FALSE FLAG ALERT 'Real IRA & Continuity IRA' murder 3

[Mark Gobell]

Nick, I simply paraphrased your question back at you.

It is as valid a question to you as yours is to Tony.

So please try to answer it, even for your own benefit.

It might reveal just why you seem to believe everything that you read in ze papers n'cest pas ?

[QuitTheirClogs]

Hallmarks of False Flag Ops:

#1) Fortuity

Warfare - both regular and irregular - is littered with events that were perpetrated by one side, but turned out to be to the advantage of the other, or even neutral parties.

You'll have to do better than that.

A hallmark is a conspicuous feature or characteristic.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hallmark

The presence of a specific hallmark may be suggestive of false-flag terrorism, but it is very unlikely to be conclusive by itself. Likewise, in a small false-flag attack it is unlikely that all the hallmarks are present; though fortuity, especially with regard to timing, does seem to be a universal characteristic.

Can you think of any false-flag attack that did not appear fortuitous for the dark forces which perpetrated it?
---

#2) Deeply-Embedded Intelligence Assets

Haroon Rashid Aswat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haroon_Rashid_Aswat

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoxPY3H5EqA[/youtube]

[Mark Gobell]

Very revealing interviews here this morning on Radio 4 Today.

This partial transcript, with the word "hallmarks" . . . . as used by the BiBiC, just for you Nick.

What happened in Northern Ireland at the weekend was a massive blow to those that who had dared hoped that peace really had taken hold.

Two young soldiers murdered by the so called Real IRA.

Last night it happened again.

This time, a policeman, murdered on the streets of of the Republican stronghold of Craigavon when he answered a call for help.

It was the first time a policeman had been murdered in Northern Ireland for twelve years.

So far, there has been no admission of guilt by his killers, but it had all the hallmarks of so many murders of police and soldiers carried out in the name of Irish Nationalism over the decades.

A bogus call for assistance.

A gunman or gunmen, lying in wait.

Inevitably it will lend an even greater urgency to questions about the government's approach to security in Northern Ireland.

We are, said a leading politician in the province, "staring into the abyss".

The Northern Ireland Secretary, Shaun Woodward is on the line and so is Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons sub-committee on Counter Terrorism.

But first, John O'Dowd of Sinn Fein who represents the area in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

JH: Good morning to you.

JO: Good morning.

JH: I use the word murder. Is that a word you would use on behalf of Sinn Fein?

JO: It is and I have to say that I'm becoming a wee bit tired of every journalist I speak to, trying to put Sinn Fein into some kind of trap . . .

You can listen to the full interview here including the former "Army Officer", Patrick Mercer, with 9 tours of Northern Ireland under his belt, describing Sir Hugh Orde's timely warning about an impending attack, made the day before the attack, as a result of "intelligence", just as the SRR / FRU hit the ground running and the row over Orde not informing the PSNI erupted . . .

Which is why, according to Sir Patrick Mercer, Sir Hugh Orde, went on Radio 4 the day before to tell us all how he felt . . .

... but the PSNI have got to able to ask for the resources that they need, specialist intelligence, military or whatever in order to hit these individuals before they strike at us . . .

Have they not been getting that support?

They haven't asked for it in any great numbers so far, but it was interesting that, clearly, intelligence was received last week and that's why the Chief Constable came on this programme and did two things:

First of all, underlined the fact that the threat level had risen and also asked or demonstrated very publicly that he had asked for specialist military intelligence. This is classic, a classic attempt to delay or put off some from of terrorist attack was imminent.

Your analysis of this Radio 4 piece Nick, not just the part I have transcribed, would be most welcome.

[Nick Cooper]

Nick, I simply paraphrased your question back at you.

It is as valid a question to you as yours is to Tony.

Not really, because Tony was the one effectively claiming that such "hallmarks" exist, at least in this particular case. As I said, events that were subsequently actually proved to any convincing degree to be false flag ops invariably took some time for such proof to surface, e.g. Operation Northwoods.

So please try to answer it, even for your own benefit.

It might reveal just why you seem to believe everything that you read in ze papers n'cest pas ?

On the contrary, there's a lot of stuff in the newspapers that I don't believe, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I can prove it.

[TonyGosling]

To increase spending on MI5
To attack Civil Liberties
To smash the peace process.
Is what you'd have discovered if you'd bothered to search
Bye Nick.

Inability to answer a straight question noted. Come on Tony, it's simple enough. What would Mossad gain by killing British squaddies in NI? What would NATO gain by the same? Or the EU? You seem very clear in your beliefs, yet strangely reticent to explain them when asked.

What would their respective motives be?

We've been discussing the motives of the Securocrats on this forum for the last 4 years.
Where have you been?
You can use the search on here as well as Google.

[Mark Gobell]

I have no idea what in the name of bananas is going on in UK / Irish politics atm.

Apart from the facts that the Intelligence and Security Committee on 5th March 2009 had presented their annual report that was reported by all the usual suspects as focussing on 15% of all MI5 resources are devoted to Northern Ireland.

Then, 1 day later on Radio 4, the head of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde appears on the BiBiC mouthpiece, Radio 4 Today, proclaiming the need for unannounced special forces, just as the row over his secrecy erupted.

Then we have a senior NI politician claiming we are "staring into the abyss" !!!!!

Then 1 day later, we have an attack on an RE barracks to whom Sir Hugh referred as preferred targets because of their bomb disposal success.

Then, 2 days later we have an attack on a policeman, to whom Sir Hugh referred also.

But.

It struck me that I heard the row over Hugh Orde's secret deployment first.

Then we have a reaction.

Is that a feasible, possible, position to take ?

If you deploy then we'll deploy ?

Via undefinable proxies, as of old ?

I'm quite sorry that Nick Cooper has gone.

He represented, for me at least, the reasoned voice of dissent and therefore in my view, the sceptical lurkerissimus, the undecided without whom we couldn't reasonably argue and engage . . .

Hey ho.

Hopefully he'll be back.

Regrettable. imho.

[Frank Freedom]

Thank you for the links Mark Gobell and QuitTheirClogs
they are very much appreciated.

[TonyGosling]

I'm not sure if members of the public would be safe handing information over to the PSNI as they may be infiltratd by these types.
[GVideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0529161821[/GVideo]
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0529161821
If you were a member of the public who knew anything about these attacks a newspaper or Nationalist political party would be a safer bet.

Oh and by the way....
Important and useful discussions are happening here on the peaceful or otherwise future of a large chunk of our country.
Trivia will be hidden and culprits banned/suspended.

[paul wright]

Interesting stuff being posted
Here're some older links re Omagh
MI5 infiltrate Real IRA
Allegations of British collusion in Omagh bombing
Evidence that forced new Omagh inquiry
Ulster spies to blow MI5 cover

Oh yes the Stakeknife thing, MI5 relatively high up in the Provisional active Belfast command

I wonder, was it ever more than a rumour that Martin McGuinness always was, and presumably still is, an MI5 asset?

[Frank Freedom]

Thanks for that Paul Wright

Your information is irrepressible as ever.

[TonyGosling]

Unaccountable 'Securocrats' get exctly what they wanted.
Isn't this the British establishment simply renaging on the 'Good Friday Agreement' ??? But first the good news...

Thousands expected at peace rallies across Northern Ireland
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 886084.ece

MI5 strengthens counter-terrorism force after Northern Ireland killings
Louisa Peacock11 March 2009 10:10

MI5 is sending more staff with Irish counter-terrorism backgrounds to work at its headquarters in Holywood, County Down.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/news/int/s ... 991940.stm

The move comes after Northern Ireland security officials admitted there was a gap in their knowledge of the personnel and resources of dissident republican groups.

According to the Times, the government will increase the proportion of the budget spent on defeating Irish terrorist activities to meet the growing threat from the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, which claimed responsibility for killing two soldiers and a police officer in two separate attacks.

The current annual budget spent on counter-terrorist activities is thought to be about £300m, with 15% spent on operations against Irish terrorists.

Irish dissident groups have mounted 18 gun and bomb attacks since the beginning of last year. The troops were the first British soldiers to be killed in Northern Ireland in 12 years, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/ ... lings.html

...........The agency is initially recruiting IT and language staff to work at its new £20m Palace Barracks HQ in County Down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/news/int/s ... 991940.stm

However, advertisements for other posts, such as intelligence officers, will follow later in the year.

Advertisements for the IT and language posts will be placed in Northern Ireland's newspapers on Thursday and Friday.

The security services have secretly been recruiting staff and agents in Northern Ireland since 1970.

BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said: "The recruitment of agents and informers will continue to be a highly secret process - just as it has been for almost 40 years.

"That's hugely contentious, with nationalist politicians expressing concern about how a secret service can be held to public account for its actions."

[Mark Gobell]

Isn't this the British establishment simply reneging on the 'Good Friday Agreement' ???

Very interesting perspective.

Qui Bono ?

So far, the pundits have been focussing on the forcing of the Sinn Fein hand, to now publicly encourage the Republican community to do business with the PSNI aka Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Something that hitherto was certainly not policy.

It is now.

[TonyGosling]

Thousands rally for peace
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/s ... ce/3025787
Scroll down for the C4 News player

Here are the main policing provisions from the Good Friday Agreement.

• the police service is structured, managed and resourced so that it can be effective in discharging its full range of functions (including proposals on any necessary arrangements for the transition to policing in a normal peaceful society);
• the police service is delivered in constructive and inclusive partnerships with the community at all levels with the maximum delegation of authority and responsibility;
• the legislative and constitutional framework requires the impartial discharge of policing functions and conforms with internationally accepted norms in relation to policing standards;
• the police operate within a clear framework of accountability to the law and the community they serve, so:
• they are constrained by, accountable to and act only within the law;
• their powers and procedures, like the law they enforce, are clearly established and publicly available;
• there are open, accessible and independent means of investigating and adjudicating upon complaints against the police;
• there are clearly established arrangements enabling local people, and their political representatives, to articulate their views and concerns about policing and to establish publicly policing priorities and influence policing policies, subject to safeguards to ensure police impartiality and freedom from partisan political control;
• there are arrangements for accountability and for the effective, efficient and economic use of resources in achieving policing objectives;
• there are means to ensure independent professional scrutiny and inspection of the police service to ensure that proper professional standards are maintained;
• the scope for structured co-operation with the Garda Siochana and other police forces is addressed; and
• the management of public order events which can impose exceptional demands on policing resources is also addressed.

And the first specific Security provisions

SECURITY
1. The participants note that the development of a peaceful environment on the basis of this agreement can and should mean a normalisation of security arrangements and practices.
2. The British Government will make progress towards the objective of as early a return as possible to normal security arrangements in Northern Ireland, consistent with the level of threat and with a published overall strategy, dealing with:
(i) the reduction of the numbers and role of the Armed Forces deployed in Northern Ireland to levels compatible with a normal peaceful society;
(ii) the removal of security installations;
(iii) the removal of emergency powers in Northern Ireland; and
(iv) other measures appropriate to and compatible with a normal peaceful society.

http://www.nio.gov.uk/the-agreement
http://www.nio.gov.uk/agreement.pdf

Keith Byrne from 'We Are Change' Ireland and Alex Jones, perspective for what he's worth. Says armed guards stood down at the army barracks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMOoIwE6uJE[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMOoIwE6uJE

[TonyGosling]

Policeman's shooting 'was not murder', say dissidents
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 43075.html

In the face of the strong wave of condemnation that has followed the shooting by the CIRA, Richard Walsh, publicity director for Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), said: "It's inevitable that this was going to happen."

The authorities on both sides of the border view RSF as the CIRA's political mouthpiece. Mr Walsh has in the past rejected the description of previous gun attacks on police as murder attempts, saying: "There were simply a number of military engagements designed to kill them."

Asked if he stood by this description in relation to the death of Constable Stephen Carroll in Co Armagh, he replied: "I certainly don't recognise it as murder, no." And on the declaration of Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness that those who carried out the killing were "traitors to the island of Ireland", he responded: "Well, I think he'd need to look closer to home for who are the traitors, frankly........

[TonyGosling]

Check this out - the Special Reconnaisance Regiment have a somewhat Gladio Like shield. March 11, 2009
[Irish Republican News]
RE-MILITARISATION REVEALED

http://republican-news.org/current/news ... ealed.html
http://republican-news.org/current/news/
British Army special forces soldiers are back in the north of Ireland, according to PSNI Chief Hugh Orde.

Special British forces, such as the SAS, operated throughout the conflict and were responsible for multiple assassinations, shoot-to-kill ambushes and collusion with unionist paramilitaries.

Members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment have now returned at Orde’s request.

It is claimed that the soldiers will not be on the streets, but will work behind the scenes.

Despite the highly publicised end of ‘Operation Banner’ -- the British Army’s role in military operations in Ireland -- almost two years ago, several thousand British troops remain permanently stationed in the North.

Long-standing suspicions that Special forces were now working from the HQ of British military intelligence (MI5) in Holywood, Belfast, have now been confirmed.

Deputy First Minister and Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness has said it was the British Army’s forces that were a “major threat”.

He was responding to the comments of Hugh Orde, that the deployment was a response to an increased republican threat.

“The history of the north has shown that many of these forces have been as much a danger to the community as any other group,” said Mr McGuinness.

He said the decision was “stupid and dangerous” and “shaken his confidence” in the PSNI chief. Sinn Fein has raised the matter with the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Yesterday [Thursday], there was anger among nationalist members of the Policing Board after it appeared that the board had been deceived by PSNI chief.

The SDLP said the decision to send in the regiment “raises the issue of who is in control”.

“At lunchtime on Thursday, the PSNI were telling the Policing Board the British Army would not be deployed save for bomb squad support,” said a statement.

“But by teatime we learn that British Army recon units are deployed.

“There is an immediate issue of who made this decision, when it was made and what the PSNI did not know or knew and did not tell the Policing Board.”

But the DUP backed the deployment of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, and said it was a national [British] security issue and not a matter for the local population.

The announcement of the return of special forces followed the declaration by Orde that the “threat level” in the North was “severe” -- to mean he is expecting increased activity by republican armed groups.

Republicans viewed the statement, as well as an announcement of an increased deployment of British bomb-disposal teams, as disingenuous and propogandistic.

The statements were also linked by nationalists to efforts by so-called ‘securocrats’ to justify continued high expenditures in the face of mounting financial pressure.

Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey said reports of a raised threat level suggested elements of the Crown forces were attempting to talk up the ‘dissident’ threat to justify more hardline policing and remilitarisation.

“For me there is clearly not a lot of substance to that, it’s a play on words and it’s giving fear to the public,” he said, warning against an agenda of ‘slipping back to the bad old ways’.

“Like many others, I was a victim of so-called British Special Forces, who colluded with Unionist Murder Gangs in attempts to murder me and my family. There can be no place for these types of groups within any civic and non-political policing service.”

Republican Sinn Fein said the move confirmed that the previous announcement of the end of ‘Operation Banner’ was meaningless.

“Alex Maskey cannot feign indignation about the return of these malign forces, given his party’s open and unambivalent support for those who have made this decision,” a spokesman said.

“For British prime minister Gordon Brown to say in Washington that ‘Ireland is now at peace’ is but a fairy tale.

“British troops never left the Occupied Six Counties and now reinforcements are arriving to shore up Unionist and British interest to the detriment of Irish interests and Irish freedom.”

I'm not sure if members of the public would be safe handing information over to the PSNI as they may be infiltratd by these types.
[GVideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0529161821[/GVideo]
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0529161821
If you were a member of the public who knew anything about these attacks a newspaper or Nationalist political party would be a safer bet.

[paul wright]

The SAS, their early days in Ireland and the Wilson Plot
Seán Mac Mathúna



INTRODUCTION
The original version of this article was first published in Lobster 18, in 1989 (pp19-21), under the pseudonym of Alexander Platow. It was a review of a book called Ambush: the war between the SAS and the IRA by three Sunday Times journalists James Adams, Robin Morgan and Anthony Bambridge (Pan, London 1988). Since it appeared over ten years ago, the allegations of collusion between the British army, the RUC and the Loyalist paramilitary groups persist, notably after the murders of the only two lawyers to have been killed during the conflict - Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson. Moreover, since the signing of the Good Friday agreement, Loyalist paramilitary groups have since killed the majority of people in their attempt to undermine the Irish policies and peace settlement of Tony Blair's goverment in Britain. As both MI5 and the Loyalist paramilitries were involved in the undermining of the ceasefires in 1972 and 1975, many onlookers suspect that the recent violence in Ireland is a repeat of this - the aim being the same as what is was then in 1974 - the sabotaging of any peaceful resoluion of the Irish question.
In 1974 MI5 and the Loyalists succeded in bringing down the Power Sharing Executive, and they colluded - as we now know - together in the attack on Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974 - two days after the Ulster workers Strike was declared - which killed 33 civilians. Today, this act of state terrorism by Britain against the Irish Republic - largely ignored and uninvestigated by the media - remains the largest loss of life from any bombing in the last 26 years of conflict in Ireland. In April 1999 it was reported that the Garda Special Branch were looking at fresh claims by a former member of the RUC that British military intelligence and the UDR were involved in the bombing. Apparently, it was long thought in the South that the UVF - who claimed responsibility for the attacks - were incapable of carrying out such a co-ordinated strike. Within a week of the bombings in 1974, the Gardai had drawn up a list of suspects which included UVF members from Portadown as well as members of the British army and RUC Special Branch in the North. It is claimed that British intelligence agents supplied the explosives, and the home of an RUC officer was used to assemble the bombs.
The destruction by MI5 and the Loyalist paramiltries of the Power Sharing Executive and the 1975 ceasefire condemned Ireland to another 20 years of bloody conflict. The collusion by elements of the British security forces with the Loyalist paramilitries remains - as it was in the 1970's - the biggest threat to a peacefull settlement of the war in Ireland.
Following the Gibralter shootings, The Sunday Times "Insight" team lead the campaign to discredit eyewitness accounts of how the SAS killed the IRA unit. (1) Ambush is their account of the shootings and SAS operations in Northern Ireland, and claims to be the "first detailed account of the truth behind the headlines." In his review of the Gibralter section of the book, Paul Foot described the authors as devoted to "single-mindedly, and without for a moment being diverted, to publicising the view of the government and the SAS". (2) To understand Gibralter, and similar events at Omagh in August 1988, (when three members of the IRA were killed just before the Gibralter inquest) and at Loughall, in May 1987, when eight members of the IRA (and one civilian) were killed by the SAS, it is necessary to look at the role of the SAS, and the type of operations they have carried out in Northern Ireland.

Formed to perform acts of sabotage and assassination behind enemy lines during during World War 2, the SAS evolved into a counter-insurgency regiment after the war. The 1969 Army Training manual stated that their tasks included:

"the ambush and harassment of insurgents, the infiltration of sabotage, assassination and demolition parties into insurgent-held areas, border surveillance, . . . liaison with, and organisation of friendly guerrilla forces operating against the common enemy". (3)
Examples were found during the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya during the mid-fifties, when SAS officers commanded some of the infamous "pseudo gangs" that terrorised the civilian population; (4) in Borneo, where they used cross-border operations to attack and destroy guerrilla bases; (5) and in Aden in 1967, where they dressed as Arabs and would use an Army officer to lure Arab gunmen into a trap and kill them. (6) To defeat the insurgents counter-terror must be deployed back at them - described by Ken Livingstone as "subverting the subverters". (7) Little indication of this is found in Ambush. But in Fred Holroyd, we have a witness, and evidence that these tactics were used in Northern Ireland during the period of the Wilson government in the 1970's. Here are the origins of the so-called "shoot-to-kill" policy that John Stalker (and others) investigated, whose inquiry was effectively sabotaged by the RUC.

Covert operations began in Northern Ireland following the failure of internment to suppress the IRA. Psychological warfare, including the use of black propaganda, an integral part of counter-insurgency operations, emerged in 1971 with the creation of Information Policy. In early 1972 the Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF) was created. Military chiefs wanted a unit to combine "intelligence gathering" with "aggressive patrolling" within the Republican areas. (8) The SAS had been sent to Northern Ireland in 1969 (9), and by 1972, with the MRF, they were taking part in some of the first covert operations against the IRA. In Ambush, however, the authors claim that when Harold Wilson dispatched SAS soldiers to South Armagh in 1976, they "had never been deployed against terrorists at home". To explain covert operations which occurred before 1976 the authors produce an undercover unit "14th Intelligence", whose existence, they claim, "has remained secret until revealed to the authors during their research"

14th Int. was allegedly formed in 1972 when the Army established its own "secret intelligence gathering unit known as NITAT (Northern Ireland Training Team) . . . this evolved into a more specialised covert unit given the cover name of 14th Int." The authors don't mention that it's common for the SAS to be deployed as "training teams" in politically sensitive situations. Under this disguise SAS units have been sent to Oman, Zimbabwe, Brunei and Kuwait. (10) The MRF and "14th Int." appear to be one and the same unit. Not mentioned in Ambush, the MRF was also formed in 1972, and has been described as the best example of a pseudo-gang in Northern Ireland. Trained by the SAS, it was organised on a cell basis, and contained a "sizeable contingent" from the SAS. (11) A number of former and serving members of the IRA also took part in MRF operations. (12) According to Ambush, the alleged 14th Intelligence was trained by the SAS and used "SAS methods".

During the 1972 ceasefire the MRF shot civilians from unmarked cars using IRA weapons. In November 1972 the Army admitted that the MRF had done this one three occasions. (13) One of these incidents happened on 22nd June 1972 - the day the IRA announced its intention to introduce a ceasefire. (14) The shootings appear to have been done to discredit the IRA and, like the later Miami Showband murders, provoke sectarian killings.

SAS involvement was also alleged in two car-bombs that exploded in Dublin on 1st December 1972, killing two civilians. This happened just before a vote in the Irish Parliament on a repressive amendment to anti-terrorist legislation. The law was passed and the IRA was blamed for the explosions. They denied responsibility and pointed the finger at British Intelligence. The Irish Justice Minister later denied that a report had been compiled implicating the SAS. (15) In the same month, David Seaman claimed at a press conference in Dublin that he was a member of an SAS unit that was detailed to cause explosions to discredit the IRA. He was soon found shot in the head, his assassins were never found. (16)

During the mid 1970"s another cover name for the SAS was "Four Field Survey Troop, Royal Engineers", introduced in 1973 and abandoned in 1975. Fred Holroyd says this was an SAS unit under cover at the Royal Engineers' base at Castledillon, Armagh. Like the authors of Ambush, the Royal Engineers were told that it was a NITAT (Northern Ireland Training and Tactics Team). Holroyd, who worked with them, says its personnel were "former, serving or recently trained" SAS soldiers, who were commanded by infantry officers attached to the SAS. (17) One of these was Captain Robert Nairac, described in Ambush as "seconded to 14th Intelligence".

The Gibralter section of this book has already been described as a "whitewash". (18) Here emerges another on Nairac. The book's lack of references, the absence of Holroyd, and the production of "14th Intelligence" certainly indicates this. Who are we to believe? The journalists who helped cover-up the Gibralter shootings or Holroyd, who from 1974 to 1976 worked with the SAS in South Armagh as a member of the Special Military Intelligence Unit? According to Ambush, "to this day, it is suggested that Nairac was an SAS man quietly assassinating IRA terrorists". It certainly has been alleged, by Fred Holroyd, that with two Loyalist gunmen Nairac shot a member of the IRA, John Francis Green, at a farmhouse in the Irish Republic on 10th January 1975 - the day after the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees rejected ceasefire negotiations with the IRA. (19) The IRA cited this incident as bringing to a temporary halt the ceasefire on January 16th 1975.(20) The two Loyalists, members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), may also have taken part in the murder of the Miami Showband on 21st July 1975. The two murders have been linked by forensic evidence - ignored by Ambush - which proves the same two pistols were used in both murders. (21)

Despite the evidence implicating Nairac, the authors try to exonerate him. Dealing with him in a chapter titled "Mavericks", they describe him as an "enthusiastic and intelligent officer with an overly romantic view of combating terrorism. He enjoyed the idea of mingling with the locals playing the role of a dashing undercover warrior". Fred Holroyd almost gets mentioned when the authors say that Nairac's name "surfaced" in 1984, though they fail to inform the reader that this was actually when Holroyd first spoke to the media, via Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman. (22)

Ambush says Nairac "boasted" of killing Green and predictably describes Ken Livingston's claims about Nairac in his maiden speech to Parliament as "unsubstantiated". But if Nairac says he killed Green, why say otherwise? Holroyd says that the RUC will not return the colour Polaroid photograph of Green's dead body which Nairac took just after he killed him - and showed to him the next day as proof of the kill. Ambush however claims "it is true that Nairac had a picture of Green's dead body, but this was obtained from a contact in the RUC, who in turn obtained it from the Irish police." This cannot be true: the Gardai did then not use colour Polaroid cameras in their murder investigations at the time. (23) In fact, this section of Ambush is a rerun of the material first put out in The Independent against Holroyd in 1987, having been rejected at the time by The Sunday Times).

The authors also get their facts wrong over the Miami Showband murders: "Nairac boasted how he went over the border in the shooting of the Miami Showband". But the incident happened in South Armagh and not in the Irish Republic as is implied. And again, if Nairac boasted he was involved, why dispute it? The Miami Showband was a Catholic rock band committed to bringing peace between the two communities. Their bus was stopped by seven UVF men wearing the uniforms of the Ulster Defence Regiment. Fred Holroyd believes the uniforms were supplied by the RUC Special Branch. (24) They took the band off the bus and then attempted to plant a bomb on it. It exploded prematurely, killing two of the UVF men. The rest of the band, then lined up against the side of the road, were then shot. Merlyn Rees confirmed to Ken Livingstone that Nairac bad supplied the guns and the explosives to the UVF unit. (25) Nairac is also alleged to have booby-trapped the bomb. (26) Two members of the UDR were later jailed for the murders.

The peak period of the MI5 plot against Wilson's Labour government provides the best opportunity to investigate the origins of what Ambush calls "the shoot to kill legend" and SAS involvement in "dirty tricks" operations. As soon as Labour won the February 1974 election, MI5 began destabilising Prime Minister Harold Wilson and his policies in Northern Ireland. In May 1974, the Power-sharing Executive was brought down by the Ulster Workers' Council strike - with the help of MI5 and the Loyalist paramilitaries. Two days into the strike, Loyalist paramilitaries exploded car-bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, without warning, during the evening rush-hour, killing 33 civilians - 26 in Dublin and 7 in Monaghan. To date, these bombings led to the largest loss of life in the conflict over the last 26 years. At a press conference in Dublin in March 1989 (at which Fred Holroyd was invited to speak), Irish journalist Frank Doherty noted that the bombings happened during the high-point of efforts by MI5 to bring down the Power-sharing Executive. He also said that he had been told in 1974, by a former British soldier, Albert "Ginger" Baker (also a member of the MRF), that the bombings were "definitely an Intelligence job" Baker had a been a member of the Loyalist unit that had carried out the bombings, and Doherty claimed that it was a pseudo gang formed as a front by British Intelligence. (27) (In Ken Livingstone's recent book Livingstone's Labour, there is the transcript of an interview Livingstone conducted with Baker).

As the MI5 campaign against Wilson intensified, so did the Army's "dirty tricks" operations in Ireland. In 1975, with Loyalist paramilitries and the SAS unit at Castledillon, MI5 helped undermine the ceasefire. Loyalist killings of civilians increased from 87 in 1974, to 96 in 1975, to a peak of 110 in 1976.(28) The truce with the IRA had been secretly negotiated by MI6 in the aftermath of the Birmingham pub bombings. Ambush has scant details of this, although it confirms that the Army were "furious" with the secret talks with the IRA, believing that they had the IRA "on the run". Colin Wallace confirmed in 1980 that MI5 officers in Northern Ireland not only objected to Wilson being Prime Minister, but to his Irish policies. (29)

Enmershed in these events was the intense conflict between MI5 and MI6 for control of the intelligence war in Ireland. MI5 wanted an escalation of the war against the IRA: MI6 were working for a political solution with Wilson's government. In 1975 MI5 took overall control of the Intelligence situation and began "to replace those . . . in key posts with others with total loyalty to them . . . it became clear that MI5 were trying to get SIS (MI6) removed from the province - this they had almost achieved by late 1976." (30) In 1974, says Wallace, MI5 were already trying to get the Special Military Intelligence Unit replaced by the SAS. However this was a "total disaster" as the SAS had little experience of Northern Ireland- type operations. According to Holroyd, who had been working with MI6, MI5 were "eager for a quick success and brought in a bunch of ruthless SAS blokes". (31) MI6 "lost control to MI5 and the SAS, who wanted a more aggressive policy linked with the Protestant extremist groups these groups sabotaged many of the operations which MI6 and the Army had carefully built up". (32)

The Miami Showband murders were the catalyst for the 1975 ceasefire to end in a sectarian bloodbath. According to Ambush after the killings:

"there was little doubt that the IRA would retaliate . . . and they did, by blowing up a Belfast bar killing five people. The conflict then degenerated into a series of increasingly violent attacks on the community."
But as Livingstone said in his maiden speech:

"If one wanted to find a way of ending the ceasefire . . . what better way to do that than to encourage random sectarian killings?" (33)
By the end of November 1975, fuelled by a feud between the (then) two factions of the IRA, over 40 civilians had been killed. (34) As the truce finished in October 1975, the bombing campaign in England was stepped up by the IRA unit captured at Balcombe Street on 6th December 1975. Although initially the IRA cell had been told that "the principal aim was not to kill" in the "bitterness after the end of the six months ceasefire in 1975, the orders from Dublin switched to killing. " (35) In a series of attacks the unit killed seven civilians.

During the term of the last Labour Government, the killing of civilians by Loyalist paramilitaries reached death-squad proportions. From 1974-1979 they killed 330 civilians, 293 during the years 1974-76 the vast majority of them Catholics. (36) They were not operating alone. In South Armagh, "one specific Special Branch officer handled loyalist terrorist affairs the covert SAS troop based at Castledillon were operating hand in glove with this officer. This was at a time when murders and political assassinations became rampant. " (37) Referring to "Four Field Survey Troop" Holroyd says: "Many individuals and organisations were claiming that both Catholic and Protestant were being murdered (but) the government were claiming that no SAS were in the province. SAS by any other name ?" (38)

The destabilisation climaxed in January 1976. On the 4th January the Protestant Action Force (PAF) killed five Catholics in South Armagh. The next day the IRA took ten Protestants off a bus at Whitecross, South Armagh, and killed them, claiming later that they had acted to stop the Loyalist murders. (39) Selective as ever, Ambush refers to only to the latter incident. But something else had been achieved. On January 7th 1976 Harold Wilson announced that an extra 150 SAS soldiers would be sent to Armagh. It was the end of the secret SAS campaign in Oman in October 1975 which released the extra SAS units for Armagh, who were flown in "only days before" Wilson's announcement. (40)

Ambush says "exactly who thought of sending the SAS is not known Wilson, who knew very little about the Regiment, seized on the plan". By March 1976 the SAS had begun a series of covert operations aimed at disrupting the IRA command structure in South Armagh. On 12th March 1976 they abducted a member of the IRA, Sean McKenna, from his house in the Irish Republic. Ambush says he was lucky: "It would have been easier, and have a greater psychological effect to shoot him . . . but the SAS did not . . . terrorists considered armed and dangerous were shot . . . those known to be unarmed and compliant were arrested . . ." (McKenna was later jailed and died on hunger-strike.)

On 15th April the SAS shot another member of the IRA, Peter Cleary. He also lived in the Irish Republic, and one night crossed the border to see his fiancé. However, he was on the Army wanted list, and the SAS were watching her house. After he arrived they broke in and, according to Ambush, told her, "There won't be no wedding now". Cleary was taken outside where one eyewitness says he was stripped and beaten, then dragged unconscious to a nearby field, where, moments later, three shots were heard. Ambush repeats the SAS story that he had tried to escape and had died in the struggle.

On 1st May the body of Seamus Ludlow was found in a ditch in the Irish Republic. Local people on both sides of the border believed the SAS had intended to kill and IRA explosives expert but had shot the wrong person. (41) Careful only to deal with Ludlow's death, Ambush blames it on the IRA, describing him as an "informer for British intelligence"- something the IRA have never claimed. Three days after his death a heavily armed eight-man SAS unit was arrested in the Irish Republic, south of Armagh.

Ambush says that the first year of SAS operations in Armagh closed with "some notable successes . . . the attack on Clearly . . . and the abduction of McKenna, served as a clear warning to the IRA that a different kind of war was being fought . . . In simpler terms, an indication of this was given to The Times just before Wilson sent the SAS in: "They will be told to do what the

Army has failed to do - kill terrorists". (42) This attitude was acknowledged by an anonymous SAS officer who told The Guardian in late 1976: "We were all very enthusiastic about going and wasting a few of the IRA." (43)

After a protracted disinformation campaign against him, Harold Wilson resigned in March 1976. His departure brought new faces to the top military and political positions in Northern Ireland. Merlyn Rees was replaced by Roy Mason and in 1977 a new Army Commander was appointed, General Timothy Creasy.

They had met in Oman, Mason as Defence Secretary, and Creasy as Commander of the Sultan of Oman's mercenary army, staffed by SAS officers. After Wilson's resignation and the development of a new military strategy against the IRA - backed up by the process of "Ulsterisation", the Loyalist murders dropped of, from 110 in 1976 to 19 in 1977, 6 in 1978 and 12 in 1979.(44)

On December 12th 1977 Colin McNutt (a member of the Irish Republican Socialist Party) was shot. Ambush attributes his death to "14th Intelligence". On June 21st 1978 the SAS ambushed a van carrying a bomb and three members of the IRA in Belfast. The occupants of the van, and one civilian passer-by were killed in a barrage of over 200 rounds (one IRA member was hit by 63 bullets). In 1978 the deaths of six IRA members and four civilians, including a 16-year old, John Boyle, were attributed to the SAS.

Ambush deals with his death in some detail but fails to report the fudge's summing up at the trail of two SAS soldiers charged with his murder in 1979: "Probably they did act correctly, given that SAS men are - as is widely known - allowed to shoot to kill and ask questions later". (45) The SAS men were acquitted.

Ambush talks of a "fog of confusion" hanging over SAS operations in Ireland. With books like this it is hardly a surprise. The book "sets out to answer" the question of what the SAS have been doing there but contributes mostly disinformation. Ignoring completely the testimony of Fred Holroyd, the authors offer the hitherto unknown "14th Intelligence" as the explanation for the SAS unit at Castledillon in the mid-70's before the SAS were officially sent to Ireland. In fact, contacts of Wallace and Holroyd's in the MOD have confirmed that 14th Intelligence was created in the early 1980's.

The evidence suggests that what has become known as the shoot-to-kill policy - a euphemism for routine SAS counter-insurgency activities - which has claimed almost fifty lives since 1975, evolved out of the campaign of counter-terror that MI5 and the SAS used to destabilise the Wilson government's policies in Ireland.

Attempts to investigate this have proved fruitless. John Stalker's investigation led back to the allegations of Holroyd and he was quickly moved to one side. Holroyd notes that Stalker's downfall came after he and Colin Wallace had sent their file of allegations and evidence to Mrs Thatcher in 1984. After which "two events took place the was was the Government's robust attempt to stop Spycatcher the second was the attack on the integrity of John Stalker, both of whom were dealing in areas mentioned in the file (46).

It is clear now, that because elements within the security forces did not want a political deal with the IRA in the mid-seventies, and the military solution was only possible with a change at the top of the Labour leadership, MI5 and the SAS were prepared to use the same methods the IRA are condemned for - civilian deaths, assassinations, bombings and black propaganda - to bring this about. In the last twenty years before the current IRA ceasefire, the only two attempts to find a ceasefire have been undermined by these methods. From the mid-seventies to the killings in Armagh in 1982 (by the SAS-trained RUC E4A units), Loughall, Gibralter and Omagh, there is strong evidence that the SAS have operated a shoot-to-kill policy, and engaged in a variety of covets and illegal acts. Ambush was written to show otherwise but merely succeeds in re-emphasing the need for a book documenting the twenty years of British state and Loyalist dirty tricks, covert operations and assassinations.


http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/dirty_w ... reland.htm


http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/c ... t_srr.html
http://www.declarepeace.org.uk/captain/ ... ratos.html

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Wasn't Gerry Adams a barman and Martin MgGuinness a butcher's boy when they joined IRA at 16 years old?

Could be that this is genuine Republian splinter sentiment. Expressing anger with Adams over letting Special forces back in? Good to see the private security at the army base have been sacked.

Especially significant is the Craigavon shooting of the Catholic policeman. Aimed at stopping Catholics joining the PSNI.


Or is the Real IRA an Intelligence Front? This stuff in the \Guardian is total rubbish planted for political gain, to slip the compromised, previously banished, intelligence people back in, I'd say.

Police race to stop Real IRA bomb plot
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/1 ... ernireland

A British army agent who infiltrated the South Armagh IRA for the secretive Force Research Unit predicted that the current dissident campaign could survive even without any major support base within the republican community.

The agent, known as Kevin Fulton, said today there was an intelligence gap regarding the dissidents because the British government "dismantled the security apparatus that was in place in Northern Ireland".

[fish5133]

Rob Lewis in his book Fishers of Men Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-75071-5. tells of his experiences in an ultra-secret special force unit known as the Force Resource Unit. It was at the time 1970/s 1980s the British Armys most clandestine unit. It was an outfit so secret that the rest of the army were unaware of its existance. He was involved in covert surveillance and later as an agent handler dealing with informants

Only mentioned in case anyone interested in reading that sort of thing.

[TonyGosling]

Is Colin Duffy the 'fall guy'?
From the Republican News service

Colin Duffy arrested

Eirigi spokesman Colin Duffy has been arrested by the PSNI police
following a series of early morning raids across the North of Ireland.

PSNI teams in forensic suits have been searching Mr Duffy's house in a
private estate in Lurgan, County Armagh.

Two other men have also been arrested in Lurgan and Bellaghy, County
Derry, in connection with the 'Real IRA' attack on Massereene Army base
last Saturday.

Local republican youths clashed with PSNI personnel deployed to the
area.

Mr Duffy is a prominent republican in the area and has endured a
lifetime of RUC/PSNI arrests and harassment.

Mr Duffy was released from prison in 1996 when a conviction for murder
was quashed by the Appeal Court following three years of false
imprisonment,

The prosecution case collapsed when it was revealled that their key
witness, screened from view during the trial, was a loyalist gunrunner.

He was the most prominent client of human rights lawyer, Rosemary
Nelson, who was assassinated in 1999 by a unionist death squad. The
RUC/PSNI is widely believed to have colluded in the killing, currently
the subject of a public inquiry.

The arrest of Mr Duffy is being viewed as part of a potential
'securocrat' backlash against republican hardliners in the wake of last
week's attacks, in which two British soldiers and a PSNI man was
killed.

A massive operation is currently underway by British forces in the
north Armagh area. A total of six men have so far been arrested in the
raids. and further disturbances are expected.

Meanwhile, the political group connected to the 'Real IRA' has warned
that "if the conflict in Ireland is to end once and for all, so too
must the illegal British claim to sovereignty over the Six Counties.

32 CSM STATEMENT

A statement on the 32-County Sovereignty Movement website said that the
"so called peace process" had failed to openly address the central core
issue of conflict, and was "the reason for its failure now".

"Attempts to cocoon the problem in a puppet British Assembly arguing
along sectarian lines are doomed to failure.

"From the outset of this process the British government have moved to
defend their illegal sovereign claim to Irelands territory.

"This was evident when they made it an absolute pre-condition that the
entry fee into negotiations was the acceptance of a partitionist
outcome.

"Once republican leaders acquiesced to this British demand the
republican project within that process was doomed."

APPEAL FOR DIALOGUE

Amid fears of a resurgence of "political policing", former north
Belfast priest Father Aidan Troy said yesterday that the possibility of
dialogue with republicans "must be explored".

"What I was saying was, could an extra step be taken to prevent future
loss of life?" he said.

"If a channel can be opened, then it has to be opened, not to say to
them maybe you have a point. No, to say this is absolutely,
unconditionally wrong."

"I was asking from a point of view of a church response, was there any
possibility of us saying to these people, there is absolutely no future
in this and nobody wants it."

Fr Troy, who is now working in a parish in Paris, said it had crossed
his mind that the killings in recent days were "almost like what had
gone on so often in the past".

"There isn't going to be any appeasement in this approach but if it
saves one other grieving family, and even if people were to pour scorn
on me today, I don't mind that," he said.

"But supposing we prevented one more policeman or policewoman being
shot, one more soldier not being shot or one civilian being shot, then
I think it is worth exploring it."


IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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Regular: US$40 (Stg22, Euro28)
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This can be paid online with a credit or debit card at
http://republican-news.org/subs

[TonyGosling]

Gerry Adams says IRA killings 'should not be exaggerated' as he calls for British Forces to stay out of Ireland

By Niall Firth
Last updated at 11:45 AM on 17th March 2009

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has renewed his attack on the use of British Special Forces in Northern Ireland following the three brutal murders in the province last week.

Speaking in Washington, Mr Adams today claimed that it was the use of British troops to track down the dissident IRA murderers that 'could undermine the peace process'.

Last week, two British soldiers and a policeman were killed in shootings which brought the spectre of sectarian violence back to Northern Ireland.

But in words certain to anger those mourning last week's killings, Mr Adams claimed that 'it was important we don't exaggerate what occurred'.
Gerry Adams speaks at the National Press Club in Washington this morning where he hit out at plans to bring British Special Forces back to Northern Ireland

Gerry Adams speaks at the National Press Club in Washington this morning where he hit out at plans to bring British Special Forces back to Northern Ireland

Speaking about the recent murders in Northern Ireland, Mr Adams said: 'It's important that we don't minimise what occurred, but we don't exaggerate what occurred.'

His comments come in the wake of widespread criticism after he made a rather calculated response to the soldiers' murders 14 hours after the attacks occurred.

Mr Adams said that the use of Special Forces would be 'a return to the bad practices of the past'.

Mr Adams was visiting the U.S for St Patrick's Day celebrations where he called the recent attacks 'a full frontal assault on the peace process.'

Adams said that the vast majority of the people in Northern Ireland reject recent violence and support the peace process.

He said that the splinter groups were a 'very, very small group of people' who lacked popular support.

'Everyone has a responsibility to defend the peace,' he said. 'There can be no going back, there is no turning back. The only way to go is forward'

Last week, Mr Adams said that police chief Sir Hugh Orde had made a 'mistake' in bringing in specialist British troops to deal with the growing threat of dissident republican terrorists.

His latest inflammatory words come as Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers are preparing to meet US president Barack Obama in Washington today.

Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden are also on the schedule at the end of a trip delayed by political violence.

In Ireland, a St Patrick's Day parade planned for Lurgan, close to where Pc Stephen Carroll was shot, has been cancelled amid the continuing tensions.

Sappers Mark Quinsey and Pat Azimkar and PC Stephen Carroll were all murdered by IRA dissidents last week

First minister Peter Robinson and his deputy Martin McGuinness have been advocating Northern Ireland business opportunities.

They met industry chiefs and decision makers in Chicago, California, New York and Washington DC after an upsurge in dissident republican violence and amid an economic slump.

Today, the ministers will host a breakfast at the Northern Ireland Bureau involving political and business leaders like Senator Chris Dodd.

Later they visit the National Security Council where they are expected to meet Mr Obama, then attend a speaker's lunch on Capitol Hill including senators and congressmen.

They hold a meeting in the State Department with Mrs Clinton then continue to a White House reception in the evening where the president and his deputy are expected to welcome them.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... eland.html

[Chi_of_life]

Covert army unit played role in Menezes killing

Anti-terror troops deployed in Northern Ireland present at Tube shooting

* Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
* The Observer, Sunday 8 March 2009
* Article history

A controversial covert British Army unit that has been deployed in Northern Ireland to counter dissident republican terrorists was involved in the security operation that ended in the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, sources have revealed.

Soldiers of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment were present in London in July 2005 on the day Scotland Yard firearms specialists shot dead the innocent Brazilian at Stockwell underground station, believing he was a terrorist.

The Observer Sunday 8th March 2009

Interesting.

[TonyGosling]

As not heard on the BBC. British Military Intelligence move in. Then the trouble starts.
>>>>>> Flash: Disorder in Belfast & Armagh
Belfast and other towns in the north of Ireland were plunged into chaos tonight following dozens of co-ordinated bomb alerts and other disturbances.

N. Ireland police question nine over terrorist killings
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Ire ... story.html

Roads have been closed across Belfast with vehicles abandoned close to PSNI police bases in the north and west of the city, officers said.

There is also disruption in north Armagh, where there has been unrest following a heavy police crackdown in the area.

The M1 motorway was shut close to the intersection with Lurgan, County Armagh, due to an abandoned hijacked vehicle.

Two cars were hijacked and set alight in the nationalist Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan. The nearby Dublin-Belfast railway line has been repeatedly closed as a result of trouble in the area in recent days.

Other incidents included the closure of North Queen Street close to the city centre because of an abandoned vehicle near the PSNI base and the closure of Hillview Road in the Oldpark area due to an alert.

Tennant Street, Blacks Roads, Stewartstown Road, Andersonstown Road and Upper Newtownards Road in the city were all closed for a period. following alerts at bases in Tennant Street and Woodbourne.

A lorry wa hijacked and set on fire on Upper Springfield Road, and a van which was burnt out close to Holy Cross church on the Crumlin Road in Belfast also caused disruption.

Sinn Fein Assembly member for North Belfast, Caral Ni Chuilin, blamed dissidents for the trouble. She said rival republicans had "no strategy".

"These actions are wrong and counterproductive to anything that our communities want," she added.

"I would like the spokespeople of those behind these alerts to come forward and explain how this will in any way achieve a united Ireland."