Special Forces chief battles to stop book revealing details of operations in Iraq

Michael Evans and Tom Coghlan
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk
February 8, 2010

The head of Britain’s special forces has been trying to stop the publication of a book by a senior BBC journalist which describes in “tactical detail” operations carried out by the SAS in Iraq from 2003 to 2009.

The major-general, who cannot be identified for security reasons, is concerned about the impact of Task Force Black on the elite regiment’s operational effectiveness because of the contents, which are understood to be based on interviews with members and former members of the SAS.

Negotiations with lawyers representing the book’s author, Mark Urban, Newsnight’s diplomatic and defence editor, and the Ministry of Defence, have been going on for months, and a compromise had been reached.

However, the Director Special Forces (DSF) remains unhappy with the publication. The DSF is in command of all the special forces: the SAS, the Special Boat Service, the Special Forces Support Group (formerly the 1st Battalion The Parachute Regiment), and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

“As far as DSF is concerned, when he saw the manuscript, all he wanted to survive was about three lines,” one defence source said. “All DSFs would prefer nothing to be written about the SAS. In fact their ideal situation would be if neither the word ‘special’ nor ‘forces’ ever appeared in print,” he added.

The book describes missions in Baghdad, Basra and along the border with Iran in the south, and is to be published this week by Little Brown, despite the concerns of the most senior personnel in the special forces.

The defence source said that after lengthy negotiations with the publisher, the MoD was satisfied that the book would not compromise the operational effectiveness of the SAS.

“It has not been approved, because that implies that the MoD and special forces are happy with the publication, which they are not,” he added. Read more…

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