JOURNALISTS have a moral obligation to protect their confidential sources, but do politicians? In ordinary times, a government minister being threatened with imprisonment by a judge for failing to disclose information about multiple homicides would be headline news.
But when Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer stepped down from the stand at the Royal Courts of Justice last month – having refused to name names and with Lord Justice Haddon-Cave’s warnings ringing in his ears – the story attracted only a smattering of publicity and no front pages.
British politics feels stacked high with public inquiries into official wrongdoing right now. It can be difficult to keep track.
There are the Covid inquiries, Grenfell, undercover policing, infected blood, the Post Office scandal – and a bevvy of Scottish investigations too, from Dr Eljamel’s conduct in Fife and the death of Sheku Bayoh to the most recent announcement that a judge will explore why justice was delayed and denied to Emma Caldwell and her family.
You might be less familiar with the Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan which summoned Mercer to give evidence last month. Established by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in December 2022, the inquiry is investigating “alleged unlawful activity by United Kingdom Special Forces” in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013, exploring whether the military police properly investigated a series of incidents which amounted to a “wider pattern of extra-judicial killings” by the SAS, and whether there was a cover-up of this fact, how, and by whom.
The MoD has been dragged kicking and screaming to this inquiry, after years of evasions, stonewalling, and outright denials that there’s anything to see here. It is already clear there is a serious case to answer. Major BBC and Sunday Times investigations have already uncovered significant evidence of SAS wrongdoing in the field, including evidence that a single unit may have unlawfully killed up to 54 people during night raids in a single six-month tour, without proper investigation or sanction.
British special forces aren’t alone in facing credible war crimes accusations about their time in Afghanistan. A senior military judge in Australia has already established that 39 civilians and........