Power-sharing government was toppled by British militants!
23.12.2005
See: SF member expelled as securocrats’ role in collapsing Executive exposed - Adams
Recent revelations concerning the downfall of the democratically elected power-sharing government of Stormont in the year 2002, show once again that Ireland 's "Troubles" have their roots in Britain ’s narrow interpretation of democracy in her first and last colony.
While the first reaction of Sinn Féin was to underline the broader dimension of the scandal in a historical context, direct-ruler Hain sought new ways to minimise the fall-out while spreading more untruths.
"A very unique power-sharing administration was toppled after centuries of conflict ... The truth of the matter is that British agencies were at the heart of that coup d'etat," Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams
"This is a turbulent event. Let us remind ourselves about what happened. Something like a thousand documents were stolen from the Northern Ireland Office over which I now preside. They appeared in a West Belfast situation. They disappeared. They were stolen". Secretary of State Peter Hain
What the Secretary of State did not mention is that these documents were 'found' in the house of their agent. We refer to an article from David McKittrick in The Independent newspaper, which he wrote in the year 2002 : Police seized 1,000 papers in raids on 'IRA spies'
To date the media in Ireland and Britain has been mainly occupied with sideline issues concerning the scandal while continuing their Sinn Féin bashing. However in Germany , in one of the first media-reactions, the conservative Frankfurter FAZ newspaper has responded in absolute disbelief 'Nichts war, wie es geschehen ist'. In England The Guardian newspaper allowed an Irish correspondent to suggest 'The security forces acted to subvert an elected authority.' Another article in this direction is from Belfast republican Danny Morrison who points out that 'No one's asking 'what really happened?'
Morrison quotes the Secretary of State and draws a lesson from the past!
"If there were some giant political conspiracy, how would it have been that this political conspiracy would have robbed this office of its own information, of the most sensitive kind - this just beggars belief, it would be a complete fantasy." Secretary of State Peter Hain
In 1974 Peter Hain was arrested and charged with a London bank robbery. He claimed that he had been set up by South African intelligence agents because of his anti-apartheid work. His sceptics said that such a scenario beggared belief. He was imprisoned, the case went to trial in 1976 and he was acquitted because what sounded like a complete fantasy was actually true.
Reports obtained from:
(1) Sinn Féin Press Office, (2) Irish Times, (3) Irish News
(4) Sunday Business Post, (5) Irish Examiner, (6) The Guardian
(7) Daily Ireland
Friday, 16 December, 2005
Saturday, 17 December, 2005
How a friend of republican icon Bobby Sands became informer (3)
Sunday, 18 December, 2005
Monday, 19 December, 2005
Thursday, 22 December, 2005
SF member expelled as securocrats role in collapsing Executive exposed - Adams
By Sinn Féin Press Office
Sinn Féin has revealed that a member of the party in Belfast, Denis Donaldson, was expelled last night after it was uncovered that he had been working as a British agent. Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams will hold a press conference today at 4pm (Friday 16th) in the Joyce Room in the Gresham Hotel, O’Connell Street, Dublin.
Speaking in Dublin this morning Mr. Adams said:
“The nature of British rule in Ireland is that for a very long time it has been driven by a security agenda, with policy dictated by British Intelligence, state police and military agencies. The Good Friday Agreement is, as much as anything else, about ending that.
“The collapse of the power sharing government was blamed on allegations of a Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont.
“The fact is that there was no Sinn Féin spy ring at Stormont. The fact is that this was a carefully constructed lie created by the Special Branch in order to cause maximum political impact. The fact is that the collapse of the political institutions was a direct result of the actions of some of those who run the intelligence and policing system of the British. The fact is that the key person at the centre of those events was a Sinn Féin member who was a British agent.
“This is entirely the responsibility of the British government.
“What is clear is that there are those within the PSNI and the intelligence agencies who are a law onto themselves, who use informers, spies and agents and who are operating to their own agenda with no accountability. They are manipulating the situation for their own narrow ends. They have sought to undermine Sinn Féin and are working against the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement which is the publicly stated policy of the British and Irish governments. The British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach have to wake up to this reality.
“Sinn Féin has been very conscious of the negative role being played by elements within the British system and we have raised these matters consistently with both governments. If Britain’s war is over then the British Prime Minister needs to come to terms with the fact that he has to end the activities of the securocrats. This entire episode underlines the need for an end to political policing. That, and defending the Good Friday Agreement remains the focus of Sinn Féin.”
Statement from Denis Donaldson
By Sinn Féin Press Office
"My name is Denis Donaldson. I worked as the Sinn Fein Assembly group administrator in Parliament Buildings at the time of the PSNI raid on the Sinn Fein offices in October 2002, the so-called Stormontgate affair. I was a British agent at the time. I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life. Since then, I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch. Over that period I was paid money. My last two contacts with Special Branch were as follows: two days before my arrest in October 2002, and last night, when a member of Special Branch contacted me to arrange a meeting. I was not involved in any republican spy ring at Stormont. The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction. It never existed. It was created by Special Branch. I deeply regret my activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch. I apologise to anyone who has suffered as a result of my activities as well as to my former comrades, and especially to my family who have become victims in all of this."
SF official confirms 20 years spying for Britain
By Gerry Moriarty, Mark Brennock and Mark Hennessy, Irish Times
Senior republican Denis Donaldson, one of the three men who had Stormont spy ring charges against them dropped last week, has confirmed he acted as a British agent for the past 20 years. The statement from the former senior Sinn Féin official came just hours after party president Gerry Adams, at a hastily convened press conference in Dublin, said Mr Donaldson (55) had admitted he was a British spy.
Mr Donaldson's admission caused shock among republicans and prompted Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to urge the British government to explain what he termed the "bizarre" Stormontgate affair.
A Government spokeswoman said last night that Mr Ahern did not rule out seeking an inquiry into the issue, "independent of everyone", but first wanted to hear the British account of the affair.
He was due to make this point to British prime minister Tony Blair early this morning at an EU summit press conference in Brussels.
Last week, the North's Public Prosecution Service controversially dropped the spy-ring charges against Mr Donaldson and two other men on the grounds that it would not be in the public interest to proceed with the case.
The so-called Stormontgate affair involved police raids in October 2002 on Sinn Féin offices in Stormont and on a number of other premises in Belfast following a PSNI investigation into an alleged republican spy ring at Stormont. Large quantities of documents were seized. David Trimble described the affair as "10 times worse than Watergate". The North's executive was suspended 10 days later.
Mr Adams said last night that PSNI officers called to Mr Donaldson's west Belfast home on Wednesday to warn him he was shortly to be "outed" as a spy and that his life was in danger.
Mr Donaldson, with his solicitor present, issued a statement in Dublin last night to RTÉ. He said he deeply regretted his "activities with British intelligence and RUC/PSNI Special Branch" and insisted there never was a spy ring in Stormont.
"I was not involved in any republican spy ring at Stormont . . . It never existed. It was created by Special Branch," he said in his statement.
Earlier, Mr Adams said the alleged spy ring "was a carefully constructed lie created by the Special Branch".
The Northern Ireland Office insisted last night a spy ring had existed. "We completely reject any allegation that the police operation in October 2002 was for any reason other than to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering. The fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police. As a result of the recovery of these documents, a large number of people had to be warned."
Mr Ahern wants an explanation of the Stormontgate affair to be provided at a scheduled meeting next Monday between the Northern Secretary Peter Hain and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
Mr Adams said that he had no previous suspicions about Mr Donaldson who was effectively his senior official based at Parliament Buildings. Mr Donaldson's exposure as a British agent is bound to reawaken republican anxieties over the Stakeknife affair.
While former senior IRA figure Freddy Scappaticci was revealed as Stakeknife, there are lingering republican fears that Stakeknife is an amalgam of highly placed republicans who had become British agents.
Copyright © 2005 Irish Times
How a friend of republican icon Bobby Sands became informer
By Barry McCaffrey, Irish News
Denis Donaldson was famously photographed arm-in-arm with the republican movement's greatest icon Bobby Sands.
Speaking 20 years later about his inclusion in one of the most famous photographs in the world Donaldson said: "It brings back memories every time I look at it, personal memories. It reminds me of the way he was."
Recalling his friendship with Bobby Sands, Donaldson said: "Bobby wouldn't have seen himself as a hero. Of all the people I was in prison with he would have been the last that I imagined would have become an icon."
After a 30-year rise to the highest ranks of the IRA, Donaldson's status within republicanism was last night (Friday) that of a Judas.
Born and reared in the staunchly republican Short Strand in east Belfast Donaldson was a childhood friend of future senior republicans such as Jim Gibney and Seanna Walsh, the man who publicly announced the disbandment of the IRA earlier this year.
In 1971 Donaldson was jailed for four years in Long Kesh on explosives charges.
Donaldson and Bobby Sands met in Cage 17 in Long Kesh in 1973 and became firm friends.
Over the next three years they would spend time together in Cages three and 11.
The photograph of the future hunger striker was taken in Donaldson's cell in 1974 by another prisoner who had smuggled a camera into the jail.
The photograph would later be broadcast around the world when Sands died on hunger strike in May 1981.
After his release from prison Donaldson became a key strategist in the development of Sinn Féin in the mid 1980s.
However, he was also a senior IRA intelligence officer who travelled extensively throughout Europe, South America and the Middle East building up contacts with the likes of the PLO and ETA.
In 1981 he was arrested at Orly airport in France travelling on a false passport.
He is alleged to have told French police that he was travelling on a false passport because he had just spent a number of months in a training camp in the Lebanon.
By 1983 Donaldson was back as the official Sinn Féin representative in his native Short Strand unsuccessfully standing for council election in 1983 when he received 682 votes. It is understood it was at this period that he was recruited as an informer.
In 1987 Donaldson and then Sinn Féin councillor Joe Austin flew back to the Lebanon to try and secure the release of Belfast hostage Brian Keenan.
The two republicans held talks with the Amal and Hezbollah groups but failed to secure Keenan's freedom.
In the early 1990s Donaldson claimed that he had approached by MI5 to become an agent while on a foreign holiday.
In 2003 when Donaldson was charged with involvement in the Stormontgate affair Brian Keenan sent a letter of reference to the court stating: "For the whole period of my incarceration, only two human beings put their lives at risk on my behalf. One was Terry Waite and the other was Denis Donaldson."
Another character reference, Clonard Monastery's Fr Gerry Reynolds, said he believed Donaldson was a "republican through and through" but was committed to the peace process.
However, it is believed that it was in the early 1990s in the run up to the IRA ceasefire that Donaldson was of most benefit to MI5 in its efforts to spy on the Sinn Féin leadership.
At that point Donaldson had been given the key task of running Sinn Féin offices in Washington.
The American government had granted him a special visa to enter the US despite his previous conviction.
It was Donaldson's job to co-ordinate the first visits of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to the US.
It was while in America that Donaldson met American chef Larry Zaitschek, the man police would later allege was involved in the 2002 raid on Special Branch offices at Castlereagh.
When Donaldson's home was raided in 2003 detectives found photographs of the two men and an invitation to Zaitschek's wedding.
Donaldson was a key Sinn Féin aid during the talks that led to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
When Sinn Féin was elected to the assembly in September 1998 Donaldson was appointed as Sinn Féin's head of administration. It was a key position where Donaldson would be privy to the inner working of Sinn Féin.
However he is also understood to have still been a senior member of the IRA's intelligence gathering unit.
It would later emerge that just weeks before his arrest Donaldson had become the first Sinn Féin official to be granted permission by the PSNI to carry a gun for his own protection.
The move was seen as highly unusual as republicans had been consistently been blocked from carrying personal protection weapons.
It is understood republicans began to suspect a high level informer within its ranks after details of the police investigation 'Torsion' into IRA activities revealed that documents had been removed from Donaldson's house, photocopied and then returned.
Less than 24 hours after the case against him and two others collapsed last week Donaldson returned to Stormont alongside Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to deny that he had been an IRA spy.
It was last night even more unclear who Donaldson's ultimate spymasters were.
Copyright © 2005 Irish News
Sinn Fein spy refused police protection
By Paul T Colgan and Colm Heatley, Sunday Business Post
Denis Donaldson, the senior Sinn Féin official who confessed last Friday to working as a British spy for 20 years, refused police protection early last week.
Republican sources claimed that elements within British intelligence wanted to influence a crucial report on IRA activities to be released next month by revealing Donaldson's double role.
If Donaldson had turned to the police, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) would have been compelled to report that the IRA was still prepared to carry out attacks because the Police Service of Northern Ireland believed his life was in danger.
Political observers said this would have caused huge damage to the peace process. Instead Donaldson chose to confess his role to his Sinn Féin colleagues last week. The Sinn Féin press conference last Friday was widely interpreted as being a signal that the IRA posed no thr
t to Donaldson.
Donaldson's Special Branch handlers told him last Monday that he was to be ‘outed' as an informant in a Sunday newspaper and that his life would be under threat.
The IMC's report is deemed crucial by both governments to restoring power-sharing in the North. It is widely expected that the report will give the IRAa “clean bill of health'‘.
Donaldson admitted last Friday that he has been a paid informant for British intelligence and Special Branch for 20 years.
He said he deeply regretted the role he had played and said that he had been recruited by British intelligence after having “compromised'‘ himself in the 1980s.
As former head of administration for Sinn Féin at Stormont, he was one of three men who faced charges of running an IRA “spy-ring'‘ at the heart of the Northern power sharing government. The so-called ‘Stormontgate' arrests brought down the Assembly in October 2002.
The cases against the three men were mysteriously dropped two weeks ago. The British government has so far given no explanation as to why the charges were withdrawn.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern quizzed British prime minister Tony Blair about Donaldson's role as a British agent at yesterday's EU summit in Brussels.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern will also be seeking answers about the case when he meets Northern secretary Peter Hain at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, tomorrow.
An attempt by authorities in the North to obtain a court gagging order in the Stormontgate case last year is thought to have been an attempt to protect Donaldson's identity as a British agent while still pursuing charges against the three men.
The order would have allowed the prosecution to conceal crucial evidence and Donaldson's status as an informant from the defence and the public. The request was rejected. If the case had been pursued, Donaldson's double life and the role played by the intelligence services in the Stormont investigation would have been exposed.
The DUP and the Ulster Unionists called yesterday for a public inquiry into the affair.
Copyright © 2005 Sunday Business Post
Questions left unanswered after ‘outing’ of British spy
By Colm Heatley and Paul T Colgan
It was a drab October morning in 2002, like any other at Stormont until a convoy of Land Rovers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) drove up the avenue.
Within hours, the powersharing Assembly was effectively collapsed and Sinn Féin was in the dock for spying - an allegation that had profound political consequences for the North.
Swarms of armed PSNI officers descended on Sinn Féin's offices in a raid that the public was told was part of an investigation into republican intelligence gathering.
The power-sharing experiment was in tatters. Unionists who had always been hostile to the idea had a perfect reason to walk away from the Assembly.
Only days earlier Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble had warned that he would abandon joint government with Sinn Féin unless the IRA disbanded by the following January.
He had backed himself into a political corner and conceded significant ground to the dissidents within his own party. The so-called Operation Torsion, claimed republicans, was designed to “Save Dave'‘.
Bill Lowry, head of the PSNI's special branch, oversaw the investigation and arrest operation. Handcuffed and arrested, senior Sinn Féin members were led away to answer charges of using their political position at the Assembly to spy for the IRA, charges republicans always denied.
Ciaran Kearney, Denis Donaldson and William Mackessy were charged with gathering intelligence likely to be of use to terrorists. An excited Trimble described the uncovering of the alleged spy ring as “ten times bigger than Watergate'‘.
The three arrested men denied the politically devastating claims and ten days ago the charges were, without notice, withdrawn in the “public interest'‘.
Given this week's events, the only certainty in the ‘Stormontgate' affair is that the only spy working at Stormont was a British one and his role was to report to MI5 and Special Branch the secrets of Sinn Féin.
Denis Donaldson's ‘outing' as the most senior spy to date within republican ranks began early last week when he was told by his handlers that the game was up.
He was, they said, going to be unmasked as an informer by a Sunday newspaper today.
Nothing could be done. Of course, in all likelihood, the leak could only have come from British Intelligence or PSNI Special Branch.
Last Wednesday, Donaldson walked into Sinn Féin's office on the Falls Road in Belfast and told his Sinn Féin ‘line manager' of the visit by the PSNI to his Andersonstown home.
Declan Kearney, Sinn Féin's six county organiser, relayed the news to the party leadership. That night, Donaldson revealed his 20-year role to Kearney and Leo Green, adviser to Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre De Brun. He was suspended from the party immediately.
The next day he was expelled.
By Friday the shockwaves were reverberating across the country. According to republican sources, the party's leadership had feared that a senior mole had been operating in Stormont for some time. However, Donaldson's outing is said to have come to many as a huge shock.
The Sunday Business Post has learned Donaldson was given the opportunity to go into the PSNI's protective custody last weekend. If he had, then the consequences for Sinn Féin would have been potentially earth-shattering.
With the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) set to report on the status of the IRA within the coming weeks, the peace process is at yet another crucial juncture. It is widely expected in political circles that the monitoring body will give the IRA a “clean bill of health'‘.
However, had the IMC been able to report that a senior Sinn Féin member was being protected by the PSNI, the implication would be that the republican organisation was still functioning and still prepared to carry out killings.
In retrospect, the clues to Donaldson's role as an agent can be traced back to 2002.
He was the first republican ever to be granted permission by the British to carry a personal protection weapon. He was granted the licence in the weeks running up to the Stormontgate arrest operation, which must have raised eyebrows in republican circles.
There were also clues last year when lawyers acting for the prosecution in the Stormontgate case applied for a public immunity certificate.
Had the order been granted it would have meant that sensitive information relating to the case - or more accurately, Donaldson's role as an informer - would have been denied to the defence, and never have surfaced in public.
There are two reasons the application could have been denied: that it defied justice or that it stopped the accused from mounting a fair defence. Unusually, the application was denied, and from that moment the prosecution case was dead in the water.
Stalling and prevarication marked out the Stormontgate case, which by then had ground to a halt.
Donaldson is Sinn Féin's Freddie Scappaticci. His importance in the republican movement, particularly politically, was huge.
As chief administrator of Sinn Féin at Stormont he had privileged access to confidential republican documents, outlining debates on some of the most sensitive issues facing the party.
As chief administrator he was able to read documents from all sections of the party.
“It was a huge investment of trust in him,” said one senior Sinn Féin member.
“In terms of what he had access to, it was a lot. He was there when we had our ministries up and running, he was seeing things from all over the six counties and clearly he was reporting on that to the British.
“He was able to look over Sinn Féin documents that were strictly confidential.”
However, republicans were keen to point out that he was never on Sinn Féin's negotiating team nor the party's ruling executive. One described him as “middle management'‘. But Donaldson was well regarded by senior republicans and his advice was sought on a wide range of issues.
He was a trusted aide of Sinn Féin policymakers and his unmasking has caused deep embarrassment within republican ranks. It was claimed yesterday by a Belfast newspaper that, in addition to his role within Sinn Féin, Donaldson was also a senior IRA intelligence officer.
At crucial moments in republican history - the decision to take seats in local councils in the 1980s, to go into a power-sharing assembly with unionists, to decommission IRA weapons - his voice was added to the debate.
Far more importantly, though, he was able to relay the internal debates within republicanism to his British spymasters, giving the British government an advantage in political negotiations.
“A human bug'‘ is how one republican described him.
The astounding revelation that Donaldson was working as an informer for more than 20 years raises fresh concerns about the ongoing intelligence war being fought in the North by and often between, Special Branch and MI5.
It is also likely that, from the outset of the Stormontgate affair, the PSNI and the Northern secretary of state Peter Hain would have known the case had no chance of success, given Donaldson's role as an agent.
However, the case was allowed to proceed despite the political paralysis it caused in the North.
At a hastily convened press conference in Dublin last Friday night, Donaldson publicly admitted his role as an informer. He also denied a Sinn Féin spy-ring ever existed.
“I was not involved in any republican spy-ring in Stormont,” he said. “The so-called Stormontgate affair was a scam and a fiction. It never existed. It was created by Special Branch.”
The question remains: why did the British intelligence services not do more to protect Donaldson and why was he arrested in the first place?
One possibility is that Donaldson had outlived his usefulness and that his outing would be the latest salvo in an operation that had always been designed to embarrass and cause difficulties for Sinn Féin.
Another theory is that the police who conducted the raid on Stormont were unaware of Donaldson's dual role.
That seems a less likely scenario given Donaldson's admission last Friday that he met his Special Branch handlers just two days before the raid.
Perhaps most likely is that Donaldson's ‘outing' was part of a battle between Special Branch and British Intelligence.
After the collapse of the court case last week neither group wanted to take responsibility for the fiasco, which had embarrassed not only them, but the British government in the North.
Outing Donaldson partially explains why the Stormontgate case had not gone ahead. The plot has thickened in the last 24 hours, however, with suggestions that Donaldson may not in fact be the key agent behind Stormontgate.
There was speculation yesterday that his exposure as a police agent may have been planned to give cover to someone more useful to British Intelligence.
The whole affair has left republicans wondering who will be next to be unmasked and how much damage Donaldson actually did to the republican movement over the past two decades. Certainly few believe that the British have just given up their most senior republican spy.
One of the tasks facing Adams and McGuinness in the coming days will be to reassure republicans and ease tensions within the ranks.
However, the key question facing politicians north and south is why such an elaborate spy network is still in place almost eight years after the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
In 1999 a bug was found in a car used by the Sinn Féin negotiating team at Stormont.
Last year a sophisticated listening device was discovered in a room used by republicans for private discussions.
Perhaps now the power of the spy-masters working in the shadows will finally be addressed.
Copyright © 2005 Sunday Business Post
British government to be pressed on spy claims
By Harry McGee, Political Editor
THE British government will come under intense pressure today to say if its intelligence services were operating a spy ring in Stormont.
Following what Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described as the “bizarre” revelation that senior republican Denis Donaldson was a British agent for 20 years, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams will hold separate meetings with Northern secretary Peter Hain in Belfast about the claims.
The meetings come in the wake of calls from all main nationalist and unionist parties in the North for an enquiry on the so-called Stormontgate affair.
The case against three men, including Mr Donaldson, accused of being involved in a republican spy ring was dropped by the prosecution service a fortnight ago because it was not in the public interest.
On Friday, Mr Donaldson, who admitted he was an agent for police special branch and for British intelligence services, described the spy ring as a sham.
Yesterday, Mr Hain denied claims by both the DUP and Sinn Féin that the British government was involved in a cover-up. But he conceded events surrounding Mr Donaldson’s admission were “turbulent.”
And last night, Tánaiste Mary Harney said she did not know if an inquiry “would achieve an awful lot.”
“The last thing we probably need is some form of inquiry that does not get too far,” she said.
While accepting that there probably was a British spy ring, she said that infiltration had occurred on all sides. She said the emphasis should be on trying to ensure normal politics returns to the North of Ireland.
Mr Adams requested a meeting with Mr Hain during a long telephone conversation with the Northern Secretary on Saturday.
Yesterday, he said he intended to raise with Mr Hain the “damaging role of those within the various British policing and intelligence agencies who are actively working to subvert and undermine the peace process.
“The onus to stop this lies with the British government. It has to take whatever steps are necessary to rein in the wreckers who are opposing British government policy. And there has to be an end to political policing.
“If the war is over for the British government then it has to end the war mentality and activities of elements of its own system,” he said
Copyright © 2005 Irish Examiner
Sinn Féin reaction
By Sinn Féin Press Office
Sinn Féin meets Hain - demands British commit to peaceful and democratic activity
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams led a party delegation including Martin McGuinness MP, Bairbre deBrun MEP and Michelle Gildernew MP to meet with the British Direct Ruler Peter Hain at Stormont Castle this afternoon.
Mr. Adams asked for the urgent meeting following the revelation of the role of expelled Sinn Féin member Denis Donaldson as a Special Branch agent for 20 years. The Sinn Féin President raised with Mr. Hain the damaging role of those within the various British policing and intelligence agencies who are actively working to subvert and undermine the peace process.
Mr. Adams held a lengthy conversation by phone with Mr Hain on Saturday.
Speaking today Mr Adams said:
"Today's meeting was at our request and follows on from phone calls today between Martin McGuinness and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and ongoing contacts over the weekend with both governments. I also intend to speak with both the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister in the coming period.
"This entire issue is about the need for the British government to accept responsibility for what has happened and what is happening and to end the sort of political policing we have experienced over many years. At the core of all of this is the British government‚s responsibility for how its agencies behave.
"People need to remember what happened here. A unique power sharing government was overthrown by British state agencies. That is a massive issue. There is a job of work for Tony Blair as British Prime Minister to rein in the system responsible for this. The British government needs to commit itself to peaceful and democratic activity and to end political policing once and for all."
Sinn Féin Chief Negotiator Martin McGuinness said that it was imperative that those responsible for collapsing the political institutions were not allowed to succeed.
Mr McGuinness said:
"We are told that the two governments intend to make a big push in the new year to see the political institutions restored. We are prepared to play our part in such an effort, we are not prepared to let those responsible for collapsing the political institutions and subverting the political and democratic process to be allowed to succeed.
"Sinn Féin and republicans have answered all of the big questions regarding future intentions. It is now time for the British government to answer the questions about their intentions. They need to declare that their war against republicans is at an end and that the days of political policing are over."
McGuinness demands answers from the British
Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness last night vowed to resist those seeking to undermine political progress in the North as the cloud created by revelations that British agents were responsible for the collapse of the political institutions continues to hang heavy over the peace process.
Speaking ahead of showdown talks between the Sinn Féin leadership and Direct Ruler Peter Hain at Stormont today, Mr McGuinness said there is determination within his party to move beyond the controversy of the last four days and challenge others to accept their responsibilities in moving the peace process forward.
Mr McGuinness was speaking just days after former party colleague Denis Donaldson was revealed as a paid British agent.
The Belfast man's dramatic admission that he was a paid RUC and PSNI Special Branch and British intelligence agent for over two decades has stunned people across the globe.
Mr McGuinness last night said the British government has serious questions to answer in relation to the Donaldson revelations.
"The simple message for everyone is very clear. There are hostile forces within the PSNI and there are others who were probably members of the PSNI and the RUC who are still very close to the PSNI; the sort of people who are absolutely dedicated to the destruction of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement because they believe that if they can destroy that, they can set back the day when citizens have equality, rights, justice, freedom and peace.
"This Sinn Féin leadership isn't going to let those people win. We are absolutely determined to continue with our work to defeat these people and that essentially means we have a responsibility to put it up to the British prime minister, to Peter Hain, the British secretary of state, to Hugh Orde, the chief constable of the PSNI, the Policing Board and to the Taoiseach and all others within the process to ensure that the activities of these hostile forces within the PSNI are effectively brought to heel, brought to their knees. That's the big challenge in the time ahead and we are up for that challenge."
Mr McGuinness said revelations that the British government has been spying on Sinn Féin will have consequences.
"That means a lot of very straight talking about things, like the challenge that was put up to Sinn Féin in terms of using our influence to bring to an end the IRA campaign, to deal with the whole issues of arms -- one that has been very successfully dealt with in the course of this year. I think the type of challenges that republicans have had to face are now the same sort of challenges that have to be faced by the British government and others within the process. And that is, how do we deal with the militarists within the PSNI, the anti agreement policemen? These are challenges for the British government now, for Hugh Orde and the Policing Board.
"We will be demanding answers to very pertinent questions about the activities of these people, the role being played by these people to undermine the process and in the same fashion as republicans have had to deliver the British government in particular is going to have to deliver big time. Particularly as they major on the need for Sinn Féin to become involved in policing. There's no prospect of Sinn Féin becoming involved in policing until we bring about the transfer of powers and the achievement of all the commitments that were made by the British government in their negotiations with us last December."
Mr McGuinness said the British government is now under pressure to deliver on key issues.
"It's a very simple scenario which the British have to deliver on. The British have to face the type of challenges that we have had to face and give answers to them in the same fashion we have had to in recent times. They are essentially going to have to tell us how they intend to stop the activities of these hostile forces, many of whom are being paid wages by them on a weekly basis.
"The entire debate around policing in recent times has centred on the efforts that have been made by the British government, supported by others, to put pressure on Sinn Féin in terms of Sinn Féin delivering on policing. It will be quiet clear to most people, it's certainly very clear to us in Sinn Féin, as a result of the debates and discussion that we have had with the British government, particularly as a result of the events of recent days, the people who now have to deliver on policing are the British government."
Mr McGuinness acknowledged the shock felt in republican circles by last weeks revelations and described Mr Donaldson's actions as a "betrayal".
"Republicans are obviously very disappointed that someone like Denis Donaldson would effectively betray his community and betray republicanism in the way that he did.
"I am around the struggle long enough to know that you always have to work on the basis that opponents of the process, which is about trying to achieve the rights of citizens and the freedom, justice and peace that Ireland as a nation and the Irish people are entitled to, will continue to beaver away to undermine those who are spearheading the struggle to bring about fundamental change in our society.
"You would be very foolish to ignore the possibility that the British have got other agents working right through the entire process.
"I have always worked on the basis that they are trying to recruit people all the time but I do know that, within republicanism, for every informer or agent that turned up over the years, there are thousands and thousands of people who aren't and thousands and thousands of people who would never contemplate putting themselves into the type of situation that Denis Donaldson got himself into.
"So from our perspective, what is important to say is that if the British had infiltrated the leadership of republicanism the way that some media commentators, mostly at the behest of these same people who are hostile to the peace process, are putting out these stories then republicanism wouldn't be as strong as it is today.
"Republicanism would have been defeated an awful long time ago, and I think that clearly shows that these people haven't got the level of infiltration that they would like to have within the leadership of Sinn Féin and generally throughout the Sinn Féin organisation."
Unionists and republicans support call for Inquiry into British spy ring
Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said his party would be happy to see an inquiry into the British spy ring operating to undermine the democratically elected Assembly in the North of Ireland.
"I don't have any problem whatsoever with an inquiry," Mr McGuinness said on Monday.
"I have listened very carefully to the unionists over the course of the weekend, saying there should be. We would have no difficulty with that at all."
Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey demanded a public inquiry into the Stormontgate affair. The DUP's Jim Allister said the British government had questions to answer.
Direct Ruler Peter Hain appeared to rule out an inquiry saying on Monday:
"Frankly, we have had inquiries galore in Northern Ireland . They cost hundreds of millions of pounds. "I am not going down that road when it is quite clear that it is not in the public interest to do so," Mr Hain said.
Martin McGuinness said a "British spy ring" had been operating at Stormont.
"What we believe was going on was a spy ring at Stormont with the purposes of collapsing the institutions established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement."
He said republicans would not be surprised at "yet another episode in the dirty war of the British 'security' services".
Speaking after Denis Donaldson made his statement to RTÉ on Friday night, "There has always been in conflict situations around the world people who betray their comrades and colleagues and the very organisation they publicly claim to be supportive of."
The security forces acted to subvert an elected authority
Stormontgate exposes the grip that espionage, double dealing and dirty tricks still maintains on Northern Ireland
By Niall Stanage, The Guardian
When George Bush gets caught spying, at least he admits it. The British state and its agencies in Northern Ireland do not display even that limited degree of candour. The revelation that a British spy was the central figure in an episode that brought down Northern Ireland's devolved administration has been met with evasions and dissembling. Peter Hain, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, told Jonathan Dimbleby on his ITV show that the so-called Stormontgate affair was "turbulent". But he failed to answer any of the fundamental questions that it has raised. The story has sparked doubt, confusion and rampant speculation; some hard facts are worth emphasising. In October 2002, about 20 police officers raided Sinn Féin's offices at Stormont, which houses the Northern Ireland assembly. The raid was part of a series of operations that, it was claimed, uncovered a republican spy ring. The IRA, it was alleged, had garnered confidential information that could be used to target prison wardens, police officers and others. Four people were charged, but that dropped to three. When the case finally came to court less than a fortnight ago, the prosecution declined to offer any evidence. The three were acquitted.
Last Friday, a bombshell dropped. The key figure in the trio, Denis Donaldson, who was Sinn Féin's head of administration at Stormont, owned up to a double life. He said that he had been a paid agent of British intelligence and Northern Ireland Special Branch since the 80s. His exposure turned the accepted version of events on its head. As things stand, the only proven spying operation at Stormont was run by forces of the state. And a paid agent of the state had been pivotal in the unravelling of a democratically elected administration. It is hard to imagine a graver scenario.
The government has sought to ameliorate the fiasco by claiming that the original police operation did indeed uncover stolen documents and that the Stormont raid was given a clean bill of health by Nuala O'Loan, the police ombudswoman. Neither assertion counters the idea that Donaldson could have acted as an agent provocateur.
Reaction to the disclosure of Donaldson's role demonstrates the hypocrisy that pervades Northern Ireland politics. When blame for spying was being placed at the republicans' door, the mainstream press denounced Gerry Adams and his allies. David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader at the time, proclaimed that he did not need to wait for due process because "the smoking gun was now evident"; the alleged conspiracy was "10 times worse than Watergate".
Where is that outrage now? Who seeks to put Donaldson's handlers in the dock for their disdain for democratic principles? Trimble, who resigned last May, now struggles to lay the blame anywhere but where it belongs. "There is a spin going on here, and the spin is going on because actually it's the republican movement that's in a crisis," he mused on Saturday.
There is no doubt that the Donaldson affair has left republicans reeling. Rumours of another "tout" are rife, and the moderate SDLP has called on Adams to resign as Sinn Féin leader. But the most important aspect is the light it casts on the dark heart of Northern Ireland. It shows that factions in the security forces, so keen to condemn others for subversion, have continued to act nefariously to advance their agenda and that of their political allies, as they did throughout the Troubles.
The Stormont raid took place at an amazingly fortunate moment for the Ulster Unionists. Many believed that Trimble was already planning a withdrawal from the devolved executive under pressure from hardliners. The conundrum Unionists faced was how to bale out without having to shoulder the blame for collapsing Northern Ireland's government - then allegations about the spy ring surfaced. Bill Lowry, who was head of Belfast's Special Branch, left the force only weeks after the raid. He later turned up as a guest speaker at a meeting of Ian Paisley's DUP, where he reportedly described Sinn Féin as the "devil incarnate" and warned that if unionists were to lie down "with dogs", they would "get up with fleas".
Espionage, double dealing and dirty tricks have been rife on all sides in Northern Ireland for years. The murder of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989 is only the most infamous case in which very credible allegations of collusion between loyalist killers and the security forces have been levelled. The peace process did not bring an end to the dirty war. Paramilitaries and police continued intelligence gathering. The late Mo Mowlam authorised the bugging of a car being used by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The most recent revelations make clear why Sinn Féin continues to be reticent about endorsing new policing arrangements in Northern Ireland.
Back in 1999, Tony Blair insisted that "there can no longer be a Northern Ireland based on anything but the principles of justice, fairness and equality". Some members of his security forces evidently had other ideas.
· Niall Stanage is a correspondent for the Dublin-based Sunday Business Post
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
No one's asking 'what really happened?'
By Danny Morrison, Daily Ireland
Who's next, has been the line adopted by gloating republican critics in the media and by Sinn Féin's political opponents. As I look among them I'm thinking, well, that one's probably in the Brits, that one is definitely a mouthpiece for the Brits, and that smartass former activist over there is probably an agent or a lunatic, given that his sole objective in life is to publicly undermine the republican struggle whereas Denis Donaldson's objective was to do the same thing covertly.
I jest, of course. But wouldn't I be justified in thinking that way? I mean, are agents only inside Sinn Féin or the IRA? I think not. There is an old saying that all's fair in love and war. However, the latter part of that proverb applies only to the extraordinary circumstances of war and conflict. In peacetime different standards are meant to apply. The open palm of a handshake is meant to show that you have no concealed weapon.
From around about 1992 I was of the private view that the republican leadership should consider a ceasefire but I was in jail and had no idea how the debate could begin (without debilitating the armed struggle) and how the transition could be smoothly made given how badly ceasefires had turned out in the past.
I was not a victim of subliminal suggestion by British intelligence. Like many others, inside and outside the jail, I reached that conclusion through my own reasoning and mainly because there was a military stalemate that conceivably could have lasted for 20 years or more without necessarily improving the negotiating muscle of the movement or the nationalist people. I was unaware - until 1993 when the Mayhew/Sinn Féin correspondence was revealed - that tentative contacts had been made between republicans and the British.
Since 1994 the peaceful moves of the republican movement have often divided its opponents. Albert Reynolds read the Sinn Féin position more accurately than most other leaders, next to John Hume. In the run-up to all-party talks David Trimble kept going on about Sinn Féin having "an exit strategy" when in fact Sinn Féin's policy was one of engagement, negotiation and eventual compromise.
The continued existence of the IRA and actual or perceived IRA activity was used by opponents of the peace process to try and justify their scepticism or mask their outright opposition to a just settlement. For many reasons, but also because of the actions and tardiness of its opponents, it wasn't easy for the IRA to reach the position it did earlier this year, announcing an end to armed struggle and a commitment to peaceful means of struggle.
A political agreement has not replaced conflict and is not within palpable reach. The only people to gain from this situation are those opposed to agreement - and they are not in the nationalist community.
The war, in fact, is still being fought, though on one side only.From 1994 the frustration of the peace process by unionists and the Major government was aimed at undermining the leadership of Adams and McGuinness. The aim was to create a split in republicanism, provoke a reduced/divided IRA into a return to armed struggle and then smash it. Unfortunately for them the bulk of the republican movement did not join the Real IRA but stayed in the peace process.
There are those who doubt that British securocrats would have brought down the power-sharing executive.
This is what Martin McGuinness said: "It is now time for the British to answer questions about their agents, about their agencies, and about their approach to the process."This is what secretary of state Peter Hain had to say: "If there were some giant political conspiracy, how would it have been that this political conspiracy would have robbed this office of its own information, of the most sensitive kind - this just beggars belief, it would be a complete fantasy."
In 1974 Peter Hain was arrested and charged with a London bank robbery. He claimed that he had been set up by South African intelligence agents because of his anti-apartheid work. His sceptics said that such a scenario beggared belief. He was imprisoned, the case went to trial in 1976 and he was acquitted because what sounded like a complete fantasy was actually true.
There are many things that seem complete fantasies and among the 2,083 pages of the unpublished Stephens Report into collusion there must be many things that beggar belief, including the probability of a paper trail leading to No 10 Downing Street.What else once beggared belief when first mooted?
British agents reorganising, rearming loyalists and directing them to kill nationalists and republicans and the solicitor Pat Finucane.
British involvement in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
British intelligence agents burning down the offices of the Stephens' inquiry team.
British intelligence running an agent or agents inside the IRA's internal security unit and directing its chief agent, in order to aggrandize himself within the IRA, to select for execution informers who had outlived their usefulness to the Brits.
The Special Branch allowing its agents within the IRA to maintain their cover by killing British soldiers and police.
The same Special Branch allowing its informers within the UVF and UDA to kill other loyalists and fellow Protestants.
The same Special Branch which is still operating within the PSNI.
Does Denis Donaldson being at the heart of Stormontgate at the prompting of his handlers really beggar belief?
Republican morale has been shaken by the actions of a traitor. I do not know the detail of what damage Donaldson did or his selfish motivation. Often financial reward is not top of the list and most touts usually act chiefly out of self-preservation (after being compromised), become increasingly ensnared by each successive piece of information they give, and then become perversely addicted to the excitement of their secret life. An informer only admits being ashamed after being caught; then, in the words of Maxim Gorky, he begins living "the life of a useless man".
Undoubtedly, the detail will emerge; Donaldson's story will come out. If Sinn Féin has got it wrong and Stormontgate was not a malicious securocrat operation to bring down the institutions then what of the other explanation that has been proffered? Did the Public Prosecutions Office collapse the Stormontgate trial to protect an agent or agents? And to keep secret the embarrassing details of 'Operation Torsion'? This operation allegedly involved the Special Branch and MI5, months before the arrests of Donaldson and others in October 2002, breaking into an IRA dump which they had under surveillance, removing and photocopying documents and then replacing these documents in the hope that they would later catch senior IRA figures with them.
According to PSNI Chief Constable, the documents in question contained the names and addresses of hundreds of prison officers and PSNI officers. But they were not informed at the time that it was the Special Branch who handed their details back to the IRA!No one in the media has asked the Chief Constable or Peter Hain or Tony Blair if this is really what happened - even though it, like the Brian Nelson affair and the burning of Stephens' offices, beggars belief and sounds like a complete fantasy.
Danny Morrison is a regular media commentator on Irish politics. He is the author of three novels and three works of non-fiction and a play about the IRA, The Wrong Man.
Copyright © 2005 Daily Ireland
Half-truths and spin from Orde
By Daily Ireland, Editorial
PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde was gilding the lily yesterday with his "finger in the wound" claims over Stormontgate. He had seen documents, he told the press, recovered in west Belfast which included information useful in targeting individuals and private correspondence from government offices.
Of course, the documents he spoke of were recovered from the home of Denis Donaldson, British super-spy. The inference from Hugh Orde's statement was that he was also referring to the list of prison officers apparently recovered on a computer disk in West Belfast at the time of the Stormont raids.In fact he made no specific reference to that list of 1400 prison officers because there is zero evidence to link it to any type of spyring at Stormont.
In fact, early in the Stormontgate fiasco, charges relating to the possession of that list were withdrawn. None of the three accused in the case when it was collapsed were charged with the possession of information which "could be of use to terrorists".
It's known that Hugh Orde was unaware of the raid on Denis Donaldson's office in Stormont before it took place. Yet that raid-by-camera, carried out by what the Taoiseach calls "stormtroopers", is the strongest proof that the entire operation was wholly politically motivated.
Hugh Orde is also on the record as stating that certain officers within his own ranks are bitterly opposed to changes in his force - and, one assumes, to political changes in wider society.
After yesterday's briefing, it was still unclear whether he knew Denis Donaldson was a British agent at the time of the October 2002 operation which brought down the powersharing government.
Sadly, rather than voice any concerns about the outrageous abuse of power in that raid on parliament buildings - branded reminiscent of Zimbabwe by Fianna Fáil Senator Martin Mansergh - Hugh Orde went in to bat for Special Branch.
No wonder nationalists have so little faith in the policing arrangements.
That lack of confidence in the new policing dispensation is likely to be exacerbated by yesterday's effective "no comment" response of the Police Ombudsman's Office to the Daily Ireland enquiry as to whether she knew Denis Donaldson was a double agent at the time of her investigation into the raids. It's one thing for Blair, Hain and Orde to hide behind "national interest" or "security interest" excuses in refusing to spell out the sordid detail of the Stormontgate mess but when the public's policing watchdog keeps mum, it's an indication that things are worse than the most pessimistic nationalist thought.
Accurate information is the best antidote to the rumour mill and "dúirt bean liom gur dhúirt bean léi" speculation which threatens to demoralise an already confused public. It's to be hoped that Mr Orde might yet agree to speak frankly about the Stormontgate affair rather than hide behind half-truths and spin.
Copyright © 2005 Daily Ireland
