Ben(jamin) Griffin may refer to: . By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent 12 March 2006 • 00:01 am As a trooper in the Special Air Service's counter-terrorist team - the black-clad force that … "[4], The events that Griffin witnessed in Iraq, and in particular the conduct of US forces, led him to decide not to return there. © Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005–2020. You cannot invade a country pretending to promote democracy and behave like that. [2], At the beginning of 2005 he was deployed with the 22nd Special Air Service Regiment's 'G' Squadron in counter-insurgency operations in Baghdad in the aftermath of the 2nd Persian Gulf War. We have accepted illegality as the norm. “He should go public with his statement. All rights reserved. [11], In March 2015, as a representative of Veterans for Peace, Griffin went to Northern Ireland to meet with ex-paramilitaries from the Provisional Irish Republican Army, including Seanna Breathnach. but I was wondering if anyone else had come across this persons broadcasts and if so, what their thoughts are. [11], In March 2015, as a representative of Veterans for Peace, Griffin went to Northern Ireland to meet with ex-paramilitaries from the Provisional Irish Republican Army, including Seanna Breathnach. He later cited concerns about the occupation demeanor towards the local population of United States Army units of 'Multi-National Force - Iraq' that he was working with, accusing them of being "trigger happy" compared with British Army's fire discipline, overtly racially prejudiced,[3] and morally objected to detainees that his Squadron were responsible for locating and arresting being handed over to United States Army custody, in which he believed they were being physically abused in pursuance of information.

After a childhood defined by Commando comics and the Army Cadets, Griffin joined the Parachute Regiment, aged 19. On leaving the British Army he was employed briefly in corporate security work, before becoming involved in anti-war activism. “The Army just wouldn’t stand for it,” the general claimed. The organisation has campaigns to end recruitment into the Army at 16, with a series of adverts about post-traumatic stress disorder and the physical risks of a military career. This cycle of political and psychological violence, with its repercussions for both the British soldier and the communities he is deployed against, is one Griffin is determined to break. “It will take time, but eventually the effects of the pollution we’ve released will disappear.”, Ben Griffin uses his experience as an SAS trooper to show children that civilians are casualties too, Homeless Veterans appeal: An ex-soldier's mission to reveal the true face of war. He also stated that the professional British Army is composed primarily of the modern equivalent of men-at-arms, whose military service is motivated by other causes than patriotism, and the British Army's esprit de corps is "to go to war, any war" for self-possessed warlike motivation, rather than for more principled aspirations.

[6][7][8], Griffin is the Co-ordinator of the United Kingdom branch of Veterans for Peace. Unknown to any of his SAS colleagues at their Hereford-based unit, however, Mr Griffin, then 25, had been harbouring doubts over the "legality" of the war. Ben Griffin is an ex SAS trooper who I saw on a Russian propaganda channel. Special Air Service Regiment on a visit to Griffin's Squadron in Baghdad expressed the view, openly to unit's personnel, that he himself had declining confidence in their mission, and that he was uneasy that they were in jeopardy of being turned in to a secret police force in the Iraqi state under United States' authority. Related: Support for Wales' military veterans.

The Americans had a well-deserved reputation for being trigger happy. We had appropriated his palaces to become military bases. "[1], Despite his expectation that he would be arrested, labelled a coward, court-martialed and imprisoned he was allowed to leave the Army with his military record intact.

A decorated Welsh former SAS soldier has told of how he walked out of the armed forces – and now campaigns for peace. Interview with Ben Griffin, 'H-Hour - A Sniper's Broadcast', published on Youtube 19 January 2019.

There are around one hundred generals currently serving in the British Army. [7] In November 2011 he joined the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral in London, with another Veterans for Peace member, Matthew Horne.1, On 26 September 2011 he appeared on Press TV, the Iranian English language news channel, and criticised the UK armed forces recruitment policy for 'targeting child soldiers. [2] Shortly afterwards the British government was granted a high court injunction by Mr Justice Openshaw which prevented Griffin from repeating these allegations. [1], In 1997 at the age of nineteen he enlisted with the British Army's Parachute Regiment, going on to serve with its 2nd Battalion in garrison duty in Northern Ireland in the winding down of Operation Banner in the late 1990s-early 2000s, and in the Balkans where the battalion assisted with the disarming of the Macedonia National Liberation Army in the Western Macedonia mountains in 2001. Special Air Service Regiment on a visit to Griffin's Squadron in Baghdad expressed the view, openly to unit's personnel, that he himself had declining confidence in their mission, and that he was uneasy that they were in jeopardy of being turned in to a secret police force in the Iraqi state under United States' authority. I can remember coming in off one operation which took place outside Baghdad, where we had detained some civilians who were clearly not insurgents, they were innocent people. “The prisons we were using were the same prisons.

RT.

Then you start to look back on the things that you were involved in with different eyes. The ex-IRA participants expressed in return a new understanding of the "programming" that the Veterans for Peace representatives had explained they had been subjected to in the British Army, but stated they shared no reciprocal regrets about their own activities in the conflict. The Americans would talk to the Iraqis as if they were stupid and these weren't isolated cases, this was from the top down. They had no understanding or interest in the Arab culture. Read RT Privacy policy to find out more. “I went on operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan.”. That reputation has been tarnished over the last seven years. “I’ve often thought since I got back from Iraq about the effect we had on the people we came into contact with. [10], In April 2013 Griffin took part in a debate at the Oxford Union supporting the proposition "We will not fight for Queen and Country", during which he stated that patriotism is a "false religion", that was propagated self-servingly by influential elitist groups in society who financially benefited from it.

in 2003.

Benjamin Griffin (born 1977) is a former British SAS soldier who refused to return to Iraq and left the Army, citing not only the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces but also that the invasion itself was contrary to international law. [9], In 2011 Griffin took part in a demonstration outside the American Embassy in London in support of Bradley Manning, a United States Army soldier who had released a mass of classified military documents to public view via an internet outlet. Ben Griffin, who served in the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service in Iraq and Afghanistan and is now a member of anti-war group Veterans for Peace UK, told RT the general’s comments published in the Sunday Times are an affront to democracy. The question of how to respond to the horrors wrought by modern conflict is one that a former SAS trooper, Ben Griffin, has been grappling with ever since he left the military in 2005. [1] He spoke to an anti-war rally in 2008 about UK involvement in extraordinary rendition[2] the day before he was served with an injunction preventing him from speaking publicly and from publishing material about his time in the SAS.

But he no longer believes this was true and said he was left “angry” by the experience. He appeared to pledge a military rebellion, with the army directly intervening in democracy. Interview with Ben Griffin at the demonstration with 'Press TV', published 13 December 2011. “The house we were living in was one that one of Saddam’s henchmen had lived in,” Ben said.

According to a recent ForcesWatch study, post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol misuse are three times as common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans than in the general population, while other mental disorders – such as depression – are 90 per cent higher. This Task Force has been responsible for the detention of hundreds if not thousands of individuals in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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