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Information on collusion still being withheld.

The North’s police ombudsman has called for an independent review to be carried out after “significant, sensitive information” about Troubles killings that he had requested was not supplied to him by the PSNI.

Michael Maguire said his investigators discovered that the information, some of which related to “covert policing”, was not made available to staff who were investigating Troubles-related killings and also the activities of loyalist paramilitaries. The discovery was made during the ombudsman’s investigation of matters connected to the Ulster Defence Association attack on Sean Graham’s bookmakers on the Ormeau Road in Belfast in 1992 in which five people were killed.

The new information also related to the March 1993 murder by the UDA of 17-year-old Catholic Damian Walsh at a coal depot near Twinbrook on the outskirts of west Belfast and to the activities of loyalist paramilitaries in the northwest between 1988 and 1994.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...ormation&utm_campaign=morning_briefing_digest
 
More tales of MI5's involvement with collusion.

The new documentary "Unquiet Graves: The Story of the Glennane Gang" premieres this week

A new documentary claims that British intelligence attempted to persuade the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to attack a Catholic primary school in Co Armagh in the 1970s. The Irish Times reports on the new documentary created by Sean Murray entitled ‘Unquiet Graves: The Story of the Glenanne Gang,’ which is set to premiere in Belfast on February 21.

The film features interviews with John Weir, a former RUC officer and self-confessed member of the loyalist Glennane Gang, which was responsible for the Miami Showband Massacre in 1975 as well as over 120 other murders. In the film, Weir, who now lives in South Africa after being released from prison, claims that British intelligence urged an attack on a Catholic primary school in Belleeks, Co Armagh as retaliation for the Kingsmill massacre, which saw ten Protestant workers killed by the IRA.

“The plan that was decided on was to shoot up a school in Belleeks,” says Weir in the film, who added that “children, teachers” would have been the targets. Ultimately, the UVF felt the plot crossed the line and did not carry it out. Weir said the plot was designed to force Northern Ireland, in the midst of The Troubles, to “spiral out of control.”

The film's creator Sean Murray said the British military intelligence plot was meant to foster a “civil war” in Northern Ireland.

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/b...019-02-21&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Mailjet
 
I don't usually give time to Mackers' blog, but this is where I ended up after an extensive online review of Oglach Danny Morrison's life and times.

Mackers implies here that British forces may have been behind the Derry bomb in January to stir up anti-republican sentiment and prepare the way for an increase of British State force in NI.
http://www.thepensivequill.com/2019/01/bombing-derry.html

eg
Given that republicanism most certainly did not benefit in the slightest from the bombing of Derry, there is one very clear answer to the eternal political question of cui bono? British security services, eager to expand their security empire by exaggerating the threat posed by armed militias. Being beneficiaries is a far cry from the security services having any involvement. Still, various republican militias are legendary for their ineptitude and underachievement compared to the Provisional IRA. And as the latter’s competence in the field of internal security was nothing to write home about, it is easily conceivable that today’s militias, being even less competent are even more penetrated. We know from Omagh that the British security services are not easily absolved from blame or black operations. The IRSP has taken to admonishing one of their members for stating publicly what others are speculating privately.

Any thoughts?
 
Ballymurphy families in London opposing statute of limitations
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-42823411


By Stephen Walker BBC News NI Political Correspondent
  • 5 hours ago

Relatives of those killed by the army in Ballymurphy in 1971 have travelled to London to oppose the introduction of a statute of limitations for members of the security forces.

MPs debated the issue on Thursday.

Last year the Defence Committee backed its introduction claiming legacy cases involving soldiers had been "unfairly prioritised".

The committee stopped short of recommending a statute of limitations for all sides during the Troubles.

It said that was for the government to decide.

'Served our country'
The cross-party group of MPs added that the government should "not lose sight of its moral responsibility to those who have served our country".

The committee also wants to see a truth recovery mechanism which they say would help families establish what happened in the past.

Speaking in the debate in Westminster the East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson said the decision was whether the government was prepared to "redress the approach to legacy, redress the approach to our service personnel and start protecting those who protected us ".

Image caption Ten people were shot dead in west Belfast in the three days after internment was introduced in 1971, in what the bereaved families refer to as the Ballymurphy Massacre
He was joined in the short debate by his DUP MP colleagues Jim Shannon and Emma Little-Pengelly.

The debate in Westminster, which centred on last year's Defence Committee report, was proposed by Conservative MP Julian Brazier. Defence Minister Mark Lancaster replied for the government.

Watching in the public gallery were relatives of those who were killed by the Army in Ballymurphy in Belfast in 1971.

John Teggart was just 11 years old when his father was shot dead.

He said he and other relatives had travelled to London to present an alternative argument. He said the families had many unanswered questions.

He told the BBC those in favour of a statute of limitations are claiming that there is a witch hunt against former security force personnel.

'Insult to victims'
He said the statistics show that is not the case. He said he wanted to know why his father was shot and said it was really important MPs and others in London heard their story.

The Ballymurphy campaigners were joined by the South Down Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard who believes the idea of a statute of limitations is "an insult " to victims and relatives.

The idea of a statute of limitations is to be put out to consultation by the government.

Last year the Irish government expressed concern about the planned move and said it would "not look favourably" on any amnesty measure in Northern Ireland.

More on Ballymurphy.

It is highly doubtful if many people living in England, Scotland and Wales know about the startling and disturbing testimony delivered at Belfast’s high court two weeks ago.

For the inquest into the deaths of 10 people shot by British paratroopers in 1971, later known as the “Ballymurphy massacre”, has been under-reported by London-based mainstream media since it began more than five months ago.

But the failure of newspapers and news broadcasters to report on what was said by two former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland at the time of the deaths, was a breathtaking omission.

First up was Henry Gow, a former paratrooper, SAS member and RUC officer who has been a barrister for 25 years. He told the coroner that one of the soldiers, having recovered part of the skull of one of the regiment’s victims, used it as an ashtray. He also said that a sweepstake was run by his unit to reward soldiers who “got a kill”.

Relatives of the victim, identified as Henry Thornton, were said to have been deeply distressed by the revelation, which is understandable. What was not understandable, however, was that every daily national newspaper ignored Gow’s astonishing evidence, although it was reported in the Belfast-based Irish News.

Then came the testimony of a former corporal in A Company of the Parachute Regiment’s 1st Battalion, who was identified only by the code M597. He contended that Gow’s claim about the skull ashtray was “a fantasy”, a debunking of the story that did get reported in some outlets, including the Belfast Telegraph.

But his denial of that allegation should be seen in the context of what he went on to say about the actions of his fellow soldiers on the streets of west Belfast over the course of three days in August 1971. Some of them, he said, were “psychopaths” or “rogues” who were “out of control” and prepared to shoot anyone.

According to M597, these paras “revelled” in killing innocent citizens in the mistaken belief that anyone walking the streets at the time was fair game. “They were saying, anything out there that moves, we consider them to be in the IRA or associated with the IRA, and for that alone they could be, or should be, shot.”

The witness, who is now 70 years old, broke down in tears while giving what surely amounts to astonishing and damning testimony, as was reported on the BBC news website. Yet it was not considered astonishing enough to warrant large headlines in any British national newspaper.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...erage-of-the-ballymurphy-inquest-is-a-scandal
 
More on Ballymurphy.

It is highly doubtful if many people living in England, Scotland and Wales know about the startling and disturbing testimony delivered at Belfast’s high court two weeks ago.

For the inquest into the deaths of 10 people shot by British paratroopers in 1971, later known as the “Ballymurphy massacre”, has been under-reported by London-based mainstream media since it began more than five months ago.

But the failure of newspapers and news broadcasters to report on what was said by two former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland at the time of the deaths, was a breathtaking omission.

First up was Henry Gow, a former paratrooper, SAS member and RUC officer who has been a barrister for 25 years. He told the coroner that one of the soldiers, having recovered part of the skull of one of the regiment’s victims, used it as an ashtray. He also said that a sweepstake was run by his unit to reward soldiers who “got a kill”.

Relatives of the victim, identified as Henry Thornton, were said to have been deeply distressed by the revelation, which is understandable. What was not understandable, however, was that every daily national newspaper ignored Gow’s astonishing evidence, although it was reported in the Belfast-based Irish News.

Then came the testimony of a former corporal in A Company of the Parachute Regiment’s 1st Battalion, who was identified only by the code M597. He contended that Gow’s claim about the skull ashtray was “a fantasy”, a debunking of the story that did get reported in some outlets, including the Belfast Telegraph.

But his denial of that allegation should be seen in the context of what he went on to say about the actions of his fellow soldiers on the streets of west Belfast over the course of three days in August 1971. Some of them, he said, were “psychopaths” or “rogues” who were “out of control” and prepared to shoot anyone.

According to M597, these paras “revelled” in killing innocent citizens in the mistaken belief that anyone walking the streets at the time was fair game. “They were saying, anything out there that moves, we consider them to be in the IRA or associated with the IRA, and for that alone they could be, or should be, shot.”

The witness, who is now 70 years old, broke down in tears while giving what surely amounts to astonishing and damning testimony, as was reported on the BBC news website. Yet it was not considered astonishing enough to warrant large headlines in any British national newspaper.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...erage-of-the-ballymurphy-inquest-is-a-scandal

The claim, counter-claim and lack of surviving corroborating evidence cited in this article is precisely the reason why a statute of limitations is required for combatants on all sides of the conflict.

Breaking down in tears in court is not evidence in support of the veracity of testimony.
 
The claim, counter-claim and lack of surviving corroborating evidence cited in this article is precisely the reason why a statute of limitations is required for combatants on all sides of the conflict.

Breaking down in tears in court is not evidence in support of the veracity of testimony.

A line needs to be drawn under all of this. No more prosecutions.
 
I'm torn about that position, RM. On the one hand it seems like the ONLY way to get society to a point beyond relapse. On the other, those who fell in defense of their country against an invading force deserve justice. The people of the Murph were murdered in cold blood outside of the rules of combat, if not the arena of combat.

I guess it's that word - DESERVE which causes the most controversy currently. The Unionists, who are legitimate citizens of their home county, feel equally aggrieved against the Nationalists and deserve justice. That's an older wound. But you are right.

I'm in regular touch with old soldiers from both sides who fled the Troubles and settled here with their families in a bid to leave the shite behind. My own aunt's family was part of that exodus. The old boys I talk to at the pub have stories they're ok to tell, but what they sometimes understate is that they most of all came here to leave it behind. Their kids have had their corners rounded off in this distant land and have a massively diminished conception of (and, thus, response to) the past grievances. They win. Those generations in Belfast, Derry and Omagh have still to reckon with the legacy in place. May God give them the compassion and the wisdom to come together in their desire to put that nightmare down for good and all. Reconciliation can only ever be mutual. I sense the time is now. Seeing Arlene and Michelle sharing a pew earlier at Cara's funeral was a moment I'll treasure. Their body language was very telling in response to the priest's ill-hidden remonstrance against the stalling in getting the executive back together, but I saw in all of their eyes the sudden realisation that he was right. It's time to let go of the old resentments. Over 20 years since the GFA, so It's past time. Yes, the line needs to be drawn. If everyone can agree on that, reconciliation can properly occur. It is more than possible, it's inevitable. It's a matter of time.

There needs to be some sort of Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
 
Ah ya got me. No worries. I redacted since it was a bit personal-political but you're apt to judge its appropriacy here being an ex mod.

There needs to be some sort of Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
I tend to the position that getting them into the pub together would be more like the Irish way. The bureaucracies have only served to add fuel to fires, even igniting a few of their own. Let the people decide.
 
There've been regular invites to the Unionist communities to attend the fleadh that occur throughout the Ulster year, and they've been successful for the most part. It's happening. I don't know much about their (Unionists) festivals, but when it starts to come from both sides the craic will prevail over politics.
 
This doco's researcher and producer were arrested a few days ago.


"The arrest of Trevor Birney, who produced the documentary, and Barry McCaffrey who researched it, is a new and despicable twist. The two men were arrested from their homes and taken to Musgrave PSNI station. Computers and other material was taken and the PSNI claimed the arrests had to do with alleged material stolen from the Police Ombudsman’s office. Lawyers acting for both men quickly secured a block on the PSNI examining the material until a legal challenge to the validity of the search warrant is heard.
Late on Friday evening as they were released on bail Barry McCaffrey described their arrests as “an attack on the press.” He added: “It’s us today, tomorrow it could be you.”"



Full blog here: http://leargas.blogspot.com/2018/09/state-arrest-of-two-journalists-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Largas+(Léargas)

Justice for the researcher and producer.

Police have been ordered to return vast amounts of documents seized from two journalists arrested for airing confidential material in a documentary.

Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Declan Morgan said the granting of a search warrant for their homes and offices was "inappropriate".

Trevor Birney and fellow film-maker Barry McCaffrey acted in a perfectly proper manner to protect their sources and not hand over the information voluntarily, the country's top judge said. The pair lauded the decision by three Belfast judges as a victory for press freedom. They were detained last year over the alleged theft of a police watchdog document that appeared in their film No Stone Unturned, which is about the murders of six men in Loughinisland, Co Down, in 1994.

Mr Birney said: "What has happened today has been a correction of an injustice and a correction of an attack on the freedom of the press not only in Belfast but on the island of Ireland and throughout the UK. This court has stood over the press, it has supported the press and upheld the importance of a free press in a liberal society."

https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...hinisland-journalists-judge-rules-928129.html
 
Justice for the researcher and producer.

Police have been ordered to return vast amounts of documents seized from two journalists arrested for airing confidential material in a documentary.

Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland Declan Morgan said the granting of a search warrant for their homes and offices was "inappropriate".

Trevor Birney and fellow film-maker Barry McCaffrey acted in a perfectly proper manner to protect their sources and not hand over the information voluntarily, the country's top judge said. The pair lauded the decision by three Belfast judges as a victory for press freedom. They were detained last year over the alleged theft of a police watchdog document that appeared in their film No Stone Unturned, which is about the murders of six men in Loughinisland, Co Down, in 1994.

Mr Birney said: "What has happened today has been a correction of an injustice and a correction of an attack on the freedom of the press not only in Belfast but on the island of Ireland and throughout the UK. This court has stood over the press, it has supported the press and upheld the importance of a free press in a liberal society."

https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...hinisland-journalists-judge-rules-928129.html

More on this very strange case.

Those who investigate the dark aftermath of conflict walk on dangerous ground. The murder by dissident republicans of Lyra McKee in April was a chilling reminder that there are paramilitaries who are still intent on dragging us back into the hostilities of the past. Another case that has been playing out in Northern Ireland’s legal system is a shocking warning that this may also be true of the police.

This case yielded a great victory for press freedom in Belfast’s high court last Friday, but the two brave investigative journalists who brought it about are still caught in a nightmare worthy of Kafka. They remain on police bail, facing unspecified criminal charges. This despite the fact that the highest judge in the Northern Irish state, the lord chief justice, has declared that on the basis of the evidence put before him, they have done nothing wrong.

The pair, Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, were arrested last summer for their work on a documentary about a 1994 massacre. The reason? We learned in court last week that a senior police officer was concerned that their investigation might have put lives in danger. If there were any evidence for this, and there is none, it might sound reasonable enough. But it also turns out the lives the police were concerned about were those of people “having the misfortune of being involved in terrorist atrocities”.

The misfortune? Even by Northern Irish standards this was, as a barrister representing the journalists put it, “a staggering proposition”. Durham constabulary, brought in by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to investigate, had, said Barry Macdonald QC, conducted “the kind of operation associated with a police state rather than a liberal democracy".

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...democracy-police-state-loughinisland-massacre
 
It took a long time for compensation to be awarded.

The family of a man shot in the back by a British soldier as he tried to run to safety on Bloody Sunday are to be awarded more than £160,000, a Belfast High Court judge has ruled.

Patrick Campbell was seriously injured and quit his work as a docker after the January 1972 shootings in Derry, in which 14 people died.

Mr Campbell, a father-of-nine, was aged 52 when he was wounded by a bullet from a high velocity rifle fired by Lance Corporal F. Mr Campebell died in 1985.

Mr Justice McAlinden held that his family should receive a payout of £163,048 from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to cover loss of earnings and damages.

“The court has no hesitation in finding that the wrongful actions of the servants or agents of the defendant on the day in question gave rise to emotions of extreme fear, if not terror, in the mind of the deceased.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...warded-160-000-1.3921921#.XQeKlgEpsso.twitter
 
Rather bizarre if the Russians were behind it.

Russians suspected of spreading fake news about Northern Ireland

... The fake stories centred on false claims that DUP leader Arlene Foster favoured the EU’s approach to Brexit, that former British defence secretary Gavin Williamson said the Real IRA helped in the attempted assassination of Russian spy Sergei Skripal, and that the Real IRA were recruiting Islamist fighters.

The investigation by the Digital Forensic Research Laboratory (DFRLab) at the Atlantic Council found that the operation used “ostensibly Irish personas on Facebook to post divisive and inflammatory content”.

“Between March 2018 and April 2019, the operation ran at least three false stories targeting Ireland and forging documents and social media posts to support its claims,” wrote one of DFRLab’s founders, Ben Nimmo, who led the investigation, in an article posted online over the weekend. ...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/russians-suspected-of-spreading-fake-news-about-northern-ireland-1.3935137
 
This doco's researcher and producer were arrested a few days ago.


"The arrest of Trevor Birney, who produced the documentary, and Barry McCaffrey who researched it, is a new and despicable twist. The two men were arrested from their homes and taken to Musgrave PSNI station. Computers and other material was taken and the PSNI claimed the arrests had to do with alleged material stolen from the Police Ombudsman’s office. Lawyers acting for both men quickly secured a block on the PSNI examining the material until a legal challenge to the validity of the search warrant is heard.
Late on Friday evening as they were released on bail Barry McCaffrey described their arrests as “an attack on the press.” He added: “It’s us today, tomorrow it could be you.”"



Full blog here: http://leargas.blogspot.com/2018/09/state-arrest-of-two-journalists-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Largas+(Léargas)
No editing on this thread for some reason, so here's the video posted earlier. Original post link is dead.
 
The 94 Cessation – how it happened
http://leargas.blogspot.com/2019/08...ium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+Largas+(Léargas)


Léargas
by Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams
Wednesday, August 28, 2019

The IRA cessation is 25 years old this week. August 1994 was an intense month. I was involved, along with Martin McGuinness, and others in the Sinn Féin leadership, in intense, mostly private, efforts to persuade the SDLP Leader John Hume, the Irish Government and allies in Irish America to establish an alternative unarmed strategy to pursue republican and democratic objectives......

cont. at link


An interesting read from inside the situation.
 
Quite amazing this thread is still here..
 
Got to agree that there is plenty of scope for conspiracy.
 
Quite amazing this thread is still here..

People value it and are careful with it.

What it doesn't need is a random discussion of the situation. Keep it off thread.

Frideswide
 
More than a little worrying given that MI5 agents in both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups were given free reign to commit murder. UDA member and MI5 asset Brian Nelson convinced the UDA to kill someone else when they suspected that Freddie Scappaticci (MI5 asset) was an IRA member, he got them to murder an innocent person instead.

My cousin was murdered by MI5 asset Seán O'Callaghan to divert attention from himself.

MI5 has ‘legal power’ to authorise agents to commit crimes

Two of Britain’s most senior legal figures have ruled for the first time that a secret MI5 policy which allows British security service agents to commit serious crimes is unlawful. However, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found, by a majority of three to two, that MI5 has the legal power to authorise the commission of criminal offences by agents.“The overall co-ordination of all security and intelligence matters [in Northern Ireland] lay with MI5 and, as we have seen in the case of [British agent] Brian Nelson and in the murder of Pat Finucane, state agents were involved in murder in this jurisdiction,” a spokesman said. “This is the first time there has ever been dissenting opinions in a judgement from the IPT.”In the majority ruling on Friday, the IPT’s president, Lord Justice Singh, its deputy president, Lord Boyd, and Sir Richard McLaughlin said that while the tribunal concluded that MI5 “does have that power as a matter of public law,” it was “important to appreciate that this does not mean that it has any power to confer immunity from liability either under the criminal law or the civil law on either its own officers or on agents handled by them".

Prof Graham Zellick QC, dissenting, said that accepting the British government’s arguments “would open the door to the lawful exercise of other powers of which we have no notice or notion, creating uncertainty and a potential for abuse”. He said an authorisation to participate in criminality was “in itself intrinsically unlawful: it will impact on the legal rights of others, it may involve the commission of tortious and criminal acts and — in the absence of clear legal authority — is subversive of the rule of law”.

It may well be “sensible and desirable, even essential,” he said, “but Parliament would, I fancy, be astonished to be told that it had conferred this power in 1989.”

At a hearing in November, Ben Jaffey QC said the issues raised by the case were “not hypothetical”, submitting that “in the past, authorisation of agent participation in criminality appears to have led to grave breaches of fundamental rights”.

He pointed to the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, an attack later found to have involved collusion with the state, and the case of Freddie Scappaticci, “who is alleged to have been a senior member of the IRA and a security service agent working under the codename ‘Stakeknife’”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/mi5-has-legal-power-to-authorise-agents-to-commit-crimes-1.4121954

READ MORE

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ire...rial-on-ni-security-force-collusion-1.4043104

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...nce-weapons-a-godsend-for-loyalists-1.4041716
 
More than a little worrying given that MI5 agents in both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups were given free reign to commit murder. UDA member and MI5 asset Brian Nelson convinced the UDA to kill someone else when they suspected that Freddie Scappaticci (MI5 asset) was an IRA member, he got them to murder an innocent person instead.

My cousin was murdered by MI5 asset Seán O'Callaghan to divert attention from himself.

MI5 has ‘legal power’ to authorise agents to commit crimes

Two of Britain’s most senior legal figures have ruled for the first time that a secret MI5 policy which allows British security service agents to commit serious crimes is unlawful. However, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found, by a majority of three to two, that MI5 has the legal power to authorise the commission of criminal offences by agents.“The overall co-ordination of all security and intelligence matters [in Northern Ireland] lay with MI5 and, as we have seen in the case of [British agent] Brian Nelson and in the murder of Pat Finucane, state agents were involved in murder in this jurisdiction,” a spokesman said. “This is the first time there has ever been dissenting opinions in a judgement from the IPT.”In the majority ruling on Friday, the IPT’s president, Lord Justice Singh, its deputy president, Lord Boyd, and Sir Richard McLaughlin said that while the tribunal concluded that MI5 “does have that power as a matter of public law,” it was “important to appreciate that this does not mean that it has any power to confer immunity from liability either under the criminal law or the civil law on either its own officers or on agents handled by them".
Prof Graham Zellick QC, dissenting, said that accepting the British government’s arguments “would open the door to the lawful exercise of other powers of which we have no notice or notion, creating uncertainty and a potential for abuse”. He said an authorisation to participate in criminality was “in itself intrinsically unlawful: it will impact on the legal rights of others, it may involve the commission of tortious and criminal acts and — in the absence of clear legal authority — is subversive of the rule of law”.

It may well be “sensible and desirable, even essential,” he said, “but Parliament would, I fancy, be astonished to be told that it had conferred this power in 1989.”

At a hearing in November, Ben Jaffey QC said the issues raised by the case were “not hypothetical”, submitting that “in the past, authorisation of agent participation in criminality appears to have led to grave breaches of fundamental rights”.

He pointed to the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, an attack later found to have involved collusion with the state, and the case of Freddie Scappaticci, “who is alleged to have been a senior member of the IRA and a security service agent working under the codename ‘Stakeknife’”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/mi5-has-legal-power-to-authorise-agents-to-commit-crimes-1.4121954

READ MORE

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ire...rial-on-ni-security-force-collusion-1.4043104

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...nce-weapons-a-godsend-for-loyalists-1.4041716
Jaysus, that’s horrendous. Sorry for your loss.
I think it will take generations before the true depths of what happened becomes known.
 
Capt. Robert Nairac linked to Miami Showband Massacre from British intelligence documents.
"
British Army intelligence documents have linked undercover soldier Robert Nairac to the Miami Showband massacre, The Irish News has revealed.

Three members of the band were killed by the UVF on a rural road after a gig in Banbridge, County Down, in 1975.

The Irish News says the documents, seen for the first time, suggest the British soldier obtained equipment and uniforms for the killers and was responsible for the planning and execution of the attack.

The papers were released to a solicitor representing the widow of Miami Showband lead singer Fran O'Toole.

Capt Nairac was abducted by the IRA while on an undercover operation in a pub in south Armagh in 1977. His body has never been found."
 
More than a little worrying given that MI5 agents in both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups were given free reign to commit murder. UDA member and MI5 asset Brian Nelson convinced the UDA to kill someone else when they suspected that Freddie Scappaticci (MI5 asset) was an IRA member, he got them to murder an innocent person instead.

My cousin was murdered by MI5 asset Seán O'Callaghan to divert attention from himself.

MI5 has ‘legal power’ to authorise agents to commit crimes

Two of Britain’s most senior legal figures have ruled for the first time that a secret MI5 policy which allows British security service agents to commit serious crimes is unlawful. However, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) found, by a majority of three to two, that MI5 has the legal power to authorise the commission of criminal offences by agents.“The overall co-ordination of all security and intelligence matters [in Northern Ireland] lay with MI5 and, as we have seen in the case of [British agent] Brian Nelson and in the murder of Pat Finucane, state agents were involved in murder in this jurisdiction,” a spokesman said. “This is the first time there has ever been dissenting opinions in a judgement from the IPT.”In the majority ruling on Friday, the IPT’s president, Lord Justice Singh, its deputy president, Lord Boyd, and Sir Richard McLaughlin said that while the tribunal concluded that MI5 “does have that power as a matter of public law,” it was “important to appreciate that this does not mean that it has any power to confer immunity from liability either under the criminal law or the civil law on either its own officers or on agents handled by them".
Prof Graham Zellick QC, dissenting, said that accepting the British government’s arguments “would open the door to the lawful exercise of other powers of which we have no notice or notion, creating uncertainty and a potential for abuse”. He said an authorisation to participate in criminality was “in itself intrinsically unlawful: it will impact on the legal rights of others, it may involve the commission of tortious and criminal acts and — in the absence of clear legal authority — is subversive of the rule of law”.

It may well be “sensible and desirable, even essential,” he said, “but Parliament would, I fancy, be astonished to be told that it had conferred this power in 1989.”

At a hearing in November, Ben Jaffey QC said the issues raised by the case were “not hypothetical”, submitting that “in the past, authorisation of agent participation in criminality appears to have led to grave breaches of fundamental rights”.

He pointed to the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, an attack later found to have involved collusion with the state, and the case of Freddie Scappaticci, “who is alleged to have been a senior member of the IRA and a security service agent working under the codename ‘Stakeknife’”.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/mi5-has-legal-power-to-authorise-agents-to-commit-crimes-1.4121954

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https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ire...rial-on-ni-security-force-collusion-1.4043104

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...nce-weapons-a-godsend-for-loyalists-1.4041716

More on collusion and how a Special Branch agent inside the IRA was protected.

Police could not have prevented an IRA mortar attack that killed a police constable in Newry, County Down in 1992, a report has concluded.

But the police ombudsman found there were failures in the investigation into Colleen McMurray's murder. One of those thought to have been involved was a police informant but they were never treated as a suspect. Her family accused the Provisional IRA and the British government of being "joint participants" in her murder.

The PSNI said it was "truly sorry" for the shortcomings the ombudsman found in the police investigation. Mrs McMurray, 34, was a passenger in a police car hit by a mortar bomb as it travelled along Merchants Quay. Her colleague, Paul Slaine, survived, but lost both his legs.

Mrs McMurray's family said she "served all the communities without fear or favour and knew the risks involved in being an RUC police officer at that time" but they "strongly contend" that her murder could have been prevented. They are calling on Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis to establish a judge-led statutory inquiry into the murder as soon as possible.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-58741923
 
Capt. Robert Nairac linked to Miami Showband Massacre from British intelligence documents.
"
British Army intelligence documents have linked undercover soldier Robert Nairac to the Miami Showband massacre, The Irish News has revealed.

Three members of the band were killed by the UVF on a rural road after a gig in Banbridge, County Down, in 1975.

The Irish News says the documents, seen for the first time, suggest the British soldier obtained equipment and uniforms for the killers and was responsible for the planning and execution of the attack.

The papers were released to a solicitor representing the widow of Miami Showband lead singer Fran O'Toole.

Capt Nairac was abducted by the IRA while on an undercover operation in a pub in south Armagh in 1977. His body has never been found."

Update on case.

Survivors and relatives of those killed in the Miami Showband murders are to receive close to £1.5m in damages.

The resolution of legal action against the Ministry of Defence and the Police Service of Northern Ireland was announced at Belfast High Court on Monday.

The victims had argued there was collaboration between the loyalist killers and serving soldiers.

Three band members were killed near Newry in 1975.

The bomb and gun attack happened in July as the band, which toured across Ireland, travelled home to Dublin after a gig in Banbridge. Their minibus was stopped by a fake Army patrol involving Ulster Defence Regiment and Ulster Volunteer Force members.

A bomb which was placed on the bus exploded prematurely, killing two of the attackers, Harris Boyle and Wesley Somerville. The gang then opened fire, murdering singer Fran O'Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy. Two other band members, Des McAlea and Stephen Travers, were injured but survived the atrocity.

On Monday, Mr Travers was awarded £425,000 and Mr McAlea will receive £325,000 in damages.

The court ruled the personal representatives of Fran O'Toole and Brian McCoy would receive £375,000 and £325,000 respectively.

The legal action followed a 2011 Historical Enquiries Team report which raised concerns about collusion around the involvement of an RUC Special Branch agent.

It found that mid-Ulster UVF man Robin Jackson* claimed in police interviews he had been tipped off by a senior RUC officer to lie low after his fingerprints were found on a silencer attached to one of the weapons. He was later acquitted on a charge of possessing the silencer.

Two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers were convicted for their roles in the attack.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-59641564

* Robin Jackson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Jackson
 
This should be an interesting programme.

A former Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable has said Martin McGuinness had acted "with integrity" and was "a man I could do business with".

Sir George Hamilton was speaking for a BBC film on 20 years of the PSNI.

He said the former deputy first minister was "committed to making this a better place".

But he said that going to Mr McGuinness's funeral while still in post was a "dilemma".

Mr McGuinness, a former IRA leader and a senior member of Sinn Féin, died in 2017, a year after stepping down as deputy first minister.
Speaking for the documentary, Twenty Years on the Frontline, Sir George, who served as the PSNI's chief constable between 2014 and 2019, recalled how he regarded working with Mr McGuinness.

"He acted with integrity, he acted in a common sense way, in a pragmatic way," he said."When he was going to have to do or say something that was going to be difficult for me, he would've given me prior notice - not seeking my permission, but he would've had the courtesy of saying 'This is what I'm going to be doing and saying publicly', on most occasions. And he was a man, therefore, that I could do business with." ...

The film, which charts many of the major events which led up to the formation of the PSNI, spoke to police officers who have lost family members, colleagues and suffered injuries as a result of their service.

In November 2001, under policing reforms, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), which was overwhelmingly Protestant, was renamed the PSNI. One of the main aims of police reform was to build broader community support and increase the number of Catholic officers. However figures last December revealed an ongoing recruitment problem, with 24% of officers recruited in 2020 being Catholic.

As well as Mr Hamilton, the film also features interviews with Chief Constable Simon Byrne and former chief constables Sir Ronnie Flanagan and Sir Hugh Orde. ...

Twenty Years on the Frontline airs on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday 24 January at 22:35 GMT

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-60081548
 
More evidence of collusion.

Relatives of the victims of a series of loyalist murders carried out between 1989 and 1993 have said they have been “vindicated” by a Police Ombudsman’s report which said their “concerns about collusive activity are legitimate and justified”.

“We stand vindicated in our persistent claims of collusion, in particular by the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) and UDR (Ulster Defence Regiment), in the murders of our loved ones,” they said in a statement issued by Relatives for Justice on behalf of the families of eight victims and two survivors of the attacks.

Other relatives also welcomed the report, including Amanda Fullerton, who said it was “important to get a public statement from somebody in high office that vindicates your concerns about collusion”.

Ms Fullerton’s father Eddie, a Sinn Féin councillor, was shot dead by loyalist paramilitaries at his home in Buncrana, Co Donegal, in 1991. In 2006 her family made a complaint to the Police Ombudsman alleging that RUC officers had colluded in his murder and failed to assist the Garda investigation.

Their complaint subsequently led to an investigation by the Police Ombudsman into police actions in regard to 19 murders and a number of attempted murders carried out by the North West UDA/UFF between 1989 and 1993, including the killing of eight people in the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, Co Derry, in October 1993. ...

In her report, published today (Friday), Marie Anderson identified “collusive behaviours” and raised “significant concerns” about police conduct, but found no evidence the RUC had any prior knowledge of any of the attacks considered in her report.

She said the “majority of RUC investigative actions” in regard to the attacks under consideration were “progressed in a thorough and diligent manner” with arrests made and a number of individuals arrested and convicted” .

Ms Anderson outlined a number of specific findings, including “intelligence and surveillance failings” which enabled the North West UDA/UFF to arm themselves with weapons from an earlier loyalist arms importation and which “significantly enhanced” their capability.

There was a failure to warn a number of victims of threats to their lives, and a failure to take action against some members of the security forces suspected of passing information to loyalist paramilitaries.

The Police Ombudsman also criticised the deliberate destruction of files, particularly in regard to informers, and the failure of RUC Special Branch to share all relevant information with police colleagues investigating the attacks.

She also raised significant concerns about the recruitment and handling of informants by RUC Special Branch, particularly in regard to the continued use of informants despite evidence they were “actively involved in serious crime, including murder” . ...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/cri...-have-been-vindicated-by-new-report-1.4775959
 
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