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December 25, 2005

Hain Attacks Tories On Ireland

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News about Ireland & the Irish

BB 12/25/05 Hain Attacks Tories On N Ireland
II 12/25/05 Man Behind McCartney Killing Possible Informer
II 12/25/05 Tout-Naming,Agent-Identifying, InformerSpotting
DO 12/25/05 U.S. Links IRA Leader To Forged Notes
II 12/25/05 Gardai Fear Donaldson Is Now Being Held Captive

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4559468.stm

Hain Attacks Tories On N Ireland

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has accused the
Conservative Party of abandoning a cross-party approach to
the peace process.

He has urged new Tory leader David Cameron to co-operate.

Mr Hain said it was a "great shame" that the Tories opposed
"essential building blocks" of the deal, such as an amnesty
for fugitive IRA prisoners.

He said the government was entitled to the same level of
support Labour had given John Major in the early 1990s.

'Entitled to support'

Dealing with "on the runs" - as the fugitive prisoners are
known - has been one of the major stumbling blocks to the
reinstatement of devolved Northern Ireland institutions.

They have been suspended since the "Stormontgate" spying
scandal of 2002.

In an interview published on the website ePolitix.com, he
said: "I think there is a need for more inclusivity on the
floor of the House of Commons.

"It's not to say you can't have an argument over a detail
in a bill, but when it is an essential building block to
getting peace then we are entitled to their support, having
backed them on similar, if not even more controversial,
moves."

Mr Hain is angry that the Conservatives are opposing the
Northern Ireland Offences Bill which would allow an amnesty
for terror suspects who had never faced trial for alleged
offences committed before the 1998 Good Friday agreement.

"The opposition parties used to support the Government, as
we did when we were in opposition and John Major started
talking to the IRA," he said.

"We supported him and it was a tough thing to do; people
didn't like the fact that we supported the Government when
the IRA had only recently being setting off bombs.

"They set off the bomb in Canary Wharf after his Government
started negotiating with the IRA, and we still backed the
Tories' dialogue with them."

He said: "It is a great shame that the bipartisan policy
which helped deliver peace and stability - unparalleled
peace and stability for Northern Ireland - should have been
broken by the opposition in recent years".

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/12/26 01:03:33 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1532961&issue_id=13463

Man Behind McCartney Killing Possible Informer

Jim Cusack

THE man who ordered Robert McCartney's murder last January
is now believed to be yet another of the high-ranking
agents recruited by the RUC some time in the Eighties and
later handed on to the British Intelligence services.

Sources close to the IRA, which is now terming itself the
Republican Movement, say both the military and political
wings of the organisation are in disarray and waiting for
more revelations that senior figures were in the pay of
police on both sides of the Border. According to one
security source, as many as 15 figures, including some who
have since become prominent in Sinn Fein, were informers.

The McCartney sisters have claimed that the man who ordered
their brother's murder is due to emigrate from Belfast and
they believe he is intending to be resettled in the US. The
American authorities would have to have agreement with the
British Government as the man has a prison record for
explosive offences dating from the Seventies and would not
otherwise beallowed into the country.

His disappearance would save both the Republican Movement
and the British authorities further embarrassing
revelations.

The McCartney sisters spoke about the man, who is not
facing any charges, in a lengthy interview on BBC Newsnight
on Thursday. They did not suggest that he was a suspected
informer.

Catherine said: "The person who we believe ordered it is
high up in the IRA. It's all to protect him. This person is
bigger than the IRA, he's bigger than the whole movement."
Paula added: "He's being allowed to be bigger than the
whole movement."

The sisters spoke of how the family continued to be
intimidated. Paula was forced to move her family out of the
Short Strand area because she feared her children would be
targeted. Catherine has also moved house from Castlewellan,
Co Down.

Robert's fiance, Bridgeen Hagans, also left her home in the
Short Strand after receiving threats and having had a
picket of local Sinn Fein women placed outside her house.
She is with her parents in west Belfast while waiting to
move to a new home in the northern suburbs of Belfast.

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http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1532934&issue_id=13463

It's That Time Of Year Again - Tout-Naming, Agent- Identifying, Informer-Spotting Time

IT'S agent-identifying, informer-spotting, mole-tipping,
spy-speculating, tout-naming time - since I think you're
unlikely to be excited by the revelation that I believe
there was a republican spy ring at Stormont, that Denis
Donaldson had by then become an unreliable agent who was
picky about what he told his handlers, that the police were
tipped off by a different informer, that the documents
found in Donaldson's house were so sensitive that the
British government had to spend stg£35m relocating
frightened people, that the Stormontgate case was dropped
to protect a valued agent, that Donaldson is saying what
the republican leadership has instructed him to say, that
the republican rank-and-file are reeling and paranoid and
that their leadership is responding by doing what it does
best: following Goebbels's advice - that if you tell a lie
that is big enough and repeat it often enough, the whole
world will believe it.

So let's get down and dirty and talk of what everyone who
cares is discussing this week: is there really an even
better-placed spy than Donaldson and, if so, who is it?

This week, I've been told by a variety of sources including
journalists, ex-terrorists and an ex-cop that the person in
question is variously Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Danny
Morrison, Tom Hartley, Gerry Kelly, Martin Meehan and
Siobhan O'Hanlon (sister of our Eilis).

Now I despise Adams as much as the next man, but I discount
him absolutely for two reasons. The guy is smart, but I
don't think there's anyone alive who could have pulled off
being top Provo, head negotiator and public face of the
republican movement internationally as well as being a spy.

Besides, when you think what he's achieved by way of
destabilising and dividing Northern Ireland and threatening
the south, his British controllers would have to be as
malign as they were brilliant.

Both those excluding reasons apply to a slightly lesser
extent to Martin McGuinness, but I can't see what would be
in it for him. Unlike Gerry, he has no taste for the high
life and still lives frugally in his council house.

I suppose it's conceivable that he might be a principled
man in the mode of Sean O'Callaghan, who became disgusted
with the IRA and worked unpaid for the gardai, but that
hardly fits with his enthusiasm for such IRA activity as
using innocent people as proxy-bombs.

Danny Morrison is too indiscreet to be a spy: not only was
he pushed out of the inner councils of the Provos for
having a big mouth, but he recently incurred their wrath
for embarrassing them by attacking Ted Kennedy viciously
when he snubbed Adams. Spies have more sense than to annoy
those they seek to deceive.

Now to Tom Hartley, Belfast City Councillor for the Lower
Falls, republican archivist and antiquarian and one of
Adams's best friends. The last time I saw Tom was at
Belfast City Hall as the general election count was going
on. Having smiled at him and shaken his hand, he responded
with his customary grumpiness and aggression.

I've forgotten what accusation he levelled against me for
my criticisms of the Provos, but - suffering as I was from
sleep deprivation after watching results until 5am - I fear
I responded in kind and used the 'F' word to describe the
republican movement.

If there's one epithet that drive all republicans mad it's
"fascist" and it duly drove Tom mad, so I made my excuses
and left. I rule Tom out simply because a fellow who can't
keep his temper would make a terrible agent.

Now we come to an interesting trio of ex-convict possibles.
Gerry Kelly, presently Sinn Fein spokesman on Justice, was
an Old Bailey bomber who was one of the very few men
transferred from a British to an Irish prison.

He was young, he had years of jail ahead of him and - like
all other IRA people - would have been frantic to serve his
sentence at home with his own kind.

So there might have been an opportunity to do a deal with
him. And, of course, once you help the security services
they can blackmail you to go on helping.

I'd quite like it to be Martin Meehan, who is a repellent
piece of work who used to organise the Provos's street-
theatre of hate. I once had the misfortune to be present at
a performance which involved Constables Baton, Shoot to
Kill and Collusion strutting in Orange sashes and bowlers
while Constable Ever So Nice tried to thrust an Orange
collarette over the head of a resisting small patriot boy.

I have a feeling that Siobhan O'Hanlon, Gerry Adams's
personal assistant, is being discussed mainly because these
days we always have to be inclusive about women and
everyone is obsessed with Mata Hari.

All this will run and run. Happy Christmas.

Ruth Dudley Edwards

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http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=050000&biid=2005122686328

U.S. Links IRA Leader To Forged Notes

DECEMBER 26, 2005 03:12

by Jong-Koo Yoon (jkmas@donga.com)

On the SBS TV program yesterday, "Han Soo-jin's Sunday
Click," U.S. ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow
claimed that he has evidence that a North Korean official
had contacted an Irish Republican Army (IRA) terrorist
indicted for the circulation of counterfeit notes, and this
evidence could reveal the connection between the
counterfeit currency and the North.

It appears that the person Ambassador Vershbow referred to
as a "terrorist" is Sean Garland, the Irish Worker's Party
President, who was prosecuted for circulating forged notes
worth millions of dollars in September. President Garland
is the leader of the IRA.

Vershbow added, "Some North Korean officials were even
caught trying to deposit the fake notes."

When asked whether he was certain of the fact that the
North Korean government produced counterfeit notes,
Vershbow answered, "Yes, I am. There is dependable evidence
showing the involvement of the North in counterfeiting
notes."

Regarding Vershbow's statement, a South Korean government
official said, "It seems that Ambassador Vershbow's
comments were backed up with pictures and wiretapping
evidence a U.S. information agency collected in the process
of investigating an IRA member." However, the government
maintains that pictures and tapes are not decisive evidence
of North Korea's forgery of notes.

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http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1532946&issue_id=13463

Gardai Fear Donaldson Is Now Being Held Captive

Alan Murray & Jim Cusack

SINN FEIN spy Denis Donaldson was "persuaded" to provide
political intelligence on the party by RUC Special Branch
officers and was not in any way compromised or blackmailed
into co-operating as a paid agent.

Security sources familiar with Donaldson's recruitment in
the mid-Eighties are emphatic that he was recruited by the
Special Branch but was jointly run with MI5 because of the
political nature of the valuable intelligence he provided.

And the sources say he was paid handsomely for his work and
shouldn't be facing a life of penury in a dingy one-bedroom
flat in Dublin or in Britain as former associates have
predicted.

Gardai are attempting to discover the whereabouts of
Donaldson, who is believed to be in the hands of his former
associates and was last seen in public when he made a
public confession to RTE's Charlie Bird at a Dublin hotel
over a week ago.

Gardai believe that Donaldson is being "debriefed" and are
concerned that he may be held against his will.

Had Dondaldson admitted his role a few years ago he would
have been murdered. However, since the IRA's July
declaration that it had "ceased all activities" it is
unlikely that he will face execution.

However, senior garda sources said they had no doubt
Dondaldson was facing a lengthy interrogation about his
role as an agent for the RUC Special Branch.

It has been reported that Donaldson was "co-operating" with
Sinn Fein and voluntarily giving information to party
officials in Dublin.

Garda sources said yesterday that if Dondaldson was in
Dublin they would like to speak to him to ensure he was
safe and free to leave his debriefing if he chose to.

Sources in Belfast said that Donaldson was "turned" by
Special Branch officers who deliberately targeted him as a
potential intelligence source and explained how valuable he
would be as a long-term agent.

"These approaches are tried or were tried all the time and
in many instances they were successful. Donaldson wasn't
blackmailed or threatened, he was discreetly but
deliberately approached and invited to discuss the
political situation. He did and once contact had been
established and he didn't run away, the relationship was
developed.

"When he didn't turn up at a Sinn Fein press conference to
denounce the security services for approaching him then it
was assumed that he had bitten on the line and would accept
a proposition. That was done and he came on board and was
jointly run with MI5 because of his distinct political
dimension. When they came on board then the money came to
Denis because they had a big budget and directly providing
the Government with political intelligence was their role,
and Donaldson was a brilliant capture whose contribution
became more valuable as he soared through the Sinn Fein
structure," one source said.

With Republicans still reeling over the Donaldson admission
that he was a paid British agent the names of dozens of
republicans and Sinn Fein members were wildly bandied about
in Belfast last week as other likely agents - further
undermining the leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness.

Since the split over the ending of "abstentionism" in 1986
both Adams and McGuinness have been branded "British touts"
by their opponents in Republican Sinn Fein and the more
recently-created dissident IRA elements. But the unmasking
of Donaldson 10 days ago has flabbergasted even dissident
republicans.

One long-time critic of the Adams/McGuinness leadership
said last week: "I would never have believed that Denis was
a tout, never. If I had seen documents or was given a video
of him meeting his handlers I wouldn't have believed it. If
he hadn't appeared on the box I wouldn't have believed it.
Adams and McGuinness yes, but not Denis, I'm stunned."

The British Prime Minister is likely to face further
questioning in the Commons next year by DUP MPs who believe
that there is much greater knowledge in Downing Street of
Donaldson's role than has been admitted by Blair.

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