosives, which led to accusations that they were acting as agents provocateurs. The BBC reported that the SAS men’s car contained “weapons, explosives and communications gear,” adding that this was “standard kit for British special forces.”
A rescue operation was mounted involving an attack on the police station holding the men, using some 10 armoured personnel vehicles and a helicopter to storm the building followed by a pitched battle with around a thousand demonstrators, incensed by the discovery of the SAS’s activities. Troops used live fire and baton rounds, killing several people and injuring many more.
The Blair government made no announcement about the SAS’s move to the capital, and it is unlikely anything would have been known had not the Times learned of the development from defence sources.
The readiness of the Labour government to employ death squads on the streets of Britain’s capital has implications that go beyond the possibility of innocent victims of terror operations against Islamic fundamentalists. London has become one of the most socially polarised cities in the world, where enclaves of the world’s super-rich elite are surrounded by some of the worst living conditions and poorest people in the country. More repressive measures will be necessary to control rising social and political discontent in the general population, including the use of the most ruthless killing machine in the British Army when the need arises.
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/sas-f05.shtml
By Keith Lee
5 February 2007
A unit of Britain’s elite military force, the Special Air Service (SAS), is to be permanently based in London. Its team of assassins, surveillance specialists and bomb-disposal experts will be on 24-hour alert. The Ministry of Defence has requested that the location of the unit be kept secret.
Although the SAS has been involved in several raids in London recently, this is the first time it will have a permanent base in the UK outside of its headquarters in rural Herefordshire. The unit was flown by helicopter to London in July 2005 when bombs exploded on the Underground rail network and is said to have helped police find suspects involved in a second bomb attempt and also to storm their homes.
Alongside the move of the SAS to London has been the decision by the intelligence agency MI5 to expand its networks and set up a special headquarters on the outskirts of London with teams of surveillance specialists, allowing them greater access to the rest of the country.
Both developments are in line with a major security review carried out by Home Secretary John Reid, who is calling for the Cabinet Office to be given responsibility for managing the government’s counterterrorist strategy.
Two years ago, the Blair government announced the expansion of special forces and the intelligence services as part of the “war on terror.” Extra funding has been given to four squadrons of the 22 SAS unit, the Royal Marines and the naval equivalent of the SAS, the Special Boat Service. The director of special forces now attends the Cobra civil emergencies meetings held by the cabinet office.
According to the Times, the SAS move is “intended to provide the police with a combat-proven ability to deal with armed terrorists in the capital.”
It follows outrage over the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes by armed police officers in July 2005.
Jean Charles was the victim of the “shoot-to-kill” policy, Operation Kratos, secretly adopted by police in 2003. Following the July 7, 2005, terror bombings in London, police seized the opportunity to put this policy into deadly effect. Jean Charles was covertly trailed by plainclothes officers after the block of flats in which he lived had been placed under surveillance. Despite subsequent police claims that he had been positively identified as a terrorist suspect, no attempt was made to detain him en route to the Underground station. Indeed, Jean Charles had no warning of the imminent danger to his life until several plainclothes armed officers grabbed him as he entered the train, pinned him to his seat and fired seven bullets at point-blank range into his head.
Far from retreating in the face of protests over the covert shoot-to-kill policy, the government has drafted into the capital a military unit whose primary purpose is to conduct such operations.
Shoot-to-kill operations by the SAS were long a feature of the British occupation of Northern Ireland. The SAS worked closely with the British Army’s Force Research Unit, which was one of several covert units operating in Northern Ireland. From the early 1970s, British military policy against the Irish Republican Army increasingly relied on spies, dirty operations, double agents, informers, army and loyalist death squads, in addition to 25,000 or so regular troops. The SAS and the 14th Intelligence Company both became notorious for organising the killing of republicans as part of this permanent undercover war. It was reported that officers from the FRU were involved in the killing of Jean Charles.
The SAS also specialises in covert operations and dirty tricks. As recently as September 19, 2005, Iraqi police officers arrested two undercover SAS officers at a Basra checkpoint, travelling in an unmarked car containing weapons and explosives, which led to accusations that they were acting as agents provocateurs. The BBC reported that the SAS men’s car contained “weapons, explosives and communications gear,” adding that this was “standard kit for British special forces.”
A rescue operation was mounted involving an attack on the police station holding the men, using some 10 armoured personnel vehicles and a helicopter to storm the building followed by a pitched battle with around a thousand demonstrators, incensed by the discovery of the SAS’s activities. Troops used live fire and baton rounds, killing several people and injuring many more.
The Blair government made no announcement about the SAS’s move to the capital, and it is unlikely anything would have been known had not the Times learned of the development from defence sources.
The readiness of the Labour government to employ death squads on the streets of Britain’s capital has implications that go beyond the possibility of innocent victims of terror operations against Islamic fundamentalists. London has become one of the most socially polarised cities in the world, where enclaves of the world’s super-rich elite are surrounded by some of the worst living conditions and poorest people in the country. More repressive measures will be necessary to control rising social and political discontent in the general population, including the use of the most ruthless killing machine in the British Army when the need arises.
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/sas-f05.shtml
Comments
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Conspiracy will eat itself part 456733
06.02.2007 00:08
1. There is no evidence of the SAS having explosives or conducting false flags. Unless you take the head of the local militia as reported by a Chinese news agency to be a reliable single source.
1b. The official story adds up even more given the recent destruction of the militia death camp guising as a police station.
The story that the SAS guys were being held nearby by militia and the police station was attacked when a negotiating team were also taken prisoner by the militia also sounds more plausible.
2. It was the SRR that were surveilling in Stockwell not the FRU. And yes, the official version of events regarding the missing video and the full bladder stinks.
You also seem to be totally ignorant to the SAS's remit. If you were going to set up death squads in the UK you would be looking more at ex-MI5 and MI6 paramilitaries or ex-special foces contracted to work off the record.
Or are you seriously suggesting that the SAS will be stalking their prey in Land Rovers or negotiating the canal system in their Klepper kayaks? Or maybe they will be parachuting into tube stations and demolishing people with plastic explosives? Digging rat holes under our privet hedges and shitting in a bag for three weeks?
Do get at least the basics right.
SAS are a covert military regiment not some Tom Clancy cliche.
And stay away from Whatreallyhappened.com and prisonplanet.com, no good ever comes of them.
Kune Kune
He who dares, wins - including Pol Pot
06.02.2007 09:47
A prime example of the disinformation campaign being waged here by [NAME REMOVED], the Trident Ploughshares infiltrator who claims to 'an international brotherhood of former squaddies, paras and SAS' with a close friend 'on the Libyan desk'. When I exposed him he threatened my family. He has turned down the opportunity for a fight though, so he is either a coward or still acting under orders, which is more likely since he is still posting here. He deserves another thread just to himself but I'm too busy, just scroogle on his name here.
"1. There is no evidence of the SAS having explosives or conducting false flags. "
There is no evidence because the British army demolished the prison and stole it- not exactly indication of a strong legal defence.
"1b. The official story adds up"
If the official story added up then why weren't the soldiers ever tried in any other Iraqi court. Or if you are saying all Iraqi courts are unjust ( hardly a great recommendation for the occupation) why weren't they tried before an international court like is supposed to happen since we signed the ICC ? Or at least why weren't they tired before a British court ?
"You also seem to be totally ignorant to the SAS's remit. If you were going to set up death squads in the UK you would be looking more at ex-MI5 and MI6 paramilitaries or ex-special foces contracted to work off the record."
If you are trying to protect the honour of the regiment, then you are 30 years too late. It was the SAS who trained Pol Pots Khmer Rogue death squads in Cambodia.
Until 1989, the British role in Cambodia remained secret. The first reports appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, written by Simon O'Dwyer-Russell, a diplomatic and defence correspondent with close professional and family contacts with the SAS. He revealed that the SAS was training the Pol Pot-led force. Soon afterwards, Jane's Defence Weekly reported that the British training for the "non-communist" members of the "coalition" had been going on "at secret bases in Thailand for more than four years". The instructors were from the SAS, "all serving military personnel, all veterans of the Falklands conflict, led by a captain".
The Cambodian training became an exclusively British operation after the "Irangate" arms-for-hostages scandal broke in Washington in 1986. "If Congress had found out that Americans were mixed up in clandestine training in Indo-China, let alone with Pol Pot," a Ministry of Defence source told O'Dwyer-Russell, "the balloon would have gone right up. It was one of those classic Thatcher-Reagan arrangements." Moreover, Margaret Thatcher had let slip, to the consternation of the Foreign Office, that "the more reasonable ones in the Khmer Rouge will have to play some part in a future government". In 1991, I interviewed a member of "R" (reserve) Squadron of the SAS, who had served on the border. "We trained the KR in a lot of technical stuff - a lot about mines," he said. "We used mines that came originally from Royal Ordnance in Britain, which we got by way of Egypt with marking changed . . . We even gave them psychological training. At first, they wanted to go into the villages and just chop people up. We told them how to go easy . . ."
The Foreign Office response was to lie. "Britain does not give military aid in any form to the Cambodian factions," stated a parliamentary reply. The then prime minister, Thatcher, wrote to Neil Kinnock: "I confirm that there is no British government involvement of any kind in training, equipping or co-operating with Khmer Rouge forces or those allied to them." On 25 June 1991, after two years of denials, the government finally admitted that the SAS had been secretly training the "resistance" since 1983. A report by Asia Watch filled in the detail: the SAS had taught "the use of improvised explosive devices, booby traps and the manufacture and use of time-delay devices". The author of the report, Rae McGrath (who shared a joint Nobel Peace Prize for the international campaign on landmines), wrote in the Guardian that "the SAS training was a criminally irresponsible and cynical policy". When a UN "peacekeeping force" finally arrived in Cambodia in 1992, the Faustian pact was never clearer. Declared merely a "warring faction", the Khmer Rouge was welcomed back to Phnom Penh by UN officials, if not the people.
dp
dp
06.02.2007 11:28
I'm merely pointing out that the post is shot with supposition and an ignorance of how the SAS functions.
The SAS would be useless as a deathsquad unless they fundamentally changed their remit and training.
A more feasible explanation of locating rapid response units in every major city is utilizing their counterterrorism role to respond to hostage situations. If you want dirty work done, you go to people who aren't even part of the official food chain, people who are not subject to public scrutiny and who are easily disavowed.
Given the shit job that MI5 have been doing on the intelligence front (see Forest Gate etal), my primary concern would be that they get fed total crap and end up wiping out a house full of innocent people.
Considering that assassination is illegal in the UK such an operation would have to be off-the-record and 100% clandestine. Which the SAS is neither in terms of paper trails.
The Stockwell shooting was a good indicator that orders came from up high to kill a suspect, but CO19 & SRR fucked it up spectacularly- a proper criminal investigation never transpired.
I'm not doubting that the UK government and Establishment are capable of such things, I'm just pointing out that the author is being less than honest.
Conveniently, the soldiers in Basra were protected by immunity under the provisional constitution, so no prosecution would have happened anyway. However, there is nothing in the public domain that conclusively confirms/negates the official line that the soldiers weren't even in the building and that the operation was to rescue the team sent into negotiate the soldiers' release.
Perhaps the truth will come out in 50 years.
Kune Kune
Who ? Me ?
06.02.2007 12:25
[NAME REMOVED], unless you've assumed a new false identity. You know, the guy who claimed to be on Incapacity Support but didn't show up on the DSS computers ( you aren't the only folk who can do identity checks ). The guy who used to posts here under so many names it is hardly worth listing them all, but forever used the same stock-phrases and the same opinions. The guy who was down on Conspiracy Theories and PrisonPlanet. The Glasgow drunk who beat up a girl and then posted here decrying feminism. The guy who shat his pants twice at Peaton Glen Woods. The guy who first rubbished claims here that British soldiers were involved in cross-border raids into Iran. The guy who'd spent time in Germany and claimed to be involved in the London scene, friends to both Crass and the SAS. The guy who can't spell certain words well when drunk or stressed. The 'IM activist' who was here from 'day one', the broke guy who sneaked into an action of mine ready equipped with a van, a posh camera, and an A3 printer - too good to be true in some ways. The guy who spends half his life here posting dismissive comments. The guy who threatened my parents lives. The guy who was trying to infiltrate Trident Ploughshares - how is that going for you by the way ? The guy who was going to rape an ex of mine and who refused to take a lie detector test in front of my mum when I realised that. The guy who admitted trying to goad me into taking illegal action against him so that he could have me arrested. The guy who posted posing as a woman urging me to go through the 'proper authorities' rather than use violence, cause he has reason to fear me. The guy who was stupid enough to admit all this stuff via email. You. Well, I'm following your advice, I'm went through the proper authorities, but they have no record of you. So I know you aren't just a sad bullshitteer, I know you are the real deal. I may not have your real name, but I have your MO, your photo, your voice, and a pretty complete profile of you. I also know if you really were part of a death squad than I'd be dead, not that you can touch me now. Here is a nice photo of you digging up bluebells -
British Intelligence - what a waste of tax-payers money.
"I'm merely pointing out that the post is shot with supposition and an ignorance of how the SAS functions."
Thanks for the inside knowledge but forgive me for doubting your veracity.
"The SAS would be useless as a deathsquad unless they fundamentally changed their remit and training."
Don't put your buddies down, you managed to kill thousands in Cambodia. Besides, as normal, you are misrepresenting the article. The SAS squad that stormed the London embassy was rebuked by Thatcher for leaving one guy alive. I guess that proves a few of you have some sense of decency, or at least a fear of the law.
"A more feasible explanation ...- a proper criminal investigation never transpired."
Excuse me again if I treat your 'more feasible explanations' with disdain.
"I'm not doubting that the UK government and Establishment are capable of such things, I'm just pointing out that the author is being less than honest."
Well, again, I don't doubt you ar a good judge of dishonesty. Fancy a lie detector test yet ?
"Conveniently, the soldiers in Basra were protected by immunity under the provisional constitution, so no prosecution would have happened anyway."
An agreement with an occupied state does not provide immunity under the ICC. Yes, US soldiers are immune but if the Hague functions then one day British soldiers will be prosecuted for their crimes in Iraq, just like military leaders from the Balkans are. The US can't protect you from China - they can't even protect from Belgium or Spain ! Besides, if you are prepared to admit they were operating in Iran, and I do admit you probably have inside information on that, then by rights under international law then they should be tried there - under Shariah law. Fancy getting stoned ?
"However, there is nothing in the public domain that conclusively confirms/negates the official line that the soldiers weren't even in the building and that the operation was to rescue the team sent into negotiate the soldiers' release."
Because you broke into the prison and destroyed the evidence.
"Perhaps the truth will come out in 50 years. "
Perhaps five. Someone will expose the British insurgents, either by boasting, or by legal process, the way I've exposed you.
dp
Huh?
06.02.2007 13:03
I've lived in Maidstone for eons. Had a quick look at the link, doesn't seem to have anything to do with the topic here.
Laters.
Kune Kune
Aye, right.
06.02.2007 13:35
When I had my run-in with the Sunday Herald forum poster ( pre-war, after Neil Mackay had revealed the PNAC plans) they wre still posting IP addresses. I noticed that although that one poster had the same IP address and name, he often never remembered 'facts' he'd previously posted, and changed his identity from an advertising exec to an 'acedemic', 24x7. Led me to believe he US neo-cons posted as teams under assumed identities although I never suspected that here. He/they had that board shut down once me and my anonymous pals exposed them. Now I have exposed one spy here someone with the same views and spelling mistakes is claiming to be from another part of the country. It's not hard to post from another part of the country - I could post from PCs in London if I wanted but I strive for clarity and openness.
Now I am going to check this guy out in more depth, and if anyone from the Forest Cafe or TP want to join me as independent witnesses then they are welcome to say now.
dp