Britain "apologizes" for terrorist act in Basra

[turquoisefyre]

don't know if anyone has seen this before, but here it is:

2005


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20051015&articleId=1094


Britain "apologizes" for terrorist act in Basra
Rescue of SAS men who were planning to place bombs in Basra City Square


Global Research, October 15, 2005


In earlier reports, we focussed on the operation of two undercover British SAS operatives, dressed in traditonal Arab clothing, who were planning to set of bombs in the main square in Basra, coinciding with a religous event.

They were arrested by Iraqi police and subsequently "liberated" by British forces in a major military assault, directed against the Iraqi police authorities with tanks and armed cars.

(See Were British Special Forces Soldiers Planting Bombs in Basra? by Michael Keefer, See also British "Undercover Soldiers" Caught driving Booby Trapped Car)

The matter of what the SAS operatives were doing was hushed up.

No investiigation was carried out.

This and other incidents suggest that the bomb attacks on civlians including suicide attacks are in fact covert intelligence operations to trigger divisions within Iraqi society, while at the same time weakening the resistance movement.

There is, however, a growing awareness among the Iraqi populaiton that the occupation forces rather than Al Qaeda are behind the attacks on civilians.

In a recent report (October 12):


"A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday.

Residents of western Baghdad's al-Ghazaliyah district told Quds Press that the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon (11 October 2005). Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away. That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the Iraqi puppet police."


Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 15 Oct 2005




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Text of report by Iranian Arabic language television news channel Al-Alam on 15 October

The British government has officially apologized to Iraq over the recent Basra events.

A statement issued by the British consulate in Basra has said that London apologizes to the Iraqi people and government, Basra residents, city and province councils and the police force over mistakes made by the British

This comes after a British [army] unit stormed Basra police station and used force to release two British soldiers arrested by Iraqi police for the charge of seeking to carry out sabotage acts and stirring sedition among the residents of the city.

Source: Al-Alam TV, Tehran, in Arabic 1100 gmt 15 Oct 05


Copyrigth Al-Alam and BBC Monitoring 2005




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Britain to pay out over Basra rescue


GAVIN CORDON


The Scotsman

BRITAIN will pay compensation for injuries and damage caused during the storming by the army of a police station in Basra in the operation to release two SAS soldiers held by local Iraqi militia, it was announced yesterday.

In a joint statement, the British Consulate General, representing the army, and the Provincial Council of Basra expressed "regret" for the incidents on 19 September.

"We also regret the casualties on both sides and the material damage to public facilities," the statement said.

"The British government is prepared to pay valid claims for compensation for casualties and material damage."

The carefully worded statement expressed full support for the "dignity of the institutions and people of the governorate of Basra and the sovereignty of Iraq".

It said the British government would deal with "those connected to the events" in accordance with the legislation of the former Coalition Provisional Authority.

The statement will be seen as an attempt to rebuild relations between the army and the authorities in Basra ahead of Saturday's referendum on a new Iraq constitution and elections in December.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Mohammed al-Waili, the governor, attacked the British action as "barbaric" and warned that he would end co-operation with UK forces unless he received an apology.

An Iraqi judge also issued an arrest warrant for the two undercover SAS men following allegations by Iraqi officials that they opened fire after being stopped by a police patrol.

In the Commons yesterday, John Reid, the Defence Secretary, stressed he still "fully supported" the operation to rescue the two SAS men after it emerged that they had been handed over by the police to local militia.

Copyright The Scotsman 2005

[turquoisefyre]

British Chief Police Investigator in Basra dies under mysterious circumstances

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20051017&articleId=1100

He was responsible for the investigation into the two Elite SAS men disguised as Arab "terrorists"


by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, October 17, 2005



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Captain Ken Masters, British chief police investigator in Basra died under mysterious circumstances. The cause of death was not mentioned. According to a Ministry of Defense spokesman, his death was "not due to hostile action" nor to natural causes.

Ken Masters was Commanding Officer of the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police. He was "responsible for the investigation of all in-theatre serious incidents, plus investigations conducted by the General Police Duties element of the Theatre Investigation Group." (Statement of Britain's Ministry of Defense, 16 Oct 2005).

In this capacity, Captain Masters was responsible for investigating the circumstances of the arrest of two undercover elite SAS men, wearing Arab clothing, by Iraqi police in Basra. on September 19 (London Times (17 Oct 2005)..

"The Ministry of Defence refused to reveal details about his [Masters] work but it is believed he was involved in the inquiry into the dramatic rescue of two SAS soldiers held in a prison in Basra." (Daily Mail, 16 Oct 2005)

The two British undercover "soldiers", who were driving a car loaded with weapons and ammunition, were subsequently "rescued" by British forces, in a major military assault on the building where they were being detained:

"British forces used up to 10 tanks " supported by helicopters " to smash through the walls of the jail and free the two British servicemen."

The incident, which resulted in numerous civilian and police casualties has caused political embarrassment.

Several media reports and eyewitness accounts suggested that the SAS operatives were disguised as Al Qaeda "terrorists" and were planning to set off the bombs in Basra's central square during a a major religious event.

On the 14th of October, Britain formally apologized to Iraq and confirmed that it "will pay compensation for injuries and damage caused during the storming by the army of a police station in Basra in the operation to release two SAS soldiers" (The Scotesman, 15 Oct 2005). In the British raid on the prison, 7 Iraqis were killed and 43 were injured .(The Times, op cit)

"Compensation to the families of alleged Iraqi victims who died during the fracas depended on the official investigation being carried out by Captain Masters and his team." (ibid)

Captain Ken Masters died in Basra on the 15th. According to the MoD "the circumstances [of his death ] were not regarded as suspicious."

The reports casually suggested that Masters might have been suffering from "stress", which could have driven him to commit suicide. In the words of a Defense analyst quoted by the BBC:.

"Capt Masters was part of quite a small outfit and his job would have been quite stressful. It's quite an onerous job..... I think, [there is] quite a lot of stress involved" (BBC, 16 October 2005).

The Daily Mail (17 Oct 2005), however, tends to dismiss the suicide thesis "Little is known of his private life and it is said to be unlikely that the pressures of work would have led him to commit suicide."

British statements concerning the "rescue operation"

The attack on the 19th of September to "rescue" the two SAS men was launched under the command of Brig John Lorimer. In a statement, Lorimer said that the purpose of the raid was to ensure the safety of the two SAS men: .

"... I had good reason to believe that the lives of the two soldiers were at risk and troops were sent to the area of Basra near the police station to help ensure their safety. ... "Later in the day, however, I became more concerned about the safety of the two soldiers after we received information that they had been handed over to militia elements. As a result I took the difficult decision to order entry to the Jamiat police station. By taking this action we were able to confirm that the soldiers were no longer being held by the IPS. An operation was then mounted to rescue them from a house in Basra."

(The Times, 20 Oct 2005 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1788850,00.html )

Ironically, Brig Lorimer's account was challenged by the US appointed interim government. Iraqi interior minister Baqir Solagh Jabr, in an interview with the BBC "denied that the Iraqi police had handed over the SAS men to the local militias, as Brigadier Lorimer had stated....'That is not right, totally not right,' he said. He accused Brigadier Lorimer of reacting to 'rumour' when he ordered his men to storm the police station and said that the building where the SAS men had been found was actually part of the police station" ( The Independent, 12 Oct 2005).

In a subsequent declaration, Lorimer said that the police in Basra were involved in terrorism, and were being supported by Iran (This alleged link to Iran is now denied by British Defense officials).

Lorimer also said that that the two arrested undercover SAS men had been investigating torture and abuse within the prison: The SAS men had been "given the task of trying to establish who was behind the reign of terror at the jail" (quoted in the Daily Telegraph, 16 Oct 2005). According to Lorimer the prison was a "very nasty place". (Ibid)

The Investigation

The citizens of Basra witnessed the arrest. Civilians were killed and inhured when British forces under the command of Brig Lorimer led the military assault on the prison. Al Jazeera reported the circumstances of the arrest in an interview with Fattah al-Shaykh, member of the Iraqi National Assembly:

If you really want to look for truth, then we should resort to the Iraqi justice away from the British provocations against the sons of Basra, particularly what happened today when the sons of Basra caught two non-Iraqis, who seem to be Britons and were in a car of the Cressida type. It was a booby-trapped car laden with ammunition and was meant to explode in the centre of the city of Basra in the popular market. However, the sons of the city of Basra arrested them. They [the two non-Iraqis] then fired at the people there and killed some of them. The two arrested persons are now at the Intelligence Department in Basra, and they were held by the National Guard force, but the British occupation forces are still surrounding this department in an attempt to absolve them of the crime. (Al Jazeera TV 20 Sept 2005).

Nobody in Basra believes that the two arrested SAS men were "working undercover against militants linked to Iran":

"The Iraqi police stopped a car with two foreigners dressed as Arabs, and full of weapons and explosives," he said. "There have been terrorist attacks and explosions in Basra - of course the police wanted to investigate.".... Mr Hakim dismissed as "propaganda" reports that the soldiers were working undercover against militants linked to Iran. Officials in Basra have called for an espionage trial for the two in an Iraqi court. British soldiers' legal immunity "does not apply when they are out of uniform", Mr Hakim said. (Mr. Hakim is a leading official in Iraq's largest Shia Muslim party, quoted in the Financial Times, 29 Sept 2005)

Was the British military blocking Captain Masters police investigation?

There were apparent disagreements between British military commanding officers and the military police officials dispatched to the war theater in charge of investigating the actions and behavior of military personnel. (The Independent 17 Oct 2005).

Was pressure put to bear on Captain Masters by the Ministry of Defense? According to Michael Keefer, the British Army led by Brig Lorimer was determined

"to remove these men from any danger of interrogation by their own supposed allies in the government the British are propping up—even when their rescue entailed the destruction of an Iraqi prison and the release of a large number of prisoners, gun-battles with Iraqi police and with Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, a large popular mobilization against the British occupying force, and a subsequent withdrawal of any cooperation on the part of the regional government—tends, if anything, to support the view that this episode involved something much darker and more serious than a mere flare-up of bad tempers at a check-point."

(See Michael Keefer, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=KEE20050925&articleId=994 )

Captain Ken Masters had a mandate to cooperate in his investigations, with the civilian Iraqi authorities. As part of his mandate he was to investigate "into allegations that British soldiers killed or mistreated Iraqi civilians". Specifically in this case, the inquiry pertained to the circumstances of the British assault on the prison on 19 September. The press reports and official statements suggest that the assault on the prison was authorized by the Ministry of Defense.

General Sir Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff was in Basra a few days prior to Captain Masters untimely death to deal explicitly with the matter.

While in Basra, he no doubt also had meetings with both Brig Lorimer and Captain Masters. General Jackson has upheld the rescue of the elite SAS men:

"Let me make it clear that it was important to retrieve those two soldiers." (quoted in the Times, 12 Oct 2005)

[synergy777]

i have the pictures, two special ops with obligatory beard and asian clothing. its all mistake, they were going to arab fancy dress party.

[turquoisefyre]

i have the pictures, two special ops with obligatory beard and asian clothing. its all mistake, they were going to arab fancy dress party.


...with a few bullet holes in their dresses...

[synergy777]

and fake bomb making equipment, to add the authentic terrorist look, lol

[turquoisefyre]

and fake bomb making equipment, to add the authentic terrorist look, lol

i wonder if the sas drew fake beards on their passport pictures that's inferno resistant (like the one they found by the twin towers)...

[synergy777]

http://businessofemotions.typepad.com/drrm/iraq/index.html

http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=3307

http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/signs20050920.htm

"You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." - Cindy Sheehan

British Government's Agent Provocateurs Exposed
SOTT
20/09/2005

There is a saying of sorts that "if you are going to do something, do it well", and given the serious consequences, nowhere is that more true than when you plan to engage in criminal activity. Today in Basra, Southern Iraq, two members of the British SAS (Special Ops) were caught, 'in flagrante' as it were, dressed in full "Arab garb", driving a car full of explosives and shooting and killing two official Iraqi policemen.

This fact, finally reported by the mainstream press, goes to the very heart of and proves accurate much of what we have been saying on the Signs of the Times page for several years.

The following are facts, indisputable by all but the most self-deluded:

Number 1:

The US and British invasion of Iraq was NOT for the purpose of bringing "freedom and democracy" to the Iraqi people, but rather for the purpose of securing Iraq's oil resources for the US and British governments and expanding their control over the greater Middle East.

Number 2:

Both the Bush and Blair governments deliberately fabricated evidence (lied) about the threat the Saddam posed to the west and his links to the mythical 'al-Qaeda' in order to justify their invasion.

Number 3:

Dressed as Arabs, British (and CIA and Israeli) 'special forces' have been carrying out fake "insurgent" attacks, including 'car suicide bombings' against Iraqi policemen and Iraqi civilians (both Sunni and Shia) for the past two years. Evidence would suggest that these tactics are designed to provide continued justification for a US and British military presence in Iraq and to ultimately embroil the country in a civil war that will lead to the breakup of Iraq into more manageable statelets, much to the joy of the Israeli right and their long-held desire for the establishment of biblical 'greater Israel'

Coming not long after the botched London bombings carried out by British MI5 where an eyewitness reported that the floor of one of the trains had been blown inwards (how can a bomb in a backpack or on a "suicide bomber" INSIDE the train ever produce such an effect), more than anything else today's event in Basra highlights the desperation that is driving the policy-makers in the British government.

British intelligence would do well to think twice about carrying out any more 'false flag' operations until they can achieve the 'professionalism' of the Israeli Mossad - they always make it look convincing and rarely suffer the ignominy of being caught in the act and having the faces of their erstwhile "terrorists" plastered across the pages of the mainstream media.

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4707/98149153as0.png

The REAL face of "Islamic Terror" - Two SAS agents caught carrying out a false flag terror attack in Basra, Iraq September 20th 2005

Official: British troops freed in jailbreak

CNN
2005/09/20

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A British armored vehicle escorted by a tank crashed into a detention center Monday in Basra and rescued two undercover troops held by police, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told CNN.

British Defense Ministry Secretary John Reid confirmed two British military personnel were "released," but he gave no details on how they were freed.

In a statement released in London, Reid did not say why the two had been taken into custody. But the Iraqi official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, said their arrests stemmed from an incident earlier in the day.

The official said two unknown gunmen in full Arabic dress began firing on civilians in central Basra, wounding several, including a traffic police officer. There were no fatalities, the official said.

The two gunmen fled the scene but were captured and taken in for questioning, admitting they were British marines carrying out a "special security task," the official said.

British troops launched the rescue about three hours after Iraqi authorities informed British commanders the men were being held at the police department's major crime unit, the official said.

Iraqi police said members of Iraq's Mehdi Army militia engaged the British forces around the facility, burning one personnel carrier and an armored vehicle.

Video showed dozens of Iraqis surrounding British armored vehicles and tossing gasoline bombs, rocks and other debris at them.

With one vehicle engulfed in flames, a soldier opened the hatch and bailed out as rocks were thrown at him. Another photograph showed a British soldier on fire on top of a tank. . more at the link.


as for the inferno resistant passports, well they didn't find the palnes black boxes, recordings, but passport's that fell safely from the hijacked planes and onto the street, without rubble/dust from the controlled demolition of the towers, covering/damaging them. i would love to know the probablity odds for that. see its when they pull stunts like that, and the peopel swallow hole, really, trained apes have more brains.

[turquoisefyre]

them wankers...so pathetic...

[synergy777]

see the passport, did he throw it out the window of the cockpit, before he crashed into the towers, because thats the only way it could have survived imho.


i fear future generations will call us retarded, take the piss for the cowardice/stupidity we have so expertly displayed. see how we laugh at cavemen, we will get worse treatment. they will say, uou had education, computers, sciences, logic and you guys still believed it, i shall just plead ignorance, lol

[turquoisefyre]

see the passport, did he throw it out the window of the cockpit, before he crashed into the towers, because thats the only way it could have survived imho.


i fear future generations will call us retarded, take the piss for the cowardice/stupidity we have so expertly displayed. see how we laugh at cavemen, we will get worse treatment. they will say, uou had education, computers, sciences, logic and you guys still believed it, i shall just plead ignorance, lol

i thinks they had a quick mid-air stop so the pilots could go get their last lattes...and one silly bugger dropped his!

.............

i'm already having to put up with "future generations"...and they are retarded to no end...