SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

by Ciarán Barnes
05/04/2006

A leading north Belfast loyalist has been warned his life is under threat from a faction within the Ulster Defence Association.
PSNI officers called to the home of John Bunting on Monday evening to tell him he was being targeted by loyalist paramilitaries.
The warning came after members of the north Belfast UDA, under investigation by the group’s ruling inner council, claimed the Ulster Political Research Group spokesman was working as a PSNI informer.
The UDA leadership has dismissed the rumours but Mr Bunting has moved from his former home in north Belfast’s loyalist Westland estate to Ballyclare in Co Antrim, where his girlfriend lives.
Until recently, Mr Bunting was a close associate of the jailed north Belfast UDA leader Andre Shoukri.
The pair drifted apart over Mr Bunting’s desire to see the UDA pursue a more political path and Mr Shoukri’s rejection of this strategy.
The driving force behind the UDA’s political strategy is its south Belfast leader Jackie McDonald. Mr Bunting is said to be close to Mr McDonald and complained bitterly to him last year about the north Belfast UDA’s refusal to end extortion and drug dealing.
Rumours about Mr Bunting working for the PSNI are being spread by north Belfast UDA members who remain loyal to the Shoukri faction.
It is understood these men are behind the death threat against Mr Bunting. They also ransacked his former Westland home.
Sources close to the UDA leadership told Daily Ireland that those spreading the rumours were “much more likely to be touts” than Mr Bunting.
“They are unhappy that big John is trying to take the organisation along a more political path,” said one source.
“They are trying to blacken his name by going down the obvious road of calling him a tout. No one believes what they are saying. If anyone is a tout, it’s them.”
Mr Bunting could not be reached for comment.

Daily Ireland

Editor: Colin O’Carroll
05/04/2006

The full facts about the death of Denis Donaldson are still to emerge, but whatever the truth it must be remembered that this if first and foremost a massive personal tragedy for the Donaldson family who have had a heavy cross to bear since the grim facts of his secret life emerged in the wake of the ‘Stormontgate’ fiasco.
The IRA has said that it had nothing to do with the killing, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has condemned it outright. The DUP said that eyes would now be turning in the direction of ‘Sinn Féin/IRA’. The eyes that are turning in that direction have a history of making considerable political capital out of unproven allegations – that they should fall on this with ill-disguised glee is hardly surprising. Still, there’s something deeply unpleasant at the maelstrom of fact-free disseminating and spin that broke out even before the body in Glenties had been officially identified. At this stage no-one knows who killed Denis Donaldson except those who carried out the killing and those who ordered it. But in the absence of hard information, we are entitled to ask, cui bono? Who benefits from the death of a man who proved such a massive embarrassment for the republicans that he worked for in the open, and the British spooks that he worked for in secret?
For the peace process to be sucked into another debilitating round of claim and counter-claim about a high-profile crime is the last thing that mainstream republicans want at this time. The modalities for the resumption of the political institutions in the North have not yet been worked out, but the increasing momentum towards the restoration of power-sharing is undeniable. Add to that increasing confidence about the prospects of Sinn Féin in the South, where hysterical rejections of the party as potential coalition government partners are being gradually replaced by the quiet but unmistakeable shuffle of stances being repositioned, and you wonder why on earth mainstream republicans would consider the setting of an old score to be worth the candle. None of this rules out, of course, the very real possibility that an individual republican’s anger and animus might have been of sufficient depth to drive him to carry out this murder.
Let’s consider for a moment how much the British intelligence services, Mr Donaldson’s long-time employer, might have to benefit from his death. In the years since the IRA ceasefire the attrition rate among those paramilitaries – mostly loyalist, it has to be said – who were in the pay of the British state has been chilling. The secrets that Denis Donaldson held he now takes with him to the grave, just as so many did before him. As so often happens, this high-profile crime took place just as a significant political initiative was imminent – in this case an important announcement on the way forward due to be made by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair in Armagh tomorrow.
That will most please the securocrats who are intent on bringing this process down.

Daily Ireland

British informer Donaldson is found dead at his isolated Donegal cottage hide-out – Gardaí say they haven’t ruled out suicide. Questions raised over who benefits from agent’s death.

by Mick Hall
05/04/2006

Gardai near the scene outside Glenties - Photo by Eoin McGarvey

The IRA last night denied killing former Sinn Féin official and British agent Denis Donaldson who was found dead in Donegal yesterday.
In a short statement released last night, the republican organisation it “had no involvement whatsoever in the death of Denis Donaldson”.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he condemned the murder “without reservation”.
Last night he told reporters at the site of a former RUC station in Andersonstown in west Belfast that he wished to totally disassociate Sinn Féin and party supporters from Mr Donaldson’s death.
Asked about the circumstances around what appeared to be a savage killing, Mr Adams said: “Denis Donaldson worked for Special Branch and there was a lot of messy and dirty business there, so I’m keeping an open mind.”
He added: “We are living in a different era, and in the future in which everyone could share. This killing seems to have been carried out by those who have not accepted that.”
He said there should be no implications for the peace process other than to act as an incentive for progress. The Sinn Féin leader offered his condolences to the Donaldson family whom he described as “decent republicans and decent people”.
Denis Donaldson was reported to have been shot in the head.
Gardaí in Donegal were alerted to the incident just before 5pm. His body was discovered near the village of Glenties outside a remote cottage where he had been living after being exposed as a a long-standing British agent last November.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said Mr Donaldson had been seen in Glenties village 24 hours prior to his body being discovered. Gardaí units, he said, had been quick to seal off the Donegal border once the discovery had been made.
The former head of Sinn Féin administration at Stormont publicly admitted being a British agent on December 8 at a dramatic press conference organised by Sinn Féin.
The killing has been widely condemned by political leaders throughout Ireland.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he condemned the “brutal and callous murder”.
He added: “We hope that whoever was responsible for this callous act will be brought to justice as soon as possible.”
Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley was quick to point the finger at the IRA. He said: “If what I have heard is true that they cut his hand off that would show that they were saying here is a hand that signed away, what we would say, his obligation to IRA/Sinn Féin and we will deal with him, and it looks like that sort of a murder.”
Mr Paisley claimed Mr Donaldson’s death would have implications for joint proposals to established a shadow assembly scheduled to be announced on Thursday by the Irish and British leaders.
The Irish government insisted plans to unveil proposals for a new power-sharing executive later this week will go ahead despite the killing.
“The dark detail that surrounds this murder is a tragic and regrettable reminder of Northern Ireland’s past,” a government spokesman said.
“The focus has to be on allowing positive politics to take root and achieve agreement with leadership in Northern Ireland.”
British prime minister Tony Blair and Mr Ahern are due in Armagh City tomorrow to announce the proposals were they are expected to announce a timetable to revive power-sharing in the North.
Condemning the killing of Donaldson, SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said it was “an appalling and brutal murder”.
He said: “Everybody has the right to life. Nowhere on this island does anybody have the right to take life.
“There must now be a very thorough Garda investigation. Everybody and every organisation must co-operate fully with that investigation. The killers of Denis Donaldson must be brought to justice.”
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said: “Nothing will deflect the government from its aim of ensuring political progress in Northern Ireland.”
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey condemned those behind the killing but said when the isolated location where Mr Donaldson was living was considered then he “must have been seen by many as a sitting duck”.
Mr Empey added: “There were many people both inside and outside the republican movement who would have been happy to see him go.
“Whether another spy who was in the republican movement is responsible or others who would regard his removal as tidying up loose ends, we should not be surprised by this development.”
The Sinn Féin leader in the Dail, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, echoed Gerry Adams’ comments of condemnation and cautioned that people should “not rush to judgment in relation to this brutal killing or try to make political capital out of it”.
He added: “The Donaldson family have been through hell for the last number of months ever since Denis admitted he worked as a spy for the British security services.
“That has now been compounded in the most brutal fashion possible with his murder.”
He insisted those who had carried out the killing had a different agenda from that of Sinn Féin.

Belfast Telegraph

Donaldson tried to shield face from blast

By Sarah Brett in Glenties and Chris Thornton
05 April 2006

Murdered agent Denis Donaldson may have only had enough time to shield his face from a shotgun blast when his killers pounced, it emerged today.

Donaldson - who had been arrested for being an IRA spy only to later admit he was a British agent - was faced with his killer on Monday night or early yesterday.

When the gunman burst into the cottage in a mountainous part of west Donegal, Donaldson appears to have had only enough time to shield his face from a shotgun blast.

That blast nearly severed one of his hands and may have caused fatal wounds, but initial assumptions are that a second blast to the head killed him.

Garda detectives discovered two shotgun shells at the cottage in Doochary and there were signs of a break-in.

Police had seen the former Sinn Fein official in nearby Glenties on Monday night, and a neighbour found his body yesterday after noticing the door was ajar.

An autopsy due to take place today was expected to narrow down the time of death.

Detectives were trying to retrace Donaldson’s final hours today as the British and Irish governments were absorbing the political repercussions of his grisly death.

The murder of the 56-year-old spy inside a remote Donegal cottage sparked off a major Garda manhunt as well as sparking damage limitation exercises in London and Dublin.

Mr Donaldson’s son, Denis Jnr, told a morning newspaper that his family had been devastated by the death.

Speaking to The Mirror last night, he said: “At the minute we only have the same information as everyone else has, what is on the news.

“I spoke to my father yesterday and he seemed fine. He said he was going to get credit on his mobile and would phone me back today.

“I tried to phone him earlier today but it just rang off. I didn’t think anything was wrong.

“Despite all that has been written and all that has been said, he was still a father and a husband and I would ask people to respect our family’s grief at this time.”

At the same time, speculation was building about who carried out the murder. Blame has been attached to IRA members who bore a grudge against Donaldson for two decades of informing against them, or dissident republicans who see the murder as an opportunity to derail the political process.

Republicans have also suggested British intelligence could have been responsible, saying their motive would have been to silence their former agent who had already spoken extensively to the republican movement about his activities as an agent.

The IRA denied the murder last night and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams condemned the killing “without reservation”.

Whoever carried out the killing has effectively thrown another spanner into the Government’s plans for reviving Stormont.

With less than 24 hours to go before Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern visit Northern Ireland to discuss a new set of proposals, unionists were revisiting questions about whether republican violence has ended.

The Independent Monitoring Commission is due to issue a report on the state of paramilitary violence later this month, but the Donaldson murder does not fall into the reporting period for that upcoming statement.

West Donegal Sinn Fein councillor, Pearse Doherty, said that local people were both shocked and afraid after the murder.

“It’s shocking that something like this has happened in such a rural and isolated area, people are rightly afraid themselves.”

The Blanket

Anthony McIntyre • 4 April 2006

A few days ago I found a leaflet lying in my hall. It was from the PSNI. When I commented to a neighbour that I had not heard the cop jeeps in the street, I was told, facetiously, that Sinn Fein had actually distributed them through the doors on behalf of the PSNI. A small signifier of the lack of seriousness attached to Sinn Fein’s professed opposition to the PSNI.

>>Read on

The Blanket

Forum Magazine recently interviewed Michael McKevitt, who in August 2003 was convicted, on the evidence of the MI5/FBI paid perjurer, David Rupert, of directing an IRA breakaway faction opposed to the Belfast Agreement. Michael McKevitt is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Portlaoise Prison, Ireland.

Forum Magazine • April-May 2006

FM: Gerry Adams believes the Belfast Agreement contains the potential to deliver republican objectives. Do you agree?

MMcK: Adams recently described the Belfast Agreement as “an agreement to a journey, but not a destination”. Well, this particular journey has copper-fastened partition and has led republicanism up a political cul-de-sac.

>>Read on

BN.ie

04/04/2006 - 23:05:17

**Photos are of Donaldson outside the remote cottage (see map). They are from the BBC and were taken by Sunday World.

The Irish and British governments were tonight united in their insistence that plans to unveil proposals for a new power-sharing executive will go ahead on Thursday as planned despite the killing of Denis Donaldson.

“The dark detail that surrounds this murder is a tragic and regrettable reminder of Northern Ireland’s past,” a Government spokesman said.

“The focus has to be on allowing positive politics to take root and achieve agreement with leadership in Northern Ireland.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was quick to condemn the killing.

“We condemn this brutal murder,” he said. “The matter is now under investigation by An Garda Siochána.”

“We hope that whoever was responsible for the callous act will be brought to justice as soon as possible.”

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said Mr Donaldson had been seen alive in the village of Glenties yesterday and that it appeared the murder took place today.

The minister has been quick to blame the IRA for past events but refused to speculate on who was responsible for the murder.

“I am not willing to jump to any conclusions because I don’t want to, in any sense, to point the finger of blame at this stage.

“But obviously it isn’t helpful. I doubt that whoever did it intended it to be helpful.”

The British government also insisted that the Donaldson murder would not deflect them from working towards the restoration of devolution.

A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said: “Nothing will deflect the government from its aim of ensuring political progress in Northern Ireland.”

Downing Street said that Mr Blair “strongly condemned” the killing.

A No 10 spokesman noted that Mr Adams had also condemned the murder and had disassociated what he called “pro-peace process republicans” from the attack.

As expected, there was a marked contrast in reaction to the incident from the north’s political leaders.

The conciliatory mood of the Irish and British Governments was not shared by Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley, who said he had been told Mr Donaldson’s hand had been cut off.

“I have heard his hand was chopped off in this murder,” said Mr Paisley.

He said the murder was very strange, others who had been discovered to have been spying “were just wiped off the face of the earth”.

He added: “ If what I have heard is true that they cut his hand off, that would show that they were saying ‘here is a hand that signed away, what we would say, his obligation to IRA/Sinn Féin and we will deal with him’ – it looks like that sort of murder.”

The veteran politician expressed scepticism at the IRA denial of responsibility and said the killing could have implications for the joint proposals due to be announced by Mr Blair and Mr Ahern.

“There are serious talks that are going to take place and I would say that this has put a dark cloud over those talks,” he said.

“If this man has been murdered because of his connection with IRA/Sinn Féin and because of the past happenings, then it strikes a blow at what the two governments are trying to do – to say that the IRA has forsaken these ways and they are seeking peace.”

Condemning the killing of Donaldson, SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said it was “an appalling and brutal murder”.

“Everybody has the right to life,” said Donaldson “Nowhere on this island does anybody have the right to take life.”

“There must now be a very thorough Garda investigation. Everybody and every organisation must co-operate fully with that investigation. The killers of Denis Donaldson must be brought to justice.”

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey condemned those behind the brutal murder but said when the isolated location where Mr Donaldson was living was considered then he “must have been seen by many as a sitting duck”.

“There were many people both inside and outside the republican movement who would have been happy to see him go,” said Empey. “Whether another spy who was in the republican movement is responsible or others who would regard his removal as tidying up loose ends, we should not be surprised by this development.”

Mr Ahern and Mr Blair are due in Armagh City on Thursday to announce the proposals were they are expected to announce a time-table to revive shadow power-sharing in Northern Ireland.