The Daily Star Sunday has uncovered the full inside story of how the mission was delivering kit known as “The Com” for use by British spies and rebels fighting dictator Gaddafi.
The SAS were slammed for being caught by Libyan farmers after a night time helicopter landing.
But the squad in fact delivered their highly-secret booty.
The Com got in along with arms and passports for seven different countries that just need a photo inserted to look real.
“This is a highly prized piece of equipment and very, very useful,” said a security aide.
“It is for MI6 agents in Libya and extremely valuable to the mission, hence it was given elite protection.
“The plan is to help set up a group to help the rebels get Gaddafi out.
“They took in weapons and the passports for assets who want to get out of the country.”
When the undercover troops and spooks were captured they kept the equipment with them because it is so precious.
The British-made highly secure system cannot be tracked by the enemy and allows agents to make contact anywhere around the globe.
The Com is hacker proof and can turn spoken or typed messages into code and be transmitted in just one second. It comes in a 2ft by 3ft metal box for added protection.
The high spec Q-style James Bond system is designed to be used in extreme conditions and is bullet proof.
“When our lads were taken they explained what The Com was for and the Libyans left it alone,” said the aide.
“They were more interested in the arms and later let them go.”
The location of The Com now is unknown.
Foreign Secretary William Hague came under fire over the bungled mission. Diplomatic sources predict he will be “shuffled out” over the kidnap blunder.
MI6 boss Sir John Sawers is also under threat after his role in the drama.
Yesterday rebels admitted fighters had been driven out of the key oil port of Ras Lanuf.
Last night the Arab League called for the United Nations to establish a no-fly zone over the country
To his colleagues on the wheat farm in Libya, he was Tom Smith, a polite and dependable Welshman.
If he was oddly evasive about his background, it did not matter because he worked hard and never stepped out of line.
Until, that is, the night seven SAS men and a mid-ranking British intelligence officer – armed with guns, ammunition, explosives and false passports – swept into the desert near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in two Chinook helicopters.
That was the cue for the farm manager to spring into action. When the helicopters disgorged the crack troops, Mr Smith was there to collect them in his boss’s Toyota pick-up and take them to the farm.
The eight-man unit’s mission was to link up with rebels fighting Colonel Gaddafi. Yet amid scenes of high farce, it ended before it really began.
Along with Mr Smith, the men from the world’s most feared fighting force were rounded up, detained and later deported – and to add to their humiliation, their captors were mere farmhands.
Back home, Foreign Secretary William Hague, who sanctioned the mission, was cast as the fall-guy and in the ensuing blame-game, Mr Smith’s role was quickly forgotten.
However, The Mail on Sunday has uncovered new details about his involvement in the affair that raise further questions about the real nature of the operation.
Few doubt that Tom Smith, if that is his real name, was simply a supervisor at the farm.
It is likely that he was also an MI6 agent and that the job provided the cover he needed
to make contact with those hostile to the Gaddafi regime.
It was these rebels that the SAS-MI6 team was coming to visit. But was there something else? Another element to the mission?
It was claimed last night that Mr Smith had converted a small conference room in the farm compound into what appeared to be a nerve-centre for the undercover SAS unit.
Once he had gone – handcuffed and humiliated, dumped in the back of a truck and driven in convoy with his co-conspirators to be interrogated in Benghazi – his fellow farm workers found the locked room contained detailed maps and white-boards full of military statistics.
One said: ‘Tom had insisted on keeping the key to the room. He told us it was to be off-limits from now on. That was puzzling at the time. Now we know what he was up to.’
Room for intrigue: The farm building near the dusty town of Al-Khadra where Tom Smith kept a locked area, which was later found by colleagues to contain detailed maps and whiteboards full of military statistics
Before his arrest nine days ago, Mr Smith, as consular ‘warden’ in Benghazi, had helped to co-ordinate the evacuation of 400 Britons trapped in Libya.
His name and telephone number were listed on the Foreign Office’s website.
The Foreign Office declined to discuss his involvement in the Special Forces debacle.
It is understood that he is being debriefed in Whitehall. They have many questions for Our Man on the Libyan Farm.
Chief among them will be why the Libyan rebel leaders had not been informed of Mr Hague’s plan.
Back at the 37,000-acre farm called Farmco, near the dusty town of Al-Khadra, Mr Smith’s former workmates are also struggling to make sense of the bizarre episode and they have their own questions.
Project manager Ahmed Al-Bira said: ‘I am furious that this employee of mine got involved in a secret military operation from these premises. People could easily have been killed. This farm project has been dragged into something that is now an international incident.
‘I am waiting for the day when Tom can tell me how it happened. I don’t know what to think because although I knew he had a military background, we employed him for his agricultural knowledge and for his skills.
‘He was an extremely good employee and we would like to have him back, if he can clear his name.
‘He was polite, respectful and very hard-working. I could see him in his office working on the internet until late at night, every night.
‘He didn’t go out and didn’t seem to have a social life.
‘He was here for five months, spending his days monitoring our planting and harvesting progress and the irrigation system. I thought he was a highly skilled engineer.’
Mr Al-Bira added: ‘I live in the city so I was not at the farm when Tom picked up the soldiers at night. I couldn’t believe it. My men did the right thing by challenging him.
‘Once he had gone I did not contact him. I left him to his fate.
‘I have not spoken to Tom since. The last I heard he was being de-briefed in London. I would like to debrief him myself.
‘He applied for a job here through the internet, where we put recruitment notices. His references were checked and that’s all I know. I cannot make his CV public without his permission.
‘All of his belongings are still locked in his room. I haven’t looked through them.
‘All I know is that I admired him as a senior employee and that I helped him with his humanitarian effort to evacuate British citizens from Libya. I cannot believe he has got himself mixed up with a military operation.’
Although he gave little of himself away, Mr Smith did once concede he had worked with the British military in Basra in southern Iraq, claiming that he was involved in rehabilitation projects for local communities.
Farmco is a joint initiative between the Libyan government and American companies, part of an irrigation scheme to ‘green’ the desert and grow staple foods for the country’s six-and-a-half million people.
A fellow expat said: ‘I worked with Tom for a couple of months and we talked about Iraq because we had both been there. He said he was originally from Wales and had a slight Welsh accent. He never mentioned a wife or family.
‘Looking back, I realise that could have been part of his training. It’s impossible to say.
'Perhaps he was just naturally reserved.’
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