what was the UK thinking?

Why have an SAS commando team sneak into the country when they possibly would have been welcomed by the rebel leadership? There must have been some reasoning behind this, but I can’t tell what at the moment.

1846: “What is clear is that it all went badly wrong and nearly ended in a disastrous shoot-out,” he continues. “Instead of making contact with friendly forces on the ground as expected, the team were quickly surrounded by militias, suspicious of their intentions. When asked today whether it would not have made more sense to simply dock by boat in Benghazi harbour and take a taxi to meet the rebel leadership, the Whitehall official conceded that, yes, that probably would have been wiser.”