The Observer view: the superinjunction reveals a culture of impunity

For more than a decade, the efforts by the Royal Military Police to investigate those allegations of war crimes by special forces conducting night raids in Afghanistan in 2010-2013 have been frustrated by deletions of evidence and missing data.

The financial cost of this scandal will rise steeply as lawyers for those put at risk bring class actions against the government. The constitutional damage will take years to assess as accountability is pursued in an arm of the state not used to being held accountable. It’s telling that it would not have come to light had it not been for reporters from Global Media and the Daily Mail, who sought an end to the secrecy in a legal challenge led by the Times. The moral question behind it is: why has Britain found it so hard to do right by those who risked their lives to help its forces in Afghanistan?

The scale of the security breach was not clear when the defence secretary first described it last Tuesday. Two days later it emerged that personal information had been released on more than 100 British MI6 and special forces personnel. The fact the names of UK service personnel were part of the data leak was subject to an injunction, even after the superinjunction was lifted. The MoD rightly wants to keep the identities of British special forces and intelligence officers secret; it’s protected the reputation of special forces, too.

For decades the special forces have burnished their image by stonewalling the press and trading on myth. Narratives by Fitzroy Maclean and David Stirling set the tone. Taxpayers were told the rogue heroes gave value for money and the Iranian embassy siege seemed to prove it. Novelist Andy McNab offered to fill in the gaps.

Until 2017, that was the story. Then the Sunday Times and later the BBC’s Panorama started reporting on alleged war crimes by SAS personnel in Afghanistan in 2011, leading to an official inquiry. That inquiry will now need to answer two questions. What is the truth of allegations of the killing of unarmed men and boys in Afghanistan by special forces? And what kind of accountability should be required of the special forces – what now for the bargain between the British public and the “rogue heroes”?

General Sir Gwyn Jenkins was commander of the SBS and was informed of allegations about special forces operations in Afghanistan at the time of the alleged killings; he was in charge of all special forces at the time of the Afghan data leak. He has recently been promoted to be First Sea Lord, running the Navy.

He continues to have ministers’ full backing. The question is why? A straight answer would not remove the storm cloud that hangs over the special forces, but it might begin to clear the air.