Stakeknife

Don't Steal Kevin Fultons Photographs

2011-12-26T02:28:00.000-08:00

Don't Steal Kevin Fultons Photographs, or you will wind up in the courts.

High Tec Touting.

2011-11-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

High Tec Touting.
Was The Sunday Times Involved In Computer Hacking ?

It has been suggested that some of those involved in the computer hacking scandal may have been working for Government agencies, So we would have a case of spies hacking spies and reporting back to MI5/6 and police special branch.

It has also been suggested that an email address of a Sunday Times journalist from Northern Ireland may have been involved in the hacking(with out his permission of course )so he may have been hacked so the hacker could hack others.........

Ian Hurst at The Leveson Inquiry .( listen for the Sunday Times bit )

Peter Hain warned computer may have been hacked by private detectives

2011-11-28T22:42:00.000-08:00

Peter Hain warned computer may have been hacked by private detectives.

The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain has been told by the Metropolitan police that they are investigating evidence that his computer, and those of senior Northern Ireland civil servants and intelligence agents, may have been hacked by private detectives working for News International.

The suggestion that the minister's computers, containing sensitive intelligence material, may have been compromised is the most serious sign yet that newspaper malpractice extended far beyond the hacking of mobile phone voicemail, into the realm of other electronic data.

The investigation into computer hacking is being carried out by detectives from Scotland Yard's specialist crime directorate. It is separate, but related to the phone hacking investigation.

Officers from Operation Tuleta are looking at the activities of individuals who were paid by News International, including a firm of private detectives allegedly offering "ethical hacking". They are also looking at allegations about the detectives' connections within News International.

A spokesman for Hain would not directly comment on the news of recent contacts between him and the police but said: "This is a matter of national security and subject to a police investigation so it would not be appropriate to comment."

News International has declined to comment, but said on Monday night that Operation Tuleta was looking at a number of newspapers.

Hain, Labour MP for Neath, was Northern Ireland secretary from May 2005 to June 2007 when he was involved in sensitive peace negotiations. He will have had access to classified information about informers and security. It is understood from legal sources that Hain is to be asked to confirm material obtained by the police investigators comes from his computer. It is not known if Hain has been informed of the nature of the material identified.

Tom Watson, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee and a campaigner against phone hacking, said: "Phone hacking is one thing, but targeting the computers of ministers with high-security clearance takes this police investigation to another level. It also raises questions for News International about whether its management were aware."

The Metropolitan police arrested a 52-year-old man last week under investigation for computer hacking. His name has not been disclosed. He has been released on police bail until early December.

The allegations focus on the use of Trojan emails. These involve a hacker sending a computer virus to the target's computer. The virus then allows access to computer content as the keyboard is used.

The revelation comes on the day the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard from Ian Hurst, a former British army intelligence agent, who used to recruit and run agents within the IRA in Northern Ireland. Hurst, who also used the pseudonym Martin Ingram, told the inquiry he understood his computer was hacked into by a Trojan Horse virus in 2006 by private investigators working on behalf of the News of the World.

He said he had been shown a seven-page fax by the BBC, which was researching a Panorama programme on the subject for broadcast last March. The fax contained material from July 2006 which was "not only material from his computer", which came from the private investigators.

Police officers from the Tuleta team are already investigating evidence that Hurst's computer was hacked. The virus had been sent by email, and after he opened an attachment to an email it could read the contents of his email and computer hard drive and send them back to the private investigators. Hurst told the inquiry he learned later that the Trojan was also able to see through the webcam so the hackers "could have actually seen me or the kids at the desk".

The virus was sent to Hurst by "Mr X" – a hacker he knew from his time in Northern Ireland. Hurst said the hacker worked for a private investigator who was in turn working for the News of the World.

Last week Sienna Miller said her email had been hacked into in 2008. She told the Leveson inquiry that Glenn Mulcaire, the former private investigator convicted on phone hacking charges, had taken a note of "all my telephone numbers, the three that I changed in three months, my access numbers, pin numbers, my password for my email". She went on to tell the inquiry that the password "was actually used to later hack my email in 2008".

The news comes as James Murdoch faces a shareholder revolt over his continuing presence on the board of BSkyB, where he acts as chairman. It is estimated that somewhere around a third of independent, non-Murdoch shareholders, will not support his re-election to the board as investors register discontent over the phone-hacking affair. But the revolt will be smaller than that seen at News Corp in October where a majority of non-family investors support him. With News Corp also voting its 39.1% in favour of James Murdoch his overall election will be a formality.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/28/peter-hain-computer-private-investigators

**********************************************************

Hurst also accused the Sunday Times of hacking in his evidence,

Ian Hurst Statement to the Smithwick Tribunal of Inquiry Made Public.

2011-09-12T00:24:00.000-07:00

Ian Hurst Statement to the Smithwick Tribunal of Inquiry

Media must give footage of rioting to PSNI ( police ): court

2011-08-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Media must give footage of rioting to PSNI: court

Friday, 5 August 2011

News organisations must hand over to police all unseen footage of last month's rioting in Belfast, a judge has ordered.

Judge Piers Grant ruled that the unbroadcast and unedited material should be disclosed because there is a strong chance it could help identify troublemakers and secure convictions.

Lawyers for broadcasters had opposed the PSNI application due to fears it could heighten the risk to the safety of camera crews and reporters. They argued that journalists could be seen to be police evidence-gatherers and hamper their ability to do their job.

Belfast material released by the media following a similar application after disorder last summer was crucial in 15 prosecutions.

Police had sought footage and photographs from broadcasters and news agencies of the violence in parts of north and west Belfast on July 11, 12 and 13. The case centred on competing claims between the public interest in convicting the troublemakers and the threat to the freedom of the Press.

A detective sergeant in charge of co-ordinating evidence gathering told Belfast County Court that the requested unbroadcast footage was likely to be of substantial value.

Material released by the media following a similar application after disorder last summer was said to be crucial in 15 successful prosecutions. He also said: "There is an absolutely legitimate public interest in the detection of crime, the apprehension of those engaged in crime and the charging and sentencing of those involved in it."

The judge pointed out that there was no evidence of an increased threat to journalists following previous disclosure of similar footage.

He added: "I'm satisfied in all the circumstances that there is a strong likelihood that good material which would identify and has the potential to identify those engaged in these very serious and dangerous activities... that material is likely to be in existence.

"I order the disclosure of the material sought in the application."

Story so far

Officers were attacked with petrol and paint bombs in three nights of rioting from July 11. Police responded with water cannon and baton rounds. Hijacked vehicles were set on fire and thousands of pounds worth of damage was caused to property during the rioting. More than 40 officers were injured as mobs attacked police lines with petrol bombs and other missiles.

Story: ( Belfast Telegraph )

Read more:

Ian Hurst -Martin Ingram, Hacking: Formal criminal investigation

2011-07-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

Formal criminal investigation

Former army intelligence officer Ian Hurst told Channel 4 that he had been informed by the Met this week.

A private investigator working for News of the World allegedly hacked into Mr Hurst's computer in 2006 and retrieved sensitive emails regarding Northern Ireland security matters.

Police officers working for Operation Tuleta have informed me that they have identified information of evidential value in regards to my family's computer being illegally accessed over a sustained period of 2006. Ian Hurst, Former army intelligence officer.

In a statement, Mr Hurst said:

"Police officers working for Operation Tuleta have informed me that they have identified information of evidential value in regards to my family's computer being illegally accessed over a sustained period of 2006.
"The decision by the Metropolitan Police to proceed to a full criminal investigation was conveyed to me this week by Tuleta police officers."

EX-Garda Exposes New Informer At Smithwick tribunal.

2011-07-28T02:19:00.000-07:00

EX-Garda Exposes New Informer At Smithwick tribunal.

Ex Garda sergeant Tom Fox exposes a new informer called "Mr McCann"

The ex-detective said the man he had referred to in his evidence was a Mr McCann, who he had believed was also Mr Keeley.

The retired detective who said an MI5 agent was "unreliable" and "a spacer" has told the Smithwick tribunal that the man he was talking about was not Peter Keeley, the British agent also known as 'Kevin Fulton'.

Inquiries at the social welfare office in Dundalk after Mr McCann left the area had revealed that no person of that name was signing on, he said, although Mr McCann had been seen regularly at the office.

Sources say that there are now new investigations in Republican circles to find out the identity of Mr McCann.

Ex-garda Tom Fox in tribunal U-turn on agent claim

2011-07-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

By Gerard Cunningham
Thursday, 28 July 2011

A retired Irish detective who said an MI5 agent was "unreliable" and "a spacer" has told the Smithwick tribunal that the man he was talking about was not Peter Keeley, the British agent also known as 'Kevin Fulton'.

Garda sergeant Tom Fox clarified his evidence from last Friday when he was shown a photograph of Mr Keeley at the tribunal.

The image, taken from a website, was supplied to the tribunal by lawyers representing Belfast republican Freddie Scappaticci.

"I can confirm to you that I never saw that man in my life," Mr Fox told the inquiry.

The ex-detective said the man he had referred to in his evidence was a Mr McCann, who he had believed was also Mr Keeley. Inquiries at the social welfare office in Dundalk after Mr McCann left the area had revealed that no person of that name was signing on, he said, although Mr McCann had been seen regularly at the office.

Mr Fox also said a man known as 'Mooch' Blair was well-known to gardai in Dundalk.

Counsel for Mr Keeley said Mr Blair was "a well-known subversive", and his client often drove Mr Blair in Dundalk.

In response to a question from counsel for retired detective sergeant Owen Corrigan, the tribunal was told that his real name was Peter Keeley, and this was the name he operated under while working as an MI5 British agent.

The tribunal heard that 'Kevin Fulton' was a pseudonym invented by a journalist when Mr Keeley gave interviews about the Omagh bombing and allegations that Mr Corrigan was an IRA "mole".

Mr Corrigan has described the allegation as a "monstrous lie".

The tribunal is examining claims of garda collusion in the deaths of RUC chief superintendent Harry Breen and superintendent Bob Buchanan as they returned from a meeting in Dundalk garda station in March 1989.

Retired assistant commissioner Edward O'Dea was sent to Dundalk in the days following the murder of the two RUC officers to investigate how the meeting was set up and who knew about it.

"I did a complete report, I sent it to the commissioner. It didn't come back to me," Mr O'Dea said.

In the report, Mr O'Dea concluded that no leak about the meeting came from within An Garda Siochana.

Mr O'Dea said that Buchanan "was really setting himself up" by travelling regularly to Garda stations in his own car without changing licence plates. And he said there was "no way" former Det Sgt Owen Corrigan would tip off the IRA. "I have no doubt in my mind as to his loyalty to the force."

The tribunal resumes in September.

Story: Belfast Telegraph.

Retired detective sergeant Tom Fox has told the Smithwick Tribunal that a former MI5 agent within the IRA was not 'a spacer'.

2011-07-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

Retired detective sergeant Tom Fox has told the Smithwick Tribunal that a former MI5 agent within the IRA was not 'a spacer'.

Smithwick Tribunal - Tom Fox retracted comments about Peter Keeley

A retired detective sergeant has clarified comments he made to the Smithwick Tribunal about a man who worked as an agent for MI5 within the IRA.

Tom Fox last week referred to a man he believed to be Peter Keeley, who also uses the name of Kevin Fulton.

Mr Fox had described him as a 'spacer' and was not a man who could be trusted. Information that he passed on was always exaggerated and that was the view of the detectives in Dundalk.

He had also said that if it was the person he thought it was, then he also used the name McCann.

Today a photograph of Mr Keeley was shown to Mr Fox when he was recalled by the tribunal.

The witness confirmed that this was not the person he had been talking about last week and that his comments did not refer to Mr Keeley.

Mr Keeley has already given a statement to the tribunal in which he claims that he was an agent in the IRA and that the Detective Sergeant Owen Corrigan was passing information to the paramilitaries. Mr Corrigan has always denied the claim.

The tribunal is investigating allegations that Mr Corrigan or two other named gardaí, retired sergeant Leo Colton or former garda Finbarr Hickey, were an IRA mole inside Dundalk Garda Station.

It has been alleged that one of them passed information to the IRA about a meeting in the station in March 1989 involving two senior RUC officers who were ambushed and killed shortly afterwards.

All three former gardaí deny the allegations.

Neil Rafferty, counsel for Mr Keeley, said his client operated inside the IRA for MI5 and that the name Kevin Fulton was given to him for newspaper reports when he spoke about the Omagh bombing and Mr Corrigan.

In reply to a question from Mr Rafferty, Mr Fox said he was aware that a man called 'Mooch' Blair was a well known subversive in Dundalk, but he did not know that Mr Keeley was a driver for this man.

Keywords:
smithwick tribunal

The End Of The World As We Know It....

2011-07-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

News Of The World Has Closed.....

Panorama, Tabloid Hacks Exposed

2011-06-14T12:18:00.000-07:00

What Philip Campbell Smith Said About News Of The World & Their Lawyers..

News Of The World Mislead To Their Lawyers In Computer Hacking Case

2011-06-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

News Of The World Mislead Their Lawyers In Computer Hacking Case

A hacking victim informs a Lawyer for The News Of The World after misleading claims where sent to his solicitors, the victim informs the Lawyer for the News Of The World that things are not what they seem with their client ( News Of The World ).

News Of The World Lied about Philip Campbell Smith. we bring you the recordings.....

Read The Letter & play the video !

Hacked British Agent ( Global News Press Release )

2011-06-10T02:05:00.000-07:00

Global News Press Release, 10.6.2011.

The Metropolitan Police's investigation into computer hacking

2011-06-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Metropolitan Police's investigation into hacking has widened from allegations of voicemail interception to that of emails and computer files, Channel 4 News has learned.

Full Details, CH4 News.

Operation Tuleta

2011-06-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

New Metropolitan Police Hacking Enquiry, "Operation Tuleta"

A New Metropolitan Police Hacking Enquiry "Operation Tuleta" has contacted a number of former British Army agents that have worked in Northern Ireland, (infiltrating the Provisional IRA)
in regard to computer hacking carried out on behalf of News International ( News Of The World )in London & Ireland.

The former British agents are expected to be interviewed shortly..

More to follow......

MP calls for expanded investigation as list grows of those allegedly hacked by Jonathan Rees for News International

2011-06-08T23:34:00.000-07:00

Pressure is building on the Metropolitan police to expand their phone-hacking inquiry to include a notorious private investigator who was accused in the House of Commons on Wednesday of targeting politicians, members of the royal family and high-level terrorist informers on behalf of Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Guardian inquiries reveal that the former prime minister Tony Blair is among the suspected victims of Jonathan Rees, who was involved in the theft of confidential data, the hacking of computers and, it is alleged, burglary. According to close associates of Rees, he also targeted:

• Jack Straw when he was home secretary, Peter Mandelson when he was trade secretary and Blair's media adviser Alastair Campbell;

• Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, and the Duke and Duchess of Kent, all of whom are said to have had their bank accounts penetrated, and Kate Middleton when she was Prince William's girlfriend;

• The former commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir John Stevens, and the current assistant commissioner, John Yates, who later supervised the failed phone-hacking inquiry for 19 months;

• The governor and deputy governor of the Bank of England, whose mortgage account details were obtained and sold.

Rees, who worked for the Mirror Group as well as the New of the World, is also accused of using a specialist computer hacker in July 2006 to steal information about MI6 agents who had infiltrated the Provisional IRA. According to a BBC Panorama programme in March, Rees was commissioned by Alex Marunchak, then the News of the World's executive editor, to hack the information from the computer of Ian Hurst, a former British intelligence officer in Northern Ireland who had stayed in contact with several highly vulnerable agents. Marunchak has denied the allegations.

The Guardian has previously identified other suspected targets of Rees, including Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, George Michael, Linford Christie, Gary Lineker, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, and the family of the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe.

None of these cases has been officially confirmed or even investigated. With many of them, it is not yet clear precisely what form of surveillance Rees and his agency, Southern Investigations, were using. Answers may lie in the "boxloads" of paperwork the Metropolitan police are believed to have seized from Rees.

But the Labour MP Tom Watson told the prime minister on Wednesday the head of the Operation Weeting inquiry into the News of the World's investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, had told him that it may be beyond its terms of reference to investigate this evidence.

"Prime minister, powerful forces are attempting a cover-up," Watson said. "Please tell me what you intend to do, to make sure this doesn't happen."

While Glenn Mulcaire worked for the News of the World as a full-time employee from 2001, Rees worked freelance for the Mirror Group and the News of the World from the mid 1990s. His agency was earning up to £150,000 a year from the News of the World alone. In 1999, he was arrested and sentenced to seven years for conspiring to plant cocaine on a woman so that her husband would get custody of their children.

After his release in May 2004, the News of the World continued to hire him under the editorship of Andy Coulson, who went on to become David Cameron's media adviser. Rees's targets during this period included Prince William's then girlfriend, Kate Middleton.

On Wednesday, a News International spokesperson said: "It is well documented that Jonathan Rees and Southern Investigations worked for a whole variety of newspaper groups. With regards to Tom Watson's specific allegations, we believe these are wholly inaccurate. The Met police, with whom we are co-operating fully in Operation Weeting, have not asked us for any information regarding Jonathan Rees. We note again that Tom Watson MP made these allegations under parliamentary privilege."

Scotland Yard is believed to have collected hundreds of thousands of documents during a series of investigations into Rees over his links with corrupt officers, and over the 1987 murder of his former business partner, Daniel Morgan. Charges of murder against Rees were dismissed earlier this year.

Daniel Morgan's brother, Alastair, who has been gathering information for a book, told the Guardian he was aware from his own investigations and from material revealed in court hearings that the Metropolitan police was holding "boxloads" of evidence on Rees's activities. Guardian inquiries suggest that this paperwork could include explosive new evidence of illegal news-gathering by the News of the World and other papers.

According to journalists and investigators who worked with him, Rees exploited his position as a freemason to make links with masonic police officers who illegally sold him information on targets chosen by the News of the World, the Sunday Mirror and the Daily Mirror. One close contact, Det Sgt Sid Fillery, left the Metropolitan police to become Rees's business partner and added more officers to their network. Fillery was subsequently convicted of possession of indecent images of children.

Some police contacts are said to have been blackmailed into providing confidential information. One of Rees's former associates claims that Rees had compromising photographs of serving officers, including one who was caught in a drunken coma with a couple of prostitutes and with a toilet seat around his neck. Rees claimed to be in touch with corrupt Customs officers, a corrupt VAT inspector and two corrupt bank employees.

An investigator who worked for Rees claims he was commissioning burglaries of public figures to steal material for newspapers. Southern Investigations has previously been implicated in handling paperwork which was stolen by a professional burglar from the safe of Paddy Ashdown's lawyer, when Ashdown was leader of the Liberal Democrats. The paperwork, which was eventually obtained by the News of the World, recorded Ashdown discussing his fears that newspapers might expose an affair with his secretary.

The Guardian has confirmed that Rees also used two specialist "blaggers" who would telephone the Inland Revenue, the DVLA, banks and phone companies and trick them into handing over private data to be sold to Fleet Street.

One of the blaggers who regularly worked for him, John Gunning, was responsible for obtaining details of bank accounts belonging to Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex, which were then sold to the Sunday Mirror. Gunning was later convicted of illegally obtaining confidential data from British Telecom. Rees also obtained details of accounts at Coutts bank belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The bank accounts of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, are also thought to have been compromised.

The Guardian has been told that Rees spoke openly about obtaining confidential data belonging to senior politicians and recorded their names in his paperwork. One source close to Rees claims that apart from Tony Blair, Straw, Mandelson and Campbell, he also targeted Gaynor Regan, who became the second wife of the foreign secretary, Robin Cook, the former shadow home secretary, Gerald Kaufman; and the former Tory minister David Mellor.

It is not yet known precisley what Rees was doing with these political targets, although in the case of Peter Mandelson, it appears that Rees obtained confidential details of two bank accounts which he held at Coutts, and his building society account at Britannia. Rees is also said to have targeted his brother, Miles Mandelson.

Separately, for the News of the World, Glenn Mulcaire was hacking the voicemail of the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, Straw's successor as home secretary, David Blunkett, the media secretary, Tessa Jowell, and the Europe minister, Chris Bryant. Scotland Yard has repeatedly refused to reveal how many politicians were victims of phone hacking, although Simon Hughes, Boris Johnson and George Galloway have all been named.

The succesful hacking of a computer belonging to the former British intelligence officer Ian Hurst was achieved in July 2006 by sending Hurst an email containing a Trojan program which copied Hurst's emails and relayed them to the hacker. This included messages he had exchanged with at least two agents who informed on the Provisional IRA – Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife; and a second informant known as Kevin Fulton. Both men were regarded as high-risk targets for assassination. Hurst was one of the very few people who knew their whereabouts. The hacker cannot be named for legal reasons.

There would be further security concern if Rees's paperwork confirmed strong claims by those close to him that he claimed to have targeted the then Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who would have had regular access to highly sensitive intelligence. Sir John's successor, Sir Ian Blair, is believed to have been targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, although it has not been confirmed that Mulcaire succeeded in listening to his voicemail. Assistant commissioner John Yates was targeted by Rees when Yates was running inquiries into police corruption in the late 1990s. It appears that Yates did not realise that he himself had been a target when he was responsible for the policing of the phone-hacking affair between July 2009 and January 2011.

Targeting the Bank of England, Rees is believed to have earned thousands of pounds by penetrating the past or present mortgage accounts of the then governor, Eddie George, his deputy, Mervyn King, who is now governor, and half-a-dozen other members of the monetary policy committee.

According to police information provided to the Guardian in September 2002, an internal Scotland Yard report recorded that Rees and his network were engaged in long-term penetration of police intelligence and that "their thirst for knowledge is driven by profit to be accrued from the media".

Operation Weeting has been investigating phone hacking by the News of the World since January. The paper's assistant editor, Ian Edmondson, chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, and former news editor James Weatherup have been arrested and released on police bail.

On Wednesday, A police spokesman said: "[We] can confirm that since January 2011 the MPS [Metropolitan police service] has received a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting. These allegations are currently being considered."

Phone-hacking scandal widens to include Kate Middleton and Tony Blair

Kevin Fultons Comuter Hacked

2011-06-08T23:10:00.000-07:00

In 2007, Kevin Fulton made a complaint to police ombudsman's officers from Northern Ireland after information stored on his computer and the content of his emails were leaked to a journalist, Fulton at that time suspected the leak came from (PSNI) police officers or the security services MI5.

News Of the World Computer Hacking ...

2011-06-08T02:02:00.000-07:00

News of the world hacking case to take a new twist.

A new twist to the News Of the World hacking is about to break.
some of the victims of the computer hacking have been conducting their own investigations, it is said that they have uncovered a cover up by some police officers and other Government departments.

More to follow.......

An inquiry dreaded by all in Ulster's dirty war

2011-06-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

The Smithwick Tribunal into the murders of two senior RUC officers opens today. Even 22 years on, its findings could still send shockwaves through Dublin and London, writes Alan Murray.

On the morning of March 20, 1989, Harry Breen was consumed with foreboding. His hurriedly-planned journey to Dundalk Garda station with a colleague would be followed the next day with a top-level meeting with Customs and Excise officials and, two days after that, he was expected to slam a comprehensive report on the Chief Constable's desk outlining how effectively to dismantle the racketeering empire of the IRA's border godfather, Thomas 'Slab' Murphy.

Breen harboured thoughts of a fateful premonition and expressed disquiet to his staff officer at the presence of a particular Garda officer based in Co Louth and that officer's suspected links to the IRA.

Chief Superintendent Breen was scheduled to travel to Dundalk with a senior RUC colleague, but another operational commitment meant that the officer could not travel to Dundalk that day to fulfil the appointment.

Instead, it was determined that Harry Breen would travel to Dundalk with Superintendent Bob Buchanan who, the following week, would transfer to a much less dangerous operational posting in Newtownards, Co Down.

The two senior RUC officers would travel to Dundalk in Buchanan's red Vauxhall Cavalier car, which had been used previously by Buchanan to negotiate his way to Dundalk around 20 times in previous months.

What Breen did not know - and what Buchanan was totally unaware of - was that his Cavalier had been identified by the IRA as an 'RUC vehicle'.

Not only that, the IRA had tailed the Cavalier on a previous journey to Dundalk. Breen's sense of foreboding was completely justified.

But another thing that the two men and the RUC did not know was almost as alarming. An Army surveillance unit had actually observed and noted IRA 'dickers' following Buchanan's red Cavalier - the very car that was to be used to ferry Breen and Buchanan to and from Dundalk on March 20, 1989.

Why the Army failed to communicate the IRA's clear knowledge of Buchanan's car to the RUC's Special Branch, or why MI5 - if it received the intelligence information direct from the Army - failed to alert the RUC, is one of the compelling issues which will be probed at the Smithwick Tribunal which opens in formal public session in Dublin today.

The failure of the Garda and the RUC to take adequate and appropriate measures to safeguard the two senior RUC officers in the climate of intense IRA activity in 1989 will be one of the key aspects probed by Judge Smithwick's tribunal.
Collusion via omission has already been mentioned in the Rosemary Nelson Inquiry findings. And, if it was identified as a factor in her murder, then indisputably it was a key ingredient in the ability of the IRA to murder Harry Breen and Bob Buchanan.

The role of the Irish state in events leading up to the fatal ambush and the integrity of the Garda Siochanna will also come under the spotlight in the inquiry, which Dublin's justice minister, Alan Shatter, wants wrapped up by November.
It's not difficult to fathom why elements within the British and Irish security establishments - 22 years after the double-murder - might welcome proceedings being guillotined before the role of British Army double-agent Freddie Scappaticci could be dissected and explored in detail.

Equally difficult issues for the Dublin government that will arise will be why the decision of a Garda commissioner to approve the transfer of a garda based in Co Louth to another operational area was countermanded by Taoiseach Charlie Haughey's office not once, but twice.
Unofficially, some gardai in Co Louth were under suspicion by the force's headquarters in Dublin's Phoenix Park before Breen and Buchanan were ambushed.
Communications relating to IRA activity in Louth were routinely processed through Phoenix Park and RUC headquarters at Knock in Belfast, bypassing - where possible - gardai in the county.

The tribunal is expected to hear that the IRA had carried out surveillance of Dundalk Garda station from a building on the other side of the road and had probably first 'clocked' Bob Buchanan's red Cavalier as he parked it in front of the station during one of his 20 visits in the weeks prior to the Jonesborough ambush.
In spite of Harry Breen's foreboding about the trip to Dundalk, he would have been comforted slightly by the fact that the meeting with the Garda had not been long in the planning.
The IRA didn't have weeks to lay their deadly trap in Jonesborough. Perhaps they had only hours to prepare after learning that Buchanan's car was back again outside Dundalk Garda station.

Three former Garda officers have been granted legal representation at the Smithwick Tribunal, as has west Belfast IRA man Scappaticci - the British Army agent known as 'Stakeknife', who interrogated IRA members suspected of working for the British and who allegedly liaised with rogue Garda officers stationed along the border.
Scappaticci's involvement in the interrogation and torture of Cooley peninsula farmer Tom Oliver in July 1991 may be relevant to the Smithwick Tribunal.
It will be especially relevant if the Garda officer who betrayed Oliver - a registered Garda informant - is the same officer suspected of betraying Breen and Buchanan.

In spite of the Irish government's desire to guillotine Smithwick, it is inevitable that details embarrassing for both the British and Irish administrations will be made public.

Belfast Telegraph: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/an-inquiry-dreaded-by-all-in-ulsters-dirty-war-16008757.html

Former Agents Labelled As IRA Sympathisers

2011-06-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Ministry of Defence officials in London labelled three former British undercover agents as Republican sympathisers (IRA) to the prime ministers office and to other government departments.

The former agents, Sam Rosenfeld, Willie Carlin, & Kevin Fulton spoke out about the way they where abandoned and set up for murder by intelligence services after working undercover in Ireland against the IRA.

it is believed the MOD labelled the former spies as Republican sympathisers to discourage MP's and others from assisting the trio and to prevent dirty secrets of the MOD's dirty war in Ireland from being exposed.

More to follow....

Legal action is now in the pipeline as some of the former agents are instructing solicitors.

Maggie Hunter PSNI,C3.Requested "Adverse Intelligence" on Former British Agent.

2011-06-03T10:03:00.000-07:00

Maggie Hunter ( Very Very Old Photo )

Police look to British Army Intelligence for "Adverse Intelligence" on a former British Army Undercover Agent in Northern Ireland.

The then head of the "New Police" force PSNI (special Branch C3) Maggie Hunter contacted JSG a secret British Army Unit in Northern Ireland that replaced the Force Research Unit ( FRU )and requested "Adverse Intelligence on the subject"

A request for intelligence was not what she wanted,
she wanted "Adverse Intelligence" on the Agent......

More on this story later.....

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh Greeted By The Media ( No One Else Allowed )

2011-05-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on their Visit to Ireland are Greeted By The Media.
( No One Else Allowed )

This visit will be remembered by the Royals ( No Public Allowed )the world press can dress it all they want, one thing is for sure, the Queen has never been on a Royal Visit like this one.

Ian Hurst aka Martin Ingram ( Hacked )

2011-04-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

BBC Panorama ( Full Programme )

Ian Hurst "aka Martin Ingram) in BBC News

2011-03-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

BBC teaser of the Panorama programme to be aired on Monday 14.3.2011
The BBC expose how the News of the world hacked former British Army Intelligenc officer Ian Hurst ( Martin Ingram ) in the search for Stakeknife
" Freddie Scappaticci".
Hurst and others are hacked by a hacker who cannot be named ( yet !)

Panorama BBC1 8.30pm

Hacker hired by senior News of the World executive to intercept emails

2011-03-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Phone hacking: Panorama to name sixth journalist in News of the World scandal

Hacker hired by senior News of the World executive to intercept emails, BBC documentary says

Nick Davies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 13 March 2011 18.07 GMT
Article history

Clive Goodman, former royal editor of the News of the World, was jailed in January 2007 for his part in an illegal news-gathering scandal. Panorama is set to reveal the name of a senior News of the World journalist allegedly involved in the operation. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

The News of the World phone-hacking scandal is set to reach a new peak of embarrassment for the paper and for Scotland Yard with the naming of the sixth and most senior journalist yet to be implicated in illegal news-gathering.

A BBC Panorama programme claims that Alex Marunchak, formerly the paper's senior executive editor, commissioned a specialist snooper who illegally intercepted email messages from a target's computer and faxed copies of them to Marunchak's News of the World office.

The embarrassment is heightened by the fact that the target was a former British army intelligence officer who had served in Northern Ireland and was in possession of secrets which were deemed so sensitive that they had been suppressed by a court order.

Rupert Murdoch's News International, which owns the News of the World, has claimed repeatedly that only one of its journalists – the former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman – was involved in illegal news-gathering. When Goodman was jailed in January 2007, Scotland Yard chose not to interview any other journalist or executive on the paper.

And Panorama reports that the illegal interception of emails happened in July 2006, when the prime minister's former media adviser Andy Coulson was editing the paper.

Coulson has given evidence to a parliamentary select committee and on oath at a criminal trial, denying that he knew anything of any illegal activity during his seven years at the News of the World.

Panorama obtained details of a fax sent to the office of Marunchak on 5 July 2006, apparently containing copies of emails which had been written by Ian Hurst, a former army intelligence officer. Marunchak was then based in the News of the World's Dublin office, editing the Irish edition. Hurst was believed to be involved in writing a book titled Stakeknife, eventually published under the pseudonym Martin Ingram, which details the alleged involvement of British intelligence in assassinations in Northern Ireland. Hurst had been the subject of court orders obtained by the Ministry of Defence.

Panorama traced Hurst and showed him the fax. He confirmed on camera that the emails had come from his computer. "The hairs on the back of my head are up," he told them. Hurst then contacted a specialist hacker who he suspected was responsible, met him in a local hotel and confronted him, while the BBC secretly filmed the exchange.

The hacker – whose name cannot be revealed for separate legal reasons – confessed his role and added: "It weren't that hard. I sent you an email that you opened, and that's it ... I sent it from a bogus address ... Now it's gone. It shouldn't even remain on the hard drive ... I think I programmed it to stay on for three months."

Hurst then asked the hacker who had commissioned him to do this. The hacker replied: "The faxes would go to Dublin ... He was the editor of the News of the World for Ireland. A Slovak-type name. I can't remember his fucking name. Alex, his name is. Marunchak." Marunchak declined to answer questions when the BBC confronted him.

The BBC claim that Marunchak was introduced to the specialist hacker by Jonathan Rees, the private investigator whose involvement with corrupt police officers was detailed by the Guardian on Saturday. Internal News International records show that Marunchak regularly employed Rees from the late 1990s, and that during 2006, the News of the World paid Rees more than £4,000 for research relating to Stakeknife, the codename for the British intelligence mole inside the IRA whose activities were known to Ian Hurst.

Marunchak is the sixth News of the World journalist to be implicated in the affair. Documents published by the Guardian in 2009 include an email containing the transcripts of 35 illegally intercepted voicemail messages, sent by a junior reporter, Ross Hindley, for the chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck. Paperwork disclosed in court cases suggests that Clive Goodman, Ian Edmondson and Greg Miskiw commissioned phone-hacking. Goodman was jailed; Edmondson has been sacked but not charged with any offence; Miskiw is believed to have been interviewed by police in 2005 but never charged with any offence.

Monday's edition of Panorama includes an interview with Sean Hoare, the News of the World's former showbusiness writer, who last year told the New York Times that Andy Coulson had actively encouraged him to hack voicemail. Hoare tells the programme that the news desk commissioned private investigators to access targets' bank accounts, phone records, mortgage accounts and health records.

The former deputy assistant commissioner of Scotland Yard, Brian Paddick, who believes his own voicemail may have been intercepted on behalf of the News of the World, told the programme "I think that the new investigation should be carried out by an external force and it should be independently supervised. Otherwise, certainly some of the victims of phone-hacking will not be satisfied that the thing has been investigated thoroughly."

In a separate development, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, has taken the unusual step of publicly challenging a senior serving police officer, who has been closely involved in the hacking affair. In a letter published in the Guardian, Starmer accuses the assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police John Yates of quoting him out of context in attempting to justify evidence which he has given to two parliamentary select committees.

In the House of Commons last week, Chris Bryant MP said that Yates had misled the committees by claiming that it is illegal to hack voicemail messages only if they have not already been heard by the intended recipient. This was a key factor in justifying the Yard's claim that there was only a small number of victims of the News of the World's activities. Yates wrote to the Guardian defending his position and quoting a sentence from evidence submitted by the DPP's office to one of the select committees.

However, in his letter to the Guardian, Keir Starmer says it was "regrettable" that Yates used this sentence out of context; that the original prosecution did not use this interpretation of the law; and that this interpretation had no bearing on the charges brought or the legal proceedings generally. "The issue simply did not arise," he writes.

Full Story.

News of the World faces computer hacking claims

2011-03-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

News of the World faces computer hacking claims

Journalists at the News of the World are facing new allegations that they paid private investigators to hack into computers to obtain confidential information.

Executives at News International have been alerted to three instances where journalists are alleged to have paid for information, including emails and documents, stolen from individuals’ computers.

The allegations are potentially far more serious than the existing phone hacking cases. Computer hacking is covered by the Computer Misuse Act, which bans any unauthorised access of data and carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

Several named journalists, including news executives on the paper, are said to have paid specialist investigators, at least one of whom is a former Army intelligence officer, for their expertise.

The hackers are alleged to have used so-called Trojans viruses, sent in a disguised email, to break into the systems of individuals in whom they were interested.

It is understood that the BBC Panorama programme has been investigating the computer hacking claims and that the allegations centre on at least three separate stories that were being pursued by the News of the World over a long period. One case is said to relate to football transfer dealings and allegations against well known Premiership managers.

A second case focused on the search for an alleged spy who infiltrated the IRA at a high level who was secretly working for the controversial Army Force Research Unit.

A spokesman for the paper said: "Panorama has put vague and unsubstantiated allegations to us but despite several requests, they have yet to provide any evidence to back up these claims. If and when they do so, we can investigate and respond."

By Jason Lewis, Investigations Editor 7:45AM GMT 13 Mar 2011.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/8378405/News-of-the-World-faces-computer-hacking-claims.html#disqus_thread

J118, Always on their minds

2011-02-14T00:20:00.000-08:00

There's Something About Marty That Won't Go Away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

timefortruth
11-09-2010, 09:50 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

Over the course of the next short period people will be marking the 30th Anniversary of the 1980 and 81 Hunger Strikes. It is important that 1981 Committees are up and running in every area.

Just as our opponents attempted to criminalise these brave freedom fighters in life, have no doubt that as the 30th anniversary approaches, the revisionists will be out in force trying to once again criminalise them and our struggle. It was Bernard Ingram, Thatcher’s chief spin doctor who said that Thatcher came to regard Irish Republicans as less than human, as criminals and should be treated as such. We need to be ready and prepared to counter their lies, their propaganda and their attempts to legitimise the positions they adopted in 1981 and since.

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

socialist95
11-09-2010, 10:05 PM
Over the course of the next short period people will be marking the 30th Anniversary of the 1980 and 81 Hunger Strikes. It is important that 1981 Committees are up and running in every area.

Just as our opponents attempted to criminalise these brave freedom fighters in life, have no doubt that as the 30th anniversary approaches, the revisionists will be out in force trying to once again criminalise them and our struggle. It was Bernard Ingram, Thatcher’s chief spin doctor who said that Thatcher came to regard Irish Republicans as less than human, as criminals and should be treated as such. We need to be ready and prepared to counter their lies, their propaganda and their attempts to legitimise the positions they adopted in 1981 and since.

martin thought that republican socialists were criminals to be chased of the wings in jails not to be reconised anywere....seems mmg thought of republican socialists as less than human...!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sdelaney
11-09-2010, 10:05 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

Indeed they have, people like McGuinness and the other 'republicans' in the stormont local administration of British delegated power.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KMugabe
11-09-2010, 10:11 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

Aye like your movement in Derry criminalised Patsy O'Hara and Mickey Devine.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4Provinces32
11-09-2010, 10:13 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

if you're a shinner i don't think you really thought this post through....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gagall
11-09-2010, 10:14 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

I noticed you made no replies in the thread about the (not so) 'secret' comm except for the sly dig about bik 'showing' O'Rawe up albeit a premature dig given how the 'secret' comm panned out.

Just in case you missed it you can get a gleek here:

http://www.longkesh.info/2010/11/07/letter-to-press-everyone-recognises-that-republican-p-r-o-h-blocks/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie Elliott
11-09-2010, 10:15 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

Thats PSF down to a tee....Even Marty having breakfast with the Tories the party of Thatcher.

The hypocrisy is amazing!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Costello
11-09-2010, 10:20 PM
Reading all this stuff about o'rawe and liam clarke made me think of what martin said at the hunger strike commemoration

only this time those criminalising and revising history have pawns who claim to be republican to use

Complete hypocrisy.

"Undermine and absorb", think about it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newry Republican
11-09-2010, 11:12 PM
The poor lad who started this thread must be feeling like a right tit now :icon_lol:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie Elliott
11-09-2010, 11:57 PM
You just can't defend Marty anymore lol. He didn't look out of place with the other Muffets today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 12:39 AM
Thats PSF down to a tee....Even Marty having breakfast with the Tories the party of Thatcher.

The hypocrisy is amazing!

As Republican Socialists stood outside in the pouring rain protesting at the Tory Party conference in Birmingham Marty was preparing to be chauffeur driven past the large security presence straight to the location to go inside for a meet 'n' greet. The symbolic nature of that incident alone beggers belief. McGuinness is as much a republican socialist as his new mates are in the Tory party.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie Elliott
11-10-2010, 12:56 AM
I just wonder what he'll do next to show them up lol.

Attend a polo match wearing a tweed suit with Sir Godfrey of the Shire?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

freedom81
11-10-2010, 01:07 AM
He's embarrassing.I stopped calling him and his party republican a long time ago.Theyre no more republican than i am a loyalist.:hmf:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 01:17 AM
Cara this is the same guy that called armed Republicans "traitors to the island of Ireland" whilst standing beside the British PSNI's Chief Constable outside the British occupations parliament building in the North of Ireland. The working people couldn't get within a stones throw of the Tory party conference yet he is driven past were the protestors were protesting, straight past Republican Socialists and straight past the heavy police presence in a chauffeur driven car were he was greeted by the Tory party upon arrival. Even the Brits are having a good laugh at him. I can't help but keep falling back on the stories released from Ingram that McGuinness is J118 the one everyone else was outed to protect. McGuinness is showing all the signs, saying all the right (or wrong) things and promoting British normalisation in a manner that only an agent for British interests would. Just my thoughts of course.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

freedom81
11-10-2010, 01:27 AM
Cara this is the same guy that called armed Republicans "traitors to the island of Ireland" whilst standing beside the British PSNI's Chief Constable outside the British occupations parliament building in the North of Ireland. The working people couldn't get within a stones throw of the Tory party conference yet he is driven past were the protestors were protesting, straight past Republican Socialists and straight past the heavy police presence in a chauffeur driven car were he was greeted by the Tory party upon arrival. Even the Brits are having a good laugh at him. I can't help but keep falling back on the stories released from Ingram that McGuinness is J118 the one everyone else was outed to protect. McGuinness is showing all the signs, saying all the right (or wrong) things and promoting British normalisation in a manner that only an agent for British interests would. Just my thoughts of course.

I agree 100% cara.I believe he is J118 and who better to have running the provos than a brit agent.That way they can begin the long but firm method of shutting down the IRA and thus the war, which we now have today.The brits had a long term plan and adams and mcg were it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DerryRepublican1919
11-10-2010, 01:47 AM
MMG and sinn fein are a load of hypocrites!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4Provinces32
11-10-2010, 02:00 AM
i don't think marty is j118. i just think he became a proper politician and sold out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4Provinces32
11-10-2010, 02:06 AM
a wise man once said "With great power comes great responsibility"(ben parker - spider man's uncle).:haii:

i just think martin couldn't handle all that power properly. power corrupts.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

freedom81
11-10-2010, 02:08 AM
i don't think marty is j118. i just think he became a proper politician and sold out.

You have to look at the whole pattern of the war cara.Not a single shot fired at the enemy, not a single charge for membership while hundreds of foot soldiers were getting interned and charged daily. He survived the shoot to kill policy which you'd think he and adams would be the first to go. The list of circumstantial evidence can go on and on and on.Why were the men at the top not taken out? Because i believe the brits had full control of the provos through adams and mcg.To have them ousted would mean lose control.They needed their doves in their to keep a token war going so not to lose the movement to more hardliners and then eventually wind it down to what we have now. If the shoe fits?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4Provinces32
11-10-2010, 02:13 AM
You have to look at the whole pattern of the war cara.Not a single shot fired at the enemy, not a single charge for membership while hundreds of foot soldiers were getting interned and charged daily. He survived the shoot to kill policy which you'd think he and adams would be the first to go. The list of circumstantial evidence can go on and on and on.Why were the men at the top not taken out? Because i believe the brits had full control of the provos through adams and mcg.To have them ousted would mean lose control.They needed their doves in their to keep a token war going so not to lose the movement to more hardliners and then eventually wind it down to what we have now. If the shoe fits?

or look at it from another angle, what would have been the reaction form the republican community if he was taken out? the brits controlled the loyalist death squads, and knew what would have been the penalty for taking out such a highly regarded and respected member of republicanism. there probably would have been a mass escalation of political killings and the like.

i think he was a crafty being. and had the backing and respect of the provisional movement and knew to be in the right places and the right time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 02:38 AM
Another thing that has really interested me over the last few years in connection with McGuinness was his response to the allegations from Ingram that he was a British agent.

I am a thousand, I am a million per cent confident no one will ever produce anything against me."

Now is that not the strangest way to answer an allegation of that magnitude? I have never been able to find any article that contains McGuinness actually saying that he wasn't an agent just that he was really sure that no one could prove it. Maybe if someone has come across such an article they could point me to it as I am still quite amazed everytime I read that response he gave. What a very strange thing to say.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

freedom81
11-10-2010, 02:39 AM
or look at it from another angle, what would have been the reaction form the republican community if he was taken out? the brits controlled the loyalist death squads, and knew what would have been the penalty for taking out such a highly regarded and respected member of republicanism. there probably would have been a mass escalation of political killings and the like.

i think he was a crafty being. and had the backing and respect of the provisional movement and knew to be in the right places and the right time.

Well they always said that when the provos executed frank hegarty it was to protect a bigger tout.When they tortured and killed paddy flood they again said he was sacrificed to protect a bigger tout.Even their own members disbelieved that paddy was a tout. And when mmg was waved through a checkpoint only for keenan to be swarmed with brits and imprisoned took the ch/s out which allowed mcg to move up.Again, highly circumstantial but i just cant believe that he wasnt imprisoned or killed by someone.He was protected.Him and J119.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4Provinces32
11-10-2010, 02:51 AM
Another thing that has really interested me over the last few years in connection with McGuinness was his response to the allegations from Ingram that he was a British agent.

Now is that not the strangest way to answer an allegation of that magnitude? I have never been able to find any article that contains McGuinness actually saying that he wasn't an agent just that he was really sure that no one could prove it. Maybe if someone has come across such an article they could point me to it as I am still quite amazed everytime I read that response he gave. What a very strange thing to say.

cryptome might have something....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 03:00 AM
McGuinness has the ability to brilliantly feign sincerity, that makes him capable of being all that his been accussed of. I clocked him on question time a couple of years ago getting upset over fishing and saying how he opposed it because it was cruel.

This is the guy who was allegedly the IRAs chief of staff.

TEN FACTS about the "charmed existence" enjoyed by Martin McGuinness. There are several reasons for suspicion falling on Martin McGuinness for he survived when those around him have been shot or jailed. Derry IRA informants coughed up more secrets, leading to more arms finds, than any other part of the IRA.

1. The first and biggest find of arms imported from Libya in the mid 1980s - 100 AK47 and five medium machineguns were found at Five Fingers Strand in north Donegal, and the information came via an RUC informant in Derry.

2. The IRA's powerful M60 machinegun, imported from the United States in the early 1980s, was recovered by the RUC in the city in 1982. The weapon had been used to kill eight soldiers and policemen in other parts of the province and was intended to wreak havoc in Derry. Instead, it was never fired and recovered in a community hall in the Bogside.

3. The Derry IRA was harder hit by the 'supergrass' phenomenon that any other IRA 'brigade'. About 80 of its members were before the courts at one point in 1982-1983, though McGuinness, as the local 'officer commanding,' was never arrested. In the aftermath of the supergrass period the IRA in Derry went into very noticeable decline. It was responsible for killing nine members of the security forces in 1982, but by the following year it was responsible for only three murders a Protestant businessman, a soldier and a policeman.

4. Elsewhere in Northern Ireland, IRA units were responsible for 47 murders, mostly off-duty police and Ulster Defence Regiment members. This trend continued throughout the 1980s with the exception of the Patsy Gillespie human bomb in 1990, in which five soldiers died. In 1987 - the year of the Enniskillen Cenotaph bomb - a total of 45 people, security forces and civilians were murdered by the IRA, but there were no killings in Derry (though two IRA men blew themselves up while making bombs).

5. The following year, the only people to die at the hands of the IRA in Derry were three Catholics killed in a booby trap bomb while trying to help a neighbour. While the IRA units in Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Down were engaged in a vicious, bloody onslaught against security force members, Derry was inactive and dysfunctional.

6. There are strong suspicions among police on both sides of the border that the killing of the two soldiers, Gunner Miles Amos and LanceBombardier Stephen Cummins, was an event which was 'allowed' to happen to cover the tracks of a highly placed intelligence sources inside the Derry IRA. Wellplaced sources say there was a near breakdown inrelations between the Army and police in Derry after this event, with the Army blaming the police, who they knew to have wellplaced informants in the local IRA, for failing to stop the attack. While police insisted they knew nothing of the attack, the Army remained unconvinced. A short while later, the Army set up an under-cover operation to thwart an IRA bomb attack on the city centre. The route of the bomb-run was changed and the head bomber escaped under the noses of waiting SAS members. ??????????

7. In 1979 Brian Keenan, who was running a ruthless bombing campaign in Britain and Northern Ireland, was arrested after being flagged down by McGuinness on the roadway where they had a brief conversation. When he was in jail Keenan asked that McGuinness be investigated by the IRA, but he did not pursue the matter after he was released.

8. In November 1994 a police investigation, Operation Taurus, found three witnesses to implicate McGuinness in directing terrorism. It was halted with the appearance of a letter asking prosecutors to bear in mind that McGuinness would shortly be in talks with the government about the future of Northern Ireland. His political value, underlined by his hotline to a senior MI6 officer, may be sufficient to explain why McGuinness has often seemed a protected species.

9. No members of the security forces were killed in 1991 or 1992. Then a young Constable, Michael Ferguson, was shot dead outside the Richmond Centre in January 1993, and an RIR member, Christopher Wren, was killed in May the same year.

10. In the blizzard of violence that stemmed from the north Belfast IRA's bombing of Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road, the IRA in Derry remained silent. There were no IRA killings in Derry in 1994. Ironically, in the run-up to the 1994 IRA ceasefire, journalists were briefed that one of the main impediments to Gerry Adams' 'peace' plans were 'hardliners' like Martin McGuinness then holding the title of IRA chief of staff. What is clear is that the Special Branch, Army or Intelligence Services had deeply infiltrated the IRA in Derry from around the early to mid 1980s. As the IRA moved towards ceasefire in the early 1990s, Derry seemed to lead the way in running down its operations.

All over Northern Ireland people are reassessing McGuinness's career in the wake of newspaper claims by Martin Ingram, a former military intelligence officer, that the man once regarded as an IRA hawk had been controlled by MI6 for at least two decades. A retired RUC special branch officer believes McGuinness was the MI5 agent code-named "Fisherman".

Republican veterans point to the "charmed existence" enjoyed by McGuinness. He has held every senior position in the Provisional IRA since its inception, but has never been shot or injured nor served a serious prison sentence in the UK.

During the internment swoops he managed to avoid detention and travelled freely back and forth from Londonderry to his granny's house in Donegal where he was nominally "on the run". Statements by another supergrass, Robert Quigley, implicated McGuinness in organising IRA activity, but he was never charged. While McGuinness remained beyond the law, his followers were jailed and killed. Now he has a holiday home in Donegal, he and Gerry Adams are both millionaires. Interesting, isn't it!

Some very interesting points that are hard to argue against.

I have been quite determined for some years now that McGuinness has been working as a British agent and not because I am 'anti-SF' or because I just don't like him, neither of which are true, but because no matter how one looks at the evidence it all points to there being no other alternative outcome. Can anyone in their right mind honestly say that the way he has been talking over recent years is the language of a Republican? This is let alone some of the points raised above.

Either way I don't lose sleep over it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 03:02 AM
cryptome might have something....

If it does I have been unable to find anything. I would like to find something were McGuinness actually states, even simply, that he isn't or wasn't an agent.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yaya
11-10-2010, 03:05 AM
On the issue of Operation Taurus this is what wiki says;

Operation Taurus was the name of a planned prosecution by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) against Martin McGuinness.

Taurus was to be based on allegations arising from the 1993 broadcast of an edition of the "Cook Report" presented by Roger Cook and involving Freddie Scappaticci aka. Stakeknife and the testimony of three witnesses prepared to testify for the Crown.

The operation was abandoned on an unknown date and no charges were made, as it was not in the public interest. Supposedly because Martin McGuinness was in negotiations for the peace process; however some allege that Martin McGuinness was a British spy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gerard_black00
11-10-2010, 03:34 AM
As I think everybody knows there has been an upsurge in revelations about British intelligence agency infiltration of (some would say control over) the IRA in recent weeks. This has culminated in a definitive statement from a former British army intelligence officer and handler that Martin McGuinness, widely considered the most powerful IRA figure of the last two decades, is a paid agent of the British government. It has come from a former warrant officer in the Force Research Unit who uses the pseudonym Martin Ingram. His real name is well known, he is personally also known and friendly with many Irish journalists so there is no real doubt about his identity or the fact that he really did serve in the British Army's Intelligence Corps in various places in Northern Ireland in the mid-80s. (The Force Research Unit is sort of a special Irish unit of that Intelligence Corps). In particular he served in Derry and was the handler for Frank Hegarty who infiltrated the Provisional IRA on his behalf during c.1984 and its the story of what happened to Hegarty that seems to confirm for Ingram that McGuinness is in fact a British agent. So basically he was told by his superiors to use Hegarty to get close to McGuinness and that is what happened the thing being that Hegarty rose suspiciously fast in the local IRA hierarchy even though he wasn't all that well known to McGuinness. In a space of only a few months he knew enough to pinpoint a huge arms dump held locally for example. So it seems that Ingram feels that Hegarty rose through the ranks so fast because he was an informer, in other words that McGuinness knew that and was systematically assisting the FRU in its task of infiltrating all ranks of the IRA. Hegarty after a while fled to the UK and was watched by FRU minders until he received word from McGuinness inviting him back to Ireland where he was ultimately to meet his death. The crucial point in this episode is that Ingram says that it was the commander of the FRU who "thought Frank to be a security concern and his depression was a potential problem for the FRU." So according to Ingram no great pains were expended in delaying him in the UK and his return and subsequent death seem to have been designed to solve that problem from the FRU's point of view.

So sure for most people its a conspiracy theory too far to say that McGuinness is a British government agent but the fact is that we now have a person in the know in the British intelligence community in Derry who is saying just that and his opinion must carry some weight. It is not the only reference that points this way and I thought I would point out a few more references for people to mull over before they dismiss this theory out of hand:

1) This is an account of a conversation between the former O/C of the Southern Command of the IRA (while being simultaneously a garda agent) Sean O'Callaghan, and Brendan Dowd, discussing the opinions of the senior IRA figure Brian Keenan while they were both held in Full Sutton prison in England:
" 'Does he [Brian Keenan] really think he was set up?' I asked Dowd. Dowd just smiled and said 'He thinks it was McGuinness.' 'He must be off his head,' I said, while at the same time being perfectly aware how Keenan came to such a conclusion. Keenan had been arrested at a security force roadblock just outside Banbridge in County Down, in March 1979. McGuinness was arrested at the same roadblock, but in a different car. Keenan maintained to Dowd that shortly before his arrest McGuinness, who was driving a car that may well have been known to the security forces, waved him down to tell him something that he, Keenan, regarded as unimportant. Keenan was adamant that the car he was in was clean and unknown to the security forces. He thought it possible that McGuinness, spotting that he himself was under surveillance, decided to take the opportunity to get rid of Keenan, who he knew was wanted on specific charges relating to the British bombing campaign. Waving down Keenan's car, he maintained, could have been McGuinness's way of pointing out to the police that there was another 'interesting' car in the area. Even Keenan, paranoid and untrusting as he was, couldn't really believe that McGuinness was an informer.....[goes on to say that the Marxist Keenan was against the Catholic Adams and McGuinness]...
Whether or not there is any substance in Keenan's belief that he was set up by a member of the Army Council, or in Dowd's allegation that Keenan blamed McGuinness in particular, it is certainly true that following Keenan's imprisonment Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness assumed a degree of control over the republican movement that they could not have dreamed of while Keenan was around.....
If Keenan really believed that he was set up by McGuinness, he has done nothing about it since he was released from prison four years ago. Was he simply speculating, thinking out loud ? But if that was the case why did he send such a definitive message out of the jail: 'I was set up by a member of the Army Council. I know who it is. Wait until I get out.' "(1)

2) I believe it was Andrew Hunter the then conservative MP who stated once in the Sunday Times that he had heard that one of the British army units stationed in Derry in the 70s was given strict instructions to leave McGuinness alone.

3) One book that some claim has spurred a lot of the new thinking on British government control over the IRA is 'The Secret History of the IRA' by the experienced local journalist Ed Moloney. Here are a few quotes from a review of this book in the Telegraph (Oct 12 2002 p.3) by Toby Harnden:
"Is Martin McGuinness a high-level informer who has been working for the British for the past two decades? .....[This is one of] the tantalising questions raised by this important and compelling work, which slices through many of the convenient untruths that have been peddled by the political elites of Belfast, Dublin and London.
...
Moloney also offers remarkable insights into such men as Martin McGuinness, who he says held nearly every senior IRA rank but did much to undermine the organisation.
...
Although the book does not name the high-level informer who was apparently working for the British, there is a strong implication that McGuinness is the most likely "tout" . As with a good mafia thriller, the reader is soon guessing which of the protagonists is wearing a wire for the Feds. If Moloney knows, he is not saying. But when he writes that "no one ever suggested Martin McGuinness or any other senior figures at his level were passing on information to the British", one suspects that this was not meant to be taken at face value."

Yet if this was true I respectfully submit that the accepted interpretation of the troubles has to go out the window. Basically its obvious then that the Republican paramilitary groups were just as much in the pocket of the British intelligence agencies as the loyalist groups and yet if that is the case then clearly those agencies, and indeed the occupying British army, had to be there for some other reason than the suppression of terrorism because the 'terrorism' was all along their carefully nurtured baby. My tuppence worth on that question is that the troubles were an Irish version of the Italian 'strategy of tension'. This strategy was so called by the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and describes the reason why the Italian intelligence agencies, in alliance with those of the US and the UK, sponsored terrorism in Italy in the 70s and 80s. Basically they wanted to scare people into supporting those agencies and accompanying draconian security legislation etc. Again the story unfolded for the Italian public in much the same way that it has for us here in that first people began to realise that the right wing groups were really just the security agencies out of uniform and then they were later to find out that the left wing Red Brigades, ostensibly the latter's enemy, were also run by the security forces in alliance with the CIA and the P-2 masonic lodge.(2)

But I think furthermore that this revelation, if it is true, that McGuinness is a British agent must in fact also make people think about the whole structure of Irish civil society and not just the paramilitaries. What I mean is that the same intelligence agencies from the UK and the US (and working no doubt through domestic agencies as well, North and South) obviously also attempt to control political parties, media outlets, trade unions, police forces and judiciary etc and the question is have they had as much luck controlling those entities as they have the paramilitaries? Bear in mind they bring a lot of power and money to the table to do this. Ingram says that in the mid 80s he knew of one offer of £50,000 cash being offered to an IRA figure as an initial sweetener to persuade him to inform. If Tom Gilmartin's revelations about some Irish politicians are anything to go by then you have to wonder what you could buy with that kind of money in those circles. Of course those agencies also have huge information sources that they can use to blackmail people with as well and in fact Ingram says that Denis Donaldson was blackmailed when the RUC Special Branch found out that he had been caught stealing on a covert Marks and Spencers security camera. (3) Just look at the recent leadership contest in the Lib-Dem party in Britain and imagine how you could manipulate that race if you had access to the sort of information that modern agencies have access to by electronic and other means.(4)
Ingram provides a glimpse of that kind of infiltration of civil society when he talks about RUC Special Branch running senior agents within the Official and Democratic Unionist Parties where "they could and would be able and willing to exert influence." He says likewise that as regards the UK intel agencies' relationship with Irish government ministers and the gardai that "the level of penetration was high including Gardai commissioners." So maybe its sensible for Irish people to ask some hard questions sometimes about the various elements of Irish civil society and without being paranoid maybe we should be cautious if there is too cozy a consensus between this 'establishment' and the policies of the UK or US governments. I include the US because its obviously the home of the most powerful of those agencies as this reference in the Guardian to the CIA's role in the UK illustrates:

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74119

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gotticsc
11-10-2010, 06:21 PM
You have to look at the whole pattern of the war cara.Not a single shot fired at the enemy, not a single charge for membership while hundreds of foot soldiers were getting interned and charged daily. He survived the shoot to kill policy which you'd think he and adams would be the first to go. The list of circumstantial evidence can go on and on and on.Why were the men at the top not taken out? Because i believe the brits had full control of the provos through adams and mcg.To have them ousted would mean lose control.They needed their doves in their to keep a token war going so not to lose the movement to more hardliners and then eventually wind it down to what we have now. If the shoe fits?

Mate you can dress up whatever you like but until you can prove anything i wouldnt post hearsay and as you call it "circumstancial evidence"

It suits peoples agenda to call M McG a tout and a traitor these days.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boyler
11-10-2010, 06:28 PM
Mate you can dress up whatever you like but until you can prove anything i wouldnt post hearsay and as you call it "circumstancial evidence"

It suits peoples agenda to call M McG a tout and a traitor these days.

Correction cara it suits McG agenda to call Republicans 'Traitors'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

redman25
11-10-2010, 07:20 PM
suppose most people have heard that interview where stakeknife talks about mcguinness, early 1990s

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

freedom81
11-10-2010, 08:37 PM
Mate you can dress up whatever you like but until you can prove anything i wouldnt post hearsay and as you call it "circumstancial evidence"

It suits peoples agenda to call M McG a tout and a traitor these days.

Mate you can dress it down as much as you like, and it suits your agenda not to call him a tout because if the truth ever came out that he did, you could never raise your head again after supporting and sticking up for a brit agent.

And as far as circumstantial evidence is concerned, didnt the ra kill touts based on same.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

gotticsc
11-10-2010, 11:17 PM
Mate you can dress it down as much as you like, and it suits your agenda not to call him a tout because if the truth ever came out that he did, you could never raise your head again after supporting and sticking up for a brit agent.

And as far as circumstantial evidence is concerned, didnt the ra kill touts based on same.

where did i say i support him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The News Hack !

2011-02-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

With News International phone hacking in the news, a new revelation is about to hit the headlines. More journalists are about to loose their reputations and their jobs.

Police may try to halt damages claim case brought by wife of IRA informer

2011-01-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

Police may try to halt damages claim case brought by wife of IRA informer.

Police may seek to halt a legal action brought against them by the wife of an IRA informer because of her delay in taking the case, it has emerged.

The High Court was told lawyers are trying to contact ex-officers as part of their attempts to have Margaret Keely's damages claim against the Chief Constable dismissed.

Mrs Keeley, whose husband is a one-time MI5 agent known as Kevin Fulton, brought the case over her alleged detention at the Castlereagh holding centre in 1994 following an IRA attempt to murder senior RUC detective Derek Martindale in east Belfast.

She claims that after being released she was taken to a house in the New Lodge, north Belfast, and interrogated by a number of IRA men. Mrs Keeley says she later suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of her ordeal.

But it has now emerged that police lawyers may try to have the claim thrown out because it was not brought within a three-year limit from the date of the incident.

Granting an exception could be argued as being prejudicial.

Confirmation of how the police plan to proceed is to be given at a hearing in two months time.

Full Story: Belfast Telegraph.

Undercover Britain by Kevin Fulton

2011-01-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Some sound advice from former British Army infiltrator Kevin Fulton, in light of the latest press stories about British police officer Mark Kennedy infiltrating protest groups, Kevin Fulton gives advise to undercover operators. Kevin worked undercover for the British Army, Police, and MI5, he infiltrated the Provisional IRA on orders of the secret British Army Unit "The Force Research Unit"

Omagh The Wicked Lie

2010-12-31T03:01:00.000-08:00

When Former top cop Dr.Norman Baxter took the stand to give evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on the Omagh Bombing, few people ( well some ) could imagine that he would blatantly lie to the members of Parliament, the Honourable members even nodded in agreement with Baxter as he fed them with lies concerning Kevin Fulton and the police Ombudsman's office, Baxter fed them a load of shit and spun his statement all the while knowing that his statement was a wicked lie. Norman Baxter has been challenged on a number of occasions by Kevin Fulton to repeat his statement in public, but to date he has refused to do so, Norman has been tagged "The Lying Witness" something he has never challenged.

www.normanbaxter.com

If this is wrong he could always sue Kevin Fulton !

Voices From the Grave

2010-11-23T22:53:00.000-08:00

Watch Voices From the Grave, Full Programme .

Voices From The Grave, this video will take a few minutes to load, this is the full programme :

In his own words Brendan Darkie Hughes talks about Gerry Adams and his involvement in the Provisional IRA. I don't need to say any more, just watch the video.

Norman Baxter "Breach of the official secrets act".

2010-11-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

Kevin Fulton is to make a complaint to police over Norman Baxter, former RUC / PSNI officer, for "Breach of the official secrets act". Kevin Fulton has already put on record with the British Parliament about Norman Baxters lies to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Norman lied in his evidence to the committee in regard to the Omagh Bombing. Norman Baxter has been challenged by Kevin Fulton to repeat his statement to Parliament outside the Parliament building, Norman Baxter has refused to do so.

Norman Baxter is a retired detective chief superintendent, was head of the Serious Crime Branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Dr Norman Baxter Director of Doctrine, Standards, Audit and Training with New Century.

Kevin Fulton challenges Norman Baxter, If you believe I am defaming you, sue me.

2010-11-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

Kevin Fulton challenges Norman: "If you believe I am defaming you in any way, you can always Sue Me".

Norman Baxter, the so called Top Cop is no stranger to breaking the law, Norman should be charged with misconduct in public office and breach of the official secrets act.

Norman you have broken the law, so you are no better than any of the people you have brought before the courts, so don't set your self above any of those people.

1. Misconduct In Public Office.

The elements of misconduct in public office are:

a) A public officer acting as such.

b) Wilfully neglects to perform his duty and/or wilfully misconducts himself.

c) To such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder.

d) Without reasonable excuse or justification.

Rules On Giving Evidence In Parliament
Giving oral evidence to a select committee
• If you know that matters which may arise during oral evidence are currently before
a court of law, or court proceedings are imminent. If you anticipate such issues
arising, you should discuss with the clerk of the committee how this might affect the
oral evidence you can give.

The Official Secrets Act 1889

1.2
The Official Secrets Act 1889
The first Official Secrets Act was passed with very little debate or opposition in 1889. Section 1 was concerned with espionage and the notion of unlawful disclosure of information; Section 2 with the concept of breach of official trust. As introduced, the Bill included no public interest defence. However, the Government amended the legislation in response to objections the fact that the Bill would penalise the disclosure of information contrary to the interests not only of the state but also any part of government; criticism of a government department which might in many instances be for the benefit of the state would become a crime. 2 The bill was changed to include a public interest defence.
Section 2(1) laid down that:

Where a person, by means of his holding or having held an office under Her Majesty the Queen, has lawfully or unlawfully either obtained possession of or control over any document, sketch, plan, or model or acquired any information and at any time corruptly or contrary to his official duty communicates or attempts to communicate that document, sketch, plan or information to any person to whom the same ought not, in the interest of the state, or otherwise in the public interest, to be communicated at that time, he shall be guilty of a breach of official trust.

Former Top Cop Norman Baxter

2010-11-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Former Top Cop Norman Baxter, RUC / PSNI has joined the many criminals he once chased as a police officer, Norman broke the official secrets act and committed a number of criminal offences, so far Norman has not been brought to justice, but that might change in the very near future, watch this space.

Collateral damage : SN 7

2010-11-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

Collateral damage : SN 7
Informants involved in murder.

A TELEVISION programme about the IRA killing of two tourists in Holland in 1990 has provoked a strong response in Australia following its screening last Sunday.
London-based Australian lawyers Stephen Melrose, 24, and Nicholas Spanos, 28, were gunned down in the Dutch border town of Roermond after being mistaken for off-duty British soldiers.

Channel 7 producers had travelled to Northern Ireland via Holland last month, along with the family of one of the victims, to make a documentary about the Melrose family's difficulty in coming to terms with the murder.

One of the show's producers, who accompanied the still-grieving family, said the documentary "rated very well" with around 1.5 million viewers on the night.

Mick O'Donnell said: "There was a strong response from the audience in letters and calls – you can see a mix of comments on the website.

"Others have contacted us offering more information, so this is a subject we're likely to revisit."

Stephen Melrose's parents Roy and Beverley Melrose made the trip along with their two daughters in the hope of finding "closure".

One of their daughters, Helen Jackson, told the News Letter: "My dad is almost 80 years of age and felt he had to make the trip this year or he might never be able to do it."

Ms Jackson said meeting IRA victims in Northern Ireland was "a source of great comfort" but added: "It's so frustrating to realise that so many others, as well as my family, have never seen anyone face justice for murder."

The gang responsible for the Roermond murders were armed with a Kalashnikov rifle – and a handgun used in a string of terrorist attacks in both Northern Ireland and mainland Europe.

At one point during the trip the TV crew approached a suspected IRA member who was tried and acquitted of the murders, along with three others, in 1991.

The confrontation took place last month when the documentary makers approached Donna Maguire as she sat in her car in Newry.

Writing on the TV company's website, producer Ross Coulthart said: "When I finally tap on Donna Maguire's car window and ask her to offer some sympathy to the Australian family of Stephen Melrose, there is a microsecond before Donna realises that her past has caught up with her.

"Her face initially has a friendly greeting, and she then flashes recognition and turns her head away from our camera.

"Twenty years on, is it shame? We hope so."

One typical comment of support emailed to the Channel 7 website after the screening read: "It has taken an Australian TV company to ask the hard questions and to confront the suspects. Well done Ross and crew."

Dissident tag gives 'status to terror groups'

2010-11-11T02:33:00.000-08:00

Dissident tag gives 'status to terror groups'

GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor

THE BRITISH and Irish governments are seeking to strip groups such as the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA of the term dissident republican because they argue it does a “disservice” to the term republican and dissident.

Northern Secretary Owen Paterson, following up on recent similar classification by the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, has taken to calling dissidents “residual terrorist groups”, a term he used in the House of Commons yesterday during Northern Ireland question time.

Mr Paterson has also urged the PSNI and British government departments and other British state bodies to use the new phrase, residual terrorist groups, or RTGs because, he contended, the term dissident bestowed on these groups an undeserved status.

“Dissident is a term we would use for such people as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who challenged the system in the Soviet Union,” he added. “It is not a term we are comfortable applying to a terrorist group which has chosen to be left behind.”

He made his comments on a day when PSNI detectives arrested eight people in the greater Belfast area on suspicion of involvement with the groups.

Seven men aged between 18 and 45 and a 23-year-old woman were arrested by detectives from the PSNI’s serious crime branch following searches in north and west Belfast, Newtownabbey and Dunmurry. A “large quantity” of ammunition was found, police said. They were being questioned last night in Antrim police station.

The Irish Times.

The Dissident Republicans Are In Government

2010-11-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

The Dissident Republicans Are In Government.

Every day I read in the media dissident republicans did this attack and dissident republicans did that, it's time to stop the bull shit, the real dissident republicans are in government they are Sinn Fein / IRA, the phrase dissident republicans has been spewed out by Sinn Fein and the British Government it's a great catch phrase and all the media have been repeating it, so lets say it as it is. Republican terrorists are day and daily planing and attacking targets in Northern Ireland, and the Government wants us to believe it's all rosy in the garden, is not, on the mainland editors in the media are not reporting the stories, I have heard a lot of press people saying " oh we don't want to upset the peace process", that's a load of crap ! I spoke to a very senior military officer and he is of the same opinion as myself, at some stage in the very near future we will have the uniformed army back into Northern Ireland, the politicians are not holding it together, the police are not fit for the purpose of fighting terrorism in Northern Ireland, it is not a normal society. So let's all say it the way it is, Republican terrorists are still in the playing field, they never went away.

The Crystal Ball: My Enemies Enemy Is My Friend

2010-11-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

The Crystal Ball.

I see dark days ahead for a relationship, I see a journalist turning over his source,a "Richard", he has done this many times in the past, he and others have an agenda, he is owned. Today he is your friend because it suites him and others, nothing else, he will burn you in the near future, he has done this on many occasions to his sources, he will say that he is a balanced reporter, on the surface it will look like this,but he has a dark dark secret, people talk about his dark dark secret, but he is smart and writes about the accusations on a regular basis and brushes it off. he will let you tell him secrets "off the record" but be warned, he will write about them at a later date, be warned, he records all his phone calls and will lead you into a false sense of security, many of his old sources do not talk to him now, he broke their trust and turned them over. My advice to the "Richard" is tell him nothing,he is a Machiavellian Manipulator, my advice to the "Richard" is, go find another journalist, there are plenty of good ones out there.

SF leaders 'helped cover up hunger strike offer'

2010-11-07T12:38:00.000-08:00

SF leaders 'helped cover up hunger strike offer'

Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness must have the decency to finally come clean and tell the truth about a British government offer which might have saved the lives of six hunger strikers, an-ex IRA prisoner has said.

Richard O'Rawe, the former public relations officer for the H-block hunger strikers, has launched a new book which contains fresh evidence that a deal was possible after just four hunger strikers had died.

"When I wrote my first book five years ago, I was a lone voice in the wilderness," he said. "Since then, the evidence has piled up and many former republican prisoners have rallied to support my position.

"The facts are irrefutable. The offer the British made to the Sinn Féin leadership in July 1981 wasn't relayed to the hunger strikers or their families. The reason is clear: to have Owen Carron elected Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP and to kick off the move into electoral politics.

"Those who kept the offer secret didn't really care if the hunger strikers lived or died. That isn't a conclusion I wanted to reach but it's the only one possible when the evidence is put together."

O'Rawe's 2005 book, Blanketmen (Lilliput, €11.99), caused controversy when he revealed that Bik McFarlane, the IRA's commander in the jail, told him of a secret British offer which effectively granted the prisoners' five demands, except free association.

O'Rawe said he and McFarlane were delighted and McFarlane wrote to Gerry Adams accepting the offer. However, word came back from Adams that the Army Council thought the proposal inadequate and advised the prisoners to await a second offer – which never came.

"When my book was published Bik vehemently denied there had been an offer and that we had any such conversation. Last year, Bik found his memory. He admitted there was an offer and we had talked about it," O'Rawe said.

"Another IRA prisoner, Gerard 'Cleaky' Clarke, has revealed that he heard our conversation, as has another blanketman who has told this to the families of three hunger strikers.

"Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and other Sinn Féin figures hid the document containing the British offer from the hunger strikers. But it was uncovered through a Freedom of Information request."

Two sources at IRA Army Council level told O'Rawe that Adams had never even informed the Army Council of the British offer.

O'Rawe said those Sinn Féin leaders who knew of the offer must apologise to the hunger strikers' families for "what may well be the biggest cover-up in the history of republicanism".

November 7, 2010

The Sunday Tribune.

Gerry 'Whitey' Bradley found dead in car. IRA Man Kill's Himself.

2010-10-28T00:59:00.001-07:00

Former IRA man Gerry 'Whitey' Bradley found dead in car
Gerry Bradley's book was co-authored by Brian Feeney A former IRA man who wrote a controversial book on his activities during the Troubles, has been found dead in a car in County Antrim.

Gerry 'Whitey' Bradley claimed he was ostracised by friends after the publication of 'Insider,' co-authored by lecturer and writer Brian Feeney.

Mr Bradley's body was discovered in the vehicle parked at a marina near Carrickfergus Castle on Wednesday.

In his book, he revealed his involvement in several IRA operations.

Stakeknife is untouchable by the police or the courts.

2010-10-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" is unable to be brought before the courts or investigated by the police for committing the crime of perjury, this is because of a decision by the former Belfast Lord Chief Justice Mr. Carswell, after writing to the Attorney General in Belfast it has been noted that it is not in his power to look into the crime, the new Attorney General has voiced his concerns in the past that he should have the full powers he needs to fulfil his role.

British Security Services Framed Queen's graduate over fire-bombing’

2010-10-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

A Queen's University student was framed by a British agent for a dissident republican firebomb attack, according to the man’s solicitor.

Niall Murphy, from Kevin Winters & Co, was speaking after prosecutors offered no evidence in the case of Londonderry man Anton Gerard Craig (25).

The politics graduate had been accused of fire-bombing the Toys R Us store on Belfast’s Boucher Road on November 1, 2006 and of possessing the incendiary the previous day.

But yesterday at Belfast Crown Court, prosecution lawyer David Russell told Judge Tom Burgess they were offering no evidence in relation to the case against Craig, from Kular Court, William Street, but gave no reason.

However, the Belfast Recorder has agreed to hear secret legal submissions behind closed doors, from the defence, prosecution and interested third parties before deciding whether or not the reason behind the PPS's decision should be made public.

Judge Burgess, who agreed to hold the ‘in camera' hearing on November 1, said that “unless and until an order is made by the court, that information ... remains cloaked in confidentiality”.

Earlier, the judge directed the jury to formally acquit Craig of the charges.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Murphy said his client had always maintained he had been framed by an “agent of the state”.

Mr Murphy said that Craig had argued that another individual, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had “commissioned, prepared and instigated” what he described as a “dissident republican firebomb campaign”.

“He has always maintained that the other individual is an agent of the British security services who has deliberately attempted to frame him for these crimes, which therefore raises the spectre of state-sponsored terorrism,” said the solicitor.

Mr Murphy revealed that Kevin Winters & Co are in possession of material “which we consider attracts the public interest,” currently the subject of legal applications, which Craig could use to “exonerate his name”.

The solicitor added: “He [Craig] is a young man and father with no criminal convictions whatsoever, a university graduate and to find himself facing these charges and having spent time in custody, we say that he has the right to exonerate his name and reputation.”

In a pre-written statement, it was further revealed that Craig “will be issuing proceedings for malicious prosecution”.

Read more:

An RUC interrogator speaks: Northern Ireland's forced confessions revealed

2010-10-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

An RUC interrogator speaks: Northern Ireland's forced confessions revealed Hundreds of men and women found guilty of terrorism during the Troubles in Northern Ireland are planning to appeal. Most of them were convicted on the basis of confessions they say were beaten out of them by police. A Guardian investigation has uncovered evidence from former police interrogators that the brutality was routine and sanctioned at a very high level.

The Guardian Newspaper.
By. Ian Cobain, Guy Grandjean, Maggie O'Kane, Teresa Smith guardian.co.uk,
Monday 11 October 2010

High Court Prevents Police from Investigating Perjury Claim !

2010-10-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

Belfast High Court Prevents Police from Investigating Perjury Claim !

A decision by the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chief Justice Carswell has prevented the police from investigating a case of perjury.

Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci lied under oath in evedince when he claimed that he was not the informer Stakeknife, the former Chief Constible Sir Hugh Orde had already confirmed to a num ber of journolists thatScappaticci was Stakeknife.

From the Sunday Times.

Orde must wish that he’d kept mum about Stakeknife

More trouble for Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, who should have learnt the adage about shut mouths not catching flies. While head of the Stevens inquiry into British Army collusion with Northern Ireland terrorists, Orde said that Freddie Scappaticci was a British military intelligence agent known as Stakeknife. Scappaticci has since denied this in court.

Now Orde has been reminded, in a letter from another former military intelligence agent, Sam Rosenfeld, that he once discussed Scappaticci’s spying activities at a meeting in Heathrow police station. Rosenfeld wants Orde to prosecute Scappaticci for perjury. But maybe the chief constable will be arrested first himself and charged under the Official Secrets Act with being a whistleblower?

Sunday Times Link.

Attorney General for Northern Ireland, Stakeknife Request

2010-10-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

A Request by Kevin Fulton has been forwarded to the Attorney General for Northern Ireland
To Investigate The Perjury of Freddie Scappaticci aka Stakeknife
To Belfast High Court On Northern Ireland, on 18th August 2003. Freddie Scappaticci stated under oath that he was not the agent Stakeknife.
The police, MoD and the British Government know that he Mr Scappaticci was lying to the court.

Former British Army Intelligence officer Martin Ingram reported the perjury to the police,
The police have said "This matter is not capable of police investigation" Police have used a ruling by Lord Chief Justice Carswell

Kirk McCambley's Drug Shame, Story In The Sundayworld.

2010-10-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Kirk's Drug Shame: Todays Sundayworld Story.

Sir Robert Carswell, Former Lord Chief Justice in Northern Ireland,

2010-10-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

A High Court decision by former Lord Chief Justice Carswell is being used by police as an excuse NOT to investigate the serious offence of perjury in the High Court in Belfast.

Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife"

Sir Robert Carswell, Lord Chief Justice in Northern Ireland, said in his ruling he had taken into consideration a number of matters including the threat to Mr Scappaticci`s life.

But he ruled that if the government was to depart from its policy of neither confirming nor denying spying allegations it could put the lives of agents at risk.

Mr Scappaticci has consistently denied the allegations against him, insisting his life had been placed at risk.

During the hearing it emerged that west Belfast man, who has admitted to having been a republican, was granted general security measures following media coverage of the accusations against him.

Mr Scappaticci was denied the key person`s protection scheme in Northern Ireland which would have resulted in him having a police guard.

Sir Robert ruled in the High Court that the decision by Jane Kennedy not to comment on the claims ``did not constitute a breach of the positive obligation placed upon her as a public authority and upon the Government to take appropriate steps to safeguard the applicant`s life``.

If a public statement was made denying one person was an agent, it could place in danger the life of another individual facing similar allegations in the future, especially if the government refused to comment, he added.

Police use High Court Ruling As Excuse Not To Investigate Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife".

2010-10-03T03:21:00.000-07:00

The Police in Northern Ireland refuse to investigate Freddie Scappaticci for a serious criminal offence.

Sam Kincaid a senior police officer from the PSNI. refused to investigate Freddie Scappaticci for perjury, the police officer said the offence not be investigated by police because of a High Court ruling.

*************************************

High Court injunction

The authors who exposed one of Britain's most important spies inside the IRA fear their book is about to be banned due to a High Court injunction.
Freddie Scappaticci - accused of being the agent 'Stakeknife' - has successfully barred broadcasters and the print media from reproducing any picture of him taken from May 2003 onwards.

His victory in Belfast High Court on Thursday has prevented the BBC from re-broadcasting the only ever interview with the former Belfast republican, recorded in May 2003, when he denied that he was the agent codenamed 'Stakeknife'. The BBC and other media outlets would face heavy fines or imprisonment if they breached the ruling.

Last night the former army intelligence agent who blew the cover of 'Stakeknife' and co-wrote a book on Scappaticci's role as a high-grade informer inside the IRA said that there was now the possibility that it could be taken off bookshelves throughout the UK. The ex-British Army Force Research Unit soldier, who operates under the name Martin Ingrams, pointed out that a still photograph taken from the now banned BBC interview was reproduced in their book Stakeknife -Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland

Speaking from a secret location, Ingrams said: 'This ruling means we are actually in technical breach of the injunction barring the use of Freddie Scappaticci's image. The book contains that image and as far as we have been told the ruling is retrospective. It also means that journalists and whistleblowers like myself could go to jail as a result of this injunction.

'The whole thing is a disgrace, because Freddie Scappaticci stands accused of killing for the IRA while all the time he was working for the security forces, for Her Majesty's Government. Yet he is getting the full protection of the courts whilst those who wish to tell the truth about the "dirty war" in Northern Ireland risk going to jail.'

Scappaticci, a veteran republican, is accused of running the IRA's internal security department, which was tasked with flushing out and murdering informers. Despite numerous claims that he was involved in the abduction and killing of alleged agents, he has never sued for libel, although in his one and only televised interview (now banned) Scappaticci denied he was a British agent.

Ingrams alleges that all the time Scappaticci was head of the IRA's so-called 'nutting squad' he was in fact working as a top agent for the British state. Republicans now accept Ingrams's allegations after first dismissing his claims as rubbish back in 2003. 'The injunction doesn't challenge what I have said all along about "Stakeknife". But it does limit any more we can say about him in the future,' the ex-soldier-turned-whistleblower added.

Although no mention is made of books in the injunction, Ingrams's publishers, O'Brien Press, based in the Republic of Ireland, are understood to be taking legal advice on the distribution of the book in the UK.

The publishers are considering the option of re-printing the book without the still photograph from the BBC interview with Scappaticci. However, the original book can still be distributed throughout the Irish Republic, where the injunction does not apply.

Belfast Businessman Kirk McCambley Named In The Sundayworld As A D D

2010-10-03T01:31:00.000-07:00

Belfast businessman Kirk McCambley is named as D D by Sundayworld Newspaper!

Kirk McCambley: a strange tale

2010-10-03T01:22:00.000-07:00

Belfast businessman Kirk McCambley is away on holidays and his staff don't know when he will be back !
How Kirk shot to fame:

********************************************************************

Iris Robinson and Kirk McCambley: a strange tale of Belfast's 'odd couple'
Mother-son relationship turned into love affair and dubious financial dealings

Esther Addley
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 January 2010 22.10 GMT

Kirk McCambley: 'I always seen her coming in and out. Just knew her from an early age, through the butcher’s and through my dad.' Photograph: Peter Morrison/AP
In what has developed into a stranger-than-fiction tale that has convulsed Northern Ireland, one of the more remarkable details of the affair and financial dealings between Iris Robinson and Kirk McCambley is how they met.

Mrs Robinson — MP for Strangford, member of the Northern Ireland assembly, alderman of Castlereagh borough council and wife of Northern Ireland's first minister — was a frequent customer of William (Billy) McCambley's butcher's shop in Ballyhackamore, east Belfast. His young son Kirk would help out in the shop, and first got to know her in the late 1990s when he was still at primary school.

Kirk McCambley, now 21, told BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme on Thursday night: "I always seen [sic] her coming in and out. Just knew her from an early age, through the butcher's and through my dad."

He could not have failed to have known, even at that early age, who she was. With Peter Robinson's ascension in 2008 to first minister, the couple have officially become the "first couple" of Ulster politics, but have held that role for decades in loyalist east Belfast, where he has been MP since 1979 and a leisure centre is named after him.

Though the DUP leader has a buttoned-up public image, his wife has always been a more colourful figure, exuberant in her manner and carefully coiffed and heavily made up.

But no one can have anticipated that this decidedly odd couple – the devout Mrs Robinson, at 59, was old enough to be the then 19-year-old McCambley's grandmother – would have an affair .

The relationship developed after Billy McCambley died in early 2008 and Iris promised to look after his only son. "She made sure I was OK," Kirk McCambley told the programme. "Obviously anyone who has ever lost a parent knows that it's an incredibly hard time, and she was there to help."

Selwyn Black, Mrs Robinson's former political adviser who turned whistleblower for the BBC exposé, told the programme the couple would take evening walks around Belfast, with Mrs Robinson at first taking a maternal, advisory role. "As for Kirk he is the other son I would have loved to have been a mother to," she texted Black — the Robinsons have two grown up sons and a daughter.

But it was not to remain a mother-son relationship; by mid-summer 2008 the couple were having an affair.

It is difficult to overstate the shock Mrs Robinson's admission on Tuesday provoked in Northern Ireland. Both Peter and Iris Robinson are vocal evangelical Christians from a deeply religious and conservative unionist culture.

Mrs Robinson's transgression was the more astonishing given the controversy generated last year when she described homosexuality as an abomination on a par with paedophilia that made her nauseous. As the BBC programme coyly noted, the passage in Leviticus that she quoted contains similar sentiments about adultery.

Her Christian faith, however, does not seem to have hindered the relationship – nor set limits on her actions as a result of it. Shortly after the couple started sleeping together Mrs Robinson took her young lover on a walk along the river Lagan in Belfast and showed him a new cafe development for which Castlereagh council was advertising for tenants.

She told him, said McCambley, "she had … heard about a place down there. I came down and [saw] it, loved it, and started working on my business plan."

But at just 19, with very little business experience and almost no money, McCambley needed help. McCambley says he had heard of the two well-known property developers who each gave Iris Robinson £25,000 which she passed on to him, but had never met them. (It is not known on what terms the men gave the money to the politician, though questions will certainly be asked about the fact that Mrs Robinson, around the same time, was lobbying on one of the men's behalf over a prospective development.)

There was one more thing – McCambley was to give her a £5,000 kickback in cash so that she could pay off her own debts. He did.

When the question of the lease came to be decided at a council meeting, McCambley was judged the only candidate to have met the criteria. Mrs Robinson was present but did not declare her financial or personal interest.

By the end of 2008 the relationship was over. "Just cut links with Kirk. God's word was very clear on it. He was reasonably OK on it. I am not," she texted to Black. But despite her belated invocation of God, the real reason seems to have been money – Mrs Robinson wanted the investment back. "It seems cruel but I am not going to soften until he has paid back the 45k and he has got until Christmas," read another text.

The money was not, at that point, to be returned to the developers, but £20,000 was to be paid to Mrs Robinson's pentecostal church, the Light 'n' Life Free Methodist Tabernacle in Dundonald, on the outskirts of Belfast, and another £20,000 to repay her debts. Black, himself a former chaplain who was increasingly unhappy with the arrangement, texted his employer: "Where is God in all of this?"

That Christmas, at their Florida second home, Mr Robinson found out about the financial arrangement. At his urging, according to Black, McCambley was told to send the two payments of £20,000 (it is unclear what became of the last £5,000) to the two developers.

Two months later a Robinson family member, according to Black, found a letter in which details of the relationship emerged. On the night of 1 March 2009 Mrs Robinson tried to take her life.

Selwyn Black was summoned to the family home the next morning, where he found her "seriously ill" and called a doctor, who rang for an ambulance. Mr Robinson had left for work; television footage showed him joking in the assembly chamber at the time his wife was being taken to hospital.

In her statement, Mrs Robinson said her affair – "the worst thing I have ever done" – was explained by an ongoing battle with depression. "I grieve that I have damaged my profession in Christ, but I am comforted that He was able to forgive even me," she said. Peter Robinson said he had considered leaving his wife but she "would certainly have been less likely to recover if I had left".

He has forgiven her; whether the electorate can forgive them both is yet to be seen.

guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 January 2010 22.10 GMT

Crime gang boss probed in blackmail case !

2010-10-03T01:11:00.000-07:00

Crime gang boss probed in blackmail case.
Monday, 27 September 2010

The alleged head of an organised crime gang in Belfast was among two men remanded in custody on blackmail charges.

Christopher Notarantonio, 39, and William Barker, 38, are each accused of being involved in menacing a businessman into handing over £3,000.

Police also disclosed that a further two suspects are still being sought in connection with the alleged plot.

Notarantonio, of Avoca Close, Belfast, and Barker, from Filbert Drive, Dunmurry, were detained in the Markets area of the city last Friday.

Both men have been charged with two counts of blackmail against a Witness A on 17 and 24 September.

Amid tightened security a large group of their family and friends were in attendance at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Barker made no bail application and was remanded to appear again via video link next month.

A detective sergeant expressed strong opposition to Notarantonio's bid to be released, based on the alleged threat of interference with witnesses and the course of justice.

The officer said he was currently under investigation in connection with a paramilitary-style punishment shooting in June. Notarantonio faces no charges over this.

"Police also believe he is the leader of an organised crime gang in Belfast," the detective told the Belfast court.

"There are two other suspects outstanding in this case. We believe this applicant, if granted bail, will contact those persons."

Defence solicitor Ciaran Toner claimed police were "trying to create an impression this is something a lot bigger than what it actually is".

The lawyer claimed there was little evidence against his client, who he said was arrested in a car with another man who allegedly took £3,000 off the victim.

"He gives a very straight-forward, reasonable explanation - he was giving a friend a lift," Mr Toner said.

"He leaves him in the city centre of Belfast then picks him up 20 minutes later. I'm not quite sure what the case against Mr Notarantonio is, it's purely circumstantial.

"Mr Notarantonio says he denies any involvement in the blackmail."

The court heard five telephone recordings have been obtained as part of the investigation into the alleged plot.

Despite defence submissions, however, District Judge Fiona Bagnall ordered Notarantonio to be held in custody along with Barker.

She said: "Given the evidence of the Sergeant I do believe there is a real risk of interference with witnesses and two further suspects."

Photo: Irish News.

© UTV News

Court hears 'walking stick gun' found in drug search

2010-09-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

Court hears that a 'walking stick gun' was found in drug search,

Police looking for drugs found firearms including a walking stick which can be turned into a gun, a court has heard.

Brian McManus, 54, of Aileen Terrace, Newry, County Down, appeared before the city's magistrates court charged with seven firearms offences.

A prosecution lawyer said police searching a large shed at his house found cutting machinery and component parts, along with evidence that deactivated guns had been reactivated.

Mr McManus was remanded in custody.

He denies a number of charges including possession of firearms with intent to injure, possession of a firearm with an intent to instil fear of violence, possession of a prohibited weapon, preparation for an act of terrorism, possession of articles likely to be of use to terrorists and possession of guns in suspicious circumstances.

The prosecution lawyer said that during police interviews, it emerged that the accused had been acting under duress.

The prosecution opposed bail given the seriousness of the offences, the possibility of flight from the jurisdiction and the fear that a relative could finance a trip abroad.

A defence solicitor said Mr McManus had no criminal record, was a registered carer for an uncle and had promised to surrender his passport.

The district judge said that such offences should now be history but this was not the case, and if duress had been involved, the accused could be prevailed upon to commit further offences if released.

He was remanded in custody to appear again by video link next month.

BBC.

Comment:
It seems that the police have now changed their story, at the weekend the media where told by police that the arrest was in connection with Dissident Republican Activity, now they have told the court that it was in regard to something completely different "drugs". It is said that Brian is very confident that he will get out on bail, I guarantee you he will !

Newry Man charged with terrorism offences after weapons find.

2010-09-26T03:46:00.000-07:00

A 54-year-old man has been charged with a number of terrorism offences following the discovery of weapons.

He was arrested in Newry on Friday by detectives investigating dissident republican activity.

The man is due to appear at Newry Magistrates Court in Monday.

He will face a number of charges including possession of articles likely to be of use to terrorists, and possession of firearms and ammunition.

Security sources have named the man as Brian McManus (nick named - The Link )of Aileen Terrace Newry.

FAIR faces new funding probe with OFMDFM

2010-09-24T02:47:00.000-07:00

Victims group FAIR has had its core funding frozen ahead of a new financial investigation, institgated by the Office of First and Deputy Minister and the Community Relations Council.

FAIR spokesman Willie Frazer said yesterday that the Community Relations Council (CRC) told him on Tuesday that it was coming to do an audit.

"They couldn't say why," he said. "This core funding is very important to FAIR now as in this phase it would have been increased and would have allowed us to continue despite the withdrawal of Pobal's funding from Dublin."

FAIR gets £20,000 of core funding every quarter to cover its basic running costs but said yesterday that its next payment had now been frozen.

The news comes only days after it was revealed that Dublin government body Pobal confirmed that it had withdrawn funding of almost £900,000 from FAIR due to alleged failures in administration.

Mr Frazer said that this was the first time that CRC had ever frozen FAIR's funding ahead of an audit.

"CRC has admitted that we are one of the most audited groups in this sector across Northern Ireland," Mr Frazer added.

"They say it is the luck of the draw, but we always get picked for auditing."

He alleges his group is being targeted because its high-profile campaigning for IRA victims clashes with current political progress.

"We are the only objecting voice to what is going on for victims of terrorism, the only ones speaking out for justice and recognition for innocent victims," he said.

Duncan Morrow, chief executive of the CRC, said the decision to probe FAIR's finances had been taken jointly with its managing department, OFMDFM.

He said the decision was taken in light of the probe into FAIR by the Special EU Projects Body (SEUPB), which is the Northern Ireland partner of FAIR's Dublin-based funder, Pobal.

Mr Morrow said: "In the light of some of the findings of the investigation undertaken by SEUPB, CRC is joining with OFMDFM in a further investigation into matters at FAIR in fulfilment of our responsibility to assure ourselves that public money is being properly managed.

"Until it is complete, we will not be commenting on the content or progress of the investigation.

"FAIR is audited in accordance with strict guidelines and is subject to the normal auditing and accounting rules which apply to all groups funded under the CRC Victims and Survivors scheme."

A CRC spokesman confirmed that no core funding would be released to FAIR, subject to the outcome of the OFMDFM/CRC probe.

OFMDFM last night declined to comment. "In light of ongoing investigations the department is unable to comment at this time," a spokesman said.

The chairman of the assembly's OFMDFM committee, Danny Kennedy, said any such intervention by OFMDFM in CRC funding of a specific group would be "prejudicial" and "cause for concern".

"I would have thought such a course of action by OFMDFM would be unusual," he said.

"It would represent departmental or ministerial intervention at a level that would be prejudicial to any individual or group."

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/FAIR-faces-new-funding-probe.6546123.jp

Dissident republicans planted spy cameras in trees at MI5’s Belfast HQ.

2010-09-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

Dissident republicans planted spy cameras in trees at MI5’s £20m base at Palace Barracks in Northern Ireland.

By Ciaran Barnes and Alan Murray
Monday, 13 September 2010

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/bombers-used-video-cameras-to-spy-on-mi5-base-14947375.html#ixzz0zPhYgfeO
The army rumbled the sophisticated Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) spying operation during a search of a clump of trees on the Old Holywood Road overlooking the rear of the barracks where MI5 has its £20m Loughside base.
It is understood four digital cameras were concealed in the trees near Redburn Country Park.
It is feared ONH, which bombed Palace Barracks in April, has used the recordings to target soldiers and build profiles on spooks working at the new spy base.
Senior security sources in London tried to play down the cameras being found, saying only that trees were cleared and a new fence erected because of concerns the wooded area could conceal gunmen.
And the PSNI would only say when asked if cameras had been found that no materials “likely to be of use to terrorists” had been found in the Redburn area since the April bomb attack.
But well placed sources in Belfast insisted the cameras were discovered and said the find was embarrassing for MI5 which employs more than 300 people at the base.
“There were four cameras hidden in the trees at the back of Palace Barracks which covered all angles of the base,” said an insider.
“That is why all the perfectly healthy trees were chopped down instead of just erecting the fence. That measure showed how concerned MI5 was by what dissidents were doing and by the atrocity they seemed to be planning.
“The cameras were battery-powered and had been there for some time, maybe months.
“They were also backed up with memory sticks.”
It is understood ONH chiefs regard the planting of the spy cams as a major success even though the equipment has now been found.
It is thought ONH members would make regular trips to Redburn Country Park to collect the memory sticks and change the batteries on the cameras.
Our source said the discovery showed ONH were becoming more dangerous. “These guys are becoming a more sophisticated paramilitary outfit,” added the insider.
“In April they exploded a car bomb at the gates of Palace Barracks, and now they are spying on MI5.
“This shows the extremely serious threat that ONH poses, they are very, very dangerous.”
DUP MP Gregory Campbell expressed alarm at our revelations.
He said: “It would have very serious implications if this was the case — it’s very concerning.”
Since April's bomb attack staff at Palace Barracks have driven into the base through a revamped front entrance manned by armed Ministry of Defence police.
But the rear of the base that was damaged in the explosion is now operational again following repairs.
Following the bomb, security chiefs carried out a major security review and identified the trees where the cameras were concealed as a potential danger spot.
It was feared gunmen could also easily hide there and mount a Massereene-style gun attack on the base's sentry post and vehicles entering or leaving.
In March of last year, soldiers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar were shot dead by gunmen at the entrance to Massereene army base in Antrim.
The gunmen had hidden in bushes opposite the base entrance so they could watch until soldiers came out to collect pizzas and then open fire on them.
Army headquarters refused to comment on the camera find, but one security source described the area where they were hidden.
“It was a densely wooded patch that was easily accessed,” he said.
“In winter time you wouldn’t see anyone moving into it from a distance, or setting up an operation to riddle the entrance in a repeat of the Massereene attack”.
Last week MI5’s Director General Jonathan Evans told the Commons’ Intelligence and Security Committee
that his organisation had not anticipated the way in which the security situation has deteriorated in Northern Ireland.
He said: “The Service has considerably more what we would call priority, that is life-threatening investigations in Northern Ireland, than we do in the rest of Great Britain.”
The recent 33 per cent increase in agents and analysts based at Loughside inside the Palace Barracks complex makes it by far the largest MI5 base outside London.
The complex is the main back-up to M15 headquarters in London.

Read more:

Strong response' to documentary on IRA murders.

2010-09-10T03:34:00.000-07:00

Published Date: 09 September 2010
A TELEVISION programme about the IRA killing of two tourists in Holland in 1990 has provoked a strong response in Australia following its screening last Sunday.
London-based Australian lawyers Stephen Melrose, 24, and Nicholas Spanos, 28, were gunned down in the Dutch border town of Roermond after being mistaken for off-duty British soldiers.

Channel 7 producers had travelled to Northern Ireland via Holland last month, along with the family of one of the victims, to make a documentary about the Melrose family's difficulty in coming to terms with the murder.

One of the show's producers, who accompanied the still-grieving family, said the documentary "rated very well" with around 1.5 million viewers on the night.

Mick O'Donnell said: "There was a strong response from the audience in letters and calls – you can see a mix of comments on the website.

"Others have contacted us offering more information, so this is a subject we're likely to revisit."

Stephen Melrose's parents Roy and Beverley Melrose made the trip along with their two daughters in the hope of finding "closure".

One of their daughters, Helen Jackson, told the News Letter: "My dad is almost 80 years of age and felt he had to make the trip this year or he might never be able to do it."

Ms Jackson said meeting IRA victims in Northern Ireland was "a source of great comfort" but added: "It's so frustrating to realise that so many others, as well as my family, have never seen anyone face justice for murder."

The gang responsible for the Roermond murders were armed with a Kalashnikov rifle – and a handgun used in a string of terrorist attacks in both Northern Ireland and mainland Europe.

At one point during the trip the TV crew approached a suspected IRA member who was tried and acquitted of the murders, along with three others, in 1991.

The confrontation took place last month when the documentary makers approached Donna Maguire as she sat in her car in Newry.

Writing on the TV company's website, producer Ross Coulthart said: "When I finally tap on Donna Maguire's car window and ask her to offer some sympathy to the Australian family of Stephen Melrose, there is a microsecond before Donna realises that her past has caught up with her.

"Her face initially has a friendly greeting, and she then flashes recognition and turns her head away from our camera.

"Twenty years on, is it shame? We hope so."

One typical comment of support emailed to the Channel 7 website after the screening read: "It has taken an Australian TV company to ask the hard questions and to confront the suspects. Well done Ross and crew."

Belfast Newsletter.

Collateral Damage By Ross Coulthart.

2010-09-09T00:48:00.000-07:00

Watch Australia's Sunday Night Channel Seven TV documentary Collateral Damage by Ross Coulthart.

Ross Coulthart confronts Gerry Adams and traces Gerard Harte and Donna Maguire, Coulthart goes to the homes of Harte and Maguire to confront them over the murders of Australian lawyers, Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28).
After twenty years Donna Maguires past catches up with her.

Watch Collateral Damage By Ross Coulthart.

2010-09-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

Watch the Australian TV documentary by Ross Coulthart.

Here is the Collateral Damage documentary by Sunday Nights Ross Coulthart.

Ross Coulthart confronts Gerry Adams and traces Gerard Harte and Donna Maguire, Coulthart goes to the homes of Harte and Maguire and tries to confront them over the murders of Australian lawyers, Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28).

Many Thanks To Sean M. from Sydney for the video.

IRA past catches up with mum.

2010-09-05T11:24:00.000-07:00

IRA past catches up with mum
Former double-murder suspect Donna Maguire was confronted by an Australian film crew at school gates
Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor

Donna Maguire (above) was shocked to be approached by a journalist as she waited for her children to come out of school Former IRA bomber Donna Maguire, once the most wanted female terrorist in Europe, has been confronted in Newry by an Australian film crew making a documentary about the murder of two tourists in Holland.

Australian lawyers, Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28), were shot dead in Roermond 20 years ago by an IRA unit who mistook them for British soldiers. Maguire was arrested four weeks later in a forest near the Belgian-Dutch border after a farmer heard shots and uncovered an arms cache.

The IRA woman and three men were charged with the double murder. The court heard Maguire was a key IRA figure. Despite what the prosecution believed was a strong case, Maguire and two of the men were acquitted; the third man had his conviction overturned on appeal.

Maguire was later convicted of the attempted murder of British soldiers at Osnabruck army base in Germany. Now aged 43, she lives in Upper Faughart, Dundalk, with her husband, convicted IRA bomber Leonard 'Bap' Hardy and their children, who go to school in Newry. The documentary on the double murder, and the confrontation with Maguire, will be shown on Australia's Channel Seven today.

The film-makers allege that British intelligence had advance knowledge of the IRA attack but failed to prevent it, probably to protect informers in the IRA team. Award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart said: "I approached Donna as she waited in her car to pick up her children from school.

"I asked her if she had anything to say about the murder of two innocent Australians in Holland. She said nothing. I told her we had assurances from the Dutch prosecutor that she could never be prosecuted again and this was an opportunity for her to tell her story but she didn't reply.

"She looked very shocked to see our film crew. I asked her if she ever thought her IRA past would catch up with her but she said nothing."

"Donna Maguire clearly loves her children, and good on her, but it will amaze Australians that former IRA members are living normal lives while the families of IRA victims are still in such pain," he added.

Four months before the double murder, Maguire was acquitted in a Dublin court of possessing explosives and maps of a British army base in Germany. Her future husband Hardy was convicted.

In 1994, Maguire and two other IRA suspects were acquitted in Germany of the murder of a British Army soldier, although the judge said it was "clear they are members of the IRA". In 1996, Maguire received £13,500 compensation after tripping on a broken paving stone in Newry.

The Sunday Tribune.
September 5, 2010

Collateral Damage: Sunday Night

2010-09-05T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ross Coulthart's investigation into the cold blooded murders of two Australians by the IRA in Holland 20 years ago has caused quite a stir.

Australian lawyers, Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28), were shot dead in Roermond 20 years ago

Special Thanks, to Sean M. in sydney for the video.

Collateral Damage by Ross Coulthart

2010-09-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

Collateral Damage:

Twenty years ago, a hit-team of Irish Republican Army terrorists cut a murderous swathe across Europe. Ross Coulthart investigates why two young Australians were murdered by the IRA and became innocent victims of a dirty war.

Ross Coulthart and his film crew confront Donna Maguire in Newry

Ross Coulthart Reports.

Ross Coulthart Blog:

Exposed: IRA Murder Of Australians Melrose and Spanos

2010-09-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, a hit-team of Irish Republican Army terrorists cut a murderous swathe across Europe. Ross Coulthart investigates why two young Australians were murdered by the IRA and became innocent victims of a dirty war.

Ross Coulthart Reports.

You can watch the programme here.

Donna Maguire (born c. 1967 in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland[1]) is a former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) once described as Europe's most dangerous woman.[1]

A former convent girl from Newry, Maguire joined the IRA and was trained by Dessie Grew according to The Independent newspaper, who would later be killed in an ambush by the SAS in October 1990. In early 1989 she travelled to Europe as part of an IRA active service unit based in The Hague and Hanover.[1] On 12 July 1989 Maguire and Leonard Hardy were arrested at Rosslare, County Wexford after arriving on a ferry from Cherbourg, and mercury switches, explosives and photographs of British Army bases in Germany were seized. At their trial at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in February 1990 Maguire was acquitted of possession of explosives, but Hardy was sentenced to five years imprisonment.[1] German authorities had requested Maguire's extradition in relation to a bombing at a British Army barracks at Osnabrück on 19 June 1989 and the killing of a British soldier in a car bomb attack in Hanover several days later, but Maguire was not re-arrested when she left court and she immediately returned to Europe.[1]

Maguire was arrested in Belgium near the border with the Netherlands on 16 June 1990, after a farmer reported hearing gunshots in woods and two handguns, a machine gun and explosives were found nearby.[1][2] A second IRA member was arrested with Maguire but escaped across the border before being captured by Dutch police, who also arrested a second man who had been travelling with Maguire.[3] Maguire was extradited to the Netherlands on 6 December 1990, and in March 1991 Maguire was acquitted of the murder of two Australian tourists mistaken for off-duty British soldiers in Roermond in May 1990, a decision which was upheld at an appeal in July of the same year,[1][4] and on 7 October 1991 Maguire was extradited to Germany.[1]

While on trial in Düsseldorf on charges relating to the June 1990 murder of a British soldier in Dortmund, German authorities announced on 16 November 1992 she was also being charged with attempted murder over the 1989 Osnabrück bombing.[5] On 9 June 1994 Maguire and three other IRA members were acquitted of the Dortmund murder although the judge said it was "clear they are members of the IRA and trained as IRA volunteers",[6] and also acquitted of involvement in the May 1990 bombing of a British Army base in Hanover.[1][7] She was remanded into custody to await trial on other charges relating to the 1989 Osnabrück bombing,[7] and in June 1995 received a nine-year prison sentence after being found guilty of attempted murder, explosives offences and spying on British Army bases in Germany with intent to sabotage. Due to the length of time spent in custody on remand—during the trial Maguire became the longest serving remand prisoner in German legal history—Maguire walked free from court.[1]

On 17 January 1996 Maguire received £13,500 compensation due to a 1985 accident in Newry, when she tripped due to a broken paving stone. She told the court "I have had to give up dancing, jogging and swimming because the ankle swells up. I can't wear high heels and the ankle is not very stable when I walk on rough ground or gravel".[8] The compensation award was described as a disgrace by Ulster Unionist Party MP Ken Maginnis, and Conservative Party MP David Wilshire said it was shocking and obscene and called for the law to be changed. Colin Parry, who received £7,500 after the death of his 12-year-old son in the Warrington bomb attacks, called for a review of the compensation system saying "It's a kick in the teeth. Every time these judgments come along, it reminds us how little society appears to value a child's life".[8]

Maguire married Hardy in County Louth in July 1996,[9] and they have three children.[10] Hardy was arrested in August 2005 while on a family holiday in Torremolinos, Spain and extradited to Germany in January 2006 to face charges over his role in the 1989 Osnabrück bombing. In April 2006 Hardy was found guilty of attempted murder and deliberately causing an explosion and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. It later transpired Hardy was not sent to prison and had left the court via a side door with Maguire, and a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Justice issued a statement saying that "Leonard Hardy is not in detention".[10]

ULSTER POLICE COVER UP MURDER BY INFORMER.

2010-08-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

Special Branch officers who covered up the involvement of one of their agents in the murder of a British soldier in Ulster could face charges of perverting the course of justice, Sunday People can reveal. A formal complaint was lodged with the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, yesterday about the former tout, Martin McGartland, and his role in the brutal slaying of an unarmed squaddie.
McGartland was recruited as an informer by RUC Special Branch in the late 1980s and early 1990s before dramatically escaping from an IRA interrogation squad. He has since admitted his role in the murder of soldier Tony Carlos Harrison.
The 21-year-old Londoner was shot dead by two IRA men who burst into his girlfriend's home at Nevis Avenue in east Belfast on June 19, 1991. McGartland drove the gunmen to and from the murder scene. Paratrooper Harrison had been on leave to discuss his future wedding plans with his fiancee. His murder was witnessed by her, her mother and a terrified 10-year-old girl.
Now a civilian with an interest in the case has come forward to lodge a formal complaint with the Ombudsman's office.
The man, who has asked to remain anonymous, says both McGartland and his handlers should be investigated. In particular, he says, the decision not to prosecute McGartland for murder or conspiracy to murder despite his confession, was illegal. He claimed that police were obliged to investigate any confession of murder. To refuse to do so, because the person confessing to the crime was a police informer, was not a legal act.
McGartland, who has since survived an IRA assassination attempt at his home in the north of England, has confessed to his role in the killing on a number of occasions. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph in February 1997 he said: "I would like to place on record the facts concerning the tragic murder of Private Tony Harrison, the soldier killed by two gunmen in 1991 while visiting his fiancee in Protestant East Belfast to discuss wedding plans.
"I was indeed the getaway driver in Pte Harrison's killing by the IRA, a fact that has haunted me ever since.
"But Pte Harrison's parents should know that one month before the shooting I heard of the plot and told Special Branch immediately.
"We spent hours driving up and down streets in the area trying to locate where a soldier, then thought to be a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, was living.
"Special Branch made inquiries of the UDR and the British battalions then serving in Northern Ireland, all to no avail. We had no name, no address and no facts to go on. No trace could be found of the relatives of any soldier living in that area.
"On the day of the shooting I was called to a meeting by the IRA. Every such meeting I attended was on orders of my intelligence handlers so that I could report back.
"On this occasion I attended the meeting only to be told I was leaving that instant on an active service mission.
"My task in the four years I worked as an agent in Northern Ireland was to save the lives of innocent people.
"But I also had to make sure that my cover was not blown, for agents working inside the IRA were few and far between.
"I deeply regret what happened but I accept responsibility for my role in the events of that day."
This confession could never be challenged by the family. They were told by the prosecuting authorities in 1994 that they could not pursue legal proceedings for compensation because the coroner had failed to establish who killed their son.
The soldier's father Steve Seaman said at the time of the confession: "It is not a case of us desperately wanting compensation, but it would make our pain much more bearable to know how Tony died." At the time of Tony's murder - and shortly after McGartland failed in a bid to get compensation from the government for his time as an informer - Mr Seaman expressed deep frustration with the police handling of the case.
"We were outraged that McGartland was asking for money and desperately hoped his claim would fail," said his father a retired Catholic primary school caretaker from Bow, east London.
"It was sickening that some MPs could support a man who was an accomplice to our son's murderers.
"Tony would be married now with children. But he is dead and that will stay with us for the rest of our lives," Mr Seaman said.
"He had been a soldier for six years and we knew that there was a risk he might die in action.
"But to be shot in the back while watching television with his girlfriend is so worthless, so cowardly.
"He had talked to his mother only an hour or so before, asking how to cook pasta. And then he died, just like that."
The family have campaigned since their son's death to establish who killed him. McGartland claims he gave his RUC contacts the names of the two IRA men involved. Pte Harrison's parents are still deeply unhappy about the RUC's role in their son's murder.
"We are left with so many unanswered questions and have nobody to turn to," Mrs Seaman said.
"Why was Tony not warned if everyone knew that the IRA were about to kill in that area?
"He was a soldier and had to report his leave at his barracks."
Pte Harrison's fiancee was led by the gunmen to the bedroom of her home before they shot him five times.
"I was there when he was shot and I will never get over what happened," she said.
"What has hurt the most is that I try to get on with my life, every day a little bit more and, at the same time, there are MPs who actually listened to what this man had to say."
McGartland remains in hiding in England. In June 1999, he survived an IRA murder bid at his home in Whitley Bay.
Last night one source close to the complainant revealed: "The failure of the authorities to prosecute McGartland for murder shows that officially the state was prepared to allow agents to carry out murders.
"There has never been any way of addressing this before.
"Now the ombudsman can ask the questions and she will demand answers."
August 4, 2002

To date Martin McGartland and his police handlers have never been arreastd or interviewed over the murder of Tony Harrison.

Reconstruction of IRA attack In Roermond: Ross Coulthart

2010-08-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Mick O'Donnell & Ross Coulthart during the reconstruction of the murder of two innocent Australians in Roermond by the IRA.

Three weeks later, Donna Maguire (24) and Paul Hughes (26) from Newry, Seán Hick (30) from Glenageary, Co Dublin, and Gerard Harte (26) from Lurgan were charged with the double murder. The prosecution claimed that the four planned the killings, arranged forged passports and driving licenses, a getaway car and a safe house.

The court heard that Maguire, then the most wanted female terrorist in Europe, was a key figure in the operation. Eyewitnesses also provided testimony. Despite what the prosecution believed was a strong case, only Harte was convicted and his conviction was overturned on appeal.

TV show claims British knew of deadly IRA Dutch operation in advance.

2010-08-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

TV show claims British knew of deadly IRA Dutch operation in advance
Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor

Nick Spanos: mistaken identity. A documentary to be screened next Sunday will air suspicions that British intelligence had advance knowledge of an IRA attack in Holland, in which two Australian tourists died, but failed to stop it.

Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28) were shot dead by IRA gunmen, who mistook them for British soldiers, in Roermond 20 years ago. This month the Melrose family visited Holland and Ireland in their quest to find answers about the murders.

Award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart accompanied them and his programme will be screened on Australia's Channel Seven. It includes a confrontation between the reporter and Gerry Adams who served on the IRA Army Council at the time of the killings.

Coulthart said: "Just after the shooting, an Australian source with good links to British intelligence suggested to me that the British had details of the IRA cell operating in Europe, that they had information on its key members, and that they could possibly have stopped the attack. This is supported by ex-British agents we've interviewed."

There is speculation that at least one, and probably several, members of the IRA team in Europe were informers. Coulthart said information from British intelligence sources also suggested that, at the most senior level, one in two IRA leaders were British agents. "The question must be asked whether two Australians were sacrificed to protect informants in the IRA," he said. Donna Maguire and Paul Hughes from Newry, Sean Hick from Glenageary, Co Dublin, and Gerard Harte from Lurgan were charged with the double murder.

Forensic and eyewitness evidence was presented in court. Despite what the prosecution believed was a strong case, only Harte was convicted and his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Four months before the Australians' murder, Maguire was acquitted in a Dublin court of possessing explosives and maps of a British army base in Germany.

Maguire, Hick and Hughes were later acquitted of the 1990 murder of a British army major in Germany. Maguire was also acquitted of a bomb attack on a British army base in Hanover but was convicted of the 1989 failed bomb attack on the Osnabruck base.

Sunday Tribune:
August 22, 2010

Twenty Years On, A Family's Question Still Remains: Why Did The IRA Kill Our Sons?

2010-08-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

The vicious IRA killings of two Australian tourists in Holland left two families waiting decades for answers, writes Suzanne Breen

The family of Stephan Melrose remember their son at the spot where he died 20 years ago

Stephan Melrose
Nick Spanos
Gerry Adams is confronted by an Australian TV crew about whether he played any part in the murder of two Australian tourists in Roermond in 1990
1234IT was a spur-of-the-moment decision to stop in the old cobbled square which looked so beautiful in the moonlight that summer's night. The four Australian tourists just couldn't resist parking their car and exploring the historic centre of Roermond.

That decision cost two of the travellers their lives. As they walked around the Dutch town and chose a restaurant for dinner, they didn't know the IRA was watching. Ninety minutes later, Stephan Melrose (24) and Nick Spanos (28) lay dead, their blood splattered over the old square they had so admired.

Melrose's wife Lyndal and Spanos's girlfriend, Vicki Coss, watched helplessly as two IRA gunmen, clad in black and wearing balaclavas, opened fire on the men. The Australians knew nothing of the IRA or that British soldiers based in Germany regularly crossed the border to socialise in Roermond.

Melrose and Spanos were tall, well-built and clean-shaven with short hair. Their appearance and their car's English-registration plates led the IRA to believe they were soldiers. Had the Australians the chance to utter a word as the gunmen approached, their accents would have saved them. But the IRA team's recklessness denied them even that.

Twenty years later, the Melrose family have travelled to Roermond and to Ireland, in search of answers to questions that have haunted them since the 1990 shooting. Justice has proved elusive. Four Irish people were charged with the double murder. Three were acquitted and the conviction of the fourth was over-turned on appeal.

There are strong suspicions British intelligence had advance knowledge of the attack and failed to act in order to protect agents in the IRA operating in Europe. The family have also long wanted to meet Sinn Féin leaders to discuss the attack.

Melrose and Spanos were Australian lawyers working in London. They'd been on a weekend break to Amsterdam, visiting museums and viewing Van Goghs. They were driving to Calais to catch the ferry back to England when they stopped at Roermond.

They had dinner in the Tin San Chinese restaurant, ordering a huge feast and drinking wine and beer. "They were laughing and joking – they were so happy," recalled waiter Shi Keung-Ko. Afterwards, they strolled back to their car. The others climbed inside but Melrose wanted to photograph the square's magnificent 18th century town hall.

He was setting up his camera and tripod when two gunmen, armed with an AK47 and a Ruger, ran across the square firing. Most of Melrose's head was blown away. One gunman then walked to the car side door and shot Spanos. The assailants made off in a stolen Mazda, driven by a third IRA member.

Lyndal Melrose, her dress covered in blood, ran towards café owner Henri Tijsje-Kloisen screaming: "I've been married nine months and my husband's dying." Three weeks later, Donna Maguire (24) and Paul Hughes (26) from Newry, Seán Hick (30) from Glenageary, Co Dublin, and Gerard Harte (26) from Lurgan were charged with the double murder. The prosecution claimed that the four planned the killings, arranged forged passports and driving licenses, a getaway car and a safe house.

The court heard that Maguire, then the most wanted female terrorist in Europe, was a key figure in the operation. Eyewitnesses also provided testimony. Despite what the prosecution believed was a strong case, only Harte was convicted and his conviction was overturned on appeal.

"The family's journey to Holland and Ireland was an attempt to find explanations," says award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart, who accompanied them. The trip was filmed as a documentary for Australia's Channel Seven and will be screened next Sunday. It includes a confrontation between Coulthart and Gerry Adams.

Moving welcome

After the shooting, the IRA apologised. At the time of the murder trial in Holland, the Melroses were too emotionally distressed to attend and also lacked the resources for the trip. But a fortnight ago, Stephan Melrose's parents – Roy and Beverley – his sisters Helen and Susy, and Susy's husband Ian visited the murder spot in Roermond.

"They were given a moving welcome by people in the town. There wasn't a dry eye in the square when they laid a wreath at the spot where Stephan was killed," says Coulthart.

The family also had "a very candid meeting" with Jo Lauman, the Dutch prosecutor in the case. "He insisted that a very strong case had been presented against the accused," says Coulthart. The film-makers also tracked down eyewitnesses and interviewed former British agents in the IRA.

"Just after the shooting in 1990, an Australian source with good links to British intelligence suggested to me that the British had details of the IRA cell operating in Europe, that they had information on its key members, and that they could possibly have stopped the attack. This is supported by ex-British agents we have interviewed for the programme," says Coulthart.

There is speculation that at least one member, and probably several, of the IRA team in Europe was working for British intelligence. Coulthart says he has also information from former British intelligence figures that at the most senior leadership level in the IRA, one in two leaders were British agents.

"There is a strong possibility that British intelligence had advance warning of this attack but didn't stop it," says Coulthart. "The question must be asked whether two Australians were sacrificed to protect informants in the IRA. If this is so then British intelligence is every bit as responsible and every bit as evil as the gunmen who pulled the trigger. Our programme is very critical of the IRA but it must also be said that the British fought a very dirty war."

Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were on the IRA Army Council at the time of the Australians' deaths. "The Melroses wanted to meet both men," says Coulthart. "We wrote to them asking about this and also to interview them on camera. They refused, saying it would be like a soap opera.

"We then wrote requesting that Gerry Adams meet the family without cameras present. We received no reply. When we came to Ireland we repeatedly asked Sinn Féin for meetings but they never got back to us."

However, the Australian film crew door-stepped Gerry Adams as he launched a celebrity Poc Fada at Stormont. Adams said he regretted the killings and expressed sympathy to the families. But he insisted he was never in the IRA and his role in past events was "an open book".

Coulthart says: "I asked him why Brendan Hughes, one of his closest friends, had said he was an IRA leader and had ordered murders. He replied, 'Brendan's dead now'. I asked him why so many of his former IRA colleagues were saying he'd been an IRA leader and he said, 'You'll have to ask them that.'"

When Coulthart asked Adams if he was on the Army Council in 1990, he replied: "You shouldn't be coming here and presuming to make assertions and allegations like that."

The film's producer, Mick O'Donnell, was stunned at Adams' tone: "He thought it impudent to be even asked the question when it was entirely reasonable. It seems he doesn't get a rough ride from some Irish media, that there is a desire not to pick at the scabs.

"It's very different in Australia. When there are suggestions that any of our politicians are involved in wrong-doing of a far less serious nature than Gerry Adams is accused of, it's open season."

Coulthart showed Adams a secret document released by the British Public Records Office under the 30-year rule. It disclosed that in 1972 Adams as "an IRA representative" met MI6 agent Frank Steele for ceasefire discussions at a house on the Derry-Donegal border. Adams told Coulthart he had met British government, but never British intelligence representatives.

While Adams refused to meet the Melroses, a former Belfast IRA member and bomb-maker did. Tommy Gorman was one of the 'Magnificent Seven' who escaped from the prison ship the Maidstone. Gorman, who now lives in Donegal, told the Sunday Tribune: "I thought it important to meet this family.

"Their son was cut down with a wonderful life ahead of him, as part of a conflict that was nothing to do with him. Had it been my son, I'd have found it very hard to handle. The family shouldn't have been left hanging in mid-air, they deserved some sort of explanation.

"I told the Melroses that the volunteers responsible didn't set out to kill Australian tourists, that it made no sense from any angle – moral or propaganda – that it was a huge mistake. I wasn't part of the IRA leadership, I wasn't part of any European unit. But, as an IRA volunteer, I shared part of the collective responsibility for what happened. You can't distance yourself just because you don't like one particular operation.

Healing process

"In 1990, people like myself were lobbying for a ceasefire because we believed the armed struggle was going nowhere. What I find disgraceful is that the leadership was sending volunteers to Europe, to kill and be killed, when they were involved in secret talks with the British about a settlement far short of a republic. All operations should have been suspended during those talks."

Coulthart says meeting Gorman helped the healing process for the Melroses: "At the start, the body language was telling. Roy Melrose, Stephan's father, looked at Tommy with hostility and contempt. After four hours of talking, that changed. Tommy faced hard questions about the murders. It is to his enormous credit that he replied candidly, and to Gerry Adams' shame that he didn't do the same.

"Tommy told the Melroses about civil rights protestors being beaten off the streets, about Catholics being unable to get jobs, about Bloody Sunday. It gave them a perspective on why young people had joined the IRA."

As the family were leaving Gorman's home, Beverley Melrose – Stephan's mother – admired the roses in his garden. The ex-IRA man picked her some flowers. "Beverley kissed and hugged him. It was extremely emotional," says Coulthart.

There were 67,000 British soldiers based in Germany. From its viewpoint, the IRA's European campaign was disastrous. It killed 10 people in 12 years – four of whom were civilians.

In September 1989, Heidi Hazell (26), the German wife of a British soldier, was shot dead by mistake. The following month, an RAF man of Indian origin, Maheshkumar Islania (34), and his six month-old daughter died in a gun attack. The AK47 used was the same one which killed the two Australians nine months later. Islania's wife escaped injury in the shooting. An eyewitness said: "It was a horrendous scene. She was clutching the dead baby, refusing to let it go."

Sunday Tribune:
August 22, 2010

NUJ condemns police seizure of phone.

2010-08-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

NUJ condemns police seizure of phone

The National Union of Journalists has expressed alarm at the actions of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in seizing a mobile phone belonging to Derry-based freelance journalist Eamonn MacDermott.

Mr MacDermott's phone was seized by the PSNI today, Thursday August 19 2010, on foot of a warrant.
Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said the decision to confiscate the phone represents a threat to the confidentialty of journalistic sources and was viewed with concern by journalists throughout Ireland and the UK.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear condemened the PSNI move. In a statement he said: "Eamonn MacDermott is an established freelance journalist working in Northern Ireland, covering sensitive stories and with a wide range of contacts. The seizure of his phone and the accessing of his phone records by the police is another attack on the right of journalist to operate in Northern Ireland. The right to protect confidential sources of information is compromised when police act in this way and we take this action very seriously. Just as we supported the right of Suzanne Breen to protect her sources we protect the right of Eamonn MacDermott."

Share This

Smithwick Tribunal & Martin Ingram

2010-08-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

After an assurance that the British Government would remove a threat of imprisonment hanging over former British Army intelligence officer Martin Ingram so he can give evidence to the tribunal over the murder of two RUC officers Breen and Buchanan , it can now be reported that Ingrim has received no undertaking from the British Government, this means that Martin Ingram will not give his evidence to the tribunal. It is also noted that former British soldier and MI5 agent Kevin Fulton will be hindered in his evidence to the tribunal as a number of journalist's and UTV have secretly handed over notes and interview material to the PSNI ( Police )

There is evidence that the First & Deputy First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have shown no support for the Tribunal, a request for the First & Deputy First Ministers went unanswered. This will clearly hinder the Tribunal in it's findings, it is expected that they will find no evidence of Irish state collusion. It is clear that there is no support from republicans or the British Government into the murders of the two police officers.

I want McGuinness in the witness box

2010-06-22T10:05:00.000-07:00

Protesters vent fury over 'one-sided justice'

ANGRY protesters told yesterday how they are sick of "a one-sided approach to justice". Standing outside Belfast High Court yesterday, a group of more than 30 people, many of whom are associated with Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR], turned out to support Willie Frazer as he launched a High Court bid to activate a civil action against Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Talk To FRANK !, Martin Mc Guinness Implicated In Murder

2010-06-22T02:44:00.000-07:00

Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" talks to Frank about the IRAs murder campaign in the United Kingdom, he names Martin Mc Guinness "Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister" and implicates him in the Murder of fellow Derry man Frank Hegarty, Frank was working as an agent for the British Government.

You can listen to the secret tapes below.

Protesters vent fury over 'one-sided justice'

2010-06-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

Protesters vent fury over 'one-sided .

Date: 22 June 2010
ANGRY protesters told yesterday how they are sick of "a one-sided approach to justice".
Standing outside Belfast High Court yesterday, a group of more than 30 people, many of whom are associated with Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR], turned out to support Willie Frazer as he launched a High Court bid to activate a civil act
against Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Mary McCurrie, 59, whose father James was murdered by the IRA 40 years ago on Sunday, said she joined the protest "to support Mr Frazer and the people from FAIR because these people have to be brought to justice".

Miss McCurrie said: "If I could do it I would bring the IRA commander on the ground on the night my father was murdered to justice. His 40th anniversary is on June 27."

She added: "The IRA are a terrorist murdering organisation and they need to be brought to account and that is why I am here today."
Ex-UDR soldier, Pastor Barry Halliday, 42, from south Armagh, said he joined the protest because many of his friends and neighbours were murdered by the IRA.

"I lost three in the one night in the Glenanne UDR centre," he said.
"I am here as UDR man and as an Orangeman. I am here because I resent Martin McGuinness being in government and I am determined to spend as much time as necessary to get rid of him.

"So much money was spent on the Saville report and look at the way republicans got on after it. It is time we stood up and did something."

Former RUC officer, George Thompson, 84, who was serving in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday, said: "I am here to protest today against why so many million was spent on one inquiry and all the others are forgotten."

Mr Thompson, from Donaghadee, said he wanted to know why Martin McGuinness was never questioned about his activities in the IRA.
"Why is it if Martin McGuinness admits he was in the IRA, why did no-one ask him if he ever shot a policeman or anyone else. Why wasn't he questioned?"

Another former RUC officer, 60-year-old Sam Malcolmson from Newcastle, who was shot in the back by the IRA, said he chose to support the writ from FAIR because "individually, no-one gets anywhere".

Mr Malcolmson said: "What came out of the Saville inquiry made people come out today. We are fed up with this one-sided justice.

"You could spend another £200 million and do Kingsmills and the other incidents around south Armagh. The murder at La Mon in Comber has been completely forgotten about."

Afterwards, Mr Frazer said: "When his writ is activated there are people prepared to come forward, including a Catholic family, who have information which would make the hair stand on the he back of your neck. Proceedings are now under way

Belfast News letter.

FAIR to use covert in court action.

Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" was secretly recorded passing information on the IRAs leaders, and exposing Martin Mc Maguinness in the Murder of UK Citizens, you can listen to the tapes below.

Informer 'murdered on orders of SF man'

2010-06-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

Informer 'murdered on orders of SF man'

(William Scholes, Irish News)

Frank Hegarty was found shot dead by the side of an isolated border road near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, on May 25 1986. The 45-year-old's eyes had been taped shut and he had been shot several times before his body was dumped at the roadside by his IRA killers, who executed him because he was an informer.

The IRA claimed that Hegarty, who had been the organisation's Derry quartermaster, had revealed the location of a consignment of arms from Libya discovered by security forces in the Republic in January 1986.

He was afterwards taken to a safe house in England but, anxious to come back to his native Derry city, Hegarty returned to his Shantallow home that May after being assured he would not be killed.

On May 27 1986 the Irish News reported: "People who knew Frank Hegarty in Derry have confirmed that he was missing from his home following the arms find on January 26.

"He was a well known figure in the city and regularly associated with known republicans.

"At the time of his disappearance a number of people thought that he was about to become the latest republican supergrass.

"Most people who knew of his disappearance were baffled by his decision to return home to Derry three weeks ago, despite knowing that the IRA suspected that he had been involved in the Sligo and Roscommon arms find.

"It is felt that he must have been motivated by homesickness as he had been in almost daily contact with his family while in England and was known to be very close to his mother."

The IRA alleged that Hegarty had been responsible for a January 1974 Official IRA bomb attack at Ebrington barracks, Derry, in which two cleaners were killed.

The security forces used their knowledge of Hegarty's involvement in the bombing to coerce him into informing against the IRA, it claimed.

He worked first as a British army agent but was later recruited by the Force Research Unit (Fru).

Allegations that Derry Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness had played a role in persuading Hegarty to return to Derry were made by his mother in a 1993 edition of The Cook Report.

Mrs Hegarty said Mr McGuinness had assured her son that he would be safe.

During a House of Commons debate on December 18 2001, DUP leader Ian Paisley said that Hegarty had been "murdered on the instructions of Mr McGuinness".

Speaking during a debate on whether or not Sinn Féin MPs should be allowed to enjoy Parliamentary privileges, Mr Paisley said: "We have established that Martin McGuinness was, to all effects, leading the IRA army council and was busy in Londonderry.

"Members should know for what type of people they are proposing to bend the rules.

"One of the saddest calamities in Londonderry was the death of Frank Hegarty, who was murdered on the instructions of Mr McGuinness.

"Mr Hegarty had worked for military intelligence and knew where some of the IRA's most important arms and explosives were hidden in the Irish Republic.

"When the Irish police raided them the army, fearing that Mr Hegarty's cover would be blown, pushed him away to England.

"Mr McGuinness then arrived on the doorstep of Rose Hegarty and told her that he wanted to talk about her son and how he could return.

"Twice a week for 13 weeks, Mr McGuinness dropped by, the family met him and they drank tea together.

"He assured the mother, Rose, that if Frank came home, he could sort the matter out and all would be well; a firm assurance for a mother's heart torn about her son. She persuaded her boy to come home.

"A rendezvous was arranged by Mr McGuinness. Afterwards the body was found in a roadway in Tyrone, a bullet through the head."

Tapes allege McGuinness's IRA roleLast night's BBC Panorama programme restated the allegation that west Belfast builder Freddie Scappaticci was the British army agent known as Stakeknife.

It also presented evidence, in the form of transcripts made by journalists working on The Cook Report documentary programme, that Scappaticci had revealed the extent of Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness's involvement in the IRA.

"Nothing happens in the Northern Command that McGuinness doesn't OK – and I mean nothing," he is quoted as saying.

"You look at every British soldier shot, every policeman shot, every booby trap, or whatever.

"McGuinness is ultimately responsible for all of it. It's all under his control. He's the type of person you don't get side by side with.

"He doesn't have friends within the IRA. He has what he calls comrades. He frowns on womanising, he frowns on drinking... (he is) a very moralistic person."

The secret recording also details Scappaticci's view of the role played by Mr McGuinness in persuading IRA informer Frank Hegarty to return to Derry after he had told his British handlers the location of an IRA arms dump.

According to Scappaticci, Mr McGuinness befriended Mr Hegarty's mother after he fled the country in January 1986.

"He befriended her, as I understand it. He ate in the house, meals were prepared by the Hegarty family – basically Martin McGuinness sold himself to the Hegarty family," Scappaticci is quoted as saying.

"Martin portrayed himself as a friend: I'm someone who can deliver. Yes, you can trust the IRA, no harm will come to your son. He just has to come back and he just has to talk to a couple of people and he'll know one of them and everything will be fine."

Scappaticci claimed that Hegarty agreed to come and was driven to a secret location for an IRA debriefing, in which Mr McGuiness was part of the Army Council who interrogated him, "court martialled him and ordered him to be shot".

"It's not important who pulled the trigger. McGuinness wouldn't dirty his hands with that," Scappaticci said.

July 15, 2003
________________
This article appeared first in the July 14, 2003 edition of the Irish News.

FAIR demand that the judicial system activate the writ against Martin Maguinness

2010-06-21T00:38:00.000-07:00

Demand that the judicial system activate the writ against Martin Maguinness

William Frazer and other innocent victims will be holding a protest outside the High Court Belfast on Monday morning at 11 oclock and while the supporters remainoutside, William Frazer and a few other victims will go inside to demand that the judicial system activate the writ against Martin Maguinness because he has not replied to the writ that was served on him.

In this type of legal case, names can be added to it over time and already a mother of a paratrooper who was murderd on mainland UK has added her name and others want to add their names to it also, so it is still unclear just how many names will be on the writ in the end.

If the Republicans and especially people like Martin Maguinness thought we would just sit back and allow them to lambast our community and the security services who defended us, they have badly underestimated the innocent victims. They could not defeat us with their bombs and guns, neither will hey do so by propoganda and the judiciary system itself.

FAIR.

Was Martin McGuinness Involved In The Murder Of Frank Hegarty

2010-06-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" has said that Martin McGuinness was involved in the murder of Frank Hegarty, an IRA quartermaster in Derry. Frank had been working for the secret British Army Unit FRU "The Force Research Unit" the police investigation file has been closed. This was to protect Martin McGuinness and Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife".

Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" and Martin McGuinness have never been arrested or questioned by the police in regard to the murder of Frank Hegarty.

Play the secretly recorded tape above of Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" as he tells of Martin McGuinness's involvement in the murder of Frank Hegarty

Stakeknife will be called as witnesses in Martin McGuinness case.

2010-06-16T03:21:00.000-07:00

Freddie Scappaticci "Stakeknife" will be called as witnesses in a legal case taken against Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness & Thomas "slab" Murphy,

Victims Campaigner Willie Frazer has served papers on Martin Mc Guinness and Thomas "slab" Murphy in relation to the murder of his father, Mr Frazer will use recordings secretly recorded tapes in his evidence, it had been claimed by some that the tapes are Secret British Army recordings of agent Stakeknife "Freddie Scappaticci" talking about Thomas "Slab" Murphy, also Martin Mc Guinnesses involvement in terrorism and the murder of British agent " Frank Hegarty"

Legal Action Started Against Martin McGuinness In Northern Ireland Courts

2010-06-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

Legal Action Started Against Martin McGuinness In Northern Ireland Courts.

Victims group FAIR served legal papers on Martin McGuinness in March 2010.

The Northern Ireland High Court writ names William Frazer as the plaintiff and Martin McGuinness as the defendant.

It says that the claim is for damages as a result of a shooting at Ballymoyer Road, Whitecross, Co Armagh in August 1975.

The incident is a reference to the attack on Mr Frazer's father, James, who was shot dead by the IRA on the 30th of that month. James was a council worker and part-time UDR man

FAIR Statement.

We have only just started to listen to and take in the content of the Bloody Sunday Report. It is absolutely unbelievable what is coming out!
How much more is the British Government going to do to appease incessant republican demands?
We have heard that Martin McGuinness with a machine gun did not pose a threat? How can someone with a machine gun not pose a threat?
This was an illegal march – have the British Government forgotten that?
It would appear it is only the innocent victims who appear to have a memory. Whoever organised that march on 30th January 1972 was responsible for deaths of those people that day – not the soldiers on duty.
Already legal people going through this report are saying the evidence does not stack up. The British Government is bowing to political pressure from Sinn Fein. Tony Blair did this in the first instance and openly said Sinn Fein’s involvement with the Northern Ireland peace process was dependant upon the inclusion of this particular inquiry.
Irrespective of what has been said today the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland appreciate what the members of the Parachute Regiment did in the face of a concerted terrorist campaign. Those same soldiers saved the lives of many people both nationalist and unionist. Anyone with a military background will certainly appreciate the service given by this regiment of the British Army.
Victims of IRA terrorism were present at the FAIR office this afternoon.
They listened and watched in total disbelief as the findings of the Bloody Sunday Report were made public. A number of these innocent victims were so upset and sickened by what they witnessed they had to leave the room.
We have seen Martin McGuinness smiling and hugging his fellow republicans in Londonderry this afternoon. I wonder will Mr McGuinness feel as elated tomorrow morning when I ensure the writ I have already served on him is fully implemented by the authorities thereby ensuring he is held fully accountable for his criminal actions against the innocent people of Northern Ireland.
William Frazer

Ulster Television Hand Over More Footage To Police

2010-06-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

Ulster Television Hand Over Footage To Police.

Bosses at one of Northern Ireland's television networks have again handed over footage recorded by it's journalists to police without challenging the request in court.

Ulster Televisions Rob Morrison, Head of News and Content has in the past handed over footage of interviews never broadcast to Government bodies investigating criminal offences, UTV bosses have gone as far as holding private screenings of footage to police and other Government bodies.

This is not in line with other networks around the world, TV networks have always fought requests by police in a court of law, only if an order is made by the courts do the news and media networks hand over material. UTV has been setting a president in handing over material and holding private screenings for Police and Government bodies.

Read the story below.

PSNI charge son of Sinn Féin activist for paramilitary display
Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor

John Brady's funeral last OctoberThe son of a murdered Sinn Féin activist has become the first person in almost 30 years to be charged in connection with a paramilitary display at a republican funeral.

Conor Casey (38) placed a tricolour on the coffin of his best friend, dissident republican John Brady, before three masked men fired shots over the coffin in Strabane, Co Tyrone, last October.

Casey's sister, Fiona Connolly, said: "My brother had nothing to do with the firing party. He wasn't one of the masked men. He was at the funeral in a white shirt and black tie. He had nothing to hide. He was John Brady's best friend and he placed the tricolour on the coffin at the Brady family's request."

Sources said the authorities are aiming to prevent republican paramilitary displays at funerals and events such as Easter commemorations because they are used for propaganda purposes by dissidents.

While the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) seem unwilling to move in to stop such displays at the time, and can't prove the identity of the masked gunmen, sources said they had adopted a new tactic of charging others present at such commemorations and funerals.

It is understood detectives haven't ruled out arresting and questioning between 50 and 70 other people who were at Brady's funeral.

Sources told the Sunday Tribune that the authorities would present YouTube videos of the funeral as evidence.

It is also understood that two broadcasting corporations have been asked to hand over their footage to detectives. One corporation is reported to have complied while the other is challenging the request.

John Brady was found hanging in a police cell in Derry last October. The authorities claim he killed himself but his family deny this and say his death, which is being investigated by the Police Ombudsman, was highly suspicious.

During Brady's wake, four men in balaclavas and combat gear stood guard over his coffin. Two held .32 handguns and one an AK47. On the morning of the funeral, as the coffin left the house, three masked men with handguns fired a volley of shots. Several hundred people attended the funeral.

Conor Casey, from Cookstown, last week appeared in court to face charges that he did "aid, abet, counsel or procure" the three gunmen on the day of Brady's funeral. He is denying the charges.

Casey's father, Tommy, a Sinn Fein activist, was shot dead by loyalists as he went to check on a neighbour's home in 1990.

Legal sources said that the last time charges followed a republican funeral was after a hunger-striker's funeral in 1981.

June 13, 2010
The Sunday Tribune.

Maze prison escaper Gerard Sloan "Mr.Money maker"

2010-06-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

Maze prison escaper Gerard Sloan was Mr.Money maker caught in Garda swoop.
*********************************************************************

IRA linked to €200m fake cash operation

By JIM CUSACK

Sunday June 13 2010

The allegedly defunct IRA, along with members of Sinn Fein, were behind what Europol, the European police agency, said was one of the biggest and most sophisticated counterfeiting operations ever uncovered in Europe.

Europol said that when gardai raided the underground bunker in Co Laois last Tuesday week, enough ink and specialist paper was found to produce €200m worth of €50 and €100 notes.

The operation may have already netted tens of millions for the IRA/Sinn Fein operators. The notes have been spreading across Europe in the past year or so, and are of very high quality.

They cannot be detected by the usual ultra-violet machines. They even had the same holograms used on the legitimate notes.

It is also understood a US-manufactured assault rifle was found at the scene.

The IRA was supposed to have given up on its criminal activities as part of the deal for Sinn Fein to get into government at Stormont.

However, it has been learned that those involved in the massive counterfeiting operation include a senior IRA man convicted of murdering a British soldier in the North and who was a close associate of Gerry Adams, and three known and current members of Sinn Fein.

The IRA man, originally from west Belfast, was on the run from the authorities in the North since the 1980s and he was secretly granted an official British royal pardon allowing him to return to the North. That deal was, it is believed, negotiated at the highest level during the process leading to the IRA's so-called "disbandment" in 2006 and Sinn Fein's entry into government with the DUP.

Other "OTRs", as they were known, did not receive such pardons.

The IRA man, aged in his 50s, has been heavily involved in criminal activity here in the last decade since receiving his British royal pardon.

He has been arrested on several occasions by gardai and has paid a substantial amount of money in back tax to the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The operation leading to the underground bunker near Borris-in-Ossory started when police across Europe began detecting the near-perfect notes. An international operation was put in place stretching as far as Japan, where it is believed materials were sourced. It led to Europol contacting the gardai and the raid on the Co Laois bunker.

It is not known when the Provisional IRA began counterfeiting on such a large and professional scale. However, security sources believe that it lost a huge amount of money it had invested with the New York bank, Lehman Brothers when it collapsed in September 2008.

By coincidence, the amount thought to have been invested by the IRA in Lehman's was also €200m, which it had raised through the sale of its extensive property portfolio here and abroad at the height of the property boom.

It is thought that the IRA had been restricting the use of the notes in the Republic so as not to attract attention to their source.

In a statement, Europol described the Laois operation as "one of the most sophisticated money counterfeiting set-ups uncovered in Europe to date".

Although Europol was happy to speak publicly about the investigation, there was only a brief press release from gardai on the day of the raid and no comment from the Government.

- JIM CUSACK

Sunday Independent

We Con The World Video.

2010-06-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

Former Spy Breaks High Court Injunction & Challenges British Army

2010-05-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

Former British Spy Breaks High Court Injunction & Challenges British Army

Former British Army spy Samuel Rosenfeld has broken a High Court Injunction and published court documents on line, Rosenfeld used the controversial Cryptome ( www.cryptome.org ) Cryptome is the world famous site used by intelligence insiders and whistle-blowers to get their information into the public domain, the site is owned and maintained by Mr. John Young from New York.

Samuel Rosenfeld has named intelligence officers and published documents relating to covert operations in Northern Ireland. Rosenfelds life has been threatened by members of the British Armed Forces, but police have failed to investigate as a result of Army intervention. see cryptome.

********************
5 May 2010

Documents provided with the message below by Sam Rosenfeld:

http://cryptome.org/rosenfeld-v-mod.zip (24 pages, 3.2MB)

Samuel Rosenfeld is a "former Intelligence Agent of the British Army's Intelligence Corps sub Unit previously known as the Force Research Unit (FRU) now known as the Joint Services Group (JSG):"

http://cryptome.org/fru-claimant.htm

More his long-running fight with MoD: http://cryptome.org/fru-highcourt.htm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam Rosenfeld writes:

Please note that the injunction [Zipped URL above] refers to (Carl, Allan and Johnny, Brian, Dave) all Army Intelligence Corps Handlers who are subjects of legal interests (it is a breach of the MoD's Injunction to name them). I confirm that Major Adrian Weale is the Intelligence Corps Officer whom posted death threats on the ARRSE Web site.

It should be noted that Major Weale's wife is a Conservative politician at local level - and that Weale is the officer being protected by the MoD.

It is also a breach of the injunction to name and identify Cryptome.

I also confirm that an Intelligence Corps Officer holding the rank of Brigadier is most likely Chris Holtom using a (pipex) account was the officer responsible for sending e-mail threatening to identify me as an Al-Qaeda operative.

I can confirm that I believe the sending of a threatening post card from Germany was likely done by Colonel Richard Rawdon-Smith head of the British Army's (HUMINT) authority, who I know from Northern Ireland.

I can also confirm that Major Dave Moyles was one of my handlers, and having identified him photographically, he was moved from his home address to a new location.

I can also confirm that Major General Sebastian Roberts was the officer formally attached to the Army's black propaganda division being responsible for making false and libelous statements to the British media. The MoD has insisted that these were his private comments.

Having spoken to Sebastian I can confirm that he has said everything he spoke about regarding myself was at the instance of the MoD (recorded) and that these were his instructions.

I have been informed that the injunction which you have in your possession is still active and still prevents me from seeking police assistance and protection.

I was forced to leave London again in April 2010, as in 2007, as a result of death threats from an individual using the following words (stiff) along with a message from the Det's to drop my present legal action or I would be murdered.

I have received a total of 11 death threats and all were non-action' d by the MoD and the civilian policing authority as a direct result of the MoD/Army.

Evidence was removed by the RCMP whom systemically refused to place in writing that they were officially conducting an investigation into an Army Major and Brigadier.

If as the MoD has promised that by breaking its injunction - they will seek to jail me, I am therefore challenging them to do just that, bring me before a free and open court and prosecute me for breaking the MoD's injunction - I absolutely dare the MoD (CT&UkOps) to bring me before a court of law and prosecute for breach of its injunction.

Lets see if MoD have the stomach for a real fight - I promise to take the Intelligence Corps apart brick by brick, and hold MoD totally accountable before a public court of law.

I make one promise, I will refuse to be silenced by the MoD, the Army and the judiciary.

Sam Rosenfeld

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Insider, by Gerry Bradley & Brian Feeney.

2010-04-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

After reading Insider by Gerry Bradley with Brian Feeney one could only draw the conclusion that Whitey Bradley thinks very highly of himself and that anything that went wrong was never his fault. After reading the spectacular failed operation against Police officer Derek Martindale, Bradley points out to the reader the number of suspicious happenings before the operation, and his suspicions that things had been compromised by the security forces, if this is the case one can only come to the conclusion that Bradley was not as smart as he thinks he is, in fact anyone in the IRA with an ounce of whit would have walked away from that IRA operation.

Indeed on reading Bradley's book it is clear that he was anything but professional

"He kept on getting caught" another thing to note in the book Bradley keeps on saying that he is not a "Tout" or an "informer" this is the same mantra that all touts and informers are trained to say when they are confronted by the internal security team, it's interesting that Bradley has spouted this over two years ago even before anyone has even suggested he was one!

As Bradley points out in his book, he and other members of the IRA stole from small businesses and private individuals in N. Ireland to fund the IRA, Bradley wont admit they where common criminals, this means that the IRA where no different from burglars and thieves.

The main reason Kevin Fulton stuck so close to Gerard Bradley was because, in Fultons own words "GERARD BRADLEY WAS LOOSE AS FU*K, I had no problem getting information from him".

IRA bosses force out godfather of terror

(Joe Oliver, The People)

A top republican - once named in Parliament as an IRA Godfather - has been 'stood down' in north Belfast, The People can reveal. The decision to sideline Eddie Copeland has sent shockwaves through the republican movement. He has been replaced by evil sectarian killer Robert 'Cheeser' Crawford - a hated double murderer freed under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. Crawford, 45, also from the Ardoyne area of the city, is considered a hardliner in republican circles.
The overthrow of Copeland was shrouded in mystery last night but republican sources did say that the move is not linked to change of strategy - even though Crawford is said to have been sceptical of the peace process and has opposed the idea of any Provo weapons being handed in. Another republican source said Copeland had been out of favour following an incident almost two years ago when the IRA ceasefire was called into question.
Copeland, 32, has long been a loyalist hate figure and has had a number of close brushes with death. As one of the most senior republican figures in north Belfast he was top of loyalist Johnny Adair's personal hit list. But in 1993 he was nearly killed by a soldier. He sustained bullet wounds to the chest and abdomen when the soldier opened up on him and other mourners outside the home of Shankill bomber Thomas Begley.
The soldier was later jailed for 10 years - and Copeland received £27,500 for the injuries he suffered in the shooting. The following year David Trimble used the cloak of Parliamentary privilege to name Copeland and two others as "IRA Godfathers" during a debate on the renewal of anti-terrorist powers.
Mr Trimble claimed that Brian Gillen was commander of the Provos in Belfast. He added: "There is the gentleman who probably planned the Shankill Road bomb, one Eddie Copeland."
Crawford is still said to be a man loyalists would love to 'take out'. It's believed he has been involved in discussions regarding republican riots at the Ardoyne interface with loyalist Glenbryn in north Belfast.
His predecessor, Copeland, hit the headlines three years ago when he was at the centre of a political storm after being awarded £60,000 for injuries he received when a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car. He was reversing away from his mother's home in December 1996 when the device erupted, injuring his arm and blowing away the calf muscle of his right leg.
The NIO tried to block the compensation claim on the grounds that he had been engaged in terrorism. Copeland, whose father John was shot dead by a solider in 1971, was also named by a Crown lawyer two years ago as "the senior IRA man in the north of the city" after he was charged with abducting and threatening to kill a drug dealer. But when the case came to trial last August the charges were withdrawn.
The man said to have replaced him as republican leader in north Belfast - Cheeser Crawford - was part of a heavily armed Provo hit team foiled during a bid to murder top cop Derek Martindale in 1994. They were nabbed red-handed by a special police unit which swooped on their hijacked van in the Belmont area of the city.
Crawford and David Adams, a cousin of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, were later jailed for a total of 25 years on a string of charges including conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion.
A third man, Paul Stitt, was jailed for 22 years for the same crimes and two others sentenced to 10 years for false imprisonment and hi-jacking. At the time Crawford was out on licence after being convicted of murdering two young Protestant men in Belfast in 1975.
June 22, 2003________________
This article appeared first in The People on June 22, 2003.
Blanketmen: An Untold Story of the H-Block Hunger Strikeby Richard O'Rawe
David Trimble: The Price of Peaceby Frank Millar

-->
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Sunday_People/arts2003/jun22_top_republican_stood_down.php

Slobbering Norman.

2010-04-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

Slobbering Norman. ( Norman Baxter that is )

It's still on the agenda, Norman has again been challenged by Kevin Fulton to explain why he purposely lied to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in regard to the statements made by Kevin Fulton to the Police Ombudsman's Office, Norman refused to make any comment, as one person rightfully put it "Slobbering Norman"

Norman told the committee that Kevin Fulton admitted to police that he had lied to the Ombudsman's office over his claims over the Omagh Bombing, Fulton challenged Norman Baxter for fabricating the untrue claims, Baxter has refused to comment or to repeat his statement outside Parliament.

Wife of army agent to sue Stakeknife & MoD.

2010-04-18T00:11:00.000-07:00

Wife of IRA informer in move to sue ‘Stakeknife’

Saturday, 17 April 2010

The wife of an IRA informer has launched a High Court bid for permission to sue a man alleged to have been the highest-ranking British agent within the Provisionals.

Lawyers for Margaret Keeley want to be allowed to name west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci as a co-defendant in her damages claim against the Chief Constable.

Scappaticci (64) denies allegations that he was the military spy codenamed Stakeknife.

Mrs Keeley, whose husband is the one-time MI5 agent known as Kevin Fulton, has issued proceedings against the police for alleged wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.

The case has been brought over her alleged detention at the Castlereagh holding centre in 1994 after an IRA attempt to murder senior RUC detective Derek Martindale in east Belfast.

She claims that after being released she was taken to a house in the New Lodge, north Belfast and interrogated by a number of IRA men. Mrs Keeley says she later suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of her ordeal.

Scappaticci was thrust into the spotlight in 2003 when British and Irish media claimed he was the double agent Stakeknife, an allegation he categorically denied. He has since secured a court order banning any publication of his current whereabouts.

As part of Mrs Keeley's case she is now attempting to widen her claim to include both Scappaticci and the Ministry of Defence.

After a brief hearing in the Masters Court, Mrs Keeley's solicitor, Kevin Winters, confirmed: “The application today was to seek the court's permission to join Mr Scappaticci and the MoD as co-defendants in the action.

“It was adjourned for four weeks to allow his lawyers to prepare and file a replying affidavit.”

If the application is granted writs will then be served on both Scappaticci and the MoD.

Belfast Telegraph.

'PSNI must launch probe into Adams' By Brass Neck Norman Baxter.

2010-03-31T04:54:00.000-07:00

Norman Baxter
'PSNI must launch probe into Adams.

Belfast Newsletter.

Date: 31 March 2010
POLICE must investigate a dead man's claim that Gerry Adams authorised the abduction of Jean McConville, says a former leading PSNI detective.
Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, who led the investigation into the Omagh bomb, called on Chief Constable Matt Baggott to appoint a senior detective to review the RUC investigation into the west Belfast mother-of-ten's murder in 1972.

Mr Baxter says that Adams' former friend Brendan Hughes' allegations may provide evidence which police could use to build a case for a criminal case.

Mrs McConville's daughter is preparing to sue Mr Adams through the civil courts.

Mr Baxter, who was head of the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch until late 2008, said that the PSNI should "urgently" investigate the murder.
Full Story, Belfast Newsletter.

Comment:
Retired Detective Chief Superintendent Norman Baxter, who led the boched investigation into the Omagh bombing, called on Chief Constable Matt Baggott to appoint a senior detective to review the RUC investigation into the west Belfast mother-of-ten's murder in 1972.

Norman should tell the Omagh Bomb victims and the general public why he lied to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in his evidence, Norman fabricated a story saying that Kevin Fulton admitted telling lies to the police Ombudsman's office over the Omagh Bombing, Fulton has challenged Baxter over the lies but Baxter refuses to comment.

Norman has a brass neck writing stories calling for enquiries and investigations while refusing to explain to the Omagh Bomb families why he lied and conducted a "SLAPDASH" investigation into the bombing.
Someone should take a look at Norman.

Government slammed for 'reneging on amnesty deal.

2010-03-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

Government slammed for 'reneging on amnesty

Published Date: 24 March 2010
FORMER Red Hand Commando prisoner William 'Plum' Smith has hit out at the Government for allegedly reneging on a deal that meant anyone involved in the conflict prior to the Good Friday Agreement would not be pursued for prosecution.
Mr Smith, who chaired the 1994 loyalist ceasefire news conference, has suggested the deal - dating back to talks in 1998 - amounted to an undeclared amnesty.

He claimed the deal with then Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, was drawn up after numerous meetings with junior civil servants, senior civil servants, “and then later with Mo Mowlam”.

He said the deal covered not just loyalists, but republicans, police officers and soldiers.

Last night he told the News Letter that he chose to speak out now, as the PSNI and Historical Enquiries Team are breaking the deal in continuing investigations into the past.

“I am talking about investigations into crimes before the deal. It is 12 years on from it.

“Unlike what has been said today, I am not talking about Operation Ballast. I am talking about the past. For example there was a loyalist up in court today for a murder that happened 31 years ago, that is what I mean. And another example is Gerry McGeough who has appeared in court charged with attempted murder, something that happened 30 years ago.”

In a detailed statement given to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Smith, who was prisoners’ spokesman at the time of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, writes: “As the pen touched the paper to sign the agreement I was under no illusion or ambiguity that:

“1) All prisoners would be released within two years and would all go through a mechanism administered by commissioners;

“2) That anyone, loyalist, republican, RUC or British Army who were involved in matters connected to the conflict before the ink dried on the agreement would not be pursued in any legal format or proceedings;

“3) Those who wished to admit to involvement may go through a due process of law and may be incarcerated for a period not exceeding two years.”

A spokesman for the NIO declined to comment on the specifics of Smith’s claim, but referred to the 1998 Sentences Act.

“There is a process in place that deals with those who are convicted of crimes pre-1998,” he said.

Belfast Newsletter

Norman Baxter's Flawed Omagh Bomb Investigation.

2010-03-17T05:22:00.001-07:00

The second Omagh Bomb investigation by Norman Baxter was as much flawed as the first, Baxter contacted former British agent Kevin Fulton and his handler in regard to interview them as he believed that they had information that would assist the Omagh Bomb investigation, as seen in fax above, Norman Baxter never interviewed Fulton or his handler in regard to the Omagh Bombing.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee release their report into the Omagh Bombing.

2010-03-16T04:42:00.000-07:00

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee release their report into the Omagh Bombing.

The committee have included a letter to them from Kevin Fulton, Fulton brought to the attention of the committee Norman Baxter's fictitious lies, Baxter former RUC / PSNI, told the committee that Fulton had admitted through his solicitor that he had lied to police ombudsman's investigators about the Omagh Bombing.

Kevin Fulton's letter.

First & Deputy First Ministers Ignore Request To Help With The Smithwick Tribunal

2010-03-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

First & Deputy First Ministers Ignore Request To Help With The Smithwick Tribunal .

The First & Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland ignored a request to encourage republicans to help find the truth in regard to collusion in the murders of two RUC police officers Harry Breen & Bob Buchannan.

Kevin Fulton sent the letter on 24.4.2009, the letter was acknowledged but there was never another response from Peter Robinson or Martin McGuinness, it is clear that the First & Deputy First Ministers have a problem in asking people to help the
Smithwick Tribunal

Baxter in the witness box

2010-03-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

It looks like former Omagh Bomb top cop Norman Baxter will get an opportunity to repeat his claims that the Government interfered with police investigations to let members of the Provisional IRA return over the border and live without fear of arrest from the police over their terrorist past.

Tyrone republican Gerry McGeough told the Sunday Tribune 47 of the 216 fugitives were told they could return.

Mr McGeough, who is to stand trial for IRA membership and attempted murder of a UDR man in 1981, said his lawyers uncovered the information.

Former IRA men 'given immunity' in secret deal

2010-03-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

'On the runs' given royal pardon under British scheme, claims Gerry McGeough
By Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor:

The British government has operated a secret scheme granting royal pardons or immunity from prosecution to hand-picked ex-IRA members wanted for killings, bombings and other paramilitary activities, it has been claimed.

Of 216 'on the runs', 47 have been told they are free to return to the North with no fear of prosecution, according to leading Tyrone republican Gerry McGeough.

An ex-IRA gun-runner and former Sinn Féin ard comhairle member, McGeough goes on trial in Belfast tomorrow charged with IRA membership in 1975 and the 1981 attempted murder of UDR man Sammy Brush.

He will be the first republican on trial for historical crimes since the Good Friday Agreement. McGeough said: "Excellent detective work by my lawyers has uncovered that around a fifth of 'on the runs' have been given a royal pardon, immunity from prosecution, or else haven't had to serve their minimum sentence as laid out by the Good Friday Agreement.

"There was a secret deal between the British and Sinn Féin. A meeting was held in a Dundalk hotel. I'm disgusted that hand-picked 'on the runs' have received preferential treatment – and can come home and lead normal lives with their families – while others can't or if they do return are living in fear, always looking over their shoulders."

The Sunday Tribune has seen the names of some of those allegedly given immunity. They include prominent ex-IRA members. A Northern Ireland Office (NIO) spokesman denied the claim. "There is no secret deal to pardon on the runs," he said.

McGeough was arrested at the 2007 Assembly election count. He had stood as an anti-PSNI republican candidate. His lawyers will tomorrow put forward an abuse of process application: "They will argue that my prosecution breaches article six of the European Convention which guarantees a fair trial, and article 14 which guarantees the right not to be discriminated against.

"I've been singled out for prosecution because I am a republican opposed to the political status quo." McGeough said his former Sinn Féin colleagues had offered no support.

"I've been imprisoned in Germany and the US for my republican activities yet Sinn Féin leaders meeting for their ard fheis this weekend are unsupportive because I'm not 'on message'."

Tyrone man Vincent McAnespie was also charged with the attempted murder of Brush and weapons' possession. The first, but not second charge, has since been withdrawn against McAnespie who is pleading not guilty.

In a document obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Kevin Winters' solicitors, the NIO says Sinn Féin provided the names of 216 on the runs. The PSNI and the Public Prosecution Service then reviewed files "to determine whether the individual is wanted for questioning, arrest or prosecution".

The NIO said decisions were evidence-based and whether prosecution was in "the public interest".

It claimed "political considerations play no part in this assessment".

McGeough's lawyers are demanding the authorities disclose "all material pertaining to any discussion, meetings and correspondence" relating to decisions not to prosecute certain republicans.

The former head of the PSNI's serious crime squad, Norman Baxter, told a House of Commons' committee last November: "There was an extremely unhealthy interest by (NIO) officials about prioritising individuals who were on the run and ensuring they were cleared to return to the North."

March 7, 2010

REAL IRA MURDER. BBC SPOTLIGHT

2010-03-03T01:06:00.000-08:00

In an hour-long investigation, Enda McClafferty reports on the actions of republican self-styled vigilantes and a Real IRA murder on the border.
Broadcast on:
BBC One, 10:35pm Tuesday 2nd March 2010
Duration:
60 minutes
Available until:
11:34pm Tuesday 9th March 2010

BBC iPlayer

Beef It Up Norman

2010-02-26T22:02:00.000-08:00

Beef it up Norman !

Former Omagh Bomb top cop Norman Baxter has been getting jittery, Norman has been getting annoyed by Kevin Fulton's persistent challenge for Norman to explain why he lied to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee over the Omagh Bombing. Norman won't make any comment on the matter, Fulton has an assurance from the NIAC that they will publish his letter accusing Norman of purposely lying to the committee, the Omagh self help group have also been asking questions about Normans comments to the committee, other public groups are now asking questions about Normans comments to the committee.

Fultons solicitor has confirmed that Norman Baxters comments about his client are untrue.

Be a man Norman, you where quick to beef it up in Parliament and tell your lies, now explain it to the public.

Twitter has removed an account that has been exposing Norman Baxter for telling lies to Parliament.

You can view more at the Norman Baxter "The Lying Witnes" website: www.normanbaxter.com

Norman Baxter Account On Twitter Shut Down !

2010-02-23T13:20:00.001-08:00

A Twitter account that has been exposing lying former top cop Norman Baxter has been shut down. Norman had lied in his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee that where examining intelligence matters involved in the Omagh Bombing.

Norman Baxter, Compulsive Liar.

2010-02-21T23:05:00.000-08:00

Former RUC / PSNI officer Norman Baxter is a liar, Norman is thinking about going into politics, he got off to a good start when he purposely fabricated parts of his evidence and lied to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in his evidence over the Omagh Bombing. The Omagh self help group has questioned his evidence, Kevin Fulton has contacted the committee and notified them that former top cop Norman Baxter lied to them, the committee has informed Fulton that they would publish his complaint over Baxter's lies. Baxter has been challenged to explain his lies, but to date Baxter has refused to make any public comment.

www.normanbaxter.com

Tory Boy Norman Baxter

2010-02-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

Ex Police Chief Norman Baxter lied to members of Parliament in his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Norman lied over comments he made regarding Kevin Fulton, . Mr Baxter fabricated his evidence saying that former British Army & MI5 agent Kevin Fulton had made a statement saying that he had lied over information he gave in regard to the Omagh Bombing, Fulton was quick to rubbish Baxter's evidence, Fulton's solicitor has rubbished Baxter's evidence to the committee in regard to his client Kevin Fulton.

The rumours are strong that Norman is entering the political field, well he has started it well with his lies to Parliament, don't worry Norman if the UUP/Tories, take you on we will hear the voices asking why you lied over the Omagh bombing.

Norman Baxter The Lying Witness

2010-02-16T23:36:00.000-08:00

Former Omagh Bomb top cop Norman Baxter RUC/PSNI, beefed up his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Norman purposely lied to them. Kevin Fulton has challenged Norman Baxter over his evidence but Norman has stayed silent, he knows he has been caught out as a liar.
NORMAN, SAY IT AGAIN IN PUBLIC !

www.normanbaxter.com

Omagh Bomb cop used parliamentary privilege to lie.

2010-02-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Ex Police Chief Norman Baxter lied to members of Parliament in his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Norman lied over comments he made regarding Kevin Fulton, . Mr Baxter fabricated his evidence saying that former British Army & MI5 agent Kevin Fulton had made a statement saying that he had lied over information he gave in regard to the Omagh Bombing, Fulton was quick to rubbish Baxter's evidence, Fulton's solicitor has rubbished Baxter's evidence to the committee in regard to his client Kevin Fulton.

Questions are now being asked in legal circles about evidence given by Norman Baxter in a number of court cases in Northern Ireland.
Norman Baxter was a member of the RUC and PSNI.

Follow Norman Baxter on Twitter.

www.normanbaxter.com

The Lying Witness, Norman Baxter.

2010-02-06T01:38:00.000-08:00

Former Omagh Bomb Cop, Lying Norman.

2010-02-05T23:11:00.000-08:00

Lying Norman.

Former Omagh Bomb top cop Norman Baxter RUC/PSNI, beefed up his evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Norman purposely lied to them. Kevin Fulton has challenged Norman Baxter over his evidence but Norman has stayed silent, he knows he has been caught out as a liar.