On January 17, former diplomat Tony Kevin revealed that Australian SAS forces in Iraq had engaged in a "turkey shoot" against Iraqi troops — 30 hours before US President George Bush's declaration of war. Green Left Weekly's Nick Everett spoke to Kevin about the implications of Australia's role in this covert war.
Kevin explained that he was first alerted to the SAS operation by the award of "declarations": "Commander of Operation Falconer Maurie McMahon has received an overt award for his role as commander. But all of the other men — and perhaps women — who received declarations received them anonymously."
"This is very unusual. You don't normally award military honours to soldiers when you are not prepared to say when and where the act of bravery took place. The people of the SAS are pretty angry about this. They are not politicians. They don't understand why."
Kevin told GLW that "for some 30 hours between March 18 and 20, the SAS was in military action inside Iraq".
Based on information he obtained from Department of Defence briefing papers, Kevin observed that "two units with approximately 75 men in each" had entered Iraq some time before Bush's 48-hour ultimatum on March 18 that demanded Saddam Hussein stand down.
"One was just west of Baghdad monitoring the highways for possible movements of Iraqi missiles. That group remained covert and did not engage in fighting. The second group of 75 men, however, was in the area of suspected missile sites in western Iraq, just east of the Jordanian border and that group was in active and high-level military combat."
"They were heavily armed with high technology weaponry and they used it in ambush type situations. They took out a lot of Iraqi casualties. There were no casualties whatsoever among the SAS."
Kevin described the attack by SAS troops as a "turkey shoot".
"On March 17 in Washington, which was the morning of March 18 in Canberra, Bush said he gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to stand down from power. Now any reasonable person would understand the meaning of that to be that military action would not commence until after that 48 hours. Indeed, the US took great care to take no declared military action during that 48 hours. The first declared action of the war took place 1.5 hours after the end of the 48 hours, on March 20 Iraq time, when the attempt was made to kill Saddam Hussein in the 'decapitation' bombing raid."
Immediately after Bush's ultimatum, Howard made a statement in Canberra "choosing his words very carefully", explained Kevin. "He said that he was committing Australian military forces to the coalition for "possible future military action' and he said that our forces were ready to take part in any military action that may take place in the future."
But while the media interpreted his statement to suggest that the SAS was ready to engage in military action only after it had been declared, the SAS was in fact mounting an ambush operation against Iraqi troops. Howard maintained the fiction throughout this ultimatum period.
According to Kevin, "two days later — on March 20 — Howard made a second statement at Parliament House announcing 'today marks the first indication of our active involvement' and he pledged that Australian forces will operate in accordance with the laws of war."
But an Australian Defence Force briefing on May 9 by Colonel John Mansell revealed more details. Mansell stated that the SAS had been fighting on the first night — hours after Howard had committed Australia to operations in Iraq. An article in the Jerusalem Post by Australian writer Colin Rubenstein confirms that the SAS was "actually fighting for about 30 hours in the period of that ultimatum", explained Kevin.
"This was going out all guns blazing at different levels of weaponry — they talk about three levels of weaponry to kill at three different ranges. This is deliberate mass-killing war", said Kevin.
In a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on January 20, defence minister Robert Hill conceded that SAS forces were in action before March 20, stating "the government's decision to commit the Australian Defence Force to Coalition operations in Iraq was announced on March 18 and from that time the Defence Force was under operational command".
But Hill's assertions belie the reality that this information had been carefully disguised to an Australian public largely opposed to Australian involvement, says Kevin.
Kevin told GLW that "[Australian SAS] troops were ordered to go into war in a situation where the enemy — or the putative enemy — did not know he was at war. That is treacherous, that is immoral", asserted Kevin. "We should not be asking our soldiers to do those things. Basically we were asking those men to behave as outlaws."
This covert action, according to Kevin, "was a huge risk to those men, quite apart from the hundreds of Iraqis they killed or wounded. Had they been captured they would have been war criminals. They could have been up before the International Criminal Court, to which Australia subscribes".
Reflecting on why the federal government chose to engage Australian troops in a covert operation, Kevin explained "I think PM John Howard was very keen to demonstrate absolute loyalty to the US alliance. Australia is signaling that we are prepared to fight for the US in the 'war against terror' anywhere in the world. We have shown this in the way we are prepared to make ourselves a diplomatic hostage over North Korea... We have shown it in Afghanistan [and] we have shown it now in Iraq".
"It may have a little bit to do with the forthcoming bilateral trade agreement negotiations", he added.
On the Australian government's current commitment to the occupation, Kevin noted that "one of the clever things that PM John Howard did was have an exit strategy".
"There are heavy casualties being taken by all occupation troops — not just Americans, but British and Polish and Spanish — Australia saved itself from all of that. Howard, by this act of conspicuous bravery and political risk taking at the beginning gave himself an out. He could say to the Americans we have done our bit and we don't what to have anything to do with the occupation", said Kevin.
While acknowledging the Australian government remains committed to the occupation, Kevin observed that the Australian government has sought to keep Australian troops "out of harms way" to minimise the potentially damaging political cost of any Australian casualties.
Kevin urged the anti-war movement to remain vigilant. "Expose the truth and bring the guilty to account", he told GLW.
From Green Left Weekly, February 4, 2004.
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