British SAS (Special Forces) troops ‘held in Libya’-I am going to bring it to you raw

7 March 2011

LONDON (AFP) – Britain on Sunday refused to confirm a report that Special Air Service soldiers and a diplomat were being held in Benghazi but revealed that a “small British diplomatic team” was in Libya’s second city.

The Sunday Times newspaper said the SAS unit, reportedly up to eight men, were captured along with the diplomat they were escorting through the rebel-held east and who was seeking contact with opponents of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

COLONEL SIXX:  THESE BASTARDS ARE DEAD. THEY CAME TO CONTACT OPPONENTS OF COLONEL GADDAFI.  THAT PISSES OFF THE OPPONENTS BECAUSE THEY WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WESTERN (WHITE) MAN.

THEY HAVE INFURIATED COLONEL GADDAFI FOR TRYING TO PULL THIS BULLSHIT IN THE FIRST PLACE. DEAD.

“We can neither confirm nor deny the report,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman told AFP.

COLONEL SIXX: WELL, I CAN CONFIRM IT AND I JUST DID.

The defence ministry said it did not comment on the special forces, while Defence Secretary Liam Fox told BBC television: “I can confirm that a small British diplomatic team is in Benghazi.

“We are in touch with them but it would be inappropriate for me to comment further,” he added.

For his part, Mustafa Gheriani, spokesman for the rebels’ self-declared national council in Libya’s second city of Benghazi, refused to comment.

“I have absolutely nothing to say,” he told AFP.

The Sunday Times claimed that the uninvited appearance of the SAS alongside the diplomat “angered Libyan opposition figures who ordered the soldiers to be locked up in a military base.”

Opponents of Gaddafi “fear he could use any evidence of Western military interference to rally patriotic support for his regime,” the weekly broadsheet added.

The newspaper said that according to Libyan sources, the SAS soldiers were taken by rebels to Benghazi, held by the opposition, and hauled up before a senior figure.

The Sunday Times said a British source, who confirmed the men had been detained, said the diplomat they were protecting had wanted to make contact with the rebels to prepare the way for a visit by a senior colleague.

It cited a source close to the opposition leadership as saying rebel officials were worried that Libyan people might think from the escort party that “foreign troops have started to interfere by landing in Libya.”

British service personnel have already been involved in the rescue of British nationals working on oil installations in remote desert camps.

Prime Minister David Cameron last week said Western countries should be stepping up contact with the Libyan opposition to gain a greater understanding of their intentions.

Foreign Secretary William Hague held telephone talks on Wednesday with General Abdel Fatah Yunis, the former Libyan interior minister who defected, about the situation on the ground.

In a statement on Sunday, Hague called on Gaddafi “to put an immediate stop to the use of armed force against the Libyan people”.

He added: “The UK reiterates its support for the transition to a government that will deliver greater democracy, justice, transparency, human rights and accountability in Libya.”

Libyan state television on Sunday said forces loyal to Gaddafi had recaptured a string of key towns in claims quickly denied by rebels as heavy gunfire rocked the capital Tripoli.

In Britain on Saturday, the defence ministry said about 200 troops had been placed on standby to help with evacuation and humanitarian operations in Libya.

The troops from the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, are ready for deployment at 24 hours’ notice, a spokeswoman said.

brit

However a YouGov poll of 2,413 adults for The Sunday Times found low support for using troops in Libya.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can’t reach…

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they’ve always done before

Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can’t deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D’you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said “Peace could last forever”
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom
When it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’
For their promised land

And
I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war

Look at the shoes your filling
Look at the blood we’re spilling
Look at the world we’re killing
The way we’ve always done before
Look in the doubt we’ve wallowed
Look at the leaders we’ve followed
Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
‘Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

“We practice selective annihilation of mayors
And government officials
For example to create a vacuum
Then we fill that vacuum
As popular war advances
Peace is closer” **

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
And I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain’t that fresh
I don’t need your civil war
I don’t need one more war

I don’t need one more war
Whaz so civil ’bout war anyway