The documents which are shown below came about as a result of a letter by the Young Liberals in St Albans who wrote to their MP – Victor Goodhew – and enquired quite what involvement British Forces had in Oman. He wrote to the then Minister of Defence – Lord Balniel – who wrote back to him outlining the situation.
The ministry of defence then re-issued their “deniability” instructions. There are many more examples of the Ministry’s attempts to keep a low profile for the operations in Oman by British Forces and they appear in various other places in the website. The blanket of secrecy had some other unforeseen effects in that those returning from Oman soon realised that those “at home” had little knowledge and little interest or understanding of where they had been or what they had been doing.