HR: loyalty to a higher ideal

Ben Griffen was one of the UK armed forces elite Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers. But in 2006, he declared that US Troops in Iraq were operating policies that amounted to treating Iraqis as sub-human - he used the Nazi term "untermenschen" and said that other coalition forces were behaving badly, too.

He resigned from the Army in protest - the first SAS soldier ever to refuse to go into combat and the first ever to leave citing higher moral purpose.

Griffen had been in the Army for eight years. He had been a member of the Parachute Regiment in hot spots including Afghanistan and Ulster. He joined the SAS in 2004 and went to Iraq where he witnessed the events that led to his actions. He said "I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy." The British Army surprised him when he left, according to The Daily Telegraph. Instead of describing him as cowardly and putting him before a Court Martial, he told the paper, they gave him a reference - "... a balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions".

At the time he left, in March 2006, there were threats from the British Government that if he continued to describe the war as "illegal" they would commence civil proceedings, with the government saying that he had entered into a "solemn undertaking" not to disclose any information relating to his career without first informing the Ministry of Defence.

Late last night - at approx 7.40 pm, the MoD went before the High Court in London and obtained an injunction. The MoD's media notice is as follows:

"At 7.40 pm on 28th February 2008, Mr Justice Openshaw granted a without notice injunction restraining Ben Griffin from making any further disclosures relating to the work of or in support of UK Special Forces, until tomorrow. A further application for injunctive relief will be made at the Royal Courts of Justice tomorrow morning.

Griffen's comments in the past have not related to SAS operations but only to his personal views on what he saw in Iraq and giving details of what he considered war crimes committed by US forces.

The action has come about because of a series of interviews Griffen has given to the BBC and other media, much of which has spread onto the internet. But it was the statement he made to the stopwar.org.uk press conference on 25th February that has really put the cat amongst the pigeons. In that, he made it clear that he was aware of SAS involvement in such activities as extraordinary rendition and that it was known that some of those arrested in Iraq would be taken away to be tortured. In his statement he listed senior Labour government figures saying "they must have known..."

For companies, the Griffen story is unfolding as an object lesson in what can go so right, and yet turn out so wrong.

The honourable individual that Ben Griffen was when he left the Army is now, seemingly, an activist. He has grown a beard - often regarded as the sign of a revolutionary. He is mixing with the "fringe." And he is making statements that are damaging to his former employers despite promises not to do so.

We happen to agree with his principles - but from an HR point of view, he's become a problem.

And when that happens, the employer has little chance but to "go legal."