Ex-SAS men are written off by enemy within By Alistair McQueen

VETERAN SAS soldiers, banned from their old bases for their role in the recent wave of books and television programmes about the regiment, claim that they are being blackballed by employers.

Many of the men who broke the SAS rule of silence believe an unofficial blacklist is stopping them getting jobs in the lucrative but shadowy private security industry.

"My telephone has simply stopped ringing," said one of those involved in last year's Carlton television series SAS - The Soldiers' Story. Another of the men said: "I have lost a job. I even had my start date and was waiting for the contract and plane tickets to come through the post. Then I got a phone call to say they didn't want me."

He believes the word has gone out from serving officers to former colleagues now working in the private sector to punish men who revealed the regiment's military exploits. "You must remember that these companies are either owned and run by ex-SAS officers or else they have a lot of ex-SAS officers working for them. Our friends still serving have told us that some officers and senior people have suggested we should be ostracised," he said.

Former members of the regiment can earn up to £1,000 a week working for private firms with contracts with foreign governments or multi-national companies. They often help to set up special forces units along SAS lines and counter-terrorist teams. British businessmen operating in dangerous areas of the world also use them.

Last week General Sir Peter de la Billière, commander of British forces in the Gulf war, and Brigadier Andrew Massie, the senior SAS officer in the Gulf conflict, were banned from UK special forces bases by the Ministry of Defence.

The general wrote two best-sellers - both given security clearance by the MoD - giving details of SAS operations in the Gulf. He is being blamed for triggering a flood of so-called SAS books. A senior SAS source said yesterday: "General de la Billière and Andy Massie have been excluded for doing the same as the sergeants and corporals who wrote books - they crossed the line. Now, like the others, they have to live with that."

© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1997.