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Britain’s SAS Abetting Gaza Genocide?

  • Kit Klarenberg Kit Klarenberg
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 20 Nov 2023 00:47
  • 23 Shares
8 Min Read

On October 28th, the DSMA’s chief wrote to editors of major British news outlets, demanding they not report or in any way mention the SAS is currently “deployed to sensitive areas” of West Asia.

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  • Britain’s SAS Abetting Gaza Genocide?
    Britain’s SAS Abetting Gaza Genocide? (Illustrated by Hady Dbouk to Al Mayadeen English)

It has been revealed Britain’s shadowy Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee is suppressing news reportage on clandestine Special Air Service (SAS) operations in Gaza. The eagerness of London’s military, security and intelligence apparatus to censor such disclosures is an unambiguous indicator Perfidious Albion is doing the devil’s work in the embattled Occupied Territories, and wants inconvenient, incriminating truths concealed.

The DSMA is a little-known, rarely discussed and highly secretive body. Comprised of senior representatives of the British Army, Ministry of Defence, domestic and foreign spying agencies, major government departments, press associations and TV and print outlets, it has for decades insidiously imposed a quintessentially British form of press censorship. The Committee decides the subjects and events related to national security that can be reported on, and how, with devastating effect.

On October 28th, the DSMA’s chief wrote to editors of major British news outlets, demanding they not report or in any way mention the SAS is currently “deployed to sensitive areas” of West Asia, conducting “hostage rescue/evacuation operations” of Britons caught up in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and Israeli genocidal counterattack. The Committee claimed such journalistic activity “could reveal details of operations or operating methods and techniques…which would bestow an advantage on an adversary,” and thus “endanger national security”:

“May I take this opportunity to remind editors publication of such information contravenes the DSMA notice code. I therefore advise claims of such deployments should not be published nor broadcast without first seeking [DSMA] advice. [The Committee] aims to prevent inadvertent disclosure of classified information about Special Forces and other units engaged in security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations [in Gaza], including their methods, techniques and activities.”

‘Complete and Utter Nightmare’

This broadside was allegedly motivated by The Daily Mail and The Sun earlier that day revealing the SAS was “on standby in Cyprus to rescue British hostages held captive in Gaza.” Purportedly, 200 Britons remained “trapped by the bloodbath” after Egypt and the Israelis sealed the area’s borders, so London’s elite soldiers were “braced” to liberate them on British military and intelligence bases in Cyprus, which “offer a strategic presence in the eastern Mediterranean.”

Even at that stage, the true number of hostages captured by Hamas still alive was highly uncertain, given the Zionist assault on Gaza’s ferocity. US and Israeli officials profess ignorance about the total today. This raises obvious questions about the true rationale behind the SAS presence in Cyprus. Moreover, the prospect of a daring rescue raid in the Occupied Territories was judged suicidally insane and ill-omened by an SAS veteran consulted by The Daily Mail:

“This situation in Gaza is unique, in terms of trying to locate the hostages and find safe passage out. There’s a lot of confusion with what’s going on over there right now. Finding the right stronghold where hostages are being held will be tough - then you have to safely move to that location, find the hostages, then leave. From a planning perspective, it will be a complete and utter nightmare. It could end in disaster.”

The DSMA letter’s reference to “security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations” also points to a very different purpose to the SAS presence near Gaza. Such suspicions are compounded by a recent investigation by Declassified UK, which found 33 military transport flights have traveled to "Tel Aviv" from the same British bases in Cyprus at which the SAS operatives are posted, including every day for two weeks after the Israeli genocide in Gaza began. The outlet could not identify comparable flights before that fateful date.

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DSMA letters are hugely impactful. Examples of journalists and editors failing to heed these requests are non-existent. Meanwhile, after The Guardian began reporting on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, the Committee immediately fired off letters, stating British intelligence was “concerned further developments of this same theme” would compromise “national security”. The Snowden revelations were resultantly ignored by Britain’s media, with most outlets not mentioning the seismic, world-changing disclosures at all.

It is inconceivable the DSMA Committee is deeply worried about reports of the SAS being “braced” for courageous hostage rescue missions spreading. It is much more likely - if not certain - British special forces based in Cyprus are actively aiding and abetting Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Zionists’ mission to “wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth”, and achieve Nakba 2.0. Which the British government would have every reason to cover up.

‘The Latest Massacre’

An official inquiry in London is scrutinizing SAS activities in Afghanistan, 2010 - 2013. It has uncovered reams of shocking evidence indicating British special forces squads tasked with locating and capturing suspected “terrorists” routinely murdered unarmed, innocent people, then fabricated evidence to falsely frame their victims as armed insurgents. Moreover, senior military officials were well-aware of rampant, lethal SAS criminality, but turned a blind eye.

On October 11th, a lawyer representing seven Afghan families whose relatives were killed by SAS soldiers, made his opening statement in the Royal Courts of Justice. He stated internal British Army documents and correspondence released to the prosecution exposed:

“Extensive contemporaneous evidence of apparent attempts to cover up wrongdoing, ranging from the destruction of evidence and the coaching of witnesses to the turning of blind eyes and the credulous acceptance by those responsible for military discipline of implausible and often wholly incredible accounts of events… [British special forces chiefs] failed to take any steps to investigate that wrongdoing and prevent its recurrence.”

SAS operatives implicated made a determined attempt to destroy incriminating evidence of their crimes, and defied orders from military police not to delete data from their computers. Yet, remaining material on servers used by a key SAS squadron accused of murder was found to include “indecent images of children and extreme pornography.” Many smoking gun emails between officers also escaped deletion.

On February 9th 2011, a special forces officer lamented to another, “whilst murder and the [SAS] have oft been regular bed-fellows, this is beginning to look bone!” They replied: “Depressing that it has come to this…Ultimately a massive failure of leadership…when the next WikiLeaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them.”

Mere days earlier, the SAS had killed nine sleeping Afghans, including a 14-year-old boy. A week later, an SAS night raid left four members of one family dead, among them a man British intelligence claimed was a Taliban military commander. His family counter that he was a mere student. The rest of the cold-bloodedly slain were conceded by the British government to be civilians. Commenting on the action, an SAS sergeant major internally described the episode as “the latest massacre!”

An official incident report on the killings authored by the SAS soldiers responsible provoked outcry and mocking from their fellow operatives, and superiors. A special forces soldier from another unit said their description of why the shooting started - two detainees were ordered to open the building’s curtains, and returned with an AK47 and a grenade - was the eighth or tenth time such a scenario had been posited as the cause of an SAS mass killing in the past fortnight.

“You couldn’t MAKE IT UP! [emphasis in original]” they sardonically signed off.

This horrific, hitherto hidden legacy has terrifying potential ramifications for all those who remain in Gaza. The IOF has demonstrated total contempt for Palestinian life young and old, obliterating civilian infrastructure and its occupants with callous impunity, and even slaughtering civilians attempting to flee to designated “safe” zones. Meanwhile, the fakery and dishonesty employed to justify or conceal these crimes against humanity plumbs fresh depths of depravity daily. In this genocidal mission, the Zionists couldn’t have a more perfect collaborator than the SAS.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • Israeli aggression
  • Israeli occupation
  • SAS
  • Ukraine
  • Gaza
Kit Klarenberg

Kit Klarenberg

Investigative journalist.

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