For almost exactly three years this column, with the aid of my colleague Richard North and his Defence of the Realm blog, has been exposing the scandalous failure of the Ministry of Defence in sending our soldiers to fight two insurgency wars in vehicles unprotected against the insurgents' favourite weapon, the roadside bomb or "improved explosive device". Dr North initially focused on the now notorious Snatch Land Rover (in which the latest unofficial death toll stands at 39). Later he widened his coverage to include other similarly vulnerable vehicles, from the Pinzgauer Vector to the Jackal. All this time the MoD, ministers, senior officers (and even, on occasion, Tory front-bench spokesmen) have blandly insisted that these vehicles were perfectly safe and fitted for their task. But now an MoD press officer, John Salisbury-Baker, has blown the gaff. Having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he is suing the MoD for the strain he suffered from being forced to tell lies about these vehicles. Though he is barred from talking about his case by the Official Secrets Act, his partner, Christine Brooke, says that "having to peddle Government lies that soldiers in vehicles such as the Snatch Land Rovers were safe from roadside bombs" has "torn him apart". Part of Mr Salisbury-Baker's job, and that of several of his MoD and Army colleagues, was to hold the line and ensure that embarrassing comments on these vehicles were kept from the media. Among those who experienced this at first-hand was Sue Smith, whose son Philip Hewitt was killed in a Snatch in Iraq in 2005. After voicing her doubts about the failure of these vehicles to afford men like her son proper protection, she learned that the officer sent to her by the Army, supposedly to show sympathy, had been told to "shut that woman up". Eventually Mrs Smith sued the MoD, solely to bring attention to the Snatch's vulnerability. At the last minute the Legal Services Commission threatened to withdraw her legal aid unless she came up with £5,000, money she didn't have. When I appealed on her behalf, Sunday Telegraph readers very generously rushed to her aid, enabling her to fight on. But the tragedy continues. Last week in Afghanistan, three more soldiers died in a Jackal, blown up by yet another roadside bomb (bringing the total for that vehicle to 14). How long will the MoD continue to put its press officers at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in order, as Mrs Brooke puts it, to "defend the morally indefensible"?MoD man sues ministry for making him tell lies
How long will the MoD continue to put its press officers at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder in order to cover up defend the morally indefensible, asks Christopher Booker.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
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