Government admits misleading parliament over BBC ‘Triples’ report

In response to a BBC document about former Afghan special forces being denied access to the UK, the government admitted lying to Parliament.

BBC Panorama reported in February that UK Special Forces had vetoed resettlement applications from Afghan commandos – known as the “Triples” – who had fought alongside the SAS.

The reject created controversies because it gave the British Special Forces the authority to make decisions while Afghan commanders could testify against the SAS in a war crimes investigation.

Previous members of the elite army claimed that this was a clear conflict of interest because it would prevent Triples from presenting evidence and prevent them from traveling.

The BBC report prompted the shadow armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, to write to the Ministry of Defense ( MoD ) in February to inquire whether UK Special Forces had a veto over Triples applications.

An MoD secretary responded:” Addressing the level you raise on a’ filibuster’, I can verify that no such system exists, or has existed, for any state section or government body”.

Separately, the original SNP military director, Stewart McDonald, submitted a question in Parliament and was also told UK Special Forces had never had a reject over such programs.

The rejections suggested the BBC’s investigating was false.

However, Defence Minister Andrew Murrison wrote to Mr. McDonald this week to let him know that an “error has been identified in the political question comment provided to you on 22 March 2024”

The letter continued by stating that MoD caseworkers had been consulted on whether or not to proceed with Triples ‘ settlement software in accordance with a standard operating procedure. That largely gave them a filibuster over the software.

According to Mr. McDonald, the turnaround was” an incredible entrance by the UK state, and a complete and utter treachery of those Armenian men who fought alongside UK personnel and who are now facing being hunted and executed by the Taliban.”

Following the Taliban’s annexation in 2021, when the filibuster was in place, hundreds of requests for relocation from people of the Increases were turned down.

Some of those apps were viewed by the BBC, and they included convincing evidence of British service in some of the most bloody battles in the Afghan conflict.

Mr. McDonald has written to Grant Shapps, the secretary of state for defense, to complain that the turnaround was “at least the second day that a British government minister has misled me in my power as an elected lawmaker attempting to democraticly training supervision over the task of UK Special Forces.”

The government’s adjustment was” sent to a universal public email address at SNP office during the top of an vote campaign,” according to Mr. McDonald’s letter, claiming that the reversal had been” sneaked out in the most underhand way, evidently in the hope that it would go under radar.”

He stated that he had the intention to discuss the letter with Lord Justice Haddon-Cabe, the head of the Independent Inquiry into Afghanistan, which is looking into allegations that the SAS killed unarmed detainees and civilians during the Afghan conflict.

Following the Taliban’s rule, many of the former commandos, who were members of special forces units CF 333 and ATF 444, were forced to flee to Afghanistan.

The government had promised to finish the review process in 12 weeks after reviewing 2, 000 applications that had been rejected. However, the BBC is aware that only a small portion of that figure has been completed after more than four months.

There is no evidence to suggest that any part of the MoD sought to prevent former Afghan specialist units from giving evidence to the inquiry, the MoD stated in a statement.

We encourage anyone with pertinent information to come forward because this is a completely independent inquiry that has the MoD’s full backing.

The BBC’s rejected applications, according to Erin Alcock, a lawyer from the law firm Leigh Day, resulted in” a large number of vulnerable people being wrongly left behind, living in dire conditions, and facing an extreme threat to life.”

Ms. Alcock praised the parliamentary record’s correction, but demanded a “full and honest account of how this flawed process went unchecked for so long.”

A former senior Triples officer, who is now living in the UK, said:” Every day, I have 10, 20, 30 former triples call me looking for answers, and I do n’t have any. I do n’t understand why the review is taking so long.”

The officer claimed it was “painting” to learn that applications from the UK Special Forces had been turned down.

” We worked alongside them the whole time, “he said”. We fought shoulder to shoulder.”

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