FINUCANE FAMILY URGE INQUIRY AMID GOVERNMENT TALKS

FINUCANE FAMILY URGE INQUIRY AMID GOVERNMENT TALKS
DETAILS OF FINUCANE CASE LEAKED OVER YEARS
FINUCANE CASE BECAME TOUCHSTONE FOR COLLUSION CLAIMS
Steven McCaffery, Press Association
11 January 2011
Press Association National Newswire


The family of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane have repeated their call for a fully independent inquiry into the case after it was confirmed they are in talks with the Government.

Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson said he had extended a consultation on the case by two months to facilitate the discussions, but the surprise announcement followed years of deadlock over one of the most controversial killings of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The Army, police and intelligence service have been implicated in the 1989 murder, which was carried out by loyalist paramilitaries who doubled as security force agents.

The Finucane family rejected efforts by the previous Labour government to conduct an investigation under the 2005 Inquiries Act and claimed it gave ministers undue influence over the outcome.

Mr Paterson had declared an interest in resolving the Finucane case, but while many observers believed the new Government would opt to draw a line under the issue, details have now emerged of efforts to broker an inquiry acceptable to both sides.

In separate statements the Secretary of State said there had been "useful" discussions, while solicitors for the Finucane family confirmed there had been "constructive" dialogue, but both signalled that an agreed way forward had not yet been reached.

Mr Paterson said: "In my written statement of November 11, I set out a period of two months during which I would receive representations as to whether it is in the public interest that I should establish a public inquiry into the death of Patrick Finucane.

"As part of this process, my officials have had a constructive meeting with representatives of the Finucane family and a further meeting will be arranged.

"In light of the fact that useful discussions are under way between the family and the Government, I have decided, with the agreement of the family, to extend the period during which I will receive representations by two months."

Mr Paterson said he will then consider if it is in the public interest to hold an inquiry into Mr Finucane's murder.

Sections of the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries had labelled the Catholic solicitor an IRA member. The allegation has been denied by the Finucane family, who have said the police and Army wrongly associated the lawyer with the alleged crimes of his clients.

In a statement the family's lawyers, Madden & Finucane, said further discussions were needed if their goal of an independent inquiry was to be reached.

"The Finucane family have campaigned for 21 years for a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Pat," they said.

"The essence of a proper inquiry is independence.

"The family's legal team, led by Peter Madden of Madden & Finucane, met with the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) legal team in London in April last year and the discussions then were worthwhile.

"However, due to the pending general election at that time, a further meeting was postponed.

"The Madden & Finucane legal team met the Secretary of State's advisers last Thursday, January 6, and again the discussions were constructive."

Mr Madden, a former friend and colleague of the murdered solicitor, said: "Although these were constructive and useful meetings, the fact remains that the independence of a tribunal is fundamental.

"It is hoped that the family's concerns will be addressed and that a mechanism will be established which would result in a public judicial inquiry fully independent, which will have the support of the Finucane family, and all those who have supported the family in their long campaign."

Members of the loyalist Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a cover name for the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), shot the solicitor 14 times in front of his wife and three children as they ate dinner at their north Belfast home in February 1989.

But security forces are accused of inciting the killers and using agents to carry out the murder, before covering their tracks.

Sinn Fein said government made a commitment in 2004 to hold an inquiry and said the family deserved "truth and justice". But the DUP objected to what they said could be a replay of the costly Saville Inquiry into the British Army's Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2011, British Special Forces, Collusion, Finucane, MI5, Rosemary Nelson, Special Branch

DETAILS OF FINUCANE CASE LEAKED OVER YEARS

DETAILS OF FINUCANE CASE LEAKED OVER YEARS
Steven McCaffery, Press Association
11 January 2011
Press Association National Newswire

No other case from the decades of violence in Northern Ireland has caused the level of controversy sparked by the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.

The State is implicated in planning the 1989 killing, carrying it out and covering it up ever since.

But over the years, more and more damaging details have leaked out:

:: In the mid 1980s as John Stalker, former deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, probed allegations of a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) "shoot-to-kill" policy against republican suspects, he said he was reprimanded by an RUC sergeant for speaking to Mr Finucane outside a court. Mr Stalker was told: "Any man who represents IRA men is worse than an IRA man."

:: In January 1989 Conservative Minister Douglas Hogg told the Commons: "I have to state as a fact, but with great regret, that there are in Northern Ireland a number of solicitors who are unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA." He had been briefed by senior RUC officers prior to making the remarks. The SDLP's Seamus Mallon immediately called on Mr Hogg to withdraw the comments, and said: "I have no doubt that there are lawyers walking the streets or driving on the roads of the north of Ireland who have become targets for assassins' bullets as a result of the statement that has been made tonight." Mr Finucane was shot the following month. Lord Stevens, former Metropolitan Police chief who examined the case, subsequently found that the minister had been "compromised".

:: In the years that followed it would emerge that four security force agents were linked to the Finucane killing. But it would take decades of pressure from the Finucane family, human rights groups, the United Nations, plus media probes, before further movement was secured.

:: In 1992 the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association's (UDA) head of intelligence Brian Nelson stood trial for a catalogue of murders. The former soldier from Belfast's Shankill Road was an army intelligence agent, channelling information to loyalists to help direct their violence. He has also been linked to arms shipments from South Africa to Northern Ireland, with a quantity reaching the hands of loyalist paramilitaries. Nelson was overseen by the army's secret Force Research Unit (FRU). His handlers claimed he helped save innocent lives. And after striking a deal over his conviction, he was never asked to give evidence on his UDA colleagues and served less than six years, before being freed and given a new identity. He died in 2003. As well as providing a photograph of Pat Finucane to the killers, he is said to have driven a gunman to the solicitor's house days before the murder.

:: In 1999 fresh revelations over the Finucane case led to an announcement that the Stevens' team of investigators, who had already carried out two probes into allegations of security force wrongdoing in Northern Ireland, was to return to re-examine the Finucane case. This surprised observers since the government had dismissed earlier UN calls for an investigation by claiming Mr Stevens had already looked at the case during his first two forays into Northern Ireland. But launching his probe, Mr Stevens said: "At no time in Stevens II or the original Stevens I inquiry, did I investigate the murder of Patrick Finucane."

:: In June of the same year the Stevens team charged William Stobie with aiding and abetting in the murder of Mr Finucane. He was a UDA quartermaster and an agent of RUC Special Branch. He said that, before the Finucane murder, he had warned police that gunmen had approached him for weapons and were en route to an attack. In November 2001 the case against Mr Stobie collapsed. He was murdered by loyalists outside his house three weeks later.

:: Claims also emerged that RUC officers had urged so-called UDA "Brigadier" Tommy Lyttle, who was also a Special Branch informant, to use his high-ranking role in the paramilitaries to have Pat Finucane killed.

:: In 2002 the BBC Panorama programme screened footage of UDA member, and police informant, Ken Barrett admitting to killing Mr Finucane. He had confessed to police as early as 1991, but officers at the time claimed their efforts to pursue the matter were blocked by police Special Branch. Barrett claimed he had been encouraged to kill the solicitor by a senior RUC officer. He was handed a life sentence for the murder in 2004, but was freed within three years under the early release scheme for paramilitaries contained in the Good Friday Agreement peace deal of 1998.

:: Wider allegations of security force collusion with paramilitaries became a key political issue. The nationalist SDLP and Sinn Fein pressed the government for action. Embarrassing revelations over the Finucane case from the London-based British-Irish Rights Watch and UN Special rapporteur Param Cumaraswamy were compounded by the loyalist murder in 1999 of Catholic lawyer Rosemary Nelson, a solicitor who had also claimed to have been threatened by police for representing IRA suspects.

:: During political talks on securing power-sharing government between unionists and republicans in Northern Ireland, the British and Irish governments agreed to inquiries into six infamous cases where security force collusion with the killers was alleged. Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory was asked to carry out an initial review of the cases. In April 2004 his devastating report on the Finucane murder was released. He found that security forces knew of three plots to kill Mr Finucane but failed to warn him. The army, RUC Special Branch and MI5 were said to have known of UDA plots in 1981, 1985 and seven weeks before he was murdered in 1989. It was said security forces chose not to warn Mr Finucane for fear of jeopardising the life of their undercover agent, Brian Nelson.

:: December 2010 saw an intriguing reference to the Finucane murder in US diplomatic cables from 2005 released by WikiLeaks. It was claimed that MI5 had offered to disclose files relating to the Finucane killing if the probe was conducted under the 2005 Inquiries Act. Amnesty International said it was of concern that files on the solicitor's murder appeared to exist, but had not yet been made public. The cables said the Irish premier at the time, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, said "everyone knows the UK was involved" in the Finucane murder. It was also claimed that US diplomats feared "elements of the security-legal establishments" in Britain, outside MI5, were working hard to prevent an inquiry.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2011, British Special Forces, Collusion, Douglas Hogg, Finucane, Hogg, MI5, Real IRA, Rosemary Nelson, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Special Branch

Murder of lawyer that fuelled distrust and suspicions of collusion

The US embassy cables Ireland:
Pat Finucane: Murder of lawyer that fuelled distrust and suspicions of collusion
Owen Bowcott
13 December 2010
The Guardian

Pat Finucane, a prominent civil rights and criminal defence lawyer, was eating supper with his wife and three children, when masked, loyalist gunmen smashed their way into his north Belfast home and shot him dead.

Members of the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters broke down the front door with sledgehammers and fired 14 shots from a .38 revolver and a 9mm Browning automatic pistol.

All of the rounds struck Finucane. The UFF claimed they had killed him because he was a high-ranking officer in the IRA. Police at his inquest said there was no evidence to support that assertion.

The attack took place on Sunday, 12 February 1989. More than 20 years later the political consequences of one of the most controversial killings of Northern Ireland's Troubles are still reverberating.

British military intelligence's disputed role in the murder has been the subject of successive police inquiries, several of which remain secret.

Finucane's death fuelled suspicions of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries while fomenting distrust between Dublin and London. Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan police commissioner who conducted three inquiries into allegations of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, reached an unequivocal judgment in 2003.

"I conclude there was collusion in both murders and the circumstances surrounding them," he wrote of the murder of Finucane and Brian Lambert, a Protestant mistakenly targeted in 1987.Finucane, 38 at the time of his murder, had been at the forefront of arguing that suspects detained under anti-terror legislation were being held in conditions that violated their human rights.

As a solicitor, Finucane had represented loyalists and republicans.

His brother John was an IRA member who had been killed on active service in a car crash in the Falls Road, Belfast, in 1972. Another brother successfully contested attempts to extradite him to Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic; a third brother was the fiance of Mairead Farrell, one of the IRA trio shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar in 1988.

The Finucane family has always denied, however, that Pat was involved with the Provisionals.

Three weeks before the shooting, Douglas Hogg, then a junior Home Office minister, told the House of Commons that certain solicitors in Northern Ireland were "unduly sympathetic" to the IRA. Around the same time an RUC officer was reported to have told a client: "You will not be having Mr Finucane as a solicitor much longer."

The man responsible at the time for assembling information about those selected as targets for UFF attacks was Brian Nelson, a former soldier who, it emerged, was an agent for British military intelligence.

Nelson was subsequently convicted of five counts of conspiracy to murder - but not in connection with Finucane's death. Excerpts from his diary, broadcast by BBC Panorama in 1992, suggested he had warned his army handlers in the Force Research Unit (FRU) that Finucane was being targeted.

When Brigadier Gordon Kerr, who was in charge of the FRU, gave evidence at the trial of Nelson, he said the army unit's purpose was to "save life . . . [and] prevent attacks taking place".

He insisted that Nelson's actions had saved numerous lives.

Stevens faced major obstacles when he started investigating allegations of collusion in 1999. At one stage, his offices, inside a secure police compound, mysteriously burnt down. Not all of Stevens's report have been published.

In a 2003 summary of his findings, Stevens was clear. "Collusion is evidenced in many ways. This ranges from the wilful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence and evidence, through to the extreme of agents being involved in murder.

"The failure to keep records or the existence of contradictory accounts can often be perceived as evidence of concealment or malpractice. It limits the opportunity to rebut serious allegations. The absence of accountability allows the acts or omissions of individuals to go undetected. The withholding of information impedes the prevention of crime and the arrest of suspects. The unlawful involvement of agents in murder implies that the security forces sanction killings.

"My three inquiries have found all these elements of collusion to be present. The co-ordination, dissemination and sharing of intelligence were poor. Informants and agents were allowed to operate without effective control and to participate in terrorist crimes.

"Nationalists were known to be targeted but were not properly warned or protected. Crucial information was withheld from senior investigating officers. Important evidence was neither exploited nor preserved."

William Stobie, a former UDA quartermaster and a police informant, later revealed that he had told his RUC handlers when a UFF commander asked him to get guns for a "job" on a "top Provie".

He said he was amazed officers still did nothing when he alerted them again shortly before the killing. Stobie was later shot dead by, it is thought, loyalist colleagues extracting revenge for his betrayal.

The US diplomatic cables passed to WikiLeaks make clear the Irish government believed the murder left an enduring legacy of distrust between Britain and the broader nationalist community.

James Kenny, the then US ambassador to Dublin, outlined the thinking of the former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern in a cable from July 2004.

The ambassador wrote: "Ahern said it is not a republican, but a nationalist, issue. Because there is such broad-based support across the nationalist community in the North for an inquiry, SF [Sinn Fein] will insist on it."

The Finucane family have been battling for decades for an independent, public inquiry. In 2001, following peace process talks at Weston Park, the government appointed a Canadian judge, Peter Cory, to investigate allegations of collusion.

He recommended a public inquiry into the killing but the Finucane family - and Cory - have been opposed to it being held under the more restrictive terms of the Inquiries Act 2005.

The act empowers ministers to order that some inquiry sessions are held in private and to withhold material from the final published report. In the face of family opposition, hopes of an inquiry stalled.

Amnesty International, the New York-based Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the Belfast-based Committee for the Administration of Justice have all called for an independent public inquiry.

In 2007, the public prosecution service announced that no members of the security forces would be charged in connection with the Finucane killing. Michael Finucane, his son, described that decision as "extremely disappointing and in some cases very, very perplexing".

Only one man, Ken Barrett, a former Special Branch informer, has been convicted of killing Finucane. Barrett, 44, was jailed for 22 years in 2004 but released shortly afterwards under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. He is believed to be living at a secret location in England.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, British Special Forces, Collusion, Douglas Hogg, Finucane, Hogg, IRA, Sinn Féin, Special Branch

The family can't move on until the truth is told

The family can't move on until the truth is told
23 July 2010
Belfast Telegraph

The lucid memory of that horrific episode, however, lives with him every day, emboldening a relentless, painstaking search for the truth about who was really behind it.

John Finucane, now an established Belfast solicitor himself, is certain that the security forces colluded with loyalists for an assassination he believes was condoned -- even sanctioned -- by the Government.

An outrageous suggestion some might think, but an hour in the company of this 30-year-old criminal lawyer and human rights activist may well cloud the most cynical minds in doubt.

"Through the very nature of his work in those days, my father was proving to be a thorn in the establishment's side," John says.

"He was taking on the British establishment -- with their own laws, through their own courts. He was good at it too, and I don't think they liked that. Quite simply, they killed him because he was effective at his job."

He adds: "My father was looking into unlawful detentions and killings by the security forces. He was one of a select few prepared to do the work."

That work was ended, abruptly and mercilessly, when Pat Finucane, then 39, was shot 14 times by loyalist paramilitary Ken Barrett and another man. Barrett, a UDA informer, finally pleaded guilty to the murder in 2004.

Pat Finucane had been representing well known IRA man Pat 'Beag' McGeown, a suspect in the notorious, brutal and all-too-public murders of two Army corporals in Andersonstown in March 1988. Pictures of Mr Finucane outside Belfast's Crumlin Road Courthouse with his client appeared in the Press. The UDA/UFF said they killed him because he was an "IRA officer" -- although no evidence has ever emerged to support this claim.

Pat Finucane did, however, have well established republican roots. Three brothers -- John, Dermot and Seamus -- were in the Provisional IRA. John was killed 'on active service' in 1972, Dermot was one of the 38 Maze escapees in 1983 and Seamus was a Provo colleague of Bobby Sands (later a client of Pat's); the pair were arrested attempting to destroy a Belfast property store in 1976.

Pat Finucane's son does not believe his father was merely paying for the sins of his siblings; his representation of high-profile paramilitaries is a more plausible 'justification.'

"My father represented loyalists and republicans," he says. "As a solicitor you can't refuse a case and he didn't. He got work because he was successful in challenging the police and the Government. I believe he became a hate figure for them."

John was only eight when his father was murdered in front of him, his mother Geraldine, his brother Michael (then 17) and sister Katherine (13) .

"It was around 7pm," he remembers. "There was a loud bang at the front door and before anybody had time to react my father was killed in front of us in the kitchen.

"We were literally in the middle of our dinner. They suspected the people who did this had done it before because every shot that was fired hit my father. It was particularly brutal in nature."

In 1999, the Metropolitan Police Chief Sir John Stevens, who had already been investigating collusion allegations in Northern Ireland for a decade, launched a specific inquiry into Mr Finucane's murder.

Arising from that investigation, RUC Special Branch agent and loyalist quartermaster William Stobie was charged with supplying one of the pistols used in the murder. He admitted the offence, but denied knowing who the target was. He also argued he'd warned his handlers a shooting was imminent.

The Stobie case collapsed in November 2001; he was shot dead by loyalists outside his own home shortly afterwards.

But John's focus is not on the paramilitaries involved.

"They were merely sent out to do a job," he says. "The main question is: who sent them out, and why? Loyalists have since gone on the record to say that they were told by the RUC to target my father.

"Why did the Government feel they could get a solicitor murdered in their own jurisdiction?

"Why did they have a policy where many other people were killed?

"If this was just about the murder of my father I don't think it would have gathered as much momentum or attracted as much attention as it has. This was a policy that affected many, many people."

He adds: "We know it was Brian Nelson (the loyalist and Army double agent) who provided the intelligence and who had helped set the murder up."

Army officers interviewed by the Stevens team denied any knowledge of a high-level plot but that isn't the source of frustration for the victim's family.

"Prosecutions aren't an issue for us," John admits. "We aren't interested in anybody going to jail for this. The main focus for us is getting at the truth.

"And, firstly, that truth must be told in its entirety. Secondly, that truth must be acknowledged and accepted by the British Government. Thirdly, we must learn lessons from this.

"Until we know what really went on, we'll never be able to learn from it. We must send out a message that we will not tolerate that sort of behaviour from our Government, or from its various agencies."

John's father was killed just weeks after Home Office minister Douglas Hogg told the Commons a number of Ulster solicitors were "unduly sympathetic" to the IRA.

"Yes, and he has never admitted why he made that statement," says John. "We have since learned that he was briefed by senior members of the RUC and given that information to say. One of Stevens' reports says Hogg was compromised.

"The Stevens Report itself has never been published -- why's that?"

You get the impression John Finucane knows the answers already. All he wants is for the Government to own up to its perceived involvement. It could be a long wait; it has already been.

"For the last 20 years, the British Government have resisted, have fought every step of the way to cover up the truth," he says. "As a family, it makes us very suspicious as to what they're hiding."

The Finucane family (John's brother, Michael, is also a solicitor) have been promised an inquiry into Pat's murder -- and they will settle for nothing less.

Put simply, they want the powers-that-be to finally say: 'Yes, that's what happened . . . and we're so sorry it did'.

"My family aren't asking for an open-ended, costly inquiry," John says. "I think this could be dealt with very swiftly. But we need to deal with the past; we can't walk away from it. "

The Finucanes' quest for adequate closure has been backed by, among others, various US Presidents, the Irish Government and the European Parliament.

"My mother (now 60) has likened it to a sore or a cut -- if you don't treat it properly and just cover it up, it will fester below the surface and eventually come up, even more rotten than it was originally," says John.

"And something very rotten was going on at that time, something that caused not just my father's death, but many others."

Today, sitting in a busy cafe in Belfast city centre -- a Belfast thronged with young people who have never heard this story and, frankly, would have no interest in hearing it either -- John admits to occasionally wondering why he has persisted in his quest for the truth for so long.

"I was eight when this happened; I'm 30 now. For the vast majority of my life I haven't known anything else," he says.

Time, however, doesn't make dealing with such a "violent, traumatic and unforeseen death" any easier for a family man looking forward to the birth of his third child next week.

One of his boys is nearly the age John was on that fateful night back in 1989.

"My father was taken away from me. I feel I've missed out on an awful lot and I miss him as much now as I ever did," he says.

"You miss having your father. And the more I find out about who he was, the more I've missed not having that person in my life. That pain, that grief will always be there."

He adds: "No-one wants to spend their life having to talk about the murder of their father and why they want justice to be achieved, but it's where we are. We do want to put this behind us, but until the truth is told I really don't think that's possible."

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, British Special Forces, Collusion, Douglas Hogg, Finucane, Hogg, MI5, protective custody, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Special Branch

Woodward questions Morrison's innocence

17 April 2010
The Irish News
Barry McCaffrey

Former Sinn Fein publicity director Danny Morrison is unlikely to receive compensation for years spent in jail - despite having his conviction quashed - because he is not "innocent". In October 2008 the Court of Appeal overturned Mr Morrison's conviction along with six other people for the abduction of Special Branch informer Alexander Lynch.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Informers, Kevin Winters, Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, Special Branch

'Don't dig too deep' cop told

8 April 2010
Mirror

The RUC's former deputy head of CID reveals in a new book how he believes he could have solved the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane. In Duplicity And Deception launched yesterday, now retired police officer Alan Simpson said in 2002 that he had not been told an RUC Special Branch informer was involved in the murder. And he explained how he was discouraged from digging too deeply while investigating the murder of Mr Finucane.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, British Special Forces, Collusion, Douglas Hogg, Finucane, MI5, Northern Ireland, Rosemary Nelson, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Special Branch

Cameron should promise an inquiry into the Omagh bomb

17 March 2010
Belfast Telegraph
Comment
Cameron should promise an inquiry into the Omagh bomb

If anyone asks did anything good come out of this Parliament, we can at least point to yesterday's biting report from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on the Omagh bombing.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, MI5, Northern Ireland, Omagh bomb, PSNI, Real IRA, Special Branch

Republican rejects claims he is a police informer

13 March 2010
The Irish News
Allison Morris

A former IRA prisoner has said "spurious allegations" being circulated claiming he is a police informer are part of an orchestrated, politically led campaign to discredit him. Veteran republican Tony Catney was responding to an anonymous letter, claiming to be from a former Special Branch member, which was circulated to media outlets earlier this week. The letter names several individuals it claims are working for the intelligence agencies. Among them is Mr Catney, a life-sentence prisoner who served a 16-year jail term.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Informers, Northern Ireland, Omagh bomb, Real IRA, Sinn Féin, Special Branch

Former UVF brigadier questioned on killings

9 March 2010
The Irish News
Barry McCaffrey

A former UVF 'brigadier' was last night among three men being questioned by police as part of a major investigation into loyalist murders. Rab Warnock (62) was arrested by officers from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch (SCB) at his home on the outskirts of north Belfast yesterday morning.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Collusion, Informers, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Special Branch

the spy who couldn't hide from his past

7 March 2010
The Sunday Life
How Denis Donaldson's treachery led to his lonely, brutal death

A new book lifts the lid on some of the most brutal murders to take place in Ireland in recent years, including the republican murders of south Armagh man Paul Quinn and Sinn Fein spy Denis Donaldson. Over the next four pages, read these exclusive extracts from Revenge: Twenty Cold-Blooded Irish Killings, by author Ken Foxe. ALL Denis Donaldson wanted as his life drew to a close was some "peace and quiet".  The IRA double agent had moved to a pre-Famine era cottage in the wilds of Co Donegal where he lived without central heating or even running water.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Co. Donegal, Denis Donaldson, Informers, IRA, Ireland, MI5, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Real IRA, Sinn Féin, Special Branch

Doubt over conduct of local police

11 May 2007
Belfast Telegraph
Jonathan McCambridge and Victoria O'Hara
Bangor-born Jim Gamble - the former RUC head of Special Branch - leads the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) which has sent two officers experienced in dealing with paedophile crime to the Algarve, to assist the investigation.

Continue Reading... Labels: Bangor, Cathy Landau, Cathy Morris, CEOP, IRA, Jim Gamble, Madeleine McCann, Northern Ireland, Real IRA, Special Branch

'Assurances' given to victim's father

13 January 2010
Belfast News Letter

The father of a UVF murder victim has met Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris and officers from the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) to discuss his concerns about the handing over of Operation Ballast to the PSNI.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2010, Collusion, Informers, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Special Branch

Dissident offered home in Portugal if became informer

23 Nov. 2005
Derry Dissident Deported from U.S.
Irish Voice
Sean O'Driscoll

A Derry dissident Republican has been deported from the U.S. after refusing an FBI and British intelligence offer to become an informer in exchange for a new house in Portugal and large cash payments.

Sean Devine, who has fundraised for dissident Republican prisoners, was recently questioned at Newark Airport for over six hours by a five man team lead by the FBI, the Northern Ireland Special Branch and the British Intelligence organization, MI5.

Devine was able to provide the Irish Voice with unusually precise information about the interview, including a phone number in Strabane, Northern Ireland he was told to ring if he agreed to become an informer.

He was also given the first names of the MI5 and Northern Ireland Special Branch officers who questioned him.

Speaking from his home in Dungiven, Co. Derry, Devine said that he was shocked by how much those questioning him knew about his life, including his plans several weeks ago to holiday on the Isle of Man, which lies between Britain and Ireland. "They obviously have a very good source somewhere along the line," he said.

He said he was refused contact with a lawyer and a representative from the Irish Embassy and was told that the conversation officially "didn't exist."

"They were all very friendly. It was really like they were my friends and they wanted to help me out if I would help them out, but I think that would only be as long as they could use me," he said.

He said that the Northern Ireland Special Branch officer gave him specific names of  "people he knew very well," and he was told that any money problems he had would be taken care of. He was also offered a visa waiver to return to the U. S. if he agreed to become an informer.

Devine agrees that he split from the Provisional movement in 1997 in protest at the approaching Good Friday Agreement, which he describes as a "sell-out."

His story mirrors that of another New York-based Irish Republican interviewed by the FBI in the last two months.

Congressman Peter King took up that case after the man was told that one of his family members would be deported back to Northern Ireland if he did not become an informer. The man was aligned with the mainstream Provisional Republican movement and was in favor of the Good Friday Agreement.

The latest case began at Belfast Airport, when Devine was due to fly to Newark earlier this month. He was told by U.S. immigration officials that there was something wrong with his Irish passport and it would not be accepted by U.S. officers in Newark.

He took the train down to Dublin and got an emergency passport and then flew out of Belfast on the following Saturday, arriving in Newark at 11 am. When he reached the immigration inspection point, he was told to follow an immigration official.

"The man took me away to a wee room and then the FBI agent came in and named himself. He said there are people here who want to speak to you. I was taken into a larger room that looked like a dining room with a lot of chairs," Devine said.

He says that the three other people identified themselves, one saying he was "Stewarty" from MI5, the other two identified themselves as "Declan" from the Northern Ireland Special Branch and another identifying himself as "Mervyn" from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Mervyn spoke with a strong Derry accent.

The officers told hum they had been waiting for him to arrive in the U.S. since Thursday and knew that he had planned to visit the Isle of Man some weeks earlier.

"They were acting like my friends and they were very, very nice," he said. "I asked for a lawyer and a member of staff of the Irish Embassy to be there. They told me that what was happening didn't exist. They were there to help me and if I worked for them they would take me anywhere in the world," he said.

Devine said the officers named three or four different countries, most specifically naming Lisbon, Portugal as a place where they could provide him with a house. "They said if I had any money problems, they would be taken care of, as much money as I needed and I'd be well looked after. They said what they wanted to do was put these people in jail," he added.

"They also said they would put me on a flight and take me anywhere I wanted for a holiday. They said a lot of the same things a lot of times."

Devine said he was asked about Republicans who rejected the Good Friday Agreement, commonly referred to as "dissident Republicans."

"I wouldn't call them dissident Republicans, I would call them traditional Republicans. The Special Branch officer wanted information on people in the Derry area. They named some people that I knew well," he said.

Devine said he listened to what they had to say and took a card from Declan with a number in Strabane in Northern Ireland. The Irish Voice has since phoned the number, which rang out for a long time and didn't include an answering machine message.

After the interview, Devine was handed over to immigration officials, who put him on an 8 p.m. flight back to Belfast. "I was glad to go at that stage. I knew I wasn't going to have anything to do with it. It was time for me to get home," he said.

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Informers, Ireland, MI5, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Real IRA, Sean Devine, Special Branch

A home in Portugal if he informed on IRA

Deportee's Real IRA Links

30 Nov. 2005
Irish Voice
SeanO'Driscoll 

A Derry man who was deported from the U.S. earlier this month is a fundraiser for a Republican prisoner welfare group which the U.S. government considers a front for the Real IRA, the Justice Department has confirmed.

Sean Devine, from Dungiven in Co. Derry, told the Irish Voice last week that he was offered a new home in Portugal if he became an informer for MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

However, Devine agrees that he fundraised for the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA), which is on the Treasury Department's list of foreign terrorist groups, as a fundraising front group for the Real IRA. Members of the IRPWA are banned from entering the U.S., and U.S. citizens are banned from giving it any "material support."

In 2001, the U.S. government banned the IRPWA along with the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, the Real IRA's political wing. The 32CSM later lost a challenge in Washington to lift the ban. However, Devine and other fundraisers for the IRPWA have strongly denied the claim and say that their fundraising is legitimate.

Devine, a fundraiser for the Derry section of the organization, was questioned at Newark airport in New Jersey for over five hours by a five man team lead by the FBI, the Northern Ireland Special Branch and MI5. He said he was offered large amounts of money to become an informer and that he was refused contact with a lawyer and a representative from the Irish Embassy.

Devine agrees that he split from the Provisional movement in 1997 in protest at the approaching Good Friday Agreement, which he describes as a "sell out."

Continue Reading... Labels: 32 County Sovereignty, British Special Forces, Informers, IRA, Ireland, MI5, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Real IRA, Sean Devine, Special Branch

Testimony by John Finucane

House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight Hearing - Concerns Regarding Possible Collusion in Northern Ireland: Police and Paramilitary Groups
22 October 2009
Congressional Documents and Publications
Testimony by John Finucane, Belfast, Northern Ireland - October 22, 2009

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Collusion, Douglas Hogg, Finucane, Hogg, IRA, Ireland, MI5, Northern Ireland, Real IRA, Royal Ulster Constabulary, Special Branch

THE USE OF PART TIME SPIES BY MI6

4 April 1991
The Guardian
By Richard Norton-Taylor
(OUTLINE FOLLOWED BY FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE)

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Informers, IRA, Ireland, Keith Littlejohn, Kenneth Littlejohn, MI5, MI6, Special Branch

PSNI takeover of HET probes is 'sinister' say families of victims

18 December 2009
The Irish News
Maeve Connolly

The families of victims of a north Belfast UVF gang protected by Special Branch have described as a "sinister development" the PSNI decision to take over an investigation into police and loyalist paramilitary collusion.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Collusion, Informers, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Special Branch

Hamilton McMillan MI6 (1999)

Hamilton McMillan was named by Howard Marks (drug trafficker) as the intelligence officer who recruited him into MI6.

The reason MI6 wanted Howard Marks was due to his known association with James Joseph McCann, the IRA man who was part of Mark's drug smuggling operations into Ireland.

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Dennis Howard Marks, Douglas Hogg, Drugs, Hamilton McMillan, Hogg, Howard Marks, IRA, Ireland, James Joseph McCann, Jim McCann, McCann, MI5, MI6, Real IRA, Special Branch

Murder, collusion, agents, informers

17 December 2009
Belfast Telegraph
McCord killing claims revealed on US website

EXPLOSIVE collusion allegations have been published by a US Congress body as part of its examination of a loyalist murder case dating back 12 years.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2009, Collusion, Northern Ireland, PSNI, Special Branch

Britain's hidden hand

4 August 2007
Irish Times
As the British army withdraws from the North's streets, an intelligence expert tells Ben Quinn that the role of the 'spooks' behind the soldiers is becoming ever clearer.

Continue Reading... Labels: British Special Forces, Collusion, Dublin bombing, Informers, IRA, Ireland, Littlejohn Brothers, MI5, MI6, Monaghan bombing, Northern Ireland, Real IRA, Special Branch