AN SAS war hero has attacked Sir Keir Starmer for betraying Britain’s veterans – on the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Falklands War legend Aldwin Wight, who led 22 SAS regiment, led a surprise assault on No10, raging that: “The trust between veterans and their former employer, the government, is broken.”
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Wight, a former Brigadier, issued a rallying cry to fellow veterans to “foment a public outcry against the government”.
In a three page dossier, released tomorrow, entitled “commanding officer’s statement,” he accused the Labour government of “institutional amnesia”.
He said veterans who served in Northern Ireland faced decades of legal witch hunts which had “denigrated their service,” ruined soldiers lives and left many of them trapped in a “doom loop”.
He wrote: “This persecution of veterans is inexplicable, in fact bewildering.”
Wight, who led the SAS from 1992 to 1994, added: “Having directly contributed to the defeat of the IRA, bent on using murder as a political tool, the veterans of this campaign now find themselves prosecuted by their former employer, the Government they served and trusted, whilst the terrorists have been absolved of their crimes and set free, even compensated.”
It comes after Keir Starmer wrote an open letter to all veterans to say “how thankful we all are” on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe
Starmer said the debt to veterans “can never be repaid”.
Wight accused the Prime Minister of forgetting how violent the IRA were.
He wrote: “Nowadays there is a collective institutional amnesia in government of the level of violence perpetrated by the IRA: 4,000 murders, indiscriminate bombing campaigns in Northern Ireland and the mainland, an attempt to kill a Prime Minister, murdering Mountbatten, attacking the City of London, Omagh and other horrors, endless assassinations.”
He said the terrorist would never have been beaten and the Good Friday peace never agreed without the work of the SAS and local police.
He wrote: “The SAS, because of its experience and capabilities, drew the hardest task – apprehending armed terrorists when the intelligence indicated a major attack.”
He said all of the operations had “ministerial approval” and strict rules of engagement.
But he added: “It is worth remembering the nature of these operations.
“The reality was that a small team was tasked to apprehend armed terrorists, often in the dark, in chaotic and fast changing circumstances.
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“There was always a direct threat to soldier’s lives.”
But he said: “Professional, committed and experienced soldiers were willing to undertake these operations and face the risks, as they believed they were defending our freedoms.”
In Mach The Sun revealed how the SAS association accused governments of “badly letting down” veterans.
It urged its members to break cover – and declare their Special Forces backgrounds – in order to lobby MPs about comrades who are “unjustly hounded for doing their duty”.
In February a Northern Irish coroner sparked outrage among veterans by ruling the SAS had no justification for shooting dead four IRA terrorists armed with assault rifles and an anti-aircraft gun.
Former SAS Regimental Sergeant Major George Simm, 70, slammed the coroner’s ruling as “absurd”.
Tory MP David Davis, who served in the SAS, said Justice Michael Humphreys was “demonstrably wrong” and had “ignored plain facts of the case”.
Veterans Minister Al Carns, who served in the Special Forces, said the government would seek a judicial review to overturn the finding.