Was SAS Fantasist Assassinated By the SAS?

In the year 2000 there was an upset at the UK Special Forces club known simply as “the club” to its members. This upset was caused by a fraud going by the name Tom Carew who wrote a book in which he claimed to have served with the SAS and conducted covert operations in his book “Jihad”. His real name is Philip Sessarego and he never served in 22SAS, his real story is much more interesting.

Sessarego was born in the early 1950’s, in his younger years he would visit his uncle who lived in Hereford near the base of the SAS, this was the birth of a fascination that I think led to his death. Upon leaving school he joined the royal artillery with the ambition of joining the elite of the 22nd Special Air Service. As soon as he was eligible he set of as a fit man to take part in the infamous UK Special Forces selection process. During the last week of the endurance phase he injured his knee and was unable to continue. The SAS took pity on him and entered him into the demonstration troop (Goon Troop) who help out with training and odd bits and bobs around the base until he was able to undertake selection again. He was told he would only have to take part in the final test that he failed during endurance week and then he could continue with his SAS training. It’s unclear how or why but he failed this second attempt and he was furious, apparently he had even bought a house near SAS HQ. This failure also led him to leave the army in 1975 at the age of 23.

There is a slight twist to his story of failure and rejection in the SAS apparently mother had moved to Hereford to live near her brother (his uncle) and was having an affair with the Training Wing Sergeant Major. According to Sessarego he became a pawn in a mini-power struggle within the SAS Training Wing as a result and thus made his first enemies within the regiment.

After leaving the army Sessarego was depressed and took time to find his way back onto society. In the late 70’s he met up with Darkie' Davidson, a SAS sergeant who also had enemies in the regiment. The two men got them self’s onto “the Circuit” or working as mercenaries in Sir Lanka. It is also said that he and Davidson were working with US and British intelligence including the Afghan operation Fairfax

In the 1980’s Sessarego was approached by members of the intelligence services to go to help train the Afghan Mujahedeen in his book “Jihad” he makes some rather wild claims such as being actively involved in combat operations against members of Soviet army, fought Spetsnaz and even set up a western training camp and hijacking a passenger jet. It is difficult to gauge how accurate his account of his time in Afghanistan is other than that he was involved in training the Afghans under operation Fairfax and thus was almost definitely working alongside US and British intelligence.

In 1991 he faked his own death claiming to have been killed in a bomb blast in Croatia however was later found to be alive and living under the new name of Philip Stevenson. He would later claim he done this for reasons of national security and his own protection however and that his new identity had been given to him by British Intelligence. It is far more likely he done it to get out of paying maintenance to his wife for his two children. During this time between 1991 and 1994 he was also involved in operation Clover an American intelligence operation to provide support to the governments of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Then in the late 1990’s he started paying attention the likes of Andy McNab who was now making his wealth from selling his account of his time in the SAS. Sessarego attempted to make his millions by writing a book, a book that was riddled with lies about his time in Afghanistan where he made a number of claims about his life in the SAS (which he was never part of) he claimed to be involved in operations in Northern Ireland, Oman and obviously Afghanistan. His book was call Jihad and written under the p pseudonym Tom Carew, The book is said to be 75% true however just about everything he claims about his connections to the SAS is false and it is hard to establish how true is account of his work in Afghanistan is. Interestingly the paperback copy of this book was published on the 10th of September 2001 just one day before the attack on New York (one could suggest he might be part of a conspiracy but I don’t think he was complicit in any such conspiracy). This was his down fall, he began to advertise himself as an expert in Muslim extremism with an ex special forces background when he was neither. He appeared on CNN, BBC and wrote for the daily mail on matter of terrorism he book sales soared to 50 000.

Unfortunately for Sessarego the SAS started to pay attention to him and ex SAS Warrant Officer Ken Connor done some digging and discovered he was a fraud. A Newsnight reporter, George Eykyn got hold of the story and in 2002 and confronted Carew on the show alongside Ken Connor. According to some sources he went mental with anger punched the camera man and told the reporter he had 11 Albanian body guards who shoot first and ask questions later.

Unsurprisingly the attitude of the SAS community was one of disgust, they viewed this as a black mark on the name of the regiment and also feared that it might bring their own accounts of their time in the SAS into question, he had effectively made the regiment an enemy of his. One senior millenary figure said that “'He had more enemies than Osama bin Laden, He was hated by many highly trained special forces men for dragging the name of The Regiment through the mud.

After this, discredited once again, he moved to Belgium where he got involved in dealing in military equipment and then he was involved in the Belgian criminal underworld running protection rackets for nightclubs (some say this may also have involved the illegal sex trade). In 2009 he dead body was found in a garage he was living in officially he had died of Carbon monoxide poisoning however his body was so badly decomposed it was impossible to positive identify him without DNA.

According to his ex wife there were “allot of former SAS men who have scores to settle with him”. A local who knew him was quoted as saying “He was hiding from someone”, and according to the daily mail “Mercenary figures speculate that this is exactly the kind of death that a trained assassin would stage to ensure it was declared an accident”. It’s not even clear he is dead as he has faked his death in the early 1990’s and it is rumoured he had done so in the mid 1990’s when in Africa.

The Guardian news paper made a interesting claim about Sessarego writing a new book about “how Britain secretly armed Croats and Muslims as the former Yugoslavia was about to break up through an arms dealer whom the CIA had suspected of involvement in the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985.”I would say that is motive enough to kill somebody, In the UK there are a number of groups who could do this: The Increment, Group 13 or GB75 (if any of them exist.) or indeed the SAS to settle an old score on the behest of the government.

What makes the story of Sessarego so interesting is that if he didn’t lie about being in the SAS he would probably still be alive and be held in high regard apparently 75% of his book Jihad is accurate, it’s just impossible to figure out what is true and what is false. His death just doesn’t make much sense for instance, why was a international best seller living in a rented garage. He might not have been SAS but he was an ex-soldier and had lived the life of a mercenary and he dies from carbon monoxide poisoning yet the only gas in the room was a small camp cooker. His body was barely identifiable and according to most press reports police immediately suspected murder to be the cause of death and then they changed their mind.

It is therefore my hypothesis that Phillip Sessarego was murdered by elements of the UK Special Forces community with the backing of the government to prevent information about the US and UK baking of terrorism. This is of course all based on superstition and speculation, I have no prove i do however have a possible motive and plenty of people who wanted him dead who had the skills to do so and make it look like a accident. It is also evident that Sessarego did work for US and British inelegance and some point and perhaps his new book was about to expose some big secrets, his motive for writing this book would come from being exposed by the British media and SAS.

Sources
www.dailymail.co.uk...
www.arrse.co.uk...
www.guardian.co.uk...
www.guardian.co.uk...
www.dailymail.co.uk...
And of course, “Jihad!” by “Tom Carew”


[edit on 3-8-2010 by kevinunknown]

ive never heard of this guy but it's an interesting story to say the least. thanks for posting this i'll look into it for my self, may even give his book a read. it was Mc Nab books that got me into reading! flag

reply to post by kevinunknown


I remember reading this last year and also found it very interesting. You mention that apparently 75% of his book is true - I don't know how anyone can say that with any conviction. If you do enough research into a topic you can make it sound realistic (especially considering he was a mercenary for some time) but that doesn't automatically make him privy to any secret/sensitive information As far as I am aware Sessarego was a liar, a fantasist and a conman so the idea that 75% of his book is true is something I find VERY hard to believe. At least not true as in it actually happened to him personally.

The only reason anyone has ever heard of him is because he had the great fortune to have had his book released the day before the 9/11 terrorists attacks, so his name was fresh on everybody's lips. Of course this was also the beginning of his downfall but before those attacks his book wasn't selling very well at all. He's the very definition of an opportunist, his whole life proves that.

As for his death - I'm not convinced.

reply to post by LiveForever8


I agree with you 75% does seem a bit high however baring in mind that he did really go to Afghanistan it could be plausible. I actually thought that the whole book was total rubbish when i started to research him about more after hearing of his death. 75% truth is the figure given in some articles i have read, that might be wrong but there is defo some truth behind his story.

reply to post by danielhanson420


If you’re going to give his book a read, read it with a whole sack full of slat. Its still worth a read and its rather good.

50%? 75%? It does not make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Hereford is a small place and many of the military community, weather they be badged 'Blades' or their supporting arm work in close proximity and tales of the goings-on of certain Ops will always slip through the net. The dealings of UKSF and their US cousins in Afghanistan were widely known and it would not take much effort for somebody to create a story on the back of it. Where he failed and others has succeeded s that he should have remained in the shadows and given himself a pen-name to work from.

In the light of the rise of the PMC world in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, many former soldiers are regaled in tales of daring-do by ex-UKSF troops and there have been suspicions that some have even been published, so it isn't a stretch of the imagination to think that this guy did the same.

As for his circumstances and why he wasn't living the champagne lifestyle on the back of his books, this was probably because their just isn't a great deal of money to be had in books such as this. As somebody who is friends with a published ex-soldier, I know that the rewards are quite poor and unless you are the originator of the genre, such as McNab and Ryan, you have missed your boat.

reply to post by Extreme Pilgrim


The thing that i find rather sad about his story is that his real story is very interesting, he if he hadn’t claimed to be in the Regiment then nobody would have bothered about him. He was a ex-solider who lived in Hereford and spent allot of time with badged guys when in Goon Troop so he would have picked up a fair bit.

I am curious who is your author friend i might have read his book?

Originally posted by kevinunknown
It is therefore my hypothesis that Phillip Sessarego was murdered by elements of the UK Special Forces community with the backing of the government to prevent information about the US and UK baking of terrorism. This is of course all based on superstition and speculation, I have no prove i do however have a possible motive and plenty of people who wanted him dead who had the skills to do so and make it look like a accident.

Um...I'm just going to be honest here. Do you have any idea how incredible naive and brainless you sound when you say "it is my hypothesis...based entirely on speculation, and without any evidence whatsoever"? Why would you ever write that?

Furthermore, you yourself should be wary of slandering the British forces. I assure you, they have alot more to worry about (and better ways of using their free time) than to go and kill some prat who pretended to be an SAS trooper. How do you expect they killed him with carbon monoxide without him knowing and without any source in the room he was found in anyways? Do you suppose they backed a lorry in and asked him to puff on the exhaust for a few minutes? You insult the forces when you say incredibly stupid things like that.

If the gov't was afraid of him speaking up about something he shouldn't have been talking about, they would simply have him arrested for breach of the Official Secrets Act and then apply for an injunction prohibiting the publication of any details of his indictment and arrest; the gov't could (and probably would) also apply to injunct publication of the original injunction (the so-called 'super-injunction' that has been causing a stir in legal circles).

They would be far better off doing that than flagrantly breaching international law by murdering someone on foreign soil.

reply to post by kevinunknown


True, a sad tale but the guy was a fantasist who I feel met his end either by accident or, at the worst, the criminal element who he had become involved with. Given his capacity for lies, the chances are that the latter who have dealt with him should he have either been found to be untrustworthy or liar.

As for my author friend, he goes by the pen name of Duncan Falconer.

reply to post by duality90


I can understand why you think that is naive of me but it’s really not. I get quite annoyed on ATS when people make a claim that something is a theory when they have nothing to back it up, that is not a theory that is a hypothesis. I was not being brainless or naive i was being honest. Its just a idea based on the amount of enemies that he had in the regiment and that he was apparently about to write a book that could be damaging to the US and UK.

The UK might have found it difficult to charge him under the official secrets act because he was living outside UK jurisdiction. Let’s not forget there have been cases in the past were the government have appear to carry out a assassination, this might not be one, its just a possibility.

reply to post by Extreme Pilgrim


Ah yeah I have read his biography “first into action”, a very good book i have to say.

Where does the information that he was not in the SAS originate?

2nd line.

reply to post by mrwiffler


In the thread i talk about that, it was a ex SAS warrant officer called Ken Connor who basically took it to the newsnight and then their journalist confronted him about it, if you check the links i have gave they all talk about how he was never in the SAS.

As your talking about my father i find what has been written very interesting also very intriguing!

reply to post by sessa


If you are one of his children, what is your opinion?

reply to post by sessa


Are you claiming that Philip Sessarego was your father?

If so can you elaborate on what i have said.

Was Philip Sessarego assassinated by the SAS, it's possible, but I doubt the British public will ever know for sure.

Those boys are notoriously tight-lipped and doing something as blatantly illegal as killing a man for their honor would not be something they'd ever want to talk about.

Political assassinations are a lot more common than the general public would think but also are a lot less common than some in the conspiracy community think they are.

Being in the British media, I know a lot of papers that have no problem with using deep background sources and even publishing hearsay. I find such tabloid tactics appalling myself, but I think that's about the level of information anyone will ever get in this instance.

If he was offed by a criminal element perhaps at some point something concrete will come to light but if it was the SAS, forget it.