Open Editor's Digest for free
Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
British special forces fighting in Afghanistan were given a “golden permit” that allowed them to escape punishment, and operated under a “code of silence” that prevented soldiers from speaking out, a public inquiry into suspected war crimes has heard.
These accusations were contained in testimonies published by the Afghanistan Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday as part of the publication of materials summarizing closed-door hearings held with seven British special forces soldiers.
The investigation is looking into allegations of killings carried out by British special forces during night raids against the Taliban between 2010 and 2013, which were then covered up.
One officer told the inquiry that British special forces appeared to have been given a “golden pass that allowed them to get away with murder”.
When Oliver Glasgow, the investigating lawyer, asked whether it was possible to read mission operational reports in a way that also suggested that British special forces “may have been committing extrajudicial killings”, the officer replied: “Yes.”
Another officer said that soldiers who sought to uncover suspected wrongdoing received “opposition” from their peers and were told “it is not appropriate to interrogate you.”
He said: “I believe that the British security forces enforce the law of silence, or Omerta, which prevents people from speaking out.” “I am concerned about my personal safety after making this statement.”
The mystique surrounding the UK's special forces, the Special Air Service and the Special Boat Service, is maintained by the secrecy of their operations. In practice, political oversight is limited to a select few – often only the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister.
The materials released to the public on Wednesday summarize testimony from closed-door hearings held last year, in which only the investigation team and representatives of the Ministry of Defense were allowed to attend. The identity of the certificates was also concealed.
But hundreds of pages of documents uncovered paint a rare picture – in sometimes graphic detail – of the allegedly aggressive tactics used by some special forces units to pursue the Taliban.
The inquest heard that one unit “adopted a policy of killing all males of fighting age on target”. Some units may also have decided to take the law into their own hands rather than release suspected Taliban insurgents.
“It is plausible that frustrations over the shortcomings of detention operations in Afghanistan might have led people to conclude that they should take the law into their own hands,” one soldier said.
Another officer recounted how some Special Forces soldiers referred to the killed Afghans as “flats.” He was also asked about planted weapons – known colloquially as “Mr. Wolf” – which were sometimes placed next to bodies so that it appeared they had been armed when they were killed.
Glasgow, the investigating lawyer, wondered whether this was a reference to a Hollywood film Pulp Fictionin which the character, Mr. Wolf, arrives at the scene of a murder, and announces that he is there to “solve problems.”
“That's right. I didn't put two and two together,” the officer replied.
