When the Times revealed last month that a squad of the Special Air Service was in operation in the North of Ireland, two important facts were omitted, The first was that, according lu the Dublin newspaper Sunday World. the SAS has been used in the North of Ireland since 1970. The People's Democracy newspaper Free Citizen revcaled that on 10 March, 1971, a D Notice had been issued, presenting publication of a Government decision to pust units of the regiment to Ireland as a result of the killing of Trude Laou brancher ate already I three soldiers.
The second was the Sunday World's revelation that the particular group of the SAS referred to by the Times had heen on sland-by in Britain in case of a possible confrontation with the miners. It was when the miners accepted the Labour Government's pay offer that they were transferred to Ireland.
The SAS was created during the Second World War, It was used extensively for operations behind German lines: culting supply fines, general harassment, and creating E havoc. The unit's personnel were large number of trade union hameles of counter-insurgency campaigns required in the British colonies.
freedom strugeles, the Army high the intelligence network.
nel were used to lead "pseudo gangs" of natives which carried out opera tions against the civilian population. In Cyprus, 'O Gangs" were formed with SAS men disguised as Cyprides. Faced with the task of crushing these command realised the usefulness of a unit which could operate closely with and is above the law.
In Malaya and Kenya, SAS personThey operated all over the island and helped to exacerbate the already lugh level of friction between the Turkish operations in Oman.
Outside the chain of normal Army command, the SAS has remained the most active unit in the British Army, although it is one of the smallest.
The regiment as open only to serving soldiers who have reached the rank of sergeant and who transfer from other regiments. It operates from Bradbury Lines Camp, in Hoar worthy Road, Hereford, under the command of Lt-Col J.P. Watts MC who is officially listed as an officer in the Royal Irish Rangers.
ABOVE THE LAW
Highly adept at skills like sabotage, assassination and infiltration, the SAS is the Army's elite counterrevolutionary force. As such it is controlled directly from Whitehall, A former British Army Captain interviewed in the Swaday World revealed chat in Aden two SAS men, who had been arrested by their CO after two people had been shot in the back, were released on orders from Whitehall, The Captain's regiment was to take the blame for the accidental deaths, and the whole incident was to be hushed up. Two Trial crisis in Britain, and the corresponding rise in working-class militancy. Kitson was quietly relieved of his post in Belfast, and promoted to be commandant of the School of InThe above handbook outlines the special tasks assigned to the SAS. The Sunday World published the following extract