Conspiracy In Ireland: North & South

[ramonmercado]

Stormont conspiracy theories continue

By Martina Purdy
BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent






It led to the collapse of the NI executive - but hardly anyone was at Stormont when perhaps the most dramatic day of the 1998 assembly's brief history unfolded.

The police officers who arrived found it was practically deserted on the morning of 4 October, 2002.


Typical of most Fridays, most assembly members were in their constituency. What was not typical was the line of PSNI Land Rovers heading up Prince of Wales Avenue.

One minister who was on hand to witness this was Dermot Nesbitt, who as environment minister, was having his photograph taken on the steps of Parliament Buildings.

Curious about the police presence, he despatched his aide, Stephen Barr, to find out what was going on.

"It was basically my last act as adviser," said Barr, who gleaned that the police were at Stormont to raid Sinn Fein's offices.

Soon, Stormont was flooded with reporters, cameras and the curious.

There were almost comical scenes as Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly, and the party's health minister, Bairbre de Brun, arrived to hold an impromptu news conference.



Sinn Fein argued "Stormontgate" was designed to get unionism off the hook and escape the blame for the impending collapse


At one point, Mr Kelly crushed into a lift with reporters and when the lift stalled, an excited voice suggested the power had been cut.

It was the first of many conspiracy theories that have flourished since that day - and will no doubt continue despite the charges being dropped against the three accused.

Sinn Fein has always claimed that "Stormontgate", as it became known, was the work of police Special Branch and other so-called "securocrats" determined to undermine the peace process.


'Watergate'


The party rejected republican involvement in spying allegations - and any claims that the IRA was behind the break-in on 17 March 2002 at Castlereagh police station in east Belfast.

That allegation was among the events which were undermining confidence in the political process and the executive - prompting Ulster Unionists to vow to pull out of power-sharing by January 2003 if the IRA's ongoing activity and weapons decommissioning were not addressed.



Sinn Fein argued "Stormontgate" was designed to get unionism off the hook and escape the blame for the impending collapse.

"Spooks, spies and Special Branch" was how the newspaper Republican News put it - alleging a witch-hunt against Catholic civil servants.

Unionists, however, were convinced that both Castlereagh and "Stormontgate" were the work of the IRA - and David Trimble referred to political conspiracy by republicans of massive proportions on the scale of the infamous US scandal, Watergate.

Mr Trimble, in the wake of the Stormont raid, gave Prime Minister Tony Blair one week to act and to exclude Sinn Fein or he would pull the plug - "the nuclear option", as he put it.

Mr Blair met the SDLP deputy first minister and party leader, Mark Durkan. He wanted to sound out the position of the party leader - and to know if Mr Durkan would be prepared to join with the Ulster Unionists to exclude Sinn Fein from the executive.


On the unionist side, suspicion of republican intentions soared and trust, which was already thin, evaporated


In a bizarre conversation, Mr Durkan asked the prime minister directly if he was going to put the motion before the assembly.

"I asked you first," was how Blair responded - according to Durkan.

He told Blair it was not on when the prime minister not only refused to put the motion himself, but refused to say what evidence there was as a basis for exclusion.

Now that the case against the three accused has collapsed, they are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But questions persist about the manner in which the case was handled.

A statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, while reflecting the innocence of the accused, goes on to claim the IRA was involved in spying.


What is clear is that "Stormontgate" killed the executive, undermined faith in the political process and poisoned the political process: nationalist suspicion of the police escalated - indeed the SDLP faced some pressure from within the ranks to withdraw from the Policing Board.

On the unionist side, suspicion of republican intentions soared and trust, which was already thin, evaporated.

Amid all the fallout, and the fog of suspicion, there is no mistaking the stillness that is Stormont, still frozen in time - with no devolution.

When it did end in October 2002 - with the stroke of a pen - there were no street demonstrations, no rows at the executive table, just, in the words of the then enterprise minister Sir Reg Empey, "this seething resentment".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 511566.stm

Published: 2005/12/08 18:21:26 GMT

© BBC MMV

 

[ramonmercado]

10/12/05
Stormont arrests part of campaign to help Trimble, SF official claims

By Dan McGinn
A SINN FÉIN official who had charges dropped against him over a republican spy ring at Stormont claimed that police arrested him as part of a campaign to save David Trimble’s political career.

Denis Donaldson, who with Ciaran Kearney and William Mackessy had charges dropped at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday, said he was not surprised at the decision to drop the case against them.

“I wasn’t surprised because we weren’t guilty,” said Mr Donaldson, Sinn Féin’s head of administration at Stormont at the time of the arrests in 2002.

“There was no spy ring at Stormont. There never was. What it all added up to was politically-inspired charges which should never have been brought.

“The fact that the media was here on the morning that our officers (at Stormont) was raided testifies to that.




“It was part of a Save Dave (Trimble) campaign initially and it was also designed to bring down the (power-sharing) institutions, which it did.”

Mr Donaldson, 55, of Altnamonagh Crescent in West Belfast, and his son-in-law Mr Kearney, 34, of Commedagh Drive, were charged with having information which was likely to be of use to terrorists.

Civil servant William Mackessy, 47, from Wolfend Way in North Belfast, was also charged.

But in a dramatic development, the prosecutor told Belfast Crown Court that it was withdrawing all evidence against the men and a prosecution was no longer in the public interest.

With no evidence against them, Mr Justice Hart ruled that all three should be found not guilty.

Mr Donaldson, Mr Kearney and Mr Mackessy joined Sinn Féin MPs Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont yesterday and were also joined by East Derry Assembly member Francie Brolly who was released last week after being questioned by the Police Service of Northern Ireland about a triple IRA car bomb attack on the village of Claudy which killed nine people.

In a statement on Thursday the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which arrested the three men and carried out a high-profile raid on Sinn Féin’s offices in October 2002, noted the decision of the Public Prosecution Service.

The PSNI said: “The background to this case is that a paramilitary organisation, namely the Provisional IRA, was actively involved in the systematic gathering of information and targeting of individuals.”

Mr Donaldson said he was not surprised by the PSNI statement.

“I didn’t expect the police to say any less than what they said or anything different from what they said.”

Mr Donaldson, who was previously an IRA prisoner, said the trio were consulting legal representatives about what course of action they could follow regarding the police arrests following their acquittal.

Sinn Féin leader Mr Adams said the collapse of the case once again underlined the need to face up to elements within the PSNI who, he claimed, were opposed to political progress.

The West Belfast MP said at Stormont before leaving for Dublin: “You will remember, because some of you were here at the time and some of you were here by invitation, that the raid on this building, the raid on the Sinn

Féin offices, was conducted in a glare of publicity.

“I think that has very clearly become a pattern, a pattern of political policing.

“Our certain view, and we said this at the time, is that there are elements within the Special Branch, within the old RUC, some of whom are active today in the PSNI, who continue to be at war with Irish republicans, who are opposed to the peace process.”

Examiner1012

 

[ramonmercado]

Oppose the Extradition of Sean Garland

By Danny Morrison

In his presidential address to the ard fheis of the Workers Party in October Sean Garland taunted the Republican Movement three times when he claimed that by decommissioning its arms the IRA had surrendered. However, his tirade was delivered by Des O’Hagan because Garland himself was in custody having been arrested the previous night at a Belfast restaurant by the PSNI on foot of a US extradition warrant.

The warrant alleges that Garland was in conspiracy with English criminals (who were subsequently convicted and jailed) and the North Korean communist government, and that he used his Workers’ Party position as a front and Official IRA Volunteers as a conduit, to circulate up to a million dollars of counterfeit US currency. Known as superdollars the currency is believed to be printed on highly sophisticated machines by the North Korean government and are of such quality that they often deceive experts.

Last year, BBC’s Panorama, using secret recordings and police undercover footage, did an expose of the counterfeiting cartel which was first discovered twelve years ago when North Korean diplomats - the only people allowed to travel outside the state - were caught passing on the superdollars.

The programme, quoting General Vladimir Uskov of the Russian Interior Police, claimed that Sean Garland had regularly visited the North Korean Embassy in Moscow and that this was the distribution centre for the counterfeit money. However, all of the evidence presented on Panorama was circumstantial.

The programme showed that Terence Silcock, who was sentenced to six years, was a regular visitor to Dublin (booking return flights - but returning by ferry), that he and Garland were in Moscow at the same time and that Silcock telephoned Garland’s mobile number from his Moscow hotel.

One of the gang, Hugh Todd, ‘the Irish courier’ alleged to have brought the dollars from Dublin to Birmingham for distribution and laundering through David Levin, a Russian criminal, told police his boss was called “Sean… He’s a communist, he has communist beliefs which is what the old IRA is.” He also said: “He’s old school … he’s the Colonel-in-Chief of the IRA.”

Garland was arrested in Belfast and was subsequently granted £10,000 bail provided he stayed at the Downpatrick home of Des O’Hagan. His bail conditions were later amended to allow the 71-year-old, who suffers from diabetes, to leave the jurisdiction and go to Navan for medical treatment, near his home.

Last week Garland failed to appear in Belfast court and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

It was either the height of stupidity or cockiness - having been named in Worcester Crown Court and on British television as one of the major players in the conspiracy, and knowing that a US investigation was on his trail - for Sean Garland to have come to Belfast to attend his party’s ard fheis. Maybe cockiness – after all, at the height of the conflict senior Workers Party members often seemed immune from arrest and were certainly bosom drinking pals of RUC detectives and leading figures in the UVF.

Garland has said that he has skipped bail on the grounds that Britain’s extradition treaty with the USA is “grossly unjust” and that in a US court he would not get justice. Clearly, the US authorities, who had the warrant for six months and could have issued it in the South, waited until Garland was in the North and subject to the UK-US Extradition Treaty Act. That act has lower standards of proof than the agreement between Ireland and the US and does not require the requesting country to make a prima facie case.

Undoubtedly, Garland would not receive justice in a US court – neither a fair trial nor in terms of the sentence imposed were he found guilty.

The Irish authorities could now face extradition requests from Britain to have Garland returned to the North or from the USA for his extradition which will certainly force all the political parties in the South to declare their stance. His defence will be relying on the political exception clause even though this has been virtually whittled away over the years in cases involving Irish republicans.

Since his arrest the Workers Party has launched an anti-extradition campaign, which has attracted support from many who never expressed their opposition to extradition in the past.

As a young man Garland was a courageous IRA Volunteer who took part in the Brookeborough raid in 1957 when his comrades Sean South and Feargal O’Hanlon were killed. He became a Marxist in the 1960s and after the split was a leading member of the Sticks.

The first republican killed in a feud was at the hands of the Sticks – IRA Volunteer Charlie Hughes in 1971. When the Sticks split again in 1974 the first republican killed in their feud with the emergent Irish Republican Socialist Party was also at their hands – Hugh Ferguson in 1975.

The Workers Party, which started out as Official Sinn Fein, was run by a bitter, twisted leadership. The group continued to be armed, continued with its paramilitary activities, whilst recognising, supporting and calling upon people to cooperate with the RUC. Its leadership was indulged by the state, certainly in the North. The party supported the broadcasting ban in the North and supported (if not ran) state censorship through Section 31 in the South; opposed political status for prisoners and the hunger strike; demonised Sinn Fein; and supported the extradition of Irish republicans from the southern jurisdiction to the North and to Britain, Holland, Belgium, France and Germany. Indeed, Garland’s predecessor as president of the party, Proinsias De Rossa, in May 1990, asked the Minister for Justice in the Dail, “if he intends taking any steps to reassure public opinion in Northern Ireland that persons suspected of serious offences there will not find refuge in the Republic.”

How ironic.

Internationally, the Workers Party supported Stalinism in the USSR, Soviet imperialism and various dictatorships – including, of course, North Korea where Kim Jong Il’s Superdollar Publications is based. It suffered more splits in the 1990s and in 1998 it split again with a new organisation, a lot closer to original republican sentiment, emerging and exorcising itself of much of the party’s shameful past.

Sean Garland has no chance of getting justice in the USA and it is on that basis – not out of sympathy for the man or his party – that his extradition should be opposed and resisted. Party spokesperson, John Lowry, pompously claimed that the arrest was “politically motivated. It was designed because the Workers Party stand opposed to the war in Iraq, we stand opposed to the policies of the US administration.”

I hadn’t realised how towering and influential a figure Sean Garland was in the anti-war movement.

Perhaps at some stage we could theoretically debate whether the organised distribution of counterfeit USA dollars is in certain circumstances a legitimate, revolutionary act – something akin to robbing a bank without actually going into the bank – or is in all circumstances a criminal act.

Now, who would like to kick off that debate! The not-so-busy Independent Monitoring Commission?

http://dannymorrison.ie/articles/oppose ... arland.php

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Sinn Fein expels 'British agent'

Sinn Fein has expelled one of three men acquitted of involvement in an alleged IRA spy ring at Stormont, accusing him of being a "British agent".
All charges against the party's former Stormont head of administration, Denis Donaldson, were dropped by the Crown.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said it was "a carefully constructed lie created by the Special Branch in order to cause maximum political impact".

The October 2002 arrests led to the fall of NI's power-sharing executive.

Sinn Fein said in a statement that Mr Donaldson was expelled from the party on Thursday night.

Mr Adams is giving further details at a news conference in Dublin on Friday afternoon.


Police raided Sinn Fein offices at Stormont in October 2002
Last week, Mr Donaldson appeared alongside Mr Adams at Stormont after the charges were dropped.

Mr Donaldson told the news conference that the "charges should never have been brought".

"It was political policing and political charges and the fact that we were acquitted today proves that," he said.

Police sources

The police said on Friday that it was a matter of policy to neither confirm nor deny whether any individual is or had been an informant.

Police sources reiterated that the "Stormontgate" affair began because a paramilitary organisation was involved in the systematic gathering of information and targeting or individuals.


The Director of Public Prosecutions would only say that the charges were dropped "in the public interest".

Other parties have demanded that Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain or Attorney General Lord Goldsmith must clarify what were these public interest reasons.

The three men were arrested following a police raid on Sinn Fein's offices at Parliament Buildings on 4 October 2002, when documents and computer discs were seized.

Following the arrests, Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists and the Ulster Unionists, led at that time by then First Minister David Trimble, threatened to collapse the executive with resignations.

The British government then suspended devolution in the province, embarking on direct rule for the last three years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4535774.stm

 

[ramonmercado]

Beard of the Prophet! There are times when British Military Intelligence leave me awestruck. Next we'll probably find out that Adams is a secret member of the Lions Club.

Ed Moloney in his book "A Secret History of the IRA" swuggested that BMI were trying to steer the IRA & SF in a specific direction. Read this book.

Ramon

 

[ramonmercado]

17/12/05
From hunger strikes to Stormont spy ring – Adams and the spy who duped him

By Michael O’Farrell
THE suspension of the Stormont Assembly in 2002 took on an extraordinary series of Machiavellian twists yesterday with revelations that Sinn Féin’s head of administration at the Assembly has been a British spy for two decades.

And in an extraordinary revelation, the British agent in question Denis Donovan went on the record late last night to deny there had ever been a Republican spy ring at the Northern Assembly.

"The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam, a fiction. It never existed. It was created by special branch," he told RTÉ news.

The Stormont Assembly was suspended in 2002 after three Sinn Féin officials, including Mr Donaldson, were controversially arrested and accused of running a republican spy ring from within the devolved parliament. All three were cleared of the allegation last week, appearing afterwards for a triumphant photo call outside Stormont.




However, in a dramatic twist yesterday, Mr Adams called an impromptu press conference in Dublin to reveal Mr Donaldson had admitted, during interviews in Sinn Féin's Falls Road HQ this week, to being a British spy for the past 20 years.

Several hours afterwards, Mr Donaldson himself admitted in an astonishing televised statement that he had been working for the RUC/PSNI special branch and British intelligence since the 1980s after being recruited when he compromised himself during a vulnerable time in his life.

"Since then, I have worked for the RUC/PSNI special branch. Over that period, I was paid money," he said before detailing some of his contacts with his security handlers.

Moreover, the unlikely spy made the explosive allegation that the republican spy ring at the centre of the Stormontgate controversy had been entirely staged by British intelligence.

"I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI special branch. I apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result of my activities as well as to my former comrades and especially to my family who have become victims in all of this," he said.

According to Mr Adams, Mr Donaldson had been told by the PSNI earlier this week that his life was in danger since he was about to be outed as a spy. Mr Donaldson then contacted Sinn Féin and was interviewed several times on Tuesday and Wednesday, during which he admitted his secret double life.

Although Mr Adams accused "out of control" members of the British intelligence services of actively seeking to undermine the peace process, he said he would be surprised it Prime Minister Tony Blair knew of the affair.

"I would be shocked if, for one moment, I thought that the British Prime Minister was part of any part to take down a power-sharing executive that he had spent a considerable amount of time with the rest of us putting in place."

Speaking from Brussels, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he had always been suspicious of Stormontgate.

"This is as bizarre as it gets. We have always had our doubts about Stormontgate but I'd just like to hear all sides of it before I pass a judgement on it.

"Stormontgate never made much sense to me and the dropping of the charges made less, and this is just a bizarre twist. If what we are being asked to believe is that a senior Sinn Féin administrator in Stormont turns out to be an agent of the British security service, that takes some twist of even my imagination," he said.

In a statement last night, the Northern Ireland Office rejected the allegation that the police operation at Stormont in October 2002 had been for any other reason than to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering.

"The fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police. As a result of the recovery of these documents, a large number of people had to be warned...

"In terms of the dropping of the prosecution, that was a matter for the independent prosecuting authority and there was no political interference whatsoever in that decision," it said.

Examiner

[/u]

 

[ramonmercado]

MI5 spy who rocked the peace process

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I was a British secret agentI was recruited in 1980s


Gene McKenna and

Bernard Purcell

EXPELLED Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson admitted last night that he had worked for British Intelligence for the past 20 years.

In a sensational statement the party's former Head of Administration at Stormont revealed his role as a mole within the republican organisation.

The admission came hours after his party expelled him and publicly outed him for his spying activities.

The revelations have rocked the party - and the peace process.

They have also caused a new storm over MI5's role in the North and thrown a new stumbling block in the path of the restoration of a power sharing government at Stormont by damaging the always fragile trust between republicans and the British government.

Mr Donaldson revealed his work as an agent for British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch at a press briefing in Dublin.

In a short statement he said: "My name is Denis Donaldson. I worked as a Sinn Fein Assembly Group administrator in Parliament Buildings at the time of the PSNI raid on Sinn Fein offices in October 2002, the so-called Stormontgate affair.

"I was a British agent at the time. I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life."

He added: "Since then I have worked for British Intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch.

"Over that period I was paid money. My last two contacts with Special Branch were as follows - two days before my arrest in October 2002 and last night when a member of the Special Branch contacted me to arrange a meeting.

"I was not involved in a republican spy ring at Stormont. The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction. It never existed. It was created by Special Branch.

"I deeply regret my activities with British Intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch.

"I apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result of my activities as well as to my former comrades and especially to my family who have become victims in all of this."

Denis Donaldson, who was one of three men at the centre of republican spy ring allegations three years ago.

The dramatic "uncovering" of the so-called spy ring at Stormont led directly to the collapsing of the Northern institutions by David Trimble's Ulster Unionists.

The extraordinary new developments are likely to be a setback to the efforts of the Irish and British Governments for an early restoration of the institutions.

The Government is expected to seek an early explanation from the British authorities for the affair.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were both at the EU Summit in Brussels yesterday when the latest controversy erupted.

Mr Ahern last night described the whole 'Stormontgate' affair as "bizarre" and said the latest twist was "as bizarre as it gets".

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is to raise the issue with Northern Secretary Peter Hain at talks which had already been arranged for Hillsborough on Monday.

The Northern Ireland Office last night said it "completely rejected" any allegations that the police operation in October 2002 was for any reason other than "to prevent paramiltary intelligence gathering".

It added: "A huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police."

Mr Donaldson was Sinn Fein's head of administration at Stormont at the time of the raid on its offices.

Party president Gerry Adams yesterday announced that he had been expelled from Sinn Fein.

Mr Adams told a Dublin press conference that what had happened resulted from "a carefully-constructed lie created by the Special Branch in order to cause maximum political impact".

Mr Donaldson, together with his son-in-law, Ciaran Kearney (34) and 47-year-old William Mackessy, had the charges against them dropped by the DPP in the North "in the public interest" last week.

They were arrested on October 5, 2002 when documents and compact discs were seized at Stormont.

In one of the most high-profile operations at the time, hundreds of police officers and troops were sent into Stormont to smash the "spy ring".

After the charges were dropped last week, Mr Donaldson said they should never have been brought.

"It was political policing and political charges that were brought and the fact that we were acquited today proves that," he said.

The three men were charged with collecting and removing documents from Stormont.

When speaking outside Downing Street yesterday week, the Taoiseach clearly indicated his misgivings about the whole affair.

He said it had caused "a lot of grief" for the two Governments who had since been struggling to restore the institutions and had been hoping to make a renewed bid early in the New Year.

The way MI5 has operated in Northern Ireland has been a constant source of controversy.

Independent

 

[ramonmercado]

Unionist fury at Stormont spy row

Donaldson statement
Unionists in Northern Ireland have called for a public inquiry after an expelled Sinn Fein official admitted he was a British agent.
Denis Donaldson said allegations of an IRA spy ring which led to the collapse of power-sharing had been "a scam and a fiction" invented by UK intelligence.

Last week he was one of three men cleared of gathering intelligence for the IRA at Stormont.

The DUP has said Tony Blair should make a Commons statement on the subject.

DUP MEP Jim Allister said the prime minister must be prepared to give answers.


"The prime minister is the ultimate head of security. He must, therefore, know that Donaldson was an agent," he said.

"If the prosecution was abandoned because Donaldson was an agent, the prime minister knows that is the reason.

"Yet in the House of Commons he went on record to say he had no idea why this prosecution was abandoned. Well, was he being economical with the truth? I think he has some explaining to do."

Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said a "British spy ring" had been operating at Stormont.

"What we believe was going on was a spy ring at Stormont with the purposes of collapsing the institutions established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement," he told the BBC's Inside Politics programme.

He said republicans would not be surprised at "yet another episode in the dirty war of the British security services".


However, former UUP leader David Trimble, who was Northern Ireland's first minister when the three men were arrested in October 2002, rejected claims the affair had been engineered by British intelligence.

"There is a spin going on here and the spin is going on because actually it's the republican movement that's in a crisis today," he told the BBC's Today programme on Saturday.

"They have discovered that a person who was in a very senior level within Sinn Fein in fact was operating as a agent for over 20 years."

UUP leader Sir Reg Empey said people had a right to know what had happened.

"The very least the prime minister and the Northern Ireland secretary can do is to hold a public inquiry," he said.

"Huge amounts of tax payers' money has been spent relocating prison officers and others and I think tax payers are entitled to know why that money was spent and we are also entitled to know what actually happened."

Mr Donaldson was expelled from Sinn Fein on Friday, and later said he had been recruited in the 1980s as a paid agent and deeply regretted his activities.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams claimed Mr Donaldson had been about to be "outed" by the same "securocrats" who had set him up as a spy.

Mr Adams claimed Mr Donaldson had been approached by police officers last week and told he was about to be "outed" as an informer.

He said Mr Donaldson was not under any threat from the republican movement.


There is a spin going on here
Former UUP leader David Trimble
Trimble interview

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed in October 2002 following the arrests of three men, including Mr Donaldson, who had headed the party's administration office at Stormont.

Charges against the three were dropped last week after the prosecution offered no evidence "in the public interest".

Unionists have said Mr Donaldson's statement proved the charges against all three were dropped "in a deal with the IRA" to secure decommissioning.

However, both the Northern Ireland Office and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have denied this.

On Friday, the Northern Ireland Office said it "completely rejected any allegation that the police operation in October 2002 was for any reason other than to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering".


SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
4 October 2002: Three men arrested following raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont office. Power-sharing executive collapses and government restores direct rule to NI a week later
8 December 2005: Charges against three men dropped "in the public interest"
16 December 2005: Sinn Fein says Denis Donaldson was a "British agent" and expels him from the party: he later says he worked as a spy since the 1980s
Government and police reject the party's claim raid was politically motivated


It said "the fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police".

Police sources earlier reiterated that the "Stormontgate" affair began because "a paramilitary organisation was involved in the systematic gathering of information and targeting or individuals".

But Sinn Fein has always insisted there never was a spy ring, calling the whole business "a politically-motivated stunt to discredit republicans".


In a statement to Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday, Mr Donaldson said: "I was a British agent at the time. I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life.

"Since then I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch. Over that period, I was paid money.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 537098.stm

Published: 2005/12/17 13:48:48 GMT

© BBC MMV

 

[ramonmercado]

Stormont spy ring 'controlled by British securocrats'
(Filed: 17/12/2005)

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, has insisted that the only spy ring which operated at Stormont was run by the British Intelligence Services.


McGuinness (left): 'What would an inquiry achieve?'
Following the dramatic revelation yesterday that Sinn Fein's former head of administration at Stormont Denis Donaldson had been a British spy for two decades, the Mid Ulster MP stopped short of calling for a public inquiry into the affair.

Mr McGuinness asked: "What would a public inquiry achieve?

"In the circumstances the unionists have called for an inquiry. Let's see if they get one.

"Let's see if that happens.

"It is very, very clear from Sinn Fein's perspective - and I think this is shared increasingly by many other people within our society - that there was a spy ring at Stormont, but it was a British spy ring controlled by securocrats, by people within the establishment who are hostile to the peace process."

Mr Donaldson, 55, was one of three men arrested in October 2002 and accused of operating a republican spy ring at Stormont.

However, after a three-year legal battle, the charges against Mr Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney, and civil servant William Mackessy were dropped last week by the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland.

In another dramatic twist to the affair which led to the collapse of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government in 2002, Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein's leader, yesterday announced that Mr Donaldson had been expelled by the party after being exposed as a British agent.

Mr Donaldson last night confirmed the move against him but stuck to Sinn Fein's argument that there was no republican spy ring operation at Stormont.

"I was not involved in any republican spy ring in Stormont," he said.

"The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction, it never existed.

"It was created by Special Branch.

"I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch.

"I apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result of my activities as well as to my former comrades and especially to my family who have become victims in all of this."

Telegraph

 

[ramonmercado]

The Saturday View on RTE radio 1 was good yesterdayday. Sound file at:
http://www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/rte ... yview.smil

SF member expelled as securocrats role in collapsing Executive exposed - Adams

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other stories for 16 December, 2005
Concern that lip service being paid to development of Middletown all-Ireland Autism Centre
Disgraceful attacks on bus services mush stop - McGuigan
SDLP challenged after Policing Board whitewash

Published: 16 December, 2005

Sinn Féin has revealed that a member of the party in Belfast, Denis Donaldson, was expelled last night after it was uncovered that he had been working as a British agent. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will hold a press conference today at 4pm (Friday 16th) in the Joyce Room in the Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street, Dublin.

Speaking in Dublin this morning Mr. Adams said:

“The nature of British rule in Ireland is that for a very long time it has been driven by a security agenda, with policy dictated by British Intelligence, state police and military agencies. The Good Friday Agreement is, as much as anything else, about ending that.

“The collapse of the power sharing government was blamed on allegations of a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont.

“The fact is that there was no Sinn Féin spy ring at Stormont.
The fact is that this was a carefully constructed lie created by the Special Branch in order to cause maximum political impact.
The fact is that the collapse of the political institutions was a direct result of the actions of some of those who run the intelligence and policing system of the British.
The fact is that the key person at the centre of those events was a Sinn Féin member who was a British agent.

“This is entirely the responsibility of the British government.

“What is clear is that there are those within the PSNI and the intelligence agencies who are a law onto themselves, who use informers, spies and agents and who are operating to their own agenda with no accountability. They are manipulating the situation for their own narrow ends. They have sought to undermine Sinn Féin and are working against the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement which is the publicly stated policy of the British and Irish governments. The British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach have to wake up to this reality.

“Sinn Féin has been very conscious of the negative role being played by elements within the British system and we have raised these matters consistently with both governments. If Britain’s war is over then the British Prime Minister needs to come to terms with the fact that he has to end the activities of the securocrats. This entire episode underlines the need for an end to political policing. That, and defending the Good Friday Agreement remains the focus of Sinn Féin.” ENDS



http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/12435

 

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The Sunday Times December 18, 2005

Focus: The spy at the heart of the IRA
Denis Donaldson climbed his way from Belfast’s streets to the top of the republican movement. Yet on Friday it was revealed that for the past 20 years he had been passing secrets to London. Liam Clarke tells the story of his double life as a British agent in a dirty war





As a young man, Denis Donaldson was good at getting out of scrapes, both as an IRA volunteer and as a legendary seducer. Last week he found himself in a dilemma that tested his plausibility to the limit.

For nearly 40 years this diminutive charmer has been at the heart of the republican movement, first as a teenage gunman and later as Gerry Adams’s most trusted fixer — the clever little man doing the hard work while the big names enjoyed the limelight.

In 2002 he was arrested and accused of being a key figure in what the police claimed was a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont, the seat of British government in Northern Ireland. The ensuing scandal caused the collapse of power sharing between Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists.

Donaldson also had a hidden life. Last Tuesday, as the winter rain swept through Belfast, his past caught up with him. He was spirited to a furtive meeting with his Special Branch handlers who warned him that his secret was out: he was about to be unmasked as a long-standing British agent.

To his credit he took charge of his own fate. Three days later he confessed at a press conference in Dublin that he had been working for British intelligence and the Northern Ireland Special Branch for at least 20 years.

Reporters were startled. To some it was like a scene from Monty Python. Here was a republican veteran, regarded as one of the Sinn Fein leadership’s most trusted apparatchiks, a man who had been accused of spying against the British, telling them incongruously: “My name is Denis Donaldson . . . I was a British agent.”

He confessed: “I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life.”

Donaldson’s pre-emptive “outing” of himself is more than one man’s personal drama. For Northern Ireland’s politics it is a huge shock that has unleashed a wave of conspiracy theories. For republicans it is yet more proof that their leadership has been penetrated for years by British intelligence.

For Adams it is a humiliation. The Sinn Fein president said he had suspected that an informant was at work but that Donaldson had never occurred to him as a likely candidate.

People who had known Donaldson for years were stunned by the revelation. A Sinn Fein colleague told Daily Ireland, a pro-Sinn Fein newspaper: “No one, I mean no one, ever pointed the finger of suspicion at Denis Donaldson. He was a loyal party servant. No task was too small for him, no obligation too onerous. He was at the heart of every election campaign.”

Who was this helpful little man and where did his true loyalties lie?




DONALDSON was born in 1950 into a traditional republican family in the nationalist enclave of Short Strand in east Belfast. A beleaguered area surrounded by larger loyalist communities, Short Strand has produced many republican legends.

He joined the IRA in the mid-1960s while he was still in his teens, well before the start of the Troubles. When the IRA split into Marxist Official and traditionalist Provisional wings in December 1969, Donaldson went with the Provos and quickly became involved in their urban bombing campaign. (He served alongside Seanna Walsh, who was chosen by the IRA to read out its statement ending all offensive activities earlier this year.) In 1971 Donaldson was caught during an attempt to bomb a distillery and government buildings and was sentenced to four years in the Maze prison, his first and only jail term.

In 1974 a camera was smuggled into his cell and a famous picture emerged. Intended as a joke to boost the morale of relatives and supporters, it shows four prisoners standing beside a mock-up of a Belfast street, pretending to have escaped from the Maze.

Among them is Donaldson, a slight bearded figure, with his arm stretched up to encircle the broad shoulders of Bobby Sands — who would be the first of 10 republican prisoners to die on hunger strike in 1981.

Donaldson and Sands spent three years in jail together and became close friends. This link helped to establish Donaldson’s credibility within the close group of former prisoners who would reshape the IRA and Sinn Fein under Adams’s leadership during the 1980s.

After he was released from jail Donaldson became a key Adams ally against the previous generation of IRA leaders. He also built up links with foreign revolutionary groups which would supply the Provos with weapons and training.

In August 1981, three months after Sands’s death, Donaldson and William “Blue” Kelly, a leading IRA gunrunner, were arrested by French police at Orly airport in Paris. The duo, who were travelling on false passports, told the French authorities that they were returning home after spending several months in a Lebanese training camp.

Donaldson was allowed to go home despite the admission and some suspect that this may have been the moment when he was turned by intelligence agents, but by his own account it is too early.

He continued to build republican links with groups such as Eta (the Basque terrorists) and Yasser Arafat’s PLO, travelling widely in Europe and South America as Sinn Fein’s director of international affairs.

By 1983 he was back in Short Strand where he stood unsuccessfully as a council candidate and reorganised Sinn Fein and the IRA in the area. Richard O’Rawe, who was head of the Sinn Fein press office at the time, remembers him as “a nice enough wee guy to talk to.

He represented Short Strand and would come into headquarters to report what was going on. He always took an interest in what was happening, but I can’t say I was suspicious of him.”

If, as Donaldson himself suggests, he was first persuaded by the security forces to work for them “in the 1980s after compromising myself”, then the reason may lie in an embarrassing incident in his personal life.

Former IRA colleagues point to an occasion when the police raided a house in the Ligoniel area of west Belfast and found Donaldson, a married man, in bed with a local woman. Even that may be a cover story, however, because Donaldson's wife Alice was told about what had happened by the police. Like many senior republicans in the mid-1980s, Donaldson seldom spent the night at home for fear of arrest or loyalist attack, and this provided many opportunities for extramarital liaisons.

One former IRA member said that he was a well known “chaser”, as it was known in Belfast. If so the police may have threatened to disclose other affairs; or perhaps this is yet another cover story thrown up by Donaldson to hide the deeper secrets of his double life.

Former Special Branch and military intelligence officers say that a grudge or an ideological change of heart is a more common lever for recruiting an agent than blackmail or money. One said: “If you want someone to work for you for several years you have got to look for a better motivation than catching him with his pants down. A guy who you are blackmailing can’t be trusted in the long term.”

As events were to show, Donaldson would indeed prove an unreliable agent.




IF this was the period when he was recruited, Donaldson initially brought a rich dowry to his handlers, including a full account of the Provos’ international allies and arms links.

He remained highly thought of within the republican movement and in 1987, when he was undoubtedly a police agent, he was dispatched by Sinn Fein to his old stamping ground in Lebanon to try to secure the release of Brian Keenan, the Belfast hostage.

His mission was unsuccessful but on his return he said that he had secured meetings with both Hezbollah and Nabi Beri’s Amal militia.

After that he sank into the background as part of the Sinn Fein bureaucracy, at one point claiming that MI5 had tried to recruit him as an agent during a holiday abroad.

By the early 1990s he was emerging as a key supporter of the peace process and was involved in the preparation for the IRA ceasefire, which came in 1994. This was a time when the British government was in secret contact with the IRA. Having someone like Donaldson in place would have given it an invaluable read-out on the true intentions of Sinn Fein and the IRA. Donaldson was later moved to America, after the Clinton White House overlooked his explosives convictions to give him a visa. He set up Sinn Fein’s first office there and organised the groundbreaking first trips to the United States by Adams and Martin McGuinness.

He had an invaluable listening post not only on the IRA’s US support network but also on the US administration, which was at loggerheads with the British government on many aspects of Irish policy. Donaldson met State Department officials regularly, carrying messages back and forth from the republican leadership.

He also met Larry Zaitschek, a New York chef who later travelled to Ireland and who is now wanted in connection with an IRA raid on Special Branch headquarters in Castlereagh.

Although Donaldson was an important agent to the British during these years, former intelligence officers doubt that he passed on all the information to which he had access. Otherwise he would not have survived for two decades.

As the peace process began to provide political dividends in the form of the Good Friday agreement and power sharing, Donaldson became head of the party’s administration in the parliament buildings in Stormont.

Police believe that he knew of an IRA spy ring at the heart of the British administration at Stormont but kept quiet about it for fear that his role would be exposed.

Donaldson apparently did not know that the spy ring was revealed to the RUC Special Branch by a lower-level agent whose information sparked a three-month surveillance operation known by the codename Operation Torsion.

A mass of intelligence material gathered by the IRA at Stormont was removed from a house in Belfast by the police, copied and returned in the vain hope that Bobby Storey, the IRA’s head of intelligence, would eventually take possession of it and expose himself to arrest.

This entrapment and surveillance operation took place against strong advice from MI5 who urged the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to seize the papers and leave it at that. It reasoned that this would be enough to halt the spying operation and bring Donaldson into line.

In the end the police decided to recover the IRA intelligence cache and make what arrests they could — including Donaldson and his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney. The affair led to the collapse of power sharing and the fall of David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, who was blamed by loyalist voters for being too trusting of Sinn Fein. In the continuing political fall-out, Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist party ousted the Ulster Unionists as the majority party at the last general election.

Sinn Fein claimed that the whole “Stormontgate” affair had been designed to collapse the power sharing executive, but this was dismissed by Nuala O’Loan, the Northern Ireland police ombudsman, who said the police operation had been fully justified.

Just over a week ago, however, charges against Donaldson, Kearney and a former civil servant called William Mackessy had to be withdrawn when the police were refused a public interest immunity certificate, which would have protected the identity of the agent who tipped them off in the first place. A court hearing was told that the director of public prosecutions felt that proceeding was “no longer in the public interest”.

Events then moved fast. Summoned by his Special Branch handlers on Tuesday, Donaldson was told that they had been tipped off by yet another source within the IRA and Sinn Fein that the net was closing in on him. They were there to offer him protection under their “duty of care” to informants.

Instead of taking up the police offer, Donaldson decided to face the music. Resettlement and a new life would have meant losing contact with his family, many of them active republicans.

Ten years earlier Donaldson would almost certainly have taken the chance to get out of Belfast. The alternative then would have been interrogation, torture and execution by the IRA’s internal security squad.

FREDDIE SCAPPATICCI

A west Belfast republican, he was a senior figure in the IRA’s internal security division responsible for rooting out informants. He was also an agent, codenamed Stakeknife, for a British special forces unit.

Scappaticci agreed to change sides in 1978 after becoming disillusioned with IRA violence. He was trusted by senior republicans and was a friend of Gerry Adams, so his unmasking by the press in 2003 was a huge embarrassment to the republican movement.

He is now being investigated by police who are reviewing all unsolved murders during the Troubles.



The moles who pentrated the IRA

WILLIE CARLIN

Had a similar role to Denis Donaldson but at a lower level. From a nationalist area but a member of the British Army, Carlin was sent back to Derry in 1984 to spy on Sinn Fein. His handlers never asked him to join the IRA. Instead he reported to London on political thinking in Sinn Fein and was an invaluable asset in the early 1990s when he was able to confirm the bona fides of Martin McGuinness and Adams. Carlin’s cover was blown after a drunken MI5 agent described him to IRA prisoners. He has now resettled in Britain.



SEAN O’CALLAGHAN

This agent reached a more senior position within the IRA and Sinn Fein than any of the others. He was a member of the IRA’s GHQ staff, a Sinn Fein councillor and a member of Sinn Fein’s ruling council, all the time working for the gardai. It took MI5 a full year in Holland to debrief him. O’Callaghan’s biggest success was in 1984 when his information led to Martin Ferris, now a Sinn Fein TD, being arrested on board a trawler with seven tons of weapons. He now lives in London.



MARTIN MCGARTLAND

Known as Agent Carol he infiltrated the IRA in west Belfast in the early 1990s. He claims to have saved about 50 lives by tipping off the police about attacks. After his cover was blown, he escaped an IRA interrogation squad by jumping out of a third-storey window. After being resettled in Britain, he was tracked down by the IRA and shot. He survived and has moved again.



RAYMOND GILMOUR

The RUC convinced him to join the INLA; after he wrecked its operation in Derry, Gilmour was then encouraged to join the IRA and repeat the method. His supergrass evidence was the centrepiece of the largest criminal trial in British legal history, but was ultimately rejected by the court. He now lives in England and is one of several IRA agents to tell all in a book.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... _1,00.html

 

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Regarding the RTE programme I mentioned Jeffery Donaldson (no relation) of the DUP said that he had been shown the documents which had allegedly been stolen. The PSNI had let him view them. How did this happen? Why wasnt this facility offered to SF or SDLP MPs? How many Labour, LD or Tory MPs have seen them?

It was also reported that Ian Paisley had been refusing to take security briefings for the last several days. As a member of the Privy Council (no lavatory humour please) he is entitled see documents of the highest sensitivity. This suggests that Paisley knew something was brewiing on Denis Donaldson but didnt want to officially know it, if he had it would have weakened his position to rant about IRA spy rings. So maybe the info had already been leaked to him.

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

Hi

more of same ..

Donaldson 'was not the only spy in Sinn Fein'

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday December 18, 2005
The Observer

The spy scandal that has rocked Sinn Fein took another bizarre twist last night over allegations that there is yet another informer working for the British inside the republican movement.

And unionists warned last night that the British government's refusal to hold a public inquiry into the Denis Donaldson affair would damage prospects for talks in the new year aimed at restoring devolution in the north.

Republican and security sources both claimed that Donaldson, the head of Sinn Fein's administration at Stormont, was not alone in spying for Britain.

One republican source said at least one Sinn Fein worker with a track record in the IRA is now under suspicion as the informant who tipped off the PSNI about the extent of the spying operation at Stormont.

Asked if there were more informants in danger of being unmasked, a senior security source in Northern Ireland said: 'The leadership must be looking around and wondering who the hell they can trust. But one thing is for sure - Denis Donaldson did not tip off anyone about Stormontgate. He was definitely not the source, of that I am certain.'

It emerged last night that Sinn Fein officials refused to allow the media to ask Donaldson any questions about whether he was being held against his will. The 55-year-old former director of International Affairs for the party had been driven to Dublin by party officials from Belfast on Friday.

Donaldson made a public confession in front of an RTE camera and the news station's chief reporter Charlie Bird. No other media organisations were invited to his press conference on Friday.

The British government yesterday refused to comment on the affair but said it was unlikely there would be a public inquiry.

Last night Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator and former IRA chief o staff, accused Donaldson of betrayal. 'There has always been in conflict situations around the world people who betray their comrades and colleagues and the very organisation they publicly claim to be supportive of,' the Mid Ulster MP said.

In the recent past these words would have been enough to sign a death warrant. But given Sinn Fein and the IRA's commitment to non-violent methods and the decommissioning of arms earlier this summer, it is no longer politically possible to impose the ultimate sanction on this latest informer.

McGuinness added that Sinn Fein would be seeking a face-to-face meeting with Tony Blair to discuss the fallout from the affair. He alleges Donaldson's role as an agent proves that the spy ring was a plot to destabilise the power-sharing government by elements opposed to Sinn Fein.

However a spokesman for Downing Street last night denied there would be any talks with Sinn Fein before Christmas.

Unionists yesterday demanded a public inquiry into the affair, which started on 8 December when the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland dropped charges of spying against Donaldson, his son-in-law and a civil servant. They had been accused of operating a spy ring for the IRA against the police, prison officers, civil servants and other political parties at Stormont.

The DPP said the charges were dropped because a trial was 'not in the public interest'. Both unionists and the SDLP claimed the 'public interest' meant the protection of a highly placed informant within Sinn Fein.

Democratic Unionist justice spokesman Ian Paisley Junior said the scandal had seriously damaged the prospects of restoring devolution. The initial accusations of an IRA Stormont spy ring in 2002 shattered unionist confidence in sharing power with Sinn Fein and brought down the government in Belfast.

'A public inquiry is a must at this stage because millions of pounds of public money were used to re-house people. Hundreds of people had to move home because of the spy ring. Now we find that a man at the centre of it was an agent,' Paisley said.

'We have said there can only be talks in an environment of trust. There is no trust at this present time and if the government is refusing an inquiry then there can be no trust and thus no talks.'

Donaldson, who was one of Gerry Adams's most trusted aides, is believed to be in hiding in the Irish Republic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,1670055,00.html

 

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The Times December 19, 2005

Sinn Fein spy mystery deepens
By David Sharrock
Why was a 'British asset' in Republican ranks unmasked – and are more revelations imminent?



PRESSURE was growing on Tony Blair last night to make a public statement on the confession by a senior Irish republican that he had spied on the IRA and Sinn Fein for the past 20 years.
Denis Donaldson, who is believed to be in hiding in the Irish Republic with his family, has lifted a corner of a lid that until now has been kept tightly in place on the shadowy underworld of Northern Ireland’s intelligence wars. While the Provisional movement, led by Gerry Adams, has the most to lose from the affair, the Government will regret the unmasking of one of its best placed “assets” deep within the republican leadership.



So far the Stormontgate affair has thrown up more questions than answers. How did Donaldson manage to stay so high in the republican leadership for so long without being discovered? How and why was he unmasked now? And who has the most to gain from his exposure? Just over a week ago Donaldson was basking in the republican limelight after the case against him and two others collapsed, with Sinn Fein insisting this was proof that the IRA spy ring at Stormont never existed and the Government claiming the opposite. Yesterday all of Northern Ireland’s political parties — with the notable exception of Sinn Fein — were calling for Mr Blair to give an explanation for the highly unusual events of the past ten days.

Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, will meet Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, today to urge him to curb what he claimed yesterday were “dissident elements within the British system” undermining the peace process.

Mr Hain denied the charge but admitted that the affair had been “a turbulent event”. He said: “Something like 1,000 documents were stolen from the Northern Ireland Office. They disappeared. They were stolen.”

Alex Attwood, of the nationalist SDLP, said: “Elements in the British system and Provisional movement are partners in a dirty peace. They spy on each other and they cover up for each other.”

Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist MP, said that Mr Blair had to state what he knew. The North Belfast MP said: “The DUP will be pursuing this matter in the Commons this week.”

Stories circulated feverishly over the weekend that another top Provisional was about to be revealed as a British agent.

But it would be a far greater surprise if it was discovered that the intelligence services had not managed to infiltrate any more agents.

The IRA is riddled with informers and agents because intelligence was king in the battle against the “Long War” conceived by Mr Adams and his “kitchen Cabinet” — which included Donaldson — back in the 1970s. But the most intriguing question of all arises out of the nature of the work of agents within an organisation like the IRA. They are there not just to pass information to their MI5 or Special Branch handlers, but also to influence strategy and direction at the highest level.

In 1994 Mr Donaldson told me at his West Belfast home about what appeared to be the key to the emerging “peace strategy” of the Provisionals.

“For too many people the IRA has become the end in itself and no longer the vehicle to achieve the end for which it fights,” he said.

He meant that the “armed struggle” had become an obstacle to reuniting Ireland and ending British sovereignty.

Little wonder, then, that Unionists are so paranoid or that Irish republicans of a greener, more traditional nature see traitors everywhere — up to and including “the Brit agents Adams and McGuinness” themselves.



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 99,00.html

 

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19/12/05
British government to be pressed on spy claims

By Harry McGee, Political Editor
THE British government will come under intense pressure today to say if its intelligence services were operating a spy ring in Stormont.

Following what Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described as the “bizarre” revelation that senior republican Denis Donaldson was a British agent for 20 years, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams will hold separate meetings with Northern secretary Peter Hain in Belfast about the claims.

The meetings come in the wake of calls from all main nationalist and unionist parties in the North for an enquiry on the so-called Stormontgate affair.

The case against three men, including Mr Donaldson, accused of being involved in a republican spy ring was dropped by the prosecution service a fortnight ago because it was not in the public interest.




On Friday, Mr Donaldson, who admitted he was an agent for police special branch and for British intelligence services, described the spy ring as a sham.

Yesterday, Mr Hain denied claims by both the DUP and Sinn Féin that the British government was involved in a cover-up. But he conceded events surrounding Mr Donaldson’s admission were “turbulent.”

And last night, Tánaiste Mary Harney said she did not know if an inquiry “would achieve an awful lot.”

“The last thing we probably need is some form of inquiry that does not get too far,” she said.

While accepting that there probably was a British spy ring, she said that infiltration had occurred on all sides. She said the emphasis should be on trying to ensure normal politics returns to the North of Ireland.

Mr Adams requested a meeting with Mr Hain during a long telephone conversation with the Northern Secretary on Saturday.

Yesterday, he said he intended to raise with Mr Hain the “damaging role of those within the various British policing and intelligence agencies who are actively working to subvert and undermine the peace process.

“The onus to stop this lies with the British government. It has to take whatever steps are necessary to rein in the wreckers who are opposing British government policy. And there has to be an end to political policing.

“If the war is over for the British government then it has to end the war mentality and activities of elements of its own system,” he said.

[=http://www.irishexaminer.com/pport/web/ireland/Full_Story/did-sgQyUnRpBx8fwsgdL11Zs5FWAE.asp]Examiner[/url]

 

[ramonmercado]

Scotland, America and Denis Donaldson
Noraid chief warned SF about Donaldson

(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)

Former Noraid publicity director, Martin Galvin, warned the Sinn Féin ard comhairle about Denis Donaldson's behaviour around 15 years ago.

Galvin told the Sinn Féin leadership he had "serious doubts" about Donaldson's judgement and strategy but his concerns were instantly dismissed.

"I was told that Donaldson's credentials were impeccable, that he was beyond reproach, and that he had the full confidence of the Sinn Féin leadership in Ireland," Galvin told the Sunday Tribune.

"Donaldson had taken an interest in Irish-America from the late 1980s and was sent over to run the Noraid office in New York. Almost from the moment he got there, he was a negative influence.

"He created trouble, he made bad recommendations about genuine people, he attempted to undermine supporters with traditional republican credentials and he pushed those with reformist politics on the North."

Galvin said Donaldson had been sent with the "full endorsement" of a senior Sinn Féin leader whom he refused to name. "Given the importance of Irish-America to the British at that time, it was a great posting for Donaldson. He had access to all our strategy documents, to our political contacts, and to details on all the money we raised.

"I began to notice how he tried to push out people who had hardcore politics and would be more likely to ask questions about strategy and even challenge Sinn Féin policy changes.

"He would say these people were no good, and he would push forward those who were far more malleable politically. He tried to undermine a very senior Belfast republican living in New York and also the sister of a dead INLA hunger-striker."


He claimed the Belfast IRA leadership was told Sean O'Callaghan was an informer four years before it was publicly disclosed, but O'Callaghan remained in place. "Denis Donaldson is only the tip of the iceberg," Long claimed.

It is widely believed in security and unionist political circles that Donaldson was sacrificed by his British handlers to protect a more important mole who is both a senior Sinn Féin and IRA figure.

December 19, 2005
________________

This article appeared in the December 18, 2005 edition of the Sunday Tribune.

 

[ramonmercado]

Northern Ireland

A mole uncovered
Dec 20th 2005 | BELFAST
From The Economist print edition

Sinn Fein's penetration raises questions


A WEEK on from the dropping of charges—on public interest grounds—against three Sinn Fein men accused of being at the heart of an IRA spying operation in Stormont, the real reason became clear. One of the three, Denis Donaldson, tipped off by his Special Branch handlers that his secret was no longer safe, revealed at a press conference that he had been a British agent for more than 20 years.

It is not clear exactly what role Mr Donaldson played in either the so-called Stormont spy-ring itself or its unmasking. But the affair has shaken the republican hierarchy—even the super-cool Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, appeared rattled—and raised new questions about the televised police raid on Stormont in October 2002 that led to the power-sharing assembly's suspension.

Advertisement

For Sinn Feiners it is the stuff of their most paranoid imaginings to discover that one of the party's most effective apparatchiks, a close friend in jail of the hunger-strike icon Bobby Sands and who travelled all over the world on republican business, was working for the British. Rumours persist of a British mole who is even higher up than Mr Donaldson.

For the British there is the potential for embarrassment too. Few doubt that Sinn Fein was up to no good in Stormont—a search of Mr Donaldson's home allegedly turned up more than 1,000 photo-copied documents including names and addresses of police and prison officers.

But inevitably, the timing of the raid now looks even more like an attempt to help David Trimble, the embattled former Ulster Unionist leader. Mr Trimble, Northern Ireland's chief executive, was being politically destroyed by IRA foot-dragging over disarmament. Against that, MI5 is said to have opposed the entrapment operation that led to the raid.

For all the excitement over Mr Donaldson, there are signs that things in Northern Ireland have changed for the better. The first political event of the New Year is meant to be an official report giving the IRA credit for six months clear of all criminality. That still seems possible. Last Christmas, the IRA carried out a £26m bank robbery and Robert McCartney was murdered by IRA thugs outside a city bar.

Then there is the fate of Mr Donaldson himself. Not long ago, he would by now have been found trussed and hooded with a bullet through his head. He is still alive.

 

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Public needs 'more spy details'
More information on Northern Ireland spying allegations should be shared with the public, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has said.
He was speaking after a briefing in Dublin from PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde.

The taoiseach's spokeswoman said the visit "was an indication of the seriousness attached to the case".

Sir Hugh has rejected claims that the raid on Sinn Fein's office at Stormont in 2003 was politically motivated.

"The taoiseach welcomed the fact the chief constable had briefed the Policing Board, and he urged that the maximum possible information be shared with the public," the spokeswoman said.

The general subject of policing in Northern Ireland was discussed as well as continuing progress on full implementation of the Patten Report.

"The primary focus of the governments and the political parties must be the future and the priority of restoring the devolved institutions in 2006," the spokeswoman added.

Sir Hugh left Government Buildings without speaking to waiting reporters.

Earlier, there were minor scuffles between noisy Sinn Fein protestors and gardai as the chief constable arrived in Dublin.

Up to 20 republicans with "No Political Policing" placards tried to block Sir Hugh's two-vehicle convoy entering the front gates of Government Buildings, but were held back by up to a dozen uniformed gardai.

Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald, who attended Thursday's demonstration, said "securocrats must not be allowed to run amok in Ireland to undermine the peace process".

"They cannot be outside the law. They must understand that very clearly," she said.


Securocrats must not be allowed to run amok in Ireland to undermine the peace process
Mary Lou McDonald
Sinn Fein

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed following the arrests of three men, including Denis Donaldson, 55, who had headed the party's administration office at Stormont.

But the case against all three was dropped two weeks ago by the Public Prosecution Service because it was "no longer in the public interest".

Within days, however, Sinn Fein announced it had expelled Mr Donaldson for being a British agent.

He appeared on Irish television and confessed to having been recruited in the 1980s as a paid agent and that he deeply regretted his activities.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has claimed his party was "wrong-footed" and "double crossed" over the on-the-run legislation.

He was speaking at a republican protest against "political policing" outside the headquarters of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Mr Adams said he had spoken to Mr Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair by telephone on Wednesday.

He said that he told Mr Blair "political policing had to stop".

The on-the-run plans cover up to 150 people wanted for crimes committed before 1998.

They would have their cases heard by a special tribunal and, if found guilty, would be freed on licence without having to go to jail.

Sinn Fein has said the legislation was "far removed" from what had been agreed during 2001 talks with the government at Weston Park.

Earlier this week party vice-president Pat Doherty accused the government of "sleight of hand" in that the law would grant amnesty to security forces members who committed murder during the Troubles.



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 552302.stm

Published: 2005/12/22 14:06:15 GMT

© BBC MMV

 

[ramonmercado]

Cabinet 'consulted over spy move'
The attorney general has revealed that cabinet colleagues were consulted about the "Stormontgate" affair.
Lord Goldsmith said they were asked whether they had "information that might bear on the consideration of the public interest by the DPP".

However, he said the information obtained from ministers played no part in the decision to drop the charges.

The revelation was made in a letter to DUP leader Ian Paisley, who said he was still pressing for a full explanation.

Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed in October 2002 following the arrests of three men, including Denis Donaldson, who had headed Sinn Fein's administration office at Stormont.

Charges against the three were dropped earlier this month after the prosecution offered no evidence "in the public interest".

A week later, Mr Donaldson was expelled from Sinn Fein. He admitted he had worked as a paid British agent since the 1980s.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 554656.stm

Published: 2005/12/23 07:39:00 GMT

© BBC MMV

 

[ramonmercado]

23/12/05
More republicans may be outed as British spies

By Harry McGee, Political Editor
SPECULATION mounted yesterday that at least one more senior republican may be ‘outed’ this weekend as an alleged spy for British secret services.

In the continuing fallout from the Stormontgate affair, several sources told the Irish Examiner yesterday that the admission by Denis Donaldson that he was a British agent for 20 years would not draw a line under the affair.

Three names were mentioned separately by sources, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Two are influential Belfast republicans while the third is a prominent republican figure in the South.

There are also indications that several people with connections to Sinn Féin have also been warned their names may be made public over the coming days.

The fresh round of speculation came as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and senior Government ministers were briefed on Stormontgate by PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde. In a short statement issued after the hour-long meeting, the Taoiseach urged Mr Orde to share the "maximum possible information" with the public.




Mr Ahern said the fact that the Chief Constable had travelled to Dublin gave an indication of the seriousness of the case.

Mr Orde gave a presentation and then there were detailed exchanges with him, involving Mr Ahern, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy.

There were a number of minor scuffles between gardaí and Sinn Féin protesters as Mr Orde's motorcade entered Government Buildings yesterday morning.

The continuing speculation derives from a belief shared in some quarters of the Government that Mr Donaldson was exposed as an agent last week in order to protect another British agent at equal or higher level within republican ranks.

One authoritative source is of the firm belief that Mr Donaldson was a double agent, whose work for police special branch and for the British security services was known for some time. "What's interesting is that Denis Donaldson did his business (at the press conference) last Friday night to sustain the republican position. It suggested strongly he was scuppered a long, long time ago. The double agent theory fits the evidence. And I think there is a strong sense (among the republican leadership) that the whole business of agents in the organisation has to be closed down to protect its integrity and to stop others being exposed."

Examiner

 

[ramonmercado]

Spy case decision 'not political'
Political considerations played no part in the decision to drop charges in the "Stormontgate" affair, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has insisted.
Charges related to allegations of IRA spying against three men were dropped last month "in the public interest".

One of the men, former Sinn Fein Stormont official Denis Donaldson, later admitted he had been a British agent since the mid-1980s.

The PPS said it could not confirm what the two-year case cost the taxpayer.

In response to a series of questions put forward by the BBC, the service said it did not hold information on the individual costs of cases.

It said this was "only one of the large number of cases the PPS deals with in the course of a year".

Legal sources told the BBC that while costs would have built up over the two years, the fact that it did not go to a full trial would have avoided considerable expenditure.

Police raid

The three were arrested following a police raid on Sinn Fein's offices at Parliament Buildings on 5 October 2002, when documents and computer discs were seized.

Following the arrests, the Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists and the Ulster Unionists, led at that time by then First Minister David Trimble, threatened to collapse the executive with resignations.

The British government then suspended devolution in the province, embarking on direct rule for the last three years.

However, the "Stormontgate" case collapsed on 8 December 2005 when charges against the three men were dropped.

Despite pressure from unionists and the nationalist SDLP, the PPS has consistently refused to be drawn further on why the charges were dropped.

One week later, Mr Donaldson, who headed the party's administration office at Stormont before his arrest, admitted he was a paid British agent for two decades.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 599578.stm

Published: 2006/01/10 17:01:12 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[ramonmercado]

Cant vouch for this. I'll keep you apprised of any developments I come across.

Is Jim Slaven Scotland's Denis Donaldson?
by Freelance Journalist Thursday, Jan 12 2006, 3:10pm
international / miscellaneous / news report



The recent events regarding "Stormontgate" are now reaching to Scotland.
Is Jim Slaven Scotland's Denis Donaldson?

The similarities between the two men are remarkable and has led to many republicans claiming that it has more to do with design than accident. After recieving a phone call from a New York based journalist asking me to confirm some aspects of a story that they were going to publish in the United States I decided that this was in the public interest and as a freelance journalist I had a duty to put this story into the public domain on this side of the atlantic. Here is a man in my home city and who I have met on several occasions thinking that he was an unrepentant Irish republican and now I discover that it is all a lie.

Jim Slaven and Denis Donalson were extremely close and everything that Mr. Slaven done in Scotland was relayed to Denis Donaldson through his positon on the International Affairs Dept. of Sinn Féin through which Mr. Slaven gave details of everything that happened in Scotland.

The 'Stormontgate' affair is well known to everyone but how many people know about another spying case this time in the Scottish Office. In October 1996 a senior Scottish republican was revealed to be Sinn Féin's mole within the Scottish Office-this man was Jim Slaven. Mr. Slaven who had never been a member of Sinn Féin was also the source for his own outing. Strange you may think but when one considers the fact that he was acting on his own the episode takes a more sinister turn."I was IRA's mole in the Scottish Office" screamed the headline in the Daily Record at the time. Many observers noted that the individual in question was also the leader of a well known Irish republican group based in Edinburgh. Two moles none of whom were acting on behalf of the Republican Movement.How such a prominent figure with such a high public profile could secure a vacancy within the Scottish Office beggars belief and poses the question of how did he pass the stringent security checks?

Denis Donaldson has been credited with the exposure of the Columbia 3. A huge camaign was organised to promote the case of the Columbia 3 of which Jim Slaven was involved and through his involvement he even managed to visit the men while they were held in a Columbian prison. On his numerous journey's to Ireland Mr. Slaven experiances no special attention from the Special Branch, a feat which cannot be shared by the many travelers to and from Ireland who don't have Mr. Slaven's public profile. Denis Donaldson was known to have a similar history of traveling with ease, where he did not have to endure the harrassment from those Special Branch officers who made it their duty in life to detain and question anyone with a history of supporting militant republicanism. Denis was never subject to the same level of scrutiny as other Irish republicans whilst traveling to and from the United States and Mr. Slaven was not suject to the same level of scrutiny as other Irish republicans as he traveled from Scotland to Ireland, even after traveling to Columbia to visit the Columbia 3.

Cairde Na hÉireann was set up in Scotland in 2004 whilst Cairde Sinn Féin was set up in America in 1995. Both orginisations have been accused of attempting to undermine the previously stalwart republican solidarity groups in their respective countries. It is of no surprise that Denis was one of the key architects of Cairde Sinn Féin in the United States whilst Jim Slaven was the key architect of Cairde Na hÉireann in Scotland. Once each orginisation had been established all traces of the militant republican tradition had been wiped clean.

In 2002 Jim Slaven was along with others again at the centre of controversy. When Her Majesty the Queen went to Scotland in 1999 to officiate at the opening of the newly devolved parliament Slaven along with some of his closest associates staged a protest in support of disbanding the RUC they were promptly arrested after breaking a cordon and charging towards the coach and horses carrying Her Majesty the Queen. All of the men were held over night and subsequently charged with displaying provocative posters, shouting slogans, scaling a security barrier and approaching the carriage during a procession which included Her Majesty the Queen and placing the public in a state of fear and alarm..After 3 years the case collapsed in suspicious circumstances when KEY WITNESSES INCLUDING POLICE OFFICERS FAILED TO APPEAR to give evidence. In Denis's case his case was dropped after 3 years because the DPP stated that it was no longer in the public interst to continue with after he was accused of running a spying ring inside Stormont.

Mr.Slaven who is unemployed has been noted for his ability to travel extensively by air and stay in the best hotels while many of his employed comrades have trouble in affording the cost of travel to various republican events.

Coincedence or something more sinister?

This is just the beginning there are more revelations to come regarding the activities of Mr. Slaven.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73760

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

"How such a prominent figure with such a high public profile could secure a vacancy within the Scottish Office beggars belief and poses the question of how did he pass the stringent security checks?"

i'm sure there would be plenty of influential people within scottish politics and government who could make this happen.

 

[ramonmercado]

ted

theres no comments so far on the indy article. can u track down anything in scottish media on this?

ramon

 

[ramonmercado]

Here are comments on the Indymedia article:

Skimming cash
by Dean Whelan Friday, Jan 13 2006, 7:12pm
address: Alba

Slaven, like many other scottish "republicans" always appeared to have their hand in the jar. Some of these are associated with extortion rackets and obviously kept their share.

add your comments



More rats than a forest
by James Stephens Monday, Jan 16 2006, 12:22am


A couple of years ago when I was a Shinner I seen a letter from some Scot Republicans accusing a mate of Slevins called Steven Lees of been a grass. Any truth in this?

add your comments



Suspicious
by Suspicious Monday, Jan 16 2006, 3:41pm


The Republican movement in Scotland was fcuked by outside interferance becoming involved in the Band Alliance.

Republican flute bands were running as well as could be expected, obviously things will be strained now and then, but the funny thing is, the bands seemed to be getting split from outside interferances and some people noticed this and it was not going un-checked or un-noticed.

The bands, which bascically were the backbone of Republicanism in Scotland were being devided from the inside and outside by various people trying to use them for their own ends and this was being resisted, but the powers that be knew that they could wear the bands down slowly, but surley and this is indeed what happened, thus Republicans who were their at the outset and through the hard days of establishing the movement in Scotland were becoming suspicious and dissallusioned by what they were seeing and drifted away one by one.

Bands and Republicans were being split and used and today we find ourselves in a situation of having two band associations, one manufactured, the other trying to retain the identity of the movement that was always their, but failling to see the mistakes they were making on the road to their own demise within Republicanism, they are just as guilty as the manufactued group, posing as the Republican movement in Scotland now.

Why did Scotland need to lose so many dedicated Republicans who were their through the good, bad and really ugly times and why did dedicated bands feel the need to throw the towel in, because of what they could see happening before them, yet others were being used as pawns instead of sticking together and letting the other groups work with them, instead of working them in the big scheme of things.

Remember all this came about around the same time as this story of yer man in New York, you decide what the difference is.

If you think everything in the garden is rosey in Scotland, you need your head examined, infiltrators are a certainty in Scotlands movement. Not a myth in my opinion, but then again people within Republicanism in Scotland let it happen when others seen it and got out.



Oh and I got out, before the rot set in.

add your comments



Slander masquerading as journalistic analysis...
by Erin Cairde - Cairde na hÉireann Monday, Jan 16 2006, 8:22pm


It is very disappointing to see indymedia carry the kind of article like the above that offers absolutely no evidence for the claims that it makes. Not only that but to then carry comments that slander more individuals and organisations is tantamount to complicity. We could waste many a long hour gossiping about the strange twists and turns of various left-wing organisations, their British satelites and their leaders. Fingers could be pointed, questions might be asked. Thankfully within the reorganised structure of the republican movement in Scotland we have little time to spend on such irrelevancies. That so-called republicans are prepared to use indymedia to make unsubstantiated allegations and slander individuals in this way confirms the correctness of the movement's decision to cut out the cancer that had been allowed to grow within our organisations in Scotland. The only people that the author and his acolytes who have also posted here are kidding is themselves. Republican organisations are well rid of their like. This is not journalism, nor is it political analysis. It is malicious rumour based on personal animosities and petty jealousies. It is rubbish - plain and simple.

add your comments



re-organised structure ?
by Barry Monday, Jan 16 2006, 8:31pm


Was it not Denis Donaldson who re-orgaised it ?

Jesus christ dont tell me your proud of that ?

The best thing you could do is dissolve a structure creted by an MI5 agent . In fact that seems fairly essential .

add your comments



More lies
by Erin Cairde - Cairde na hÉirann Monday, Jan 16 2006, 8:58pm


Denis Donaldson had no involvement in the reorganisation of republican structures in Scotland.

WOSBA were asked by the Republican Movement to dissolve and place their bands under the political umbrella of Cairde na hÉireann, a new organisation that would involve republican flute bands and political support groups under political leadership and direction from Ireland but also with a representative committee structure in Scotland.

Denis Donaldson was never involved at any level whatsoever in these decisions, meetings, political directives, nor did he at any time offer political advice during the establishment of Cairde na hÉireann in Scotland.

WOSBA met with senior members of the Republican Movement who were known to them and trusted by them and they rejected their advice and political directives to place their bands within the new structure.

There are those who have failed to adapt to the new situation that faces republicanism after the ceasefires and the onset of the political process. Unfortunately some republican organisations in Scotland, in particular a number of republican flute bands, have either proved unwilling or unable to accept the new reality, or to rise to new challenges that demilitarisation and the turn towards politics presents us.

The root of the problem in Scotland is political, it is not about personalities or informants - that is a smokescreen created by those who have chosen to ignore the expressed instructions of the Republican Movement.

add your comments



catch a grip
by Barry Monday, Jan 16 2006, 9:23pm


Donaldson was most certainly involved in the restructuring of scotland , just as he was instrumental in the setting up of the similarly named Cairde Sinn Fein in America to replace Noraid .

Apologists for the Sinn Fein leadership have been frantically denying Donaldson was anything other than a middle ranking party hack which is a nonsense and an insult to peoples intelligence .

add your comments



Once again...
by Erin Cairde - Cairde na hÉireann Monday, Jan 16 2006, 10:01pm


Not true. Donaldson was not involved at any point in the political restructuring of republican organisations in Scotland. That is categorically the truth and it is a lie to say otherwise.

Where is your evidence of this? What meetings, when and where in Scotland was Donaldson involved in?

This is pointless tittle-tattle based on nothing more than malicious gossip and rumour mongering with not a shred of evidence to support it. You are making it up as you go along in order that it will fit with some warped conspiracy theory that you have about the Republican Movement.

Donaldson never had the remit for Scotland at any time in his political career. That lie is unsustainable and it's clear that you know nothing of the process by which the movement in Scotland was restructured, or the members of the Republican Movement that were central to it.

The references to Donaldson and Scotland are lies on the summit of a mountain of falsehoods.

add your comments



what ever happened to.., dear erin?
by saoirse germany Tuesday, Jan 17 2006, 1:45am


i remember that once upon a time, long before cairde was suddenly on the agenda, there was something called saoirse in parts of the beloved uk...for example in london...it came to a sudden death...instructions said the führer! could it be?...even to this day i still have tonnes of stickers here in f..g allemagne...but we were told, now theres a new sf rep there and all problems are solved, said a friend of sf...tiocfaidh ar mani

add your comments



jim slaven
by richard sorge II - EKKI Tuesday, Jan 17 2006, 4:08am


in the year of 1995 poor jim got arrested as a "spokesman" for the james connolly society - a campaign then stated "stop the state frame up of jim slaven"...

add your comments



Evidence
by Mitchell Library Glasgow Tuesday, Jan 17 2006, 1:15pm


The Mitchell Library in Glasgow has the very stories mentioned in their newspaper archive.
I was IRA's mole in the Scottish Office.Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); October 22, 1996; Stephen Rafferty, and it also has IRA supporter in government job The Mirror (London, England); October 22, 1996; Stephen Rafferty. There is also an article dated 22nd March 2002 in the Daily Record with the headline Queen Demo Case axed.

add your comments

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73760

 

[ramonmercado]

20/01/06
Sinn Féin insists special branch spy ‘is safe at home’

By Dan McGinn
A FORMER Sinn Féin election worker who admitted spying on his colleagues is safe at home, the party claimed last night.

Sean Lavelle, from Donagh in Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh, confessed to being a special branch agent since 1980 in a statement issued through his solicitor.

His move came after Gerry Adams predicted more spying allegations would surface in the party after last month’s unmasking of its head of administration at Stormont Denis Donaldson as a British agent.

But while Mr Donaldson has stayed away from his native Belfast, Mr Lavelle was assured by Sinn Féin Assembly member Tom O’Reilly that he was safe living at home.

In his statement, Mr Lavelle said he was pressured into becoming a Special Branch agent after he was arrested in 1980.




“I deeply regret my activities and the hurt which they have caused to my family and to my community,” he said.

Sinn Féin played down Mr Lavelle’s significance, claiming he had been an election worker but was no longer a party member.

Republicans have faced a barrage of allegations since Mr Donaldson last month confessed his role as a British agent for more than 20 years. The 55-year-old, was arrested by police in October 2002, along with his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy, on accusations that they operated a spy ring at Stormont which went to the heart of former Northern Secretary John Reid’s office.

After a three-year legal battle, charges against the three men were dropped at Belfast Crown Court last month, with prosecutors insisting it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the case.

In a further stunning twist, Mr Adams announced a week later he had expelled Mr Donaldson from the party for spying on his colleagues.

Belfast has been rife with rumours since then about more spies in republican ranks. Several senior republicans have been warned by police that they are suspected of being agents and, although none has publicly rejected the allegations, it is clear republicans are bracing themselves for more claims.

Examiner

 

[ramonmercado]

Sunday Independent January 29th 06

Sean Garland shunned

DON LAVERY

THE Labour Party yesterday distanced itself from the appearance of a former Official IRA leader, wanted in the US for allegedly forging millions of dollars, at a conference Dublin it organised on the future of Europe.

Sean Garland, the president of the Workers Party, intervened from the floor at the conference in the Mansion House to criticise EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

In an audience debate on the EU Services Directive, Mr Garland said of Commissioner McCreevy: "The less said about him the better."

He also criticised the lack of help given to left-of-centre politicians to promote their policies in the EU.

Garland is wanted by the US on a warrant alleging he was involved in forging huge quantities of $100 bills.

A Labour Party spokesman said Mr Garland had not been invited to the conference.

Related Link: http://www.labour.ie

 

[ted_bloody_maul]

Sinn Fein spy is found in remote hovel


A SENIOR Irish republican who admitted that he was a British spy is living in a remote cottage with no running water or electricity.

Denis Donaldson, a convicted IRA bomber who spent time in prison with Gerry Adams and was head of Sinn Fein's international department, can claim to have led several lives. But his latest adventure is a far cry from his recent past when, as a fixer for the republican leadership, he travelled the world forging links with Basque and Palestinian groups. After his sensational confession in December that he had been working for MI5 and Special Branch for 20 years, Donaldson, 56, disappeared from view, leaving behind many unanswered questions. But this weekend his hideaway was uncovered. The former senior Sinn Fein officer was traced to a cottage in remote Co Donegal by the Sunday , the Irish tabloid newspaper.

The cottage is understood to be hidden in the hills some nine miles from Ardara, a town on the west coast of Donegal that is popular with holidaymakers and second-home owners from Northern Ireland.

Hugh Jordan, the newspaper's chief reporter who tracked down Donaldson, said that the former top Provisional looked frail. "He asked me how I found him, but he also said that he wasn't in hiding, he just wanted to be left alone." It is thought that Donaldson, 56, did a deal with the Provisional IRA to save his life. Until the declaration last summer by the Provisional IRA that its armed campaign to end British rule in Ireland was over, informing was punished by death.

Donaldson was exposed as a spy working for the British after the "Stormontgate" trial collapsed last year. He, his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and William Mackessy, a messenger at the Stormont parliament building, were accused of passing confidential information to the Provisional IRA.

The exposure of the spy-ring - which Donaldson later claimed had never existed and was an invention in order to save the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble - led to the collapse of the Stormont power-sharing executive in which the Ulster Unionists governed Northern Ireland with Sinn Fein ministers.

Donaldson, a diminutive figure who was renowned as a dapper dresser and "lady-charmer", now sports a straggly beard and wears combat trousers and walking boots. He draws water by hand from a nearby well and has a petrol-powered saw to cut wood for an open fire inside the cottage, his only means of keeping warm and cooking food.

Asked how he now felt about his British paymasters he replied: "That's a good question. I don't know why they did it." Asked how he felt about the public dismissal of him by his former friend Gerry Adams, Donaldson shrugged and said: "I don't want to be in touch with anyone. As you can see, I'm in the middle of nowhere." He concluded his brief interview by saying: "All conflicts end in political solutions - it's the only way." Asked about his future he added: "This is it."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 92,00.html

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

Didn't take long for someone to settle an old score it seems.

Sinn Fein British agent shot dead
Former senior Sinn Fein member Denis Donaldson has been found shot dead in the Irish Republic.
Mr Donaldson was expelled from the party last December after admitting he was a paid British spy for 20 years.

The IRA issued a statement saying it had "no involvement whatsoever" in Mr Donaldson's death in County Donegal.

Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern described the death as a "brutal murder", while NI Secretary Peter Hain said it was "barbaric".

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said he wanted to "disassociate (his party) and all republicans who support the peace process from this killing".

The death of Mr Donaldson came hours before a planned visit to Northern Ireland by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mr Ahern to unveil their blueprint for reviving the assembly at Stormont.

A Downing Street spokesman said that Mr Blair "strongly condemned" the killing and had noted Mr Adams' statement of condemnation.


TIMETABLE OF EVENTS
4 October 2002: Three men including Mr Donaldson arrested following raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont office. Power-sharing executive collapses and government restores direct rule to NI a week later
8 December 2005: Charges against three men dropped "in the public interest"
16 December 2005: Sinn Fein says Mr Donaldson was a "British agent" and expels him from the party: he later says he worked as a spy since the 1980s
Government and police reject the party's claim raid was politically motivated
4 April 2006: Donaldson found shot dead in County Donegal


It is understood that Irish police found two shotgun cartridges close to the body of Mr Donaldson at his remote cottage in County Donegal.
Irish justice minister Michael McDowell said he understood that Mr Donaldson had extensive damage to his right arm.

Mr Donaldson moved out of his Belfast home last December, and had been living in the run-down cottage which had neither electricity nor running water.

His body was found at the cottage near the village of Glenties at about 1700 BST on Tuesday.

A large area surrounding the property has been cordoned off by Irish police for scientific examination.

One of Mr Donaldson's nearest neighbours, who lives more than a mile away, said he had last seen him driving past on Tuesday morning.

Mr Donaldson had been Sinn Fein's head of administration at Stormont before his 2002 arrest over alleged spying led to its collapse.

Mr Donaldson and two others were acquitted of charges last December "in the public interest".

One week later, Sinn Fein expelled him from the party.

At the time, he told a news conference that he was recruited in the 1980s as a paid British agent and deeply regretted his activities.


He said there had not been a republican spy ring at Stormont.
Gerry Adams told the same news conference that Mr Donaldson was not under any threat from the republican movement.

Mr Adams said on Tuesday he had spoken to the Donaldson family just before news of his death broke.

He said he was not prepared to speculate on who might have been responsible.

"It has to be condemned. We are living in a different era, and in the future in which everyone could share," he said.

"This killing seems to have been carried out by those who have not accepted that."

DUP leader Ian Paisley said Mr Donaldson's death would be a setback for the political process.

"If this man has been murdered because of his connection with the IRA/Sinn Fein, and because of the past happenings, then it strikes a blow at what the two governments are trying to do," he said.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/n ... 877516.stm

Published: 2006/04/04 19:22:20 GMT

© BBC MMVI

 

[Cavynaut]

MI5 and /or Special Branch trying to derail the peace process?

I don't necessarily believe that, I just thought I'd throw it in for general discussion.

But the timing is pretty spot on.