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Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes
Keenie Meenie Services - the most powerful mercenary company you've never heard of - was involved in war crimes around the world from Sri Lanka to Nicaragua for which its shadowy directors have never been held accountable.
Like its mysterious name, Keenie Meenie Services escaped definition and to this day has evaded sanctions. Now explosive new evidence - only recently declassified - exposes the extent of these war crimes, and the British government's tacit support for the company's operations. Including testimonies from SAS veterans, spy chiefs and diplomats, we hear from key figures battle-hardened by the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Iranian Embassy siege. Investigative journalist Phil Miller asks, who were these mercenaries: heroes, terrorists, freedom fighters or war criminals?
This book presents the first ever comprehensive case against Keenie Meenie Services, providing long overdue evidence on the crimes of the people who make a killing from killing.
Like its mysterious name, Keenie Meenie Services escaped definition and to this day has evaded sanctions. Now explosive new evidence - only recently declassified - exposes the extent of these war crimes, and the British government's tacit support for the company's operations. Including testimonies from SAS veterans, spy chiefs and diplomats, we hear from key figures battle-hardened by the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Iranian Embassy siege. Investigative journalist Phil Miller asks, who were these mercenaries: heroes, terrorists, freedom fighters or war criminals?
This book presents the first ever comprehensive case against Keenie Meenie Services, providing long overdue evidence on the crimes of the people who make a killing from killing.
352 pages, Paperback
Published January 23, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 7, 2022
Excellent book exposes the ways in which Britain projects its sinister influence to various parts of the world. Compelling reading.
March 25, 2020
A meticulously researched and hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism about war crimes committed in Sri Lanka, Oman and Nicaragua by British mercenaries. The author has done an excellent job of uncovering incriminating documents and interviewing many of the protagonists. There's a slight political bias, but given the scale and severity of the crimes, and the - at times - explicit support of the British government for those who perpetrated them, such a bias is understandable.
May 4, 2021
I’ve given the book three stars as it is a well-researched, interesting, and very readable account of the private military security company Keenie Meenie Services’ (KMS) activities in Oman, Sri Lanka, and Nicaragua, and elsewhere. I only gave three stars because the book has its flaws. Namely, the content is biased and as a result, its conclusions are to a large degree forced.
I’m not defending KMS, I know from personal experience that these companies can and do cross lines, and as they say ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ – it’s no secret that KMS was effectively a deniable tool of UK foreign policy. The problem is that the book is filled with smoke in the form of innuendo, suggestion, assumption, hearsay, amid claims of tenuous links and associations, but little in the way of fire in the form of tangible evidence to support the central thesis that KMS (the ‘British Mercenaries’) carried out or ‘got away with war crimes’ – as opposed to provided security, training, and advice. Given the claim on the front cover of the book that the author is ‘The UK’s most important investigative journalist.’ I find this to be important.
Much of the book is concerned with the UK’s post-colonial cold war foreign policy in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and the operations of those states’ security forces. Miller very rightly highlights atrocities and human rights abuses by some of these actors, but rarely balances this with comments on the atrocities and human rights abuses carried out by their opposition forces. For much of the book, KMS is only mentioned in passing as it conducted legitimate security, training, and advising contracts around the world in support of British foreign policy. Where the author suggests misdeeds he asks questions such as ‘One has to wonder what role KMS played in stoking these initial communal tensions’ and referring to the fact that each Sri Lankan recruit was required to fire 3,000 rounds during their KMS training as ‘a trigger-happy approach’. Similarly, he discusses a Sri Lankan attack in Jaffna where napalm was dropped ‘by planes that KMS helped the Sri Lankan pilots learn how to fly, even if British pilots were not directly involved in this attack’ – although to be fair he does quote the FCO as ‘accepting internally that it was ‘probable’ KMS pilots had ‘taken charge’ of helicopter attacks.’
Similar comments are made regarding an alleged attack against a military target in Nicaragua by KMS on behalf of the Contras (and the US), where Colonel Oliver North, of Iran-contra infamy, was said to have suggested to an associate ‘that his British friend and some of his people have been involved in what I guess you would call sabotage work in Managua.’ Miller claims this ‘would seem to implicate North’s ‘British Friend’ David Walker’ (KMS director).
There’s also a whole section in Chapter seven relating to Afghanistan, in the middle of which is the statement that ‘It has long been rumoured that British mercenaries, and specifically KMS, assisted the Afghan Mujahedeen against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. This terse telegram above [from the Foreign Office stating that it would be unfortunate and unfavourable IF KMS were given a contract in Afghanistan] is, however, the only documentary evidence of this relationship that I have found, and even that is inconclusive at best’. Miller then goes on to discuss a meeting between the CIA’s Afghan chief and a ‘young blonde SAS guerrilla-warfare expert’ and comments that ‘it is conceivable that the visiting CIA man was so wide eyed that he missed nuances about who the SAS men really were, and whether they were serving members of the British army or guns for hire.’ Or not you may ask!
Keenie Meenie is definitely worth a read but with plenty of caution.
I’m not defending KMS, I know from personal experience that these companies can and do cross lines, and as they say ‘there’s no smoke without fire’ – it’s no secret that KMS was effectively a deniable tool of UK foreign policy. The problem is that the book is filled with smoke in the form of innuendo, suggestion, assumption, hearsay, amid claims of tenuous links and associations, but little in the way of fire in the form of tangible evidence to support the central thesis that KMS (the ‘British Mercenaries’) carried out or ‘got away with war crimes’ – as opposed to provided security, training, and advice. Given the claim on the front cover of the book that the author is ‘The UK’s most important investigative journalist.’ I find this to be important.
Much of the book is concerned with the UK’s post-colonial cold war foreign policy in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, and the operations of those states’ security forces. Miller very rightly highlights atrocities and human rights abuses by some of these actors, but rarely balances this with comments on the atrocities and human rights abuses carried out by their opposition forces. For much of the book, KMS is only mentioned in passing as it conducted legitimate security, training, and advising contracts around the world in support of British foreign policy. Where the author suggests misdeeds he asks questions such as ‘One has to wonder what role KMS played in stoking these initial communal tensions’ and referring to the fact that each Sri Lankan recruit was required to fire 3,000 rounds during their KMS training as ‘a trigger-happy approach’. Similarly, he discusses a Sri Lankan attack in Jaffna where napalm was dropped ‘by planes that KMS helped the Sri Lankan pilots learn how to fly, even if British pilots were not directly involved in this attack’ – although to be fair he does quote the FCO as ‘accepting internally that it was ‘probable’ KMS pilots had ‘taken charge’ of helicopter attacks.’
Similar comments are made regarding an alleged attack against a military target in Nicaragua by KMS on behalf of the Contras (and the US), where Colonel Oliver North, of Iran-contra infamy, was said to have suggested to an associate ‘that his British friend and some of his people have been involved in what I guess you would call sabotage work in Managua.’ Miller claims this ‘would seem to implicate North’s ‘British Friend’ David Walker’ (KMS director).
There’s also a whole section in Chapter seven relating to Afghanistan, in the middle of which is the statement that ‘It has long been rumoured that British mercenaries, and specifically KMS, assisted the Afghan Mujahedeen against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. This terse telegram above [from the Foreign Office stating that it would be unfortunate and unfavourable IF KMS were given a contract in Afghanistan] is, however, the only documentary evidence of this relationship that I have found, and even that is inconclusive at best’. Miller then goes on to discuss a meeting between the CIA’s Afghan chief and a ‘young blonde SAS guerrilla-warfare expert’ and comments that ‘it is conceivable that the visiting CIA man was so wide eyed that he missed nuances about who the SAS men really were, and whether they were serving members of the British army or guns for hire.’ Or not you may ask!
Keenie Meenie is definitely worth a read but with plenty of caution.
April 11, 2022
Keenie Meenie obviously represents a huge investment of time and energy by an earnest investigator. The work exists to fill out a sketch of a British private mercenary outfit which has largely evaded scrutiny despite decades of proximity to, and likely participation in, genocidal war crimes committed by authoritarian governments. However, it also functions as a portrait of the UK Foreign Office's arms-length 'plausible denial' strategy when meddling in the former Empire.
June 14, 2020
Keenie Meenie - The Name itself make you curious and kept untold for a long time until the Phil's investigation journalism; This book is my shelf next to Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews