That’s very plausible. However, I still think they should be prosecuted.
Or “plausible deniability” time, even. Sheesh
Ok. Let’s say “mostly respectable” if not actually legal. If they were merely involved in say, information gathering, I wouldn’t have a major issue with that (of course, once they have shot at civilians, they’re fair game and they and people who gave them orders should be held accountable).
I’m mostly OK with that 
I must admit, like you said, I have a hard time picturing British soldiers doing anything other than visual reccie work undercover. I don’t think they can fit in to do infiltration work, which only leaves assassination. Gets me right back to the OP - would this be an isolated incident, or part of an ongoing tactic?
Why can’t they? There are a good number of Britons who are Arab or who might be able to pass for Arab… I don’t know the background of these Marines, but it’s not impossible that they have middle eastern or Pakistani ancestry, is it?
No - we’ve seen the unpixillated pictures on TV. They’re sliced bread white.
I had considered this possibility, but just looking arab, or Pakistani, isn’t enough. They would need too a solid cultural background and an excellent cover-up story. Of course, it’s not completely impossible, but in this case we would be talking about high level spies. So, I figured it was very unlikely.
Anyway, given the last post about them looking european, it’s now a moot point.
“Pass for Arab” and “Pass for Basra local” are not the same thing. Or do you mean they were trying to pass as foreign insurgents? That’s possible, but that would put them firmly in the ranks of “spy” rather than “undercover detective”.
I must differ from tagos and clairobscur, though, in that I’ve seen a few very European-looking Pakistanis. But the general rule is good, I think. No-one would send their most Wonderbread operatives to do undercover work as jihaadis.
I’ve known several Mista’arvim - IDF spoecial-ops troops specializing in undercover work. You’d think that none of them could pass for Arab, but some makeup and the right clothes can make a surprisingly effective disguise.
Why am I getting Team America flashbacks? 
Yes, the hypocrisy has been bothering me all day and I’m glad I found your thread. I’m so glad I’m not the only one!
Well, their disguises weren’t very effective, and it takes a lot more than makeup to disguise shooting up police. Seems a botched job but if unfriendlies dominate the police force as they seem then I can envisage all sorts of scenarios where this may be legit self-defence.
How can we trust an “anonymous source” that stated that they shot up policemen? Does nobody find it strange that they were handed over to a militia, when they’re supposed to be handed back to coalition forces? It sounds more like rent-a-hostage more than anything else, and that’s possibly why they were broken out with force.
I’m not disagreeing. I’m just saying that just because they looked all whitebread, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t have been working undercover. Especiall if they weren’t averse to a bit of cross-dressing.
As to the break-out… maybe the Brits had heard of this incident.
Sounds more Isolated than an ongoing tactic, if it was ongoing then I would imagine that the brits would have a mike force standing by , incase something went south ,to extract the two sheep dipped individuals.
So you have a situation in Basra , where local intel operatives have knowledge of some terrorist honcho that everyone wants dead , but he or she is deep in civillian crowds making a standard sweep a massacre if force was used , or the target doing a rabbit if the troops sortie.
So if those two troops did have a native guide , but sorta lost him , then they could have been led to the target where they kill him or her.
Other wise , it makes more sense to dress em up with CNN on the back and give em a camera and do the same thing.
Declan
From Today’s Letter Page in the Guardian:
• Why the fuss about the treatment of the British special forces soldiers captured by Iraqi police? According to George Bush a soldier not in uniform is an illegal combatant and therefore not entitled to the protection of the Geneva convention. Tony Blair sees nothing wrong with this and locking up people in Guantánamo Bay, so why shouldn’t the Iraqis hand over such illegal combatants to their own equivalent?
Dave Goodwin
Sticklepath, Devon
• I am aware of the term “undercover police”, but am surprised to hear of “undercover soldiers”. During the second world war such people were called spies, and were usually shot if captured.
Nigel Smith
London
Unless their side rescued them first.
Yeah. I mean, if spying is so bad, why don’t we shoot our own spies and save the enemy the trouble?
The point is that spies aren’t protected by the geneva convention. If a spy violates the law of the country they are spying on the are subject to prosection by the capturing country. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t use spies, or that spies deserve death. If I parachute into Germany the Nazis are going to shoot me if they catch me. But have I done something immoral?
A spy only does something immoral if they betray their own country, and sometimes not even then, a german who spied against the Nazis in WWII wasn’t immoral. Doesn’t mean that the Nazis wouldn’t shoot him if they discovered him, but it does mean that OUR SIDE wouldn’t have shot him for spying on Germany. :rolleyes:
So, all those people in the Guantanamo Gulag have done nothing immoral. That solves the problem and they can be tried unde the laws of the USA or released immediately. It’s nice to see how things can be so simple. :rolleyes:
Under your description, the British forces should have let the Iraqis try them Oh No. I forgot we are not at war with them. We just attacked the facilities of our ‘allies’. Kind of indicates that we are not allies but an occupying force- have you seen that the government in Southern Iraq is now refusing cooperation to British forces.
An Iraqi judge has just issued a warrant for the arrest of two British soldiers involved in the recent incident. He wants to investigate their part in the shooting of Iraqi civilians. No cite yet- live news on BBC News 24