British State Terrorism and Collusion in Ireland

1

I suppose this report doesn’t confirm anything that Nationalists in Ireland didn’t know already but it’s still a seminal day when the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman confirms the involvement of the security forces in numerous atrocities against innocent Irish people. From RTE:

O’Loan report confirms collusion

22 January 2007 20:54
The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman has identified police, CID and Special Branch collusion with loyalist terrorists under 31 separate headings, in her report on the murder of Raymond McCord and other matters.

The report, which centred on a single man, referred to as Informant 1, identified at least ten murders and ten other attempted murders in which he is, or was, a suspect.

Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan said in her conclusions that there was no reason to believe that the findings of the investigation were isolated.

She said there was evidence that information was withheld by handlers, and instructions were given that matters should not be recorded.

She also states that many senior and retired officers declined or refused to assist the inquiry.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has described the report as deeply disturbing and of the utmost gravity. He said Ms O’Loan’s findings painted a picture of despicable past behaviour.

Mr Ahern said the Government would study the report in detail and would discuss the matter further with the British government.

The Taoiseach observed that behind the report lay many personal stories of lives lost and lives shattered.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain said this morning that the O’Loan report would make ‘extremely uncomfortable reading’ for anyone involved in government and the police.

A Downing Street spokesman described the report as deeply disturbing and said it was about events which were wrong and which should never have happened.

Sinn Fin’s Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said the report showed that state terrorism was used against the nationalist community.

He said he was concerned that Ms O’Loan had also raised the prospect that the collusion was even more widespread.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that given the ‘shocking and appalling culture of collision and illegality’ within the RUC, ‘one could only wonder what other unacceptable practices remain hidden from the public’.

However Mr Kenny called on Sinn Fin’s leadership not to be deflected from its aim of securing support for policing at its forthcoming Ard Fheis.

McCord complaint

Raymond McCord jnr died on 9 November 1997. His father, also Raymond, has pursued the matter of his son’s death ever since, and it was his complaint to Mrs O’Loan’s office in 2002 that set this inquiry in train.

The report covers that murder, and nine others: Peter McTasney (24 February 1991), Sharon McKenna (17 January 1993), Sean McParland (attacked 17 February 1994, died 25 February 1994), Gary Convie and Eamon Fox (17 May 1994), Gerald Brady (17 June 1994), Thomas Sheppard (21 March 1996), John Harbinson (18 May 1997) and Thomas English (31 October 2000).

The inquiry further discovered evidence linking Informant 1 and his associates with ten punishment shootings, 13 punishment attacks, a bomb attack in Monaghan, 17 instances of drug dealing and additional criminality including extortion and intimidation.

Investigators have also identified less significant intelligence which linked Informant 1 and other informants to an additional five murders and a long list of other crimes.

The revelations come at a hugely sensitive time politically, with Sinn Fin on the verge of declaring its support for the police in Northern Ireland for the first time.

Mr McGuinness claimed beforehand that the report would make a powerful contribution to the policing debate.

2

Pretty impressed with Trevor Sargent’s comments on it earlier:

Green Party leader and spokesperson on the North Trevor Sargent TD has today responded to the Police Ombudsman’s report into security force collusion in murders in the North in the 1990s.

“I am calling for an independent inquiry and Dil debate on today’s report,” he said.

"I am also repeating my call for an Anglo-Irish Summit on the issue of collusion. Tony Blair has expressed ‘regret’ about the collusion uncovered in the Ombudsman’s report, but with his Secretary of State Peter Hain simultaneously moving to rule out an independent public inquiry into the matter, such words mean little.

"Inevitably, an important question to be addressed is the impact of O’Loan’s findings on the former chief constable, Ronnie Flanagan, who served in key roles in Belfast, and with the Special Branch, before taking over the top job in the RUC.

"Mr Flanagan continues to serve in an extremely sensitive position, with Britain’s Chief Inspectorate of Constabularies.

“It is the responsibility of all parties to the process to ensure that the new policing structures guarantee that such abhorrent acts can never happen again. Lessons must be learned from this investigation.”

3

I’d agree with everything he says there. With stuff like this happening in the 1990s it doesn’t bear thinking about what was going on in the 1970s and 80s.

4

It’s also the very reason why it’s extremely difficult to accept the “evidence” submitted by the PSNI in the Omagh and Nothern Bank robbery trials. The Omagh bomb evidence has already been proven to be hugely discredited by blatant lies but people down here dismiss this sort of talk as conspiracy theory nonsense.

Personally I have no doubt that the Special Branch were capable of carrying out either Omagh and/or the Northern Bank robbery in an effort to upset the political gains achieved by republicans.

5

This is a decent editorial from the Guardian.

Ulster’s rotten branch

Leader
Tuesday January 23, 2007
The Guardian

It is hard to think of a more serious allegation against the police than that they colluded in the murder of citizens of the society that they are sworn to protect. Nevertheless, that is the deadly charge at the heart of the report by the Northern Ireland police ombudsman, Nuala O’Loan, into the protection of informants. The investigation started as an attempt to explain why Raymond McCord Jr was beaten to death in November 1997, a few months after his arrest in a drugs-running bust. It soon broadened into a wider probe of the relationship between the Royal Ulster Constabulary special branch and local paramilitary UVF police informers, some of whom were alleged to be involved in the McCord killing. These informers have been linked to an array of shocking crimes. Yet, throughout, special branch preferred to protect them rather than hunt them down, and with the full approval of senior supervisors, even going to the length of destroying much of the evidence.

Mrs O’Loan’s investigation focused on the RUC’s relations with a single group of informers in north Belfast over a period of 12 years. But much of what her team unearthed was systemic. The implications could hardly be more disturbing - and need spelling out. They mean individuals and groups of loyalist paramilitaries were allowed to continue committing crimes, including murder, as a matter of routine and even policy. The informers were given such priority that in some cases their crimes were committed with the RUC’s advance knowledge. Records were destroyed according to what was judged necessary to maintain the network. The RUC as a whole became subservient to the special branch and accountability was therefore consistently subverted. The shielding of informers by special branch - and their superiors - was institutionalised to such a degree that attempts to reform the practice over the years were not just unsuccessful but officially deflected. The result was a double whammy: the paramilitaries were able to strengthen their grip in local communities, while police effectiveness was reduced. Northern Ireland terrorism was in some respects aided, not prevented, by the police force itself.

The context needs to be fully understood, of course. For 30 years Northern Ireland was the victim of a dirty war on all sides. Republican paramilitaries were at least as lawless as their loyalist counterparts, and their victims have never had the accountability that those of the UVF and its protectors are now belatedly receiving. Nor should it be forgotten that, in the midst of all this abuse, many individual RUC officers continued to do an exemplary job. In recent years, moreover, things have moved on. The RUC has been seriously reformed. Sinn Fin may be on the threshold of a historic compromise with the new policing system. We all need to look forward rather than back.

Nevertheless, it is not surprising that both the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, found the report hard reading. Yet it is not enough to say that that was then and this is now - even though the changes are historic. Any serving officers involved in creating the lawless system detailed by Mrs O’Loan should be required to leave. Commanding officers who sanctioned the abuses should step down from police posts too - specifically the former RUC chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who remains head of the police inspectorate in England and Wales. Former Northern Ireland secretaries from the period covered by the report - from Peter Brooke to Paul Murphy - should also give an account to parliament of their failure to control special branch. It is indeed time to move on in Northern Ireland. There is a strong case against an endless system of expensive enquiries. But as nations from Poland to South Africa continue to show, the unjust past cannot be brushed under the carpet so easily.

6

This is a rather weaker effort from the Irish Times. They talk about politicians reacting with “suitable concern” but there’s no calls for a more widespread inquiry (into the rest of the 6 counties, or outside the 90s) or for any personnel still in the PSNI from that period to be compelled to leave.

Policing the North’s police

The fact that Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan has been able to investigate the noxious interface between the RUC special branch and loyalist paramilitaries and publish her findings in relation to murders, attempted murders and punishment beatings shows just how much things have changed in Northern Ireland. Her damning report looks at collusion between the RUC and a multiple killer between 1991 and 2002 and concludes that it was sanctioned at a very high level. Worse than that, she finds this may not have been an isolated pattern.

Acceptable policing standards in Northern Ireland collapsed because special branch dominance led to the creation of what the Patten report described as “a force within a force”. Junior detectives broke the law by withholding information on sectarian murders and by destroying evidence on serious crime in order to protect their informants. That behaviour was tacitly accepted as being necessary by their superior offices because of particular circumstances. But Mrs O’Loan concluded that it led to the development of the Ulster Volunteer Force and the expansion of its sectarian and criminal activities within the community.

As might be expected, there was an attempted cover-up. Half of the retired RUC officers contacted by the Ombudsman’s office did not respond. Those who did, including some at the highest level, either declined to co-operate with the investigation or they provided evasive or contradictory evidence. On occasion, the individuals concerned told complete untruths. Files were later sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions but no charges have been brought. In spite of that, Northern Secretary of State Peter Hain has insisted there will be consequences for those involved.

PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde has accepted all of the recommendations made in the report concerning new reporting structures and the handling of police informants. He criticised the management and oversight of the RUC special branch. And the few remaining officers employed within the PSNI, will be retrained and assigned to different work.

Senior politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea have responded with suitable concern. The Taoiseach found the report on RUC collusion with the leader of a loyalist murder gang to be “deeply disturbing”. The British prime minister expressed his “profound regret” while noting that recent reforms would prevent any recurrence.

This is a time of particular sensitivity in Northern Ireland, as the Sinn Fin leadership consults its members over a policy change that could provide formal recognition for the PSNI and open the door to powersharing with the Democratic Unionist Party. A special ardfheis will decide the matter. The party’s chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has chosen to regard the Ombudsman’s report as a positive development and a challenge to republicans to participate in a fully representative police service. That is the way to go.

7

A few quick points:

  1. It is unbelievable that there is not going to be an inquiry into this. The police were found to be aiding in 15 murders
  2. Because this has happened does not mean that the IRA are exonorated from blame for everything. I certainly would not doubt that Omagh was the work of the real IRA and the real IRA alone
  3. Sinn Fein’s stance on policing takes on a new significance now. It should be given the respect it deserves from Unionists and not treated as something that Nationists/Republicans should just sign up to and forget it
8

A few quick responses.

  1. Agreed, and how can they not launch an investigation into other suspected incidents of collusion - this report had very specific terms and the 15 cases are confined to one area in one timeframe.
  2. I don’t exonerate the IRA from blame for anything - though it does explain their perceived legitimacy of security targets. However, I think you need to ask yourself whether the British were capable of carrying out the Omagh attack. And then think about what evidence there is to suggest the Real IRA did it. Think of all the evidence that has been discredited and rubbished as invention or lies. Why did someone go to all this trouble?

Read the report or a summary of the report Nuala O’Loan prepared on the Omagh investigation. That was massively critical of the RUC for not acting on warnings they were given by an informant. She was publicly humiliated by Ronnie O’Flanagan and plenty of politicians because everyone had already decided who was to blame for Omagh. Nobody wanted to read about indifference, ineptitude or something more sinister in the RUC.

I’m not saying that the British bombed Omagh - I am saying that I can see that it might have been the case.
3. Agreed. Raymond McCord was on the radio yesterday appealing for Sinn Fin not to sign up to policing until there was a full inquiry.

9

Fair enough - it is a possiblity. I would say however that if the British were to blame then it would be more likely that they knew that the real IRA were planning it and let them go ahead and do it - which is as bad as bombing the town themselves

I have always been interested in the warning phonecall that sent people down towards the bomb. Don’t ask me why but I have always felt that there was something sinister there

What would the British have to gain though? The bomb has not served to discredit Sinn Fein at all - they distanced themselves from it straight away and have never been blamed for it. If the aim of the British was, as you said to discredit the Nationalists, then why didn’t they lay the blame at the Provo’s door?

10

I think the whole policing debate will be incredibly interesting in the wake of these revelations. Martin McGuinness, as the Times editorial says, has regarded the report as a ‘positive development’ in that finally the RUC has been brought to task for their assistance in the systematic murder of Irish people. Equally though there will be a sizeable element in Sinn Fein who will see the report as proof, once and for all, that RUC/PSNI can never, ever be trusted. If the 2nd largest party and their supporters have no support for and cannot accept the police service then that is a serious problem. Meanwhile the DUP try to dilute the significance of the report’s findings when it is clear there should be a full and extensive enquiry, like the Guardian says, for people like ‘Sir’ Ronnie Flanagan, all those pricks who lied or wouldn’t co-operate, all the various Northern Secretaries to even attempt to justify what the fook they were doing. I am outraged by this.

11

It was too obvious it wasn’t the work of the Provos - they weren’t interested in bombing a town like Omagh in the height of their campaign never mind when they were on a prolonged ceasefire. I don’t think the aim would have been to undermine Sinn Fin specifically, rather to harm the cause of the peace process at large and the broader aims of republicanism. For all the lines of communication and dialogue that existed between the security forces and paramilitary organisations on both sides, none of those channels were used to help bring about peace. It’s hard to understand the mindset of special branch RUC but it was not about the safety and security of the state. They viewed themselves as soldiers and spies and were only interested in prolonging the conflict to bring about a military victory.

I think Sinn Fin played the aftermath of the bomb quite well - they condemned it outright but kept a distance from commentary as they had no wish to be viewed under the same umbrella as the perpetrators. What they are doing now is not very commendable in my opinion. They are allowing a show trial to proceed with little comment or intervention or debate. They are still distancing themselves from the event - for political reputational reasons - but at the same time it’s undermining their calls for universal justice for McCabe’s killers etc. because I don’t see them as being consistent on all trials.

12

If you fancy reading the report in full:

http://www.policeombudsman.org//Publ...SION%20PDF.pdf

13

Watched Prime Time and Spotlight last night to see was there any fall out from this.

‘Reverand’ Willie McRea of the DUP rejected the report and its findings even though it has been accepted without question by Hugh Orde, PSNI Chief Constable, and it’s his force that bears the brunt of the criticism.

‘Lord’ Ken Magennis of the UUP rejected the report and its findings even though it has been accepted without question by Hugh Orde, PSNI Chief Constable, and it’s his force that bears the brunt of the criticism.

Both of them sought to trivialise the report even though many people lost their lives directly as a result of the cooonts in the RUC/PSNI who destroyed evidence, didn’t act on evidence and withheld evidence. As Nuala O’Loan and John Finucane clearly and articulately made their points these two bigots looked set to combust. They kept complaining that it was a one-sided report.

Of course it was you retards. Nuala O’Loan explained that when the Police Ombudsman’s office receives a complaint they are required by law to investigate it. In this case the complaint was from Raymond McCord Snr who alleged his son’s UVF killers were assisted and protected by the security forces. So the investigation centred around RUC/PSNI/Special Branch/UVF.

Now these boys are saying it’s a witch hunt against ‘one side’ and you can’t trust any of its findings. What despicable bastards they are. If fooks like that had their way it’d be back to the early 1960s where catholics had no rights whatsoever. They’re sitting there pining for an apartheid like state up there. Pure filth.

14

from The Village website:

Sir/Madam,

According to the White House America’s ‘War on Terrorism’ makes “no
distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who
support and harbor terrorists. We are working to disrupt the flow of
resources from states to terrorists while simultaneously end state
sponsorship of terrorism.”

Given that in her recent report Nuala O’Loan found that the British
security forces have supported, harboured and resourced terrorists and
that George Bush has said that " if you harbor a terrorist, you’re
equally as guilty as the terrorist" should we now open the debate on
whether we are going to allow Shannon to be used as a base for air
strikes on London by the US Air Force?

15

Smashing letter from the Village Bandage.

The reaction of mainstream unionism has been pathetic - Maginnis is considered a moderate in Unionist circles. Absolute prick of the first degree.

Dawn Purvis (new leader of the PUP) was on the radio this morning and in fairness to her she was saying that the likes of Maginnis and McRea are fools.

16

Good letter above - shows the double standards at work in politics today

I saw Primetime last night and I was hugely impressed with Nuala O’'Loin.

McCrea is an idiot. He said that O’Loin has it in for the RUC in this case just like she had it in for them in the Omagh bombing. Thats like saying if someone is charged twice with murder then the cops have it ‘in for him’, instead of the more obvious reason - that he is actually guilty

17

The head of the Retired Police Constables and Sargents of Northern Ireland or something was on the radio this morning and he came across as a right prick. Something Albiston his name was.

Anyway he was basically making a couple of points:

  1. He didn’t like the interview style
  2. The inquiry didn’t need to ask his members any questions because there are enough serving members who used to work on the force then still in the PSNI so why were they hassling him
  3. He has great respect for Ronnie Flanagan and so should everybody - he is a great man.

Arsehole.

  1. It’s not his decision who interviews him or in what style. He is being interviewed by a statutory body and deciding not to co-operate is chicken-shit cop-out.
  2. It’s perfectly reasonable and of course accepted behavior for an investigating body to corroborate evidence by asking the same question of more than one person.
  3. Sums him up. Trenchant, ignoring the facts, living in an imperial past.

Cannot believe the easy time he was given on Morning Ireland.

18

The following is the full prepared text of Gerry Adams’s address to
the special Sinn Fein conference on policing policy, currently taking
place in the RDS in Dublin.

A chairde. T scaifte mr anseo inniu. Poblachtanaigh le chile. Lidir
agus aontaithe. Dia daoibh agus filte mr romaibh uilig.

Go h’araithe ba maith liom bualadh bos mor a thabairt do clainne ar
gcairde agus comradaithe a fuair bas ar son muintir na h’Eireann.

T fhios agam go bhfuil daoine anseo i bhfbhar an rn on Ard
Chomhairle.T a daoine in aghaidh an rn agus daoine eile idir na dha
iteanna. T muid anseo le cheile. Agus t muid ag lorg diospoireacht
oscailte.

Ag crioch den diospoireacht beidh muid le chile fs. Is sin an rud
mr finn an rud iontach.

All over this island comrades have come together in debates and
discussions about how to advance our struggle at this critical time in
our history.

And comrades have argued out these issues in a frank and robust way. In
a mature way which must be the envy of our detractors and our
opponents.

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this debate. I want to
thank all the people in Ard Oifig and throughout the country who
organised this extraordinary Ard Fheis. Volunteerism is alive and well
in Sinn Fein.

Today’s proceedings and the last few weeks of meetings in every part of
Ireland is proof of that. Well done. I also want to thank all of you
who are here in your thousands. Everyone is welcome.

I am also mindful that the families of the dead of Bloody Sunday are
gathering in Derry this afternoon. Out thoughts are with the Bloody
Sunday families and all other victims of British state terrorism.

Martina Anderson, one of our leaders, who is speaking here today will
later represent us at the Bloody Sunday rally. I want a special bualadh
bos mor for the families of our patriot dead many of whom are here
today. I know there are activists who are opposed to the Ard
Chomhairle’s motion.

Your views are as valid as anyone else’s and it is the character of our
struggle that we can agree to differ on tactical matters.

Why is this so? It is because we are in agreement about our primary
objectives. Sinn Fein is an Irish Republican Party. Our resolve is to
end British rule on this island; to end partition; and to bring about a
32 county democratic socialist republic.

There are activists who are in favour of the Ard Chomhairle motion. And
others perhaps who are between the two positions. Today’s debate is
about getting agreement on all of this. We come into this Ard Fheis
united, as unrepentant republicans. We know we can achieve our
objectives.

Whatever decision we reach, we will leave here united as unrepentant
republicans who can achieve our objectives.

Achieving our objectives – that is the big question facing us all. How
do we do that? We need to build support for the republican position.
There are now more republicans on the island of Ireland than at any
time in decades.

There are now more people supporting Sinn Fein than at any time since
the 1920s. Our party is organised throughout this island. But we have a
lot more to do to build our capacity and our political strength.

There are republicans in most of the political parties in this state –
the PDs of course are the dishonourable exception.

There are many, many more people outside the political parties who want
equality, who want citizens to be treated properly, who want an end to
British rule and a united Ireland.

The vast, vast majority of citizens want a just and lasting peace on
this island. I include the vast majority of unionists. So there are
many people who are open to the republican message of equality, peace
with justice and freedom. What we have to do is to make our
republicanism relevant to all these people.

We have to plot a course from today’s partitioned, divided Ireland into
a new, agreed Ireland and from there into a national Republic. How do
we do that? We think big. We live and struggle in the present but we
think in the future. We get ready for government.

We build political strength.

We make the battle for equality, for peoples’ rights and entitlements,
a 32 county battle.

That includes in this state a health service based on need and not on
the ability to pay. It means decent housing. It means the wealth of the
Celtic Tiger being used for the common good. It means building the
peace.

It means reaching out to unionism. It also means reaching out to
republicans of all persuasions. We have to engage with all these
people.

We have to find a space in our struggle for all those who want to bring
about a united Ireland. And who are prepared to work with us in facing
up to the British government. Republicanism should never about elitism
or dogma or militarism.

Republicanism always has to be about citizenship and people’s rights
and equality. We are about making republicanism relevant to people in
their daily lives. Citizens’ rights include the right to a proper
policing service.

We who live in the north have never had proper policing. The old RUC
and all of its associated militia served the union, upheld the orange
state and repressed everyone else. At the beginning of this week the
Ombudsman in the north confirmed that state agencies had colluded with
unionist paramilitaries in killing citizens.

Over the last two decades Sinn Fein has provided the Irish government
with detailed evidence about British state terrorism and the
involvement of its agencies, including the police, in atrocities
against the people of this island.

There was a campaign of British state terror aimed in the first
instance at the republicans and the nationalist people of the north.

Sinn Fein was a primary target of this policy of collusion- our
activists, our elected representatives and our families. But these
sectarian death squads once unleashed by the British state also engaged
in a murderous campaign against ordinary Catholics.

People within their own communities also fell foul of there thugs. At
times the attacks killed people here in this state, like the victims of
the Dublin and Monaghan bombings or our own Eddie Fullerton, a Sinn
Fein county councillor from Donegal.

The Ombudsman’s report came about because a very brave man, a unionist,
Raymond McCord senior had the courage and tenacity to demand the truth
about the killing of his son by the UVF in north Belfast. Irish
society, north and south, Orange and Green and all the colours in
between, owes a great debt to Raymond McCord Snr and his family.

The Ombudsman 's report gives us only a snapshot of the corruption of
collusion in a very small area, over a short period of time. Any
similar investigation, in any part of the six counties would have the
same outcome.

Why? Because British state terrorism and collusion with death squads
was an administrative practise and part of the British government’s
strategy to defeat the republican struggle And because it employed
serial killers, drug pushers, and sectarian thugs, they killed anyone
else who got in their way, including Raymond McCord junior and many
others.

Why were the state agencies involved in this activity? In order to
uphold British rule in our country. So, ordinary unionists have a big
question to ask of themselves. Was this done in your name? Is the union
worth all that hypocrisy and terror and grief and mayhem?

The people of Britain also need to know what their government does in
our island. I put that point to Tony Blair in a phone call the day
after the Ombudsman’s report was issued. The very first time we met the
British Prime Minister 10 years ago we gave him a file on collusion.

It was a file on the activities of British agent Brian Nelson who was
involved in numerous killings, including that of human rights lawyer
Pat Finucane.

Another primary target of British Intelligence was Alex Maskey who
Brian Nelson repeatedly tried to murder. I want to send solidarity to
Alex and his brother Paul and their family on the death on Friday of
their father, Alex Snr.

The dedication of republicans during all this time makes clear our
determination to prosecute the struggle to its final conclusion. Mr.
Blair was to go on to tell us years later that since his time in
Downing Street he had not authorised any such activities in Ireland.

Then who did authorise these killing or the cover ups, or the running
of the drug pushers, or the payments of these killers? Who authorised
their non-prosecution by the DPP? Who within the British establishment
thinks they are more powerful than the British Prime Minister?

I told Mr. Blair last Tuesday and in another telephone call on Friday
that the British state has to open up this can of worms and face up to
its responsibilities. It has to acknowledge the great hurt it has
inflicted on almost a thousand citizens who were killed, and their
families who have suffered directly, and all the thousands of others
who had their rights undermined and subverted by a policy, which
encouraged paramilitarism and violence and which in turn corrupted
Protestant working class communities.

I also told Mr. Blair that British policy in Ireland has to change. It
has to change to one which proactively works with the people of this
island to end British jurisdiction in Ireland.

The Irish government has said it is shocked by the Ombudsman’s report.
Shocked? What are they shocked about? This city of Dublin was bombed
and 26 people were killed. The same day the same gang killed 7 people
in Monaghan. There wasn’t even a proper Garda investigation into these
atrocities.

Remember - in the aftermath of these attacks the British told the Fine
Gael and Labour government that they had interned those they believed
were responsible. And what did the government of the day do?

Absolutely nothing! They didn’t have these men questioned, they didn’t
seek their arrest.

They did nothing.

And every Irish government since then has failed these families and all
those killed as a result of British state violence.

This is unacceptable.

It is a disgrace. The Dublin Monaghan bombings were carried out by the
Glenanne gang, based in Armagh and run by MI5. This gang was a mixture
of UDR, RUC, and unionist paramilitaries. The government has known
about this for a very long time. So why do they say they are shocked?

Eddie Fullerton was killed in May 1991. He was an elected
representative of citizens of this state. Yet the Taoiseach never met
his family until last November.

Fifteen years later. Shocked?

The Ombudsman’s report was published a week ago. Now that they have had
time to recover from their shock what is the Irish government going to
do? Very little – if they can get away with it. That’s where Sinn Fein
comes in. That’s why we are dealing with this motion today.

The Thatcher government paid, trained, directed and equipped the death
squads. It authorised and covered up its policy of collusion and state
terrorism. But some of the events covered by the Ombudsman’s report
occurred after the Good Friday Agreement.

We have to ensure that these dreadful events never ever happen again.
Or if there is even the slightest whisper of a reoccurrence that it is
speedily exposed and dealt with. We have to get the government here to
face up to the British government as equals and to work with the more
progressive elements within that government to protect, uphold and
actively promote the rights of our people, including the right of the
Irish people to freedom and independence.

The Office of the Ombudsman would not be in existence and would not
have the powers that it does if Sinn Fein had not been tenacious and
determined in our negotiating strategy.

There are now more accountability mechanisms in the north than there
are in this state and there is resistance from the Department of
Justice and the establishment here to have these mechanisms in place in
this jurisdiction. Sinn Fein stayed out of the policing structures in
the north until now because that was the best way to bring about the
necessary threshold.

Instead we campaigned on the streets; brought the issue repeatedly to
the negotiating table, and secured fundamental change when others had
given up. We now want to enter into the policing structures to bring
about further change and to deliver accountable, civic, non-partisan
policing for our people – all our people.

And remember it was the Irish government, as well as the British and US
government, the Catholic Hierarchy and all the establishment parties in
this state who tried to force us into accepting something less than we
have now achieved at this time. They all supported the SDLP.

This is the party that until recently claimed that collusion was a
republican myth.

Before Patten - before the Good Friday Agreement the SDLP said they
could ‘work with’ Ronnie Flanagan.

And the Policing Board, which the SDLP are part of, extended Flanagan’s
contract.

The Policing Board, which included the SDLP, purchased tens of
thousands of plastic bullets.

The SDLP never demanded the disbandment of the RUC.

They worked with the RUC. So it was hardly a shock when they joined the
Policing Board in 2001. And when they did, instead of confronting
collusion, MI5 and the human rights abusers, they became cheer leaders
for the PSNI. They became part of the policing problem.

They failed to hold the PSNI to account. So, my friends we cannot leave
policing to the unionist parties or the SDLP or the Irish government.
We certainly cannot leave it to the British government. We cannot leave
it to the securocrats.

So let’s have our debate. And let’s take our decisions. I myself only
made my mind up on this a short time ago. About two months ago I
brought together a small group of very senior republicans – very
experienced activists – and asked them to bring forward to me as Party
President recommendations on how I proceed at this point.

They made two recommendations.

Firstly that the strategic advancement of the republican struggle at
this time requires a deal on policing; and secondly that the deal on
policing has to be acceptable to republicans. They then detailed issues
which they thought needed to be resolved to do this. That is what has
guided me since. We have resolved these issues.

So, the time is now right, and I am appealing to you comrades to
support this motion. Gerry Kelly will give you a detailed account of
the policing negotiations. Martin McGuinness and Mary Lou McDonald will
formally move the Ard Chomhairle motion.

Some of you may disagree. That is perfectly acceptable. For example
Ogra disagrees with us on this issue. I wish they didn’t but I respect
their position and I especially commend their resolve to accept the
outcome of this Ard Fheis debate.

That is the way all of us need to face into today’s discussions. Irish
republicanism is about people. It’s about the future. It’s about a new
egalitarian society; it’s about the new Irish and the indigenous Irish,
it’s about orange and green uniting on the basis of equality.

It’s about the Proclamation of 1916 becoming a reality. So it’s bigger
than us; it’s bigger than Sinn Fein; it’s in the common good. This
morning we came into this Ard Fheis united. At the end of our debate
this evening let us go out of here with our heads held high and ready
for the next phase of our struggle.

Let us go out united and marching forward. Bigi linn; bigi le cheile.

19

This weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of the death of Robert Hamill - yet another victim of the collusion between terrorists and police in the north.

Reading a book called Trigger Men at the moment and I was astounded by the scale of murders planned, facilitated and even carried out by the security forces. Absolutely sickening - not just the murders but how they then went about blackening the victims’ names after their deaths by falsely implicating them in other crimes and accused many totally innocent victims of being terrorists themselves etc.

There’s an excellent article on the Hamill case on the link below. It’s a few years old but charts the disgraceful actions of the police last night.

http://g21.net/irish20.htm

20

Shady, shady new information coming to light about the Omagh Bombings. There’s a Panorama programme about it tomorrow night.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7606834.stm

GCHQ ‘monitored Omagh bomb calls’

The UK’s electronic intelligence agency GCHQ recorded mobile phone exchanges between the Omagh bombers on the day of the attack, the BBC has learned.

The BBC’s Panorama says the calls were monitored as the bombers drove the car bomb into the County Tyrone town.

The attack on 15 August 1998 was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles, and killed 29 people.

The Panorama programme has led to calls from bereaved relatives for a full public inquiry.

‘Shadowy and secret’

Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay, a member of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said the BBC’s revelations needed to be “thoroughly investigated”.

The MP for Thurrock said: "It is disgraceful that there is no parliamentary oversight of the intelligence and security services.

"All there is, is… the shadowy and highly secret, so-called ‘intelligence and security committee’.

“Its existence simply will not be sufficient to assuage grieving relatives, nor the public, that we were well served by our security services in this incident.”

The committee, set up in 1994 with the task of overseeing the security services, has nine members hand-picked by the prime minister and reports to them.

The 500lb (227kg) Omagh bomb was planted by members of the Real IRA - renegade IRA members opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.

Despite police inquiries on both sides of the Irish border over the last 10 years, at the cost of tens of millions of pounds, none of the bombers are in jail.

Well-placed sources told Panorama that GCHQ was monitoring the bombers’ phones that day, a claim confirmed by Ray White, former assistant chief constable in charge of crime and Special Branch for the Northern Ireland police service.

Whether GCHQ could have helped stop the bombing comes down to whether they were listening to live exchanges between the bombers, allowing them to respond to events, or whether they were simply recording the conversations.

Interception plan

Mr White told Panorama that the Special Branch officer responsible for requesting GCHQ’s assistance was “adamant” he had asked for live monitoring.

He said the officer did this “primarily for the purpose of triggering a pre-arranged surveillance plan” to interdict the bombers.

Some weeks before Omagh was attacked, the Special Branch was given a mobile phone number being used by bombers operating mainly from the Irish Republic. That number was passed to GCHQ for monitoring.

Two weeks before the Omagh bomb, the town of Banbridge in County Down was devastated by a similar car bomb attack, in which 38 people were injured.

In the minutes running up to the Banbridge attack, GCHQ recorded a phone exchange between the bombers, including the phrase “the bricks are in the wall” - a code meaning that the car bomb had been parked and the device armed.

Phone billing records show the Omagh bomb run began in Castleblaney in the Irish Republic at around 12.40 on 15 August, with two mobiles having a 14-second exchange - the first of nine such exchanges both before and after the bombing.

One mobile was in the scout car which was checking the road ahead was clear, the other in the bomb car.

Coded message

As Panorama reports, if intelligence officers were listening there were clues in the conversations, which though coded, could have acted as warnings.

At one point the scout mobile was called from a telephone box at a petrol station 100m (about 110 yards) inside Northern Ireland near Jonesborough.

Special Branch, who were monitoring the phone box, identified the voice as that of Liam Campbell, a senior Real IRA commander suspected of involvement in previous bombings.

At around 1330, the words “we’re crossing the line” were picked up from one of the mobiles, coinciding with one of the cars crossing the border into Northern Ireland at Aughnacloy.

By 1410 the cars were in Omagh, and at around 1420 came the same coded phrase used by the Banbridge bombers - “the bricks are in the wall”.

At 1504 the bomb exploded, by which time the bombers were safely back in the Irish Republic.

Transcripts

After the bombing, Panorama says, Special Branch asked GCHQ what happened and was told: “We missed it.”

Whether “missed it” was because GCHQ was simply recording the conversations, or whether officers had been listening in but had not understood the significance of the coded fragments, is not clear.

But, as Panorama reports, even if GCHQ could not have prevented the attack, more could have been done to help the investigation.

According to one of the sources who spoke to the programme, transcripts reporting exchanges with up to five mobiles associated with the bombers were sent to Belfast “within hours” of the bombing.

However, these were never disclosed to the detectives hunting the bombers.

In fact, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, former chief constable of both the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), told Panorama he was unaware GCHQ had been monitoring the bombers’ mobile phones.

‘Golden hours’

Former RUC and PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Ray White said that sharing telephone numbers and the identities of those using the mobiles with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) immediately “would have been, in a sense, manna from heaven”.

He said that arrests could have been made in the “golden hours period” when forensic and other evidential opportunities were at their optimum.

However, Mr White said Special Branch members have told him they did not receive details of GCHQ intercepts until three days after the bombing.

Yet Panorama reports that while the Special Branch did brief the CID, there is no record in the CID log of a full briefing until three and a half weeks after the bombing.

Even then detectives only received some of the names of the main suspects, with no details to help them build a case. Special Branch sources say this was sanitised by GCHQ not them.

The fact that the bombers had used mobile phones, and that GCHQ had voice recordings and their telephone numbers, was withheld.

Consequently the CID was forced to spend nine months trawling through 6.4 million telephone records to finally identify 22 suspects’ phones active in Omagh and four other bombings.

Although this proved which mobiles had been in Omagh, prosecutors needed evidence of who had been using them before going to court.

GCHQ had some voice recordings, but by law intercepts cannot be admitted as evidence. Panorama says there was nothing to stop the details from being shared with the CID to give them early leads.

In response to Panorama’s findings, Michael Gallagher, chairman of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group, said: "We have been demanding a public inquiry since 2002 into the abysmal failure of the police inquiries.

“In all conscience the government can no longer resist this.”

The government declined to respond to detailed written questions submitted by Panorama.

Panorama: Omagh - What the Police Were Never Told will be broadcast on BBC One at 8.30pm on Monday 15 September.