Worth a read: FRR / Special Reconnaissance Regiment

[Jan Klimkowski]

This is all from 2005, so fwiw:

Prof Michael Clarke, a very mainstream and connnected source:

BBC News

One terrorism expert said if the shooting was carried out by police - rather than special forces - it would represent a "pretty big departure" for the UK force.

Professor Michael Clarke, professor of defence studies at King's College London, said the officers who carried out the operation in south London were unlikely to be police.

'Head shot'

"These guys may have been some sort of plain clothes special forces," he said.

"To have bullets pumped into him like this suggests quite a lot about him and what the authorities, whoever they are, assumed about him.


I have just had one phone call saying, 'what if I was carrying a rucksack?'
Inayat Bunglawala, Muslim Council of Britain

"The fact that he was shot in this way strongly suggests that it was someone the authorities knew and suspected he was carrying explosives on him."

He added: "You don't shoot somebody five times if you think you might have made a mistake and may be able to arrest him."

Prof Clarke said police officers were not trained to carry out operations in this way.

"Even Special Branch and SO19 (Scotland Yard's armed unit) are not trained to do this sort of thing.

"It's plausible that they were special forces or elements of special forces."

Richard Norton-Taylor, a very well connected reporter:

New special forces unit tailed Brazilian


Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Thursday 4 August 2005 18.28 BST

A new army special forces regiment was involved in the operation that led to the killing of an innocent man at Stockwell tube station in south London last week, the Guardian can reveal.

The Special Reconnaissance Regiment, set up in April to help combat international terrorism, was deployed in the surveillance operation which led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, on July 22, according to Whitehall sources.

The revelation came as Scotland Yard announced the first charges in connection with the terror attacks in London.

Ismael Abdurahman of Kennington, south-east London, will appear before Bow Street magistrates today. He will be charged with having information he knew or believed may be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of another person in the UK for an offence involving the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.

Yesterday Whitehall sources told the Guardian that soldiers of the Special Reconnaisance Regiment, modelled on an undercover unit that operated in Northern Ireland, was engaged in "low-level intelligence behind the scenes" when the Brazilian was shot. There was "no direct military involvement in the shooting", the sources said.

It is believed to be the first time the new regiment was engaged in an operation.

The regiment absorbed 14th Intelligence Company, known as "14 Int", a plainclothes unit set up to gather intelligence covertly on suspect terrorists in Northern Ireland. Its recruits are trained by the SAS.

Geoff Hoon, the then defence secretary, said the unit had been formed to meet a worldwide demand for "special reconnaissance capability".

Mr De Menezes was targeted because he was seen coming out of a three-storey block of nine flats, Corfe House in Tulse Hill, south London, identified as a building linked to the failed July 21 bombers.

He lived on the first floor with his two cousins, Vivian and Patricia.

Mr De Menezes was followed and seen boarding a No 2 bus, heading north towards Stockwell. Boarding with him, it is understood, were several plainclothes officers. Defence sources refuse to comment on suggestions that they may have been members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment.

Other officers followed the bus in vehicles. When it became clear that Stockwell tube was his possible destination, a team of armed police officers in plain clothes were alerted. They fired eight shots at Mr De Menezes at close range after the 27-year-old Brazilian ran on to a tube train.

A senior police officer was running the operation from Scotland Yard's "Gold Command".

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is conducting an inquiry into the shooting. It is certain to include the role of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, and also issues relating to the false identification of the victim, and whether CCTV pictures of the failed bombers were available at the time.

Another question is why the Brazilian - a suspected suicide bomber - was allowed to get on to a London bus when two buses had already been targeted.