Now the SAS has to train Libyan troops

By Ryan Kisiel and Claire Ellicott
Last updated at 3:28 AM on 12th September 2009


It is believed that a team of between four and 14 men is training Colonel Gaddafi's soldiers in counter-terrorism techniques

The SAS is training Libyan troops, it emerged last night.

The elite special forces unit has been passing on its combat expertise to Colonel Gaddafi's soldiers for the last six months.

The move, another sign of the growing relationship between the UK and the oil-rich country, has appalled military veterans who recall how Libya supplied the Provisional IRA with guns and explosives to kill British soldiers.

Though the Ministry of Defence refused to comment, the Foreign Office confirmed last night: 'We have got an ongoing co-operation with Libya in the field of defence.'

The spokesman denied there was any connection with the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al-Megrahi from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds last month.

The first moves towards setting up the training agreement are believed to have begun after Tony Blair visited Libya as Prime Minister in 2004.

However, the deal was only finalised and officially approved by Gordon Brown earlier this year. It is believed that a team of between four and 14 men is training the Libyans in counter-terrorism techniques, including covert surveillance.

But not everything that the SAS has learned from fighting Islamic terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to be passed on.

The agreement is bound to devastate families of the Lockerbie victims and further damage relations with America.

U.S. President Barack Obama told Mr Brown earlier this week of his ' disappointment over Megrahi's release.

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Senior Army officers have called it 'morally wrong' that they have to train troops in a country which once armed the terrorists they were fighting.

A Special Air Service source told The Daily Telegraph: 'A small SAS training team have been doing it for the last six months as part of this cosy deal with the Libyans.

'From our perspective we cannot see it as part of anything else other than the Megrahi deal.'

Another soldier added: 'The IRA was our greatest adversary, now we are training their backers. There was a weary rolling of the eyes when we were told about this.'

Robin Horsfall, a former SAS soldier who took part in the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 and served in counter-terrorism operations in Northern Ireland, said: 'There is a long list of British soldiers who have died because of Gaddafi funding terrorists. The SAS is being ordered to do something it knows is morally wrong.'

The new warmth between the two countries is expected to earn many millions for UK commercial interests.

But earlier this week, Libya again refused to pay compensation to the families of people killed by the IRA.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, said: 'Anyone can knock at our door and ask for money, but we go to the courts.'

The Prime Minister has promised to support the compensation claims of victims' families, who say Libya supplied explosives used in IRA atrocities and is liable for the people they killed.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0QrKEKcDJ

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...n-troops.html#

Gordon Brown has just craped on the graves of every one of the victims of the PIRA, and with Adams and McGuiness lording it in Stourment I think every squaddy who ever served in Ulster is being taken for a cnut

"Another soldier added: 'The IRA was our greatest adversary, now we are Fighting alongside their backers. There was a weary rolling of the eyes when we were told about this.'

The new warmth between the two countries is expected to earn many millions for UK commercial interests."

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Does nobody care that the above could also be about the Americans, who supported terrorism on our streets happily supplying the IRA for years.

We fought to Iraqi's one moment & we're friends the next, years have changed since Libya's involvement, so everyone with a stick up their Arrse get over it !

Have our Government no morals and integrity, a sniff of oil and we roll over and have our tummy tickled, what have we come too.

Clearly there's a greater power at work here than our failed Government - the need for access to natural resources. There's a scramble taking place between countries with a vested interest in Libya's oil reserves that could see Italian oil majors getting a foot wedged further in Gadaffi's tent-flap.

I can see Tropper's POV, as someone who's had a level of involvement in the Province, but we need to look at the bigger picture.

Posted simultaneously with pimpernel

Originally Posted by cloudbuster

Clearly there's a greater power at work here than our failed Government - the need for access to natural resources. There's a scramble taking place between countries with a vested interest in Libya's oil reserves that could see Italian oil majors getting a foot wedged further in Gadaffi's tent-flap.

I can see Tropper's POV, as someone who's had a level of involvement in the Province, but we need to look at the bigger picture.

Posted simultaneously with pimpernel

But I also go back to when the Libyan's couldn't get rid of us fast enough, when the RAF base at El-Adam was virtualy under siege for 7 months in 1969/70

IFAIR, we'd come close to outstaying our welcome as we'd used most of their country as a live-firing range since the early 1940's. We were viewed, along with the Italians, as a 'colonial' power.

Of course, now that they have something we're rather short of, we're going cap-in-hand to them. The Gadaffi Family know all too well the value of that asset - don't expect them to give it up cheaply.

Originally Posted by cloudbuster

IFAIR, we'd come close to outstaying our welcome as we'd used most of their country as a live-firing range since the early 1940's. We were viewed, along with the Italians, as a 'colonial' power.

A lot of the ex colonial countries would not mind haveing us back now

Its all about energy - you can retain your dignity but have you really if the lights wont come on?
Best thing to do is to go all out for as much self sufficiency as possible

I would have thought that all of our 'special forces' have more pressing engagments to deal with. Without having to train some 'camel sh****rs' in a tin pot dictatorial country, to point a gun in the right direction.

Oh I forgot there's cash involved.