Editorial: SAS and secrecy

OPINION: Controversy over the publication of photos showing New Zealand's Special Air Service members in Afghanistan highlights the extraordinary level of sensitivity around the activities abroad of our elite fighting force.

It was no secret that SAS troops were operating there.

Indeed, September's decision to send 71 SAS soldiers to Afghanistan was trumpeted then and since as another indicator of growing warmth in the relationship between New Zealand and the United States.

The convention has been not to publish photos or identifying features of SAS members or their operations. This is partly to protect the troops, who are at times sent on shadowy missions behind enemy lines. Fair enough. However, the photos in question were taken in a public street in Afghanistan's main city shortly after a battle which left at least 13 dead – reportedly Taleban fighters – and 70 injured.

Besides, the Government had already made quite a show out of identifying Corporal Willie Apiata as a member of the secretive fighting force. The prime minister at the time, Helen Clark, broke convention in naming him in 2007 as the recipient of one of the Western world's most valued war medals, the Victoria Cross. She did so, it is said, after extensive consultation with the New Zealand military and Buckingham Palace. The Defence Force website contains, under "our people", a number of pictures of him taken around the time he received the medal – including several with Miss Clark, Phil Goff and Governor-General Anand Satyanand. Politicians and the military have been happy to use Corporal Apiata's bravery for their own purposes.

He was already well and truly "outed", then, as a member of the SAS. It is a further tribute to his courage and dedication that, knowing this exposure heightened the risk to his safety, he was happy to head off for another tour of duty – and now, despite potentially being compromised further, he wishes to continue in Afghanistan.

The difficulty for the military and the Government is that "conventions", real or otherwise, in New Zealand do not necessarily apply overseas. The internet offers instant publication of news photos anywhere in the world. Foreign journalists and even military spokesmen are not bound by cosy arrangements that might traditionally operate here. In October, Norway's defence chief revealed that our SAS had taken over training police in Kabul from his country's troops. This week, the New York Times first reported that New Zealand commandos had been the only Western troops engaged in a battle in Kabul.

The New Zealand Herald first published the photo inside the paper. Apparently it did not know at the time of publication who was in it. That information was released by Prime Minister John Key, who said he would not lie to the media. Rather than issuing a preemptive statement, he could have simply refused to comment. If SAS troops were involved solely in covert, intelligence-type missions the chances of them being shot in action by media cameras would be minimal. Charging around Kabul without helmets, wearing New Zealand ID on their uniforms and engaging in very public duties undermines the secrecy under which the force operates far more than the publication of a photo in this country.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Ian Dalton   #1   11:22 pm Jan 28 2010

I have also like the SAS Soldier been in a very high risk area involving an asian war. I was also exposed by a very senior New Zealand Government Person through their unbelievable behaviour and loose talk to a situation like our SAS Soldier.

I assure you my position was much more dangerous than our SAS Soldier has been placed in. I was placed in a position that certainly was so dangerous that after the New Zealander had at a private function made the statements that were made; I was unable to carry out the task I was asked to fill and had to disappear.

I was so annoyed I got the file ex NZ Foreign Affairs and noted all file numbers in which I had been mentioned by this unwise New Zealander.

I instructed a law firm in Wellington to take this New Zealander to court for the crazy remarks made in their reports and which were aired infront of others in the country I was operating in.

At the outset and because my file was unofficially given to me to study ;the discovery carried out by the Wellington Legal Firm on Foreign Affairs Records proved that NO files on me were available.

When the file numbers I had taken were asked for and it was then understood I had seen them the picture changed and the result was to my total satisfaction.

Some New Zealanders because they believe that to be free they must be vigilant and put themselves in harms way do not need the few New Zealanders who can get a "kick" of some sort by not being silent. Places mainly in the areas that as a nation we now conduct a growing interest are well outside normal life in New Zealand and totally foreign to most New Zealanders. The rules are non -existant in many cases. So Senior New Zealand Government Personel please do not when you find a New Zealander in a area of total conflict make loose unguided remarks.

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