-Caveat Lector-
>From www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Ireland
Northern Ireland: Allegations of British collusion in Omagh bombing
By Robert Stevens
4 September 2001
Back to screen version| Send this link by email | Email the author
Information has emerged that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) may have
been informed 48 hours prior to the event that the Real IRA was to plant the
bomb in the town of Omagh on August 15, 1998 that killed 29 people and
injured more than 200. Accusations have also been made that the bombing
was the work of a British double agent within the Real IRA.
A former British double agent calling himself �Kevin Fulton� has made the
allegations. Fulton was an ex-British army soldier, who says he was
recruited by the secret service to inform on the activities of the IRA in the
1980s. He claims to have been an informer up until the IRA cease-fire in
1996.
Fulton has made the allegation to a number of media sources, including
Channel Four news and the Guardian newspaper.
Fulton alleges that two days prior to the bombing, he met a senior member
of the Real IRA�a breakaway grouping opposed to Republican Sinn Fein
signing the (April 10) Good Friday Agreement setting up the power-sharing
Northern Ireland Assembly�in a pub in Dundalk. He states that the man told
him, �There�s something big on�, but didn�t go into any more details. He
added that the Real IRA member was �covered in dust and smelling like
fertiliser. He had definitely been making a bomb�. Following this
conversation, Fulton said that he informed his RUC handler �within hours�
and that his handler had subsequently confirmed that this information �was
put into the system�.
On August 17, Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O� Loan
announced that the new allegations would be investigated.
A portion of Fulton�s interview with Channel Four reads as follows:
Q: �You think that some of the people responsible for the Omagh bomb were
informing at the time?�
Fulton: �Yes, no doubt�.
Q: �And they couldn�t be compromised?
Fulton: �I don�t think the Omagh bombers meant to kill people. The thing is
they did, shit happened.�
Q: �Were the RUC warned about the bomb?
Fulton: �I wouldn�t say they were warned; they would have known that certain
things would have happened, yes.�
Q: And you know that for sure?
Fulton: �Yes.�
Fulton stated to the Guardian that he passed on the name of the Real IRA
member he suspected of making a bomb to the RUC and also gave the
suspect�s car registration number.
The crux of Fulton�s allegations is that the British and Irish security forces
allowed the bomb to travel in a stolen car from the nearby town of Dundalk to
its final destination in Omagh because if it was prevented it could lead to the
compromising and possible exposure of agent(s) within the Real IRA.
Another ex-informer, Willy Carlin, said of the Fulton allegations, �I would
believe that the officer put it in the system, and it would have immediately
been shared by the security services, by MI5 and MI6. It would definitely
been shared with the Chief Constable, no about it. And it would have been
shared with the Garda [the police in the Irish Republic]. And the question is,
if it was shared, what happened? And why didn�t someone turn up in Dundalk
and watch this man for 48 hours?�
RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan described Fulton�s allegations
that it had any prior warning about the Omagh as �preposterous�. The RUC
claims to know who is personally responsible for the Omagh bombing, but
has said no action can be taken because of a lack of evidence and the
witnesses needed to secure a conviction.
The Fulton allegations come at a time when there is growing frustration about
the lack of progress in apprehending and convicting the Omagh bombers. On
August 16, the husband of one of the victims of the bombing interrupted a
RUC/Garda press conference appealing for more information and said that a
�conspiracy� was underway to prevent the conviction of the bombers.
Lawrence Rush said to the meeting, �My dear sir, this is a conspiracy. This
will come out like the Derry Thirteen [a reference to the Bloody Sunday
massacre by the British army in 1972]. This is a conspiracy by the British
government and by everyone involved in the administration. This is an
example of administrative terrorism
�Why did Sinn Fein close their office the day before the bomb? Why was the
army confined to barracks? Why sir, did the RUC have only three men on the
streets of Omagh and 24 men in surrounding areas? Tell me that.�
Fulton states that he also given the Police Ombudsman a copy of a taped
conversation between himself and his RUC handler earlier this year. On the
tape Fulton is heard to ask if he can recall the 48-hour warning he gave to
him before the Omagh bombing. The man Fulton claims to be his handler is
heard to reply, �I vaguely remember, but I�d have to check my notes ... I
remember something ... I do remember bits and pieces.�
Fulton�s solicitor, Imran Khan, has said of the allegations, �He is saying that
he gave a warning to the RUC prior to the Omagh bomb. He is not saying
that he knew the Omagh bomb was going to go off, but that information
wasn�t passed on, which could have given the RUC a head start.�
Fulton�s allegations are backed up by the remarks of another former British
double agent, who uses the name Michael Clark. Clark stated on August 18,
�It makes perfect sense for the army or the intelligence services to allow the
progress and delivery of a device of some nature to preserve and protect the
safety of an agent. I believe that is possibly the case�.
Other reports have emerged that the same man responsible for the Omagh
bombing may have also been involved in the making and planting of two other
bombs detonated around the same time. On August 1, 1998 a bomb went off
in Bambridge, County Down injuring 35 people. The bomb was estimated to
be of a similar size to that of the Omagh bomb and the individual who
reported the bomb to the security services used the same code word.
Clark states that he personally informed the British Ministry of Defence that
there was a danger that the identity of the bomb maker could be exposed.
He said, �We were worried that if there was a possibility that he is an agent,
his life has been placed at risk.... I took appropriate action and informed the
MoD of the relevant details and passed on the information to the senior
officer in army intelligence�.
It is not beyond question that a British agent within the Real IRA could have
planted the Omagh bomb. Earlier this year more details emerged about the
covert activities of the Force Research Unit (FRU), an undercover security
operation financed and run by the British state in Northern Ireland for more
than two decades.
The FRU was a terror network�involving up to 100 soldiers and double
agents�that organised a series of covert intelligence and military operations
and authorised their agents to carry out numerous illegal activities including
bomb making, murder, and the shooting of RUC officers. The FRU�s chain of
command reached into the upper echelons of the British state. Fulton
himself claims that he became an IRA member on FRU instructions, and
took part in a series of terrorist bombings in the 1980s and the early 1990s.
These included the 1993 bombing that decimated the town centre in
Portadown.
Britain was certainly a political beneficiary of the Omagh bombing. It led to a
widespread public outcry demanding an end to more than 30 years of
violence and helped isolate the dissident paramilitary groups, both republican
and loyalist, opposed to the signing of the Northern Ireland Agreement.
The bombing provided a pre-text for the Blair government to introduce new
laws before a specially recalled Parliament. These laws, which the Prime
Minister himself described as being of a �draconian and fundamental nature�,
allow the conviction of someone belonging to a proscribed organisation on
the evidence of a senior police officer alone. A defendant�s right to silence
was breached, by provisions whereby the refusal to answer a �relevant
question� or to cooperate with any �relevant inquiry� at any time will be
regarded as corroboration of the police officer�s evidence. The measures also
include unprecedented powers to convict people on the basis of conspiring
within Britain to commit terrorist offences anywhere in the world, making it
possible to criminalise and even ban a swathe of organisations opposed to
regimes friendly towards Britain.
Copyright 1998-2001
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
