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Conspiracy In Ireland: North & South

Stormkhan said:
Not forgetting that while the IRA had its roots in a political struggle, many parts of it were criminal gangs operating under the 'flag' of the IRA. This is why any peace process was hard-won - for many members, it was personally highly lucrative.
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That was more true of the various splinters of the INLA.
 
No charges.

investigation began in 2016 under Jon Boutcher, who is now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Hmmm.

Sixteen people - including former IRA members and security force personnel - investigated as part of Operation Kenova, will not face any charges, it has been decided.

Operation Kenova was a £37m inquiry into the Army agent within the IRA known as Stakeknife. He is widely believed to have been west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) decisions include three murders between 1981 and 1993. It said there is "insufficient evidence" to bring charges. A significant part of the evidence is intelligence records which are "not possible to use" to bring prosecutions.

Mr Scappaticci died earlier this year

The victims' families were told of the decisions hours before they were made public on Wednesday.

The Operation Kenova investigation began in 2016 under Jon Boutcher, who is now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-67635887
 
no charges for these four either.

Two retired soldiers who handled the Army agent within the IRA known as Stakeknife are not to be prosecuted in connection with a number of kidnappings and murders.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the evidence was insufficient. IIt also decided two people, who were IRA members at the time of the incidents in the early 1980s, would likewise not face any charges.

Stakeknife is believed to have been Freddie Scappaticci, who died in 2023. The agent's actions have been the subject of a six-year investigation known as Operation Kenova. It began in 2016 under Jon Boutcher, who is now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It examined Stakeknife's activities within the IRA's internal security unit, which was responsible for killing alleged informers, and the role of the Army.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68218740
 
This case involves the Military Reaction Force

An Army veteran is to be charged with the murder of a man and the attempted murder of six others in Belfast during the Troubles more than 50 years ago.

Three other former soldiers will also face prosecution for attempted murder. he move was announced by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) after examining evidence submitted following a police investigation.Due to the timing of the decisions, the cases are not affected by the Legacy Act. From later in 2024, the Legacy Act will offer amnesties in Troubles cases.

A veteran referred to as Soldier F will face a charge of murdering Patrick McVeigh, 44, at Finaghy Road North in May 1972. He will also be prosecuted for the attempted murder of four other people in the same incident. Along with individuals referred to Soldiers B, C, and D he is also to be charged with the attempted murder of two people in a separate shooting at Slievegallon Drive in west Belfast, also in May 1972.

The individuals referred to as Soldier F and Soldier C are not the same individuals involved in any previous or on-going prosecution relating to events in Northern Ireland in 1972.

All the shootings involved a undercover Army unit called the Military Reaction Force (MRF), which operated in Belfast in the early 1970s. It was a small, secretive unit and consisted of about 40 soldiers who patrolled west Belfast in unmarked cars. It operated for about 18 months before it was disbanded in 1973.

In 2013, former members of the unit told a BBC Panorama programme that the unit had been involved in the killing of unarmed civilians.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68238984
 
ramonmercado said:
This case involves the Military Reaction Force

An Army veteran is to be charged with the murder of a man and the attempted murder of six others in Belfast during the Troubles more than 50 years ago.

Three other former soldiers will also face prosecution for attempted murder. he move was announced by the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) after examining evidence submitted following a police investigation.Due to the timing of the decisions, the cases are not affected by the Legacy Act. From later in 2024, the Legacy Act will offer amnesties in Troubles cases.

A veteran referred to as Soldier F will face a charge of murdering Patrick McVeigh, 44, at Finaghy Road North in May 1972. He will also be prosecuted for the attempted murder of four other people in the same incident. Along with individuals referred to Soldiers B, C, and D he is also to be charged with the attempted murder of two people in a separate shooting at Slievegallon Drive in west Belfast, also in May 1972.

The individuals referred to as Soldier F and Soldier C are not the same individuals involved in any previous or on-going prosecution relating to events in Northern Ireland in 1972.

All the shootings involved a undercover Army unit called the Military Reaction Force (MRF), which operated in Belfast in the early 1970s. It was a small, secretive unit and consisted of about 40 soldiers who patrolled west Belfast in unmarked cars. It operated for about 18 months before it was disbanded in 1973.

In 2013, former members of the unit told a BBC Panorama programme that the unit had been involved in the killing of unarmed civilians.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68238984
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Yet 483 terrorists, between them responsible for hundreds or thousands of murders, walked free from prison because of the Good Friday Agreement:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65164519

Many of them served only two years’ imprisonment despite being convicted of, for example, the murder of police officers.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Yet 483 terrorists, between them responsible for hundreds or thousands of murders, walked free from prison because of the Good Friday Agreement:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65164519

Many of them served only two years’ imprisonment despite being convicted of, for example, the murder of police officers.

maximus otter
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If these ex-soldiers are convicted they 'll also serve a maximum of two years.

These were state agents, they are accused of shooting civilians.
 
Its all tragic lads, we should have been fishing, watching the racing and listening to music together. It was a terrible time now consigned to the past. Hate and bitterness just brings more of the same. As Commandant Tom Barry, ex-British soldier and IRA commander said in 1920 "war is sheer bloody murder".
 
More evidence of State collusion with Loyalists, this tine the LVF.

More than 25 people, including state agents, have been linked by intelligence material to the murder of GAA official Sean Brown, a court has heard.

A family lawyer described the revelations as "shocking".

Mr Brown was abducted in Bellaghy, County Londonderry, and shot near Randalstown, County Antrim, in 1997. He was locking the gates of GAA club Bellaghy Wolfe Tones when he was taken by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).

The inquest into the 61-year-old's death opened in March 2023. It is scheduled to resume in March 2024. Before it resumes, sensitive material relating to the murder must be security-vetted and distributed to the legal parties involved.

The public interest immunity process in the case has been taking place in closed hearings in recent weeks.

Giving an update at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday, counsel for the coroner Joseph Aiken KC, said documentation shown to the inquest "indicates that in excess of 25 individuals were linked through intelligence to the murder of Sean Brown".

He added: "The intelligence material indicates that those individuals are said to have been involved at the material time with loyalist paramilitaries. The intelligence material indicates that at the time of the death of Sean Brown, a number of the individuals linked through intelligence to the murder were agents of the state."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68413829
 
ramonmercado said:
no charges for these four either.

Two retired soldiers who handled the Army agent within the IRA known as Stakeknife are not to be prosecuted in connection with a number of kidnappings and murders.

The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the evidence was insufficient. IIt also decided two people, who were IRA members at the time of the incidents in the early 1980s, would likewise not face any charges.

Stakeknife is believed to have been Freddie Scappaticci, who died in 2023. The agent's actions have been the subject of a six-year investigation known as Operation Kenova. It began in 2016 under Jon Boutcher, who is now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It examined Stakeknife's activities within the IRA's internal security unit, which was responsible for killing alleged informers, and the role of the Army.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68218740
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Update on Stakeknife.

An Army spy operating at the heart of the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland probably cost more lives than he saved, a report has found.

Operation Kenova investigated the agent known as Stakeknife. It said speculation he had saved hundreds of lives was wrong and it was more likely it was between high single figures and low double figures. It found the security forces failed to prevent some murders to try to protect their agents in the IRA.

Jon Boutcher, who is now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said claims Stakeknife saved hundreds of lives were based on "unreliable and speculative" assessments.

Mr Boutcher said murders that could, and should, have been prevented were allowed to take place with the knowledge of the security forces.

He said those responsible for murder were not brought to justice and were instead allowed free to offend again.

"Morality and legality of agents doing any harm - with the knowledge of the state - is something that we would never, ever allow today," he said.

The investigation found that the use of agents by security forces "undoubtedly saved lives during the Troubles" and "significantly degraded and debilitated the effectiveness of terrorist groups".

"Less frequently", it said, preventable and serious crimes took place and went unsolved and unpunished as security forces tried to protect their agents.

These included:
  • Murders committed by agents - including some cases where one agent murdered another
  • Murders of alleged or suspected agents, including cases where the murder was carried out as a punishment and to deter others from acting as agents - in some cases the victim was not actually an agent *
  • Murders in some of these cases which were known about by the security forces in advance and could have been prevented
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68510390

* My cousin was murdered by State Agent Sean O'Callaghan as cover for his own role.
 
I've put this in Fortean news because it has a couple of plausible conspiracy angles, namely that broadcast of the documentary was suppressed on the orders of the British government; also the documentary makers are shown to have some links to intelligence services in the USA.

A long and fascinating read.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/xkbwldvmb5/exposed-the-secret-army

And someone asks ... “Did they use it to recruit, not just Martin McGuinness, but other people who were in the film to become agents? That’s going to be one of the great unanswered questions of the Troubles I think.” This idea was posted about on this forum in 2006 - link - and google shows that rumours persist and sporadically resurface.
 
James_H said:
Did they use it to recruit, not just Martin McGuinness, but other people who were in the film to become agents?
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For that to be true then the British Intelligence services would have allowed the Brighton Hotel bombing in 1984 and the mortar bomb attack on the the Cabinet in 1991 to go ahead. These attacks would have been ratified by the IRA Army Council of which Martin was a member and at times Chief of Staff. He was also Chairman of the Army Council during negotiations with the British Government between 1993. the decommissioning of arms in 2005 and the subsequent disbanding of the IRA.
 
I remember reading that McGuinness used to go fly fishing with a senior man from MI6 which I always thought was weird but both the Irish and English love fishing and rightly so.
 
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