SAS faces inquiry into missing Iraq funds

Sunday Times
Aug. 21, 2005

THE SAS is facing an internal inquiry into allegations that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been misappropriated during some of its covert operations in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Sources close to the elite undercover regiment claim that inquiries are being made of many of its more than 200 soldiers and officers.

One source said they were to be asked about possible irregularities in the way that so-called “black budgets” have been spent fighting Al-Qaeda and other terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The alleged irregularities are said to have come to light earlier this year after concerns were raised about the purchase of aviation fuel and other supplies for a secret mission.

Sources said that military investigators queried some of the invoices. There are suggestions that they may have been inflated and the extra cash channelled elsewhere.

The SAS is thought to account for 10% of the Ministry of Defence’s £31 billion annual budget. But because of the need for secrecy, soldiers and officers on covert missions are not subject to the same formal accounting rules as members of conventional regiments.

The SAS has always had access to its own funds to ensure that it has the ability to obtain anything it needs and to bypass the often bureaucratic processes to which other regiments are subject. Its soldiers on operations abroad also need to be able to make “local purchases” of equipment.

The Ministry of Defence said it was the department’s policy not to discuss special operations. Defence officials said they were unable to confirm that a formal investigation was taking place.

However, a senior officer with extensive special forces experience flew to Iraq this month to take part in an inquiry into the affair. A similar inquiry in the 1980s into alleged fraud by Delta and Seal Team Six, the elite American military units, severely hampered their operations.

That inquiry extended over several years and resulted in a number of members of the US special operations units being court-martialled and jailed for making false expenses claims.

A well placed security source said: “The SAS at Hereford are subject to a huge inquiry. It involves their deployment in the Middle East and the expenditure of several hundreds of thousands of pounds on equipment, food and other supplies.

“The guys are pretty pissed off. They feel they should be treated like heroes but they are now being looked at if they claim for a Mars bar.

“They’ve never been subjected to this sort of treatment before.”

The source said the inquiry was also examining spending by dozens of support staff who help the SAS soldiers to prepare for foreign operations.