Group 13

hit squad

Group 13
Formation	1975
Purpose/focus	deniable covert assassination
Type	hit squad
Interests	assassination
Rumoured to be a secret cadre of UK ex-SAS and military intelligence operatives

Group 13 is an alleged UK-based hit squad.

Official narrative

No, never, of course the UK doesn't have an assassination team. Like torture, the idea is anathema to British justice.

Problems

The USA - and a bunch of other countries - have had and continue to have hit squads. Checking the factual record has revealed that leaders are not always honest in their pronouncements, and those who attempt to dismiss suggestions out of hand, as if certain ideas were unthinkable, often have the most to hide.

Members

Gerald James writes that Stephan Adolphus Kock "in his more active days, had been head of Group 13."

In 2011, Trowbridge Ford described the constitution of group in the mid 1980s as follows: "Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee Percy Craddock, former SIS Chief Sir Colin Figures, current chief Christopher Curwen, his deputy Colin McColl, Defence Intelligence Staff Chief Derek Boorman, DIS Director General for Management and Support of Intelligence Vice Admiral John Kerr, DGSS Anthony Duff, DDGSS Patrick Walker, G Branch Director John Deverell, Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong, and Sovbloc operatives Gordon Barrass, Harry Burke and Gerry Warner".

Activities

Group 13 is rumoured to be a secret cadre of ex-SAS and military intelligence operatives. Its remit is said to involve State-sponsored, deniable covert actions such as assassinations. It is thought to be run through the (a select few members of?) Foreign Office, MI5 and/or MI6. Group 13 have been speculatively linked to various controversial incidents such as:

• the 1984 murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan EmbassyTemplate:Cn
• the 1986 assassination of Olof Palme
• the 1990 assassination of Gerald BullTemplate:Cn
• the 2003 assassination of Dr David Kelly