Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 18 Aibreán / April 2005
Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom
http://saoirse.rr.nu
In this issue:
1. RSF election seminar held in Dublin
2. RSF oppose agenda of GAA management
3. Panel to advise on UVF murders
4. Role of agents in Brit political policing
5. Victim’s son points finger at Paisley
6. Wright inquiry delays blamed on RUC/PSNI
7. RUC/PSNI patrols armed with second lethal weapon
8. Keyes witness to loyalist murder refuses to come out of hiding
9. McCord promises bombshell book
10. Patient whose files leaked to LVF ‘disgusted’ at hospital
1. RSF ELECTION SEMINAR HELD IN DUBLIN
The National Election Directorate of Republican Sinn Féin held a seminar on Saturday, January 19 in Dublin. National Publicity Officer, Richard Walsh, said that there was considerable representation from each of the four Provinces.
He added: “Electoral strategy for the June 2009 local elections in the 26-Counties was discussed, and Selection Conventions are due to take place in all areas contesting these during the first half of this year.
“Republican Sinn Féin is also exploring the possibility of contesting future local elections within the Six Occupied Counties.
“We condemn unreservedly the anti-democratic activities of the 26-County State, whose Special Branch detectives were seen attempting to eavesdrop on our deliberations.”
2. RSF OPPOSE AGENDA OF GAA MANAGEMENT
At a meeting of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster RSF Executive) in Monaghan on Sunday, 20th January, delegates roundly condemned the pro-British agenda of senior GAA officials.
Publicity Officer, Richard Walsh, said:
“GAA President Nicky Brennan welcomed Stormont Minister Edwin Poots to Pairc Esler in Newry, but he refused to meet the President of Republican Sinn Féin, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, when he handed in a letter of protest highlighting our concerns before the Ireland-England Rugby match in Croke Park.
“Mr. Poots showed his complete disregard for our National Anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, having arrived deliberately late. He has since expressed the view that the playing of Amhrán na bhFiann before our National games should be scrapped, and called for stadia named in honour of Ireland’s Patriot Dead to be restyled.
“We had warned previously that Cumann Lúthchleas Gael would be pressurised into accepting these changes, and ending the flying of the National Flag, but were accused of scaremongering. However, the agenda of the current GAA management is clear for all those who wish to see it.
“Representatives of the Joe Conway/Willie Stewart Cumann, Newry, made it clear that they would have picketed Pairc Esler had they known that this visit – which forms part of the agenda to normalise English rule in Ireland – was to take place.”
3. PANEL TO ADVISE ON UVF MURDERS
A SPECIAL advisory panel made up of civilians and human rights experts is being set up by the Six-County Historical Enquiries Team who are reinvestigating murders linked to the Mount Vernon UVF.
The idea for the group came in the wake of former British Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan’s explosive report into the 1997 UVF murder of Raymond McCord Junior which confirmed the British colonial police had colluded with loyalists.
Her January 2007 report into the activities of the notorious Mount Vernon UVF revealed how a brutal gang of loyalist informers were responsible for more than 15 murders.
Her report also outlined how the feared unit and its leader, British agent Mark Haddock, were being protected by the RUC Special Branch during their reign of terror.
The team setting up the panel involves legal professionals, human rights groups British Irish Rights Watch and the Pat Finucane Centre, representatives of non-governmental organisations, HET staff and Raymond McCord Senior.
The idea for such a panel, it’s understood, sprang from a similar group set up by British police after the racist murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in South London when confidence between ethnic minorities and the force was at an all time low.
Stephen Lawrence was stabbed while waiting for a bus in 1993. An inquiry into the original police investigations, published in 1999, famously concluded that the force was “institutionally racist”.
Raymond McCord said the panel is designed to encourage anyone with information or the relatives of victims to come forward.
“The group has been set up to scrutinise the HET’s work, so basically we can turn around and ask questions if we’re not happy with anything.
“If any families, relatives or victims in North Belfast want to discuss their loss and are concerned about their case so far, they can contact me through this paper. I don’t care if they’re victims of IRA, UVF or UDA or the security forces. I’ll gladly sit down with any family.”
A spokeswoman for the HET said: “The HET team decided to set up a panel which would give an extra level of assurance to families in particular. It’s in the process of being formed, will be balanced in composition and it’s hoped will be an asset both to the families and to the investigation team.”
4. ROLE OF AGENTS IN BRIT POLITICAL POLICING
In an article in the Sunday Life newspaper on January 21, journalist Brian Rowan posed questions regarding the part played by British agents within Loyalists death squads and the Provisionals in directing those organisations and in shaping policy during the so-called peace process.
“The agent has been part of the loyalist paramilitary world and leadership for years - a key figure on what the UVF calls its Command Staff.
“This is the top tier of the organisation, a handful of men, living on or originally from the Shankill Road in Belfast. And it is where the decisions are made, war and peace, life or death. The agent has been part of all of that - for some decades hugely influential in the decision-making and direction of this organisation and the associated Red Hand Commando.
“In May last year the Command Staff produced an endgame statement - all recruitment, military training and targeting was ceased, intelligence information ‘rendered obsolete’, active service units ‘deactivated’ - but that leadership, of which the agent is a part, could not deliver decommissioning.
“Instead, all ‘ordnance’, meaning weapons, was ‘put beyond reach’, but not beyond use. Why then is this issue of agents and their roles so relevant now? Why, when the war is over? The relevance and significance has to do with the work of the Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past.
“In the coming week, it will end its public consultation - and begin to consider the private contacts it needs to engage in, including with the loyalist and republican (sic) leaderships. ‘Ultimately they will have to (speak to them),’one source said.
“But speak to whom? Could it be those who have been agents and paramilitary leaders; the men who have been both? How will they contribute to and influence any narrative on the past? And who will influence their contributions and any input they might make?
“These are some of the questions after the war, all part of the unfinished business. The source who revealed the UVF leader as a CHIS (covert human intelligence source) has detailed knowledge of the world of the Special Branch and its informers.
He is the same source who disclosed the agent role of one of the UDA’s Belfast brigadiers - a man who still sits on that organisation’s inner council leadership.
That informer, and others ‘close’ to the paramilitary brigadiers allowed the Special Branch to ‘lead’ meetings of the inner council, the intelligence source told me.
This same source was behind the revelation that John White was an informer, and he knew the spy roles of Denis Donaldson, Freddie Scappaticci and Mark Haddock, and in some cases he knew the handlers.
“He claimed Haddock ‘saved lives’, that he was ‘too good to let go’. This is the same Mark Haddock later described as a ‘serial killer’ at the end of a protracted investigation by the Police Ombudsman. It was during that probe that the intelligence source told me that the investigation ‘could take them through to ‘——‘.
He was talking about the man at the top of the UVF - that leader who is still part of that organisation’s Command Staff. To protect my source, I do not want to give details of the date of that conversation, but it was many years after the original ceasefire and long after the Good Friday Agreement.
In another conversation he told me the information the UVF leader provided was ‘mainly political’. This raises another issue and another question. That agent was one of the principal decision makers in the UVF’s war, yet in his relationship with the Special Branch the information he was providing was ‘mainly political’.
What was he not telling?
I was told the ‘same (handler) team’ had been ‘running him for a long time’.
And that the Special Branch had “influenced” a move within the UVF to expel one of its most prominent leaders. Sunday Life knows the identity of that man but at this time is not publishing his name.
These are little insights into a murky world. When you tread on this ground you intrude in the world of National Security. It is considered trespassing. But the secrets are spilling out, one by one.
The intelligence source quoted here met many of the agents - but not the man at the top of the UVF.
He was ‘very nervous’, which is why that same Special Branch team had been with him for so long. And, even after the Scappaticci and Donaldson revelations, my source told me the main IRA (sic) agent in Belfast had not yet been exposed. There is more to come, but how will it all fit onto the pages - however big - of that Eames-Bradley report when it is written? How will they report that dirty war?”
5. VICTIM’S SON POINTS FINGER AT PAISLEY
IN THE hierarchy of blame for deaths during the war in the Six Counties Stormont First Minister Ian Paisley ranks higher than “some average Joe who planted a bomb”, the son of a UVF victim has said.
Psychology lecturer Jude Whyte was voicing his support for an amnesty for those who still have not been tried for killings carried out during the war in the Six-Counties.
His mother Margaret Whyte was killed in a 1984 loyalist bomb attack on her family’s University Street home.
“If I knew the person who was responsible I wouldn’t do anything about it, I wouldn’t contact the police or any of the authorities,” he said.“I think it is important to draw a line under what happened. I think there should be an amnesty and a truth commission.
There is nothing to be gained from further legal or court proceedings.”
Jude Whyte was incensed after he was cut off while making a point about the Ian Paisley during BBC radio’s Good Morning Ulster on January 8.
“They rang me and asked me to make a comment, I wouldn’t have made a comment otherwise,” he said.“Then, as I was speaking about Ian Paisley, they cut me off. There was no explanation. There was no reason to cut me off. I have had lots of messages about it this morning from people listening.”
Jude Whyte said it was easy but not fair to attribute blame to those who carried out the physical acts of violence.“It is hypocrisy to blame some average Joe that went and planted a bomb,” he said.“To me he is so far down the food chain..
“I remember as a student being in Bucknahill in Ballymena in 1981 and seeing Ian Paisley standing in a field speaking surrounded by 500 men holding legally-held arms.
“I remember him standing on the Springfield Road with Reg Empey and said (about a disputed march) ‘A fire has been lit that may never be extinguished’.”
The recent release of 1977 Cabinet papers revealed discussions, that Ian Paisley was “associated with paramilitaries” and that he might be arrested for conspiracy, took place among senior Stormont officials.
The remarks about Paisley were made during a meeting between senior Six-County Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and Stormont civil servants during the United Ulster Action Council strike of May 1977. The minutes said: “It was pointed out; however, that the person responsible [Ian Paisley] was associated with and had the support of the Protestant paramilitaries and it was queried whether he ought not to be held for conspiracy.” The hope was expressed that when the strike ended there would be no question of a formula being devised “to allow Mr Paisley off the hook”.
Jude Whyte has called for Robin Eames and Denis Bradley to move swiftly on a decision on how to deal with the legacy of the war in the Six Counties. “They need to either hold their hands up and say they have found no common ground or set up a truth commission with very clear limits on length and what it is looking at,” Jude Whyte said. “We don’t want another long drawn out inquiry like Bloody Sunday.”
6. WRIGHT INQUIRY DELAYS BLAMED ON RUC/PSNI
ON JANUARY 21 Scottish Law Lord Ranald MacLean, who heads a panel investigating the death of LVF leader Billy Wright, used a brief hearing to release a detailed and lengthy paper highly critical of the RUC/PSNI for its continued failure to hand over documents requested by the panel.
It made clear it did not necessarily believe the reasons the RUC/PSNI gave for not producing the documents asked for. the inquiry panel looking into the murder of LVF chief Billy Wright. MacLean announced he would start hearing evidence on Jan 28.
Hearings have been suspended since last September, in part because the inquiry says the RUC/PSNI has failed to hand over intelligence material they believe the British colonial police have in their possession.
Missing documents have hampered the inquiry for more than two years. In November 2006, the inquiry held special hearings that revealed the Six-County Prison Service lost intelligence files about Wright and his killers and destroyed thousands of other records from Long Kesh.
He said last year that “outstanding gaps are in the intelligence information that we think exists and is not being produced”.
The RUC/PSNI has told the inquiry panel that it has conducted multiple searches of its records and they believe they have handed over all the available material. They said record keeping was poor at the time of Wright’s murder and documents were scattered over 41 different locations.
In October, the RUC/PSNI submitted a special report to the inquiry by retired RUC Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid, indicating all the efforts put in to recovering documents. But the inquiry panel said it “has not led to the production of specific intelligence documents that have been sought by the inquiry.”
The inquiry has indicated problems with every British intelligence agency from which it has sought material.
Meanwhile a laptop computer containing confidential information has been stolen from the London offices of a barrister involved in the public inquiry.
The computer contained details of a number of people in the Six Counties, who are now being notified of the theft.
The Six-County NIO said it was informed during the weekend of January 19/20that the computer had been taken from the private chambers of the lawyer representing the Six-County Prison Service at the inquiry.
A statement said: “The laptop stolen from the barrister’s chambers contained confidential and legally privileged information in connection with the inquiry, including some details about a number of individuals in Northern Ireland.
“Those individuals are being notified and the potential implications of the theft are being assessed with them, in consultation with the Crown Solicitor’s Office and the PSNI.”
The Billy Wright Inquiry and the Six-County Information Commissioner have also been informed. Wright, the 37-year-old leader of the loyalist Volunteer Force, was shot dead inside the Maze Prison in December 1997 by members of the Irish National Liberation Army.
The public inquiry into the murder of Wright was one of several set up by the British Government in 2004 amid allegations of British State collusion in the deaths.
The theft of the computer was revealed as the inquiry sat in public for the first time since last autumn.
7. RUC/PSNI PATROLS ARMED WITH SECOND LETHAL WEAPON
A North Belfast victims’ campaigner has expressed “massive fears” over British colonial police moves to begin Taser training – a move which he says will see “trigger happy” members reboot a policy of aggressive British policing.
With CS Spray used “willy-nilly” in North Belfast, in fact 28 incidences from January to September last year, JJ Magee of Relatives for Justice fears the launch this week of Tasers across the Six Counties could see “shocking” Taser-related Canadian deaths mirrored in the Six Counties.
In October and November alone four people died after being shot by the 50,000 volt stun-guns in Canada, the most high profile death captured on home video and broadcast nationally, sparking a massive outcry surrounding the safety of Tasers.
In all, Canadian authorities have recorded a total 18 Taser-related deaths since their introduction in 2003 and JJ Magee fears that their deployment to RUC/PSNI Specialist Operations Branch will be a “dark and negative” step back in time.
Despite British colonial police assurances that, out of the 425 times Tasers have been fired in Britain in the last five years, “a serious incident has been brought to a safe conclusion with no death or serious injury to the police or members of the public”, JJ Magee has concerns Taser-related deaths will replace the 17 plastic bullet killings across the Six Counties throughout the Troubles.
“All I can say is that I have massive reservations about the introduction of Tasers to officers here,” he said.
“You only need to look at the statistics in America and Canada to understand how dangerous these weapons are.
“I thought we were supposed to be moving away from aggressive policing but instead we seem to be moving back in time.
“In North Belfast especially officers have been very quick to pull out their CS Spray and things can only get worse when Tasers hit the streets.”
At the end of November 2007, the United Nations Committee Against Torture concluded that the use of the electric pulse Taser constitutes a “form of torture” and “can even provoke death”.
The manufacturers themselves, Taser International, have admitted in a training bulletin that repeated blasts of a Taser can “impair breathing and respiration”.
It is also reported police officers in at least five US states have filed lawsuits against Taser International claiming they suffered serious injuries after being shocked with the 50,000 volt stun-guns during training classes.
There have been more than 100 Taser-related deaths worldwide in recent years. The RUC/PSNI commenced training in the use of Taser as part of a pilot scheme.
8. KEYES WITNESS TO LOYALIST MURDER REFUSES TO COME OUT OF HIDING
A CRUCIAL witness to the prison killing of loyalist getaway driver David Keyes is refusing to come out of hiding to give evidence at an inquest into the LVF man’s murder.
David Patterson was visited by the RUC/PSNI who travelled to a secret address in England to inform him that Six-County head coroner John Leckey is seeking his testimony.
Keyes was found hanging in his cell in the LVF wing of the Long Kesh just days after being remanded in connection with the shocking sectarian murders of Co Armagh men Damien Trainor (25) and Philip Allen (34).
The two friends, one Protestant, the other Catholic, died when gunmen opened fire on customers at the Railway Bar in Poyntzpass in March 1998. A convicted drug dealer, Keyes (27) had been suspected of cooperating with the RUC/PSNI by directing them to the spot where the guns used to kill the friends had been concealed.
He was tortured before being strangled and hanged by a bed sheet from a cell window.
Lurgan loyalist Robin King and Ralph Mcphillips from Lisburn in Co Antrim, who had been serving sentences on the LVF wing, were charged with the murder. Patterson originally agreed to give evidence against his former associates.
However, the case against the accused dramatically collapsed after he refused to continue with his testimony. No-one has ever been convicted.
Patterson was spirited out of the Six Counties to serve out the rest of his sentence in a Scottish jail before starting a new life in England.
In September last year coroner John Leckey, at a preliminary inquest into the prisoner’s death, ordered all LVF inmates on the wing at the time to give evidence.
But Patterson said he will not cooperate.
“I have a new life and a family in England and have turned my back on the past,” he said. “I’ve a job and a family and there is no way I’m coming back to Northern Ireland to put my life at risk – at the end of the day it’ll not help anyone and there is no good can come of it.”
Stephen McClean and Noel McCready, both still behind bars in Maghaberry prison for the Poyntz-pass killings, are also expected to be called. McClean was recently approved for release by the Six-County life sentence review commission but remained in jail after the British Six-County secretary of state challenged the decision.
He is appealing the move but along with McCready could be called to give video link evidence. “I haven’t been in any trouble in years. I have a family and a life here and have no intention of returning to put myself in danger,” Patterson said.“I can’t see the point of coming out of safety for an inquest that will achieve nothing at the end of the day.”
9. MCCORD PROMISES BOMBSHELL BOOK
AN explosive book on one of the most controversial murders of the Troubles is set to be published later this year.
The book - Justice For Raymond - highlights campaigning Raymond McCord’s 10-year fight to bring his son’s killers to justice
The former RAF man, also called Raymond, was murdered in November, 1997 by the notorious Mount Vernon UVF unit.
Since then, the murder-victim’s father has defied numerous death-threats to fight a high-profile campaign in a bid to see the killers and their RUC/PSNI Special Branch handlers in court.
Although the book concentrates on McCord’s fight for justice, it will also:
* focus on the issue of British state collusion;
* highlight former British Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan’s report into the murder, and;
* reveal the names of loyalist killers who were also British colonial police informers.
McCord believes his book will send “shockwaves” across the Six-Counties.
He said: “The book is now completed and it’s just with the lawyers at the minute.
“It will only be a matter of a few months now before it’s out.
“I think people will find the book quite revealing because it proves that collusion did take place between senior Special Branch officers and top UVF members.
“I think there will be a lot of worried people out there when the book comes out.
“Names will be mentioned in the book and all the issues surrounding Raymond’s case in the last 10 years will be explored.
“But I have also highlighted other murders which the UVF in Mount Vernon were involved in and I genuinely think people will be shocked at the amount of collusion that went on during the Troubles.”
It’s also believed a film could be made after the publication of the book.
The book - co-written by leading Belfast investigative journalist John Cassidy - is due to be published by Gill & Macmillan in May.
10. PATIENT WHOSE FILES LEAKED TO LVF ‘DISGUSTED’ AT HOSPITAL
A PATIENT who discovered his medical files may have been leaked by a hospital worker to a loyalist death squad has said he is “disgusted” at the hospital’s handling of the case.
Confidential information concerning 10 patients at Craigavon area hospital is alleged to have been passed on to the LVF by a woman employee, who was sacked in 2007. A second hospital worker has been disciplined following an internal investigation.
The British colonial police have confirmed that two women were questioned in relation to “the leaking of medical information” and that a file is being prepared for the Six-County Public Prosecution Service. It is understood that the medical files contained details about patients who had been attacked by the LVF.
One of the affected said he only became aware of the case following an article on a chatroom website. He contacted the hospital and learned that two files relating to himself and his son may have been illegally accessed by the former woman employee.
He has taken legal action on the grounds that his personal security and privacy were breached. “I was disgusted with the hospital to be honest as I thought they would have got in touch with me to tell me what had happened,” he said.
“Instead I had to get a solicitor and go to them myself when all sorts of rumours started flying around the town. Surely there should be stricter controls in place so this information isn’t so ‘loose’ and cannot be accessed by so many people.
“This is private and personal information. If someone had cancer for example and wanted to keep it to themselves – suddenly, this hospital worker can access these details and tell whoever they want.”
It is understood the nine other patients are taking legal action on similar grounds.
A spokeswoman for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, which has responsibility for Craigavon area hospital, said it could not comment on individual patients or staff involved in the case for legal reasons.
She also declined to comment on what procedures are in place in relation to informing patients if they are at risk of potential breaches of personal information. However, she confirmed that an investigation has been carried out into allegations of a “serious breach” of patient confidentiality.
“The trust takes any allegations of this nature extremely seriously as maintaining the integrity and privacy of all patients is paramount,” she said.
The killer of north Belfast schoolboy Thomas Devlin could soon face charges over the brutal murder.
