Collusion Claims Vindicated – Ó BRÁDAIGH

international | miscellaneous | press release Monday January 22, 2007 19:41 by Seán Ó Murchú - Sinn Féin Poblachtach - Cork

IN a report issued on January 22 Nuala O’Loan, British Police Ombudsman in the Six Occupied Counties identified police, CID and Special Branch collusion with loyalist death squads under 31 separate headings, in her report on the murder of Raymond McCord and other matters.

The report, which centred on a single man, referred to as Informant 1, identified at least ten murders and ten other attempted murders in which he is, or was, a suspect.
Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan said in her conclusions that there was no reason to believe that the findings of the investigation were isolated.

She said there was evidence that information was withheld by handlers, and instructions were given that matters should not be recorded. She also stated that many senior and retired officers declined or refused to assist the inquiry.

Raymond McCord jnr died on November 9, 1997. His father, also Raymond, pursued the matter of his son's death ever since, and it was his complaint to Mrs O'Loan's office in 2002 that set this inquiry in train.

The report covers that murder, and nine others: Peter McTasney (February 24, 1991), Sharon McKenna (January 17, 1993), Seán McParland (attacked February 17, 1994, died February 25, 1994), Gary Convie and Éamon Fox (May 17, 1994), Gerald Brady (June 17, 1994), Thomas Sheppard (March 21, 1996), John Harbinson (May 18, 1997) and Thomas English (October 31, 2000).

The inquiry further discovered evidence linking Informant 1 and his associates with ten punishment shootings, 13 punishment attacks, a bomb attack in Monaghan, 17 instances of drug dealing and additional criminality including extortion and intimidation.

Investigators also identified less significant intelligence which linked Informant 1 and other informants to an additional five murders and a long list of other crimes.

In a statement Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, (Republican) Sinn Féin Poblachtach said the police Ombudsman’s report deals almost entirely with post-Provo and loyalist ceasefire killings in one small area of north Belfast. “What of the previous 25 years and the rest of the Six Counties?

“This report bears out what Republican Sinn Féin has been saying for decades. It is only in the recent past that Leinster House politicians through the Joint-Oireachtas Committee have investigated such collusion and have agreed with the Republican accounts of British forces collusion with loyalist death squads.

“The O’Loan Report admits that the collusion went right to the top of the RUC/PSNI. Three Assistant Chief Constables and a number of Chief Superintendents have been involved.

“It is also admitted that Special Branch officers who ran British government licensed assassins are still in the PSNI/RUC. Yet the British supremo, Peter Hain, has dismissed such murder and mayhem as ‘in the past’.

“With regard to the future, it has been officially stated that the MI5 will be responsible for intelligence gathering on Republicans and will, presumably, be employing informers.

“The MI5 will not, we have been told, be subject to investigation by the Ombudsman’s office. Accordingly, the way is open for a recurrence of collusion, murder and related crimes.

“In addition it must be remembered that this office is a British government created institution and therefore under British control, which was no restraint in the past.

“Raymond McCord is to be congratulated on his persistence in seeking the publication of the facts of his son’s murder.

“But what of the deaths in a similar fashion of over 1,000 innocent and uninvolved nationalists and several hundred unionist civilian non-combatants at the hands of such death squads? There is still a dark, murky past to be revealed.”