Coming to a court near you soon, the latest On the Run, Michael Burns. Charged with attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, he got a Letter on 18 June 2003 from the Northern Ireland Office, interfering in the criminal justice system.
Let’s see how this one goes.
Whilst the enquiry carried out by the NI Affairs Committee has , as suggested; ‘shone a light’ into a dark corner, it cannot hope to illuminate the true horror of “the peace process”.
OTRs, letters, RPMs and secret deals combined to ensure that a huge swathe of PIRA criminals remained untouched and the City of London remained un-bombed. That imperative was sold to the masses of Northern Ireland, [softened up by placemen, selected over the years], as the “Good Friday Agreement”, what a heart tugging nomenclature. For years the state had trawled the old Poly at Jordanstown for third rate academics whom the could put into positions of trust. They were relied on to influence their respective flocks that we should all forgive and forget. The architects of this plan in London, were clever Oxbridge types who had studied the activities of Mao, Hitler and Stalin. They have subsequently gone on to deal with Afghanistan and Libya.
The key to unlocking this puzzle is the fact that many PIRA commanders were state agents and informers for many years. Thus the state is vulnerable to legal challenge.
The idea that the state did not know of PIRA activities [participating informants] is laughable.
I , along with others, am getting there , inch by inch.
If the Westminster Executive would bend the rules in this instance, what else would they do to protect the stockbrokers?
It is interesting that the NI Attorney General felt that the judgement of Sweeney J. might be open to challenge in Europe. Of course, if Downey was another state informer, that would not be a path that the state would want to tread.
But that , given that the post Belfast agreement legal system in Northern Ireland is packed with safe pro-agreement puppets, Europe is the only option.
Geraldine Finucane is reported as saying “gunmen were two-a-penny in Northern Ireland. They don’t interest me. I’m interested in the chain of command.’ If she did say that , I agree with her. I, too, on the ninetieth anniversary of my father’s birth, am interested in the chain of command that led to his murder and the murder of my mother.
The chain of command led from the ASU , through Spike Murray, Bobby Storey and Brian Gillen , to Martin McGuinness. At least one of this group and possibly more, were State agents.
The murder of Pat Finucane, whom I knew, is no more replete with State involvement than many murders in Northern Ireland. Paramilitary organisations were so heavily infiltrated by the late 1980s that the State had overall control of who lived and who died.
The line parroted by the police , that “there are no fresh evidential leads” is a barefaced lie in many cases.
What government in the West does not target the leaders of terrorist organisations? Consider the behaviour of the Americans and the Israelis. Does it not strike the ordinary citizen of Northern Ireland that not one senior terrorist leader was prosecuted after the 1970s?
I am sure that there is information, given by State agents, which would lead to the prosecution of many senior paramilitary figures. To blame, for example, the Republic of Ireland for withholding information on Kingsmills is a clever red herring, dangled by the British and swallowed by people like Wiilliam Frazer. The truth is sitting in British files.
It’s time to prise it free and do justice for all those killed by the State.
So far , of course, unlike the Finucane family I have not had the advantage of any inquiry.
On 11th August ACC Harris, as he then was said this , [in response to my assertion that Ed Moloney ,in his book”A Secret History of the IRA, pointed to McGuinness as the man who had ordered the murders of my parents] :
“The information contained within the book …is anonymous. The author Ed Moloney has previously been spoken to and is unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources.”
The police told the Senior Assistant Director of the PPS the same thing. He repeated to me: “Mr Moloney has previously been spoken to by police and was unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources.” The police were not briefing Mr Herron about interactions with Ed Moloney, they were dealing with a specific allegation.
Mr Moloney told me that no police officer had ever spoken to him about anything in his book, originally published in 2002.
I challenged the Chief Constable. He nodded the ball to ACC Kerr. He nodded the ball to D Supt Murphy, who seems to be in the Legacy Investigations Branch, probably the fourth or fifth outfit I have had to deal with. He replied :”ACC Harris previously wrote to you about interactions with Mr Moloney. In that letter , Mr Harris states that previous requests to Mr Moloney have not resulted in a positive response. I should emphasise that this was intended to reference other cases within the remit of the Historical Enquiries Team , rather than the murders of your parents specifically. I apologise if any confusion was caused.”
Of course ACC Harris did not write to me “about interactions with Mr Moloney”. He wrote to me about a specific allegation contained in a book written over twelve years ago.
Readers can make up their own mind about the honesty of the police responses.
It now appears that they are going to attempt to make contact with Mr Moloney.
The fact is that the police were ordered not to investigate the chain of command in any bombing or shooting. The ASU did not just have an idea one day that they would go and kill someone. It was scouted , planned and approved. In my parents’ case the project would have gone up the line through Spike Murray, Brian Gillen, Bobby Storey and then to McGuinness. At least two of these people were State informers, Gillen and McGuinness.
I therefore allege that the State was aware of the identity of the people who conspired to kill my parents , as well as the killers themselves. Effectively, the State was engaged in murder. This matter will now be taken up again with the PPS, though not with the Director, who was at all material times, McGuinness’s lawyer. I am not aware of whether or not he represented Spike Murray , Brian Gillen or Bobby Storey.
Meanwhile I still await the PSNI explanation about forensic examination of UCBTs, outstanding since 13th November.
Senior Assistant Director Stephen Herron of the Public Prosecution Service also spoke to the police about this matter. Here is what he recounted to me in his letter of 28th November.
“it has been confirmed by ACC Kerr that with the exception of open source reference material [Mr Maloney’s book…] which directly implicates Mr McGuinness, there is no evidential basis or intelligence available to link him with the murder of your parents.
As has been noted in previous correspondence you received from PSNI, the contributions to the book are anonymous and cannot be verified or corroborated for factual accuracy. Mr Moloney has previously been spoken to by police and was unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources”
Hopefully the PPS will also seek an explanation.
Stand by for the mystery of the missing forensic report…..
Readers may know that on more than one occasion I asked the police to investigate McGuinness’s part in the murder of my parents and the allegations made by Ed Moloney, in his book, ” A secret History of the IRA”, page 347.
Here is what ACC Harris [now DCC Harris] wrote to me on 11 August 2104:
“The author Ed Moloney has previously been spoken to and is unwilling to disclose the identity of his sources”.
Here is what Ed Moloney told me today, when I put Harris’s version to him:
“No-one from the RUC or PSNI has ever approached me about anything I wrote in ‘secret history’ and certainly not about your parents’ terrible deaths…if they are telling you that , they are lying to you and you have my permission to say so in whatever arena you choose”
I will be writing to the Chief Constable, seeking an explanation and possibly taking the matter further, depending on his answer. So much for ACC Kerr telling the PPS that my parents’ case had been thoroughly investigated.
Other inconsistencies are emerging in information supplied by senior officers and this will be the subject of future blogs.
Where would we be without the opportunity to put these matters in the public domain , by blogging?
I say this because the Bar Council avidly reads my blogs!
A big thank you to the Irish News and Allison Morris for publishing my allegations of murder by Martin McGuinness. If you will bear with me I will develop this in the next few days. I’m sure that the editor of the Irish News will follow events with excitement.
A big shout out too , to Allison’s dissident IRA partner Fernando Murphy [do you hear the drums ,Fernando?]
One can only speculate on the provenance of today’s article.
Paul Given, the chairman of the Stormont justice committee has got it wrong. The DPP is correct in his decision not to publish the Attorney’s report . Liam Adams’ conviction is to be appealed and is therefore sub judice.
It exposes Mr Given’s lack of understanding [shocking for the chairman of the justice committee] and his poor choice of subject. McGrory is a Director holed below the waterline as a result of his extensive representation of Sinn Fein/PIRA. He is excluded from participation in many prosecutorial decisions because of this.
If Given had any wit he would have made a better fist of this resignation demand by citing more compelling cases , such as the failure to prosecute McGuinness .
When some distant but important connections were established in relation to Butler-Sloss and Wolff; in respect of the child abuse enquiry, both, quite properly, resigned.
In Northern Ireland the senior prosecutor is unable to take part in the most important decisions in respect of the prosecution of republicans because of his former professional life.
Nobody seems to think that this is important.
Perhaps it is time for the Director of Public Prosecutions to do the honourable thing?
When Barra McGrory replied to my request for an investigation into McGuinness, regarding the murders of my parents, he said: “I have no reason to believe that there has not been a very thorough and comprehensive investigation of their deaths” That was when it had slipped his mind that at all material times he had been McGuinness’s lawyer.
That reply was last May, now, five months on, I am told that the PSNI and the PPS are to meet to discuss my concerns and allegations.
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