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Gen Hague and the great Tripoli evacuation cock-up
The Mole: Not Britain’s finest hour – and why didn’t Cameron give up his plane to the rescue mission?
Foreign Secretary William Hague faces a grilling by the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee over the fiasco of Britain's efforts to rescue its trapped nationals from Tripoli. While the Turks managed to send ferries across the Mediterranean and evacuate 3,000 people from Benghazi on Wednesday morning, the Brits only managed to get their first plane into Libya this morning.
David Cameron has been forced to apologise and Hague has announced his own inquiry into the cock-up. But that appears to be a ploy just to take the heat off himself.
The Foreign Affairs Committee's Tory chairman, Richard Ottoway, is not blaming General Hague for the delays in mounting the rescue mission, saying it was a "fast moving scene" and the Foreign Secretary should not be criticised.
But Ottoway won't be able to control the Labour MPs and the Mole hears they are gearing up to give Hague a pasting when he appears before them on March 16.
They will have some searching questions for General Hague – and the Mole can list a few:
We have a warship in the area - HMS Cumberland - which is armed and ready to defend itself. But why did the Navy decide not to send it in to Libya's second city Benghazi where at least 100 Britons are said to be trapped?
Why did the Foreign Office not react more quickly before dispatching a second plane when it found that its charter jet was stranded at Gatwick because of a break-down due to technical difficulties? Was it due to the cuts in public spending?
And why was there hesitation about dispatching an RAF Hercules from Malta? The Ministry of Defence said it abandoned the plan over fears that Gaddafi would see it as a prelude to an invasion. But there are suspicions that the RAF was worried about overstretching its resources when its main focus is on Afghanistan - is that true?
The Cobra crisis group, normally convened to handle emergencies, did not meet until this morning. Why not?
While General Hague dithered, Turkey sent ferries and the Portuguese sent in a flight, as did the French, Germans, Russians, Bulgarians and the Dutch.
Britain's humiliating response was highlighted when a Scottish oil worker telephoned the BBC Radio 4 Today programme on his mobile to ask for help. He was stuck in the desert with 90 British workers and they were living in "daily fear of our lives" while the Foreign Office was doing nothing to get them out. Why should Brits in trouble have to ring the BBC to get the Foreign Secretary to act?
The whole episode is a sorry reflection on Britain's record in north Africa, especially as Libya includes Tobruk, the Libyan port retaken from Rommel's army by the Desert Rats in 1942 after the battle of El Alamein under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. It is not difficult to imagine what Monty would have said about General Hague's efforts today.
Meanwhile, David Cameron continues flying around the region in a prime ministerial jet with 30 business executives and a pack of Lobby journalists on board.
The Foreign Affairs committee might wish to ask Hague why the PM did not drop off the businessmen at the nearest safe airport and fly his own mercy mission to rescue the stranded Brits? No doubt his new strategy team will have advised him on health and safety grounds it was too dangerous - but do they really think Tony Blair would have hesitated?
Little wonder bookmakers William Hill have this morning reduced the odds on Hague ceasing to be Foreign Secretary by the end of March from 50-1 to 20-1. ·
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For a welcome mat in Saudi Arabia try the Australian Embassy for charm. During the time I was working in the KSA, I was never contacted with 'essential news' or an invitation to an event; not even an Orstraya Day prawn throwing on the barbeque extravaganza. In Vietnam, the pinnacle of activity reached by these clowns was a Friday night beer and Foster's sizzle for which Orstrayans had to pay $40. Please!
I have the impression that the Foreign Office do not have contingency plans for all realistic scenarios.
Money is not the point - intent is.
The UK is totally humiliated by this failure in comparison to the other countries involved.
Were we too scared to go in, or too incompetent ?
This would not be the first occasion the Foreign Office sat back and drank some tea while others got on with the job. This honourable tradition of doing nothing - not so much the FO as 'FA' - is well known to any British expat. I think they must get lessons in shoulder shrugging from the French! Hague is simply a victim of officials
This is hardly the first cock-up by the Foreign Office in similar circumstances. Their initial reaction to the Tsunami in Sri Lanka etc was pathetic. After Hurricane Katrina they dithered waiting for official permission from the US Government to enter New Orleans while UK citizens needed help. And remember the old foreign aircraft they leased for Tony Blair's trip to South Africa which left him stranded for 24 hours at great embarrassment when it broke down.
You would think that with the Egyptian revolution just days before things kicked off with Libya that the British Government would have had plenty of practise at what to do and what not to do when evacuating British nationals. I live in Egypt and what is happening in Libya regarding evacuations happened here as well. The Embassy were worse than useless - you could not get hold of anyone or were put on hold when you did. I am registered with LOCATE so my contact details are on record. I did get 2 emails sent to me on Saturday 29th January. This was really usefull seeing that the internet was cut on the evening of the 27th and was not reconnected until the1st February. There were problems with mobile phones but landlines were working. I only know of one person that was contacted by a warden on the British Embassy and not everyone was even contacted by email. it was very hard to get reliable information during this time.
The government did charter a couple of flights but the cost of a ticket was £300 one way. Don't forget the banks weren't working and places were not accpeting credit cards.
Fortunately the situation here in Egypt was at no time as dire as that in Libya at the moment. Like here in Egypt many other countries have been quick to evacuate their citizens whilst the British Government have just made another mess of things. Don't they learn from their mistakes?
This doesn't surprise me at all. We were left in Cairo to fend for ourselves during the recent revolution. The British Embassy here is a disgrace. They are great at getting all dressed up to attend Queen's Birthday Balls, Presidential Dinners etc, but when it came to looking after British Nationals I am afraid they did nothing. We all register with 'Locate'. a FO website that is there to keep you informed in times of crisis. They also have our emails, phone numbers and addresses. So in our time of crisis you would imagine that they were straight on the phone...well, we never got a single phonecall, a single email and no personal visit. Our attempts to phone the Embassy met with a continuous ringing tone with no answer even after phoning repeatedly. We are not alone either, many of our fellow ex-pats never received any information from the Embassy/FO and they too are disgusted by this. Our son (29) was taken off his works bus and blindfolded and tied up for 36 hours by the army and the National security police, just because he had a British Passport as his ID. We couldn't contact the Embassy for help as they never answered the phone. There was no internet so we couldn't email anyone. Because of this and many other similar incidents that the British ex-pats went through, I and many others call for the resignation of the British Ambassador in Egypt and many of his staff, most of which were on the first flights out of here. God help the ex-pats in Libya if their Embassy is as incompetent as ours was. The foreign office should be ashamed of themselves as should Cameron and his cronies.
Surprised at the U.K.'s slow evacuation of it's citizens .. Come on, We supply Libya with the guns, train their 'security' forces, it's the least we can do to provide their target practice too.
Vague in name and nature.