John Banks (mercenary recruiter)

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John Banks
Birth nameJohn Edward Banks
Nickname(s)"The Angola recruiter"[1]
Born1945 (age 78–79)
Aldershot, Hampshire, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1962–1969
RankMajor[2]
UnitParachute Regiment (United Kingdom)
Battles/wars

John Edward Banks (born 1945) is a British former soldier, mercenary recruiter, and the founder of the Security Advisory Services.

Early life[edit]

John Banks was born in Aldershot in 1945 into the family of an Army Medical Corps officer serving in the Airborne Forces.[3] John spent his childhood years in Camberley not far away from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. As a child he attended service schools in Egypt and Cyprus. His military career started in 1962 when he was only 17 years old.[4] After his initial training Banks served in the "Pathfinder" unit of the Second Battalion of the Parachute Regiment.[5] In four years, he was transferred to the Second Battalion’s Special Patrol Company, a unit trained to penetrate behind the enemy lines.[6] Banks took part in the hostilities in Malaysia, Yemen and Oman.[7] Due to injuries received in combat he could no longer continue his active service and began to work as an unarmed combat instructor at the Parachute Regiment Battle School in Wales.[8]

Secret military operations[edit]

After being discharged from the British Army in 1969,[9][10] John Banks joined the United States Army Special Forces,[11] according to his own claims, but soon had to leave it too due to the involvement of his brother Roger in arms trade with Viet Cong.[12] In 1970 Banks got acquainted to David Stirling, the founder of the Special Air Service[13] and started to work for the Stirling's PMC Watchguard International.[14] Banks claimed Stirling hired him for the "Hilton Assignment",[15] a secret military operation aimed at overthrowing Colonel Gaddafi by inciting an uprising in the prison of Tripoli.[16] But the assignment was canceled under the pressure exerted by British and American diplomats.[17] John Banks participated in a number of military operations in Biafra, South Vietnam and Iraq as a mercenary.[18]

Private military companies[edit]

In 1975 John Banks co-founded a private military company Security Advisory Services. [19][20][21] While running the company's office in Sandhurst,[22] Banks engaged in recruiting mercenaries for the war in Southern Rhodesia[23] and Angolan Civil War.[24][25] Some of the recruited mercenaries who fought for the National Liberation Front of Angola were captured and sentenced to death during the Luanda Trial. Banks did not appear to have any sympathy for their fate and said to the BBC reporters in Britain:

I don't feel sorry for them. They are soldiers, they knew what they were doing. I would do it again.[26]

In spite of leaving Security Advisory Services in 1976, John Banks kept recruiting mercenaries for the Angolan National Front.[27] Later on, he founded the Anti-Communist Revolutionary Organization to send mercenaries to fight the Cuban army in Jamaica.[28]

During an IRA arms procurement trial in 1977, Banks gave testimony which revealed strong ties of his former company with ex-SAS servicemen[29] and with the British PMC Keenie Meenie Services as well.[30]

In 1978 John Banks published the book The Wages of War: the Life of a Modern Mercenary, summarizing his mercenary experience.[31]

Prison[edit]

In 1980 Banks was convicted of extorting 250 thousand dollars from the Nicaragua embassy in London in exchange for the information about an attempt upon the life of the former president Somoza.[32][33] Banks claimed at the Central Criminal Court that he was one of the six British and American mercenaries hired by the CIA to assassinate Somoza by order of the US President Carter.[34] But the mercenaries did not want to kill Somoza and chose John Banks to disclose the assassination plan, according to his allegations.[35] Banks denied the extortion charges.[36] After his escape from the Coldingley prison, John Banks was captured and imprisoned again in the end of 1981.[37] According to the Scottish anarchist Stuart Christie, in 1982 John Banks was already at large and worked as a security advisor for Muammar Gaddafi.[38]

Later life[edit]

At the beginning of 1990s John Banks allegedly took part in an undercover operation staged by Customs and Excise officers to arrest a drug smuggler from Ghana.[2] Banks worked for the Special Branch and then for SO15.[39] He also worked for the Scorpions, a unit of the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa, which was in fact an intelligence unit, according to Banks.[39] In his interview with Sean Stone in December 2014, Banks claimed that US intelligence services planned a bombing during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[39]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Campbell 1978.
  2. ^ a b Connett 1993.
  3. ^ Aspinall1, section 2: "John Banks was born in Aldershot England in 1945, his father having been an officer in the Army Medical Corps attached to the Airborne Forces".
  4. ^ Aspinall1, section 2: "In 1962 at the age of 17 years he enlisted in the Army at Maida Barracks".
  5. ^ Aspinall1, section 3: "On completion of his initial training he was posted to 'D' Company the elite 'Pathfinder' unit of the Second Battalion of the Parachute Regiment".
  6. ^ Aspinall1, section 3: "A unit specialising in the deep penetration of enemy held territory by small ruthless patrols".
  7. ^ Aspinall1, section 3: "John saw action around the world in Aden, Borneo, Cyprus, Malaya and the Trucial Oman States".
  8. ^ Aspinall1, section 4: "Because of his injuries in 1968 he was posted to the Parachute Regiment Battle School in Wales, as an unarmed combat instructor".
  9. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 10: "Banks, now notorious as the Angola recruiter, was dishonourably discharged from the Parachute Regiment".
  10. ^ Aspinall1, section 5: "On 10th June 1969 he was discharged from the Army".
  11. ^ Aspinall1, section 5: "John then claims that he applied and was accepted to join the US Army Special Forces".
  12. ^ Aspinall1, section 5: "But was released after a few weeks when it was discovered that his brother Roger (the Katangese Mercenary) was believed to be running guns to the Vietcong in the Mekong Delta".
  13. ^ Aspinall1, section 5: "In 1970 he met up with David Sterling (founder of the S.A.S.)".
  14. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 10: "Among Watchguard's employees were, at one time or another, John Banks".
  15. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 10: "...and claims to have been hired by Stirling for the 'Hilton Assignment'".
  16. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 9: "They planned a sudden raid on the Tripoli prison, freeing 150 of Gaddafi's political prisoners, and sparking off an uprising".
  17. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 9: "Under heavy British and American diplomatic pressure, the operation was abandoned".
  18. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 3 Served as Mercenary: "...said that he had fought as a paid soldier in Biafra as well as with the Australians in South Vietnam, and the Kurds in Iraq".
  19. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 11: "...John Banks set up his Security Advisory Services (SAS!) recruiting organisation above a laundrette".
  20. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 194: "Using a firm named Security Advisory Services as a front, he recruited a total of 120 mercenaries".
  21. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 1: "Another owner is John Banks, a former Paratrooper".
  22. ^ Weinraub1 1976, section 2 Third Key Figure: "The Camberley office is listed in the name of Mr. Banks".
  23. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 3 Served as Mercenary: "Mr. Banks, who last year tried to recruit white mercenaries to help black Rhodesian nationalist guerrillas".
  24. ^ Weinraub2 1976, section 1: "...described himself as 'military adviser' to the National Front for the Liberation of Angola".
  25. ^ Bloch & Fitzgerald 1983, p. 50: "...group, led by John Banks - who provided the British mercenary corps for the Angolan civil war".
  26. ^ BBC 1976, section 10: "In Britain the man who recruited the British mercenaries, John Banks, said: 'I don't feel sorry for them. They are soldiers, they knew what they were doing. I would do it again'".
  27. ^ Hills 1976, section 3: "...a ragtag battalion of mercenaries to fight Cubans and communists in the hills of Jamaica".
  28. ^ Campbell 1978, p. 11: "...three of five key alleged KMS associates feature prominently in Banks' eight year tale of mercenary work".
  29. ^ Banks 1978.
  30. ^ Nicholson-Lord 1980, section 2: "John Banks, accused of demanding money with menaces from the Nicaraguan embassy for information on the alleged plot".
  31. ^ Nicholson-Lord 1980, section 7: "The prosecution has alleged he attempted to blackmail the Nicaraguan embassy by demanding $250,000 in return for information".
  32. ^ Nicholson-Lord 1980, section 1: "A contract to assassinate former President Somoza of Nicaragua was taken out by the Central Intelligence Agency on the orders of President Carter and his security advisers, it was alleged at the Central Criminal Court yesterday".
  33. ^ Nicholson-Lord 1980, section 7: "I was chosen to blow the operation".
  34. ^ Nicholson-Lord 1980, section 7: "Mr.Banks, aged 35, of Camberley, Surrey, has denied three charges of demanding money with menaces".
  35. ^ Aspinall2.
  36. ^ Christie 1982, p. 12: "Banks is now rumored to be working as a 'security advisor' to Colonel Ghadaffi in Libya along with 'ex' CIA operatives Frank Terpil and Ed Wilson".
  37. ^ a b c Stone 2014.

References[edit]

  • Aspinall, Terry. "Brief Biography. John Banks". Terry Aspinall. Archived from the original on 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  • Banks, John (1978). The Wages of War: the Life of a Modern Mercenary. London: Cooper. ISBN 0850522358.

External links[edit]

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