Posts Tagged ‘sas’

What are our SAS up to? An easy to digest guide!

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, August 15th, 2017 - 8 comments

A short video looking at the major issues in the Hager/Stephenson book ‘Hit and Run’

NRT: Least preferred option

Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, November 17th, 2014 - 40 comments

Back in September, John Key said that sending the SAS to Iraq was his “least preferred option”, “at the very outer edge of what we’d be wanting to do”. Today, he’s changed his tune in his predictable way. Such a poodle wanting to have his belly scratched by his masters.

NZ troops to Iraq?

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, October 1st, 2014 - 109 comments

Key’s public position on sending troops to Iraq has (surprise!) changed since the election. His private position on the topic probably hasn’t changed since 2003.

Yet another thing the PM is “not responsible” for

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, November 1st, 2012 - 26 comments

Yet another thing the PM is “not responsible” for – add it to the long list. This time it is his “oversight” of the SAS.  Or is Key seeking his Obama “gotcha” moment, and a political bounce from it?

NRT: Not worth it

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, August 6th, 2012 - 133 comments

I/S at No Right Turn on the latest Kiwi deaths in Afghanistan.

NoRightTurn: Election choices

Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, October 26th, 2011 - 6 comments

I/S looks at two dividing lines between left and right that may help your choice in a month’s time. The first is Afghanistan. Labour has promised to bring the SAS home within 90 days. National won’t commit to withdrawing. The second is water: National wants more subsidies to polluters; Labour and the Greens want businesses to pay for their use of public resources.

Key’s lies getting our soldiers killed

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, September 29th, 2011 - 12 comments

We have been lied to by our Prime Minister. He told us the SAS was going to Afghanistan to train government soldiers. 10% casualties (2 deaths, 2 injuries) in 3 months makes it clear we’re fighting on the frontline for one side in a civil war. Trying to justify our losses and that the SAS wants to be there are not reasons to stay. The Jackel takes up the story.

Dying for a mistake

Written By: - Date published: 6:56 pm, September 28th, 2011 - 14 comments

John Kerry, when he was spokesperson for Vietnam Veterans against the War, asked a Senate Committee: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” That question confronts us now, as we learn another New Zealand soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. I/S at NoRightTurn says it all on this waste of life.

Another Kiwi death in Afghanistan

Written By: - Date published: 6:38 pm, September 28th, 2011 - 18 comments

Time to bring all Kiwi soldiers in Afghanistan home.

SAS soldier killed in Kabul

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 pm, August 19th, 2011 - 63 comments

A New Zealand SAS soldier has been killed in a suicide attack on the British Council Offices in Kabul. The reports confirm what has become apparent in recent months: the SAS aren’t training Afghanis, they’re leading the combat response to Taliban attacks in Kabul. Our sympathies with the soldier’s family. It’s past time they came home.

Bring the SAS home

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, July 5th, 2011 - 49 comments

First, Key denies the SAS were in the Kabul hotel gunfight. Then, media reveals they were there and were injured. Key admits that but denies it was friendly fire. Now, media says SAS got an apology. Key ‘can’t rule out’ friendly fire and is launching an investigation. Goff says its time for the SAS to leave Afghanistan. He’s right.

Jon Stephenson replies to critics

Written By: - Date published: 11:49 am, May 12th, 2011 - 12 comments

PM John Key attacked journalist Jon Stephenson, calling him not credible over his claims on SAS links to the torture of prisoners in Afghanistan.  Now Stephenson has replied to his critics, in detail.

Key attacks another journalist

Written By: - Date published: 8:54 am, May 5th, 2011 - 24 comments

The Nats are obviously worried about public reaction to the recent revelations on the role of the SAS in Afghanistan.  And as is usually the case when they feel threatened by a story, the Nats are striking out, trying to discredit or intimidate the source.

Anzacs and Afghans

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, April 25th, 2011 - 43 comments

Today is the day that we remember our old soldiers.  But perhaps it should also be a day when we consider our current soldiers, and how they are being used.

SAS: torturers’ henchmen?

Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, April 22nd, 2011 - 113 comments

The Herald has summarised a report in the new Metro on the New Zealand SAS’s role in arresting Afghanis and handing them over for torture. Delivering prisoners for torture is as culpable an act as torture itself. It is a war crime. Everyone who wants our defence forces to be respected must demand it is purged of people who have committed these acts.

Killing in the name of

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 am, December 30th, 2010 - 79 comments

On Christmas Eve, our SAS soldiers in Afghanistan killed two security guards, wounded two others, and arrested 15. None of these people was involved in any terrorist activity. Did the SAS act negligently or was it an unfortunate accident? The Kabul Police want to investigate but, in Afghanistan, our troops are above the law.

SAS inspires money-making scheme

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, November 9th, 2010 - 23 comments

I’m a nurse at a public hospital. Our social fund is looking a bit thin this year so we thought would invite school groups to come along to the hospital, charge $25 a head, and let them play around with the equipment like X-ray machines and bandages to get a sense of how we work as a team. I’m sure Mr Key will say it’s a “good idea“.

SAS -services for sale?

Written By: - Date published: 8:48 am, November 8th, 2010 - 45 comments

I’m gobsmacked that John Key thinks it is a “good idea” for the SAS to whore itself and Crown property out so that fat businessmen can play soldier. What is our elite force doing pandering to the delusions of middle-aged dickheads to make money for a private fund? And what has happened to the SAS’s secrecy?

SAS collecting Afghanis for torture

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, August 16th, 2010 - 12 comments

Wayne Mapp has confirmed that the SAS has been involved in handing prisoners over to the NDS – a Afghan government body that tortures prisoners. Mapp indicated he didn’t give a damn what happens to the prisoners, calling them an “Afghan responsibility”. Sorry, Mapp, but you’ve got to take responsibility. Handing someone over to people you can reasonably expect will torture them is illegal.

Allied with murderers

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 am, April 7th, 2010 - 41 comments

Wikileaks has revealed footage shot from a US Apache helicopter in Iraq in 2007 as they callously murder a dozen Iraqi civilians. Every time you read of some wedding convey being shot up or a houseful of ‘insurgents’ being bombed remember this video and remember that our soldiers are now part of the combat force that is committing these same barbaric acts in Afghanistan.

Goff calls for SAS to come home

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, March 3rd, 2010 - 48 comments

The Nats put the SAS in Afghanistan out of a Boy’s Own worldview that glamorises war and violence by authority. But war isn’t a game and we shouldn’t be fighting unless it’s for a good cause. Our solders shouldn’t die or kill to prop up Hamid Karzai’s corrupt regime.

Phil Goff speaking on the SAS deployment

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 pm, August 19th, 2009 - 9 comments