The British SAS catch all
Quote:
BRITISH special forces have crossed into Iran several times in recent months as part of a secret border war against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Al-Quds special forces, defence sources have disclosed.
Complete Times article here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...SS&attr=797084
Motives involved in this story?
I find exposes like The Times article very odd. Why was this published and who "leaked" the information? There is no way a journalist did normal reporting in Iraq to discover this. Yes, compiling rumours and snippets from a safe place, guarded by UK troops.
Am I the only person who wonders whether Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Times, has encouraged such a story? Using such a story as some advocate war on Iran to indicate the UK will join in.
davidbfpo
Making Mischief In The Still of The Night
Such doings are as old as mankind as we all well know and without collaberation, the Public focus on such a report on a scale from 1 - 100 comes in probably around .6 at best. It makes good filler for credentialed sock puppets on the televison to wag their tongues over and pontificate but more than anything, it probably enhances sales of violent video games for pimple-faced teens.
SAS war hero (not) jailed after 'betrayal'
Political correctness to the extreme is threatening UK as much as the US. This is simply unacceptable, the British people need to mobilize and put pressure on the idiots that made this decision.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9669...-betrayal.html
Quote:
Lt Col Richard Williams, who won a Military Cross in Afghanistan in 2001 and was Sgt Nightingale’s commanding officer in Iraq, said the sentence “clearly needed to be overturned immediately”.
He said: “His military career has been ruined and his wife and children face being evicted from their home — this is a total betrayal of a man who dedicated his life to the service of his country.”
SAS man released by Court Martial Court of Appeal
Quote:
An SAS sniper has been released after his 18 month sentence for illegally possessing a pistol was cut and suspended by the Court of Appeal. Sgt Danny Nightingale, from Crewe, admitted possessing the 9mm Glock pistol and 338 rounds of ammunition at a court martial earlier this month. The judges heard Nightingale had forgotten he had the gun and cut his sentence to 12 months and suspended it.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20547557
A slightly unexpected result, partly as the Sgt had admitted the offences, but widely considered outside the military as an injustice. Several e-petitions started and just maybe the court listened. The court being a civilian court and this is the first time its existence has come to the fore.
Judicial "Nullification",
similar to Jury "Nullification".
Our Ayala case (PMC shot prisoner he had cuffed, where prisoner killed the HTS gal that the PMC was guarding) had a similar result - probation (comments on result, here, here and here).
Army Times article reporting sentencing.
This result met strong disapproval from Zero Antropology, Whitewashing a U.S. War Crime in Afghanistan: The Trial of Don Ayala, “Human Terrain” Mercenary.
Regards
Mike
Bill: Admittedly, there is a legal stretch ...
in going from a capital crime down to a lower felony, drawing in this case a $12,500 fine and 5-years probation. I haven't tried to find the sentencing transcript, where I expect the judge laid out the legal reasons for the sentence.
My approval of the sentence was not legalistic - some would say my belief is totally simplistic. We send these young men and women into bad places and worse situations. So, we have to take care of them. I don't ask anyone else to agree with me.
Regards
Mike
Update on medical position and date for re-trial
Hidden away in a BBC regional news area:
Quote:
Danny Nightingale had been recommended for the discharge after suffering brain damage in 2009....the retrial...is expected to start on 1 July.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22843522
Band of brothers: remembering the fallen soldiers of the SAS
France maybe the focus here, then you read this:
Quote:
During its five-year cycle of remembrance, the regiment lays 371 wreaths at memorials and individual graves in 20 countries, commemorating 493 casualties sustained during the Second World War and in post-war operations. There are 100 casualties commemorated in France, and monuments adorn places as distant as Sarawak in northern Borneo and the Silent Valley of South Yemen.
Living up to their motto 'Who Dares Wins' after D-Day:
Quote:
he squadron did not parachute their way into Occupied France, as the men involved in Loyton did, but simply drove their 20 Jeeps through enemy lines in darkness as the Battle of Normandy raged about them. For 250 miles they journeyed, in British uniform, through the heart of enemy territory, often in broad daylight.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/w...f-the-SAS.html
The SAS and LRDG Roll of Honour 1941-47
Prompted by a full review (the second link) of this newly published volume set here is the author's explanation:
Quote:
A seminal project that brings together the moving stories of every Special Air Service and Long Range Desert Group casualty of the Second World War. Meticulously and passionately researched over 13 years, this exhaustive work is a unique combination of operational reports, personal service records and medal citations, all given colour and depth through correspondence with next of kin and the recollections of those that were there. Lavishly illustrated, with many photographs published for the first time, it celebrates the extraordinary and largely unreported bravery of 374 casualties now commemorated in seventeen countries.
Link:http://www.sas-lrdg-roh.com/index.html
The review article starts with some history of their first mission:
Quote:
Exhausted and filthy, the soldiers of the newly-formed SAS stand side-by-side in the desert. Hours earlier, an abortive raid had seen more than half their comrades either killed or captured, but the men of the soon-to-be-famous force still manage to raise a grin. The newly-discovered photograph from 1941 is the only known picture of the elite unit’s first ever raid, carried out by founder members known as the Originals.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...th-of-the-sas/
Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS
A NYT review of Ben McIntyre's book 'Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS', which covers their birth in WW2:
Quote:
...this volume features an ensemble of eccentrics, mavericks and malcontents. And, in this case, one visionary, David Stirling, who invented an elite commando unit that would become the prototype for a new kind of modern warfare...
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/bo...acintyre.html?
The book awaits attention here, so one day my review.
In those days there were the true experts, Michael Sadler and his navigation skills, so necessary to get the SAS in their initial airbase raiding mode across the desert.