SAOIRSE32

By Ciarán Barnes
Irelandclick
21/12/2007

Cops have recovered a gun and ammo stashed close to a West Belfast interface that has recently been the scene of growing violence.
On Tuesday morning the PSNI was called to waste ground at the loyalist end of Roden Street after reports of youths acting suspiciously.
Searches led to the discovery of a gun and ammunition.
The find occurred just yards from the new Westlink bridge, which nationalist and loyalist youths have been using as a platform to attack homes on either side of the interface. There have been worsening clashes in the area over the past month involving gangs from the nationalist Grosvenor and the loyalist Village.
The discovery of a gun has sparked fears that any further trouble could lead to the loss of life.
West Belfast community worker Daniel Jack described the find as “worrying”.
“This is bad news, but what is positive is that there has been less trouble on the interface over the past few days,” he said.
“Residents have been keeping the stone-throwing gangs away. It’s this pro-active stance by local people that has led to a reduction in trouble.
“I’m hopeful that both sides of the community can continue to do this and keep trouble from our doors.”

By Alan Murray
Sunday 23, December 2007
Sunday Life

SHOULD we harbour any serious expectation that the relatives of the people who perished in the Omagh bombing will ever discover the whole truth about all the circumstances surrounding the mass murder of their loved-ones?

Probably not, I would have to conclude, because too many Government agencies and too many intelligence tactics and reputations would be mired by the mud that would be kicked up.

The very fact that MI5 has prevented its agent Dave Rupert from providing vital testimony at the forthcoming civil action being brought by the relatives of the dead illustrates the hugely influential role of the hidden hand behind the intelligence fog.

And will our newly reconstructed Policing Board elicit any promises from its Chief Constable that things will be better in the future?

Of course it will, but once it gets that assurance what will happen next?

Since Omagh, one case that the Policing Board - now with the supposedly tigerish Sinn Fein reps onboard - should have thoroughly investigated relating to a criminal investigation conducted within the Police Ombudsman’s Office has been shunted into a siding. The ‘whistleblower’ who provided a 16-page statement to a senior police officer learned to his anger that the confidential document was passed to suspects and to his employers who promptly used it against him in a disciplinary hearing.

Only Jeffrey Donaldson has striven to bring about an inquiry by a very senior officer from another force about the PSNI investigation and its actions, even though the other three political parties represented on the Board have been made aware of the serious implications and have been provided with documentation or invited to peruse it.

The new Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, now has to decide whether to sanction an investigation into his predecessor’s staff and the PSNI officers who have knowledge of the case, or pass over it with the Director of Public Prosecutions looking over his shoulder.

So do I believe that the Policing Board will be able to do anything meaningful for the relatives of the Omagh bombing in the wake of Mr Justice Weir’s scathing criticism of the evidence presented against Sean Hoey? No, I don’t.

It remains as toothless now as it was before Sinn Fein was hauled onboard.

And will the Garda and MI5 be called to account about their prior knowledge of the Real IRA’s intentions in the fortnight before the attack on Omagh? I hardly think so, because no one in their ranks would be prepared to publicly acknowledge the ultimately devastatingly callous outcome of their deliberations to preserve an informant’s identity.

It is despairing to think that 29 innocent people lost their lives in 1998 and nearly 10 years later we suspect much dirty dealings, but can’t get at the truth. And who would say it couldn’t happen again?

Sunday Life
Sunday, December 23, 2007

THE top policeman branded a liar by the Omagh bomb trial judge lost his own brother in a brutal terrorist attack.

In a cruel twist of fate, Detective Chief Inspector Philip Marshall was probing the activities of the dissident republican cell that had grown out of the IRA gang that murdered his police officer brother more than a decade earlier.

Dad-of-two Constable Michael Marshall was ambushed and his heavily armoured car riddled with gun fire in an IRA attack in south Armagh in October 1989.

The 25-year-old was driving a patrol car through Beleeks, near Camlough, when gunmen opened fire using a heavy calibre machine gun mounted on the back of a lorry.

The armour-plated Sierra was riddled with more than 60 rounds and exploded into flames when the petrol tank was ruptured.

No one was ever charged with the murder, carried out by an IRA gang based in south Armagh - many of whom split from the Provos behind Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt in 1997 and who were involved in the Omagh bomb plot and other dissident attacks.

Last week his brother Philip’s conduct was savaged by a Crown Court judge who branded him a liar after he told “untruths” in the witness box during the trial of acquitted Omagh bomb defendant Sean Hoey.

Marshall had given evidence in relation to a mortar find, but, the Crown Court heard, had lied about wearing protective clothes at the scene - photos taken at the time showed that he had not been wearing the protective clothes, as he claimed.

In his scathing judgment delivered last week, Mr Justice Weir said Marshall had been involved in “deliberate and calculated deception” and added that it was “impossible for me to accept any of the evidence of either witness since I have no means of knowing whether they (Marshall and scenes of crime officer Fiona Cooper) may have told lies about other aspects of the case that were not capable of being exposed as such”.

DCI Marshall, who is still on duty, is currently under investigation by the Police Ombudsman after Mr Justice Weir referred transcripts of his evidence to Ombudsman Al Hutchinson’s office.

Sunday Life attempted last week attempted to contact DCI Marshall, but was unable to do so.

A police spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual officers.”

By Alan Murray
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sunday Life

Former First Minister Lord Trimble has called on the British and Irish governments to back the Omagh bomb relatives and give every possible assistance to their civil case.

Speaking yesterday, the former Ulster Unionist leader said it was essential the authorities supported the civil action to try to get justice for the victims’ families.

Said Lord Trimble: “It is now incumbent on the two governments to row in behind the families - that is the minimum at least that should be done.

“I urge Her Majesty’s government and the Irish government to get behind these relatives now because we need a renewed joint effort from London and Dublin to achieve a successful outcome for those who have been so devastated by the Omagh bombing.”

Lord Trimble declined to be specific about the assistance both governments could give to the Omagh relatives bringing civil cases against five republicans - Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna.

There is little expectation among the Omagh victims’ relatives that potentially key witnesses under the protection of gardai, MI5 and the FBI will be allowed to give evidence.

The FBI has already indicated that it will not permit Dave Rupert - an agent who infiltrated the Real IRA - to either attend the hearing or give evidence via videolink from the US.

Another witness who could give evidence to the hearing is car thief Paddy Dixon who is being looked after within a Garda witness protection programme.

Former Garda detective sergeant John White has alleged that Dixon was asked by the Real IRA to steal a car for use in a bombing just two days before the attack.

Dixon recently gave evidence via videolink to the Morris Tribunal investigating Garda corruption in Donegal. The PSNI has been refused permission to interview him about the Real IRA’s preparations for the Omagh attack.

By Stephen Breen
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Sunday Life

AN evil thug who was caged for 20 years for a savage knife attack that left his victim blind is a key suspect in the murder of Bangor woman Lisa Dorrian.

Sunday Life can reveal that Adam Smyth - jailed last Friday for attempting to kill Co Down man Marc Keller - was one of the last people to see Lisa alive.

Along with his drug-dealing brother Mark, Smyth (19) was quizzed by cops about the killing, but later released without charge.

Mark Smyth spoke exclusively to Sunday Life in 2006 and admitted driving Lisa (25) to a party, but denied any involvement in her killing.

Her heartbroken sister, Joanne, declined to comment on Adam Smyth’s alleged role in Lisa’s murder.

But speaking after Smyth was sentenced to prison, Marc Keller told how he believes his attacker was “capable” of murdering the Bangor woman.

Said Marc: “People have to realise that Smyth is a evil person who thrives on violence. It’s no surprise to me that he has been linked to the murder of an innocent girl.

“I know only too well what he is capable of. He is full of hate and I can just see him attacking a girl for no reason.

“This man is scum and I’m just so relieved he’s off the streets.

“Although he’s going to jail for a very long time, I doubt he will ever show remorse for what he did to me and countless other people out there.

“He may not have been charged over Lisa Dorrian, but at least he is going to jail for a very long time and he won’t be able to attack any other innocent person.

“God knows how many other innocent people he has attacked over the years. He has a brutal capacity for violence and I don’t know how he’s going to cope with prison.

“If he was involved in Lisa Dorrian’s murder, then why doesn’t he just do the right thing for once in his life and tell police what he knows because he won’t be going anywhere for a very long time.”

The knife-victim also welcomed the sentence given to his attacker.

Added Marc: “I couldn’t be happier with the sentence. The judge told Smyth he would rue the day he did what he did and I’m delighted.

“It still doesn’t seem to have sunk in with him what he did to me that night - he just doesn’t seem to care.

“The sentence is the best Christmas present I have ever had. I’m determined to get on with things now so for me it’s New Year, new life.”

It’s also understood Smyth could face fresh charges after he threatened a police officer minutes after he was sentenced to prison.

As he was being led from the dock of Belfast Crown Court, Smyth yelled to the officer: “I will see you some time soon and you won’t be alive.”

Marc, along with his brother, Anthony, and a pal, were enjoying a night out in Belfast in November 2005, when they were subjected to the brutal assault.

The Killyleagh man, who has had to re-learn how to walk, was stabbed in the heart and leg while his younger brother suffered a stab wound and had his teeth kicked in.

Smyth’s accomplices, Alan Stewart and Philip Irwin, were also sent to prison for 14 and 12 years respectively for their roles in the barbaric assault.

The CIA made use of a Nazi war criminal’s anti-guerrilla skills

David Smith
Sunday December 23, 2007
The Observer

Oscar-winning British director Kevin Macdonald has raised the intriguing possibility that Che Guevara’s capture by the CIA in the forests of Bolivia 40 years ago was orchestrated by Klaus Barbie, the Nazi war criminal called the ‘Butcher of Lyon’.

Klaus Barbie

Guevara was the Marxist guerrilla who helped Fidel Castro seize power in Cuba. Barbie was the Gestapo chief in Lyon whose crimes included the murder of 44 Jewish children, taken from an orphanage and sent to Auschwitz. Improbably, the men’s paths crossed in Bolivia. My Enemy’s Enemy, a documentary directed by Macdonald, whose previous films include Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland, examines how Barbie’s record was disregarded when he was recruited by US intelligence after the Second World War as a useful tool against communism. He evaded French justice by fleeing to Bolivia where, living under the alias Klaus Altmann, he was welcomed by fascist sympathisers. Meanwhile, in 1966 a disguised Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organise the overthrow of its military dictatorship.

The Americans had been hunting Guevara and, according to the film, turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare: he had attempted to crush the French Resistance and was responsible for the death of its celebrated leader, Jean Moulin. Alvaro de Castro, a longtime confidant of Barbie interviewed for the film, says: ‘He met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US. Altmann [Barbie] no doubt gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. He used the expertise gained doing this kind of work in World War Two. They made the most of the fact that he had this experience.’

De Castro adds that Barbie had little respect for Che Guevara. ‘Altmann said once, “This poor man wouldn’t have survived at all if he fought in the Second World War. He was a pitiful adventurer, nothing like his popular image. The people have turned him into a myth, a great figure. But what has he actually achieved? Absolutely nothing”.’

Che Guevara

Kai Hermann, a journalist, tells the film-makers: ‘He [Barbie] always boasted - though I cannot prove it - that it was he who devised the strategy for murdering Che Guevara.’

The evidence appears inconclusive, but Macdonald, who won an Academy Award for One Day in September, about the killing of Israeli athletes by the Palestinian group Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympics, told The Observer: ‘The Che claim came from several sources. I think it makes total sense when you understand what Barbie was doing and who he was working for in the Bolivian military, and how they admired him as a Nazi officer and what he had done in the war. Jean Moulin was an infamous episode, and he would trade on it and use that as part of his calling card.’

Macdonald, whose film will be broadcast on More4 on Thursday at 9pm, added: ‘Guevara arrived in Bolivia in disguise - very much like the French Resistance, constantly in disguise, travelling around the country unspotted by the Germans. I suspect Barbie’s involvement was more on a theoretical level and, if you think about it, it makes sense from the point of view of the Bolivian government and the Americans. He had hands-on expertise in exactly this type of situation, exactly this field. He was strongly anti-communist. Neither the Americans nor the Bolivians had anything like this kind of experience.’

In October 1967 the Bolivian army, with CIA help, captured the 39-year-old Guevara and killed him.

Barbie was involved in torture again in Bolivia and dreamed of establishing a Fourth Reich in the Andes. But he was tracked down by Nazi hunters and eventually extradited to France, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in jail in Lyon in September 1991.

Macdonald’s previous film, The Last King of Scotland, was a fictionalised account of Idi Amin, based on the novel by Giles Foden, with an Oscar-winning performance by Forest Whitaker. The 40-year-old director said that he can see parallels between Amin and Barbie. ‘The other side to Barbie is there was a great charm to him, which is one of the things that make him fascinating. He was a bit like Idi Amin: somebody of enormous charm but of enormous evil and utter lack of respect for human life.’

Belfast Telegraph
December 22, 2007

Two men have been remanded in custody this evening after appearing before the Special Criminal Court on charges of INLA membership.

It is understood the two were arrested in the Dundalk area on Thursday night in relation to an ongoing Garda operation in to the activities of dissident republicans.

The men, 44-year-old Paul Kelly of Cedarwood Park, Coxs Demense, Dundalk, County Louth and 31-year-old Anthony Lee of Carnbeg, Doylesfort Road, Dundalk, were charged with membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the INLA, contrary to the Offences against the State Act.

The three judge Special Criminal Court heard that both Kelly and Lee were charged with the offences at 4pm this afternoon.

The court was told by members of the Gardai that neither man made any reply after the charge was put to them.

During the brief hearing both men spoke only to confirm their identities.

The Court agreed to remand them in custody until Monday morning.