Unionist fury at Stormont Special Branch spy-plant

by **emad** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:47 pm

Unionists in Northern Ireland have called for a public inquiry after an expelled Sinn Fein official admitted he was a British agent. Denis Donaldson said allegations of an IRA spy ring which led to the collapse of power-sharing had been "a scam and a fiction" invented by UK intelligence. Last week he was one of three men cleared of gathering intelligence for the IRA at Stormont. The DUP has said Tony Blair should make a Commons statement on the subject. DUP MEP Jim Allister said the prime minister must be prepared to give answers. "The prime minister is the ultimate head of security. He must, therefore, know that Donaldson was an agent," he said. "If the prosecution was abandoned because Donaldson was an agent, the prime minister knows that is the reason. "Yet in the House of Commons he went on record to say he had no idea why this prosecution was abandoned. Well, was he being economical with the truth? I think he has some explaining to do." Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said a "British spy ring" had been operating at Stormont. "What we believe was going on was a spy ring at Stormont with the purposes of collapsing the institutions established under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement," he told the BBC's Inside Politics programme. He said republicans would not be surprised at "yet another episode in the dirty war of the British security services". However, former UUP leader David Trimble, who was Northern Ireland's first minister when the three men were arrested in October 2002, rejected claims the affair had been engineered by British intelligence. "There is a spin going on here and the spin is going on because actually it's the republican movement that's in a crisis today," he told the BBC's Today programme on Saturday. "They have discovered that a person who was in a very senior level within Sinn Fein in fact was operating as a agent for over 20 years." UUP leader Sir Reg Empey said people had a right to know what had happened. "The very least the prime minister and the Northern Ireland secretary can do is to hold a public inquiry," he said. "Huge amounts of tax payers' money has been spent relocating prison officers and others and I think tax payers are entitled to know why that money was spent and we are also entitled to know what actually happened." Mr Donaldson was expelled from Sinn Fein on Friday, and later said he had been recruited in the 1980s as a paid agent and deeply regretted his activities. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams claimed Mr Donaldson had been about to be "outed" by the same "securocrats" who had set him up as a spy. Mr Adams claimed Mr Donaldson had been approached by police officers last week and told he was about to be "outed" as an informer. He said Mr Donaldson was not under any threat from the republican movement. Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive collapsed in October 2002 following the arrests of three men, including Mr Donaldson, who had headed the party's administration office at Stormont. Charges against the three were dropped last week after the prosecution offered no evidence "in the public interest". Unionists have said Mr Donaldson's statement proved the charges against all three were dropped "in a deal with the IRA" to secure decommissioning. However, both the Northern Ireland Office and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have denied this. On Friday, the Northern Ireland Office said it "completely rejected any allegation that the police operation in October 2002 was for any reason other than to prevent paramilitary intelligence gathering". 4 October 2002: Three men arrested following raid on Sinn Fein's Stormont office. Power-sharing executive collapses and government restores direct rule to NI a week later 8 December 2005: Charges against three men dropped "in the public interest" 16 December 2005: Sinn Fein says Denis Donaldson was a "British agent" and expels him from the party: he later says he worked as a spy since the 1980s Government and police reject the party's claim raid was politically motivated Donaldson's statement It said "the fact remains that a huge number of stolen documents were recovered by the police". Police sources earlier reiterated that the "Stormontgate" affair began because "a paramilitary organisation was involved in the systematic gathering of information and targeting or individuals". But Sinn Fein has always insisted there never was a spy ring, calling the whole business "a politically-motivated stunt to discredit republicans". In a statement to Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday, Mr Donaldson said: "I was a British agent at the time. I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life. "Since then I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch. Over that period, I was paid money. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4537098.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/north...537098.stm</a>

by **emad** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 1:00 pm

British spy operated at heart of Sinn Fein for more than 20 years By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent THE closed and secretive world of Irish republicanism was thrown into turmoil last night after one of Gerry Adams’s most trusted lieutenants admitted that he had been a British agent for 20 years. Denis Donaldson, who was acquitted last week of charges of leading an IRA spy ring in the “Stormontgate” affair that ended Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive three years ago, was a member of Belfast’s republican elite, whose credentials in the fight to end British rule in Ireland would, until now, have been regarded as unimpeachable. But after he was “outed” yesterday and thrown out of Sinn Fein by Mr Adams, who shared a cell block with him during the 1970s when Mr Donaldson, 55, was welcomed into the inner sanctum of “Young Turks” who took control of the republican movement, the question raised in West Belfast was: “If Denis, then who else?” Mr Donaldson’s extraordinary confession came a week after he and two other men, including his son-in-law, were sensationally acquitted of charges of possession of sensitive security documents, which resulted in the forced rehousing of 2,000 people at a cost of £300 million. In one remarkable — and, for Mr Donaldson, extremely lucky — respect, his expulsion from Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Provisional IRA, also marks a significant departure from the traditional fate of a republican charged by his or her own comrades of “working for the Brits”. It is not unreasonable to suggest that only six months ago, prior to the IRA’s statement that it was ending its armed campaign to end British rule in the north of Ireland, Mr Donaldson would have suffered the fate of scores of earlier “volunteers” condemned to death for spying and been shot through the back of the head, his hooded body left on a roadside. At a press conference in Dublin, Mr Adams said that Mr Donaldson had admitted to being a paid British agent for the past 20 years. Last night Mr Donaldson said that he deeply regretted his activities, adding: “I was recruited in the 1980s after compromising myself during a vulnerable time in my life. Since then I have worked for British intelligence and the RUC/PSNI Special Branch.” According to Mr Adams, Mr Donaldson had approached Declan Kerney, the party’s Northern chairman, after being warned by police that he was going to be exposed and that his life was in danger. At a subsequent meeting with Mr Kerney and Leo Green, another Sinn Fein official, he admitted to being a British agent and was expelled from the party. Asked if he suspected that there had been an informer, Mr Adams said: “I was very, very suspicious and some of us were very suspicious when the events of 2002 unfolded, when we saw this hugely orchestrated operation at Stormont, because we knew there was no Sinn Fein spy ring at Stormont.” Only a week ago Mr Adams appeared shoulder to shoulder with Mr Donaldson outside Stormont after the spying charges were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions “in the public interest”. The case was heard at an unlisted hearing at Belfast Crown Court as the Queen and Prince Philip made a visit to the city, prompting charges that the timing was not coincidental. Unionists have demanded that the “public interest” in dropping the charges be explained. It is likely that yesterday’s developments may go some way to explaining what seemed, even by Northern Ireland’s standards, a murky decision. Mr Adams sought to divert attention from the news that his movement was penetrated at the highest level by blaming “securocrats” and the British Government for “political policing” that damaged the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement. “The fact is that the collapse of the political institutions was a direct result of the actions of some of those who run the intelligence and policing system of the British,” he said. “The fact is that the key person at the centre of those events was a Sinn Fein member who was a British agent. This is entirely the responsibility of the British Government. “If Britain’s war is over then the British Prime Minister needs to come to terms with the fact that he has to end the activities of the securocrats.” A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman said: “Police do not confirm or deny whether an individual is or was an informant.” Unionists were astonished by the expulsion. The Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: “This has certainly given an added twist to the entire Stormontgate scandal and confirms our view that the reasons the court decided not to prosecute was because to do so would have compromised an agent of the state and sensitive security documents. It raises the question that the decision not to proceed was politically motivated.” William Mackessy, one of the three men cleared of the spying charges, once worked as a security guard in the offices of Sir Reg Empey, then a minister in the powersharing executive at Stormont. Sir Reg, now leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said that he would be seeking an urgent meeting with government officials. Sir Alasdair Fraser, Northern Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions, declined to comment. But Sir Reg said: “If this was the person who was being protected by the DPP, then there is no reason why these prosecutions cannot proceed. It actually debunks the claims by Sinn Fein there was no spy ring operating inside Stormont, when in fact there was.” <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1936970,00.html">www.timesonline.co.uk/new...70,00.html</a>

Unionist fury at Stormont Special Branch spy-plant

Unionist fury at Stormont Special Branch spy-plant

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