AT LAST, AN END TO THE WITCH-HUNT

Victory for Mail as £60m probe that hounded our troops for 7 years over Iraq is scrapped

THE £60million witch-hunt against British veterans of Iraq is to be scrapped. The ‘poisonous lies’ peddled against them by legal parasites will come to an end, the Defence Secretary declared last night.

Michael Fallon said the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, which once had 3,600 claims on its books, will have its caseload slashed to just 20.

The move ends a nightmare decade for troops accused of misconduct. And it represents a major victory for the Daily Mail, which has campaigned for Ihat to be reined in. Writing in this newspaper today Sir Michael:

Savages Phil Shiner, the human rights lawyer struck off over his ‘tank-chasing’ tactics;

Vows to end the ‘slew of claims’ brought against Afghan veterans;

Reveals he is planning to protect soldiers from being hounded in future;

Pledges to examine potential injustices against troops who served during Northern Ireland’s Troubles. The announcement was welcomed last night by the Chief of the General Staff. Sir Nicholas Carter said ‘a significant number of claims made against our soldiers have not been credible’.

The taxpayer-funded Ihat inquiry was set up in order to ensure that allegations of misconduct against British soldiers were dealt with in the UK rather than being pursued at the

THE body set up to investigate claims that British soldiers abused Iraqis – and the resulting explosion of litigation or ‘lawfare’ – have ‘directly harmed the defence of our nation’, senior MPs said yesterday.

A group of cross-party politicians said the Iraq Historical Allegations Team was ‘unfit for purpose’ and threatened to hinder the ability of soldiers to defend the country.

A scathing report by the Commons Defence Select Committee, published hours before Sir Michael Fallon announced that Ihat would close, found a catalogue of disturbing failings.

The report said Ihat ‘has become a seemingly unstoppable, selfperpetuating machine and one which has proved to be deaf to the concerns of the armed forces, blind to their needs, and profligate with its own resources’.

The Mail has revealed how ex-detectives working for Ihat have turned up, out of the blue, at the doors of soldiers and quizzed them and their families about their role in incidents a decade ago.

In one case a British soldier was threatened with arrest at his military base. Following a Mail campaign to end the witch-hunt, MPs began the inquiry.

Yesterday the committee con--

cluded that Ihat had ‘lost the confidence’ of service personnel, MPs and the wider public.

The report added: ‘Ihat, and the subsequent explosion of so-called “lawfare” in the United Kingdom, has directly harmed the defence of our nation. Unless the MoD learns the lessons of Ihat, the armed forces will be hindered in their ability to defend the nation and the national interest.’

It said that while the cost to the taxpayer had been significant, the ‘psychological and actual cost to the individual soldiers is arguably greater’. ‘Their lives have been put on hold and their careers damaged, sometimes for years, because of allegations made against them – in many cases without any credible supporting evidence.

‘The effects of this on the British military are profound and enduring’, the report said. MPs found the process was ‘eroding the bonds of trust between those who serve, and their civilian masters’.

This newspaper revealed how an Iraqi agent, named Abu Jamal, was being paid £40,000 a year by Ihat as he drummed up cases against British troops for law firms. The agent – whose son told the Mail that he had handed over 1,000 claims of wrongdoing by troops to law firms – was subsequently sacked.

The report concluded: ‘Although the MoD told us that it had stopped payments when it became aware of this, the fact that it continued for such a lengthy period of time represents a serious failing for which the MoD must take responsibility.’

MPs said that legal firms were ‘empowered’ by the Ministry’s approach to Ihat. It also attacked the use of ‘intimidatory tactics’ by Ihat contractors. The report said the use of covert surveillance was ‘deeply disturbing’.

Johnny Mercer MP, chairman of the sub-Committee inquiry, said: ‘Throughout this process there has been an almost total disregard of the welfare of soldiers and their families.

‘The MoD must take the responsibility for allowing this to happen. They could have discriminated between credible and non-credible cases yet lacked the will to do so.’