SAOIRSE32

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
14 February 2006

Unionists have “nothing to fear” from stronger cross-border links - including security and policing issues, the SDLP insisted last night.

Travelling to launch a detailed blueprint in both Belfast and Dublin, leader Mark Durkan said: “People who are unionist, nationalist or neither should have nothing to fear from dynamic North South co-operation.

“We are all losers without it.

“We believe in North-South not just as Irish nationalists but as taxpayers, as service users, and as citizens. Not as a way of whipping up unionist fears or stirring up nationalist emotions - but so that we can fully exploit the potential of co-operation for unionist and nationalist alike.”

The party’s blueprint calls for an all-Ireland Intelligence Agency staffed by both the PSNI and Garda as well as:

–Island-wide police training.

–A joint Law Commission.

–An all-Ireland sex offenders register to prevent criminals exploiting the border.

It also demanded an all-island Criminal Assets Bureau - based on the stronger powers of the CRA in the South - ending the “bureaucratic difficulties” caused by the limitations on the powers of the ARA which can only handle cases passed to them by the PSNI.

Dismissing any suggestions the party was attempting to ‘out-green’ Sinn Fein, Mr Durkan argued the collapsed Comprehensive Agreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP had been weak on cross-border issues and development.

But last night Sinn Fein welcomed the SDLP document, North South Makes Sense, and said there was now a consensus between the parties on many issues.

Northern chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin said: “We’ve had enough rhetoric and promises; it’s now time for action.

“I look forward to working with the two governments, the SDLP and others in delivering on this agenda.”

Mr Durkan argued however there had been a reluctance by both governments and the other parties to face North-South issues going back to the 2003 review of the Good Friday Agreement and before and since the Leeds Castle talks.

The proposals document asked: “When it comes to such proposals, the real question has to be ‘why not?’ more than ‘why?”.

An all-Ireland economic policy unit should be set up along with the development of a north-south strategy to maximise overseas investment, added Mr Durkan.

Belfast Telegraph

Service to take over anti-terror operations

By Chris Thornton
14 February 2006

Spymasters in MI5 are running covert operations in Northern Ireland alongside the PSNI, the Belfast Telegraph has learned.

As part of preparations for making MI5 the lead intelligence agency next year, agents have started expanding their operations in the province.

But sources familiar with the transition to MI5-led intelligence gathering say the secretive agency’s expansion in Northern Ireland has been reined in by last July’s bomb attacks in London.

MI5 is due to take over as the lead agency for national security intelligence next year. That means the PSNI will continue to gather intelligence about ordinary crime, but MI5 will be responsible for dealing with terrorism.

The Government is expected to refer to those plans later this week when legislation on the devolution of justice is published at Westminster.

To prepare for the switch, MI5 officers have been given lead roles in running covert operations alongside the senior PSNI officers who still hold official control.

Those combined operations recently led to a joint report to the Independent Monitoring Commission about the possibility of the IRA keeping guns.

MI5 has also recruited handlers in Northern Ireland to deal with its increased workload and the agency has been promised a significant increase in its budget.

However, sources close to the transition say the July 7 bomb attacks in London have slowed down the expansion plans, with a greater concentration of resources on battling Islamic terrorism within Great Britain.

The Government says that giving MI5 the lead intelligence role in Northern Ireland will provide “a consistent and co-ordinated response to international terrorism” across the UK.

However, the switch will also keep political control of secret intelligence in London if policing powers are ever handed over to a devolved administration here.

The SDLP has already raised concerns that the switch will effectively bypass checks and balances that have been put in place over the PSNI’s Special Branch.

There are also concerns about whether MI5 will pass information to police that might be useful in criminal investigations.

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
14 February 2006

The Alliance Party today dismissed an SDLP blueprint for stronger cross-border links as “irrelevant”.

But Sinn Fein welcomed the 24-page paper and said there was now a clear consensus between it and the SDLP on many issues.

Senior SDLP negotiator Sean Farren, co-author of the North South Makes Sense report, said he welcomed feedback, including indications of where his party’s plans are seen as weak.

After the document was unveiled at seperate press conferences in Belfast and Dublin, Alliance said the Dundalk bypass had done more for cross-border co-operation than any amount of quangoes.

Alliance leader David Ford said: “Cross-border co-operation is not about daft arguments over whether a meaningless council motion or an irrelevant 24-page document is the best way to promote work on an all-island basis.

“Nor is it about denying the reality of our geographical position. It is about realistic, responsible and radical proposals designed to ensure that cross-border cooperation delivers practical results that people notice.”

Mr Ford argued that the vast majority of practical cross-border cooperation has nothing to do with government institutions.

“Something as basic as the Dundalk bypass did far more practically for cross-border trade than any amount of quangoes or divisive posturing in council chambers,” he added.

Sinn Féin general secretary Mitchel McLaughlin said the Irish and British governments must now deliver on the growing consensus on the development and expansion of the all Ireland agenda.

“Peter Hain recognises the need to move ahead on the all Ireland agenda. (Irish Foreign Minister) Dermot Ahern has called for the development of infrastructural, economic and social structures on an all-Ireland basis.

“Sinn Féin has long called for this approach by both governments. We’ve had enough rhetoric and promises. It’s now time for action. I look forward to working with the two governments, the SDLP and others in delivering on this agenda.”

The SDLP called for PSNI and Garda to staff an all-Ireland intelligence agency and an all-island Criminal Assets Bureau.

Belfast Telegraph

14 February 2006

Can we Face the Truth in Northern Ireland? Can we even find it? JANE BELL watches a breathtaking encounter between freed Loyalist killer Michael Stone and the widow of a man he gunned down over 18 years ago, at a face-to-face meeting hosted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the man who headed South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission

In a darkened, hushed and elegant room, freed loyalist killer Michael Stone sits across a polished table from the widow of a man he shot dead 18 years earlier. It is a face-to-face encounter that none of those involved will ever forget. And one that it is hard to believe could ever happen in Northern Ireland.

Even before we hear Sylvia Hackett speak, we listen to her sobs, as she enters this ’safe space’ and takes her place at the round table, supported by brother-in-law Roddy.

When they are settled, if not yet fully composed, Michael Stone, heavy-set, with close-cropped hair, trimmed beard and wearing a black leather jacket, enters the room, walking with the aid of a stick, and takes his seat opposite.

They are all greeted warmly and courteously by the broker of this unlikely forum, the Anglican Archbishop of Capetown, Desmond Tutu, the man who headed South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

All are here to Face the Truth, or, at the very least, search for it.

“You have taken a very courageous and important step forward by being together at the same table,” the Archbishop tells them.

The deeply moving exchange being played out here is one of a series of six powerful and controversial meetings filmed by BBC NI and due to be screened on BBC2 shortly. It makes compulsive viewing.

You can feel the tension in the air as the Hackett and Stone encounter starts and falters, as those at the heart of the matter circle each other. The very word ‘truth’ is a prickly issue from the outset.

“I’m here today to ask Mr Stone a few questions. I don’t know whether I’ll get the truth or not,” Sylvia Hackett begins.

Her husband’s killer stares back, any emotion revealed only by the muscles of his jaw clenching, visible throughout this taut exchange.

Archbishop Tutu gently intervenes: “We expect, obviously, that all who come here unburden themselves by telling us the Gospel truth as far as they are concerned.”

Stone, at last, replies: “I’m a lot of things but I’m not a liar.”

This meeting is remarkable for many reasons, not least the dignity and restraint displayed by both sides.

It will be fiercely criticised in some quarters for giving a platform to a convicted killer who - in front of the bereaved - can describe his murdering a husband and father as “justified”, though “regrettable”.

Asked by an intermediary whether he could claim justification, Stone replied: “At that time, and, as I said, the circumstances and the fact that I was willing, would have been willing, to take a man’s life, yes, it would have been justified. It’s regrettable.”

And today? “Hindsight is a wonderful thing. You become jaded and you become less politicised. And I’ve grandchildren now and that’s one thing I have difficulty with … Mr Hackett’s daughters and his grandchildren. He never got a chance to see those. But I don’t get a chance to see my own grandchildren, for security reasons. Three out of five grandchildren I’ve never seen.”

Needled by the hint of self pity, Sylvia Hackett interjects: “That was your choice. It was not Dermie’s choice. You had yours, he didn’t have his.”

At this point there’s a reference to Stone’s claim that his victim Dermot Hackett, the 37-year-old bread delivery man gunned down on his way to work, had allegedly been identified as a member of the IRA on security files - something the dead man’s family vehemently denies.

Says Stone: “All I can say is I was acting on what I read and it was no different to stuff I’d read for 16 years on different Republican targets, on legitimate targets.”

Mrs Hackett’s rising indignation drives away her tears and she demands to see these files. Stone replies, “They come, they go. I’ve seen files on Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.”

She retorts: “Yes, I’m sure you have. But I’m not worried about Martin McGuinness and that. I’m worried about Dermie’s file. Were you the last person to have that file before Dermie was shot?”

Stone replies simply: “I don’t know.”

Later, he tells the family how he set out to ‘de-humanise’ a victim in order to make it possible to kill them.

“I don’t seek sorrow or redemption. I have my political beliefs. They are in the past. You can become jaded throughout the years.”

He explains how he ’switched off’ emotionally before a killing. “In the context of de-humanising an individual you don’t want to think that he has someone back home waiting for him, just as you are out on operations and you might not come back, you might run into the Army, something might happen, you lose your own life. It’s an emotional thing.”

His notoriety was, he told them, a “terrible burden”. “That’s the path I chose when I was 16. I don’t wish to come across as hard-hearted or as some sort of psychopath. I’m known as ‘’the Milltown Cemetery killer’ and that’s a terrible burden and I brought that upon myself and that’s something I have to live with. It’s more for my kids - ‘Is your father the Cemetery killer?’ - you feel like Freddie Kruger.”

Roddy Hackett looks directly at Stone when he says: “As you see now, we are the human side of what you’ve actually done. Maybe it’s time you did look and see the human side of what it does do. Life has always been held very cheap in Northern Ireland, it’s proven by all the atrocities. We could ream them off bit by bit.”

While the encounter wasn’t going to bring Dermot Hackett back, it had given them “a wee bit of ease”. Then, remarkably, he tells Stone: “I’m glad to meet you now, though we’re heartbroken, heavy-hearted about it. As they say, perhaps in the days and weeks to come it’ll get easier and easier.”

Sobbing in her brother-in-law’s arms, Mrs Hackett says, almost inaudibly, “I’m lost.”

In the edited BBC preview disc, Stone never once says the word “sorry”. He does, however, look Roddy Hackett straight in the eye and pays the family his own tribute.

“You are a better man than me and Mrs Hackett is a better person, a more Christian person. There are times, even today, I’m still angry about things. But you are better people than I am.”

Perhaps that’s as close to reconciliation as we can hope for.

Belfast Telegraph

Brave widow confronts loyalist killer Michael Stone, the man who murdered her husband

By Jane Bell
14 February 2006

Graveyard killer Michael Stone has had a tense and emotional face-to-face encounter with the brave widow of a man he murdered 18 years ago.

The painful meeting was overseen by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who headed South Africa’s post- apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Stone was convicted of gunning down Catholic Dermot Hackett, a 37-year- old bread delivery man, as he made his way to work.

Stone repeated his claim that Mr Hackett had allegedly been identified as a member of the IRA in security files, a claim his family fiercely denies.

Mr Hackett’s widow Sylvia broke down and wept during the confrontation as she asked Stone why he had carried out the horrific killing.

After Stone remarked that his victim did not see his grandchildren grow up, the killer then said he had not seen three of his own grandchildren.

Needled by the hint of self-pity, Mrs Hackett said: “That was your choice. It was not Dermie’s choice. You had yours, he did not have his.”

The moving exchange is part of a remarkable series of six controversial meetings, called Facing The Truth, between victims and perpetrators from the Troubles.

In them, a number of men of violence meet those they have irreparably damaged, hear their heart-rending stories and acknowledge the pain they have caused.

The series was filmed by BBC NI and will be screened on BBC2 soon.

Archbishop Tutu said the series was one of the most important things he had ever been involved in and felt that it offered a way forward.

The programme will have its critics, though, for giving a voice to a convicted killer.

Stone was released from the Maze prison, where he was serving life sentences for six murders and five attempted murders, in 2000, as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Asked during filming if he could claim justification for his actions, Stone replied: “At that time, and, as I said, the circumstances and the fact that I was willing, would have been willing, to take a man’s life, it would have been justified. It’s regrettable.”

He also tells the family how he “de-humanised” his victims to make it possible to kill them.

“I don’t seek sorrow or redemption. I have my political beliefs. They are in the past. You can become jaded throughout the years.”

And he said that he felt his notoriety was a “terrible burden”.

Executive producer Jeremy Adams said: “At the end of it, the participants all said it has been a worthwhile, even helpful, experience.”

He added: “It has been a life-changing event for all of us who took part.”

Irish Examiner

14/02/2006 - 7:13:49 AM

Almost half of complaints lodged with Northern Ireland’s Police Ombudsman over the past five years came from the Protestant community, figures revealed today.

According to research released by Nuala O’Loan’s office, 49% of complainants since the team began its work came from a Protestant background, 38% were Catholics and the remainder either came from another religious background or had none.

Over 14,000 people have complained to the Ombudsman’s team about Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) actions since the office opened in November 2000.

More than 4,000 provided details of their background.

The figures revealed that out of 482 people who used the office from 2004, 41% stated no support for a political party.

Out of those that did, 26% supported the Democratic Unionists, 11% the nationalist SDLP, 8% the Ulster Unionists, 7% Sinn Féin, 3% the Alliance Party and 4% other parties.

DUP Policing Board member Sammy Wilson said the findings bore out other surveys which had shown greater dissatisfaction within the Protestant community with the PSNI.

“This bears out what other surveys have indicated,” the East Antrim MP said.

“There has been a big loss in confidence in the police among the Protestant community.

“This is partly due to anger about the different ways public order situations have been policed.

“If you look at the way disturbances in the Whiterock and Ardoyne areas (of Belfast) were policed last year, it strikes you that it took 40 minutes to fire baton rounds during republican riots in the Ardoyne while it took five minutes before they were fired at loyalists in the Whiterock.

“The dissatisfaction can also be attributed to the feeling in unionist areas that less attention is being paid to ordinary crime by the police and also frustration that police appear to be targeting driving offences more heavily in unionist areas.”

“One of the interesting things is that that frustration is spilling over into complaints by Protestants to Nuala O’Loan’s office.”

Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan said the figures were broadly reflective of the community in Northern Ireland.

“The figures for people from the Protestant community have remained fairly steady over the years, while there was a slight drop in the number of Catholics using the system,” she said.

“What may be of particular interest, however, is the fact that the proportion of people who said they did not follow any religious belief has risen from less than one per cent to nine per cent.”

The figures also revealed that more women are making complaints to the Ombudsman, with 24% of all complaints coming from females in 2004,compared to 20% in 2001.

Less than one per cent of people making complaints said they were gay.

Over a quarter (28%) of complaints since the office opened came from people who said they had a disability.

While 97% of complaints came from whites, 0.5% of people who contacted the office were from a traveller community background.

BN.ie

14/02/2006 - 11:51:46

Sinn Féin and the SDLP have both criticised the delay in bringing charges against 20 RUC officers accused of complicity in murders carried out by loyalist paramilitaries.

Three years ago an inquiry overseen by Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens recommended that prosecutions be taken against 20 officers suspected of colluding in loyalist murders.

The alleged collusion was uncovered while Mr Stevens was investigating claims that the RUC and British army had helped the UDA to murder Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.

However, no charges have been forthcoming in the case and SDLP spokesman Alban Maginness is now vowing to raise the matter with the British Attorney General.

Mr Maginness said he was frustrated and disappointed by the inexcusable delay, while Sinn Féin’s Alec Maskey said he was concerned that some of the officers involved may still be serving with the PSNI today.

Clayton News Daily

By Colin Steele
14 Februaray 2006

Click photo for large view - Patrick Nee was one of four men convicted of trying to use the Gloucester fishing vessel Valhalla to smuggle weapons to the Irish Republican Army in 1984. Nee and Andover High School teacher Rich Farrell have co-written a book, “A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection,” which details Nee’s life as a mob associate and IRA operative. (Eagle-Tribune file photo)

As a journalist covering the war in Bosnia, Richard Farrell used cigarettes to bribe drunken teens into letting him through military checkpoints as they jabbed AK-47s into his chest. So when someone asks him if he was scared interviewing former Boston gangster Patrick Nee for a new book, he can only laugh.

“That’s the farthest thing from my mind,” said Farrell, an Andover High School film teacher. “Dealing with Pat Nee, having him tell a story, was not in any way frightening. It was enlightening.”

Farrell and Nee co-authored “A Criminal and an Irishman: The Inside Story of the Boston Mob-IRA Connection,” which comes out next month. It tells the story of Nee’s life as a South Boston mobster and operative for the Irish Republican Army, including his role in the 1984 plan to smuggle more than seven tons of weapons from Gloucester to Ireland aboard the Ipswich-based fishing trawler Valhalla.

Nee, the son of Irish immigrants, served two years in prison for that gun-running operation. After he received early parole, he tried to rob an armored car to fund the IRA and went back to jail for nine more years.

People who read Nee’s standard biography will likely view him as a thug and a criminal, Farrell said, but Farrell saw a different side of him in the three years they worked together on the book.

“I learned resolve,” Farrell said. “Regardless of the moral issues, Pat Nee had the resolve to help his country, and that was it. … Pat helped the IRA for the sake of his country.”

Farrell got the idea for the book while he was directing films in Los Angeles. He met South Boston screenwriter Michael Blythe, who ended up being the book’s third co-author. Blythe told Farrell that Nee, his friend, was getting out of jail soon.

“I immediately said, ‘Hey, we should try to do something about this,’ “ Farrell said, but Nee was “reluctant” to tell his story.

That changed after the publication of other mob- and IRA-related books that Nee felt were wrong or incomplete. He finally agreed to the book, Farrell explained, because, “we (journalists) never get our stuff from the doers, from the criminals. A lot of the stuff that is written comes from court documents or confidential informants. … Pat wanted to tell his story and kind of make things right.”

Farrell and Nee traveled to Ireland to research IRA history and interview Nee’s associates there. Farrell spent an entire summer reading court documents from the gun-running trials in the United States and Ireland. And he tracked down the Valhalla’s captain, Robert Anderson.

During his interview at the Blackburn Tavern in Gloucester, Anderson provided enough material for his own book, Farrell said. Based on that talk, “A Criminal and an Irishman” will provide the first published account of the Valhalla’s return voyage from Ireland to Boston, Farrell said.

“He told me day by day what happened,” Farrell added.

The Valhalla crew transferred its cache to another trawler, the Marita Ann, off the coast of Ireland in September 1984. The Irish navy seized that boat, but the Valhalla managed to make it all the way back to Boston — even though authorities in Ireland, the United States and Canada were searching for it.

The incident still raises questions about U.S. security today, Farrell said.

“The big thing is, can this happen again?” he said. “If you can take 71/2 tons of weapons across the Atlantic Ocean, it’s a huge ocean. How easy would it be to bring a nuclear warhead across? … If those guys (in al-Qaida) could figure out how to crash three planes into big buildings, they can figure out how to get a fishing trawler across the Atlantic. And that’s the scary thing.”

When Farrell reflects on how much work he put into the book, he swears, “I’ll never do it again.” But, even though it doesn’t hit shelves until March 14, he’s already thinking about future possibilities.

“I think it’s a book that will make a movie,” he said. “I’ve already had calls from people that are interested, because these are great characters.”

Colin Steele writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.

Irish Independent

COURT proceedings against three men who are now in jail after failing to comply with a court order restraining them from picketing a south Dublin building site were adjourned for two weeks yesterday.

Mr Justice Frank Clarke in the High Court adjourned the proceedings and said if they are still in prison after the period, arrangements should be made to have them in court.

Collen Construction, owners of a Ballybrack site where 77 local authority houses are being built, sought to move an application to have a full hearing on an injunction application restraining the men from picketing or interfering with its commercial contracts and economic relations.

Andrew Clarke, Cromlech Fields, Ballybrack; Keith Kelly, Ashlawn Park, Ballybrack and William McClurg, Sallynoggin were sent to prison last Friday for defying a High Court order not to beset, watch or picket the Ballybrack building site.

The men can return to court at any time and purge their contempt. They claim dozens of local building workers have gone on site seeking work where houses for Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Council are being built but none were given a job or a promise of one.