No inquiry into SAS allegations
PM says Hager book ‘wildly inaccurate’
There will be no inquiry into allegations about SAS raids after advice from the “independent” Chief of Defence Force and video footage backing that up, Prime Minister Bill English has announced.
That decision has been labelled “disappointing and concerning” by Nicky Hager, co-author of Hit & Run, who said it was the result of military pressure and would ensure the issue would “continue to boil and fester”.
“Bill English is an experienced minister who knows the difference between being shown selective information by an interested party, as he has been by the Defence Force, and having an independent inquiry,” Hager said.
After receiving Lieutenant General Tim Keating’s advice that troops involved in the raids met the “benchmark” of acting according to the rules of engagement, English yesterday watched video footage taken from aircraft involved in the 2010 raids in Afghanistan’s Baghlan pro-
HWatch the video of Bill English’s decision at nzherald.co.nz vince. The classified video he saw confirmed the “extensive steps, restraint and care” that forces took to minimise the chances of civilian casualties, English said. He would not go into detail about what the footage showed and said it would not be publicly released. He did not watch footage of the whole operation but was confident in what he saw.
“There are a number of different points of view from a number of different aircraft.”
Asked how Keating — a former commanding officer of the NZSAS — was in any way independent, English said Keating was not involved in the raids, dubbed Operation Burnham.
“The CDF is independent. He wasn’t involved in the operation. He has access to video of the actual operation itself, along with all the planning that went into it, the review afterwards by ISAF. We trust that process.
“There’s not any real contest over the facts other than the book . . . which has got them wrong . . . it looks to be in some cases a wildly inaccurate piece of journalism.”
English said he had become more convinced after reviewing material that Keating’s conclusion that there was no misconduct was right.
He had not spoken to anybody outside the Defence Force in reaching that con- clusion, but denied the NZDF had investigated itself, saying the raids had been investigated by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Hit & Run by journalists Jon Stephenson and Hager claims six civilians were killed and 15 were injured in the 2010 raids, and those facts have been covered up by NZDF.