David Cameron captured during visit to Afghanistan

kspence92

The Taliban have claimed they planned to launch an attack on a helicopter carrying David Cameron, during his first visit to Afghanistan as prime minister in June, from a base in Helmand province.

Senior military figures called on Downing Street to urgently review security arrangements after reports that insurgents came closer to bringing down Cameron's helicopter than was previously thought.

The prime minister's plans were changed at the last minute when intercepts of Talibanradio messages indicated they knew which helicopter he was flying in to visit troops in the province.
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What would happen had the Taliban successful downed the Prime Minister's helicopter and captured him alive, rushing him to a safe house before a rescue team can arrive?

How does the British public react when the first videos of the PM appear on YouTube with him calling for British forces to withdraw from Afghanistan? Would the UK withdraw ?
 

pdf27

kspence92 said:
What would happen had the Taliban successful downed the Prime Minister's helicopter and captured him alive, rushing him to a safe house before a rescue team can arrive?
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That's really tough to do - his helicopter will have had an Apache escort, plus some sort of QRF available too. Shooting it down is tough but not impossible, capturing anybody on board (assuming that there are any survivors) is an exceptionally tough ask.

kspence92 said:
How does the British public react when the first videos of the PM appear on YouTube with him calling for British forces to withdraw from Afghanistan?
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Similarly to any of the other hostage videos - government statement (probably by the new PM) deploring it and calling for his release, and that's about it. There would be a lot of activity from UKSF and other coalition forces in response to this and I'd say the chances of a rescue/rescue attempt would be very high.

kspence92 said:
Would the UK withdraw ?
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No
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
kspence92 said:
What would happen had the Taliban successful downed the Prime Minister's helicopter and captured him alive, rushing him to a safe house before a rescue team can arrive?

How does the British public react when the first videos of the PM appear on YouTube with him calling for British forces to withdraw from Afghanistan? Would the UK withdraw ?
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There is a Francis Urquhart TL on the board about him being captured and held by the Taliban. FU got his revenge.
As to the OP, sure a shootdown & capture is possible, so too a statement, but nothing would come of it. The PM isn't sovereign and in minutes of his capture, the Cabinet would have a hands vote and name a new PM who'd be off to kiss hands. Nothing the now ex-PM would say would matter. That is how cold-blooded it would be behind closed doors. In public, you have a different matter. The drama of that is rather unimaginable.
 

yulzari

James G is right. Within the hour the Taliban would find themselves just holding the MP for Whitney. A quick By-Election and they would be just holding Mr Cameron.
 

Forcon

As said above, the UK won't withdraw. The record of UKSF in hostage rescue missions is very good, so if they're located, the chances of getting Cameron and and any other hostages out are pretty high. But the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" line sticks even if Bin Laden himself is holding the whole Royal Family.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure using the phrases "terrorists" and "Royal Family" in the same sentence has gotten me on a watchlist of some sort.
 

Mike Stearns

Forcon said:
As said above, the UK won't withdraw. The record of UKSF in hostage rescue missions is very good, so if they're located, the chances of getting Cameron and and any other hostages out are pretty high. But the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" line sticks even if Bin Laden himself is holding the whole Royal Family

On a side note, I'm pretty sure using the phrases "terrorists" and "Royal Family" in the same sentence has gotten me on a watchlist of some sort.
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MI5, or 6, will be paying you a visit shortly. :p
 

Hammerbolt

Donor
Forcon said:
As said above, the UK won't withdraw. The record of UKSF in hostage rescue missions is very good, so if they're located, the chances of getting Cameron and and any other hostages out are pretty high. But the "we don't negotiate with terrorists" line sticks even if Bin Laden himself is holding the whole Royal Family.

On a side note, I'm pretty sure using the phrases "terrorists" and "Royal Family" in the same sentence has gotten me on a watchlist of some sort.
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Specially with zombie Bin Laden in the mix. :p
 
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