Task Force Black

I have acted for members of a Specialist Unit for 20 years.  My clients do not write books and I have never read any of this genre myself. My clients do not appear in newspapers apart from one isolated report which was so unflattering to my clients case that it was obvious that he was not the source of the information.

I was therefore quite curious to read this book. It recounts the exploits of the Unit in what it calls “a secret war in Iraq”.  It was interesting to read in juxtaposition with the Chilcott Inquiry.  It was also interesting for me, advising in military aviation, to read about matters on the ground of which I have no knowledge. 

 It is clear from the Preface that the Author had some legal skirmishes prior to publication. I am not at all surprised.  My overwhelming initial feeling is not – how did this come to be published? But how did the Author have access to all this information?

 My clients have life long duties of confidentiality. An Investigative Journalist self-evidently does not.  These are clever people that they are dealing with and I can only think about they think it’s a good idea for this information to be in the public domain. Whether the families that I represent whose loved ones appear in the book share this feeling I rather doubt.