John McAleese

John McAleese, who died on August 26 aged 61, led the SAS team that ended the Iranian embassy siege in central London in 1980, an event watched live on television by millions of spellbound viewers.












The SAS storming the Iranian embassy on May 5 1980.













John McAleese

The embassy, at 16 Princes Gate, Knightsbridge, had been taken over on April 30 1980 by six separatists from the oil-rich region in west Iran known as Arabistan. For six days, armed with machine guns, pistols and grenades, they held 26 people hostage as they demanded international recognition for their demands for independence.

Margaret Thatcher’s government was adamant that it would not make deals with terrorists, and as tense negotiations with the separatists continued, police surrounded the 56-room, five-storey building.

At the same time, an SAS team was assembled to launch a possible assault on the embassy under the code name Operation Nimrod.

Some 60 troops of 22 Special Air Service Regiment 56, among them then Lance-Corporal John McAleese, drove from their base in Herefordshire. They were equipped with ladders, climbing ropes and battering rams, as well as with machine guns, grenades and gas-canister launchers.

A few doors along from the embassy, the Royal School of Needlework was meticulously examined by one of the SAS soldiers, Stuart MacVicar (known as “Squash Ball” for his compact physique), because its layout was identical to that of the embassy.

Microphones were drilled into the embassy walls; commercial aircraft flying overhead were ordered to travel at lower altitudes, to drown out any suspicious noises caused by the preparations for an assault.

Meanwhile, the soldiers studied long-lens photographs, taken through the embassy windows, of the hostages in the hope that they would be able to distinguish them from their captors.

Then, on the evening of May 5, a team led by McAleese stormed the building. The assault had been ordered by the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, after the terrorists killed a hostage and threw his body outside the building.

For the first time, an SAS operation was shown live on television as both ITV and the BBC (which interrupted its coverage of the final of the world snooker championships) broadcast footage of black-clad troops in balaclavas — among them McAleese — abseiling down ropes on to the balconies on the first floor of the embassy, where it was thought that most of the hostages were being held.

In order to disorientate the terrorists, the SAS first exploded a so-called “distraction” charge, which they had lowered through a skylight.

The front window of the room were blown out by McAleese and CS gas canisters fired in through the gap. The soldiers then stormed in amid a hail of gunfire.

The raid lasted 17 minutes. All but one of the hostages were rescued. Five of the terrorists were killed; the only one to survive, Fowzi Nejad, was sent to prison — he was released in 2008.

Returning after the assault to their temporary London quarters at Regent’s Park Barracks, the SAS team was visited by the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who told them: “Makes us proud to be British.” McAleese later said: “We knew what our mission was — it was to release the hostages. My only job at this point is to get on to the balcony, place the charge, get back, blow it, turn around and go back in through the window.”

John McAleese was a Scot, originally from Laurieston, in Stirlingshire, and served in the Army for 23 years, including 17 in the SAS. He was awarded a Military Medal in 1988 for his service in Northern Ireland. After leaving, he worked as a security consultant in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had a brief media career as a host of the 2003 BBC series SAS: Are You Tough Enough?, a documentary in which members of the public experienced the proverbially gruelling SAS selection process.

He also acted as an instructor in Airsoft, the outdoor game which offers people a taste of what it is like to experience battle conditions. Participants dressed in combat gear and carrying real weapons (loaded with plastic BB pellets) mimic close-quarter modern infantry fighting.

McAleese said: “You might as well make it realistic. People read books about this SAS stuff and now they can do something similar.”

The last two years of McAleese’s life were marked by the death of his son, 29-year-old Sergeant Paul McAleese, who was serving in the 2nd Battalion the Rifles and hoped to join the special forces like his father before him. Paul was killed by an explosion in Afghanistan on August 20 2009 while attempting to rescue a wounded comrade.

After his son’s death, John McAleese appealed to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for better resources for the troops serving in Helmand province. He said that his son had complained that there were not enough troops in Afghanistan to monitor areas for explosive devices.

John McAleese, who died in Thessaloniki, Greece, is thought to have suffered a heart attack.

As well as his son Paul, he had a daughter with his first wife. He also had a daughter and a son by his second marriage.

Headteacher's Killer Back In Jail

The widow of murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence told last night of her anguish after learning his freed killer had been returned to jail to protect the public after an alleged robbery.











Widow Frances Lawrence holds a picture of her husband Philip who was killed.

Learco Chindamo was arrested just four months after he was released from prison and controversially all­ow­ed to stay in Britain after successfully fighting a deportation bid.

Shocked Frances Lawrence described the incident as “very, very distressing on many levels”.

At her home in Ham, west London, she said: “I can’t understand why Chindamo was in a position to do what he allegedly did when he is supposed to be on licence.

“He always swore he would spend his life living quietly and atoning. I understood he was supposed to be in rehabilitation.”

Detectives detained Chindamo, 30, on Wednesday at his home in south London after studying CCTV footage following the mugging of man at a cashpoint in Camden, north London.

An inquiry is expected to be launched into the monitoring of the killer who has been staying in a hostel in Catford, south London, since his release in July after serving 14 years for the knife murder of Mr Lawrence.

The arrest will raise fresh questions about the watch kept on offenders released back into communities.

It will also put pressure on David Cameron to honour a pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act.

At an immigration tribunal in 2007 the Home Office warned that Chindamo “represents a genuine and present and sufficiently serious threat to the public in principle as to justify his deportation”.

But a judge ruled he could not be deported to Italy, where he lived until the age of five, because it would breach his human rights.

At the time, Mr Cameron said the Act “has to go”, saying: “Abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.

“The fact that the murderer of Phil­ip Lawrence can’t be deported flies in the face of common sense. What about the rights of Mrs Lawrence?’’

The Bill of Rights was a key part of the Conservative election manifesto. But the Coalition so far has committed only to setting up a commission to review the legislation.

Chindamo was jailed indefinitely for the murder of father-of-four Mr Lawrence outside St George’s Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, West London, in 1995.

The 48-year-old was stabbed after going to help a pupil who was attacked by a gang. Among the attackers was Chindamo, then 15.

The killer vowed to live “quietly and decently” when he moved to a secure probation hostel after his release.

Police Numbers 'Will Reduce In Line With Risk'

Acting Commissioner of the Met Police Tim Godwin says he is negotiating with London Mayor Boris Johnson over officer numbers.



Speaking alongside the Mayor of London after a Cobra meeting this morning, the Police Commissioner said he would start to reduce numbers of officers on the street "as and when we see the risk go down".

He added that hundreds of thousands of young people did not engage in rioting that affected London and parts of England and warned against demonising all teenagers.

Parliament Recalled To Tackle Riots - David Cameron

Parliament will be recalled on Thursday in response to rioting in England, prime minister David Cameron has said.



The government's emergency committee Cobra met on Tuesday after rioting spread across London, with violence flaring in other major cities.

The Metropolitan Police has cancelled all leave, with more than 16,000 officers due on London's streets later.

The force says it is considering the use of plastic bullets - never before fired to deal with riots in England.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen Kavanagh said their use would be "considered carefully" but added: "That does not mean we are scared of using any tactic."

Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin had earlier ruled out calling in the Army.

Meanwhile, Scotland Yard said a 26-year-old man found shot in a car in Croydon, amid rioting in the south London town, had died in hospital.

Mr Cameron met officers in the Met Police's Gold command in Lambeth on Tuesday afternoon, before speaking to emergency service personnel in Croydon.

He condemned the "sickening scenes of people looting, vandalising, thieving, robbing", which the Met Police said had resulted in 525 arrests and more than 100 people being charged.

He told rioters: "You will feel the full force of the law. And if you are old enough to commit these crimes, you are old enough to face the punishment."

'Copycat crime'

The recall of Parliament will allow MPs to "stand together in condemnation of these crimes and to stand together in determination to rebuild these communities", he said.

The prime minister returned early from his holiday in Tuscany to discuss the unrest, which first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of a man by police.

London has seen a wave of "copycat criminal activity" over the past three days, the Met Police said. More than 69 people have been charged with various offences following hundreds of arrests.

Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol are among the other cities where violence broke out.










Shops have been looted across the capital

In other developments:

* Three people are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder after a police officer was injured by a car in Wembley, north-west London, while trying to stop suspected looters

* Part of London's Tramlink between has been suspended as a result of a fire

* Elsewhere, 138 people have been arrested in Birmingham after scores of youths smashed windows and looted shops in the shopping area

* West Midlands Police said a police station in Holyhead Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, was set alight

* Up to 200 youths with masks roamed through Toxteth in Liverpool, while Bristol police said they dealt with outbreaks of disorder involving about 150 people

* A Nottinghamshire police station was attacked in the St Ann's area and 200 tyres were set alight in the street

* Police dealt with "small pockets of disorder" in the Chapeltown area of Leeds

Monday's violence started in Hackney, north London, after a man was stopped and searched by police, who found nothing.

Groups of people there began attacking officers in Hackney at about 16:20 BST, throwing stones and a bin.
Wooden poles

Police cars were wrecked by youths armed with wooden poles and metal bars, while looters smashed their way into shops before police dispersed them.

Nine other forces are supporting the Metropolitan Police, as well as the City of London Police and British Transport Police.

Special constables and community support officers will also swell the ranks to ensure more than five times the usual number of officers for a Tuesday will be on duty.

Some people had complained there were too few police to deal with the violence.



















The Met said Monday's was "the worst" disorder in "current memory" after incidents across the capital.

* Several fires broke out in Croydon, including one at a sofa factory which spread to neighbouring buildings and tram lines

* Hackney MP Diane Abbott said a London-wide curfew should be considered after 200 riot officers with dogs and mounted police were needed to deal with violence there

* Looters raided shops in Stratford High Street and Clapham Junction, where police used armoured vehicles to push back more than 150 people

* A Sony warehouse in Enfield, a shopping centre in Woolwich New Road and a timber yard in East Ham were all on fire

* Police said two officers were injured when more than 100 people looted a Tesco store in Bethnal Green, while vehicles were set alight in Lewisham and Peckham

* There were reports of looting of phone shops in Woolwich High Street, in south-east London, and set a police car on fire

* Shops and restaurants were damaged in Ealing, west London

* Tuesday's Carling Cup matches at Charlton, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Bristol City have been postponed at the police's request

* England and Holland's friendly at Wembley on Wednesday was also called off has also been called off

Hackney resident Catherine Holmes said: "Our community has been hurt and damaged by causeless violence. We spoke to looters trying to get home - the only explanation they gave for their behaviour was that they had no money."

'War zone'

Christian Potts, 29, described Ealing as "like a war zone".

"There were about 25 to 30 masked youths on Haven Green and they just started tearing into a florist with bricks. It's a local family-run business so I can't see why they are doing this."

London's mayor Boris Johnson cut short his holiday to return to the city, while Home Secretary Theresa May did the same to meet Met chiefs.

"These have been the worst scenes of violence and disturbance on our streets for many, many years, and this sort of violence, this level of criminality, this thuggery, this looting, this theft, is completely unacceptable," Ms May told BBC Breakfast.

However, she said the authorities could deal with the situation through robust policing, good use of intelligence and with the support of local communities.

She called on anyone involved in the violence to speak to police.

The trouble follows two nights of violence over the weekend which started after police shot a man dead in Tottenham.

A peaceful protest in Tottenham on Saturday over the death of Mark Duggan, 29, was followed by violence which spread into this week.

From Enfield To Brixton Via Blackberry: London Riots Day Two Roundup

As the authorities struggled to explain how they would prevent more trouble and residents expressed anger at the destruction, BlackBerry emerged as the looters' message system of choice.















A damaged police vehicle is pictured in Enfield, north London, following a second night of disturbances in London, on August 8, 2011.

Police chiefs and political leaders have been struggling to account for a second night of violence and looting in London, much of which appeared to have been organised.

Politicians were facing criticism for being slow to respond, with the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, the home secretary and the London mayor all on holiday at the weekend.

A second night of violence on Sunday was far more widespread and sporadic than Saturday, with looting and vandalism reported in Enfield and Walthamstow in north-east London, Islington in north London, Brixton in the south, and Oxford Circus in central London.

Far from the initial spark of violence in Tottenham, trouble spread to Brixton in south London – the scene of seminal riots in 1981 but today a much calmer, more diverse neighbourhood with an influx of home-owning middle classes priced out of more fashionable areas nearby.

An earlier festival had passed off without incident. But late in the evening, according to Guardian reporter Matthew Taylor, the mood altered.

The situation and atmosphere changed very quickly and there were reports from some witnesses that the group had arrived together on buses and in cars, but I can not confirm this.

Police appeared unprepared for the clashes and over the next three hours shops along the High Street were smashed and looted.

Men, women and teenagers helped themselves to goods and cash from H&M, Vodafone, McDonalds and T-Mobile, while a major fire took hold in Footlocker.

People were carrying armfuls of clothes and shoes and passing them to friends in cars, carrying them away balanced precariously on the back of scooters or on foot. Although the police had gathered in a nearby side street they did not intervene for more than an hour.













Debris outside a Foot Locker store in Brixton after it was broken into by looters.

The Metropolitan police, already struggling under criticism over the phone-hacking scandal that cost the job of its chief officer, appeared on the back foot, lacking the weight of numbers to deal adequately with a disparate and unpredictable threat.

The Met said Twitter users could be prosecuted for incitement to violence. Tim Godwin, the acting chief constable, described the looting as "opportunistic" and promised a "robust" response.

We will make sure that the stuff that we have seen come off the back of this – which is pure criminality, opportunistic criminality – is dealt with firmly and robustly.

But while the police promised to track down those who it believed had incited the violence on Twitter, it emerged that much of the planning took place in the relatively private world of the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service. The Guardian's Paul Lewis got hold of the message that urged people to Oxford Circus.

This is the full text of the message:

Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O

Dead the ends and colour war for now so
if you see a brother... SALUT!
if you see a fed... SHOOT!

We need more MAN then feds so Everyone run wild, all of london and others are invited! Pure terror and havoc & Free stuff....just smash shop windows and cart out da stuff u want! Oxford Circus!!!!! 9pm, we don't need pussyhole feds to run the streets and put our brothers in jail so tool up,
its a free world so have fun running wild shopping;)

Oxford Circus 9pm if u see a fed stopping a brother JUMP IN!!! EVERYONE JUMP IN niggers will be lurking about, all blacked out we strike at 9:15pm-9:30pm, make sure ur there see you there. REMEMBA DA LOCATION!!! OXFORD CIRCUS!!!

MUST REBROADCAST TO ALL CONTACTS!!!"

The Guardian's media and technology correspondent, Josh Halliday, explained the favour of BlackBerry Messenger.

Using BlackBerry handsets – the smartphone of choice for the majority (37%) of British teens, according to last week's Ofcom study – BBM allows users to send one-to-many messages to their network of contacts, who are connected by "BBM PINs".

And unlike Twitter or Facebook, many BBM messages are untraceable by the authorities (which is why, in large part, BBM is so favoured by Emirati teens to spread illicit gossip about officialdom).

Perhaps fearful of the negative impact of being associated with the "Blackberry Riots", the smartphone company felt compelled to issue a (Twitter) statement saying it was assisting the police with their inquiries.

Meanwhile, as businesses and residents began the clear-up, people caught up in the violence expressed their anger and frustration. David Lawrence, who works with youth organisations in north London, said in a blog post for Comment is Free that he was "embarassed" to live in Tottenham.

I know people who have lost everything they ever owned because their homes were burned down over the weekend. I know people who have worked hard to create successful businesses and now have nothing to show for it. I know people who should be working today, but can't because their workplace no longer exists.

Among the most dramatic images to emerge from Saturday night's rioting was the burnt-out shell of the Carpet Right store in Tottenham.













In Tottenham, firefighters survey the burnt out shell of a carpet showroom on Tottenham High Road.

The discount chain was founded by the Tory peer Lord Harris of Peckham in 1988. He has been on the BBC's World at One programme on Radio 4, and promised to help the "working class" people whose homes above his store had been destroyed by the fire.

My real sympathies are with all those people in the flats above me who are working class – and I don't mean that rudely – that have got nothing. They have only got the clothes they are in. The only thing I can say is that I'm pleased they all got out safely, because they could all have been killed.

I want to try to help them. I have asked my PR company to find out their names and see if we can get in touch with them, meet them and see if I can help in any way – give them money, or help them with clothes. I feel very, very sorry for them.

The catalyst for the weekend rioting was the shooting of a Tottenham man, Mark Duggan, on Thursday night. The investigation is being conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which responded to suggestions that it hasn't had enough contact with Duggan's family. The language appeared critical of the Met.

In the statement, the IPCC commissioner who is overseeing the independent investigation into Mark Duggan's death, Rachel Cerfontyne, said:

I am aware of various media reports suggesting that we have not had adequate contact with Mr Duggan's family since his death. Following my meeting with the family yesterday (Sunday) I am very clear that their concerns were not about lack of contact or support from the IPCC. Their concerns were about lack of contact from the police in delivering news of his death to Mark's parents.

It is never the responsibility of the IPCC to deliver a message regarding someone's death and I have told Mr Duggan's family that I would be addressing this issue with the Met and that, if necessary, this would become part of our investigation.

The voice of police officers involved in holding the line during these disturbances is rarely heard. But now, thanks to the ease with which anyone can publish their own accounts, we learn a little more about the thinking of rank-and-file officers.

A Twitter user going by the pseudonym of InspectorWinter, who describes himself as a "law enforcement officer" in his mid 30s, has written up a detailed blog post of his experiences policing the riots in north London last night.

Often it's hard to verify these anonymous accounts, but this user's feed has thousands of entries dating back months and appears authoritative. In a long and thoughtful post he writes of trying to comfort a shop owner whose livelihood has gone up in flames:

I simply do not know what to say to him ... it's genuinely heartbreaking. I do something I find myself doing a lot over the next few hours, telling him I'm sorry and then giving him a manly hug with a pat on the back. Helmet back on and we're off somewhere else.

He goes on to talk of his frustration at not being able to prevent the lawlessness:

I have never experienced looting of this scale, the wholesale sacking of shops is taking place, we know it is taking place and there is nothing we can do about it, a couple of the more hardcore members of my team want to "blat round and stop it", we're outnumbered, we're encumbered by protective equipment and we're drained. If we go blundering into this kind of situation we'll do more harm than good.

And he wanted to stress that most police officers understand the frustrations of the community over the shooting in Tottenham on Thursday.

The traditional, stereotypical, image of a public order police officer is that of some knuckle dragging man mountain who's main skill in life is being able to knock a door down in one hit. As I survey the people around me, none of them fit that. They're all reasonably intelligent, in the van there have been long discussions on what the cause of this is. We can understand the anger of the community over the shooting of Mark Duggan by armed police, we know that they want answers.

But we also know that at times the investigative process is painfully slow, waiting for forensics to come back can take a while, the laborious process of locating witness and then taking statements, tracking down CCTV and seizing copies of it, then reviewing it. All of these things are hard enough for us, let alone the IPCC, and I have very little idea of the size of their investigative teams, but I can't imagine they are that large

Inevitably, crisis breeds creativity. This time-lapse video, uploaded to YouTube, shows in dramatic fashion how the fires spread in Tottenham on Saturday night and into Sunday morning.

Meanwhile the family of the man whose death is at the centre of the worst riots in London since the 1980s believe the media has "twisted" the truth about him. The Guardian's Patrick Barkham found them in their garden, discussing the traumatic events of the past five days. Bouquets have been laid outside.

Unsurprisingly they don't want to speak to the media, who they blame for 'twisting the truth' and telling 'all these lies' about Mark. 'He was a good man. He was a family man,' insists one relative.

Some members of the family want to try to put out a positive message but others are grieving and angered by the coverage in some tabloids. So it is time to leave them in peace. Whether Tottenham will have a peaceful night tonight remains to be seen. A police helicopter is hovering over the high road, where some residents are still without electricity after the riots on Saturday night.