Gulf War general banned from SAS reunions because book abused secrecy rule

BRITAIN's most decorated soldier, the Gulf war commander Gen Sir Peter de la Billiere, refused yesterday to accept that he is…

BRITAIN's most decorated soldier, the Gulf war commander Gen Sir Peter de la Billiere, refused yesterday to accept that he is banned from attending reunions of his old regiment, the SAS, because he has written about their secret exploits.

He has been blamed in some quarters for opening the floodgates for books on the regiment with his book Storm Command in 1992.

Other authors of best selling books about the SAS have received letters from the Ministry of Defence barring them from regimental bases at Hereford and elsewhere, even to attend services of remembrance.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "The restriction applies to all those who have acted against Special Forces' interests by publishing information about them."

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But Sir Peter replied: "Both of my books were cleared by the MoD and the SAS before publication. I have not received and do not expect to receive such a letter.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence emphasised yesterday that there are "no exceptions" to the ban, whether on grounds of rank, literary merit, or the extent of a book's military disclosures.

"We will not admit to property occupied by the UK Special Forces any former personnel who have acted against the Special Forces' best interests by publishing information about them," he said. "We would not wish to present those concerned with any further opportunity for information gathering."

There has been a total of 11 books on the regiment, seven of them best sellers. This has angered serving SAS officers, who regard secrecy as an important part of their military mystique, an extra weapon in their unconventional armoury. The ban was introduced informally last year, and reinforced for serving soldiers with written contracts binding them to confidentiality.

The fact that Sir Peter has not received a letter bluntly spelling out the new rules is a tribute to his distinguished war record. One defence source suggested that he had already barred himself from SAS society by resigning last year from the regimental association.

But Capt James Rennie, author of a book about undercover special forces operations in Northern Ireland, described the general's treatment as a "gross public humiliation".

A former SAS sergeant, Mr Andy McNab, author of probably the most successful of the exposures, an account of Bravo Two Zero patrol's unsuccessful exploits behind Iraqi lines in the Gulf war, backed the move by the Ministry of Defence because "it shows everybody is the same and will be treated the same".

Speaking in a BBC radio interview, he said: "Eighteen months ago, if an officer wrote a book it was `memoirs' and if a soldier wrote a book it was `revelations'."

The former Defence Secretary, Mr Tom King, said there was a real problem" over the number of SAS books being published.

Labour's shadow defence secretary, Dr David Clark, said Sir Peter's books were much more autobiographical than those by the other authors and the Ministry of Defence had probably overreacted. "I can't help feeling that because certain officers have got away with it in the past by publishing books, where the other ranks have been punished, that on this occasion Sir Peter is being made a scapegoat."