The Past, Present and Future of Policing and the Belfast Agreement
Brendan O’Leary Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of Government London School of Economics & Political Science Direct link to Pat Finucane CentreMonday, 31 December, 2001 - Thursday, 3 January, 2002
Saturday-Monday, 12-14 January, 2002
Sunday-Monday, 20-21 January, 2002
Tuesday-Wednesday, 22-23 January, 2002
Thursday-Saturday, 24-26 January, 2002
Tuesday-Thursday, 12-14 February, 2002
Tuesday, 5 March, 2002
Monday-Tuesday, 18-19 March, 2002
Wednesday-Thursday, 20-21 March, 2002
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
Wednesday-Saturday, 27-30 March, 2002
Sunday-Tuesday, 30 March-2 April, 2002
Wednesday, 3 April, 2002
Monday-Tuesday, 15-16 April, 2002
Monday 31 December 2001 - Thursday 3 January 2002
Analysis: Police Act has to be amended
By Gerry Kelly, MLA, Sinn Fein spokesman of policing
Since the Mandelson 'Police Bill' was published in May last year and up to the present Sinn Fein has been consistent and adamant that effective powers of inquiry must be given to ensure that the impunity with which the RUC has acted in the past does not become our future. This is critical to a new beginning to policing.
Recent events, reports and revelations again demonstrate the vital necessity for this. They also clearly show that this is not just a 'policing' problem but that it finds its centre in the securocrat empire of the NIO which continues to dominate the British government's political agenda in a range of ways. More than anything else this is evidenced in the murder of Pat Finucane:
the man who pulled the trigger, according to RUC-CID officer Jonty Brown, was a special branch agent and UDA member in charge of all of these people was Special Branch agent and UDA commander Tommy Lyttle.
Nelson was granted immunity. Lyttle died of natural causes. Stobie was recently shot dead. Despite his status as a special branch agent and a threat to his life, incredibly, he was afforded no protection. Not a single special branch member, military intelligence officer or NIO securocrat has been held to account.
Moreover, the British Police Act 2000, which some would have us believe is the promised new beginning, ensures that they cannot be held accountable.
For under this the chief constable has the power to refuse to give up information on such activities by special branch officers and special branch agents. Accordingly the oversight commissioner, Tom Constantine, and the ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, have independently, in recent weeks, complained about the refusal by the special branch to cooperate with them and they do not have powers to compel them to do so.
Conversely, however, the chief constable can reject outright any request for a report on such matters by the Policing Board.
Patten required, and with no ifs, ands or buts about it, that 'bad apples' - his euphemism for human rights abusers in the RUC - have to be dealt with. Not only is there no mechanism to do so but incredibly it is quite likely that RUC members who were in the special branch, say, seven years ago at the time of the first IRA cessation, can still be in the special branch several years from now, acting with the same impunity, with the same lack of democratic accountability, with the same support, as in the past, from the British government.
The British government legislation on policing guarantees this. It was crafted to have this effect and any amendment to this mooted so far by the British government, for some point in the indefinite future, will do nothing to resolve this.
The Police Act handcuffs the Policing Board so as to make inquiries into violations of human rights by the RUC virtually impossible by erecting a series of procedural hurdles:
under the act, the Policing Board cannot undertake an inquiry until it has received a report from the chief constable. A mechanism is built into the act which enables the chief constable to escape this requirement to report. The chief constable has the power to refer a request by the board to the British secretary of state on four grounds, including grounds which subvert Patten
the British secretary of state can uphold the refusal of the chief constable to refuse to report to the board on any of the grounds in the act, including the offending grounds
for the board to decide to hold an inquiry three board members must make a written request and then, rather than a simple majority, the act specifies the number of board members required to ratify a decision to hold an inquiry: 10 members if 18/19 are present; nine members if 16/17 are present; eight if less then 16 are present
the chief constable can then challenge the board's decision to hold an inquiry on any of the grounds in the act and the decision to hold an inquiry may be referred to the British secretary of state
the British secretary of state can overrule a decision of the board to hold an inquiry on any of the grounds in the act
the board requires the agreement of the British secretary of state to the appointment of any person to conduct the inquiry, other than the comptroller and auditor general, the ombudsman, an inspector of the police service in the six counties
the inquiry may not deal with an act or omission which occurred before the coming into force of the act. Limited information about a prior act or omission may be given "consideration" by a person conducting an inquiry to the extent that the discharge of functions in relation to the subject of the inquiry can be shown to make "consideration" of that information necessary
finally, the expenses incurred by anyone conducting an inquiry and anyone appearing at an inquiry must be paid out of the board's own budget
Robust, rigorous and unfettered powers of inquiry are required by the Policing Board and the ombudsman. We need to know the truth about the murders of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill, Pearse Jordan, and of Sam Devenny, Patrick Rooney, Nora McCabe and Padraig Kelly. We need to know the truth about collusion between loyalists and the crown forces: over 300 people were killed.
For true accountability, we need to know what happened and why. And once the RUC's 'wall of silence' has been knocked down, only true accountability will ensure that wall can never be rebuilt.
That is the guarantee every democrat, nationalist and republican needs - that what has happened will never, ever happen again. That guarantee needs to be in law. If the British government will not do that, then the new beginning to policing cannot commence. The Police Act must be amended to ensure that the legacy of past does not remain the policy of policing in the future.
Saturday-Monday, 12-14 January, 2002
Coroner to take legal action against RUC
Belfast coroner John Leckey is instructing his office to begin legal proceedings against the RUC (now remaned the PSNI) for failing to produce documents for the inquest into IRA Volunteer Pearse Jordan.
The inquest into Jordan's killing has been repeatedly adjourned since it was first brought before the Coroner's Court in January 1995. It reopened last week for a preliminary hearing at which it was disclosed that the RUC have submitted just one file on the Jordan killing as evidence.
With the inquest proper due to be heard next month the coroner's office is now undertaking legal action against the RUC.
Branding the RUC refusal to submit their documents to the court as, "a disgrace", Leckey went on to say the refusal was all the more surprising given that he made a written request for the material and that the RUC had given him a written assurance that all documents would been disclosed.
Volunteer Pearse Jordan was shot dead by the RUC on 25 November 1992 on the Falls Road. At the time of the killing he was unarmed.
Last year the European Court of Human Rights ruled against the British government in respect of the Jordan killing and awarded the Jordan Family #10,000 in damages.
The European Court also ruled in favour of the families of the Volunteers killed in Loughgall and the widow of Anthony Hughes a civilian who was killed in the British army fire in the Loughgall ambush in 1987.
In a third case the European Court found against the British government over the killing of Patrick Shanaghan by the UDA in June 1991.
In those cases the Court ruled that Britain had infringed the human rights of the families of those killed by failing to carry out a proper investigation into the killings.
The Court decided that the rule, which means that inquests in the Six Counties can't compel witnesses to testify in person, is an infringement of the Human Rights Convention.
However despite this ruling it is almost certain that the inquest,if it does go ahead next month, will be conducted under present Six County legislation.
Meanwhile the Jordan family barrister Seamus Treacy, has revealed the existence of a special unit within the RUC in charge of disclosing RUC files in controversial court cases.
Treacy said that it had now been established that a separate disclosure unit was operating as part of the Special Branch.
Sunday-Monday, 20-21 January, 2002
New Omagh revelation fuels controversy
A book detailing paramilitary threats vanished from Omagh police station at the height of inquiries into the RUC investigation of the bomb atrocity, it was revealed tonight.
The devastating atrocity which left 31 dead in the predominately nationalist town.
Now it has emerged that vital RUC records disappeared from the station in Omagh after senior RUC officers were questioned about their prior knowledge of the attack.
A man known as Kevin Fulton, who has now gone into hiding, has claimed that the RUC had full knowledge of the Omagh bomb days before the attack, including the location of the bomb, the name of the bomb-maker, and the vehicle in which in would be transported.
The RUC has since been accused of permitting the attack to proceed for its own political or military purposes, such as the protection of its informers and agents.
Eleven days before the car bombing, RUC in Omagh were tipped off that republican dissidents were planning an attack in the town.
The critical book, now presumed destroyed, recorded details of threatened attacks passed on to the RUC in Omagh and may have revealed the dangerous truth on what information the RUC received and how they chose to use it.
It went missing as attempts were made to establish the sequence of events and level of contact between Special Branch, CID and uniformed officers in the run-up to the August l998 bombing.
The book's mysterious disappearance has never been explained, but it meant that officers from Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's office who conducted an inquiry into the RUC's bombing "investigation" were unable to examine a hugely important record which documented threats, their significance, and the type of action, if any, taken at the time.
The book's disappearance was confirmed in her full report to on the RUC's role in the Omagh attack, but not in the summary which was handed over to the victims' relatives last month.
The revelation comes after it emerged recently that a taped confession by a British/Loyalist double-agent to the 1989 murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane has also disappeared.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan, 21, was among the Omagh dead, said he was flabbergasted.
He said: "What are they (the police) playing at? What is going on?"
Martin Bridger, the deputy director of investigations at the Ombudsman's office, is having a meeting with relatives in Omagh later tonight. He refused to comment about the missing book.
But the Chief Constable can expect to be questioned about it when he meets with relatives on Thursday when he delivers his response to the stinging criticism of his leadership over Omagh by the Ombudsman.
It was her devastating report into the RUC 'investigation' which provoked demands by some of the victims' families for a public inquiry into the outrage.
Mr Gallagher added: "It seems extraordinary that a book of this importance can disappear in a controlled environment of a police station."
Sunday-Monday, 20-21 January, 2002
Loyalist dies after RUC interview; clashes continue
Death of loyalist seen as suspicious
The death of a loyalist who may have had information on the murder of Catholic postman Daniel McColgan is being regarded as highly suspicious. As the fallout continues over the callous murder of McColgan, shot dead outside his postal office in north Belfast last weekend, the street violence has not abated.
Petrol and blast bombs were thrown, a hijacked car was set on fire and barricades set up as violence erupted in the Shore Road area of the city. Burning cars formed barricades on the Shore Road, Mill Road and Dandy Road and the nationalist Bawnmore estate.
But speculation is now mounting of the possible involvement of British Crown forces in the death of a loyalist who may have had information on the McColgan murder.
Stephen McCullough's body was found at the bottom of Cavehill on Wednesday afternoon by a couple out walking in the north Belfast country park.
Weekend reports have indicated Mr Cullough had offered to provide information to British forces about the UDA murder of Mr McColgan.
It is understood that Mr McCullough was not asked about the McColgan murder, but was interviewed instead about drink driving by the RUC police. He reportedly stormed out of the station, only to be found dead on the Cavehill just a few hours later.
Following the discovery of Mr McCullough's body on the mountain overlooking Belfast, the RUC police said a crime was not suspected. But last night the ombudsman's office became involved.
An RUC spokesman said: ""The ombudsman has also been made aware of the events leading up to the discovery of the man's body. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment further."
Four men have been questioned in connection with the killing of Mr McColgan, but all have since been freed without charge.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high in flashpoint areas of north Belfast following renewed clashes between nationalists and loyalists on Sunday night.
Fresh rioting flared following a weekend of attacks on Catholic homes in the Whitewell Road area and Serprentine Gardens area. An unoccupied Protestant-owned home on the Whitewell Road was also reported to have been damaged in a petrol bomb attack, while fire officers were reported to have been caught up in the violence.
And even in death, McColgan's family and friends still receive no peace.
He lived in the Longlands estate, under the shadow of a 50ft 'peace line' dividing his area from the Protestant White City neighbourhood. Last week, Longlands' residents held a prayer vigil outside his home, but loyalists across the peace line came out to gloat about the killing. 'Fenian bastards' and 'Up the UDA' were among the milder chants from the loyalist side of the barrier.
However, the graffiti in loyalist west and north Belfast were worse. One slogan daubed in White City read 'Postman Splat'. On the Lower Shankill Road, stronghold of the notorious UDA C Company, other loyalists painted the message 'Harry Potter is dead' - a sick reference to the fact that McColgan, with his round glasses and parted haircut resembled J.K. Rowling's boy wizard.
Sinn Fein's North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly condemned the attacks on the Protestant home and on fire officers.
"There is a massive anger in nationalist areas in north Belfast after last weekend's murder (of postman Daniel McColgan) and the ongoing loyalist pogrom.
"However, there can be no justification for attacks on the homes of Protestant people or on the fire or ambulance services," he said.
Mr Kelly said he intended to meet fire service representatives to formulate a community response to the recent spate of attacks.
Tuesday-Wednesday, 22-23 January, 2002
Flanagan defies public opinion on Omagh
In a lengthy response to last month's damning report by the Police Ombudsman, RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan has claimed the post-Omagh explosion investigation was well organised and managed.
But Flanagan's stock with the nationalist community is at an all-time low, and most had hoped hwe would quietly quit his job as head of the RUC police (now renamed the PSNI).
Flanagan was accused of mounting a shoddy and flawed investigation to the 1998 dissident attack, in which 31 died; of failing to provide leadership to the investigation, and of hindering subsequent inquiries into what went wrong.
In the court of public opinion, the RUC's Special Branch was accused of covering up its role in an attack about which it had foreknowledge.
O'Loan's historic condemnations of the RUC enraged Flanagan, who was personally criticised. The Chief Constable denounced the report, claiming it was full of inaccuracies and vowing to refute the claims. Flanagan famously professed he would "publicly commit suicide" if the report were proved true.
But innocent until proven guilty appears to be Flanagan's guide in the matter, challenging every finding of Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan where there is not physical evidence to the contrary.
Flanagan dismissed informant Kevin Fulton, who warned of the attack, and dismissed the relevance of another, earlier tip-off. But he accepted that the loss of key evidence from RUC offices "represented an unacceptable breakdown in administrative procedures".
While unionists today lauded the Chief Constable for his punchy retorts, Sinn Féin said the Chief Constable did not answer very important questions and demanded a public inquiry.
Among the latest embarrassing revelations for Flanagan this week are that RUC detectives investigating the bombing 'recreated' 357 important documents, possibly including witness statements, which were 'lost' or 'inadvertently destroyed' during the first 18 months of the inquiry.
The fabrication was unearthed during an internal review but the details were kept secret and did not appear in O'Loan's report released just before Christmas but adds further weight to the report's criticism of the Special Branch and Chief Constable.
In another damning indictment it has been revealed that a book detailing the intelligence prior to the bombing, including telephone warnings, is 'missing'.
The handwritten book disappeared after senior RUC officers were questioned about warnings in advance of the bombing. The book's disappearance has never been explained but it meant that officers from O'Loan's office were unable to examine the record documenting warnings, their significance and the type of action taken, if any.
The book was kept in the top drawer of a senior RUC officer's desk at the Omagh RUC barracks. O'Loan asked to scrutinise the record in September but was told it was 'lost'.
"Many people will find it unbelievable that such an important piece of the Omagh investigation could suddenly disappear from within the RUC barracks," said West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty, who pledged to raise the matter with the British government.
Sinn Féin chief whip, Mr Alex Maskey, said Sir Ronnie's reputation had not been saved by his response to O'Loan's report.
"Ronnie Flanagan is a man of no credibility within the nationalist and republican community. People simply do not believe him.
"They have seen the lid beginning to lift on past RUC and current PSNI activities and will not settle for a report from Ronnie Flanagan whose aim is to prevent the truth about these matters coming out."
Mr Maskey said many questions remained unanswered. "The relatives have the right to know the truth about what happened that day. So far they have been denied this. The only way the truth can be established is through a public inquiry."
* On Wednesday, a republican dissident was convicted of involvement in the attack by the Special (juryless) Criminal Court in Dublin. But the controversy has extended southo after the presiding judge described two 26-County Garda police as "discredited witnesses". He described their conduct as "outrageous", saying they had been involved in "persistent lying on oath" under cross-examination and "patent falsification". Garda representatives are to join with Flanagan in a meeting with Omagh survivors and relatives of victims later today.
Thursday-Saturday, 24-26 January, 2002
Flanagan loses battle on Omagh report
* Relatives dismay at RUC response * Inquiry urged; force remains unaccountable
The relatives of the 31 killed in the Omagh bombing of 1998 have expressed clear disappointment and dissatisfaction with the response of RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan to police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
Flanagan was responding six weeks after a scathing report by O'Loan listed a catalogue of failings and raised new questions over the RUC's role in the atrocity and its subsequent investigation.
Some reports have suggested the RUC's infamous Special Branch allowed the Omagh blast to go ahead for its own political or military reasons.
Many of the relatives of those killed in the 1998 Real IRA blast said they remained 'unhappy' and 'disappointed' despite a five-hour meeting with the RUC chief.
One relative, Lawrence Rush said: "He is a good talker. He is a great PR man and a very affable sort of person. But he is defending a force and there are inadequacies, ineptitude and deceit. Sir Flanagan, great PR man as he is, has lost the battle."
William Gibson, whose daughter, Esther, was killed, was equally despondent. "I'm not happy with what I heard," he said.
Michael Gallagher, whose son, Aidan, died, was dismayed that Flanagan had admitted to nothing more than "administrative errors" and didn't even seem prepared to meet Mrs O'Loan half way. "We heard very little new. I'm by no means happy," he said.
Significantly, there were relatives present in the meeting with Flanagan who have family members in the Crown forces. They were as unhappy with Flanagan as the others.
Ombudsman O'Loan has stood by her report and said there were "clear disagreements on fundamental matters of fact" between the Ombudsman's office and the RUC, now renamed the PSNI.
"It would not have been right of me to minimise, or be deflected from making criticism of the failures and deficiencies which we found over the past months."
The newly formed Policing Board will meet the families in Omagh on Monday. Flanagan and Mrs O'Loan are to address the board on February 5.
Mrs O'Loan is calling for an outside police office to take over the Omagh investigation, while Flanagan merely suggests the appointment of an 'adviser' from Liverpool police.
But most relatives have called for a public inquiry into the case, and are considered withdrawing support for the police investigation.
BATTLE CONTINUES
Attention has now centred on Flanagan, who has been accused of being unable to make the changes necessary to transform the RUC into a peacetime policing service. In particular, Flanagan has failed to see policing as a service rather than the imposition of force.
Flanagan has also badly misjudged public opinion and the feelings of the relatives. In response to criticism, he has appeared to lecture on the correct approach to the Omagh investigation and engaged in a battle of will over reason or respect.
In his response to the police ombudsman's report, which slated the RUC for "defective leadership, poor judgement and a lack of urgency", Flanagan has blithely refuted the allegations.
"These accusations are rejected absolutely. The investigation has been driven forward with energy, professionalism and determination," he claimed.
Flanagan failed to answer many of the key points of criticism the ombudsman raised of the RUC investigation into the Omagh bombing.
He discounted the importance of a phone call made to a detective in Omagh on August 4, 1998. The caller said republican dissidents were going to launch a gun and rocket attack in Omagh on August 15, 1998, the day of the bomb, but it was round-filed by the RUC's Special Branch.
"Nothing that happened subsequently calls into question the accuracy of the Special Branch assessment in this case," Flanagan wrote.
Speaking to the relatives, Flanagan denigrated this warning on the basis that the informant never subsequently rang back.
"You have great trust in the good manners of paramilitaries and informers," Laurence Rush, who lost his wife Libby in the Omagh attack, retorted.
Flanagan put great energy into rubbishing the credibility of the informer known as Kevin Fulton. He did not explain why this contradicts the position of his own force in 1998. CID rated Fulton `A1', meaning he was judged reliable and that senior detectives regarded his information as accurate.
There were many other contradictions in Flanagan's document, which was leaked to selected media in advance of publication, as happened with the Ombudsman's report.
"My client firmly believes the leaking of the two reports emanated from the police," said Des Doherty, the Derry lawyer acting for Rush. "This only served to undermine Mrs O'Loan. It seems the RUC, and the PSNI as they now are, are not prepared to accept any criticism."
The leaks allowed Flanagan to criticise aspects of the Ombudsman's report, and put his own spin on its conclusions before the report was formally released.
Last week, Flanagan's reply to the Ombudsman's report was in the hands of British BBC television several days before its official release on Thursday. This was long enough to put together a documentary programme, setting out Flanagan's side of the story, for Tuesday night.
On Thursday Flanagan appeared to lose the battle for the hearts and minds of most of the Omagh relatives. Nine asked him questions when he and his officers, and two senior members of the Garda, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty and Chief Supt Tadgh Foley, met them.
The attendance included some who have never spoken up previously. None supported him.
"He didn't expect the reaction and the questioning to be as in-depth," said Laurence Rush of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting. "What they had was determined people they couldn't get at. They felt should it take 20 years, these people will still be at it."
OMBUDSMAN POWERLESS
Speaking after the meeting between the relative and Flanagan, the MP for the area Pat Doherty pointed out that the Ombudsman was powerless to ensure the implementation of her six recommendations.
"The problem is that Ronnie Flanagan can and will ignore these recommendations. In fact in his report he has already indicated that he will not accept at least two of the six recommendations. What all of this demonstrates is the gaps and failure of the amended arrangements to provide accountability and freedom from partisan political control.
"The Policing Board will now consider these two reports. However, like the Ombudsman it does not have the power to force changes, it can only make recommendations.
"The real power rests with the British Secretary of State and the former RUC Chief Ronnie Flanagan, not with the Board or the Ombudsman. Accountability is completely absent from these arrangements. The Omagh families deserve to find the truth. So far they have been denied this. I agree with the families that in light of the Ombudsman's report and the McVicker report and the media exposure of RUC incompetence and Special Branch cover ups that the only way the truth can be established is through an independent inquiry."
Tuesday-Thursday, 12-14 February, 2002
Omagh relatives insist Flanagan must go
Discredited RUC/PSNI police chief Ronnie Flanagan has lost the support of relatives of the Omagh bomb atrocity, it has been revealed.
With the North's new policing board due to meet next week to discuss his future, the families said they expect him to leave office at the end of the month.
Even though Flanagan said he would leave when his three-month resignation notice was completed on February 28, some reports suggested he might stay on until his successor is found.
But in the aftermath of Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's devastating report into the RUC investigation, some of the families of the 29 people who were killed in the August l998 outrage want him to go now.
A statement by the Omagh Support and Self Help Group said: "We welcome the beginning of a new future on February 28, 2002 when the Chief Constable moves on."
Flanagan is due back from America tomorrow. His spokesman said the Chief Constable's future was a matter for the policing board.
His deputy, Englishman Colin Cramphorn, is expected to take over until the post is filled permanently. Advertising for the job will be given the go-ahead at next Thursday's meeting of a board in Belfast.
Last night Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the blast, urged the Policing Board not to ask Flanagan to stay beyond the end of this month.
He said last night: "I feel that if you are going to have a new beginning it is important that notice stands on February 28.
"What we are looking for is justice for what happened in Omagh. We are looking for what we should expect - a proper, fair investigation."
Flanagan fails in bid to extend term
By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST -- It took a lot of arm-twisting, and he's been told not to comment on the Ombudsman's office or interfere in the Omagh inquiry, but the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has managed to hang onto his job another four weeks.
Flanagan had resigned last November, effective at the end of this month, and had accepted a new job, but had made it known that he badly wanted an extension of his term of office until at least April 5, when he would have taken the salute from the first new batch of post-RUC recruits.
This ambition was vehemently opposed by the SDLP members of the Police Board as well as many of its independent members. During the furious row over the Ombudsman's report on the 1998 Omagh bombing, Flanagan had not endeared himself to them by delaying the production of the internal police report into the hunt for the bombers.
On Feb. 21, the day his fate was being decided, he first applied to speak to Police Board members in person. This request was denied. He then applied to send each member a fax message individually. This request was also denied.
Finally, after a long and tense Police Board debate, it was announced he was staying on after all -- but only for four weeks and only on condition he does not comment in public on his row with the ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, or interfere with the newly constituted police inquiry into the hunt for the Omagh bombers.
All the nationalists on the board wanted him to go sooner rather than later, but unionists said they wanted him to usher in his successor. It was through the vote of the board chairman, on a motion proposed by the DUP members of the board, that he was permitted another four weeks.
Although it could be said that Flanagan won a victory, it was, if anything, a Pyrrhic one that will result in an undignified exit before his chosen time
Alex Attwood, one of the SDLP representatives on the Board, said the chief constable is now a "lame duck" and that the vote, which had tied before the chairman used his, could hardly be seen as a ringing endorsement.
The absence of one SDLP member, Eddie McGrady, meant the board was split 9-9, so independent chairman Professor Desmond Rea had the crucial vote.
Flanagan put a brave face on the board's decision, saying he thought it was in the best interests of the police and he was prepared to postpone his retirement for a month.
"I will maximize every moment of this period to ensure the organization is best positioned to continue to provide the highest quality of service to the public it is humanly possible to achieve," he said.
But he must have been disappointed at being deprived of presiding over the passing-out parade of the first batch of 48 recruits to the renamed Police Service of Northern Ireland, formerly the RUC, and the adoption of the new badge and uniform.
Ombudsman O'Loan's scathing censure of his handling of the Omagh inquiry, and the public row that followed, have continued to blight his last weeks in office.
He vehemently rejected her criticisms, and the Police Association, which represents officers of all ranks, is currently mounting a legal challenge to the report asking that be "set aside."
The Home Office announced Flanagan's appointment last week as an inspector of Her Majesty's Constabulary for the east of England, but did not specify a start date. In this job, he will be responsible for overseeing policing standards of, among others, the London Metropolitan Police.
The chief constable of that force is Sir John Stevens, who is currently heading the third round of investigations into allegations that the RUC colluded in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.
This could put Flanagan in the interesting position of being responsible for overseeing the work of a senior police officer who may recommend an inquiry into claims of collusion while Flanagan was a senior police officer in Belfast.
Colin Cramphorn, the deputy chief constable, is expected to temporarily step into Flanagan's shoes in Belfast until a permanent successor is chosen.
Relatives of many of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bomb in 1998 have already said they had lost confidence in Flanagan and wanted him to go as soon as possible. They appealed to him, in the last days of his tenure as chief constable, to ask a new officer to head up the inquiry, but they were refused.
Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son, Adrian, was among the victims, said: "We have to respect the policing board's decision but we don't have to like it." His group of relatives had said they hoped Flanagan would be gone by the end of February.
Copyright © 2002 Irish Echo Newspaper Corp.
Monday-Tuesday, 18-19 March, 2002
Castlereagh raid - Britain's Watergate
The British network of spies and informers in the North of Ireland is reported to be on the point of collapse following a highly sinister incident at the headquarters of the RUC's Special Branch on Sunday night.
Three men, including at least one with inside knowledge, magically penetrated to the heart of the sprawling Castlereagh complex in east Belfast. They spent thirty minutes sifting through files and made off with sheaves of documents on the dealings of the 'security forces' with their many informers and double-agents.
The raid is clearly an effort to conceal the truth of crimes, including state-sponsored murder, carried out by members of the Crown forces and their agents over a thirty-year history.
The complex from which sensitive files were stolen was one of the centres used by the British army's infamous undercover squad, the Force Research Unit (FRU), which has been implicated in the murder of several Catholics. Despite some recriminations between the Special Branch and British military intelligence, most believe the orders for the raid came from the top.
The raiders passed through a security checkpoint manned by an armed guard, gained entry to rooms secured by coded keypads and opened secure cabinets. They knew what they were looking for and they knew where to look.
The raid on Sunday at one of the most heavily guarded state institutions in the north bears a remarkable similarity to a raid on top security RUC offices in 1990.
Castlereagh, the Special Branch's notorious interrogation centre is ringed by 20-metre steel fencing with watchtowers and floodlights. A location where in the past tens of thousands of northern nationalists have been held for interrogation, the centre is deemed impenetrable.
Inside a network of elaborate security systems have been designed to protect some of the northern state's most dangerous secrets.
Clearly operating with an insider's knowledge, the raiders appear to have struck at the very heart of Special Branch covert operations. Targeting an office where the Special Branch runs its network of informers and agents, an important nerve centre for British military intelligence and inner sanctum of counter insurgency plots and ploys.
According to reports, having already breached the outer security cordon, three unmasked men entered the first floor Special Branch office shortly before 11pm on Sunday night. One of the men had an English accent. A Special Branch officer on the premises at the time was subsequently bound and gagged.
It is believed that the men would have had to produce identification at the perimeter barrier, at the door and a security pass for rooms inside.
The gang gained access to secret files and apparently removed a number of documents, described as 'highly sensitive,' before making a successful getaway. The three men apparently entered and left the complex without being challenged.
A PSNI source within Castlereagh has admitted the raid must have involved "someone closely connected to us." And not just 'close' even within the Special Branch not every officer would have had specific knowledge to access the security systems protecting the most 'sensitive' material.
"I have worked with the Special Branch for 30 years," a former RUC officer admitted, "and I wouldn't know how to do this kind of thing."
In 1990 a covert British army unit gained entry to top security offices at another RUC base that had been allocated to a team of English police officers tasked with investigating allegations of Crown force collusion with loyalist death squads. The offices were set alight and documents destroyed.
The 1990 raid came on the eve of the planned arrest of Brian Nelson, a British army agent working with the UDA. Through Nelson and the covert Force Research Unit, British Military Intelligence re organised, re armed and directed loyalist death squads.
A parallel conspiracy also operated at the heart of the RUC. As an FRU agent Brian Nelson played a key role in the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane, but Special Branch agent and UDA quartermaster William Stobie played another key role.
Within the RUC, the Special Branch, wielded absolute power and the ruthless manner with which they operated has highlighted by a number of former RUC officers. RUC Detective Johnston Brown challenge a Special Branch decision not to pursue a self confessed loyalist killer and was subsequently subjected to death threats and threats of plots against his son.
One of the key reasons why the PSNI remains unacceptable to most nationalists is the failure of the British government to curtail the power of the Special Branch. The guidelines that gave Special Branch primacy were introduced by British Military Intelligence. Through the Special Branch MI5 controlled the RUC.
Commenting on the Castlereagh raid, Sinn Fein's Chief Whip Alex Maskey called for an immediate independent investigation and said the Ombudsmans Office should carry out a thorough investigation.
"Castlereagh has been the centre of Special Branch operations in the Six counties for thirty years. It is from Castlereagh that shoot-to-kill operations, the collusion with loyalists and the torture of people was directed," said Maskey.
Describing Castlereagh as 'probably the most secure barracks in Europe', Maskey continued, "few believe that the officers at the very centre of this fortress were raided, files were removed and the people involved were not seen and no one knows how or why this happened."
"This could not have happened without the sanction of senior figured within the Special Branch or British Intelligence," said Maskey.
Meanwhile it has been revealed that the Stevens team, investigating the murder of Pat Finucane, has uncovered evidence that the Special Branch gave guns to loyalist killers.
Forensic tests have shown that a Special Branch officer gave a weapon to a known loyalist killer that was later used in the murder of six Catholics. Relatives of those killed will be informed.
The Special Branch have already confirmed the leak which is expected to be included in a report schedule to be handed over to the PSNI by the Stevens team in May.
It is believed that the Special Branch will claim that the incident was 'isolated' and the result of a 'blunder' but one source has already described the revelation as "the tip of the iceberg."
Wednesday-Thursday, 20-21 March, 2002
Analysis: Special Branch in the dock
Special Branch and British Military Intelligence officers are to be questioned in connection with the illegal entry and theft of secret documents at Castlereagh Interrogation Centre last weekend.
Initial official reports of the incident, in which three men entered one of the most secure institutions in the North to delve through highly classified material for almost an hour, sought to play down the significance of the material kept in the office.
The level of inside knowledge required to carry out the raid suggests that that gang knew what they were looking for and knew where to look. Despite the spin, one indisputable fact remains clear. The nature of the raid presupposes a very specific motive and the material netted by the gang is unlikely to be anything other than highly significant.
In recent months, we have seen the killing of Special Branch informer and UDA quartermaster William Stobie, days after he publicly supported the call for an independent inquiry into the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane.
Loyalist Stephen McCullagh was found dead in suspicious circumstances just hours after offering Special Branch information about the sectarian killing of Daniel McColgan. McCullagh was never seen alive again after entering a police barracks.
Going back further, the Stevens inquiry investigating Crown forces collusion, including the role of Special Branch and covert British army units, had their offices torched. Stevens' predecessor John Stalker, investigating the summary execution of unarmed republicans by a covert unit directed by the Special Branch, was deliberately discredited and removed.
The announcement on Wednesday by British Secretary of State John Reid to call an inquiry into the Castlereagh raid further exposes the fact that there are no mechanisms for democratic accountability of the Special Branch and their activities.
Moreover, the British government's failure to implement the Patten Report's requirements for a new beginning for policing has left the Policing Board powerless to investigate this matter.
The Special Branch is a force within a force, immune from accountability and immune from scrutiny. Recent promotions of Special Branch officers into senior positions of authority throughout the PSNI have polluted any hopes of a new policing ethos within the force.
They have to go. There cannot be a new beginning to policing while Special Branch still exists.
Wednesday-Thursday, 20-21 March, 2002
Fulton's diary among missing Castlereagh documents
By Anton McCabe & Concubhar Ó Liatháin, Lá
A diary belonging to a police informer and containing information about a British military intelligence agent who was on board a car used in the Omagh bombing was among documents stolen from a top security Special Branch office. Although the PSNI denied any material relating to the investigation of the Omagh bombing, in which 29 people and two unborn children were killed in August 1998, was stolen from the office in the PSNI complex in Castlereagh on St Patrick's Night.
It is understood that the diary belonged to Kevin Fulton, whose newspaper claims last Summer led the Police Ombudsman to launch an investigation into the handling of the Omagh bombing. It referred to a military intelligence who was on board one of the cars used in the bombing by dissident republicans in the County Tyrone market town.
A well placed source confirmed in this week's edition of Irelandclick.com's Irish language sister publication, Lá, that the diary was among the stolen documents. The revelation came as a political storm erupted over the theft which has caused embarrassment to the Special Branch, already reeling following the Police Ombudsman' s damning indictment of their investigation into the 1998 bombing carried out by the Real IRA.
Lawrence Rushe, whose wife Libby died in the atrocity, has challenged PSNI Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan to come clean about whether or not any Omagh material was contained in the documents stolen from the office. The theft has led British Secretary of State in the Six Counties, Dr John Reid, to establish an independent inquiry to be headed by a security expert from the UK.
PSNI Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, who is shortly to leave his post, has established a criminal investigation into the matter and has also referred it to the Police Ombudsman.
Sinn Féin have said that Dr Reid's inquiry illustrated once again the ineffectualness of the Police Board. "The fact that the investigator will answer directly to Dr Reid and not the PSNI board shows how powerless the body is," said a spokesman.
They also questioned the independence of the yet to be appointed investigator, pointing to examples from the past when supposedly independent investigators have either failed to uncover the truth or have been muzzled. Police Board vice chairman Denis Bradley stressed the need for the public to be kept informed as to developments in the case.
The circumstances of the theft have fuelled specualation about "insider information". According to sources, the thieves were able to get in to one of the most secure installations in western Europe, past umpteen security precautions and made their way directly to the first floor Special Branch office
This article appeared first in the March 21, 2002 edition of Lá.
The article was translated by Concubhar Ó Liatháin.
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
Securocrats blamed for Castlereagh raid
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has described Sunday's raid on a top-security British 'intelligence' office as an attempt by British military organisations to frustrate political progress.
Mr Adams, accompanied by Mr Martin McGuinness, today sought to find out from the British Prime Minister what was taken in the raid and who was endangered by it.
On Sunday, three unmasked men flashed military identification and breezed through the sprawling Castereagh security installation. They walked into room 220, where information on a network of informers and double-agents is maintained. They tied up the solitary officer on duty and calmly piled up documents relating to Britain's dirty war in Ireland.
The images of the thre raiders were not captured on any of the base's security cameras.
In a statement on Tuesday, the British Secretary of State described the raid as a breach of 'national security'.
Speaking ahead of a meeting today [Monday] with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair in Downing Street, Mr Adams linked the raid to other attempts by British 'securocrats' to frustrate political change.
"I think you have seen it in terms of the way the Ombudsman inquiry was frustrated by Special Branch, seen it across a range of issues on demilitarisation and policing and I think you have also seen it in terms of the recent raid on Castlereagh," Mr Adams said.
"We are trying to get the British government to focus on the need for these people to be brought to heel," Mr Adams said ahead of a meeting today [Monday] with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair in Downing Street.
Emerging from the hour-long meeting, Mr Adams said that the events at Castlereagh vindicated his party's stance on policing reform, and pointed to the powerlessness of the new policing board and police ombudsman to deal with the growing scandal.
He said that anti-agreement elements within the British military and intelligence systems were frustrating the peace process.
"I can't give you any more than a speculative guess, but to quote the remarks of Ronnie Flanagan, it clearly was an inside job," he said.
In a Sunday newspaper interview, RUC (now PSNI) Chief Ronnie Flanagan admitted the raid was carried out by people with inside knowledge of the Castlereagh operation. He said he believed the top-secret documents were taken by intelligence officers, but denied the robbery had been given official sanction by any military or intelligence agency.
Nationalists suspect the documents may have been taken as part of a cover-up of the numerous state-sponsored killings in recent years.
The British Secretary of State John Reid MP has announced an independent inquiry into the 'break-in'. His choice of career civil servant John Chilcott to head that inquiry, however, has inspired little confidence. The opinion of former Special Branch supremo -- now soon to be retired Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan -- that no lives have been endangered because of the security breach similarly lacks credibility.
DARK FORCES
The Castlereagh raid was not the first occasion when the 'dirty war' has led to sinister behaviour among the various agencies involved. On 10 January 1990, as preparations were underway to arrest British Army agent Brian Nelson, a mysterious fire destroyed the office of the investigation team who had been brought in from England to investigate allegations of collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. The team was led by John Stevens and was based at a 'secure' RUC premises in Seapark.
Nelson, an agent of the British Army Force Research Unit (FRU), was involved in the assassination of Catholic Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane. Last year it was claimed by a former FRU agent, Martin Ingram, that the break-in and fire was the work of a Controlled Methods of Entry unit of the British Army, based at Repton Manor in England.
Stevens is presently involved in the third investigation into the activities of FRU and the killing of Pat Finucane and detectives from his team seized 'large quantities of documents' from British Army HQ in Lisburn in August 2000.
Last December, William Stobie, the Special Branch agent who supplied the weapons used in the murder of Pat Finucane, was shot dead shortly after the collapse of a criminal trial. Loyalist paramilitaries claimed the killing but there was speculation that the elimination of such an important witness to a future inquiry served the purposes of Special Branch.
The sensitive information that Special Branch keeps in its files may well include a taped confession from the man suspected of the killing of Pat Finucane. It was revealed in a television documentary last year that this had been withheld from the Stevens team. The individual who boasted of the killing fled the North after Stobie's murder and is believed to have sought protection from the Stevens team.
INFORMER CHAOS
Yesterday's Sunday papers were full of contradictory claims on the motivation behind the raid, with most quoting unnamed 'security sources'.
Among the claims were that the raid was a bid to conceal information on "Stake-Knife, Britain's top mole inside the IRA", surveillance equipment inside the home of Gerry Adams, the Omagh bomb attack, and 'Real IRA' informant David Rupert.
Meanwhile, the former agent at the centre of the Omagh investigation controversy has vowed to name the alleged 'Stake-Knife' if the British government does not provide him with a new identity and a new location to live.
The agent, who uses the pseudonym Kevin Fulton, fears his life is in danger after his real name was revealed by an Irish Sunday newspaper.
Fulton is reported to have set up a website where he claims 'Steak-knife's' real identity along with the identity of every British army and police handler he worked with will be revealed.
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
Castlereagh break-in
Dublin, Ireland, 24 March, 2002
The mysterious breach of the sophisticated security system in the North's most heavily protected police station at Castlereagh in east Belfast has focused attention yet again on the flawed nature of the North's policing arrangements.
A series of questions, in particular concerning the role of the Special Branch, remain unanswered.
Last Sunday's raid involving three unmasked men with passes and codes that allowed them access to the room where details of police and army informants are held in the highly fortified complex is deeply disturbing.
The bland assurances of outgoing Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, who described the raid as "baffling" and claimed that no lives were endangered by the theft of sensitive security files, are of little comfort. Concerns remain that the documents seized, including details of the code names, telephone numbers and contact points of a number of key loyalist and republican informants, will be utilised by those involved in armed attacks in the North. Indeed, while Flanagan, just days ahead of his retirement, was making calming noises, PSNI officers were warning Special Branch agents that their security had been compromised by the raid.
The men who took the files from under the noses of the North's elite, and most controversial, police unit seem to have known what they were looking for. The documents can now be used in a number of ways, not least by those who may wish to delay and obstruct promised police reforms. In particular, they may be useful for those seeking to resist the removal of officers involved in human rights abuses, and indeed the deconstruction of the Special Branch itself.
Following the recent murder of William Stobie, the police agent involved in the killing of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989, there are fears that other agents willing to reveal the involvement of Special Branch and other security agencies in attacks on nationalists over the years could meet a similar end.
For those in the British security establishment who seek to maintain the veil of secrecy over the dirty war waged against republicans, last weekend's covert operation could yield vital information which can be used to obstruct ongoing or future enquiries.
More worrying is the distribution in recent weeks of senior posts at superintendent rank to a number of senior Special Branch officers throughout the PSNI. This discredited unit, which operated as a force within a force for so many years, can now infect the new policing service with its questionable ethics and methods for years to come.
It may be Flanagan's lasting legacy that police personnel and structures in the North will continue to attract criticism and suspicion from a community genuinely seeking a new beginning to policing. The latest events also highlight the intrinsic weaknesses of the new arrangements, most notably the insufficient powers of investigation vested in the Policing Board.
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
How three sharply dressed robbers walked into Belfast's intelligence hub
New evidence that raid was planned down to last detail
Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent, The Guardian
Sundays are always quiet at the heavily fortified Castlereagh police barracks, but the St Patrick's Day bank holiday weekend meant last Sunday was quieter than most.
During the week hundreds of police officers come and go from the complex every day. But as last weekend drew to a close there were only about 20 staff scattered throughout the building.
As Northern Ireland's main terrorist interrogation centre during the Troubles, the fortress-like Castlereagh complex, in predominantly Protestant east Belfast, struck fear into the hearts of unionists and republicans alike. Times have changed, but the 20ft high metal fence, bristling with razor wire and surveillance equipment still encircles what is now the hub of the city's policing operation.
Belfast special branch, CID and traffic all have a number of offices in the Ladas Drive premises, although the intelligence unit's main base is in police headquarters, a couple of miles away at Knock. Army intelligence also has a small room in Castlereagh, known as the "green hut".
At 10.15pm, a car drew up to the main entrance, a swing barrier manned around the clock. The vehicle's occupants, three men in smart suits, flashed army identification at the officer on guard and he waved them through.
The men walked into the building, and were again waved on as they showed their ID to the officer on duty. From there, they could move fairly freely, as although many unoccupied offices were locked, the corridors were not.
"These men just strolled in unmasked as if they had every right to be there," said a police source. "If they were paramilitaries, they were taking a huge risk that someone might have recognised them. We don't know if the ID was fake, but it was obviously convincing."
Once past the front desk the trio quickly made their way upstairs to the first floor, and along several corridors to the door of a small, anonymous office, which special branch had moved into temporarily only a week before because of renovations elsewhere in the building.
The special branch operation, known by its former telephone extension number, 220, is the 24-hour nerve centre of Belfast's intelligence network, where dozens of informers rang in to make contact with police, army and MI5 handlers to pass on details of terrorist activity and the private lives of paramilitaries and politicians. No case files or investigation records are kept permanently in the office, but there are a number of documents in filing cabinets and desks, giving contact numbers and information on current surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations.
There, a lone detective constable was writing up notes as he waited for calls. The only person on the corridor that night, he was not expecting visitors, but when he heard the knock on the unlocked door he got up to open it, assuming it must be another police officer.
Instantly one of the gang punched him once in the face, then a hood was slipped over his head, his mouth taped and he was tied to a chair with rope and tape.
The men did not speak to him but he heard snatches of an English accent before they put a Walkman blaring loud music over his ears. They used keys lying on the desk to unlock drawers and filing cabinets and rifled through these in a systematic fashion for the next 20 minutes. At regular intervals they returned to their captive to check his pulse and ensure he was not bound too tightly.
"Paramilitaries wouldn't have given a damn about beating him senseless," a police source said. "Why so careful? It looks like textbook secret agent stuff to me."
Alarm
About 10.45pm the officer wriggled free and raised the alarm. The men were gone. So too was his Filofax, a bundle of handwritten notebooks and some other documents containing telephone numbers and coded details of current assignations in Belfast involving intelligence operatives and their sources.
Vehicles do not leave the base by the entrance gate, and there are several different exits, so the trio made their getaway unimpeded. "On the one hand, it was a crude robbery. But it was also incredibly proficient, so slick that detectives suspect it was previously timed and perhaps partly rehearsed," a source said.
Sources in Belfast were sceptical that there was any paramilitary involvement, but British intelligence sources suspect that the provisional IRA might have had something to do with the theft, one possible motive being to discredit the local special branch.
The burgled office was sealed off and forensic experts moved in immediately. By dawn, the whole complex was a hive of activity, with police photographers and fingertip search teams everywhere.
Every locker, drawer and rubbish bin was pulled apart over the next couple of days in the hope that thieves had stashed the missing papers somewhere, but nothing was found.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the chief constable, was furious. Twelve days before his retirement, and with the ombudsman's scathing criticism of the Omagh bomb inquiry still ringing in his ears, this was the last thing he needed. Rumours flew but he vehemently denied the thieves had got away with any documents concerning Omagh.
He called together the assistant chief constable, Raymond White, head of the newly amalgamated CID and special branch, Belfast special branch boss Bill Lowry, and Chief Superintendent Phil Wright, the city's most senior detective, whom he put in charge of the criminal investigation.
As Northern Ireland's web of informers feared for their lives, the province buzzed with speculation that it was some sort of inside job by disaffected cops or rogue army or MI5 agents.
"Maybe they have a grudge against Sir Ronnie or special branch, or perhaps they want to find something out or cover something up," a police source said. "They could try and use these documents for blackmail or as some sort of bargaining chip.
"But the information in these papers was replicated elsewhere and they would probably know they would not benefit much from merely destroying them. They are mostly in code, so it would be hard to get full value unless you were very familiar with these things."
Already people were drawing comparisons with a mysterious fire in 1990, at the offices of John Stevens, the Metropolitan police commissioner investigating alleged collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries. One of the targets of such claims, the shadowy army intelligence organisation known as force research unit, was blamed for the blaze, which gutted the locked offices in a police base in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim. Phone wires were cut and fire alarms deactivated before the fire started.
The Stevens team is jittery, but Belfast police insisted that Sunday's theft was nothing to do with the team's current inquiry into the 1989 murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane.
John Reid, the Northern Ireland secretary, was stunned by the gravity of the situation and on Tuesday announced that a "distinguished figure" would head an independent inquiry into the break-in and the implications for national security.
On Wednesday, as Sir Ronnie held talks with the policing board in Belfast, Dr Reid revealed that Sir John Chilcot, a former Northern Ireland Office civil servant heavily involved in the Thatcher government's secret peace talks with the IRA in the early 1990s and now a Whitehall counsellor for disgruntled members of the security services, would lead it.
Meanwhile, Nuala O'Loan, the police ombudsman, decided she could not investigate the Castlereagh incident as some of those involved could be outside her remit, which is confined to alleged wrongdoing by police officers.
"The criminal investigation is in full swing but motive is a big factor and that is still not clear," a source said. "How will these documents be used? Could they turn up in the public domain?
"Many of Sir John Chilcot's findings might not be made public and, like so much in Northern Ireland, the whole story might never come out."
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
Analysis: An inside job, but for what?
By Frank Connolly, Dublin, Ireland
The raid on Room 220 in one of Europe's most secure police stations has focused attention, once more, on the North's dirty war and the activities of shadowy police and intelligence agencies.
The manner in which the story emerged into the public domain, through a public statement by Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers of the Ulster Unionist Party early last week, would suggest that casting blame in any particular direction for the mysterious theft is a precarious exercise.
This did not stop some media organisations from throwing about the names of those believed responsible, and further, detailing the contents of the top secret files that are now missing.
An apparently crucial fact revealed by these sources to various journalists was that one of the raiders that broke into the Special Branch office on Sunday spoke with an English accent.
This allowed reporters to speculate that the Force Research Unit (FRU), the British army intelligence group that has for years run agents inside loyalist and republican organisations, was responsible for the brazen raid at Castlereagh holding centre in east Belfast.
What is clear is that the three men who stole the files containing details of Special Branch informers, including their code names, code words, telephone numbers and details of meeting places, dates and times, knew exactly what they were looking for.
They had passes to the building, which gave them access to the inner corridors of the heavily fortified and secure police station, and uninterrupted access to the first floor where Room 220 is located.
They overpowered a police officer, tied him up and rifled the documents, leaving the building some time before 11pm on Sunday. The unmasked men were indifferent to the multiple CCTV cameras that monitor all movements in the complex and after a half hour search left, carrying a bundle of documents, without interference.
It bore striking similarities to a previous incident in 1990 when the offices of Chief Constable John Stevens, the British police officer investigating collusion between loyalists and the security forces, including the FRU, were burgled and burned.
Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, who is due to retire at the end of the month, said he was "baffled" by the raid and immediately dismissed any suggestions that any lives had been endangered.
Many observers were equally baffled at the ease with which he dismissed the incident, particularly as he confirmed that highly sensitive details of police and army informers were stored in the room.
He also confirmed that the files had been moved to Room 220 only one week previously, which reinforced the widespread theory that this was an `inside job'. Flanagan appointed Det Chief Supt Phil Wright to investigate, while the British Secretary of State chose Sir John Chilcott, who works in the Cabinet Office on intelligence and security issues and is described as a counsellor with the security agency MI5.
Chilcott was, of course, the key British civil servant in the North from 1990 to 1997 and was central to the negotiations that led to the historic 1994 IRA ceasefire.
A number of his colleagues in MI5, the police and army were victims of the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash ahead of the IRA's cessation.
Flanagan's assurances and insistence that no informants' names were included in the stolen papers did not allay the fears of a number of former police and army agents who claim that they have been warned that their security has been compromised.
Among those agents with concerns are the former MI5 agent, Willie Carlin, who blamed British intelligence for the operation, and Peter Keeley, the name used by the agent who claims that before the 1998 Omagh bombing he tipped off his RUC special branch handlers about a planned attack in the North.
Details concerning David Rupert, the US citizen who claims that he infiltrated the Real IRA on behalf of MI5, may also have been stored in the complex.
Contacts with a number of leading loyalists with possible knowledge of the role of security personnel in the killings of solicitors, Pat Finucane in 1989 and Rosemary Nelson in 1999, are also believed to have been retained in Room 220 and it is the possible seizure of these files that will most concern those campaigning for public inquiries into their deaths.
This is particularly significant given the revelation that the ongoing Stevens inquiry into Finucane's death has discovered evidence that a member of the Special Branch provided guns to loyalists that were used to kill at least six other nationalists.
In the light of last year's killing of Special Branch informer William Stobie, who was a member of the UDA gang involved in Finucane's murder, and the threats to others, including police officers with inside knowledge of the conspiracy, the raid has potentially huge, and sinister, implications.
Whatever was stolen, and there is a lot of speculation and spin about the contents of the files, it is likely that the police and other agencies hold backup copies of the sensitive information. The key unresolved question then is the motivation behind the raid and the possible use to which the stolen information may be put.
Whether it involved members of the Special Branch or agents from another British force, it will certainly reinforce concerns over the reforms to the North's policing service. In particular, Sinn Féin can argue that its refusal to join the Policing Board has been justified by this latest controversy surrounding the Special Branch, which it has long claimed is an unaccountable force within a force.
Gerry Adams also noted last week that the decision by John Reid to appoint an investigator into the break-in at Castlereagh confirmed the republican view that the real power over policing lies, not with the board, but with the secretary of state and the chief constable.
Coming on the back of statistics that show that only nine police officers have been prosecuted despite 20,000 official complaints against members of the force in the last six years, the Castlereagh incident will not dampen the scepticism over the police that pervades nationalist thinking.
Last week, it was also confirmed that Flanagan has promoted to superintendent rank a large number of Special Branch officers and allocated them positions throughout the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
A number of disaffected police inspectors are threatening legal action against the PSNI over the appointments, which have deeply concerned those seeking to curtail, rather than spread, the influence of the Special Branch in the new policing structures.
If it emerges that some senior officers of the Special Branch, or others acting on their behalf, were behind last weekend's raid it will make British promises to further reform the policing service in line with the Patten recommendations more difficult to deliver.
Any effort, as demanded by nationalists, to remove those officers involved in human rights abuses and collusion with loyalists in their killing campaign against nationalists, could well be resisted by those with access to the stolen files.
Control over information vital to Britain's national security would be a useful weapon in the extensive armoury of those opposing the long awaited transformation of the North's security services.
Copyright © 2002 Sunday Business Post, Ireland
Friday-Sunday, 22-24 March, 2002
The Crime of Castlereagh
Danny Morrison looks at the history of Castlereagh, PSNI headquarters in Belfast, home to the Special Branch and, supposedly, one of the most 'secure' barracks in Europe, which is now at the centre of an inquiry into how security was breached last Sunday and secret, confidential files were taken This Citadel, this house of hell, Is worshipped by the law. It's built upon a rock of wrong With hate and bloody straw. - The Crime of Castlereagh by Bobby Sands
Paul Fox and I were on the dance floor trying to impress the girls when the doors of Clonard Hall burst open and British soldiers began firing rubber bullets. When the screams died down Paul (17) and myself (19) were arrested with seventy other males. By midnight the two of us were in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in handcuffs, dying of thirst. We had our belts and shoelaces removed and were kept separately in small cells, bare but for a bed chained to the floor and with a door containing a spy hole.
That was November 1972. Up until shortly before then, the main interrogation centre was Palace Barracks but it was shut over bad international publicity and because the Irish government had taken Britain to the European Court of Human Rights on charges that Britain had tortured detainees there, following the introduction of internment in August 1971. (Britain was eventually found guilty of subjecting detainees to 'inhuman and degrading treatment'.)
So 'business' was transferred to Castlereagh Barracks, in loyalist East Belfast. The RUC and the Northern Ireland Office had a number of names for the new centre, none of which included the word 'interrogation': 'Ladas Drive' (after the street in which it was located) and the euphemistic 'Castlereagh Holding Centre'.
The name Castlereagh is derived from the 'Caislen Riabhach' or 'Grey Castle' of the O'Neill clan in the 13th century which once perched on the Castlereagh Hills. Of course, it was also the title taken by the Tory, Robert Stewart, who as the hated Lord Castlereagh and Chief Secretary to Ireland ruthlessly crushed the 1798 rebellion, crucially with the help of agents, which was quite apposite, given the later association of Castlereagh barracks with informers.
The first time I had been interrogated in Castlereagh was just a week before I had been showing the girls how to dance. I was arrested on the street, taken to the East Belfast barracks, brought through several checkpoints and around to the side of the main block (scene of last Sunday's breach of security) which houses the offices of various police departments, including the Special Branch; conference rooms; a canteen; and, I suspect, a bar from which in my cell I could faintly hear a jukebox playing.
The cells and interrogation rooms were separated from the main building by corrugated fencing and a gate with an armed guard, and more armed guards in charge of the cellular block. During that stay, the late and infamous Harry Taylor, reputed head of the Special Branch, bounced into the room and introduced himself by saying, 'I expect you've heard of me!' He looked like Al Capone, pulled a wad of pound notes from his breast pocket and asked me for a few guns or a few names and guaranteed me anonymity. It was as gauche as that - like something out of the movies - though all would change over the next three decades as intelligence and surveillance activities became more sophisticated through the use of miniature bugging devices planted inside firearms and satellite tracking of vehicles, as well as lavish expenditure on well-trained informers.
I kept my mouth shut and was released only to be arrested eight days later at the dance and, along with Paul Fox, interned without trial in Long Kesh. A few months after Paul was released in 1975 he died in an explosion.
I was to spend many other periods at Castlereagh over the years - sometimes for up to seven days without access to a lawyer or exercise, being interrogated by relays of RUC Detectives or Special Branch officers (one wasn't always sure of the distinction) from early morning till after midnight.
After one occasion, at a time when the British government was attempting to suppress the 'Republican News', of which I was editor, I was charged with IRA membership and conspiracy and imprisoned, on the basis that I published IRA press releases in the newspaper. The case eventually collapsed. A few months later I was arrested whilst organising a press conference and was taken into custody with Pierre Salinger (President Kennedy's former press aide) - who was in the next cell and refused to hand over his cigars until he had spoken to the US Consul! A photographer from the 'Andersonstown News', arrested with us, had some of his fingers broken by the RUC. On the last day I was brought to a room which had no chairs and had to stand. As they released me I asked what that was about and a detective said that they had stood for a minute's silence for Lord Mountbatten and they wanted to make sure that I took part. I was lucky. Because I had a public profile it was unlikely that I would be beaten as happened to so many other anonymous prisoners, eighty per cent of whom signed incriminating statements against themselves (the highest rate of confession 'evidence' made in police custody throughout Europe). This 'evidence' was then used to convict the prisoners in the non-jury Diplock Courts where the onus of proof had been shifted to the accused. The convicted prisoners were then sent to the H-Blocks where those of them from republican areas refused to wear the criminal uniform, went on the blanket protest and once again were regularly beaten. And, of course, the blanket protest led to the hunger strike which convulsed Irish politics and whose emotional power reverberates to this day.
The RUC and the Northern Ireland Office denied that any one was beaten in Castlereagh and said prisoners were inflicting injuries on themselves as part of the propaganda war against the police.
In March 1979 Dr Robert Irwin, a police surgeon, went on television and said that in the past three years he had seen over 150 cases in which he was not satisfied that the injuries were self-inflicted. Shortly after the interview, the 'Daily Telegraph' published a story which originated in Whitehall and which the paper said was aimed at discrediting the doctor. The paper had been told that Dr Irwin's wife had been raped in 1976 and that Dr Irwin had harboured a grudge against the RUC for failing to catch the assailant. His wife had been raped at home and at gunpoint by a man with an English accent whilst Dr Irwin was examining a prisoner in a police custody, but Irwin had nothing but respect for the officers investigating the crime. Nevertheless, for being a whistle-blower he lost many friends.
The Special Branch was, back then and has remained since, a law unto itself, a force within a force, which is one of the reasons why Sinn Fein refuses to sit on the Police Board and is demanding further reform in line with the Patton Report.
In his book, 'Beating The Terrorists', the journalist Peter Taylor interviewed several detectives. One said, "the book on Castlereagh could only be opened slowly, as what was inside was political dynamite. He [the detective] told me that several powder kegs were involved and that now was not the time to take the lid off. Some expressed the fear that one day someone would open the book on Castlereagh and they would all be called to account."
In order to get an idea of how much more serious the situation is today one has to realise that that quote is from 1980 and was solely a reference to the secrecy in relation to the beatings that were taking place, and not the 'dirty war' of the 1980s and 1990s when Special Branch and British intelligence were colluding with and often directing the loyalist death squads. That is a scandal of monumental proportions which has only been revealed in part. I believe that the truth will never come out because it would show the involvement of 10 Downing Street in actual terrorism and not just a few loose cannons in MI5 or the Special Branch. To this day, for example, the British government stubbornly refuses to hold a public inquiry into the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane despite overwhelming evidence of state collusion with his killers before and after his assassination.
Castlereagh closed as an interrogation centre in 1999 but from within its bowels the intelligence services continued their dirty war. Last Sunday's seizure of files by unmasked men who knew their way around had to have been carried out by British agents with the objective of destroying some of the records of their terrorist deeds in order to protect individuals or the establishment itself.
It is a frightening proposition, because they will, quite literally, stop at nothing. Although it was denied at the time, it is now evident that the fire which destroyed the offices of Detective John Stevens, who was investigating official collusion with loyalist paramilitaries, was arson and involved British agents.
People who went through Castlereagh were offered huge bribes, the guarantee of immunity from prosecution no matter what actions they had previously carried out, were told they could still kill and bomb to maintain their cover provided they changed sides. Those who refused the emoluments were beaten, or framed, or held out and got out to tell the truth about Castlereagh and what went on there. And the only ones to believe them were their family and friends in the local community.
Wednesday-Saturday, 27-30 March, 2002
RUC mount arrest operation, blame IRA for files 'theft'
*Anger at RUC/PSNI violence, spin
The RUC/PSNI has this morning conducted a series of violent raids in Belfast and Derry, infuriating nationalists and republicans and placing a question mark over the peace process.
The raids came amid a major spin campaign to justify the arrests. Journalists were 'briefed' that the IRA had been responsible for the recent disappearance of security files at Catlereagh Crown force base.
Despite the availability of a key, the RUC/PSNI sledge-hammered the door of an office of the ex-prisoners group, Tar Abhaile, in Derry and took away files, computers, disquettes, telephone books, diaries, notebooks, CD roms.
At the same time they arrested, again using sledgehammers, one of the Tar Abhaile workers at his home where he lives with his partner and very young children. In Belfast, the highly destructive 'Big Knock' style of raids were repeated in republican areas in West, East and North of the city with the arrest of three more men and two women.
Astonishingly, although Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan had already ruled out paramilitary involvement in the 'break-in', the RUC/PSNI claimed that the operation was connected with the March 17 incident in Castlereagh.
On St Patrick's Day, three unmasked men apparently walked into the headquarters of the force's infamous Special Branch 'counter-terrorist' division. Secret information on the network of agents and informers who operate in the North was removed. With the evidence pointing to the involvement of the 'security forces', even Flanagan blamed insiders.
'RIDICULOUS'
But efforts to blame the IRA for the March 17 incident were described as "ridiculous" by West Belfast Sinn Fein Assembly member Alex Maskey, who said today's arrests were highly provocative. It was "insulting to people's intelligence," he added.
There is now speculation that today's operation could mark a Watergate-style "cover-up of a cover-up".
Nationalists have also suggested that it may not be unrelated to the impending retirement tomorrow of the RUC Chief. The raid on Castereagh had placed a cloud over Flanagan's departure, and the arrests were being used today to counter some of the intense criticism he and Special Branch have faced this week.
Maskey described the arrest operation as a "clumsy" attempt to deflect blame for the Castlereagh incident, and refuted any republican involvement in the incident. It was the "first salvo of a cover-up", he said, and he urged the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to intervene.
"The security force's actions are extremely provocative to republicans when you consider that this Easter weekend people all over Ireland will be commemorating their history, culture and heritage and when you consider that republicans have been trying to consolidate the peace process.
"It would seem to suggest that there is panic going on within the security services about this break-in and I fear that we could be entering a dangerous period.
"I think today's incidents underline the need for an independent public inquiry into the whole affair."
Sunday-Tuesday, 30 March-2 April, 2002
Camcorder captures unreformed brutality of the PSNI
Video footage of a gang of RUC/PSNI riot squad police savagely beating a Catholic mother in north Belfast as she was trying to protect her children was today shown on Irish telsvision.
As youths clashed in the area, innocent Catholics living on the stretch of road were targeted by heavily armed police who broke into their homes.
Donna Miskimmon was dragged from her home and beaten behind a police vehicle in a manner reminiscent of the Los Angeles police attack on Rodney King. The PSNI were unaware that they were bring filmed by a neighbour with a camcorder.
Sinn Fein has vowed to give the explosive tape, the latest example of British force attacks on nationalists in Belfast, to the British, Irish and US governments.
As he showed the scenes for the first time, Sinn Fein Assemblyman Gerry Kelly said: "If this was any other country in the world this would be a scandal of massive proportions."
Mr Kelly said the video was being forwarded to Nuala O'Loan, who investigates all complaints against the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), formerly the RUC.
"The video will be posted to the police ombudsman," he confirmed. "It will also be given to the Irish government, the British Government and to America. People need to see what nationalists in north Belfast are going through."
Sitting alongside Mr Kelly, the 46-year-old victim said she had been trying to find out what had happened to her son when she was hit, arrested and later charged with riotous behaviour.
"I was only trying to protect Christopher, my 15-year-old boy. There was no call for what happened," she said.
Police vehicles are shown breaking through gates erected at the front of nationalist homes on North Queen Street in the film. A local Sinn Fein councillor, Gerard Brophy, was also beaten by officers as he tried to calm the situation.
Mr Brophy said he had tried in vain to reason with an officer whose name he knows but was unwilling to reveal because this was part of the detail being forwarded to the ombudsman.
"They came out in gladiator gear and were just intent on causing as much damage to nationalist homes as possible," he said.
Another couple, Jim and Odette Harvey, also said they had been attacked by the PSNI during the trouble.
Mr Harvey, who lost an eye after being attacked by loyalists last November, said he was baffled about why he should be targeted.
"We lived in a hovel for eight years before we got our house," he said.
"But police opened these gates in two seconds in order to get at my wife and I. I don't know why, we've never been involved in any bother."
RUC - PSNI raids
On Saturday morning (30th of March) at approx. 7.00am the building in which the Pat Finucane Centre is based was forcibly entered by armed members of the RUC/PSNI.
Their alleged purpose was to search the offices of Tar Abhaile, on the floor above the PFC. Members of the PFC staff arrived shortly after 9.00am and asked to be allowed into their own offices. They were refused in a hostile and abusive manner. They immediately phoned members of the management committee.
A private flat on the ground floor of the building was also entered, even though the search warrant only permitted a search of the offices of Tar Abhaile, on the top floor of the building. The occupant of the flat said:
"I was woken up by a policeman standing over my bed. I was totally shocked. I didn’t know what was going on. I will be taking this matter up with my solicitors. So much for the supposed new beginning to policing."
By 9.30am Conal McFeely and Angela Hegarty, both members of the PFC management committee, arrived. They attempted to ascertain who was in charge of the operation, but the officer they spoke to was hostile and rude. They were also refused entry to the building by hostile police officers. They were refused entry even though they were told that the PFC was not being searched. The officer in charge of the search excluded them on the basis that he took the view that they were "likely to interfere with the search."
Ms Hegarty said: "Nothing could have been further from the truth. As a human rights organisation working closely with victims of the state it was a paramount concern that our case files remained secure. We needed to get into the building to secure the sensitive information contained in those files and to satisfy ourselves that our offices had not been entered or interfered with in any way. Our right to do that was denied. In my view our exclusion was unlawful and we intend to take the whole matter further. We witnessed other police officers at the scene engage in number of other activities which we regard as human rights abuses. We will be contacting the police ombudsman, the police board, and have already been in touch with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin."
Later that day it became clear that the offices of victims support group Cunamh were also raided by the police and files and other materials taken. This is a matter of very serious concern given the sensitive nature of Cunamh’s work with those already suffering trauma as a result of human rights abuses by the state.
Shane O’Curry of the PFC said: "There is no telling the amount of damage inflicted on victims of state human rights abuses when armed officers force their way into a space which is meant to safe for those victims, and worse still, remove confidential material."
These experiences directly contradict those who claim that a new beginning has been made to policing in the north of Ireland. Both the manner in which the searches were conducted and the nature of the searches themselves raise serious questions about the RUC/PSNI and its fitness as a police service which protects human rights and is accountable for its actions to the people whom it is supposed to serve. It seems we are a long way yet from such a police service in the north of Ireland.
Monday-Tuesday, 15-16 April, 2002
British agencies accused of double cover-up
Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly said yesterday [Tuesday] there was no doubt that the Castlereagh raid on St Patrick's Day was a cover up by British "intelligence agencies" and that their attempts to blame the IRA represented a cover-up of a cover-up.
North Belfast assembly member Mr Kelly, SF spokesman on policing, was asked at a press conference about recent allegations by the RUC/PSNI police of IRA involvement in the Castlereagh break-in.
Mr Kelly said: “I am absolutely convinced that what we are dealing with is a cover-up from the intelligence agencies. The only thing I can not point a figure at is which agency it is. “I am absolutely satisfied the IRA was not involved,” he said.
He said that the seriousness of what he described as "two cover-ups" could not be overstated.
“The first cover-up relates to the information stolen in Castlereagh. This was a blatantly illegal act. Despite being fully equipped for their task this enterprise was not entirely risk free for the raiders.
“It is therefore reasonable to conclude that this illegal activity was in pursuit of covering-up other illegal activities on a far greater scale.
“Clearly the raiders believed that the information they stole was at risk or potentially at risk. Information, which might well shed light on the many illegal activities and human rights abuses the Special Branch have been involved in down the years,” Mr Kelly said.
According to Mr Kelly the second cover-up relates to the attempt to divert attention away from the perpetrators, the attempt to create a doubt as to who was responsible, the attempt to divert attention away from what was so important in the information stolen in Castlereagh that extreme measures were resorted to.
"The raids on homes and offices, the wrecking, the arrests and the unprecedented daily press briefings by the head of the Special Branch were and are part of a massive PR exercise towards that end. Those who genuinely want a new beginning to policing must by now recognise that unless the secret society behind these activities is replaced as required by the Good Friday Agreement the new beginning will be denied and we will all be condemned to a re-run of the failures of the past.
"This is not acceptable to Sinn Féin. It should not be acceptable to anyone who signed up to the Good Friday Agreement and its absolute requirement for a police service which is acceptable, accountable, representative and free from partisan political control.
"Current policing arrangements guarantee the perpetuation of the secret society's dominance and control over policing and the disasters that it has inflicted on our society."
Mr Kelly was asked what impact these developments would have on any future move by Sinn Fein in joining the Policing Board? He replied: “The political issue here, at the bottom of it all, is whether we have policing arrangements which work, and I am saying quite clearly that we do not.
“Until we get proper policing arrangements Sinn Fein will not go on the board. This (Castlereagh situation) is not what dictates it. All this does is symbolise or accentuate the problem we have already pointed out, that is that the Policing Board does not have the power over the intelligence services or the Special Branch.
“We now have the strange anomaly that the ombudsman can not, or has said, she will not investigate this. What that means is that the Special Branch or the intelligence service has to come back to her and said that it was the police force that was involved and you can now investigate.
Also yesterday Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness had discussions with British Secretary of State Dr John Reid. Mr McGuinness said: “This was my first meeting with the British secretary of state since the raid on Castlereagh and the attempted cover-up by the Special Branch.
“The meeting gave us the opportunity to discuss this and other outstanding matters in the peace process including policing, demilitarisation and human rights and justice issues.
“I once again reinforced in Mr Reid’s mind the need for the British government to begin to honour their commitments across this range of crucial issues.”
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams meets the Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern later today [Wednesday] to discuss ongoing developments in the peace process.