SAOIRSE32

Independent.ie
Sunday February 24 2008
**Found on irishrepublican.net

BRITISH police have ignored pleas from families of the Omagh bomb victims asking that they request that a Canada-based internet company, Netfirms Inc, to stop hosting a website that supports the Real IRA.

Supporters of the Omagh victims believe that a decision has been made by either police or British security agencies to allow the site to continue so that they can monitor the Real IRA’s internet activities.

The site continues to advocate the killing of police, and kneecappings and other forms of terrorism.

Two years ago, a posting on the website called for the murder of former Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble. In May 2006, Mr Trimble wrote to the British Home Secretary, the Northern Ireland Secretary and Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police in relation to the website. However, the site is still in operation.

Netfirms Inc wrote to Victor Barker, whose son James was one of the Omagh victims, saying that it would shut down the website if it received a request to do so from the British — or any other — police force. The fact that the website is still live has prompted the belief that a high-level decision was taken to allow the site to continue for surveillance purposes.

The site hosts a blog on which recent postings have urged the murder of police officers and punishment shootings.

Mr Barker wrote to the Metropolitan Police on several occasions, complaining about the material advocating violence on the site. However, as the site was administered by a man in Glasgow, via the Canadian server, the Met referred him to Strathclyde Police in Scotland.

Following a complaint to Strathclyde Police last year, the force wrote to Mr Baker saying that it had submitted a file to the Procurator Fiscal — Scotland’s equivalent of the Director of Public Prosecutions — who had advised there was no evidence of a crime having been committed.

Strathclyde Police wrote to Mr Barker, saying: “It is the view of the Procurator Fiscal and the Police that the described content of the website is distasteful. However, in law what is offensive to one person is not necessarily offensive to another. I am clear that the circumstances related in your letter are distasteful to any ‘reasonable person’, but the discussions on the site cannot be said to be either tantamount to incitement to commit offences or an obvious breach of the peace (whether sectarian or otherwise).”

Mr Barker wrote again to Netfirms Inc of Toronto, pleading with them to stop hosting the 32 County Sovereignty site, which carries pictures of masked men in combat uniform firing rifles. The same site was used to agitate support for the riot at the Love Ulster rally in Dublin two years ago.

Mr Barker wrote: “It has long been accepted by the Government of the United Kingdom that the 32 County Movement and the Real IRA are inextricably linked.

“I find it disturbing to say the least that a website such as the above can be permitted to peddle its message of hatred without any criminal sanction from the police in Canada or the USA.

“The photographs of themselves glorify the use of arms and contain such extracts as: ‘tell you what if the RIRA started posting their bullets again (which are presumedly in short supply) post them though the back of the Bastards’ heads for F**K’s sake’.

“A recent message on the site states (concerning a method of stopping joyriders in the area — who steal cars and drive them recklessly for fun): ‘break their two legs and they will not joyride for a long time’ — this is a thought process which cannot be tolerated in any liberal democracy.”

In May 2006 in his letter to the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, Mr Trimble wrote: “If you look through it you will see that there are many clear incitements to violence . . . as well as the absolutely disgusting libellous statements referred to above. There is no doubt about the site’s relationship with the Real IRA.

“I do not take the threat to myself particularly seriously, but I do think it is a grave mistake for the authorities to permit the continued operation of what is in effect a terrorist support group in this way.

“Whatever complacency there might be within mainland police forces about this sort of activity must surely have ended after last year’s bombs in London and I do hope vigorous action will now be taken on this matter.”