Former SAS soldier Christian Craighead has defied a Ministry of Defence gagging order by discussing his banned memoir in a five-hour YouTube interview, after being barred from publishing the book or being interviewed about it in Britain. The 51-year-old, who single-handedly tackled jihadist gunmen during the 2019 Nairobi hotel siege, faces possible UK prosecution over the memoir, titled One Man In, which he was able to release only in the United States. The case highlights the long-standing tension between UK Special Forces veterans' desire to tell their stories and the Ministry of Defence's strict confidentiality rules.

Craighead was serving as a liaison officer with Kenyan forces when he saved hundreds of lives during the DustitD2 hotel complex attack in January 2019, earning the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross before leaving the forces and moving to the US, where Donald Trump personally congratulated him and he later joined Trump's security team. His US podcast interview drew more than 800,000 YouTube views within 24 hours, during which he criticised the MoD's stance. The MoD secured a High Court injunction last week blocking the memoir's UK release and any British press interviews, citing a confidential contract Craighead signed as a UK Special Forces member; a similar ban has applied to veterans since the Andy McNab and Chris Ryan Gulf War memoir controversies roughly 30 years ago. Craighead previously lost a 2023 High Court challenge against the restriction, having sold his medals to fund the legal fight.