Ops-Normal.org

UK soldiers who fought in the Iraq War may face prosecution for war crimes, according to the head of a unit investigating alleged abuses.
Mark Warwick said there were "lots of significant cases" and that discussions would be held over whether they met a war crimes threshold.
Lawyers are continuing to refer alleged abuse by soldiers to the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT).
The Ministry of Defence said it took such allegations "extremely seriously"

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35211336

Not that I deny the possibility, but for f*cks sake it was a bloody war. People die in wars, it happens. No way I would give consideration to serving now if able. Couldn't think of anything worse than being followed by "ambulance-chasing lawers" whilst involved in a campaign.

Alison

I would love to know if these types of "blanket inquiry's" occur in the USA and other countries that take part.

It just seems to me that the UK is inflicted with this type of mentality.

There's a few threads over on Arrse which reflect the disdain and contempt that is held for these vultures. One individual in particular, Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, appears to be a lead figure and is already under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority following the Al-Sweady inquiry where it was shown that the allegations made against soldiers were false.

The crazy situation we see now is due to the actions of one T. Blair and the Human Rights Act which he introduced. (Just by pure co-incidence of course, his wife is a leading human rights lawyer).

It would appear that ***** is no longer allowed to happen in a war.

They are cahsing us for things done in NI as well, even though the IRA have immunity through the Good Friday agreement. It all sucks.

Time to stand up boys and girls... Before _Great_ Britain is swallowed up by small people and 9th Century throwbacks...

I read as many after action reports as possible of the Iraq invasion and I was thinking of one
squad sharp shooter ( ? may have been a sniper ?) and going through some of his kills.

One in particular was a person on a bus, can't remember whether he had already fired at the US Troops
but he was seen bobbing up and down inside the bus. The squad sharp shooter figured where he was
(his position) and just fired through the skin of the bus, killed him outright.

Now, any person could then say, I witnessed the killing of a civilian on a bus (it wasn't a civilian)
and if it was a UK soldier, all manner of never ending investigation would go on. The US on the
other hand seems to do reasonably quick investigations, make a conclusion, job done and move on.


In addition, I think the lawyers go chasing people to make claims in the UK, knowing full well it
is a never ending money trough From the Gov't.

The cANCer were mumbling about going after those who served back in the day, including national servicemen. Didn't get very far. I think they realised the gravy train would derail with half the productive tax paying work force in the clink.

"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."
- General George Patton Jr

From the Daily Telegraph:

New defence shadow minister Emily Thornberry accepted £14,500 from law firm which sued British troops. David Cameron says Labour MP has "questions to answer" over donations from the firm, which has been accused of making false claims that British soldiers were involved in torture and murder in Iraq.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/12084846/David-Cameron-Questions-to-answer-over-Emily-Thornberrys-links-to-condemned-law-firm-Leigh-Day.html

Looks like Corbyn has shot himself in the foot again......

I make no comment on the Iraq matter, except to say that Western armed forces are signatory to the Geneva convention and where it may appear to have been broken there should be an enquiry, and that if a person has acted illegally, as alleged for the Leigh Day's 'junior employee' over alleged destruction of evidence, they should face an appropriate enquiry. So far all enquiries have found that the 'destruction' of the document had no effect on the matters in hand. The use of this matter for political gain by Cameron is regrettable and not worthy - but that is no surprise. Leigh Day have responded to the 'allegations' here https://www.leighday.co.uk/News/News-2016/January-2016/Statement-in-relation-to-referral-to-Solicitors-Di if anyone chooses to read what they have said.

For Leigh Day as an entity I do have experience. They successfully challenged a medical appliance company called de Puy in a 'group action' over the mis-manufacture of replacement hip joints (which has resulted in Mrs B having no less than 5 replacement operations on the same hip since 1997, leaving her unable to walk normally).

A (relatively inadequate) settlement was reached out of court, and Leigh Day are currently pursuing another action against de Puy for yet another alleged mis-manufacture of a hip joint leaving other recipients in difficulties.

Whatever one's feelings about so-called 'ambulance chasers' (and I do NOT place Leigh Day in this category), the legal system in the UK precludes the average person from bringing any sort of action against a company or body simply because of potential costs. Thus a company like Leigh Day are able to step in and take action for many. They are currently in the process of 'discussions' with VW on behalf of VW etc owners who have notified LD that they have 'problems' with the emissions scandal and are expecting the UK's largest ever legal group claim over this.

Leigh Day do not offer 'no win no fee' support for individual folk on a case by case basis as do the common 'ambulance chasers' but have a proud track record of helping groups affected by others' actions.