When I wrote the chapter on the UK’s response to 9/11 in my first book, the UK government asked me to remove six passages that, in their opinion, compromised British security. Their argument was that I had used privileged information that was classified as confidential or above. However, when I demonstrated that all these stories had already been published in the media and were available in open source material, the MoD relented and changed their tone.
The one story that they asked me to remove even though they accepted it was not secret, was about British casualties in Afghanistan before we deployed Helmand Task Force (Operation Herrick) in 2006. This is important now because the US President has claimed American Allies were “A little off the front line” and has disparaged our contribution by saying “We have never really asked anything of them”.
The code name of the operation before Herrick was Veritas and this covered other deployments such as Oracle, Fingal and Jacana. In the first months of Veritas, Washington requested our help in many ways and the Pentagon sent two officers to London to work with us to identify the best mix of assets. The British contribution included: Special Forces; Cruise Missiles and Air-to-Air Refuelling; 3 Commando Brigade, which helped clear the Tora Bora Caves and Headquarters 3rd Division, which established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. The idea that soldiers who worked on projects such as the Provincial Reconstruction Teams were “a little off the front line” is meaningless because nowhere was safe in Afghanistan after the initial deployment. Improvised explosive devices, ambushes and missile attacks against vehicles and bases occurred throughout the country from 2002 onwards.
It is time that our contribution was properly acknowledged by our most important ally.
British Troops Deploying At Kabul Airport On Operation Veritas
Rupert Wieloch 