Where are they Now? Pt 341 General Sir "Mike" Jackson

"Let me make it clear that it was important to retrieve those two soldiers.The British Army looks after its own.” (General Sir Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff ,Basra S. Iraq quoted in the Times, 12 Oct 2005)

There will be few who forget the curious incident when 2 allegedly undercover SAS men wearing comical Arab style clothing were arrested, photographed and imprisoned by Iraqi Police in Basra on September 19th 2005 driving a car loaded with weapons, ammunition and a brand new car jack.

They will also remember the derring do raid on the local prison involving 10 tanks and supporting helicopters to rescue them that night. The raid resulted in the death of 7 Iraqis and a further 43 injured.

On the 14th October HMG formally almost apologized to Iraq and confirmed that it "will pay compensation for injuries and damage" (Times October 12th)

In the same article John Reid, the Defence Minister,is quoted and insisted the Army’s actions had been “absolutely right” and declared: “When it is necessary to protect British servicemen, we will take that action. And by God it was effective.” Brigadier John Lorimer, the British commander in Basra, insisted that his forces “won’t hesitate” to act against those endangering coalition troops.

In the aftermath of these events, still unexplained and shrouded in military secrecy, Captain Ken Masters (40) Commanding Officer of the Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police and "responsible for the investigation of all in-theatre serious incidents, plus investigations conducted by the General Police Duties element of the Theatre Investigation Group." (Statement of Britain's Ministry of Defense, 16 Oct 2005) undertook an investigation into circumstances of the arrest of two alleged undercover SAS men.

On that evening Capt Masters sent an e-mail sent to his wife (timed 5.20am 14 October) "U and the girls are keeping me going, I can tell you. Love you all very much. Daddy xxxooo."

On the day following the apology by HMG, and 2 weeks before he was due leave in the UK, Masters , a man who ran every morning, was found dead ... hanging by a bootlace in his barracks room. He had left two suicide notes: one to the Army, blaming himself for his death, and the other to his wife the inquest was later told. This was a few days after General Sir Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff was in Basra and met and discussed the matter with him.

"Let me make it clear that it was important to retrieve those two soldiers.The British Army looks after its own.” (General Sir Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff ,Basra S. Iraq quoted in the Times, 12 Oct 2005)

27/06/2006

An inquest at Swindon Coroner's Court, which was heard on 27th June 2006, found that Capt Ken Masters, a senior military police investigator in Iraq, took his own life. At the time he was
suffering from depression brought on by increasing workload and stress.

Warrant Officer Philip Floyd told the court: “He was very conscientious. He had a sense of frustration in that the procedures we had to conduct in the inquiries were hindered by
forces outside of our control.”

Further Refs re the Inquest
Independent

Suicide in Basra: The unravelling of a military man by Ian Herbert
Times
Stress of Army officer found hanged in Iraq By Michael Evans

Texts of e-mails Masters sent to his wife and shown at the inquest are available here.The "boss" mentioned in them is / was Lieutenant Colonel Ian Stenning, the Provost General who some will remember personally took charge of the investigation into the abuse by the Queens Lancashire Regiment (QLR) after photographs appeared in the Daily Mirror and General Sir
Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff appeared on UK TV the same night promising a full inquiry and when Lieutenant Colonel John Downham, regimental secretary of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment was gagged by the MOD. Curiously the investigation by Lieutenant Colonel Ian Stenning has yet to see the light of day. Neither has the Basra SAS investigation report been completed or published. The Editor of the Mirror lost his job.


General Sir Michael Jackson, Chief of the General Staff ? He has just retired and the CGS is chap called Sir Richard Dannatt. The Guradian report today in his first interview since taking up his post as chief of the general staff, General Dannatt warned: "We are running hot, certainly running hot." He added: "Can we cope? I pause. I say 'just'."

General Sir Mike Jackson was awarded the MBE in 1979, the CBE in 1992, the CB in 1996, the KCB in 1998, the DSO in 1999 and ADC Gen in 2001. He is married to Sarah, and has 2 sons, a daughter and three grandchildren. His interests include music, reading, travel, skiing and tennis. His predecessor Lord Guthrie joined the Board of Directors of military, aviation and law enforcement training solutions company Advanced Interactive Systems in May 2004.

The photograph of General Sir Mike Jackson is somewhat misleading, the prominent bags under his eyes have been removed by surgery.