CDR Salamander - Fullbore Friday

When will fate call you? What will you do?

Will you take action on your own, or wait for someone to tell you to act?

Remember the first terrorist attack at the shopping mall in Kenya back in 2013? Well, in 2019 there was another, when a member of the British SAS probably saved hundreds because…it was the right thing to do to run towards the gunfire.

I give you a man known by his nom de guerre: Christian Craighead,

• The Attack: On the afternoon of January 15, 2019, five Al-Shabaab militants stormed the DusitD2 hotel and shopping complex using suicide bombings, grenades, and automatic rifles, killing 21 civilians and 1 General Service Unit (GSU) officer.

• The Man: Stationed in Kenya to train local forces, Craighead was off-duty when he learned of the attack from a friend. He drove to the scene in his pickup truck armed with combat gear, a rifle, and a pistol.

• The Moment: Entering the complex initially on his own—and later coordinating with Kenyan police, security units, and allied personnel—he helped evacuate hundreds of civilians, cleared buildings floor-by-floor, and engaged the gunmen through a multi-hour standoff.

• Aftermath & Honors: Craighead was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (CGC) by the British military for his bravery.

Of note, go to the 25-minute mark of the video below to hear how he was received in the USA in 2019…and look at what his own nation is doing to him...just because he wants to write a book about what was seen by everyone as it took place.

For some reason, the UK government hates its best. On top of going after geriatric SAS on trumped-up charges related to decades old “Troubles” issues, and now this.

Mrs Justice Steyn has today refused Mr Craighead (a pseudonym) permission to publish a memoir that covers that Incident. As a member of the UKSF, Mr Craighead signed a contract which provides that he cannot publish such a memoir without Express Prior Authorisation in Writing (“EPAW”). He sought EPAW to publish a memoir that described the Incident, on the grounds that the Incident – and his role in it – were widely known and discussed in the public domain (including in extensive media coverage at the time). He relied, in support of that argument, on the fact that he was actively encouraged to speak about the Incident by his superiors, including to 640 teenage army recruits. During the course of the hearing the Secretary of State accepted that it was not appropriate to maintain the ordinary Neither Confirm Nor Deny position in relation to the Incident and accepted that Mr Craighead could state that he was the individual involved in it.

The Secretary of State accepted that the claim was arguable but submitted that publication would be harmful to the operational effectiveness of UKSF. In particular he argued that publication would harm morale and would damage relations between the UKSF and other states.

Mrs Justice Steyn found that, by virtue of signing the contract, Mr Craighead had qualified his Article 10 rights in two respects: first, he had to seek permission to publish (this was agreed); second the weight to be lent to his Article 10 rights, when considering the lawfulness of any refusal to publish, was diminished.

Given the gravity of the harm that the Secretary of State argued would follow from publication, the Judge found that a “precautionary approach” was justified: the decision to refuse permission to publish was a proportionate interference with Mr Craighead’s freedom of expression.

The hearing was held in private because of the sensitivity attaching to the Secretary of State’s evidence. As well as the open judgment, the Judge prepared a Confidential Schedule addressing matters that could not be addressed in public.

FFS…there is nothing classified about what he did. It was all open source. This stinks of bureaucratic mindlessness and spite.

That is from 2023, and it still has not been approved for publication in the UK.

The MoD claims that Craighead’s book contains an alleged breach of a confidentiality contract that he had freely signed on joining the UK’s special forces.

An interim injunction was issued this month, with government barristers returning to the high court on Thursday to ask for it to be extended until the legal claim is resolved.

Oliver Sanders KC, for the MoD, told the court in London the claim that Craighead had breached the contract was “straightforward and really unarguable”.

The book has been published in the US but Sanders said that this was not relevant because “the only reason it is available overseas is through the defendant’s own wrongdoing”.

The good news is the USA fought for its independence from the UK, so his book, One Man In: The Explosive Firsthand Account of the Lone Special-Ops Commando Who Fought Off a Major Terrorist Attack in Kenya, was published here last month.

Craighead, however, is still under considerable legal jeopardy for publishing it.

His American publisher, Simon & Schuster, is largely protected. America’s First Amendment protections and a law called the SPEECH Act make foreign libel judgments or censorship orders (like a British MOD injunction) unenforceable in US courts unless they pass strict American constitutional standards.

Freedom wins.

Is Craighead in the UK now, or has he moved over here? What will happen to him should he return to the UK?

No idea…but what I do know is that the SAS develops unique men.

In Kenya and against bureaucratic pig-headedness and envy—Fullbore.

h/t W.

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