SAS Already in Gulf, Says Paper

12 Feb 1998

MELBOURNE (South News) - Members of the elite Australian SAS are already secretly in the Gulf an Australian paper said Thursday admits allegations of comprising the forces security.

"A small team was positioned in Kuwait even as Mr Howard announced on Tuesday", Ian McPhedran, defence reporter,of the Melbourne Herald Sun said,"The team was placed as "spotters" planning operations with their British SAS counterparts."

The Herald Sun also revealed Australian SAS personnel served inside Iraq with British units during the 1991 Gulf War.Their role has never been publicly acknowledged.

Members of the elite service have reportedly criticised the Prime Minister's detailing of their possible operations in the Gulf, saying the element of surprise is their biggest asset. A former Special Air Service (SAS) captain said John Howard has compromised the security of troops he may send to the Gulf.

Mick Mallone, an ex-member of the regiment, "We're dismayed that the government would announce this before deploying the troops," he said."It is too late now, but the regiment is very angry and headquarters 'Australian Theatre' in Canberra has some explaining."

"This has always been our ace in the hole, this basically non-existence thing he said, "Now the government's quite happy to tell the world" .

The 110 SAS troops have been offered as "search and rescue support", but the Defense Minister Mr McLachlan said there was a real possibility they could be used in other actions.

A spokesman for the Australian Defence Force confirmed the SAS Officers can specialize in sabotage, surveillance and intelligence. "They do special reconnaissance duties, they are capable of operating behind enemy lines on certain activities such as sabotage," the spokesman said.

According to British sources the British SAS is angry because Tony Blair maintained the tradition of not discussing the SAS or its destination to Kuwait to undertake clandestine operations. Australia's SAS has worked with the British in Bosnia, South Africa and Northern Ireland since being formed in 1957.

In Canberra opposition leader, Kim Beazley, backed the Prime Minister, denying Mr.Howard has blown the cover of Special Air Force (SAS) troops poised for action against Iraq. Mr Beazley said that when the Government is sending people into a conflict, it needs to give some detail to the Australian people.

However increasingly members of his own party are opposed to any commitment. Yesterday The New South Wales Parliamentary Labor Party passed a motion opposing Australian involvement in any allied intervention in Iraq. During the first state Labor Caucus meeting for 1998 there was a lengthy debate on a motion opposing any Australian military involvement in Iraq.

The motion bound caucus to call upon the Australian Government to reject the US demand for a military response in Iraq. It went on to further insist that the government join France, Italy, Japan and the Arab states in demanding a United Nations response, not a unilateral bombing raid.

The 110 members of the SAS unit will join the British 22nd SAS Regiment in Kuwait. The force assembling in the Gulf is nominally led by US Marines.