SAOIRSE32

Irish News
**Via Newshound
20/06/08

Convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt wanted to launch a new dissident offensive with a first strike that would overshadow the 1998 Omagh bombing, the High Court heard yesterday.

He was also allegedly plotting a future in ‘cyberterrorism’ and had recruited a former member of the French Foreign Legion who would be perfect for assassinating a high-profile target such as Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair.

Trucking boss turned FBI spy David Rupert made the claims in statements to the civil trial of Mr McKevitt and four other men being sued by relatives of some of those killed in Omagh.

Mr Rupert, who infiltrated republican groups in Ireland during the 1990s, has not attended the hearings in Belfast amid fears for his safety.

However, the court heard detailed accounts of his alleged meetings with Mr McKevitt, who was convicted of directing terrorism in 2003 after the US businessman testified against him.

Mr Rupert said the pair had been introduced in a Co Monaghan hotel in August 1999, one year after the Omagh bombing.

Brett Lockhart QC, representing the families, read out a statement in which Mr Rupert said it had been apparent immediately that Mr McKevitt was in charge.

Mr McKevitt allegedly revealed to Mr Rupert over the course of several encounters that he had been the Provisional IRA’s quartermaster before leaving the group.

At one stage he told of a previous plan to kidnap four British lords and their sons and hold them in forced starvation at the time of the 1981 hunger strikes, it was claimed.

Mr Rupert alleged Mr McKevitt had disclosed his personal involvement in an arms deal with Libya during the 1980s when three boat loads of weapons were smuggled into Ireland.

“He told me had full control of all the arms dumps held by the Provisional IRA and the leadership at that time did not know where they were,” the agent said.

But the court was told that Mr McKevitt had allegedly emphasised during their meetings how he was now looking to take his campaign in new directions, with funding from US sympathisers a key objective.

It was claimed that he wanted to unify dissident factions behind the Oglaigh na hEireann (Irish Republican Army) banner and spoke of how Omagh had been a joint operation between the Real IRA, which built the bomb, and the Continuity IRA, which fixed the target.

A ceasefire called in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing was a purely tactical move to allow them time to regroup and reorganise, the court heard.

Mr Rupert said he had been told that Mr McKevitt headed the chain of command and referred to the grouping as “my army”.

Liam Campbell, another of the men being sued, was allegedly Mr McKevitt’s number two and was said to have been a former Provisional IRA chief in south Armagh before being court-martialled by the organisation.

With Mr McKevitt allegedly saying he was looking for material to use in so-called barrack busters, Mr Rupert said: “He said he wanted Oglaigh na hEireann’s first hit to overshadow Omagh.”

Examples of what the first strike might target included British troops or the financial district in London, the court heard.

“He spoke of a future in cyberterrorism rather than car bombs,” Mr Rupert said.

Hits outside Ireland were allegedly the priority and Mr Rupert said Mr McKevitt had motioned towards England as he said this.

“He told me he wanted to take the war to the heartland of London to exact a huge financial toll,” Mr Rupert said.

However, Mr McKevitt still wanted to target those who took their seats in the new Stormont assembly and police officers too, it was claimed.

It was alleged that during one meeting he had disclosed having two men already in place in the United States.

“One was a former French Foreign Legionnaire. He said if they were to assassinate someone like Tony Blair he would do the job,” Mr Rupert said.

Mr Rupert told how he had been approached by the FBI following several trips to Ireland, eventually being offered a contract to provide information on known republicans.

He said he had also agreed to assist the British security services and the Garda Siochana.

Mr Rupert claimed to have met three of those named in the compensation claim – Mr McKevitt, Mr Campbell and Colm Murphy.

Despite being shown photographs of the other two, Seamus Daly and Seamus McKenna, Mr Rupert said he did not recognise them.

He said at no stage was he involved in anything illegal.

Mr Rupert said his motivation had been purely to prevent people being killed.

“I did not want to see innocent people losing their lives,” he said.

“I was horrified when I saw what had happened at Omagh after the bomb went off and I knew I was doing the right thing.”

The trial continues.

Irish News
**Via Newshound
By Diana Rusk
20/06/08

POLICE were last night challenged to explain why a huge bomb was left on farmland in Co Fermanagh after partially exploding and injuring two officers.

A farmer found the bomb on his land at Relan Road, Roslea, on Saturday afternoon – 15 hours after two officers were slightly injured when the detonator went off.

Police believe that the officers, who were investigating reports of a smashed window, had been lured to the farmhouse close to the border by republican dissidents.

The attack has since been claimed by the Continuity IRA.

The farmer said he contacted police the morning after the blast but when no-one arrived he investigated himself and found both the bomb – which had been packed into two creamery cans – and later the firing point.

He said he alerted police at 3pm but that it took four hours before security arrived to secure the area.

The farmer also said that instead of immediately blocking off the scene, police told him to secure the area and “get help” to block off roads.

“A helicopter arrived and I had to give directions by phone to the police where the bomb was,” he said.

“There was no-one on the ground until 7pm.”

The farmer said he and his daughter found the bomb by tracing a wire to a bridge over the River Finn.

A PSNI spokesman said an “active and vigorous investigation” into the bomb attack was under way but refused to be drawn on the claims of a delay dealing with the device.

A 57-year-old man arrested on Wednesday in connection with the attck was released yesterday without charge.

News Letter
21 June 2008

THE Orange Order has expressed “grave concern” as the Parades Commission placed restrictions on next weekend’s Whiterock parade.

Only 50 Orangemen – out of around 600 to 700 – will be allowed to take part in the traditional end of June walk in west Belfast.This is the same determination on the parade as the past two years.

However, the Orange Order had hoped that more members would be permitted to walk this year – the 50th anniversary of the march – because it said it had attempted to engage residents on the Springfield Road.

Nationalists, in response, the Institution claimed, had been “intransigent”.

The ruling leaves tension now hanging over a parade which ranks alongside Drumcree and the Ormeau Road as one of the most divisive in the Province.

Three years ago the Whiterock walk erupted into several days of major street violence across the city, when it was banned.

DUP MLA Nelson McCausland called this latest decision “a travesty of justice”.

But Sean Murray of Springfield Residents Action Group said: “There was dialogue between ourselves and the Orange Order through the North and West Belfast Parades Forum. Unfortunately, we agreed to disagree.”

He added: “As far as we are concerned this (determination) is a compromise from our original position and, given the violence of 2005, it is difficult for republicans to go further.”

The contentious part of the parade is on the Springfield Road, and
a section of the walk which passes nationalist homes, before cutting through Lanark Way and onto the Shankill Road.

Republicans would like to see a complete re-routing of the march away from Springfield Road, through the old Mackie’s Industrial Estate.

By Ashleigh McDonald
Belfast Telegraph
Saturday 21, June 2008

The judge presiding over the Robert McCartney murder trial said he will reveal the outcome of his conclusion “in the not too distant future” .

Mr Justice Gillen made the comment yesterday as the month-long trial came to an end.

After hearing closing arguments made by the Crown and the defence, he said: ” I will have to spend some time reflecting on it before I reach my final conclusion. I will do that as soon as possible and that will be in the not too distance future.”

Terence Davison (51) has been charged with murdering the 33-year old father of two who was beaten and stabbed on January 30, 2005 following a brawl in Magennis’s bar. Davison has also been charged with affray, as have co-accused James McCormick (39) and Joseph Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick has also been charged with assaulting Mr McCartney’s friend Ed Gowdy. All three defendants deny the charges against them.

Speaking on the final day of the trial, Mr McCartney’s sister Paula Arnold said listening to the evidence had been “horrendous.”

She said: “It has been very very difficult for us, especially listening to the brutality that Robert suffered.”

During the final day of the trial, Crown prosecutor Ciaran Murphy QC told Mr Justice Gillen: “The evidence before the court is sufficient to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt.”

The prosecutor also said the case before the court was one where ” inferences could properly be drawn” by the refusal of all three defendants to give evidence at the hearing.

He said that Davison accepted he was in Magennis’s when a fight broke out which resulted in Mr McCartney’s friend Brendan Devine having his throat cut.

Mr Murphy said the accused also accepted his nephew, Gerard ‘Jock’ Davison, sustained a hand wound in the brawl and there were “aggressive exchanges ” outside the bar.

The prosecutor said Davison also admitted confronting Mr McCartney outside the bar, telling the court the accused “faced up to a 20-stone man in a very tense and aggressive situation”.

Defence barrister Orlando Pownall said the “extraordinarily diverse” evidence of the three main Crown witnesses “exposed the shortcomings in the Crown’s case”.

He said there was “no dispute” about Davison’s presence in Magennis’s, but said the issue was whether or not his client had been in Market Street and Cromac Square.

Saying the case has been “fraught with difficulties”, Mr Pownall urged the judge to acquit his client on both the charges of murder and affray.

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday 21, June 2008

The father of murdered truck driver Paul Quinn has insisted he is more hopeful than ever that his son’s killers will be caught.

Stephen Quinn made a heartfelt plea for help yesterday outside Dundalk’s courthouse where an inquest into his son’s death was opened and adjourned. He appealed to anyone “with the smallest piece of information” about the brutal killing to come forward.

The 21-year-old from south Armagh was lured to an isolated County Monaghan barn last October and savagely battered to death.

Within 24 hours of the murder, gardai and the PSNI were convinced that the killers had former Provisional IRA connections. The independent International Monitoring Commission (IMC) has since expressed the view that the thugs involved were either former Provisionals or associates.

A senior IRA figure was later sent to the Border to carry out an investigation into their involvement. Cross-border inquiries are continuing into the murder but little progress has been achieved so far. However, officers on both sides are hopeful of a breakthrough in their painstaking inquiries.

And Mr Quinn said yesterday: “I’m very, very hopeful at this minute that some of them will be brought to justice. Hopefully them all, if possible. I’m getting more hope as the thing goes along, to be honest.'’

Louth County Coroner Ronan Maguire told the court that the inquest was opened only to issue a death certificate.

The whole country had been shocked by the brutality of the murder, he said, expressing his condolences to the Quinn family. Garda Inspector Leo McGinn made an application for the inquest to be adjourned, because they were hoping to bring criminal proceedings.

Afterwards, Mr Quinn said both he and his wife, Breige, would never fully come to terms with the killing of their son.

“We feel the same, we feel at an awful loss and always will feel that way until the day we die I suppose,'’ he said.

“There’s a part of us gone and that’s it. A big part.'’

A clearly emotional Mr Quinn, who was accompanied by friends, pleaded for anyone that could help the ongoing inquiry to get in contact with the authorities.

“Anyone out there that has any wee bit of information whatsoever that would be helpful to the guards, just go in and give it,'’ he said.

“People want to see whoever it was brought to justice and this sort of thing brought to an end, these sort of beatings and intimidation brought to an end.”

Dr Michael Curtis, deputy state pathologist, said he had compiled an 18-page report into his autopsy, but the coroner said it was inappropriate at this time to go into it in detail. The pathologist said Mr Quinn, from Cullyhanna, south Armagh, died from multiple injuries, due to blunt force trauma.

Belfast Telegraph
Saturday 21, June 2008

Israel has mounted a major long-range military air exercise – involving more than 100 F15 and F16 fighters – as a rehearsal for a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, American officials have indicated.

The fighters, along with refuelling tankers and helicopters able to rescue downed pilots, were mobilised during the first week of June over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece in an exercise monitored by foreign intelligence agencies. (more…)

Leaders pile the pressure on Taoiseach over Lisbon debacle

By Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor, in Brussels
Independent.ie
Saturday June 21 2008

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen yesterday firmly ruled out any renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty — but left open the distinct possibility of a second referendum next year.

Mr Cowen admitted his room for manoeuvre was “not great” after the EU summit in Brussels, where leaders told him they had “no interest in re-opening the text”.

They also confirmed they wanted to see the treaty sorted out before next year’s European elections and a new Commission taking office.

The increasingly likely prospect of a second referendum next spring comes as the damning findings of a poll show a disastrous ‘Yes’ campaign was directly to blame for the defeat.

The poll was carried out just after votes were cast last week and reveals even those who voted ‘Yes’ felt the ‘No’ campaign was more convincing.

The Eurobarometer poll found just one-in-10 voters had made up their minds at the time the referendum was announced, with the vast majority open to being swayed.

A total of 15pc made up their minds on the day of the referendum itself, with almost a quarter voting ‘No’ simply because they didn’t have enough information.

As revealed in the Irish Independent earlier this week, other findings show that young people voted ‘No’ by a margin of two to one, people who did not understand the treaty voted ‘No’ and three-quarters of ‘No’ voters thought the treaty could be easily renegotiated.

But any faint prospect of a renegotiation was eliminated yesterday as the Taoiseach accepted his options were pretty limited as the rest of the EU wanted to push on with Lisbon.

“It is clear from some of the comments already made that perhaps the room for manoeuvre is not as great as others would have you believe, because at the end of the day an agreement is in this case a 27-way street not just a two-way street,” he said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is preparing to take over the presidency of the EU, earlier said any renegotiation of the treaty was not an option.

“Renegotiation of the treaty is excluded,” he said.

Not only will there not be a renegotiation but Mr Cowen also outlined how EU leaders wanted the Lisbon issue resolved before the European elections next June.

Problems

Ireland is not the only stumbling block to ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, as there are also legal problems in Britain and the Czech Republic.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus declared ratification could not continue after it was rejected by Irish voters.

His remarks put ratification of the treaty in doubt in Prague, where the upper house of parliament has asked the constitutional court to judge whether the charter is compatible with the country’s constitution.

In Britain, a High Court challenge has stalled the official processing of its agreed ratification.

The seemingly inevitable move towards Lisbon II has sparked a furious reaction from ‘No’ campaigners.

Accusing Mr Cowen of failing to make it clear to his colleagues that Ireland will not ratify the Lisbon Treaty in its current form, Libertas said if this same deal is put before the Irish people again, it will be rejected out of hand.

Libertas chairman Declan Ganley said Lisbon is “dead”, and no amount of posturing will breathe life back into it.

The Green Party’s former MEP Patricia McKenna, of the People’s Movement, said the attachments of clarifications to the treaty for Ireland would not be enough.

She said the Government was taking a gamble and it could backfire badly on them if even more people came out to vote ‘No’.

- Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor, in Brussels

An Phoblacht
19 June 2008

HUNGER, the film dealing with the 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike has won the Sydney Film Festival’s first international competition.

Director, Steve McQueen has added the $60,000 prize to the Camera d’Or award for best first-time director at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

A jury headed by the Australian director Gillian Armstrong chose Hunger as winner of the 12-film competition that has run at the festival over the past 12 days.

The film’s producer, Laura Hastings-Smith, accepted the trophy, which is affectionately dubbed the Blue Pavlova.
Armstrong said the jury’s decision was unanimous.

McQueen’s debut feature film Hunger details the last six weeks in the life of Hunger Strike leader Bobby Sands.

________

An Phoblacht

BY PEADAR WHELAN

Photo: H-Block escapees Joe Simpson, Jimmy Burns, Robert Russell, Bobby Storey, Gerry Kelly, Jim McCann and Harry Murray

People from all over Belfast and beyond will gather in the Whiterock Leisure Centre this Saturday, 21 June at 7pm for the Great Escape 25th anniversary night.
In September 1983 the gates of Long Kesh prison flew open and 38 Irish republicans escaped in the largest breakout in history from a British jail.
A massive blow had been struck by the IRA against the British Government and its leader, Margaret Thatcher.
On the Falls Road, the slogan writers were out of the traps quicker than the escapees with slogans such as ‘open up the Long Kesh gates – meals on wheels for 38’ and ‘three dozen and two all out for stew’ appearing on gable walls.
Republicans all over Ireland rejoiced and morale was lifted again, particularly after the harrowing period of the hunger strikes.
Nineteen of the escapees were from west Belfast and many of those who were central to the planning of the escape and who formed part of the ‘rearguard’ were also from the west.
Many of the escapees will be present at the event on Saturday night as will many of those involved in the planning of the escape and those who took part in the ‘rearguard’ who stayed behind to ensure the escapees got away.
The event in Whiterock Leisure Centre will also include the untold stories of the escape and will acknowledge, for the first time, the contributions of many republicans who played their part in the breakout.
The role of Larry Marley, who was central to the planning of the escape, will also be elaborated on at the event.
Larry, from Ardoyne in north Belfast, was assassinated by loyalists in April 1987, and is a legendary figure among republicans for his extraordinary ability to plan escapes.
There will be many serious and intriguing stories told on the night. There will be stories of the heroics and the bravery of all of those involved in the IRA operation to escape. There will also be plenty of humorous anecdotes and some of these will be at the expense of the escapees.

football match

West Belfast republican Jim ‘Jaz’ McCann, one of the escapees, spoke about the last football match between the prisoners before the escape:
“The Saturday morning football match was the main event of the week and was renowned for its fierce competitiveness.
“The screw who refereed the match the day before the escape said afterwards as we walked off the pitch ‘that was the mildest game of football I’ve ever seen’.
“What he didn’t realise was that nobody wanted to get injured in case they missed the escape. Joe Simpson remarked to me that the toughest tacklers in the jail had turned into ballet dancers!” said Jaz.
In the Whiterock leisure centre on Saturday night you can find out which escapee who lives in Lenadoon and whose first name is Harry did a count after leaving the Tally Lodge and announced there was one person short only to laugh his head off when he discovered that he had forgotten to count himself!
You can also find out which escapee handed out his entire stash of marshmallows and chocolate biscuits to other prisoners the night before the escape; and this is after being warned to behave normally by a leading Belfast republican.
The escape from H7 is the greatest escape story ever told and Saturday evening will see the stories being told by those who were involved.
It promises to be a powerful night and is definitely one not to be missed Special presentations will be made on the night. There will be entertainment after the escape story has been told.
Doors open at 7pm and there will be a full bar. Everyone is welcome and you can pay at the door.