Look what Marine’s commander was doing as his men fought the Taliban!
POSING with pop star Cheryl Cole, this was Sgt Alexander Blackman’s commanding officer in a jolly scene a world away from the blood-stained front line.
Royal Marines Lieutenant Colonel Ewen Murchison laughed with the singer and X Factor judge as she saluted during a visit to British base Camp Bastion in Helmand.
But on the same day that Miss Cole was entertaining troops, 90 miles away Sgt Blackman shot a dying Taliban insurgent and sparked one of the most controversial episodes of the Afghan war.
The contrast between the two scenes could hardly be greater.
And to supporters of Sgt Blackman – who is believed to be the first British serviceman to be jailed for murder on a foreign battlefield – the photograph sums up much that was wrong on the illfated 2011 Afghanistan tour.
According to 41-year-old Sgt Blackman, his commanding officer visited his embattled front-line base only once during the six-month tour – which Murchison denies.
The commander was also criticised – but not named – in the secret Operation Telemeter report by the Ministry of Defence into what went wrong on the battlefield. The summary said the culture of his unit had become ‘overly aggressive’.
The picture emerged on the back of a Daily Mail investigation which has revealed that:
Sgt Blackman and his troop were at breaking point after their ‘tour from hell’ in Helmand that saw comrades tortured and killed;
His court martial was blocked from hearing about these mitigating circumstances;
A colonel resigned in protest at not being able to give mitigating evidence on his behalf.
Blackman recalls his commanding officer (CO) arriving at his outpost early in the tour as he and his men were in the midst of a potential attack – a local with a rifle had been spotted – but all he remembers is Lt Col Murchison reprimanding him for being stripped to the waist in his sweltering bunker.
‘We prepared for another attack. As this was happening, the first thing the CO said to me was something like, “You going to put on a T-shirt then?”,’ Blackman said in a prison interview with the Daily Mail earlier this month. Blackman’s desperately under-manned outpost, Check Point Omar, had become a daily target for small arms attacks by the Taliban and the whole area had become a hornet’s nest of enemy activity. The Mail investigation has revealed how commanders failed to notice the warning signs of ‘psychological strain’ among the troop before the fateful day when Blackman snapped and shot the Taliban fighter – who had been mortally wounded trying to storm a British outpost. The shooting happened on September 15, 2011, the second day of Cheryl Cole’s two-day visit to Camp Bastion.
The 32-year- old singer – who is now called Cheryl FernandezVersini – had flown in secretly to the base, where 8,500 troops were stationed, to spread cheer among the soldiers.
I n the photo i n which she appeared with Lt Col Murchison, she cheekily saluted while he stood behind her grinning.
At the end of the tour, Lt Col Murchison was awarded a Distinguished Service Order for ‘ command and leadership’.
The Mail investigation also found that Blackman’s overstretched unit was being pushed to be ‘overly aggressive’ during the 2011 tour.
Top brass covered up vital evidence of command failings in a damning 50-page report it conspired to keep censored. And crucial evidence was withheld from the 2013 court martial at which Blackman was found guilty of murder and handed a life sentence.
The option of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility was not considered.
Blackman’s family and supporters have since launched a ‘fighting fund’ to raise money for an appeal.
Last night a Royal Marines source said: ‘I don’t recognise the characterisation that Murchison only visited Blackman’s checkpoint once. He had over 30 checkpoints under his command and got around them all frequently.
‘Omar was the closest checkpoint to the HQ and I know that he visited it on several occasions, furthermore he interviewed Blackman for officer candidature.
‘When Murchison was asked to go to Bastion to meet a VIP, he had no idea that it was Cheryl Cole, as it was kept under wraps – he thought it was royalty or the PM.’
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.