How Cameron’s SAS and MI6 Bond Op Bungled in Benghazi

Patrick Henningsen
21st Century Wire
March 9, 2011

As far as paperback novels and heroic British failures go, few can top events in Libya this week.  Eight British men – including six SAS soldiers and a James Bond-style MI6 agent, dropped by helicopter in Benghazi under the cover of night, only to be surrounded and captured by local farmers-cum-rebels, according to major news reports.

The eight-man SAS/MI6 team, comprised of six soldiers, a translator and a ‘Foreign Office’ worker were seized by rebels fighters opposed to Gaddafi who feared the British detachment might actually be foreign mercenaries. The British crew were carrying light weapons and wore civilian work clothes which unsurprisingly raised suspicions. During capture, the SAS men made no attempt to open fire, for fears that it might spark a gunfight on the street.

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