Report: British ‘Diplomat’ in Libya Was MI6

Botched SAS Mission Embarrasses Hague

The unnamed “junior diplomat” that the British government deployed to Eastern Libya over the weekend in a failed mission with several SAS soldiers was, according to media reports, not a diplomat but a member of the MI6.

The reports suggest that the MI6 agent was, as the previous story indicated, there to make contact with the rebel faction, and was to lay out a plan to allow actual diplomats to deploy to East Libya formally.

The troops were quickly captured by a militia loyal to the East Libyan rebel faction and, after being brought before the leadership and spent the weekend in a military brig. They were expelled on Sunday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has been distancing himself from the fiasco since then, and Foreign Secretary William Hague is said to accept “full responsiblity” for the mission, though he insisted he was blameless for its failure. The move has seriously embarrassed Hague.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.