We document below recent developments which have lead to the impending and renewed collapse of the Stormont Assembly. We start with an article dealing with the decisions taken at the Unionist Party conference on the 21st of September. We highly recommend the articles marked with *
British to impose Direct Rule from Monday - The securocrats' revenge!
Friday-Monday, 20-22 September, 2002
Sunday-Monday, 29-30 September, 2002
Tuesday-Wednesday, 1-2 October, 2002
Wednesday, 2 October, 2002
Friday, 4 October, 2002
Saturday-Monday, 5-7 October, 2002
Monday, 7 October 2002
Tuesday-Wednesday, 8-9 October, 2002
Wednesday, 9 October, 2002
Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October, 2002
Friday, 11 October, 2002
Sunday, 13 October, 2002
Monday, 14 October, 2002
Saturday-Monday, 20-22 September, 2002
Trimble blasted for 'manifesto to destroy Agreement'
In the latest developments in the peace process, the Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has said the IRA should disband to prevent his party quitting the power-sharing executive and collapsing the institutions set up under the Good Friday Agreement.
The power-sharing government of the Six Counties remains in crisis after the Ulster Unionist leader threatened to quit the Belfast administration.
David Trimble was tonight [Monday] accused of launching a "full frontal attack" on the Good Friday Agreement after setting the disband ultimatum.
Sinn Fein Education Minister Martin McGuinness angrily lambasted the Ulster Unionist leader after he joined party hardliners on Saturday in threatening to pull down the power sharing institutions on January 18.
"There can be no longer any doubt about where the UUP stand in relation to the Good Friday Agreement," said McGuinness.
"They have set out a manifesto to destroy the Agreement and the agenda of change.
"David Trimble is no more than a front for the rejectionists who now control the party."
He said the British government's "pandering" to rejectionist unionism was always going to result in this situation.
"It's now time from the British government to stand up for the Agreement and to face down the no camp. The pace of change cannot be dictated by those who are opposed to power-sharing, opposed to the all-Ireland institutions, opposed to equality and human rights and who do not want a fenian about the place.
"The reality which unionism will have to come to terms with is that the nationalists and republican electorate are not going away and unionism, whoever its leader happens to be, will have to do business with Sinn Fein. We are not giving up on this process."
The SDLP has also loudly attacked Mr Trimble for "betraying" nationalists who took "a leap of faith" in him after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement by joining forces with anti-Agreement forces.
Noting nationalists had accepted Mr Trimble as First Minister despite memories of him "holding hands" with the hardline Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley on Portadown's Garvaghy Road during the 1995 Drumcree marching dispute, the SDLP's Brid Rodgers said there was now "huge anger" among nationalists at his actions.
She continued: "It is now imperative that the message gets out that this Agreement is not for renegotiation.
"The SDLP will not be changing or allowing change to the North-South arrangements or the Patten reforms on police reform."
Mr Trimble clashed on several occasions with SDLP and Sinn Fein Assembly members at the Belfast Assembly today as the power- sharing government pressed on with its business despite the Ulster Unionist peace process ultimatum.
As the Executive laid out details of its draft programme for government, Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin accused Mr Trimble of political cowardice.
"Does this final programme for government for this executive have the ability to deliver on the agenda for change in light of the political cowardice of the unionist political leadership?" he asked.
Mr Trimble pointed to allegations in the mainstream media that the IRA is active in Belfast and elsewhere. But he did not refer to the recognition by the PSNI police, repeated again today, that violence has been almost entirely at the hands of loyalists.
With the almost certain collapse of the North's power-sharing government collapsing early in the New Year, the British and Irish governments are planning urgent talks.
Secretary of State John Reid is also to organise meetings with all the pro-Good Friday Agreement parties.
Sinn Fein said at the weekend that it would also be seeking early meetings with the governments and all the parties, including the UUP, to discuss the latest situation.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams MP denounced the UUP plan as a "wrecker's charter". He questioned whether Ulster Unionist leaders were up to the task of delivering the change required through the Good Friday Agreement.
Confirming he had spoken to British, Irish and US government officials, he said: "This evening as Mr Blair gets ready to have his supper, Ireland is back on his agenda.
"There is a crisis in the process and he has to play his leadership role in sorting it out.
"What we have seen from (Northern Secretary) John Reid in terms of the little concessions to the unionists is obviously not the way to sort things out."
Sunday-Monday, 29-30 September, 2002
Trimble 'A front for the rejectionists'
There is now "no substantial difference" between Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and Jeffrey Donaldson, a Sinn Fein MP said tonight.
Republicans believe there is no longer any doubt that the North's First Minister is opposed to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew described him as "a front" for the anti-Agreement forces in the Ulster Unionist Party.
She told a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool Mr Trimble was "no more or no less a front for the rejectionists who now control the policy and the direction of the UUP".
Rival nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan was almost as emphatic. He warned Labour delegates that the British government must vigorously defend the Good Friday Agreement from the "serial vandalism" of unionist politicians.
The Ulster Unionist threat to freeze the North-South Ministerial Council, to collapse the power-sharing Executive and withdraw from the new policing structures amounted to "nothing less than a threatened demolition derby of the entire Good Friday Agreement."
In a hard hitting attack on the First Minister, Gildernew said that David Trimble was "more comfortable in his Upper Bann bunker than he is at meetings of the All-Ireland Ministerial Council.
"There is in reality, at present, no substantial difference between Trimble and Donaldson. It is a question of style and timing.
"Donaldson wants to wreck the Agreement's institutions within days or weeks. Trimble wants to do it in four months - on January 18 next year."
She was speaking at a fringe meeting of Labour's Northern Ireland Parliamentary Group when she accused Mr Trimble of "manufacturing" a threat to the peace process with "the silent guns of the IRA".
He and other unionists had blatantly ignored the sectarian violence of the UDA in particular, as well as the other unionist paramilitaries.
Ms Gildernew also attacked Secretary of State John Reid for pandering to unionist demands in the run-up to the Ulster Unionist Council's meeting nine days ago which saw Mr Trimble`s party threaten to pull out of the Executive next January if it was not convinced by republicans' commitment to abandon violence for good.
"The two governments and particularly the British Government need to fill the vacuum that has been created," she said.
"We have seen over the summer how such vacuums are exploited by anti-Agreement elements and how sectarian violence has been switched on and off to undermine public confidence.
"Unionism has to accept that there is no better deal on offer than the Good Friday Agreement.
"It has to accept that there is no alternative to the changes it requires and the equality it demands.
"The British Government have to accept also that the pandering which has led directly to this crisis must stop.
"The British Government must grasp the political nettle and face down the 'No' camp within unionism and the rejectionists within its own system if this process is going to be allowed to work.
"There is a real danger that this Labour Government are in danger of losing the strategic vision which has allowed much progress to be made over the past 10 years and replacing it with complacency, short term tactical management and indeed returning to the old agenda of bolstering unionists while pointing the finger of blame at republicans."
Tuesday-Wednesday, 1-2 October, 2002
Analysis: No alternative to new beginning for policing
By Gerry Adams MP, MLA, President of Sinn Fein
If it behaves like the RUC; if it bullies, intimidates, lies and harasses like the RUC; if it beats people like the RUC; if it withholds information about the killing of Pearse Jordan and Roseanne Mallon from coroners and refuses to release reports on collusion and the cover-up killings like Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane; and if it runs the UDA like the RUC - then the conclusion that many people will draw from all of this is that it must be the RUC.
Sinn Fein and others worked hard during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations to secure a new beginning to policing. Four and half years later, I would have hoped that that new beginning would have been achieved. It has not. There have been changes. Most of them have been positive.
The last three years have seen attempts to baffle, bamboozle and confuse public opinion with the myriad detail of the British policing legislation and the 175 Patten recommendations. Reduced to its essence, this requires a 'new beginning to policing' in a civic police service which is acceptable to the whole community. The criterion for acceptability is a police service which is:
culturally neutral in respect of flags, symbols and emblems.
The Patten recommendations were intended to give effect to this. That is, the Patten recommendations have not been implemented. In this respect, at least, there is a broad consensus. This much is now acknowledged by the two governments and the SDLP. The pretence that the PSNI fulfilled the Patten recommendations has been dropped. Now we are told that legislative amendments are designed to "more fully reflect Patten".
In July 2001, over a year ago, at Weston Park the governments agreed to review policing matters and argued that this would provide the vehicle for further change in policing. Having said, up to this point, that they had implemented Patten, the Weston Park decision was clear evidence that even they acknowledge that the policing arrangements were short of Patten.
The thrust of the legislative amendments, as proposed by the British government last year, needs very focused scrutiny by those of us who want a genuinely new beginning to policing. For instance, there will be an effort to copperfasten the impunity with which Special Branch agents like UDA leader Tommy Lyttle, William Stobie and their Special Branch handlers have acted in the past. That is, to conspire to kill. The PSNI still has many agents in the UDA. This explains the impunity with which the UDA continues to pursue its campaign ofsectarian attacks.
KEY REQUIREMENTS
There are a number of other key areas affected by this. And the outline of the amending legislation does not at this time adequately deal with these.
The most important areas which do not meet the requirements of the agreement or Patten include:
Regrettably, the indications from the British government suggest that once again it will not move far enough.
In large part this is because it has succeeded in fracturing the Irish national and democratic consensus that existed between Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Irish government. With the SDLP on board, the political pressure on the British government for the implementation of Patten has been reduced.
The recent UUC conference adopted a policy position which will see the UUP withdraw from the Policing Board if even the British government's modest and inadequate amendments are implemented.
Neither they nor the securocrats within the British system must be allowed to prevent the construction of a proper policing service.
Policing is too important an issue to accept something less than is required.
GAME PLAYING
Rather than deal with these realities, some people prefer to play games. They seek diversions and distractions away from the failure to get policing right. They seek refuge in bogus criticisms of Sinn Fein in respect of attacks - and alleged attacks and threats - by anti-agreement groups on PSNI recruits.
The Sinn Fein position on this is very clear. Our clearly stated view is that people should not participate in a police force which falls short of the acceptable civic policing service which we all desire.
However, we accept that this is a matter for the individual concerned. We have also been very clear in our opposition to any attacks or threats against new recruits.
NO ALTERNATIVE
While the review of policing and the prospect of amending legislation is a welcome acknowledgement that Patten has not been implemented in full, it remains our firm determination to pursue this issue to its appropriate conclusion as set out in the Good Friday Agreement.
That's what Gerry Kelly and I did in our recent meeting with John Reid. That is what Martin McGuinness and I did in our meeting with Tony Blair a few days earlier. And with the Taoiseach since then. We have also raised these matters consistently with the SDLP leadership. And that is what we will continue to do until we achieve a threshold for a depoliticised policing service.
For the reality on the streets is that since the board was formed a year ago, there have been hundreds of bomb attacks against nationalist homes with no effective counter by the PSNI.
And whilst unionist paramilitaries have laid siege to the Short Strand, the PSNI has confronted the nationalist residents. For nationalists in Antrim, Coleraine, Magherafelt, Derry, Ardoyne and Short Strand, enduring a four-year long loyalist bombing campaign, it's the same old story.
At this point the British government will not go as far as Patten unless the Irish government and the SDLP, as well as Sinn Fein, press them to do this. Why should London move if Dublin is at the same position or if the SDLP is satisfied with what is on offer?
A 'new beginning to policing' is not optional. It is imperative. There is no alternative. The last 80 years demonstrate that without it there will be no peace or stability.
The past 12 months of raids, cracked heads, plastic bullets and Special Branch impunity show what has to be done. British government success in breaking down the national and democratic consensus around that absolute requirement has delayed its achievement.
The consensus must be rebuilt. Otherwise, Mr Blair will never grasp this nettle and we will all be condemned to more of the same unacceptable policing.
US Congressmen accuse British Government and Unionist politicians of trying to force the IRA to break their ceasefire
US Congressmen tackle Reid on Short Strand
A group of American Congressmen have accused the British government of failing to protect East Belfast Catholics against loyalist attack. In a letter to British Secretary of State John Reid, the five representatives condemned the failure of the RUC/PSNI police to stop loyalist attacks on the small nationalist enclave. Joe Crowley, Ben Gilman, Jim Walsh, Richard Neal and Peter King said that such inaction only lent weight to the theory that the British Government and Unionist politicians wanted to force the IRA into breaking their ceasefire.
The five cited the case of a reporter from the US-based Irish Voice newspaper who "witnessed a member of the RUC/PSNI assault squad damaging a water hose erected by residents to put out fires caused by loyalist attacks on the Short Strand".
In the last week, loyalist attacks on the nationalist Short Strand have intensified, with petrol and paint bombs being thrown at pensioners' bungalows in the Strand Walk area of the district.
Last week, Ulster flags with threats against named nationalist residents written on them were thrown over the interface from Cluan Place into Clandeboye Drive. At 10pm on Monday night, 30 September, six petrol and paint bombs were thrown by loyalists from the Newtownards Road into Strand Walk, where they set fire to the roof of a pensioner's bungalow. A number of other homes were damaged in the attack. No one was injured and residents were able to douse the flames with a fire hose they had installed themselves.
Sinn Fein councillor for East Belfast, Joe O'Donnell, has accused loyalists of attempting to spread their attacks by shifting the emphasis to other parts of the area.
"While the area around Clandeboye, Bryson Street and Madrid Street has been relatively quiet, here we have loyalists moving their sectarian attacks to Strand Walk again; we have seen cars being attacked by loyalists while entering or leaving the district. They are intent on keeping tensions high."
In the latest development, O'Donnell has called for an end to loyalist attacks on workmen erecting security fencing and repairing homes in the Clandeboye area.
Flash: Raids, arrests in state attack on Sinn Fein
RUC/PSNI police have this morning raided Sinn Fein offices at Stormont in a series of raids on the homes of republicans in north and west Belfast.
Community activists involved in policing, human rights and justice issues were targeted in an act of state repression against Irish republicans.
At least four were arrested, including Denis Donaldson, the head of the party's administration team at Parliament Buildings.
The raid has come as a shock to party workers who had hoped acts of state repression were a thing of the past.
Up to 200 RUC men were involved in the raids, in which computers and documents were seized. No explanation was given for the raids. Similar raids followed the disappearance of Britsh military intelligence files from Castlereagh police station last March, after unsupported allegations of IRA involvement were made by the police.
Conor Murphy, the party's Newry and Armagh Assemblyman accused the policeof political intervention.
He said: "This is part of their wider anti-Sinn Fein and anti-Irish republican agenda."
Mr Murphy linked the raids to Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble's threat to collapse the Stormont power-sharing government if the IRA does not disband.
"The arrest of Denis Donaldson represents an upping of the ante in this campaign," he added.
"We have protested in the strongest possible terms to the British government through the office of the party president Gerry Adams."
Anti-agreement UUP MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside welcomed the police raid on the Sinn Fein office.
Jeffrey Donaldson said after meeting Chief Constable Hugh Orde that he welcomed the fact that the police were now going after Sinn Fein.
"Life is going to become very very difficult for these people and I hope there will be no hiding place for them," Mr Donaldson said.
He did not believe that Stormont should be out of bounds to the police. "I think it is important that police should have access to the Sinn Fein officers at Stormont if they believe that there is evidence there of some misdemeanour or wrong doing or the involvement of people who are employed in those offices in crime."
East Belfast MP Peter Robinson claimed the raid at Stormont was another tangible indication of the links between Sinn Fein and the IRA.
He would be calling for a debate on the affair on Monday, he said, adding: "The fact that such a raid has taken place must drive a coach and horses through protestations that Sinn Fein is committed to exclusively peaceful means, and fundamentally questions the government's continued blindness to IRA activity."
RUC police took away two computer disks from Sinn Fein's Stormont office. In a dramatic display, up to seven police Land Rovers were parked outside. Three Special Branch and two uniformed officers were involved in the raid, which would have been authorised by the British government at the highest levels.
Sinn Fein called on Secretary of State John Reid to say whether he had a part in this morning's raid.
Bairbre de Brun, a minister in the power sharing executive, said: "One of the things we are very anxious to learn at this point is whether John Reid had a part in this and if he signed this warrant or authorised it, it is something he needs to explain."
Ms de Brun said the search was a political attack on a political party. "It is absolutely outrageous and it is clearly part of a political picture of intervention by the police service of Northern Ireland.
"It is stemming from the time in the spring when David Trimble indicated he could foresee the possibility of bringing an end to the political institutions.
"It is clearly part of a campaign of media leaks and media briefings by people like assistant chief constable Alan McQuillan to attack the political process. It is part of an anti-Sinn Fein, anti-peace process agenda. We have protested to the British Government in the strongest possible terms."
Saturday-Monday, 5-7 October, 2002
Analysis: The semi-democratic Six Counties
By Councillor Nicky Kehoe
The PSNI raids on Sinn Fein offices (including the police-state raids on the Stormont offices) were aimed at preventing the exposure of the Unionist Party as the wreckers of the Good Friday Agreement.
British policy has moved from "Save Dave" to "Don't blame Dave". The existence or otherwise of the IRA is the smokescreen behind which the executive can collapse on terms seemingly politically positive for unionism, and negative for republicans. That is the failed hope of those who launched the provocation that has created the latest crisis.
In its October 7 editorial, the Irish Times gives the impression that, since unionist support for the agreement was grudging from the start, that they are excused from responsibility for keeping the agreement in a permanent state of crisis and instability -- off which feeds the incoherent rage of a never ending cycle of loyalist sectarian violence. As for their delusional comment that republicans will "recognise the authority of the [British] state", what encouragement do they suppose did 200 PSNI officers in their baby-grow uniforms tramping around Sinn Fein parliamentary offices give to that particular pipe dream?
The Unionist Party is hypocritical in the extreme in relation to violence. The recent Ulster Unionist Council statement did not once mention the current loyalist rampage, while mentioning the IRA five times. I go further. The Ulster Unionist Party sees loyalist violence as part of the means whereby pressure is kept on nationalists and republicans. Ulster Unionist Jim Rogers gave the game away in the Irish News (October 7). Rogers wants loyalists to "settle their differences" because it is republicans who "should be under pressure".
Unionists only appear to get exercised about loyalist violence when it is either "misdirected" (at each other!) or seen to be wholly counterproductive (the attacks on Catholic school children last year at Holy Cross School). The Unionist Party was instrumental in setting up (and participants in) a so-called 'Loyalist Commissioni whose main function has been to try and re-focus otherwise incoherent Loyalist sectarianism.
And what of the Britain's role? It looks as though Reid and Bair have joined the securocrats and that Hugh Orde's 'new beginning' to policing consists of police-state raids on parliamentary offices and buildings. As Fianna Fail Senator, Martin Mansergh, said on RTE radio this morning (October 7th) "this is the sort of thing you associate more with Turkey, President Mugabe, countries that are sort of semi-democratic."
That's the North for you in a nutshell, "semi-democratic".
Peace process in dire straits
Editorial, Irelandclick.com
Like a principal summoning a naughty boy to his office, Tony Blair says he will be bringing Gerry Adams to Downing Street for a ticking off.
That should be fun.
One wonders if the British PM will be able to keep a straight face as he lectures the Sinn Féin peacemaker about the Queensbury Rules of politics.
After all, this is the same British PM who allowed the car of Gerry Adams to be bugged during crucial negotiations. For good measure, his security services placed listening devices in the home of Sinn Féin negotiator Gerry Kelly — for three years, no less.
Blair's predecessor went one better, bugging the Sinn Féin offices at Stormont when peace talks were in their infancy and sparking a republican walkout.
Mr Blair has also overseen the continued and intense Special Branch surveillance of republicans during the peace process. In fact, while loyalists murdered and bombed Catholics and the IRA maintained an air-tight ceasefire, the Branch had its full focus on the republican side. No wonder, the homes of the pipe-bombers have yet to be subject to the early morning raids reserved for nationalists alleged to have possession of NIO documents.
And on Divis Tower and in the hilltop watchtowers of South Armagh, British soldiers train their cameras on a community which supports the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.
Last week, when the UVF was caught red-handed importing explosives to the North, a PUP spokesman laughed off the incident saying that's what paramilitaries do. If that's the case, then the British Government won't really be surprised to learn that its snoops have been outsnooped by republicans.
However, there are, as always, two sets of rules in the peace process. One for the unionists and one for the republicans. That's why an outrageous raid on the offices of a party in Government could be greenlighted by the British on Friday while even at the height of DUP cooperation with the Ulster Resistance group it helped found, not one of its party offices was raided nor its representatives' homes raided.
And that's why Secretary of State John Reid has now endorsed the wreckers' charter agreed by the Ulster Unionist Council in order to torpedo the Good Friday Agreement and bring the political institutions tumbling down. That is his prerogative. What he mustn't be allowed to do, however, is to expel Sinn Féin from the peace process, a key demand of unionists. One out, all out, must be the response of all nationalist parties to any such threat.
This article appeared first on the Irelandclick.com web site on October 7, 2002.
Tuesday-Wednesday, 8-9 October, 2002
Feature: A very British coup
By Laura Friel
It was mid-morning on Friday and the telephone was ringing. "Switch on the television," said a familiar voice. "They're raiding Sinn Fein's offices in Stormont."
And then the images.
Lines of armoured vehicles, carrying up to a hundred armed PSNI offices, pulling up to the side of the grand entrance. Around 40 to 50 armed riot squad officers, dressed in black flame resistant overalls, streaming through the doorway and up a marble flight of stairs.
A shocked Bairbre de Brun and an angry Gerry Kelly. And then, at Kelly's invitation, a media scrum as journalists fought their way through the narrow front entrance. Film footage of dozens of PSNI officers, many covering their faces as they scurried past the cameras, beating a hasty retreat.
One officer was carrying a couple of plastic envelops, later revealed as containing a Windows 95 software programme and a recovery disk seized from Sinn Fein's office. Within days, the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde would be forced to apologise for the manner of the raid and return what was seized.
Proof, as Martin McGuinness would point out, that the computer disks were as innocent as Sinn Fein. But on Friday, it was all visual impact followed by high drama and political fallout, literally and metaphorically.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams swiftly condemned the Stormont raid as "political theatre". The scene had been set during the meeting of the Ulster Unionist Party's ruling council over a fortnight ago, he said. Now we were watching the pantomime.
Like the boy who cried wolf, David Trimble and the UUP had threatened the power sharing arrangements so often, nine times in four years, that most commentators had been lulled into a false sense of security when the UUP leader survived the latest challenge by the anti-Agreement wing of his own party.
But after years of failing leadership and a reluctance to present the Good Friday Agreement for what it was, the best deal unionists can hope to achieve given the changing political and demographic landscape, Trimble had finally capitulated to the unionist No camp. Trimble was no longer leading the UUP; he was merely running to keep up at the front.
The proposals, universally endorsed by the Ulster Unionist Council, weren't just against republicans; they were against the Good Friday Agreement. If Trimble emerged 'triumphant' from the council meeting, it was not by overcoming the naysayers' challenge, but by endorsing it.
And as Brian Feeney, writing in the Irish News pointed out, the significance was more than "a ploy to fend off the DUP in the assembly elections" and then back to business as usual. UUP members were set to oppose any attempt by Trimble "to find a way back into a power sharing executive", said Feeney.
"What clinches this conclusion is that in the process of nominating UUP candidates for the Assembly, supporters of the Agreement have retired or been tossed overboard. Quite simply, the complexion of the UUP next year will be such that no executive can be elected."
The UUP had adopted "a wrecker's charter" and it was widely perceived as such. Trimble's display of moral indignation at being required to work with republicans was no more than a fig leaf to cover a sectarian agenda that harked back to the Orange state and the old Stormont regime. And for once the media knew it.
The IRA, wrote Pat McArt in the Newsletter, "is being scapegoated in a totally cynical way in order to allow unionists to exit from an agreement that unionists cannot stomach because it is delivering equality". Given the ensuing events McArt's comment proved prophetic.
But this was only part of the story. In recent weeks, a new ideological configuration was emerging which did nothing to enhance David Trimble's image as Nobel Peace Prize winner, let alone the position of the British government, his main sponsor.
For months, David Trimble and the UUP had claimed that ongoing violence on the streets was undermining their participation in the power sharing arrangements. Trimble, with a lawyer's training, was careful not to specify exactly where this violence was emanating, leaving the context simply to imply republican violence.
But sooner or later, the truth had to come out. An ongoing loyalist campaign of sectarian violence against vulnerable Catholic communities, which involved hundreds, perhaps thousands of pipe and petrol bombings and gun attacks against Catholic homes and property, as well as a series of sectarian killings, could not be ignored forever.
Even the PSNI abandoned trying to shore up Trimble's position by pretending loyalists and republicans were fighting it out on the streets. The PSNI admitted that the overwhelming majority of violence was being perpetuated by the UDA and UVF.
Furthermore, a report, yet to be published, by the Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, recognises that in so much as republicans had a presence on the streets, they were using their best offices to avoid conflict and defuse confrontation.
Journalists began to develop the idea that loyalist violence could be seen as the cutting edge of anti-Agreement unionism. "The UDA did all it could to assist mainstream unionism this summer," wrote Susan McKay of the Tribune, attacking Catholic neighbourhoods, "in an effort to provoke the IRA. Frustratingly, Alex Maskey just kept laying wreaths".
It was becoming increasingly apparent that unionists' anti-Agreement stance was less to do with a moral dilemma of working with republicans and more to do with a sectarian rejection of power sharing with nationalists.
Furthermore, with the Ulster Unionist Party now openly endorsing an anti-Agreement agenda, effectively creating a rejectionist unionist power block with the DUP, nationalists inadvertently became the only defenders of the Good Friday Agreement. Unionists exposed. Emerging nationalist unity. Even the possibility of such a configuration was just too much for the British.
Like the BBC play of the same name, what was to follow was a very British coup. The 1980s' television political drama suggested that subterfuge and sabotage underpinned the workings of the British state. Behind the smokescreen of perceived scandal, the parliamentary system could be manipulated and the balance of power shifted.
But that was just fiction and these are the facts.
A porter, William Mackessy, had worked briefly for the NIO and left his job over six months ago. A year ago, he had allegedly been caught photocopying, possibly with the intension to leak information. Following the incident, Mackessy had been disciplined and transferred to another department.
It had been treated as a relative minor misdemeanour. After all, as Martin McGuinness pointed out, Ian Paisley has received more leaked government documents than he has had hot dinners.
Last Friday, Mackessy was arrested by the PSNI and his home raided. Four days later he was charged in connection with possession of information likely to be useful to terrorists. In court, the PSNI admitted that no incriminating documentation had been found at this person's home or work or in his possession.
The PSNI 'believe' they can link the defendant by way of handwriting 'analysis'. It's a slim, and very subjective criteria by which to attempt to justify bringing down an elected power sharing government.
According to the PSNI, amongst papers seized during a raid on the home of Sinn Fein administrator Denis Donaldson were documents leaked from the NIO.
In the past, there have been numerous press conferences during which members of the DUP have produced documents leaked to their party by the NIO civil service. No one has ever been raided or arrested in connection with this.
"Suppose the Fine Gael party had some sort of leaked government documents and there was a Garda raid on Fine Gael headquarters," a Dublin Senator commented, "and tons of documents were taken away. There would be a huge furore."
Two other people have been arrested. Fiona Farrelly was charged with possession of information on Sunday night, while Ciaran Kearney, the son of veteran human rights campaigner Oliver Kearney, remains in continued detention.
John Reid has admitted that he had been made aware of 'the situation' in July. The timing of the raids and arrests suggests that it had less to do with uncovering 'a republican spying operation at the heart of the NIO' and more to do with the 'save Dave' process.
"With John Reid claiming that the security forces have been aware of the 'leaking problem' since the middle of last year," commented a Newsletter columnist, "why the big full scale public raid on Sinn Fein offices now?"
Once Sinn Fein's offices had been raided, said Gerry Kelly, charges were inevitably going to be brought. But to raid the offices of an opposition party within a parliamentary building under any circumstances is a serious business.
As the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's former adviser on the north of Ireland, Martin Mansergh commented: "It is the kind of thing associated more with semi-democratic, (by which he meant undemocratic) countries like Turkey and (regimes like) Robert Mugabe.
"It is an extraordinary thing in any democracy for the parliamentary offices of a political party to be heavily raided by a police force," said Mansergh. "This is a very, very serious development which has yet to be fully justified."
But while nationalist Ireland, including the Dublin government, was angry, Irish America was livid. "The raid on the Stormont Sinn Fein office," wrote US correspondent Roy O'Hanlon in the Irish News, "has gone down like a lead balloon."
A few days earlier, a group of Members of Congress had written to the British secretary of State complaining about the PSNI's failure to protest Catholics in the Short Strand. Now the PSNI appeared to be openly pursuing a unionist anti-Agreement agenda within the offices of government.
In the US, the Ancient Order of Hibernians were furious and called for the immediate release of Denis Donaldson. The AOH demanded an investigation of the "political tactics of those acting for the British government during the raids on the offices of Sinn Fein" which was "an assault against democratic principles".
There was no place in a democratic society for "staged police raids on the offices of an oppositional political party", said the AOH national secretary.
But in the British and Unionist press there were plenty to endorse the British agenda. "To Trimble the spoils," Malachi O'Doherty wrote in the Belfast Telegraph. "From looking near suicidal two weeks ago David Trimble now looks like an astute politician, almost a prophet."
A miraculous transformation no less, but O'Doherty shows no interest in how this apparent transformation was achieved.
The editorial continued: "Unionist patience has been stretched to breaking point and the ultimatum issued by the Ulster Unionist Council last month appears to have been vindicated."
While the Belfast Telegraph finds words such as 'wise', 'astute' and 'vindicated' to describe Trimble, Liam Clarke of the Sunday Times is considering the "nightmare scenario for Sinn Fein", which is "a breakdown of the peace process for which republicans and not unionists will carry the bulk of historical blame". Clarke predicts that in any future negotiations, "Sinn Fein will find its hand seriously weakened.
"It is they and not unionists who will have to make concessions and build the confidence," Clarke concludes.
But is anyone really fooled?
Pat McArt, writing in the Newsletter, suggested republicans have already made significant confidence building concessions. "But this is not enough progress for rejectionist unionism and many suspect that anything the republican movement does will never be enough."
Commenting on the raids and arrests, McArt outlines the way in which nationalist Ireland is interpreting events.
"For many - if not all - nationalists the whole thing smacks of a charade. Nationalists have seen the UUP walk to Stormont flanked by representatives of loyalist paramilitary groupings who have carried out horrific sectarian murders mostly against unarmed, totally innocent Catholics. There was no outcry from unionism about democracy being corrupted then.
"And for several months every year nationalists can expect heavy duty intimidation, particularly in places such as Portadown, Larne, Ballymena and large swathes of Belfast when tribal unionism celebrates its culture. So when Trimble, Donaldson et al rant on about republicans breaking the rules, it tends to ring hollow.
"And as for the leaked documents, the Brits have done - and will do - the same. Neither side can claim to have played by Marquis of Queensberry rules."
The securocrats' revenge
The security forces in Northern Ireland continue to manipulate events to bolster the unionist cause
By Roy Greenslade, The Guardian
Will there ever be justice in the north of Ireland? The Stormont raid on Sinn Fein's office and the simultaneous arrests of four people are like a macabre joke, proving that the new police service is no different from the old one, making a laughing stock of the concept of fairness and equality. The police can't catch murderers - even when they know their identities - but they are terrific at hunting down alleged spies.
A year ago, a journalist, Marty O'Hagan, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen. No one has been arrested. In 1999, solicitor Rosemary Nelson was murdered by a car bomb. No one has been arrested. It took years before anyone was arrested for the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989, and when someone was charged, he too was murdered by loyalists. Again, no arrests.
These are just the high-profile cases people in Britain know about. Very little media coverage has been given to scores of unpunished loyalist murders and attacks during years in which they have made a mockery of previous ceasefire claims.
All manner of provocative acts against the nationalist population, particularly in Belfast, have failed to achieve the obvious aim of luring the IRA to retaliate and so breach its ceasefire. There have been sporadic instances of indiscipline by IRA members, but they haven't been on anything like the scale of the daily lawlessness of the UDA and its offshoots, such as the venal Red Hand Defenders.
Yet the loyalist mayhem continues under the noses of police, because the IRA remains the bogeyman for the security forces - police special branch, army and MI5 - known in republican terminology as the securocrats.
The securocrats have been sceptical about the IRA giving up the gun. They have therefore devoted a great deal more time to intelligence-gathering on the IRA's now peaceful members than to investigating loyalists who continue to murder with impunity. It is this anti-republican bias that led to those ridiculous raids and to the breathtaking prejudgment of arrested men who have been presumed guilty before trial.
But even if we accept that all the leaks about what the police are supposed to have discovered are correct, we must stand back from the government hype to consider its implications. Does it really matter a damn if the IRA knows what the prime minister said to John Reid, the Northern Ireland secretary of state? Does it matter if it knows the name of every serving prison officer, every policeman's address, every ministerial security briefing?
The IRA hasn't done anything about it and, most importantly, isn't remotely likely to, as even that puffed-up, joyless unionist "renegade", Jeffrey Donaldson, has conceded. He knows how implausible it would be for the Provisional IRA to go back to war. There wouldn't be any public support and the leadership of Sinn Fein is now so wedded to the peaceful path it simply couldn't turn around.
If either Sinn Fein or the IRA has spied on the government, they have done so either for political reasons or because they know they are still under constant surveil lance and are merely imitating the spooks. Sauce for goose and gander, surely? It may well be possible to argue that some material may be useful to terrorists. But the IRA hasn't engaged in terrorism for years.
Now look at the problem from the other direction: how did unionist politicians know within minutes of the raids not only why they had taken place but what was in the confiscated documents? The answer, of course, is that they were given the information by their contacts in the police and the Northern Ireland Office. Unionists have traditionally benefited from leaks by the NIO and the security forces, while their militant supporters - the loyalist gangs they disdain in public and applaud in private - have been handed sensitive material to carry out attacks. This case also supports those who believe that the security forces, rather than the government, direct what happens. The government is more or less bound by their advice and, most importantly, by their control of operational matters in which they can manufacture "events" to suit their political aim (ie to prevent reunification).
If this sounds too conspiratorial, note the timing of the raids. Reid says he knew about these matters in July. One of the accused, the so-called infiltrator, left the NIO in September 2001. If there was real danger, it was scandalous for the police to have waited so long.
Launching the raid the day before the start of the Colombia trial of three alleged IRA members may have been a coincidence. But there is a much more pressing domestic matter because of the unionists' ultimatum to collapse the assembly in January. Was that prospect too awful for the government and its securocrats to contemplate? Instead, would it not be far better if republicans could be blamed?
The sad truth, since partition, is that the British will do almost anything to frustrate the republican agenda and bolster the unionists. It is frightening to realise that the only people smiling now are the dissident IRA members who refused to follow Sinn Fein down the political road.
Copyright © 2002 The Guardian
Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October, 2002
British to impose direct rule from Monday
No official announcement has yet been forthcoming, but it is clear from the statements of unnamed British government officials that plans are being made for the collapse of the devolved power-sharing institututions in Belfast and the return of direct rule from London by Monday.
On Sunday night or Monday morning, British Secretary of State John Reid is to declare an open-ended suspension of the Northern Executive and assume the powers of government over the Six Counties for himself, his Ministers and the Westminster parliament, according to reports.
It is the fourth time the institutions will have been collapsed. While a review of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is set to follow, there is some speculation that the current Stormont administration could ultimately be scrapped, and Assembly elections, due by May, postponed indefinitely.
A schedule of demands set by the Ulster Unionist Party two weeks ago, including the disbandment of the IRA and a halt to policing reform, is seen as an insurmountable obstacle to the return of power-sharing.
Politically, the increased hostility of Ulster Unionists to the Good Friday Agreement and the willingness of the British government to accomodate their veto on political change paved the way for the current collapse.
Long threatening to bring down the administration, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble advanced his 'expel Sinn Fein or else' ultimatum from January 18 to next week following allegations of an "IRA spy ring" in Belfast and a spectacular police raid on Sinn Fein's offices at the Stormont Assembly last week.
Republicans accused the Ulster Unionists and their supporters in the British government of engaging in political theatre to create an escape strategy from the Good Friday Agreement.
Efforts are now being made by the Irish and British governments to attempt a soft landing for the peace process. Pending a review of the Agreement by the North's political parties and the two governments, at least some of the infrastructure of the Good Friday Agreement are set to be maintained, according to reports.
While the Policing Board is set to go -- unless special orders are made for its preservation -- it appears that the North-South implementation bodies and British-Irish Inter-governmental Conference will continue with their normal work.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams MP said he had been assured that the Irish government is determined to press ahead with all the outstanding elements of the Agreement following a lunchtime talk with Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Mr. Adams, who was is in Galway today to campaign for the upcoming Nice referendum in the 26 Counties, said "there can be no veto over justice, human rights, equality, policing and demilitarisation and other matters".
"The unionist gameplan... is very obvious and has of course been aided by developments last week," he said.
"This is a time for calm and measured leadership and for dealing with the needs of all the people and all of the issues of the Agreement, not following a UUP wishlist dictated by the electoral battle within unionism."
A meeting at 10 Downing Street in London between a Sinn Fein delegation and the British Prime Minister proved cordial yesterday despite ledia expectations of a showdown.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said afterwards there was still an "unacceptable" level of paramilitary activity. He blamed republicans exclusively for the "pockets of real and totally unacceptable violence" in Belfast.
Without referring to the activities of the British Crown forces, he said he was concerned that republicans wanted to have "a dual paramilitary and political strategy" in the North of Ireland.
"In reality, in the end, they can't do that and we have got to implement the whole of the agreement."
Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October, 2002
'Never again' - Paisley
The two Ministers of the hardline unionist DUP officially left their posts in the Executive today, with party leader Ian Paisley describing the Good Friday Agreement as "history".
The resignations of Regional Development Minister Peter Robinson and Social Development Minister Nigel Dodds took effect from noon.
Party leader Ian Paisley said the current institutions could not be restored in the future and that his party would not sit in government with Sinn Fein again.
He said it was time to look to the future and fresh elections. Deputy leader Mr Robinson warned Tony Blair that he must not postpone elections, insisting that would be the "trait of a fascist".
"It is now time to draw a line under the failed process and to look towards the future," he said. "The people should be allowed to speak. They have been denied the right for too long."
Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has again called for the IRA to disband, which he insists is the only way to move forward.
Sinn Fein North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly said the UUP request was part of a deliberately unattainable list of demands produced at its ruling Ulster Unionist Council two weeks ago as an excuse to withdraw from the Good Friday Agreement.
He said: "They have made a series of impossible demands. They are not thinking about this. They have made a series of silly demands and in my opinion they were made deliberately so we could not move on."
Mr Kelly put the onus for finding a way out of the roadblock firmly with the British government. "They have a responsibility because they also signed up to the Good Friday Agreement and cannot suspend themselves," he said.
Mr Kelly also attacked unionists whom he pointed out were selling their electorate short. "As a republican I know there are unionist people who want change, but there isn't a single unionist political representative who will represent that," he said.
Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October, 2002
Rallies for peace process
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein held rallies in Dublin and Belfast last night to calm rising anger among republicans and reaffirm the party's commitment to the Good Friday Agreement.
Senior republicans took part in the rallies and spoke of the efforts now underway to save the peace process. In Belfast, Martin McGuinness MP called on republicans to "keep fixed on the prize of our people".
"This has been a long journey for us, a roller coaster of emotions. It has not been easy. It has not been easy for unionists at grassroots levels," McGuinness said.
He urged republicans: "We keep fixed on the prize for our people, and the prize for our people is an end to unionist domination and an end to discrimination."
The Mid-Ulster MP said unionists were afraid of dealing with Sinn Fein and accused them of running away from the devolved institutions.
"That, to me, is political cowardice of the worst kind," he said.
"These people are walking out because they can't handle the change, the type of change, the Good Friday Agreement envisaged.
"We have no interested whatsoever in dominating them. We have no interest whatsoever in treating anyone within this society the way we were treated. Those days are gone, those days are over."
Mr McGuinness claimed that loyalist paramilitaries were intent on trying to goad mainstream republicans back into war.
"I'm absolutely delighted that the IRA didn't fall into that trap," he said.
"I am absolutely delighted that we have, out there, an organisation that understands the political dynamics of what is happening within our society."
With suspension of the institutions just days away, Mr McGuinness pledged: "There will be no re-negotiation. There will be the full, faithful implementation of the Good Friday Agreement."
Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October, 2002
'Crisis was coming anyway'
In Dublin last night, Gerry Adams said the events of last week had in many ways been seized upon to create "a crisis that was coming anyway".
Speaking at a conference on the Nice referendum he said the reality was that the Ulster Unionist Party had decided to withdraw from the institutions on January 18.
He said unionists believed the Good Friday Agreement was to their disadvantage and that that was at the core of the crisis within unionism.
He later said the British government may believe it is sustaining "progressive unionism" by its actions, but "to the rest of us it's pandering to unionism". To the rejectionist unionists it's encouragement."
He said when David Trimble's party moved to the ground of hardliner Ian Paisley's ground, it ceased to be a pro-Agreement party and became an anti-Agreement party.
He said, with republican efforts, it was his conviction the peace process could work. Unionists would not go up the path to equality with nationalists on their own, however.
"It is my certain view that we have to help. It is my certain view that we have to part of coaxing and persuading.
But he added: "We can only do so much. If the IRA disbanded itself, stripped naked, paraded on the lawn of Stormont, did double somersaults, it would not be enough."
Letter from Irish-America to Richard Haass
(U.S. envoy to the North of Ireland)
Dear Dr. Haass:
It is with great regret that we in Irish America are now witnessing the attempted destruction of the Good Friday Agreement by the Ulster Unionist Party. UUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble's deadline for the removal of Sinn Fein from the Power-sharing Executive is the fulfillment of his party's strategy, outlined at the UUP's Annual General Meeting 6 months ago on 9 March 2002.
We wish to emphasize that the Good Friday Agreement is an international binding treaty, negotiated under United States supervision, which can not be run on the wishes of one political party. The UUP leadership has contrived the current crisis. The Ulster Unionist Council resolution, passed on 21 September 2002, contained unilateral demands of Sinn Fein and the IRA but not one word of condemnation of the Unionist/Protestant campaign of violence against Catholics, especially in places like the Short Strand in East Belfast.
During this time, the UUP has opposed the functioning of the North- South Ministerial Council, is against police reform, and now is withdrawing from the power-sharing Assembly, the very cornerstone of the Agreement itself.
The British government pandered to unionist demands throughout the period since Good Friday 10 April 1998 thereby encouraging the UUP to stall and dilute implementation of the Agreement. Now the UUP has declared its intention to unilaterally end power-sharing within the week.
In the recent past the British government has chosen to suspend the political institutions established by the Agreement. Suspension legislation was enacted by the British government on foot of earlier UUP demands. This legislation is contrary to the terms of the Agreement and the International Treaty between the British and Irish governments. The British government has used this legislation to avoid its obligations under the Agreement's terms.
Implementation of the Agreement, even if unionist opposition pulls down the Assembly, must proceed. Political, democratic, peace process, and legal imperatives, not to mention good common sense, require this approach.
We call on this Administration to express its opposition to the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly and its continued support for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. The democratic will of the overwhelming majority of the Irish electorate, north and south, was expressed in their support of the Agreement. The democratic rights and entitlements of the electorate cannot be thwarted or denied.
Sincerely:
Ned McGinley President Ancient Order of Hibernians Brian O'Dwyer Frank Durkan Americans for a New Irish Agenda Stella O'Leary President Irish American Democrats James Gallagher President Irish American Unity Conference Paul Doris President Irish Northern Aid Fr. Sean McManus President Irish National Caucus Joseph Jamison President Irish American Labor Coalition Kelly O'Neill President Brehon Law Society Edmund Lynch National Coordinator Lawyers Alliance for Justice Vicky Curtin President Irish Emigration Society Washington DC Kevin Meara President Irish LobbyThe North's Spying Game
By Sean Mac Carthaigh
While last week's furore over republicans receiving leaked documents from inside the Northern Ireland Office was enough to get David Trimble out of his short-term problems, it surprised almost no one. The British and the IRA have been eavesdropping and copying each other's documents for three decades.
Back in the 1970s, the British Army occupied the top two floors of the Divis flats. They are still there, using directional microphones and long-distance camera lenses to record the comings and goings of the locals.
From the beginning, the IRA hit back. IRA commander Brendan `The Dark' Hughes bugged British Army phones at Lisburn, recording several generals arranging to visit prostitutes.
Meanwhile, MI6 had set up a brothel in the centre of Belfast, recording local figures in action in glorious Technicolor from behind two-way mirrors. When the IRA discovered this, it paid a visit to the premises, raking it with gunfire. Several well-dressed men with English accents fled the building, carrying expensive film equipment and microphones.
The British have always intercepted the mail of Irish republicans -- as Roger Casement found to his dismay -- and bugged telephones from the moment they were invented. As the conflict wore on, this became a costly exercise.
There were so many suspects to listen in on, and it was very rare for these to say anything sensitive on the phone. Eavesdropping required thousands of hours of people listening either live or to recordings of mostly completely unremarkable conversations.
With the computer age, telephone taps have become much easier. The computers of the British intelligence services can now scan thousands of lines in Ireland, north and south, searching for key words, such as Semtex or Special Branch. These are then further filtered for human agents to assess.
Meanwhile, MI5 placed tiny microphones anywhere they felt they might yield information. This activity did not just concern the IRA: various groups from the SDLP to the Irish government were also bugged.
Republicans responded as best they could on the technological front, but found themselves outspent. Instead, they concentrated on getting agents to pass on information whenever possible.
The unionists, whose supporters were already working at the highest levels in the state, also relied on human espionage. By 1998, the unionists were receiving so many secret documents from the Northern Ireland Office that the then secretary of state, Mo Mowlam, called in the RUC to investigate. No raids were carried out nor were there any arrests or charges.
Ironically, Mowlam herself authorised the bugging of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness's car. When this was discovered, they dutifully feigned outrage at this breach of trust.
The bugging and spying reached ludicrous levels at the Weston Park talks last July. According to some sources, senior IRA figures travelled to a nearby Shropshire hotel so they could available for consultations with Sinn Féin members.
As the participants approached several key points in the negotiations, the Sinn Féin side delayed its reaction. Sources said this was because the IRA would not reveal its bottom line until it had received the transcripts from its agents in the Northern Ireland Office, which would reveal the British bottom line. The IRA would then give Sinn Féin a remarkably similar bottom line, and everyone would be happy.
Of course, Britain's intelligence services knew the IRA was in the hotel and had bugged its rooms, thereby undermining whatever advantage the IRA had achieved by its own espionage.
Observers have also pointed out several interesting aspects of the latest revelations. The Castle Buildings messenger allegedly passing documents to republicans was caught at the photocopier, and, although he left his post more than a year ago, kept his position at the time. Did the British, having discovered what he was up to, use the opportunity to feed him false documents to send on to the republicans?
Either way, the difference between the public reaction of the British and their private views of their intelligence services is remarkable. While Tony Blair expressed his outrage and suggested Sinn Féin would have to choose between the "democratic" and "paramilitary" paths, a former British Army intelligence agent wrote an article about it for the Irish News -- under a false name, of course.
"I am neither surprised at the alleged acts of espionage these people are being linked to, nor the duplicity of many of those who are calling for Sinn Féin's scalp," he wrote. "Both governments have spent small fortunes in pursuits of the same product Sinn Féin was collecting: intelligence.
"The ability to know what your opponent is going to do, sometimes before he knows himself, is obviously very important, especially when you are engaged in sensitive and historic talks.
"The old saying of what's good for the goose is good for the gander comes strikingly to mind. Her majesty's government targets the Irish government in an aggressive way . . . I would be disappointed if the Irish government did not itself participate in the game."
The former agent went on to advise the British to ignore intelligence-gathering by republicans "as the government has been doing for many years", unless there were genuine indications the IRA was about to restart the war.
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Master spy keeps the troubled peace alive
By Sean Mac Carthaigh Dublin, Ireland
It's morning in west Belfast. There's the clink of the milkman on his rounds. Hark the squealing of tyres as eight armoured vehicles rush towards a certain home. If you cock your ears, you'll hear the hearty cry of the lesser-spotted Police Service of Northern Ireland man: "Get up you Fenian bastard!"
Once again, Bobby Storey's house is being raided. It's nothing new, and as a senior republican and potential assassination target, his home is heavily fortified. He wakes up, turns to his partner and asks, given the circumstances, if she would make him a cup of tea.
By now the PSNI are beating at his front door. Officers get a ladder, and climb up to his bullet-proof bedroom window. Storey stretches and ambles towards the shower. The clamour increases. Neighbours come out to offer spontaneous suggestions and advice to the PSNI about the efficacy of the raid. Storey towels himself, dresses with care, and trots down the stairs.
At last, the reinforced steel frame of the door creaks and yields to the PSNI's mini-battering rams. But when the officers get into the hallway, they see a giant, cast-iron gate blocking their progress. Storey thanks his partner for the cup of tea, sits down at the table, and, in a matter-of-fact tone, informs the snarling PSNI officers through the grille: "You'll need an angle-grinder for that." He takes a sip of tea.
Forty minutes later, the police produce a cutting machine and attack Storey's gate. When they are about two-thirds of the way through -- and Storey has finished his toast and is bored watching them -- he leans forward with the key and opens the gate. He is dutifully hauled away to the interrogation centre, where he tells his inquisitors precisely nothing for 48 hours. He is released.
For Belfast people, Bobby Storey's nonchalance and fearlessness is part of his charm. Being blond, six-foot-two, trim, good-looking and highly intelligent also lends him authority in the neighbourhood. But it is his day job that makes him a hero to nationalists across the North.
For Bobby Storey is the best spymaster the IRA have had since Michael Collins.
He learned as a young man in the H-Blocks that good intelligence was a priceless commodity. For many months he acted as a model prisoner, all the time gathering the knowledge essential for the spectacular 1983 escape by 38 men.
On the outside, Storey continued his work. He built up a network of people in positions to pass on potentially useful information. He was able, the British now believe, to examine the itemised phone bills of top RUC officers such as Sir Ronnie Flanagan -- noting with equal interest professional and non-professional liaisons.
Storey's MI5 adversaries have also been forced to conclude that he planted agents in an insurance company that dealt with RUC and British army personnel, and a travel agency used by Diplock court judges.
But most impressive of all is the suggestion he was behind the robbery of computer files and documents at Castlereagh earlier this year, and has obtained the names and addresses of all of the North's Special Branch officers, their informers, and prison officers.
The British regard this as the biggest intelligence disaster in Irish history, and have already spent stg£20 million helping their people to move houses.
But republicans have a different perspective. They know that, while the IRA has no intention of reverting to the war, some MI5 and Special Branch officers have long wished for the peace process to break down.
It is clear to most observers, for example, that the persistent loyalist attacks on the nationalist enclave in north Belfast, which are being permitted by the PSNI, represent an attempt to provoke the IRA into action.
In this context, the fact that the IRA has such potentially devastating intelligence information is actually a powerful incentive on Special Branch and their informers to keep the peace.
Or, as the Sunday Telegraph put it last April in response to the Castlereagh robbery:
"The war is over. And the IRA has won it."
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Facts show Stormont is riddled with unioninst spies
By Sean Mac Carthaigh Dublin, Ireland
Nationalists allowed themselves a wry smile last week at claims by unionists that a messenger with access to a photocopier at Castle Buildings represented a political "spy ring" at the heart of the Northern Ireland Office (NIO). Compared to the long history infiltration and espionage by unionists at the highest levels of the North's institutions -- and especially the Northern Ireland Office -- the nationalist access to political transcripts and position papers starts to look somewhat paltry.
Senator George Mitchell said in 1999 that unionist sympathisers working as civil servants at the NIO almost succeeded in wrecking the peace process: "They had the apparent intent to undermine the peace process, even though the government itself was an architect of that process."
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Flash: Institutions to be suspended from midnight Monday
British Secretary of State John Reid has tonight confirmed his intention to suspend the Belfast Assembly.
Dr Reid contacted Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams this evening to tell him he was going to suspend the North of Ireland's political institutions tomorrow morning at 10am.
It is believed that Reid has contacted the leaders of the North's other political party leaders to convey the news.
The suspension is to come into effect at midnight on Monday. Direct rule over the North of Ireland is thereafter claimed by the Westminster parliament in London.
It is understood British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will issue a joint statement around midday tomorrow, affirming their determination to uphold the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, under which power was devolved to the Belfast Assembly at Stormont.
Dr Reid told Mr Adams that while the institutions were suspended, the election date of May 1 was not.
"He asserted that the two governments were going to implement the outstanding aspects of the Agreement," a Sinn Fein spokesperson said tonight.
"However, Mr Adams remains sceptical about Dr Reid's commitments on these matters.
"Given Dr tactical management of the Agreement thus far, there is a big onus on Mr Blair and Mr Ahern to fill the gap which is obviously being opened up by the unionist exodus from the institutions."
Despite some speculation, there appears to be no plans to set up a "shadow administration" involving the First and Deputy First Ministers. Instead, there will be an increased role for the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, set up by the Agreement to deal with non-devolved issues.
TRIMBLE'S RESIGNATION CALL
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called on the two Sinn Fein ministers to resign from the Executive over what he alleged was the failure of the IRA to commit to peace by disbanding.
"If [Sinn Fein's Minister of Education] Martin McGuinness were a man of integrity he would resign, and there would be then no suspension. If Mr McGuinness wants politics to go on ... then let him do the decent thing before that."
He accused the IRA of organising a "massive spying ring" following the high-profile raid by the RUC/PSNI police on Sinn Fein's offices at the Belfast Assembly last week, and the arrest of the party's office administrator, Denis Donaldson.
The raid has since been exposed as a political charade, and drew an apology from the PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde. Mr Donaldson, however, remains in custody. Three others have been accused of spying on the British government and are also being held on remand.
AHERN WARNS AGAINST VACUUM
Earlier today, Bertie Ahern warned of the dangers of "vacuums and tensions" emerging if the political institutions are suspended for too long.
He said that his government would work closely with Mr Blair to resolve the outstanding issues.
"Clearly the fact that violence still exists, and clearly the fact that there is still not a full move away from the past, from the activities of the past, into total democratic means, that is creating tensions, it is breaking trust," he said.
"We have to try to deal with that problem, along with a lot of the other outstanding problems ... there is demilitarisation, there is the whole issue of paramilitary activities. There is the sectarianism that is in northern society,"
He highlighted the role of the British and Irish governments as "guardians" of the Good Friday agreement and said suspension was inevitable.
"We must now move to the new situation, and my view is that the two governments are guardians of the the agreement. We are determined to protect it, and we are not suspending the agreement.
"It will be important for the two governments to work closely in a way that reflects the principles of the agreement and protects and develops its achievements."
Mr Ahern ruled out the reported possibility of a role in a "shadow" position for the North's First Minister and Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble and Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan, head of the nationalist SDLP.
He declared: "Legally there is no process for doing that. If there is a basis for keeping people informed, for keeping them in touch, I have no difficulty.
"But from our point of view, the British-Irish Inter governmental Conference offers a practical way of the two governments acting together -- and that is all.
"We will also keep in touch with the other parties. We know what the problems are and it beholds us all to find resolutions to them."
Mr Ahern also expressed strong opposition to the idea that the May elections to the Asembly could be postponed.
ADAMS OPPOSES SUSPENSION
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams warned tonight that tomorrow's suspension would damage the peace process and would not help bring about the disbandment of the IRA, as David Trimble has demanded.
He said there were other, better, options to suspending the institutions despite the refusal of the Ulster Unionist Party to participate.
"It strikes me as paradoxical that the aim of getting rid of, or disbandment of, all of the armed groups is being presented by Mr Trimble in the way that it is, when he seeks to bring down the very vehicle which was established to achieve that aim," Mr Adams said.
Yesterday, he said there was "a clear and strong consensus" that a suspension of the institutions would be "serving the agenda of the Anti-Agreement campaign".
"Mr Trimble knows that there is no basis for his demand for the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the Executive. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Mr Trimble favours suspension."
Mr Adams said this was clear from the recent meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, the policy-making ruling council of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Speaking to the media at Sinn Fein headquarters in Dublin during a meeting of the party's leadership, he said Sinn Fein's Ard Chomhairle had reiterated its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and endorsed the party's demand that the two governments must drive forward the process.
"The agenda must not change. The agenda is the Good Friday Agreement," Mr Adams said.
He was also dismissive of the suggestions for the future of the North's government by Mr Trimble in recent days.
"Mr Trimble's attack on the proposition that the two governments must step in to ensure that those important aspects of the Agreement that can be implemented are implemented, is ludicrous. He knows that the unionist exodus from the institutions leave no other option.
"His suggestion that he could remain in some shadow position as First Minister is equally ludicrous. If Mr. Trimble wants to remain in any capacity he should not walk away from the institutions. If he does walk away then he can expect no special dispensation for himself.
"Sinn Fein will continue to fulfil our obligations, defend the rights and entitlements of our electorate and pursue the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement."
Mr Adams has remained in contact with both the Taoiseach and with Downing Street in advance of tomorrow's announcement, a Sinn Fein spokesperson said, adding: "The party leadership is not taking these recent developments lying down. There is a real anger about the raid at Stormont and the arrest and continued detention of [party administrator] Denis Donaldson.
"The unionists have seized upon these events but they need to know that there is no escape from the Good Friday Agreement for anyone, whether in government or in any political party. Despite all the difficulties that will eventually dawn upon the rejectionists."
* In other news, a 22-year-old man became the third victim of a bloody feud between loyalist paramilitaries tonight.
Alexander McKinley, who was shot in the head in east Belfast last Monday, died in hospital today. He was the victim of the feud between the largest loyalist paramilitary group the UDA and the smaller LVF.
His death came amid reports that the two groups were engaged in a process of mediation to end the mutual slaughter.
Widespread anger as direct rule returns
* John Reid's claimed neutrality 'dishonest' - Adams
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said today he had no confidence in the willingness of the British Secretary of State John Reid to implement the outstanding aspects of the Good Friday Agreement.
Holding a copy of the Agreement, Mr Adams told reporters at Stormont, the seat of the Belfast Assembly, that Sinn Fein would be talking to all pro-Agreement parties but that there would be "no re-negotiation of this contract" into "some form of a unionist document."
Surrounded by his entire Assembly team, Mr Adams was reacting to the announcement that power-sharing in the North would be suspended with effect from midnight tonight.
"We are in this particular situation because once again unionists threaten the institutions and Dr Reid moved to accommodate them.
"But the problems have to be solved", Mr Adams added. "The two governments have to be held to their obligations".
This is the fourth time the administration has been suspended since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, and there was considerable recrimination this afternoon following the latest collapse.
The appointment of two new ministers - Angela Smith from Basildon in England and Ian Pearson from Dudley in England, brings to five the number of British minister who will now run the affairs of the North of Ireland for the foreseeable future.
Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble insisted his threat to collapse the North's Assembly and power-sharing Executive tomorrow was not to blame for the suspension. Instead, he said the "instability that has been in the process right from the beginning" was "the failure of paramilitaries [meaning the IRA] to deliver their side of the bargain".
The former First Minister said he did not see why disbandment and decommissioning by the IRA "could not be tackled in the course of the next few weeks or months". He said: "It simply requires the people concerned to take the decision, that doesn't take very long".
At Hillsborough Castle, County Down, John Reid claimed a loss of trust on both sides of the community for the difficulties was to blame.
He declared: "The time has come for people to face up to the choice between violence and democracy."
Dr Reid also said the date for next May's elections to the Assembly still stood.
He said: "The Agreement remains a template for political process here in Northern Ireland. I hope the decision I have taken today marks a breathing space - a chance to gather strength - before that process moves forward once again."
REID 'DISHONEST'
Mr Adams accused the Secretary of State of dishonesty during his announcement of suspension.
"He attempts to project himself and his government as referees in this situation.
"You cannot talk about democracy while suspending now for the third time in his term as Secretary of State the institutions," he said."
OPEN-ENDED
The British and Irish governments are to press for an immediate resumption of all-party talks. The suspension is open-ended, however, and there have been suggestions it could be years before the institutions are restored.
There are also widespread fears that loyalist paramilitaries could take advantage of the political vacuum and increase their criminal and sectarian violence.
Monica McWilliams, of the Women's Coalition, described the suspension of the Assembly as a "disgrace".
"We have worked all weekend to find an alternative to the Assembly being stood down. We believe there was an alternative to that and that was to sustain the committees.
"It is a disgrace that the Assembly's work on health, education, job creation and housing will now be shelved and much progress will be lost.
"The collapse of the Assembly is not a price worth paying for the problems we have and offers no constructive way out of those problems."
POLICING BOARD SUSTAINED
It is not yet clear what elements of the Good Friday Agreement will withstand the collapse of devolution. However, it appears the Policing Board may continue. The Board, which was intended holds the Police Service to account and oversee reform, is seen by nationalists as a failure in the absence of significant policing reform.
The Democratic Unionist Party and SDLP members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board said they would accept re-appointment to the board, and Ulster Unionists were expected to do the same.
Membership of the board formally falls with the collapse of the institutions, but John Reid said he was inviting existing members to continue to provide their "excellent service" to the community and he hoped that they would accept re-appointment.
CALL FOR ELECTIONS
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley said he would not be entering into negotiations with Sinn Fein as long as they were "linked" to the IRA.
He accused the British and Irish Governments of trying to "pump oxygen" into a failed and flawed process.
"What we need to do know is get back to the drawing board and face up to the issues that brought this thing to an end. No government can force its will upon the majority of the electorate.
"It has been trying to force on the majority of unionist people something that is unacceptable to them."
Mr Paisley repeated his call for fresh elections and renegotiation to change the Agreement.
"The Government couldn't stop the elections happening, they sought every way to find a way to destroy the election date and their law officers inform them no," he added.
Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan, leader of the nationalist SDLP party, welcomed a commitment from the Irish and British governments to continue implementing the Good Friday Agreement.
"I do believe that we can make determined efforts which can bring the Agreement back in a bigger and better way.
"If we are able to agree on a resumption of the institutions then the date of the (next Assembly) elections might well go forward."
Analysis: Get on with the business of peace
By Danny Morrison, danny@dannymorrison.com
Perhaps Ulster Unionists will now realise the enormity of what they have brought about. Their objective was to force Tony Blair to exclude Sinn Fein and, during subsequent debate, hope the SDLP would vote with them. This would have brought back something reminiscent of majority rule and turned the Northern assembly into the old Stormont.
Blindness to political reality informed much of their thinking. Back in 1999 they might have had some hope. David Trimble had been elected first minister and Seamus Mallon deputy first minister a year earlier. For 18 months Trimble refused to allow the other ministries to be filled until the IRA began decommissioning. Mallon guaranteed Trimble that he would move to exclude Sinn Fein if republicans did not fulfil their obligations.
Had Sinn Fein been weaker, new SDLP leader Mark Durkan might have been tempted to support exclusion (he has already joined the policing board). But last year's general election results changed that. Those thousands who opted for Sinn Fein over the SDLP, and made it the larger party, changed the political landscape and added real muscle to the negotiating position of the nationalist community. Where the SDLP has traditionally settled for less, Sinn Fein has robustly demanded full rights.
Once Tony Blair decided not to introduce an exclusion motion against Sinn Fein it was obvious that he would move to suspend the assembly, expected at midnight tonight. The one crumb of comfort the Ulster Unionist party has is that it can face assembly elections (should they be called) claiming that it has acted "morally" and has confronted the "duplicitous" republican movement.
It is debatable if politics - or peace - can work if circumscribed by dubious, subjective notions of what is "moral" or "principled", rather than freed through a degree of pragmatism and flexibility. The taxes paid by pacifists support a government with nuclear weapons capability. Voters for a particular party endorse, along with their preferred policies, others which they dislike.
Sinn Fein's vote went up after the first ceasefire. It increased even when the IRA ended that ceasefire with the explosion at Canary Wharf. It has grown after the Florida gun-running trial, and after the Colombian and Castlereagh allegations. It will increase again because nationalists - despite the allegations of a republican spy-ring - recognise that Sinn Fein is working for peace, not war.
Republicans sit in an assembly they never wanted. The British government never gave a declaration of intent to withdraw. There is still a heavy British army presence in some nationalist areas. The police have not been reformed. The equality and justice issues have yet to be resolved. But do you become disillusioned and walk out, the way unionists have over not getting all their own way? No, you get on with the business of making peace.
It is a given that unionists never wanted to share power. It must be extremely hard for people who established their own state (with the might of Britain), had their own paramilitary police and government, and who were raised in supremacist politics for 60 years or more, to share power with even compliant Catholics, never mind those "who ain't house-trained", as David Trimble described Sinn Fein's elected representatives. True, the IRA, because it exists, does not make it easier for unionists. But that's life.
Is the demand for IRA disbandment made by unionists because they have a legitimate fear of a return to armed struggle? Or is it a ploy because unionists know that it cannot be met and thus improves the chances of them achieving their objective of a unionist government?
The IRA re-emerged in 1969 because the unionist institutions of the state threatened, abused and attacked nationalists. Today we have loyalist pipe-bombings of nationalist homes (over 300 this year alone) and violent attempts to prevent Catholic children from going to school.
The IRA continues to exist because nationalists still feel vulnerable. But it can only return to armed struggle if the institutions and forces of the state attack nationalists or deny them their rights, which thus begs the question of unionists and the British: is the war over?
If it is over, why do you want the special branch? Why do you not make the police service acceptable to nationalists? Why are the forces you support still bugging houses and cars, gathering intelligence, targeting republicans, recruiting informers?
Can you guarantee that you will not go back to internment, censorship, the ill-treatment of prisoners, shoot-to-kill operations? Can you assure us that you will cease your double-standards which give political cover and encouragement to loyalist paramilitaries? Give us one good reason why we should share power with you.
Because you have a past does not mean that you cannot have a future. Here is the hand of friendship. Tell us that the war is over.