Iran Embassy SAS Squad Leader, John McAleese, Dies

[Patticus]

Ex-SAS soldier John McAleese, who led the raid that ended the 1980 siege at Iran's embassy in London, has died.

Mr McAleese, who was in his early 60s, died on Friday in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Foreign Office said.

The former sergeant led the team which blew out the building's windows and rescued 24 hostages from gunmen.

His daughter said he had been reunited with his son, a soldier killed in Afghanistan. "Two great heroes taking their place in heaven," she said.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are aware of the death of John McAleese, a hero who served his country bravely and professionally in a military career that spanned many years.

"Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."

Millions of television viewers watched Mr McAleese and his team, dressed in black, storm the embassy on 5 May 1980 to end the six-day siege within 15 minutes of entering.

Six Iranian separatists took over the embassy and demanded the release of 91 political prisoners held in Iran as well as an aircraft to take them and 26 hostages out of the UK.

Then Home Secretary William Whitelaw ordered the SAS attack after the gunmen shot dead Iranian press attaché Abbas Lavasani and dumped his body outside the building.

During the SAS operation, five of the gunmen and one of the remaining hostages were killed.

Hayley, 28, said her father - who went on to present the BBC programme SAS: Are You Tough Enough? - never got over the death of his son Serjeant Paul McAleese, 29, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009 as he went to help a fatally injured colleague.

She told reporters: "I am sure the grief and stress he had suffered had a bearing on what has happened."

It is understood John McAleese suffered a suspected heart attack.

Tributes have been posted on his Facebook page.

One read: "R.I.P. JOHN...JOINED WITH YOUR SON...2 BRAVE AND REMARKABLE MEN...THOUGHTS ARE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY..."

Another said: "rest in peace john,......another soldier reporting for duty at the gates of st peter. at least now he can be with his son paul, R.I.P true scotsman. true soldier and a true legend of a man "

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14697819

It's always a shame when awesome guys like this pass on. I remember watching a documentary by him about SAS selection and training, and it sounded pretty brutal. I don't know how true this little tale is, but I heard some time ago that on the evening of that very embassy raid, the SAS team went back to the Chelsea barracks to have a drink. Margaret Thatcher (Britain's Prime Minister throughout the 1980s) turned up with her husband to congratulate the men involved, when a news report of the operation came on the TV. Everybody sat down to watch it, with Thatcher standing at the front. All of a sudden, everyone heard; "Hey you, at the front, get your fucking head down!", directed at Thatcher. It was McAleese.

R.I.P., Captain Price.

[Stacy]

Real shame. When the SAS was formed it changed the whole way combat was perceived. Hard to imagine how many times the SAS has saved the world without us even knowing it.

R.I.P.

[Scar]

McAleese, lives on as Captain Price in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare!

I tip my hat to you good sir. May you rest in peace.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I found this out last night... but I didn't want to be the one who made the topic.

I've watched loads of stuff with him in, mainly documentories regarding the embassy raid.Theres a great one which is well over 10 years old now which is also on youtube.

This is the one.

It's quite amazing just how much actually went wrong and whilst they don't say it... there is something to suggest that Thatchers government wanted to 'show off' the SAS. They talk about how the could have gone in with silencers and taken out everybody without anyone even knowing they were there... just one problem... silencers were illegal in the UK... ... amazing eh? And how they wanted to use ladders and not ropes to go in, but someone said "No... use ropes" (Think about what looks more impressive). How the moment they go in aim their guns at the "BAD GUY!" and the gun jams.

Also theres just something about how they're all at home eating breakfast when they get the call... and have to car-pol to get to the ops base!

It's quite amazing just how skilled they all were and how it was almost a perfect mission acomplished considering everything that went wrong.

But what this dude stands out for, and if you ever needed any confirmation that Price from COD is indeed based off this guy (give his family the royalties Activision), he says something like "My mission is 'release the hostages.' I now think 'what does that mean? it means... once I'm inside the building, I'll do whatever to do that!" Then he says something like "They've killed people, they've threattened to kill others, they're on our home soil, they're the enemy! And I'm gonna stop em'."

As the documentary goes on. He makes the clear distinction between who was to die and who wasn't, as he constantly calls them 'thats a bad guy, so he's going to die.' that was a good guy, and he's going to live!'

But one epic thing that he does is right at the end, he's wearing a gas mask, theres smoke everywhere, theres hostages running in front of him and suddenly he recognises one of them as being a "BAD GUY!" He yells to the rest of the team and they grab the guy, whack their MP5's at him... and as he falls down the stairs they kill him...

As the SAS guy who killed him said "I spun him around! And the look in his face! He knew he was dead!"

This guy was a real action hero, theres going to be characters based off him for years, yet we'll never know the half of all the amazing things he did.

[turbojet]

A guy who was in perfect shape died in his early 60s?

[Badnik Mechanic]

A guy who was in perfect shape died in his early 60s?

[thedude2011]

A murdered dies? Should I be sad?

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

A murdered dies? Should I be sad?

There's always one.

[Stacy]

A murdered dies? Should I be sad?

Seriously dude show some respect that dude was saving the world while you when you were still eating paste!

[thedude2011]

Seriously dude show some respect that dude was saving the world while you when you were still eating paste!

[Tornado]

Saving the world? He killed some Iranians, that's not saving the world.

Boy howdy. Someone has absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Seriously dude show some respect that dude was saving the world while you when you were still eating paste!

There was a really obvious mean-spirited joke nestled in this sentence and I really think you should have made it all things considering.

They talk about how the could have gone in with silencers and taken out everybody without anyone even knowing they were there... just one problem... silencers were illegal in the UK...

How does that even work?

[Stacy]

Saving the world? He killed some Iranians, that's not saving the world.

He killed Terrorists, Iranian Terrorists, holding people hosatge and they shot dead a female police officer. I think he and his men were heros.

He's probably done countless operations to help defend his country, he probably ate

Spetsnazs and Terrorists for breakfasts.

I bet you think Gaddafi is a good man and true leader of Libya!

Edited August 29, 2011 by BW199148

[thedude2011]

He killed Terrorists, Iranian Terrorists, holding people hosatge and they shot a female police officer. I think he and his men were heros.

He's probably done countless operations to help defend his country, he probably ate

Spetsnazs and Terrorists for breakfasts.

I bet you think Gaddafi is a good man and true leader of Libya!

He still hasn't "saved" the world. He murdered some soldiers, no big deal.

I hate Gaddafi, he's a murderer.

[Stacy]

He still hasn't "saved" the world. He murdered some soldiers, no big deal.

I hate Gaddafi, he's a murderer.

They weren't soldiers. He killed some terrorists and saved some hostages I think thats a pretty noble thing for someone to do in one's lifetime.

Please leave this topic because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about....

[thedude2011]

They weren't soldiers. He killed some terrorists and saved some hostages I think thats a pretty noble thing for someone to do in one's lifetime.

Please leave this topic because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about....

He killed some terrorists, but he did not SAVE THE WORLD. You need to get out of this thread.

[Stacy]

He killed some terrorists, but he did not SAVE THE WORLD. You need to get out of this thread.

After you.

Re-read what I put I save that he may have done other operations that may helped save the world. Is you blinker on?

[thedude2011]

After you.

Re-read what I put I save that he may have done other operations that may helped save the world. Is you blinker on?

Are you 12? Really?

This isn't a cartoon, he just saved a lot of people and murdered. That is all.

Edited August 29, 2011 by thedude2011

[Stacy]

Are you 12? Really?

This isn't a cartoon, he just saved a lot of people and murdered. That is all.

Well obviously you have no respect for people who have fought for freedom....

[thedude2011]

Well obviously you have no respect for people who have fought for freedom....

I'm just stating the facts: he is a murderer.

[Spirit of Vengeance]

The"dude", I have a question or two for you. Would you consider a police sniper that kills an armed gunman that escapes from a bank with a hostage justified or murder? How about a military sniper shooting an enemy combatant who is using a civilian as a human shield? Is it justified or "murder"?

Edited August 29, 2011 by Spirit of Vengeance

[Nepenthe]

@ thedude: Murder is a legal term and means the unlawful taking of a person's life after malicious premeditation. It is legal to kill people in the line of duty, ergo soldiers are not murderers.

You're not stating facts, you're spouting bullshit. I would personally heed BW's memes.

[Patticus]

Have you any proof that the man himself murdered innocent civilians, or do you consider any unnatural death, even that of a terrorist more than happy to kill as many as he/she can, a murder?

[thedude2011]

The"dude", I have a question or two for you. Would you consider a police sniper that kills an armed gunman that escapes from a bank with a hostage justified or murder? How about a military sniper shooting an enemy combatant who is using a civilian as a human shield? Is it justified or "murder"?

It's justified murder, the sniper would have murdered the gunman but saved the hostage.

Edited August 29, 2011 by thedude2011

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

Funnily enough I've been pondering the implications of it being possible to "murder grass" for a while.

However I wasn't aware that it was a legal term, probably because the term gets heavy colloquial use. That raises a whole other set of implications on its own, but let's keep that out of this thread.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I think it's quite obvious that the dude has no idea as to what he's talking about. Even if he wants to start up the 'oh what is/isn't murder argument' his argument regarding this is completely flawed in every respect.

Lets look at the facts of this shall we?

In the UK, during any hostage situation or 'siege' the SAS are put on stanby and briefed. But they do not act unless one of three things occur.

1: A hostage is killed/the person/group holding the hostages begins to harm/kill them.

2: They can end it via a sniping assault (very risky and almost never used, it requires a sniper team to take out almost all the terrorists in an instant).

3: There is a clear and present danger to those involved in the situation and the surrounding public.

Those are the 3 that I can remember.

Look at the facts of this incident for a moment. The siege had been going on for a number of days, in that time they had only planned the assault, they had not carried it out. They killed one of the hostages because he took offence to his God being disrespected by one of the terrorists, he practically attacked one of them which caused him to be killed. As one of the hostages would later say "He stood up, faced them, and ripped open his own shirt! He'd more or less said 'kill me now'"

He was the first hostage to be killed. When this happened, the police were still working to get everyone released unharmed, even after this happened they were still trying to resolve it but because a hostage had been killed, after the body had been removed from the bulding, the leader of the group got on the phone and said to the police that they would now start killing a hostage every hour until their demands had been met.

Considering how they had just killed someone, the SAS had no choice but to activate their assault plans. Had they just sat back and done nothing, then it's likely that everybody would have died.

What do you honestly expect them to do? They've murdered someone in cold blood, they're now going to periodically murder the rest of the hostages unless their demands are met (this was never going to happen considering the UK Governments stance on terrorist demands), your argument is basically "Well those people are going to kill those people, but we can't actually do anything about it because then we'll be murderer's too."