Could
this ‘police officer’ be a soldier? SAS Link
Could this ‘police officer’ be a soldier?
Michael
Smith
BRITISH special forces soldiers took part in the operation
that led to the shoot-to-kill death of an innocent Brazilian
electrician with no connection to the London bombings, defence
sources said last week.
Jean
Charles de Menezes was tailed by a surveillance team on
July 22 as he caught a bus to Stockwell Underground station
in south London. He was shot eight times when he fled from
his pursuers at the Tube station.
The
Ministry of Defence admitted last week that the army provided
“technical assistance” to the surveillance operation
but insisted the soldiers concerned were “not directly
involved” in the shooting.
Press
photographs of members of the armed response team taken
in the immediate aftermath of the killing show at least
one man carrying a special forces weapon that is not issued
to SO19, the Metropolitan police firearms unit.
The
man, wearing civilian clothes with a blue cap marked “Police”,
was carrying a specially modified Heckler & Koch G3K
rifle with a shortened barrel and a butt from a PSG-1 sniper
rifle fitted to it — a combination used by the SAS.
Another
man, dressed in a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, was carrying
a Heckler & Koch G36C. Although this weapon is used
on occasion by SO19 it appears to be fitted with a target
illuminator purchased as an “urgent operational requirement”
for UK special forces involved in the war on terror.
The
soldiers who took part in the surveillance operation that
led to de Menezes’s death included men from a secret
undercover unit formed for operations in Northern Ireland,
defence sources said.
Known
then as 14 Int or the Det, it is reported to have formed
the basis of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, the newly
created special forces unit stationed alongside the SAS
at Hereford. The men include SAS soldiers serving on attachment
and are part of a team of around 50 UK special forces that
has operated in London since the July 7 bombings in which
56 people died.
Special
forces counterterrorist experts have been regularly used
to support police at Heathrow since the September 11 attacks.
They moved into London a day after the July 7 bombings and
have been supporting the police and gathering intelligence
to help snare the suspects.
Members
of SO19 (technically known as CO19) are trained by SAS and
SBS instructors. One key tenet of that training is to ensure
that a suicide bomber is killed rather than wounded, which
would allow them to trigger a bomb.
The
use of multiple shots to the head is the modus operandi
of the special forces, whether from the SAS, the SBS or
the undercover intelligence operators used in the Stockwell
operation. Over the past 30 years the SAS has developed
a reputation for never allowing gunmen to remain alive,
an attitude shown most graphically during the 1980 Iranian
hostages siege and the Gibraltar IRA killings eight years
later.
“It
is vital to strike fear into the minds of the terrorists,”
one former SAS officer said. “In an ongoing situation
such as we have now the fear must be directed to the fact
that we are watching them and will eventually (get) them.
They need to know that they cannot escape.
“We
know they are happy to kill themselves but that doesn’t
mean they are happy to be killed by others. As long as they
evade the police they will think they are in control but
the minute they are intercepted they lose control.”
The
Ministry of Defence insisted last week that the military
involvement was limited in the operation that led to de
Menezes’s death. “We would describe it as technical
assistance as part of a police-led operation under police
control,” a spokeswoman said. “It is a particular
military capability that the police can draw on if needed.
It was a low-level involvement in support of a police-controlled
operation.”
The
Det is made up of the army’s best urban surveillance
operators using skills honed in Belfast against republican
and loyalist terrorists. Its speciality has always been
close target reconnaissance: undercover work among civilians,
observing terrorists at close quarters, and carrying out
covert searches of offices and houses for information and
weapons.
The
unit was very egalitarian when it operated in Northern Ireland.
An operator’s rank was always regarded as less important
than his or her capabilities; it was also the only UK special
forces unit to use women.
The
Det broke into homes to gather intelligence and plant listening
devices or hidden cameras. Weapons were left where they
were found but “jarked” with tiny transmitters
placed inside them that would provide warning should they
be moved.
.gif){kind=small}