Irish Freedom Committee News List - March 2002 - www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: EASTER GREETINGS from THE IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE

Date: 03 30 02

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PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Saturday March 30, 2002

CONTACT:

Joe Dillon, Chairman

P.O. Box 182

Boston MA 02122

D. Fennessy, Secretary

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

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EASTER GREETINGS from THE IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE

The Irish Freedom Committee sends heartfelt Easter greetings to all of our many friends and supporters here in the US, and around the world, on this Easter Sunday of the year 2002.

We warmly extend fraternal greetings at this consecrated time to all humanitarian and cultural organizations devoted to the pursuit of Freedom with Justice in a United, 32-county, All-Ireland Republic. We offer our sincerest messages of support to all true Republicans held in Irish and British prisons, imprisoned for their continuing opposition to a partitioned and occupied Ireland; and to their families, who must bear the most difficult burden of all. We particularly send messages of solidarity to POWs in Maghaberry who are currently enduring unprecedented levels of British government inhumanity and callous barbarity not seen since the days preceding the 1981 Long Kesh Hunger Strikes.

The Irish Freedom Committee would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all of our members and supporters worldwide who have registered their concerns to British and Irish government bodies in recent weeks, concerning increasingly dangerous and inhumane conditions for Irish Republican POWs. The Irish Freedom Committee has been actively at the forefront of exposing the brutal and inhumane treatment of Irish Republicans, held in prisons maintained by the Free State and British governments, since our formation. We will persist in our work on behalf of these POWs and their families; and we thank all of our supporters for their continuing, and much needed, efforts.

Many established world religions urge their followers to visit those in prison and care for their families. The Irish Freedom Committee asks that whatever your religious calling, please remember in your hearts the families of those who are held in prison this weekend; as we peacefully and respectfully commemorate our Fenian Dead this Easter Sunday.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh as bhur gcúnamh!

THE IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE ®

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Statement From Republican Prisoners Maghaberry Gaol - Visit Threat to Families

Date: 03 30 02

On this Easter weekend, please remember the inordinate trials experienced by family members visiting loved ones held at Maghaberry Prison in Occupied North Ireland.

As our previous press release from Marian Price detailed; young teenage girls are now being asked to undress before guards in order to visit their male relatives held at Maghaberry Prison in Antrim.

Now family members are being asked by their loved ones to cancel all further visits, due to the pronounced physical threat to their well-being by overtly hostile new conditions which require trained guard dogs to be present at every visit.

Please continue to remind the Northern Ireland Prison Service that these families have rights, as all families do, under humanitarian charters guaranteed by the European Court of Human Rights. Please remind the new Governor for the Northern Ireland Prison Service that concerned citizens around the world hold an interest in the humanitarian well being of Irish political prisoners; who are often tried extra-judiciously in the interests of colonial oppressors.

As you gather with your own families on this blessed holiday, please do not forget the families of those who have stood the most to lose by objecting to continued British military rule in Ireland. Please do not let these families think that we have forgotten them. Please email or write the offices below to register your concerns today. Addresses for your emails and letters follow below.

The Irish Freedom Committee ®

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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PRESS RELEASE

March 2002

Statement From Republican Prisoners Maghaberry Gaol.

Republican Political prisoners have, after consultation with our families, friends and legal advisors been forced to announce that from 21st March 2002 they will no longer take closed visits. We have come to this decision because we believe that the passive drugs dog is being used by some screws to harass, intimidate and criminalize us and our visitors on a regular basis. Over the past number of weeks we have made a number of attempts to resolve this issue using senior uniformed officers, Governors, Board of Visitors and the prison Chaplain. Due to a lack of movement we have been forced to make our position public.

We would also like to point out that:

1) Republican prisoners are opposed to and do not condone the use of drugs.

2) No drugs have been found on our visitors or us.

3) The Northern Ireland Prison Service has been ambiguous about how the passive drugs dog is supposed to react, and that recently we have been told “ it is the dog handler and not the dog who decides whether the visit is an open or closed one.”

4) Despite a number of visitors challenging the N.I.P.S. to call the R.U.C. and have them arrested for possessing drugs, they have so far failed to do so.

Finally it appears to us that the N.I.P.S. is trying to force us into confrontation with them over the conditions we are being held under, despite many people, including their own staff, having paid a heavy price in the past over failed attempts to criminalize Republicans.

ENDS

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PLEASE WRITE TO THE NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE

NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE

Room 321

Prison Service Headquarters

Dundonald House

Upper Newtownards Road

BELFAST BT4 3SU

E-Mail: info@niprisonservice.gov.uk

Phone: 028 9052 5065 - (General Enquiry Line)

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NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE

John Reid MP - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Adam Ingram MP - Minister of State

George Howarth MP - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Block B

Castle Buildings

Belfast BT4 3STGTN

Phone: 440 02890 520 700 (24 hours)

Fax: 02890 528473/528478/528482

Email: press.nio.@nics.gov.uk

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Go to www.irishfreedomcommittee.net for up-to-date information about

Irish Republican Political Prisoners and how YOU can help them.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: FBI’s Rupert spied in Derry

Date: 03 29 02

The following story was transcribed and posted by "Stormont Watch", at http://www.voy.com/70381/ . Please see this forum for additional commentary relating to this article.

(NOTE - We are awaiting a copy of this photo from the newspaper-- we will post it here shortly-- IFC NewsList)

Irish Freedom Committee ®

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Lead story – Derry News (weekly)

– Thursday, March 28th 2002

REPORTER – Mark Mullan

EXCLUSIVE

Mole targeted local republicans: FBI’s Rupert spied in Derry

An MI5 and FBI spy inside the Real IRA acted as an “agent provocateur” in Derry over a period of two years, the Derry News can reveal today.

Shocking details of David Rupert’s infiltration of the group that bombed Omagh are set to emerge later this year when he testifies at the trial of alleged RIRA leader Mickey McKevitt. But his activities in the Northwest have been relatively unknown until now.

However, reliable sources in the city – who are closely linked to dissident republicans – revealed that Rupert visited the city at least a dozen times in the late 1990’s and tried on numerous occasions to get local dissident republicans to discuss their role in paramilitary activity.

One source told Derry News that Rupert was introduced to a number of dissident figures in Derry by veteran Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) figure – the Bundoran-based Joe O’Neill.

That meeting took place in May 1998 and was followed by several more until February 2000 when Rupert’s cover was blown.

Until recently, there were no up-to-date photographs of Rupert available anywhere but just last week, his current image was carried on an Internet website.

Although the site was quickly shut down by authorities in America, the Derry News obtained a copy of the picture, which we publish today.

The photo was accompanied by a description of the undercover agent, which described him as overweight, with large ears and a “slightly protruding lower lip”.

EXPERT

During his time in Derry, it is understood that Rupert set himself up as a computer “expert” and would offer to install software for his dissident republican associates and even suggested he could lend them laptop computers.

But those whom he ‘helped’ are now fearful that any information stored on their computers was passed on to Rupert’s handlers in the FBI and MI5.

They also fear that he may have used other bugs and surveillance equipment to record their conversations and gather intelligence on their activities.

This conclusion is based on the fact that Rupert would often try to draw them into conversations on illegal activity – particularly when they were sitting in his car.

Nevertheless, it is understood that Rupert was unable to inflict the same level of damage in Derry as he did in other areas because the local groupings became suspicious of him at an early stage.

The Derry News understands that dissident republicans in the city didn’t trust Rupert with any sensitive information after growing wary of his habit of collecting receipts for all his expenses.

SMUGGLER

An unlikely spy, Rupert is a 20-stone middle-aged bankrupt American businessman turned smuggler.

He came to Ireland in the early nineties after being recruited by a female FBI informer who worked inside Noraid; the Provisional IRA’s support group in the US.

Rupert was in little position to refuse the FBI’s approaches. His Kentucky-based trucking company was £14 million in debt and he was keen to help his brother- who had been arrested on drugs charges in Florida – avoid a jail sentence.

The FBI soon arranged for Rupert to travel to Ireland and by 1996 he and his wife were involved in RSF politics in Bundoran (Co. Donegal).

It was here that Rupert befriended O’Neill – the man who would later vouch for the American when he arrived in Derry.

Rupert’s rise through the ranks of RSF was meteoric and he even worked as a vote counter at the party’s 1997 Ard Fheis.

Rupert is said to have later claimed to associates that the vote was rigged to allow party president Ruairi O’Bradaigh and his supporters to maintain their grip on power.

Rupert was encouraged by his FBI handlers to pass information on RSF’s military wing – the Continuity IRA – to the Garda and by 1997 he was also working for British Intelligence.

An FBI agent took him to a hotel in central London, where he was introduced to an MI5 officer called “Norman” who repeatedly instructed him not to pass all his intelligence to the Gardai and instead issued him with a PO Box address and a secret contact phone number.

But by the end of 1997, intelligence chiefs had concluded that the major threat to the peace process came not from the CIRA but the emerging RIRA.

As such, he was ordered to infiltrate the new group in early 1999, though its political wing – the 32 County Sovereignty Committee.

He quickly gained the trust of the group’s leadership by making large cash donations and working with a support group in Chicago called the Irish Freedom Committee and won the confidence of McKevitt – the Real IRA’s reputed Chief-of-Staff.

Today, Rupert is on an FBI witness protection programme somewhere in the United States and is unlikely to emerge again until he takes the stand to give evidence in McKevitt’s trial, which is scheduled to take place at the non-jury Special criminal Court in Dublin later this year.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: “We’ll wear no convict’s uniform”

Date: 03 29 02

There was ominous talk of a possible hunger strike at a white-line picket in Derry last weekend, as rumors were heard of prison officials giving convicts' uniforms to Republican POWs imprisoned at Maghaberry.

Republicans held at Maghaberry are enduring conditions that prisoners' rights spokeswoman Marian Price has likened to those at Long Kesh immediately prior to the 1981 hunger strikes.

Republican prisoners at Maghaberry Prison in the Occupied North have no shared quarters, no wing of their own; and are held intermingled and greatly outnumbered amongst Loyalist paramilitary prisoners. Several Republican POWs have been viciously attacked under these volatile conditions; most recently in September of last year, when John Martin Swift received seventeen metal staples to his head, fourteen stitches to his face, a broken wrist, and multiple injuries to the rest of his body.

Visitors to Maghaberry are being threatened with dogs, and recently a teenage girl was made to undress for guards. And in a senseless act of sheer inhumanity, prison officials are denying Republican POW Ciaran McLaughlin a short compassionate leave to say goodbye to his 2-year grandson, who is dying of a rare brain disease. The little boy has begged to see his grandfather, who raised him as his own son.

Please call, write and email the Northern Ireland Prison Service at the address below on behalf of Republican prisoners at Maghaberry who have lost all terms of political status, and whose basic right to personal safety has been stripped away as well.

Irish Freedom Committee ®

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE

Room 321

Prison Service Headquarters

Dundonald House

Upper Newtownards Road

BELFAST BT4 3SU

E-Mail: info@niprisonservice.gov.uk

Phone: 028 9052 5065 - (General Enquiry Line)

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Report by Mark Mullan – Derry News

– Thursday, March 28, 2002

Hunger strike could result – claim: “We’ll wear no convict’s uniform”

The Prison Service yesterday strongly denied accusations they are planning to re-introduce a form of prison uniform for inmates at Maghaberry prison.

The claim was made in Derry by the Chairperson of the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Welfare Association (IRPWA) , Marian Price, who warned that a hunger strike may become inevitable if the prison authorities continued to “recriminalise” republicans.

Ms. Price was speaking as around 200 republicans gathered in the Bogside at the weekend to protest against what they say is the removal of political status from the prisoners.

The white-line picket followed a statement, which was released by republican prisoners last week, revealing that they would no longer take closed visits because they believe a sniffer dog – ostensibly used to trace drugs on visitors – was in fact being used to “harass, intimidate and criminalise” them.

The prisoners point out that they oppose the use of drugs and that no such substances have ever been found on any of their visitors.

Supporting the stance taken by the prisoners, Ms. Price compared the conditions inside the gaol with those in 1981 when ten IRA and INLA prisoners died on hunger strike in protest at the removal of special category status – which had effectively recognized them as political prisoners.

“The situation inside the gaol is deteriorating week by week. The rights which were won in 1981 are just being decimated”, she told the Derry News.

“At the end of March, these prisoners are being refused parcels again and there is now talk that instead of wearing their own clothes, prison catalogue will be introduced.

“That’s just the reintroduction of a prison uniform and that will not be accepted by these prisoners. They will not be criminalised”.

Ms. Price also accused the prison authorities of using the prison issue as a weapon with which to “defeat” republicans.

Five Derry Prisoners

She commented: “There are 25 republican prisoners in Maghaberry – approximately five of whom are from Derry – but they are spread out so there are no more than two to a wing. This means that they are very heavily outnumbered by loyalists and ordinary criminals.

“They’re also denied any sort of recognition as political prisoners. When the OC and the Adjutant went to the prison authorities and stated their case they were told those days are long gone.”

“It’s a recriminalisation policy and a way of trying to defeat republicans. They tried it before and they’re trying it again.”.

And while Ms. Price said she hoped a hunger strike could be avoided, she admitted her fear that may be the result if the situation continues to deteriorate.

“Things are dire but I would hope that it doesn’t come to that,” she said. “I would hope that the British and the authorities at Stormont would see sense and realize that this had failed before and it will fail again.

“But being realistic, I have to say it may well come to a hunger strike but I would hope in my heart of hearts that it doesn’t.

“However, the situation is getting worse by the day but as you can see from the crowd here today, this campaign is building momentum and I would hope that before these prisoners have to take some action, we on the outside can achieve something so that they don’t have to.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Prison Service of N. Ireland admitted that parcel deliveries to prisoners were to be restricted but dismissed claims that they were to introduce “prison catalogue clothes” as “rubbish”.

No tobacco

“In order to minimize the risk of drugs and other contraband entering the prisons and to help the service comply more closely with health and hygiene regulations, the contents of prisoners’ parcels will be restricted to clothing, footwear and musical instruments from April 1, 2001.

“It will therefore no longer be possible to send foodstuffs or tobacco to prisoners in parcels.

“This follows an extensive consultation exercise with interested groups including prisoners and their families and as a result of these restrictions on parcels, the range of good available in the prison tuckshop has been enlarged to ensure they stock a sufficient range to meet the prisoners’ requirements”.

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We would like to thank "Stormont Watch" for transcribing and posting this article.

Stormont Watch: http://www.voy.com/70381/

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For more information about brutal conditions at Maghaberry prison, see

http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/september_2001.htm#Subject: POW SEVERELY ATTACKED IN MAGHABERRY PRISON

http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/february_2002.htm#Maghaberry Brutality to Republican POWs and Visitors

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Army `Trained Loyalist Death Squads'

Date: 03 28 02

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Army `Trained Loyalist Death Squads'

PA 03/27/02 21:52

By Mark Sage, PA News

A group of men who claim they were secret agents for anti-terrorist missions in Northern Ireland are to meet Irish government officials, it has been revealed.

The men will travel to Dublin where they will tell Department of Foreign Affairs officials that the British Army trained and equipped loyalist death squads and encouraged assassinations and bombing missions.

The department confirmed that the meeting would go ahead "as a matter of routine" after the allegations were made by self- confessed Army agent Willie Carlin in an interview yesterday.

Mr Carlin claimed that loyalists supplied training and information which was used to target and murder civilians on both sides of the Irish border.

He said many of the agents were recruited into the Force Research Unit of the Army, which acted as an intelligence body above the British government and Special Branch.

Mr Carlin alleged that the purpose of the FRU, which recruited him in 1974, was to redirect "loyalist killing gangs" away from sectarian murder towards "legitimate" republican targets.

"Operations were allowed to go ahead and people lost their lives as a result," he said.

He claimed that John Francis Green, who was killed in Monaghan in 1975, was assassinated by loyalists acting on information received by the British Army.

Mr Carlin told RTE: "The people who killed him got their information from the FRU and they were allowed through the border.

"The route was cleared for them to kill Joe Green and they were allowed safe passage back to Northern Ireland."

The decision to go public and approach the Irish government came after Britain "abandoned" the agents as peace prevailed, Mr Carlin said.

A group of those agents were now threatening to release information claiming that the British authorities withheld information about "killings, break-ins, SAS activity in the republic and information that wasn't passed on", he said.

Among those allegations were claims that loyalist attackers were "encouraged" and given bomb-making training to plant car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan which killed 33 people in 1974.

A top judge is currently heading a Dublin inquiry into the attacks amid claims by survivors and the families of the dead that British security forces colluded with the bombers.

Mr Carlin also claimed that the RUC was given information by agent Kevin Fulton "naming the man who made the Omagh bomb."

Fulton contacted his RUC handlers prior to the attack and warned that a bombing mission was being planned in the province, although he could not specify where.

Northern Ireland police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan concluded after her investigation into the Omagh probe that Fulton's information was not given "sufficient weight" or adequately followed up, although she said it was unlikely the details could have prevented the bombing.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said: "A group of people claiming to be former British agents wrote to the Taoiseach requesting a meeting.

"They were given a standard reply as you or I would if we made such a request."

It would now be arranged for a department official to meet the men "as a matter of routine" after Easter, the spokesman added.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: FBI and MI5 paid supergrass $27,500 a month

Date: 03 28 02

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FBI and MI5 paid supergrass $27,500 a month

By Barry O'Kelly

Dublin, Ireland, 24 March, 2002

Supergrass David Rupert received monthly payments of up to $27,500 and a house with a jacuzzi from British and US intelligence services for his information on the Real IRA, The Sunday Business Post has learned.

Rupert originally told the Garda Special Branch that he was only paid for his expenses by the FBI and MI5, according to informed sources.

However, it has now been established that he was paid monthly sums of between $2,000 and $12,000 and an annual bonus of $15,000 through an account in the Bank of Ireland in Sligo up until Christmas 2000. He was also paid though accounts in London and the Cayman Islands.

The monthly payments were increased in January 2001 to $27,500 after Rupert agreed to give evidence against the alleged head of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt. It is believed this information was not originally furnished to the Garda by MI5 and the FBI.

Rupert's wife, Maureen Alben Rupert is also believed to have received separate payments from the intelligence services. Rupert is due to give evidence later this year against McKevitt, who is accused of directing terrorism.

It is believed that the office of the North's police ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, is examining a complaint arising from revelations last month about Rupert's possible knowledge about the Omagh bombing. The office has yet to decide if the complaint warrants an investigation.

According to correspondence between Rupert and MI5, the supergrass identified members of the Continuity IRA in Donegal who were allegedly planning to target Derry or Omagh with a massive car bomb.

While these men aborted the mission in April 1998, they are alleged by Garda sources to have provided intelligence and logistical back-up for the attack by the Real IRA the following August.

After the bombing, 52-year-old Rupert made the startling admission to his British handlers that Omagh was one of the potential targets he had "mentioned" to the Continuity IRA activists.

The American informant was instructed to leave the Republic the day after the atrocity.

He was flown out on the first available flight to London where he was debriefed over a two-day period by MI5 in London, the correspondence reveals.

Rupert specifically asked MI5 on the day after the bombing to "insulate" him from the gardai.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Teenage Girls Abused and Humiliated in Maghaberry Searches

Date: 03 26 02

Please write or telephone the Northern Ireland Prison Service at the address below, to register your concerns at this outrage being permitted by Maghaberry Prison guards against underage girls in their confines.

We are also asking that you forward this message below from prisoners' rights spokeswoman Marian Price, to your local newspapers and to any humanitarian organizations in your community.

The Irish Freedom Committee

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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In a statement released to the media today from Belfast, prisoners' rights activist Marian Price said the following:

"Two young sisters from Co. Tyrone, aged 14 & 16 yrs, were subjected to unacceptable searches in Maghaberry Gaol on Sunday 24th March 2002. They had gone to the prison to visit their brother who is a Political Prisoner on remand there. When they were brought into the search boxes they were subjected to the usual thorough procedure, but in what can only be seen as a sinister and alarming departure from the norm, the 16 year old was told to “ drop your trousers “. This shy and innocent young girl was so taken aback she asked was the screw “ only joking “, she was told in none too friendly terms that was not the case. The young girl complied much to her own embarrassment, as she wanted to see her brother. To add insult to injury the girls were then refused a visit when the so-called ‘ passive sniffer dog ‘ sat down at their male companion. We view this as the latest in the on going and worsening treatment of the Republican Prisoners and their families in Maghaberry Gaol. The authorities appear intent on forcing confrontation as they continue to abuse these men’s Human Rights. It seems they have learnt nothing and fail to realise that Republican Prisoner will never accept Criminalisation. We call on the incoming new Governor and new Head of the N.I.P.S. to see sense, give these men their Rights and avert further tragedies."

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PLEASE WRITE OR TELEPHONE:

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NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE

Room 321

Prison Service Headquarters

Dundonald House

Upper Newtownards Road

BELFAST BT4 3SU

E-Mail: info@niprisonservice.gov.uk

Phone: 028 9052 5065 - (General Enquiry Line)

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Secret Infiltrator of the Real IRA - The Observer

Date: 03 24 02

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The Observer

Secret infiltrator of the Real IRA

For the first time, the full story of the smuggler the FBI recruited to spy on terrorists is revealed

Henry McDonald

Sunday March 24, 2002

He is a 6ft 5in giant, but no one knows what he looks like. He could be the key to one of the most important terrorist trials for decades - but no one knows his story.

Now The Observer can reveal both the first up-to-date picture of David Rupert, the 51-year-old FBI and MI5 spy who infiltrated the Real IRA, and tell the full tale of how a bankrupt businessman turned smuggler was drawn into the shadowy and lethal world of covert operations against Irish republican terror and ended up as the key witness against the group believed to be behind the Omagh bombing.

The 20-stone American arrived in Ireland in the early Nineties after being recruited by a female FBI informant who worked inside Noraid, the Provisional IRA's support group in the US.

Though with his Anglo-Saxon Protestant background Rupert was an unlikely supporter of Irish republicanism, infiltrating the movement proved straightforward. The FBI agent handling the female Noraid informer arranged for the pair to travel as a couple to Co Donegal to link up with Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), the only group then opposed to the Provisional IRA's ceasefire.

Rupert, who owed creditors $20 million (£14m) on accident claims against his Kentucky-based trucking company and in unpaid US tax, had strong financial motives for helping the FBI. He was also keen to keep his brother, who had been arrested in Florida while smuggling marijuana in watermelons, out of prison.

In 1996 Rupert used FBI funds to lease the Drowes pub and a holiday caravan park in Tullallen, Co Leitrim. He later abandoned the pub, which was subsequently burnt down in mysterious circumstances. Rupert and his wife, Maureen, became active in the politics of the RSF, gaining the confidence of former IRA prisoner Joe O'Neil.

At the end of 1996, the FBI asked Rupert to contact a detective in the Garda Siochana. Soon he was passing them information about republican dissidents.

He was told to concentrate on RSF's paramilitary wing, the Continuity IRA. Rupert ingratiated himself with the hardline group by ferrying cash from the United States to Ireland, usually between $10,000 to $15,000 on each trip, for republican prisoners.

By the summer of 1997, Rupert became involved with British intelligence. An FBI agent took him to a hotel in central London, where he was introduced to an MI5 officer who called himself Norman.

Norman advised Rupert not to pass all his information to the Gardai and provided him with a PO Box address and a secret contact phone number. MI5 urged him to offer intelligence to the Continuity IRA about British Army and police bases in Northern Ireland. Posing as American tourists awe-struck by the security installations, Rupert and his wife would stop at border crossing points such as Aughnacloy and take pictures and videos of themselves. They were then told to offer the material to the Continuity IRA in Donegal.

But by the end of 1997, intelligence chiefs had concluded that the Continuity IRA posed little threat to the peace process. Instead, it was felt the serious danger to stability in the Province came from a new organisation that emerged from a split within the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein. The Real IRA had broken away over Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness's peace strategy.

The new dissident force included some of the Provisional IRA's most capable bomb-makers including the so-called quarter-master general who effectively controlled the Provos' arsenal. In America, the Irish Republic and Britain, the Real IRA was swiftly recognised as a new and potent threat.

In early 1999, the decision was taken to infiltrate Rupert into the Real IRA and its political wing, the 32 County Sovereignty Committee. His route into the new dissidents started in Chicago, where the Irish Freedom Committee, founded in 1989 to support RSF, was based. The Irish-American group had been riven by divisions over whether to support the Real IRA and, according to Irish security sources, Rupert's handlers told him to back the pro-Real IRA faction in the Irish Freedom Committee. By September of that year he was asked, for instance, to work on the 32 County Sovereignty Committee's website. It was clear that he had managed to win the confidence of the terror group's political wing.

However, The Observer 's investigation has discovered that it is unclear if Rupert ever met Michael McKevitt, alleged leader of the Real IRA, who is in prison awaiting trial. It has emerged that when, in November 2000, it was first suggested to Rupert that he testify against McKevitt, the American informer balked at the idea.

It is understood that he changed his mind after the FBI told him it knew of his affair with a member of the Irish Freedom Committee in Chicago. Federal agents even produced photographs of the flat in downtown Chicago where they alleged that Rupert met the woman.

Since agreeing to testify against McKevitt, Rupert has come under pressure to give evidence against other Real IRA and Continuity IRA figures, including Colm Murphy, the only man convicted of offences relating to the Omagh bomb attack.

Rupert, who is on an FBI witness protection programme somewhere in the United States, will not be joined in court by his FBI and MI5 handlers to give evidence in McKevitt's trial, which is scheduled to take place at the non-jury Special Criminal Court in Dublin later this year.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Vincent McKevitt - URGENT ACTION APPEAL

Date: Friday March 22, 2002

The Irish Freedom Committee is making an urgent appeal on behalf of Vincent McKevitt to all of our members and supporters in the US and around the world.

Telephone calls, faxes, emails and letters are urgently needed to the Dublin government's Justice Department and other contacts listed below; calling for an immediate granting of compassionate bail to Vincent McKevitt on health grounds.

Vincent McKevitt suffered a serious heart attack in Portlaoise on Wednesday March 6th, after complaining of feeling ill for 4-5 days previous to this. He was taken into Portlaoise Hospital and given tests to determine if he had suffered a heart attack, which proved positive.

He was held at Portlaoise Hospital for two days, and on Friday March 8th he was transferred by prison van to the Mater Hospital in Dublin, where he was operated on to clear two blockages to his arteries. The operation was only partly successful, and a second artery remains dangerously blocked.

Specialists had recommended that Vincent remain under medical observation at the Mater due to a 70% chance that he could have another heart attack in the near future. However prison authorities removed him back Portlaoise Prison on Tuesday the 12th; where he is today.

Due to the remaining second blockage, Vincent cannot exert himself in the slightest. His heart is seriously damaged and will not take any strain at all. Climbing stairs is a severe problem for him, and at this time we are awaiting assurance from the prison that he is not being required to climb stairs during the course of his day at Portlaoise. He is constantly exhausted and clearly needs this second operation immediately.

The prior record of health care given to political prisoners at Portlaoise has been tarnished and exposed by the utter neglect suffered by Kevin Murray last year, as he slowly deteriorated and died of a massive brain tumor-- while prison doctors told his family he was suffering from 'depression'. The responsibility for Kevin Murray's death remains solely on the hands of the prison infirmary at Portlaoise, which could have ordered x-rays early last year when Kevin first began to complain of massive headaches and dizziness. This same infirmary and its doctors are now responsible for Vincent McKevitt's health, which remains in very serious danger.

Vincent made an appeal for compassionate bail on health grounds at a remand hearing on Tuesday March 19th. As yet there has been no word from the Justice Department on whether it will grant this appeal.

Please contact the Dublin Justice Department and Prisons Department, as well as the human rights agencies and other sources listed below; and let them know that you are most concerned for the health of Vincent McKevitt in his present situation. Mention the prior appalling record of health care at the Portlaoise infirmary given to political prisoners.

Demand that Vincent McKevitt be granted an immediate compassionate bail on health grounds, before another tragedy occurs under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. Let them know you are informed of the details of his situation, and are watching carefully. A sample letter is posted below for your reference.

Please telephone, e-mail, fax or write to these contacts TODAY.

Vincent's health is severely compromised under the conditions at Portlaoise, and there is no guarantee that should he fall ill again, the Portlaoise infirmary will properly care for him.

Go raibh maith agat;

D. Fennessy

The Irish Freedom Committee

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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(SAMPLE LETTER)

Mister John O'Donoghue, T.D.

Minister for Justice

Justice Department

72-76, St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

A chara,

Many of us here in the Irish-American community are very concerned about the seemingly rough and potentially dangerous treatment of Vincent McKevitt recently by prison authorities at Portlaoise Gaol and the Department of Justice. No matter what any of our views may be about the reasons for Mister McKevitt's imprisonment, we are very anxious indeed about the possibility of another case like Kevin Murray, which many of us are just now learning about.

Is it not possible to provide a short term hospitalization and thorough tests so as to avoid another needless loss of life?

Many of us in the Irish American community are waiting for your answer before we decide what to do in good conscience.

_______________

************************************************

PLEASE WRITE, TELEPHONE, FAX or E-MAIL:

Mister John O'Donoghue, T.D.

Minister for Justice

Justice Department

72-76, St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel: (from US)- (011) 353- 602-8202

or 011-353 -66-72413 and 66-72631

Fax: (from US)- (011) 353- 661-5461

e-mail: minister@justice.ie

-------------

Frank McDermott

Prisons Operations Division

Irish Prisons Service

Justice Department

72-76, St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel: (from US)- (011) 353- 602-8202

or 011-353 -66-72413 and 66-72631

Fax: (from US)- (011) 353- 661-5461

e-mail: Frank_J._McDermott@justice.ie

-------------

Amnesty International - Ireland

Sean MacBride House

48 Fleet Street

Dublin

IRELAND

Tel: (from US) (011) 353 1 677 63 61

Fax: (from US) (011) 353 1 677 63 92

e-mail: info@amnesty.iol.ie

----------------

(NEWS SOURCES)

The Irish Times

Letters to the Editor

The Irish Times,

10-16 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2.

Fax: (from US) (011) 353 1 671 9407

E-mail: lettersed@irish-times.ie

The Sunday Business Post

Letters to the Editor

80 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2.

Editorial Fax: (from US) (011) 1 679 6498

(from US) (011) 1 679 6496

Editorial e-mail: sbpost@iol.ie

----------------

Please cc your letters/emails with the following:

- Your local newspaper OP ED page

- Your local US Congressman

The Dublin Government has worked hard to keep what goes on inside its' prisons under wraps. It will influence the Dublin Government somewhat if it knows that members of the US Government and leading US newspapers are aware of what is going on inside these prisons.

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PLEASE SEND GET WELL WISHES TO VINCENT MCKEVITT

Vincent McKevitt, Political Prisoner

Portlaoise Prison

Portlaoise, Co. Laoise

Ireland

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For more information on the DEATH BY NEGLECT of POW Kevin Murray please go to:

http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/kmurray.htm

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

-----------------------------

Subject: The Secrets of Castlereagh

Date: 03 22 02

Sunday Herald On-Line
March 22, 2002

The break-in at Castlereagh barracks was carried out by British Army intelligence to preserve the identity of an army agent deep inside the IRA, writes Home Affairs Editor Neil Mackay

IT was around noon last Saturday when I received a phone call from a former British military intelligence officer which was to lead a day later to one of the most daring -- and illegal -- adventures by undercover army officers in the history of the Irish Troubles.

That phone call was part of a chain of events which would lead to the St Patrick's Day break-in by British Army spies into the Special Branch offices of the RUC in Castlereagh in Belfast -- supposedly the most secure security force barracks in western Europe. Their aim was simple: to steal secret documents relating to a spy they had been running within the ranks of the IRA. They pulled it off.

The military intelligence officer asked if I could help him . He was worried that the Irish Sunday Tribune newspaper -- with which the Sunday Herald has a close working relationship -- was about to 'out' a friend called Kevin Fulton (not his real name). Fulton is a British Army soldier sent deep under cover within the ranks of the IRA -- a prize agent for Britain. The threat to expose him would have signed his death warrant. The Tribune had no intention of 'outing' Fulton.

It is unclear how the rumour started, but Fulton is no longer a friend of the British state, so the claims could have been a nasty piece of black propaganda put about to frighten him. He has recently turned whistleblower and has been co-operating with investigations into some of the biggest intelligence scandals in the history of Northern Ireland's 'dirty war'. This included devastating claims that the RUC effectively allowed the Omagh bomb to go off in 1999, killing 29 people, despite receiving warnings from him that the atrocity was planned. The RUC's motive was allegedly to preserve the cover of a highly placed double-agent within the Real IRA.

Late last Saturday I spoke to Fulton and reassured him that the Tribune had no plans to 'out' him. But a few hours later other rumours began to circulate that Fulton was planning to 'out' the British Army's star agent within the IRA in revenge for his cover being put in jeopardy. It was this that led directly to the raid on Castlereagh a night later. The rumours filtered all the way up to the very highest echelons within the Ministry of Defence even though Fulton had no intention of 'outing' the agent.

The agent who Fulton was thought to be about to 'out' is a senior IRA man code-named Stakeknife. Unlike Fulton, he is not 'one of the good guys'. He isn't a British agent inserted into the IRA, he is a IRA gunman who turned double-agent for an estimated £75,000 a year from the army through a bank account in Gibraltar. And he's been in the pay of the British for around 30 years.

Stakeknife's role has been intensely scrutinised over the past 18 months. The Scotland Yard inquiry team investigating alleged collusion between British security forces, police and terrorists, led by Met Commissioner Sir John Stevens, has been unofficially sniffing around this shadowy character, and has spoken to former British Army personnel who know of his activities.

The Stevens team are about to complete their mammoth investigation, due out around the end of April, and there has already been jittery speculation that some element of the Stevens report might refer to Stakeknife. No one in British intelligence wants that kind of information to come out. So the thought that the whole house of cards could have come tumbling down even before the Stevens Inquiry wrapped up -- if Fulton opened his mouth -- appears to have been too much to take. Hence the break-in at Castlereagh barracks at 10.11pm last Sunday to remove all traces of Stakeknife from Special Branch files.

At the barrack's checkpoint, the Covert Methods of Entry (CME) team flashed army passes and went to room 220 on the building's first floor which houses branch files. CME teams are trained in lock- picking, safe-cracking, burglary, by-passing alarm systems and unarmed combat.

One of the three-man team punched the branch officer guarding the room in the mouth, put a hood over him and played music to drown out the noise of their activities . The officer was threatened that they'd 'stick him with a syringe' if he caused any trouble. Only one of the team spoke -- he had an English accent. They took a notebook, some files and a few other documents and were out of the building within 16 minutes. Military intelligence sources say the raid and the documents could only have related to Stakeknife.

The CME teams are trained by the Intelligence Corps, based at Ashford in Kent. The Intelligence Corps also runs the ultra-secret counter-intelligence outfit the FRU, the Force Research Unit. It is the FRU -- the intelligence agency which runs Stakeknife as an agent -- which is at the centre of the Stevens Inquiry over claims that it used paramilitary groups as proxy assassination teams. The FRU was headed by Brigadier Gordon Kerr, from Aberdeen. He is now the British embassy's military attachŽ in Beijing.

His unit is supposed to have colluded with the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association in the murder of at least 14 Catholic civilians in Northern Ireland by handing intelligence on republican targets to Brian Nelson, the loyalist group's chief intelligence officer. It subsequently transpired that Nelson, a former soldier in the Black Watch , had infiltrated the UDA for intelligence chiefs in order to facilitate this 'state-sanctioned murder campaign'.

The principal killing that Stevens is investigating is the gunning down in 1989 of solicitor Pat Finucane by loyalists . Former FRU members have co-operated with the Stevens Inquiry in the past about the role the unit played in the murder.

According to FRU sources, Brian Nelson would 'look like a pussycat' compared to the activities of Stakeknife. That's why military intelligence are so desperate to protect him. 'It would be tantamount to being exposed as running a Latin American-style murder squad if the truth came out,' one said. Unlike Nelson, Stakeknife sometimes did the killings himself. He is also supposed to have arranged for republican targets to be in the wrong place at the wrong time so loyalist hit teams could 'take them out'. An intelligence source added: 'This guy was licensed to kill and he killed very many people -- or arranged their deaths.'

The CME team knew exactly what to do to extract all details on Stakeknife from Castlereagh. Until the middle of last week the Special Branch files had been contained in an annexe in the grounds of the police complex. The documents were moved by branch officers to room 220 when workmen arrived last week to start refurbishing the annexe.

The fact that the three-man team knew to go to room 220 immediately implies that there may be some inside knowledge being fed to them from the branch. The men made no attempt to disguise their identities and didn't care that they had to go past CCTV cameras before entering room 220. Either they knew they'd be out of Northern Ireland within a few hours of the job being done or they were aware that none of the CCTV cameras records images on tape -- again this implies inside knowledge. The military passes carried by the men would also have given them clearance to get into the Special Branch section of Castlereagh -- again implying inside help from the police.

One former FRU source said: 'There was no way it was paramilitaries -- they couldn't pull it off. The branch couldn't do it as they'd get spotted by their own pals in the RUC and MI5 just don't do rough stuff like this. There's no one except an intelligence corps CME team who could do this and there is no other motive for them doing it than protecting Stakeknife.'

Although RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan says no informers' names were among the documents, intelligence sources claim it's what Flanagan doesn't say that is more telling. 'He doesn't say there was nothing to do with the activities of informers -- and if we are talking about Stakeknife that's crucial,' said one.

An FRU source who used to handle republican informers described Stake knife as a 'vile character', adding: 'If what he was doing came out it would cause massive problems. He'd put the activities of people like Brian Nelson in the shade. He was being directed by the state. He caused the deaths of active republicans and was also allowed to carry on acting as a conventional terrorist -- doing shootings -- with the complicity of his handlers in order to keep his cover.'

Crucially, the FRU's 'east detachment' is based in the so-called 'Green Hut' within the grounds of Castlereagh -- a good source of support and information for the CME team which would have been dropped into Ulster from England shortly before the raid to 'recce' the barracks. Once they'd completed the operation they'd have made their way to a 'clean house' probably on the outskirts of Belfast and headed back to Ashford in Kent, most likely on board a military helicopter from RAF Aldergrove.

This isn't the first time that an army intelligence CME team has tampered with police operations. At the very start of Sir John Stevens' investigations in Ulster -- on January 10, 1990 -- a CME team broke into his Carrickfergus offices and torched the premises. The fire was started at 10.30pm under a table next to a cabinet containing exhibits and statements prepared for the forthcoming arrest of Brian Nelson. The fire alarms had been disabled and telephone lines were dead. A few hours earlier Nelson had fled Northern Ireland on a tip-off from the FRU. FRU whistleblower Martin Ingram (a cover name) says he saw CME specialists celebrating their arson success later in an army bar.

There has even been speculation that some rogue elements within the British Army tried to sabotage Stevens' light aircraft last year. It crash-landed after the undercarriage and air instruments failed in mid-flight -- a situation the manufacturers said was unheard of. An investigation into the incident was hampered when a fire destroyed evidence.

Two separate investigations into the Castlereagh break-in are now under way -- one by the police and one by Sir John Chilcot, a former Whitehall mandarin and an expert on Northern Ireland, who will be assisted by Sir Colin Smith, a former Thames Valley chief constable. Their inquiry will endeavour to find out if rogue security forces were involved. Nuala O'Loan, the Northern Irish police ombudsman, will also launch an investigation if it becomes clear any police officers were involved in the case.

Last night, intelligence sources and former British agents were sure nobody would ever be called to account for 'Branchgate' as the break-in has been dubbed. One could barely conceal his contempt as he described his view of the vow by John Reid, the Ulster secretary, to not rest until he got to the bottom of the 'national security' breach.

'How can this be a breach of national security,' he said, 'when it's obvious that the men who did it are at the very heart of British national security? It leaves you with the feeling that we're living in the biggest sham of a democracy in the world.'

24 March 2002

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

-----------------------------

Subject: Force Resistance Unit Suspected in 'Break-in'

Date: 03 20 02

The Force Resistance Unit (FRU) of the British Army's Military Intelligence division was established in the early 1980s as the "eyes and ears" of the British Army, recruiting informers and keeping abreast of the activities of republicans and loyalists. Nearly all of its members came from an army background, or were handpicked out of their regiments in the Army or the Royal Marines. Many recruits came directly from the SAS. The FRU was housed separately in its own secure compounds, and became an elite "force within a force" with powers above and beyond those of the RUC's Special Branch.

The FRU were responsible in 1987 for removing agent Brian Nelson from Germany to a paid home and secure taxi job in Belfast, and recruiting him to be the UDA intelligence officer for the whole of Ireland. While he worked for the FRU Brian Nelson was a courier between British Military Intelligence and the UDA, transferring detailed personal information to loyalist paramilitary assassins on republicans, activists, Nationalist politicians, and ordinary working class Catholics. This activity led to the assassinations of untold dozens of people, all to this day "unsolved"; suggesting a well established campaign by the British Army of "assassination by proxy".

For more reading on the FRU and British Army Intelligence operations in Occupied Ireland, see "Ten-Thirty-Three: The Inside Story of Britain's Secret Killing Machine in Northern Ireland", Nicholas Davies, 1999. Mainstream Publishing Company (Edinburgh) Ltd. ISBN# 1 84018 343 8

The Irish Freedom Committee

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

************************************************

Irish Times

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Speculation FRU may be behind break-in

The theft of files from Special Branch offices in Belfast could have far-reaching consequences for the North's intelligence agencies and paramilitary informants, writes Jim Cusack, Security Correspondent

The complex from which sensitive files were stolen on Sunday night was one of the centres used by the British army's shadowy undercover squad, the Force Research Unit (FRU). The squad is highly controversial; it has never been officially acknowledged and its operations are always denied.

While there was no evidence to connect members of the FRU with the break-in and theft of files on informants, police sources in Northern Ireland were already speculating it might have been behind the break-in.

The FRU has sufficient skills and also the possible motivation. It has been at the centre of controversy over its involvement with loyalist groups which killed figures such as solicitors Patrick Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.

There have been many claims by loyalists - most particularly UDA (Ulster Defence Association) members - that they had close associations with undercover British soldiers at the time they were involved in assassination campaigns against republicans and nationalists. These claims are being backed by ex-members of the undercover military squads who feel they were badly treated by the army after risking their lives in Northern Ireland.

A small number of ex-soldiers have begun writing books and a group has come together to lobby British politicians and the media.

Combined with developments such as the Police Ombudsman's delving into the actions of the RUC Special Branch, it is reported there is resentment and suspicion in the North's intelligence and undercover community.

One source yesterday said the theft of files from The Laddis Drive Centre is bound to strike fear of exposure into police or army informants in paramilitary organisations. The paramilitary fate of an uncovered informant is execution, normally after prolonged torture.

Security sources are speculating that the FRU, with elements of the Special Branch, is beginning to feel the activities of its members and the identities of its sources are under threat.

The pressure for public inquiries into the murders of Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson must concern the FRU which is known to be closely associated with loyalist elements responsible.

Most importantly, the FRU is being accused of passing on intelligence files on the movements of IRA figures, but also by mistake on innocent civilians, which loyalists used to carry out assassinations. This was the subject of another police inquiry from September 1989 to May 1990 under the then deputy chief constable for Cambridgeshire and now Chief Constable of the London Metropolitan Police, Mr John Stevens.

The Stevens' Inquiry found evidence that military figures handed over thousands of files to loyalists. Several low-level arrests were made and a number of soldiers and loyalists, including the UDA's West Belfast commander, Tommy Lyttle, were sentenced.

However, as one source said yesterday, the Stevens' Inquiry team also had an experience strikingly similar to that of Sunday night. In January 1990, just as the team of English detectives was making headway into their inquiries on collusion between the military and loyalists, a suspicious fire broke out at their supposedly secure offices in the then RUC complex at Carrickfergus, Co Antrim.

The fire broke out in the team's locked offices only in the large complex. At the time, the Stevens' team was concentrating on the relationship between the FRU and the UDA. Investigators had planned to arrest five prominent figures, including the UDA's director of intelligence Brian Nelson, the day after the fire.

Nelson was tried for a number of murders, served a reduced sentence, and was given a new identity. He is presumed to be living abroad. Another ex-British army figure who was infiltrated into the UDA, and was involved in the Finucane murder, was William Stobie. Stobie was assassinated by the UDA last December after publicly admitting his dual role.

Nelson was subsequently shown to have been planted in the UDA by the army and fed information on republicans by members of the FRU. Nelson, in turn, passed back information about UDA activities. However, this relationship failed to prevent a number of murders in the late 1980s in Belfast, including that of Mr Finucane.

Loyalist sources have indicated to The Irish Times that the relationship between the FRU and the UDA, which started in the mid-1970s, has continued to the present. They also said there are suspicions about connections between the FRU and loyalists who carried out the assassination of Rosemary Nelson.

Elements from both the UDA and the splinter loyalist group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, were equally involved in Ms Nelson's murder. Although it is believed they acted independently of their army contacts, loyalist sources say a number of figures close to the murder have dubious contacts with "military intelligence".

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE NEWSLIST

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

-----------------------------

Subject: Special Branch "Break-In" the Work of Army Intelligence?

Date: 03 19 02

The so-called "break-in" this weekend at Castlereagh Barracks, one of the most securely guarded buildings in all of Occupied Ireland, had " the hallmarks of a branch of the intelligence community panicking"; according to today's news stories.

The burglars passed through armed guards posted outside the barracks and entered a secure wing of the building, needing several keypad number codes to pass. They apparently knew exactly what they wanted, and went directly to a secure filing cabinet to remove interview notes and "highly sensitive" documents pertaining to an as-yet unspecified case.

In the aftermath of the O'Loan allegations of missing evidence and a vast cover-up in the Omagh investigation, it is hard to say exactly what evidence or interview notes might have been so important to destroy in the Special Branch files at the Castlereagh Barracks. But it is clear to many observers that this job had the tacit approval of some very senior British Army and Special Branch personnel.

Irish Freedom Committee

www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

----------------------------

Items below:

-Raid bore "all hallmarks of an inside job" - Irish News, 03

-Castlereagh raid was unusual but not unique - Irish News, 03

-A Sinister Crime - The Guardian, 04 20 00

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IRISH NEWS report by Barry McCafferty & Sharon O’Neill, Front & inside pages – Mar. 19, 2002

Headline –

RAID BORE ”ALL HALLMARKS OF AN INSIDE JOB”

SECURITY force involvement in the theft of highly sensitive Special Branch files from Castlereagh could not be ruled out, a senior police source last night admitted.

Highly placed sources said the raiders knew intimate details of the layout of the Special Branch offices, passed through a manned police checkpoint, gained entry to rooms secured by a coded keypad and opened secured cabinets.

A senior police officer, close to Special Branch, speculated the break-in bore the hallmarks of a branch of the intelligence community panicking.

However, sources close to the investigation into the robbery last night insisted that files relating to the Omagh inquiry and the murders of lawyers Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane were not taken.

It is expected police may today detail the nature of the highly sensitive documents which were removed from the office.

The east Belfast police station was yesterday cordoned off while forensic experts trawled the scene of Sunday night’s raid.

A Special Branch officer was bound, gagged and badly beaten during the incident.

It is understood three masked men entered the first floor office shortly before 11 PM. One of the men was described as having an English accent.

A police source within Castlereagh said the breach of security has potentially serious consequences.

“It’s extremely serious. All security arrangements were in place. There are different levels of security and there are layers of security to access the offices.

“It is absolutely clear that these people knew exactly where they were going and what they were looking for.

“We will be looking for certain key documents and record systems. If they are gone we have problems.

“It’s not the loss of the records but the compromise of the individuals”.

A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman’s Office said at this stage it would not be playing a lead role in the investigation but admitted that officials would be monitoring developments closely.

A former police officer, with detailed knowledge of the running of the Special Branch, last night questioned how and why the raid could have taken place.

“If this was the work of someone out of the intelligence branches, namely MI5, FRU (British army’s Force Research Unit) or Special Branch itself, it seems clear that they did not get authorization from above,” said the source.

“Otherwise the whole thing would have been carried out far more subtly. The fact that they had to break into the offices tells you that they didn’t have anyone on the inside that they felt they could trust.

“Otherwise the person on the inside could have just taken files out over a number of weeks.

“Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing and was also able to get access to very sensitive files which are always locked up in secure cabinets to stop this kind of thing happening.

“I have worked with the Special Branch for 30 years and I wouldn’t know how to do this sort of thing.

“To me this smacks of people panicking about something”, he said.

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IRISH NEWS – Report by Barry McCafferty – Tuesday, March 19th, 2002

Castlereagh raid was unusual but not unique

WHILE Sunday night’s raid at one of the most heavily protected police stations in Britain is unusual, it is not unique.

Senior police sources were last night questioning the “highly professional” manner in which the raid on the Castlereagh station took place. It is believed that security measures were increased on controversial police investigations after a similar raid on offices belonging to Sir John Stevens 12 years ago.

In that incident, the offices of Sir John, the (English) police officer investigating allegations of security forces collusion in the murder of lawyer Pat Finucane, were mysteriously set on fire.

Sir John’s team had been preparing to arrest UDA man and British army agent Brian Nelson at dawn the next day. Detectives had found Brian Nelson’s fingerprints on security force documents leaked to the UDA, which had been seized during police raids.

The night before he was due to be arrested, Nelson was spirited away to England by his handlers, who feared that his arrest would expose collusion between members of the intelligence community and loyalist paramilitaries.

On the same night, a fire devastated the Stevens’ team’s offices and would have gutted the investigation as well, had the team not stored backup copies of key documents in a computer system in England.

When members of Sir John’s team discovered the fire (three hours before the planned arrest of Brian Nelson) they also discovered telephone lines had been cut and the fire alarms were not working.

Similar to Sunday night’s raid, the Stevens’ team offices were inside an RUC complex, at Seapark in Carrickfergus, which was under round-the-clock guard.

A former member of the British army’s Force Research Unit has since alleged that the British army deployed a ‘covert methods of entry’ unit to set the fire in the Stevens’ team office.

The latest controversy to hit the Special Branch follows a 12-month period in which the ‘force within a force’ has rarely been out of the headlines.

Central to repeated criticism of the department is the fact that on matters relating to operations against paramilitary organizations, Special Branch had primacy over all other police departments.

A former chief superintendent alleged that: “From the running of informants, to arrests and raid operations or even surveillance, we need Special Branch approval. And it was only given if it suited them”.

It has long been claimed that MI5 controls the overall operations of Special Branch in the Six Counties.

Special Branch was first described by John Stalker as a “force within a force” when he was brought in to investigate allegations that the RUC was operating a shoot-to-kill policy in the 1980s.

Stalker was later to claim that his investigation had been deliberately hampered by the Special Branch.

In the early 1990s, Sir John Stevens called for Special Branch’s powers to be reduced and for it to be made more accountable.

In 1997 Chris Patten called for significant changes in the Special Branch and for it to be brought together with the CID under the central command of a single ACC -assistant chief constable.

Last year the Special Branch again came in for widespread criticism during the Omagh inquiry, with the Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan castigating its failure to disclose the fact that it was warned about a bomb 11 days before the Omagh explosion. Nuala O’Loan further criticized the Special Branch for the lack of effective guidelines for the sharing of information to other police departments.

Expressing dismay at Sunday night’s raid, Lord Mayor of Belfast Jim Rodgers, regarded as a staunch supporter of the police, said: “Not for one moment do I believe that either a republican or loyalist organization has been responsible. It’s someone who knows something about the workings of Castlereagh and the layout. People are going to ask deep and searching questions”.

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A Sinister Crime

By John Ware

The Guardian

Thursday April 20, 2000

The most sensitive police inquiry ever undertaken in Northern Ireland was sabotaged by British soldiers themselves who burnt down the inquiry's offices, alleges Martin Ingram, a former army intelligence officer. The policeman in charge of that inquiry was Sir John Stevens, now Metropolitan police commissioner. He has also let it be known privately that he strongly suspects arson, and I can now shed more light on this extraordinary affair.

For complete article go to:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4010064,00.html

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For some interesting reading on Brian Nelson look for:

"Ten-Thirty-Three: The Inside Story of Brit

IFC NewsList - Irish Republican News - March 2002