Articles

Quitting the EU would help not hinder our security

Up to 5,000 terrorists trained by Islamic State are now back in Europe, with the right to come to Britain

Article published in The Times, 22 February 2016. © Richard Kemp

According to David Cameron and Theresa May, Britain is safer from terrorism inside the EU than out. The Islamic State terrorist attack that killed 130 people in Paris in November — the deadliest in Europe since 2004 — proves them wrong.

Not only was there a catastrophic failure in intelligence sharing between France and Belgium, but the terrorists were able to travel unchecked from Belgium into France precisely because both countries are members of the EU.

The single most important element in preventing attacks is intelligence. Intelligence must be protected and that is why sharing of significant and sensitive intelligence is bilateral between individual states. It is not done through the EU or any other collective mechanisms that would lead to compromise.

These critical bilateral relationships would persist regardless of being in or out of the EU. Our closest intelligence relationship by far is not with any EU member state but with the US.

Nor would Brexit undermine any other area of security co-operation between us and EU member states or central organisations. It is absurd to suggest that the EU would deliberately put its citizens, or ours, at greater risk by reducing co-operation.

Rob Wainwright, chief of Europol, the EU police agency, said last week that up to 5,000 terrorists trained by Islamic State in the Middle East are now back in Europe. This is certain to be a gross underestimate and anyway these numbers will grow. Many are experienced killers. While we remain in the EU these terrorists have the right to come freely into our country. Continue reading →

Articles

Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Politicized UN

Article published by the Gatestone Institute, 16 February 2016.

by Richard Kemp and Jasper Reid

  • The UN’s assertion that the Saudi-led coalition has committed war crimes in Yemen is unlikely to be true. UN experts have not been to Yemen, depending instead on hearsay evidence and analysis of photographs.
  • The UN has a pattern of unsubstantiated allegations of war crimes against the armed forces of sovereign states. Without any military expertise, and never having visited Gaza, a UN commission convicted the Israel Defense Force of deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians in the 2014 conflict. It was an assessment roundly rejected by America’s most senior military officer, General Martin Dempsey, and an independent commission.
  • The Houthis have learned many lessons from Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, groups also supported by Iran. Those lessons include the falsification of civilian casualty figures and their causes. The UN swallowed the fake Gaza figures hook, line and sinker, and are now making the same error in Yemen.
  • The Houthis exploit gullible or compliant reporters and human rights groups to facilitate their propaganda, including false testimony and fabrication of imagery.
  • Forensic analysis shows that rather than deliberately targeting civilians, the Saudis and their allies have taken remarkable steps to minimize civilian casualties.

The United Nations, Amnesty International and other groups have accused the Saudi-led coalition of war crimes in Yemen. A leaked UN report claims the bombing campaign against Iranian-supported Houthi insurgents seeking violently to topple the legitimate government of Yemen has conducted deliberate, widespread and systematic attacks on civilian targets.

Continue reading →

Air strike in Sana'a, 11 May 2015
Articles

Britain must back its ally over Yemen conflict

Article published in The Times, 9 February 2016. © Richard Kemp

Following a leaked UN report alleging war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition against civilians in Yemen, there have been calls, including by Jeremy Corbyn, for Britain to cease supplying military equipment and to withdraw our military advisers.

The Saudis are not fighting this war as we would. That is true also of the Afghan, Iraqi, Libyan, Malian and Nigerian forces that we have trained, armed, funded, advised and fought alongside. I knew an Iraqi military unit whose immediate action under attack was to form the “death bloom”, spraying rapid fire in every direction at anything that moved.

In fighting the global war on terrorism, our preferred policy is to support and advise the indigenous forces of countries where violent jihad is taking a hold in a way that threatens our interests and those of our allies. This is preferable to deploying our own combat forces to deal directly with the problem, especially in the wake of long and costly campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such support, sometimes including military trainers and advisers in headquarters or at the front, not only helps to defeat the threat but also buys vital political influence.

We do all that we can to induce the local forces to fight according to the laws of armed conflict. But we cannot always dictate to them and if we were to make our support for them conditional on them fighting exactly as we do, then this policy would cease to exist and we would either have to accept the growing threats against us or send in our own troops. Of course we do have red lines, and our forces cannot actively participate in operations that breach the laws of armed conflict. Continue reading →

Articles

What other country would pay lawyers to persecute its own war heroes?

Article published in the Daily Mail, 5 January 2016.  © Richard Kemp

Time and again in recent conflicts across the world, British soldiers have willingly put their lives on the line for our country.

Yet instead of being honoured for their spirit of patriotism and self-sacrifice, too many of them are now the targets of vexatious legal actions brought by politically motivated, greedy lawyers who undermine the ability of our Armed Forces to protect our national interests.

What makes this betrayal all the more disgraceful is the Government’s failure to stand up to these legal wreckers. Indeed, far from challenging them, Whitehall provides them with funding, staff and judicial backing.

This pathetic collusion represents a complete inversion of morality, with the state now effectively bankrolling relentless attacks on our defenders.

The full extent of this taxpayer-subsidised treachery has been laid bare through news reports about the activities of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, which was set up in 2010 by the Ministry of Defence to investigate claims of ill-treatment and unlawful killings by British military forces.

Initially, the unit was meant to inquire into 152 cases, but now its work has spiralled out of control to more than 1,500 cases.

That phenomenal expansion should hardly come as a surprise, given that the MoD actually pays an Iraqi agent, Abu Jamal, nearly £40,000 a year to handle compensation demands from the supposed victims.

Jamal’s son has boasted that every week his father is now taking on 20 new clients who want to sue the British Government.

Meanwhile, the British troops at the centre of this opportunistic, lucrative witch-hunt have been hung out to dry.

Few of them have ever received anything like £40,000 a year for serving their nation. Now they have the threat of criminal charges hanging over them in a saga that could drag on for years. Indeed, the unit admitted this week that it may well not complete its investigations until 2019 at the earliest.

The Nuremberg trials of the Nazis were completed in just one year, yet the Iraq unit may last more than a decade. That fact alone is an indicator of the institutionalised madness that seems to have gripped the MoD. This whole expensive mess would not exist if the British Government was not supinely paying for it. The cases would soon stop if there was no hope of legal aid or compensation.

Continue reading →

Articles

Accusations of war crimes will mostly be unfounded

Our troops need protecting from predatory lawyers

Article published in The Times, 4 January 2016. © Richard Kemp

Mark Warwick, head of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, says he is dealing with 1,250 alleged offences by British troops — including murder, rape and torture — with sufficient evidence to justify criminal charges.

If all these allegations were true, it would represent either a deliberate criminal policy sanctioned at the top of the British armed forces, or an unprecedented breakdown of discipline and order and a failure of command never before seen.

But most are not genuine. They are the result of a campaign by left-wing British lawyers driven by greed and the intention to undermine our armed forces.

A public inquiry into allegations that British soldiers had murdered, tortured and mutilated Iraqi civilians after a fierce battle in 2003 found that all such claims were “wholly without foundation” and “entirely the product of deliberate lies, reckless speculation and ingrained hostility” by Iraqi witnesses.

The government has accused the law firm Public Interest Lawyers of making unsolicited approaches to potential victims in contravention of the solicitors’ code of conduct and resulting in hundreds of spurious claims. This has all been funded by British taxpayers through legal aid payments that encourage Iraqis and their ambulance-chasing lawyers.

These false accusations tarnish the reputation of the armed forces and encourage violence against British citizens by jihadists enraged at the alleged behaviour of our soldiers. Continue reading →

Auschwitz entrance
Articles

‘THE YELLOW STAR’ BY S B UNSDORFER

The Yellow Star is the account by S B Unsdorfer of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, originally published in 1961. Richard Kemp wrote this foreword to the recently re-published book at the request of the author’s son, Zalmi Unsdorfer.
The Yellow Star is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yellow-Star-S-B-Unsdorfer/dp/1592643752/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451211379&sr=8-1&keywords=the+yellow+star

The Yellow Star is available from Amazon

 

I am writing these words in a dark and malignant wooden hut at Auschwitz-Birkenau, seated on what the author of this book describes as “a hollow brick ledge running down the centre of the block from one end to the other”. A ledge like the one upon which Doctor Josef Mengele stood unmoved amidst scenes of heartless brutality, blood, screaming and despair as he made his ruthless selection on the day Simche Unsdorfer and his family were brought into this place.

Simche Unsdorfer, pale, skinny and with glasses that seemed bigger than his face, was 19 years old when he was transported by cattle car to this vast death camp. He has been an inspiration to me for forty years and during many military campaigns since the day I first opened his heart-rending account of extraordinary courage in the face of unexampled savagery. Continue reading →

Articles

This will make Britain weaker: COLONEL RICHARD KEMP says women on the front lines would be a ‘crazy’ move

Article published in The Daily Mail, 21 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

The direction to the Ministry of Defence to allow women to serve in close combat roles has no value for military effectiveness.

In fact, the opposite is true. It will undermine the fighting ethos of the British infantry.
Sadly, the Prime Minister’s decision is the latest crazy move in society’s obsession with politically correct gestures.

In saying this, I do not mean to insult women. They play a valuable role in almost every part of the Armed Forces. Many have been decorated for bravery in battle.

Indeed, I have commanded women on operations – in tough situations – and have as much admiration for their dedication, professionalism and heroism as I have for their male counterparts.

But infantry close combat is different to any other human activity. Naturally, it requires courage.

But it also demands incomparable levels of physical endurance – with infantry soldiers having to advance on foot, often for days or weeks at a time, deprived of sleep and rations.

This has to be done over vast areas of inhospitable terrain, in extremes of climate, carrying heavy combat loads and then having to fight a determined enemy at close quarters.

Continue reading →

Articles

Should women serve on the front line? The arguments for and against

David Cameron has announced plans to ditch the ban on female soldiers being sent to the front line

Article published in The  Sunday Mirror, 20 December 2015.

Female soldiers could be serving on the front line in a matter of months.

David Cameron has announced plans to ditch the ban on female soldiers being sent to the front line.

It is expected that women will be allowed to take close combat roles with the Army by the autumn.

The Prime Minister said: “We’ve already lifted a number of barriers in our armed forces with the introduction of female submariners and women reaching the highest ranks in all services.”

He added: “We should finish the job next year – and open up ground combat roles to women.”

Labour backed the decision and argued it is important the Army becomes more diverse.

YES – Maria Eagle, Shadow Defence Secretary

One of the Forces’ biggest hurdles in the years to come is to make sure they better reflect the society they serve.

Only then can the Army, Royal Navy and the RAF make sure they look like modern Britain.

Allowing women to serve in close combat roles would mark a huge step towards achieving this vital goal.

It would bring us into line with many of the UK’s strongest allies, including the US, Canada, France and Australia.

We have to ask ourselves why only 10% of our regular service personnel are women.

Allowing women to serve in close combat roles is not only the right thing to do.

But it will also mean that our Forces will be able to make the most of the rich talents that the UK’s brave service women have to offer.

NO – Col Richard Kemp, Ex-Army Commander

The Prime Minister’s decree is merely testament to this Government’s obsession with political correctness, at the expense of our nation’s defences.

Today, women serve in the Armed Forces with expertise, valour and distinction in a multitude of roles.

I am in no doubt as to the value of women in our Armed Forces.

This does not mean they should be permitted to join the infantry.

Fighting as an infantryman is the toughest job in the Army. Very few men are suited, and even less women.

Those that did make the cut would find themselves outnumbered and cliques would form.

This would undermine the cohesiveness that characterises any great fighting force, making our Army less effective in the field.

Let us hope we do not live to rue such a decision.

Articles

We put our reputations on the line. This is why

Article published in The Jewish Chronicle, 16 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

The High Level Military Group’s (HLMG) findings on the 2014 Gaza conflict were the diametric opposite of those of the UN Human Rights Council, human rights groups and the majority of Western media, all of whom believe Israel used disproportionate force and committed war crimes. Why?

Because, unlike the HLMG, these organisations lack any credible military expertise. This is a problem when you are assessing a military conflict. They also mostly hit this issue from a pre-determined position that they want to be right: Israel is the neighbourhood bully and Hamas are the hapless representatives of a bullied, down-trodden population. And they analyse the situation based on human rights law, not the laws of armed conflict. Human rights law is fine if you are dealing with a police arrest on the streets of London, but not when you’re looking at large-scale violent armed exchanges between warring factions – that is what the Geneva conventions are intended to regulate.

The upshot of this ignorant, distorted, malign and misjudged perspective is the widespread demonisation of the state of Israel. That, of course, is what Israel’s enemies, who have manipulated the UN, human rights groups and much of the media as well as many world governments, always intended.

If you are taken in by it, and you yourself condemn the Jewish state on the basis of what these organisations tell you, which to be fair is pretty much all you ever hear, then you too are an instrument of Israel’s enemies. If you are Jewish and you condemn Israel on the basis of this disinformation, then you are a doubly valuable enemy Continue reading →

Articles

Royals must be allowed to pay respects in Israel

Letter published in The Sunday Telegraph, 13 December 2015. © Richard Kemp

SIR – Your article “The Royals and a long line of snubs to Israel” raises a troubling problem, and one that must be urgently resolved for reasons that go beyond the political.
The ban on royal visits to Israel dates back to the end of the British mandate and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, which humiliated the Foreign Office, frustrating its carefully crafted plans over three decades to deny the Jewish homeland that had been promised by the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, in 1917.

The reason was a desire to appease and inveigle the Arab countries, all of which opposed the creation of the Jewish state, in order to gain influence over them and their oil. Also tied up in this in the late Thirties was the legitimate intent to prevent an Arab alliance with the Nazis, which failed.

The Foreign Office continues to harbour a deep-seated resentment towards Israel, refusing to allow a royal visit until the Jewish state changes its policies.

In two years we will see the centenary of the liberation by British forces under General Allenby of the Holy City of Jerusalem. A total of 16,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers died in the Palestine Campaign – the second largest theatre of operations of the First World War.

Will the Foreign Office prevent royal attendance at the centenary commemoration of the war in Palestine? Will it allow its grudge against Israel to deny British soldiers who fell fighting for the Crown there an equal honour to that bestowed on their comrades in arms at Gallipoli this year, when both the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry were present?

Colonel Richard Kemp
Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan
London SW1