The British Army will amend its analysis of its thirty year war in Ireland to take account of concerns expressed by the Pat Finucane Centre. However in response to a complaint about the analysis lodged by the Celtic League they say (see below) the document, currently withdrawn, will be reissued in its amended form.
The Ministry of Defence refer to the preparation of the document, entitled "OPERATION BANNER: An Analysis of military Operations in Northern Ireland", as being part of a "lessons learned" exercise. The unwritten sub-text to this comment is that this document will form part of the education of future Army Officers as a 'must read' item at staff college. The British armed forces conducted similar exercises after their operations in Malaya, Kenya and Aden and ironically the brutality, murder and interrogation techniques, in addition to the use of locally recruited murder-gangs, that categorised those conflicts was mirrored in Ireland.
Disturbingly some of the "lessons learned" by the British Army in Ireland and earlier conflicts are already being put into practise in new conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan where murder and brutality is once again the order of the day.
"Dear Mr Tal-e-bot
Thank you for your letter of 18 July concerning the contents of the report entitled "Operation BANNER: An Analysis of military Operations in Northern Ireland". Your letter has been passed onto me as I have responsibility for policy relating to the military in Northern Ireland.
As a matter of course, the Armed forces conduct "lessons learned" exercises on operations. The report was intended to consider those general issues captured by the Army during Operation BANNER which may be of use in future campaigns. It is therefore a formalisation of the post-exercise evaluation carried out by the Armed Forces as a matter of course at the end of any operation.
I have also recently responded to the Pat Finucance Centre on a specific issue and we are amending the document in line with their request. It has been withdrawn temporarily from the MoD website while this change is incorporated. The MoD is also taking this opportunity to undertake a general review of the contents of the document.
Although the report was an internal "lessons learned" exercise, we were aware that it may ultimately be open to public scrutiny. You will be aware that the report was published on full on the MoD website as a result of an FoI request. In line with the spirit of that initial request the MoD is not considering withdrawing this document on a more permanent basis.
Your sincerely
Richard Jackson CT and UKOps"
See also Celtic News article at:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
12/08/07
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