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COLONEL JAMES JtllHNSTON eBE, TD. FORMER COMMAN~ING eFFICER, 21sT The Pedigree Dogs Of War Not far from Gloucester Road tube station, at number a decade, these and similar people have been involved in a 11 Courtfield Mews, SW5, is the organising office of an private army service, supplying bodyguards, troops and undercover mercenary recruiting organisation called KMS. invasion parties to despotic rulers and other wealthy in• To its doors have come all but one of the people pictured terests. Freelance writer Duncan Campbell has documented on our cover-most of them past or present associates of the operations of the mercenary marketplace which KMS the British Army s elite Special Air Service. For more than represents-for 15 years, over four continents. figures in KMS-are themselves former been identified as the key figures of SAS commanding officers, Brigadier W KMS. They are: M Wingate Gray and Colonel H J Brigadier Mike Wingate Gray, Johnson (no relation to Colonel Hugh A Colonel Jim Johnson, Johnstone, identified as 'Colonel B'). Major David J Walker, Mike Wingate Gray commanded the Major Andrew M Nightingale. official 22nd SAS regiment from 1964. Major Walker, to whom we spoke to 1967. Jim Johnson was the comman• last week, denied that he or the other der of the 2lst SAS regiment from 1960 three ex-SAS officers were directors, to 1962. shareholders, or employees of KMS. KMS stands for Keeni-Meeni Services But Time Out has obtained considerable we have been told. Keeni-Meeni is south evidence that all four are intimately Arabian slang, meaning 'under the connected with KMS. counter' or suchlike. The phrase has also Time Out has photographed Johnson, been used as a codeword for the SAS Wingate Gray and other identified and operations in south Arabia. At SAS HQ as-yet unidentified ex-SAS men visiting in Hereford, they have another name for the Courtfield Mews office. Johnson, undercover operations in the desert• Wingate Gray and Walker are each Col Henry James Johnson, OBE, TD, - 'bucket and spade jobs'. regular attenders, and park their cars in Insurance Broker turned private army KMS Ltd is registered in Jersey, the mews garage. Courtfield Mews resi• organiser. Col David Stirling founded the SAS where taxation is less burdensome, and dents have also-observed sporadic visits addressed to various individuals in the during World War 2 and continued liberal companies legislation does not by groups of up to half a dozen young KMS organisation. These include official his practice of setting up private require the public disclosure of the men (such as the two on our cover). letters to Andrew Nightingale concern• armies for another thirty years. His names of directors or other company These include ex-SAS troopers, and ing his government service, and other last venture was GB75, a strike break• officials. From two independent sources their apparent purpose is briefing or de• letters to Wingate Gray and Johnson at ing force planned in 1974. After the in official organisations closely monitor• briefing sessions before or after jobs. KMS's Courtfield Mews office. The collapse of GB75, he set up Truemid ing the mercenary trade, however, Time We have also received, delivered correspondence-which has now been (Movement for True Industrial Out has obtained lists of those who have anonymously, a bundle of letters returned to its authors-makes clear the Democracy), a direct attempt at political continuing semi-official contacts of the intervention in trades unions. KMS network. Major Andrew Nightingale originally Few people have heard of KMS Ltd. joined the Intelligence Corps as a sub• Fewer still know what the name means. altern, and was identified last year But to soldiers and officers in elite during an illicit arms deal trial as second British Army regiments-like the 22nd in command of the SAS Group Intelli• Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment, gence unit at the Duke of York based at Hereford-the company and Barracks, beside Sloane Square. Last the individuals involved are well known week, an associate of Nightingale's at as a recruiting office. To men about to the Duke of York's, Mr Dodkin, con• leave the army, or those still in who are firmed that he had worked there some enticed to leave by lucrative mercenary months before. The Ministry of De• 'contracts', KMS is wryly known as '24 fence say that he has left the Army SAS'. There are only three official SAS 'in the last three months'. They refuse regiments, the 21st and 23rd being to specify the exact date. volunteer regiments. '24' SAS is the The apparent involvement of serving highly organised network for the Brigadier Mike Wingate and recently serving officers of the SAS employment of former SAS members-a Gray, former SAS com• and the Special Branch in the mercen• network that many in the SAS itself mander and Paris defence ary trade is an alarming feature of the fear is transforming the regiment into a attache, humps life• evidence gathered during our enquiry. training ground for other people's jackets and sea anchors The case of KMS appears to breach the private armies. from his car into KMS' rule that overt public servants should The commanders of 24 SAS-the key office. keep at least at arms length from those TIME OUT 7 they are observing. Here, such arms length official observation has the appearance of a tight embrace. Night• ingale, at least, appears to have been in contact with KMS before he officially left the army. The Insurance Cover Jim Johnson is an extremely wealthy man-an insurance broker by profession, he is a Lloyd's 'Name'. The Names of Lloyds are a 14,000 strong corps who provide the basic capital to finance the enormous London insurance market. The minimum entry stake to be a Name is now £75,000. A director of a city insurance firm Thomas Nelson (Insurance) Ltd, Johnson has freely used his company's name to provide 'cover' for the mercenary activities. When he started renting 11 Courtfield Mews in May 1975, he told the owners, Waldron Estates, that he wanted a flat. But he had then, and has now, a permanent home at 13 Sloane Avenue, one minute's walk from the SAS group HQ. Courtfield Mews, SWS, the 1976-1978 operations base of the ex-SAS mercenary network. Where next? Inset: Fiona Fraser KMS Ltd was originally registered in (left) and two ex-SAS troopers (right) arrive at No 11 (arrowed). Jersey as 'Executives International Ltd' during June 1977. Two months later, was accepted back at its start and estab• is used for body-guard work for people recruiter, John Banks, as the 'man you the name was changed to KMS. The lished the 'Special Air Service' as a free• like (Sheikh) Yamani. They have a always meet first' in the Special Branch shareholders of KMS are all apparently lance raiding force. Its activities, often permanent contract with Argentina. The if you are organising mercenary employed by Morgan Grenfell rash, spectacular, and even heroic, were government pass money to HRS.' activities. In a sworn statement present· (Jersey) Ltd, a finance house which also resented by those in equally dangerous The contract with Sheikh Zaki ed in court last year Banks described provides KMS's registered office address situations in the ordinary front line of Yamani-the powerful oil minister of how his three year contact with the at 12 Dumaresq Street, St Helier. The battle. Although a number of authors Saudi Arabia-is confirmed by items of use of such nominee shareholders is a have described the wartime SAS as KMS correspondence addressed to His standard technique for concealing the "cafe society gangsters' the myth of an Excellency, and seen by Time Out. identity of a company's true owners. elite corps was born. It thrives today The Argentinian 'contract' is one When Kensington and Chelsea as the SAS mystique is extended to the among many contacts with South Council and the owners investigated the problems of combatting terrorism. American governments and business• use of Courtfield Mews, Johnson wrote The disturbing successors to these men made by Walker. The Foreign from the city office of Thomas Nelson 'heroes' are a group of semi-employed Office have confirmed that Major (Insurance) Ltd claiming that it was ex-soldiers, vigorously trained in the tra• Walker was posted 'on temporary duty' used by the firm. The telephone line at dition of the Service to interrogate, to British embassies in Chile, Argentina, 11 Courtfield Mews-number 370 3942 sabotage, and silently kill. Such a pool Brazil and Colombia. is also, according to Post Office of military talent is fostered and milked Two months ago, an article on the records, registered in their name. So too by recruiters like Johnson, who are able front page of the Times announced a are two saloon cars used for KMS oper• to offer lucrative pay packets--£300 a new company-Saladin Security Ltd• ations in London, a 3000 cc silver Ford week has recently been mentioned as a said to be specialising in 'kidnap and Granada GL often driven by Johnson, typical figure for work in Arabia. rans_o!11p~o~ection. From offices in the John Banks, notorious Angolan mer• and a 1600 cc blue Ford Capri GL The photographs on our cover familia~ terntory of Sloane Street, SWl, cenary recruiter. sometimes used by Nightingale. Accord• feature former SAS officers involved they will take over the overt bodyguard ---'-------------1 ing to the Vehicle Licence centre at with KMS. One is Major Russell West, services provided by KMS to middle then Detective Inspector Tucker had Swansea, both these vehicles are ex-SAS squadron commander and one Eastern rulers and businessmen.

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