Chicago Sun-Times Chciago Sun-Times July 4, 2003 3 reporters agree to turn over tapes of interview  BY MIKE ROBINSON  Bowing to a court order, three Chicago newspaper reporters agreed Thursday to hand over tape recordings of interviews with a key witness in a terrorism trial under way in Ireland, attorneys said. Attorneys for the government and the three reporters agreed the tapes would be turned over to federal officials at the door of the Dirksen building this morning. The reporters said they debated the idea of going to jail for contempt of court if necessary to keep control of the tapes. In the end, they decided to comply with U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman's order on the advice of their attorneys, Kathleen Roach and Damon Dunn. ''It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made,'' said Abdon Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times. ''Ultimately, we had two very good lawyers who both advised us that if we went forward with our plan of going to jail and defending our right to not give up the tapes, we might prompt a bad ruling by the 7th Circuit [appellate court] on press freedoms,'' he said. ''That would do more harm than good.'' Attorneys for alleged terrorist Michael McKevitt want the tapes for possible use at his trial, now under way in an Irish court. McKevitt, 53, faces a possible life sentence if convicted of directing terrorism, a charge stemming from the Aug. 15, 1998, car bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland, that killed 29 people and wounded more than 300 others. He is accused of being the leader of the Real IRA, a breakaway faction of the Irish Republican Army that claimed credit for the bombing. McKevitt attorneys are hoping the tapes can be used to cast doubt on the testimony of David Rupert, a onetime Wheatfield, Ind., trucking agent who spied on the IRA for the FBI and Britain's MI5 intelligence service. The Sun-Times' Pallasch and Flynn McRoberts of the Chicago Tribune arranged with Rupert to interview him and write a book about his life and experiences. McRoberts later bowed out of the plan and Sun-Times reporter Robert C. Herguth took his place. The reporters objected to turning tapes of the interviews over to McKevitt's defense with their attorneys citing an Illinois law that protects reporters and their sources from court-ordered disclosure. Guzman on Wednesday ordered the reporters to turn over the tapes Thursday. Instead, they sought an emergency stay from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Moving with unusual speed, the appeals court refused the stay about two hours after the request was filed. The court issued an order in the case and said it would produce a written opinion at an unspecified time. AP