belfast newsletter

Cameron speaks with forked tongue?

The newspapers , in May and July 2014, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, carried a story that the PM had appointed Sir Kim Darroch to “secure compensation for British victims” of Libyan/PIRA/Sinn Fein terrorism. It was reported that he would negotiate on behalf of the families. I have no doubt that this information came from Number Ten and that it was the same line peddled to the DUP when they had tea with Cameron in the garden. He was looking for their votes of course. The same story was given to my lawyers.

Here is what Sir Kim told me about his role: “This is a broad remit to lead discussions with the Libyans to facilitate progress for all UK victims of Qadhafi sponsored terrorism. It is not a mandate to secure payment of individual compensation claims.’ Cameron told him to “build a dialogue”.

So there you have it, misled again by Cameron, the man who almost daily tells you how tough he is on terrorism. The deaths from semtex occurred twenty five years ago.

This British Government is a laughing stock abroad. It contributes almost nothing to the war on IS. It has left Libya prey to IS, Cameron having got his photo opportunity there. Afghanistan was a military disaster. Despite hectoring NATO allies to spend two percent of GDP on defence, he refuses to implement that spending here.

If any British citizen thinks that the world of terrorism fears us, think again. The Government of Toffs is incompetent.

I trust that the DUP will not promise their support in the event of a hung parliament.

The queer case of FAIR

If one Googles “Families acting for innocent relatives”, one is directed to http://www.victims.org.uk

One is then told that “this site belongs to and is the sole property of William Frazer..unless otherwise indicated this website and its contents are the property of William Frazer.”

The queer thing is that on 16th November 2012 the BBC reported that “Willie Frazer steps down from victims’ group FAIR.”

There is another site http://www.fairvictims.co.uk which is hard to find and which  looks like the Mary Celeste. It contains little re events ,no details of who runs the organisation and appears frozen in time.

I understood that this organisation had received substantial sums of public money [hundreds of thousands of pounds] to help victims. I am at a loss to know where that money is , or was spent. I wonder is FAIR registered with the Charity Commission?

I’d like to see some accounts and an account of its activities over the last three years. Any offers?

Finucane-what we have in common

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.

UCBTs, another PSNI shambles

The Historical Enquiries Team told me in 2008 that “whenever a device failed to detonate it would be examined by Army Technical Officer’s [sic] and by this means ‘technically’ linked to other devices…There is no specific reference in the available case papers detailing any linkage between the UCBT used in the murder of your parents and other devices recovered during this period.”

Note there is no mention of forensic scientists.

In May 2014, I asked the Chief Constable  [among other things] :

1. What did the examination of the surviving bombs reveal?

2. Are the component parts of these bombs still available for evidential purposes?

3. What DNA has or could be extracted from these items?

ACC Harris [as he then was] replied in August 2014 as follows:

“The HET report made reference to fifteen UCBT type devices being defused. Although the SCRT review has led to the identification of potential forensic opportunities in respect of these devices, a senior scientist has concluded that although the bombs were similar in their makeup, they had subtle differences and could not be attributed to a single bomb maker.”

I asked Forensic Science NI for a copy of the report. Their reply was that :

“FSNI examined a number of devices during the period 1990 to 1992 however these were not correlated into any single report that we hold or have access to in our files.”

I served a freedom of information request on the PSNI on 13th November 2014. After much delay, it turns out that there is no report. Police now say that there was a verbal discussion with the HET during July 2014. They then go on , later in their reply to me to say this :

“there is no written report from the senior scientist in the case papers or the material created or gathered by the HET. The senior scientist verbally briefed the SIO and did not produce a written report or record notes of the verbal comments.”

So, dear reader, there you have it. Fourteen years after the murders , a senior police officer has a “verbal discussion” with a “senior scientist”. The latter has no written report and the former, disgracefully in respect of such an important matter, makes no notes whatsoever.

It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that police operations are populated with clowns and that senior officers would tell you anything.

Of course the alternative explanation is that they have been told not to try too hard.

Whichever way it is , the pain and grief that this  disgraceful behaviour causes victims is beyond words.

PSNI and failed investigations

The items recovered from the scene of the murders of my parents have been disposed of.

Is that a shocking statement? You might think so.

The police cannot tell me when they were disposed of, why and on whose orders.

The items  are therefore not available for testing by techniques which were used as far back as 1998.

Of course, if the bombers were State agents, it would be inconvenient to have their DNA found on the bomb.

I have written ,again, to the Chief Constable, requesting an explanation.

If the Protestant/Unionist/loyalist faction have not got the message yet [ yes and you too Willy!] let me spell it out.

The State is protecting a swathe of terrorists , republican and loyalist, for the greater good of the “peace process”. The “Crown” is not our friend, any more than it is the enemy of republicans.

Good people like my parents were sacrificed because the State deemed it appropriate.

There are hundreds of similar families suffering. For example the “human bomb” families of Derry, operations ordered by McGuinness.

I will share the Chief Constable’s response.

Next time- the UCBT teams, what the police knew and what they did about them.

PSNI-careless talk? Or worse?

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.

Edmund Burke

The quote, attributed to him, about evil triumphing when good men do nothing is apposite.

I was struck by a piece on the radio about a Jewish woman who was detained by French police, after France  surrendered. She was sent to a concentration camp [a British invention] in Poland.

For a moment it surprised me that a French woman could be seized and sent to another country, even then.

It must remind us that a regime can always find willing participants. They will [for a knighthood or less] do the regime’s bidding. This will include murder , lying , sometimes under oath, hiding the truth, destroying documents, or generally being a cheer leader for the regime.

For regime, read establishment. Check the list of honours in Northern Ireland  for the last twenty years, particularly Sirs and Dames for the Quislings.

In the case of Northern Ireland, these people were picked out by the British a long time before the Good Friday agreement. They were quietly and skilfully put in place into positions of power and influence in all areas of public life. To quote Wilde, they rose without a trace.

On both sides, the man in the street knows that we are an utterly broken society. But his “better” tells him that it ain’t so.

And while that is going on, watch the performance of SinnFein /IRA on this island as they move to seize power . Hitler built autobahns and promised the poor work. Sound familiar?

Blair, Libya and Sinn Fein/IRA

It is well known that the same bunch of terrorists who looked for the on the run letters also opposed and continue to oppose the payment of compensation to the victims of semtex supplied by their friend [and Blair’s] Gadafy.
They are supported in this endeavour by the Northern Ireland Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.Such was the NIO and FCO indifference to the claims that pressure had to be applied to wrest control from them and place negotiations in the hands of Sir Kim Darroch, who now reports to the Prime Minister.
The subject is so sensitive up at Stormont that McKibbin, the Permanent Secretary at OFMDFM refused to tell me or Jim Allister what was discussed between the Libyan Prime Minister and the First and Deputy First Ministers at the City Airport, after the G8 summit.
Readers will know that in June 2008, Blair, no longer in office but setting out to be a multi millionaire, met Gadafy and gave him a big hug.It is clear from FCO documents of the time that Blair was brokering a deal which resulted in Bush receiving 1.5 billion dollars from Libya for the American claimants and freezing out the British subjects.
Why did Blair do this?
To ingratiate himself to Bush? “Yo Blair”. Already done some time earlier.
To get a financial advantage from Gadafy? Maybe.
When looked at with the right end of the telescope, the reason is clear.
The payment to UK citizens would involve millions of pounds in compensation going largely to Protestants.SF/IRA still maintain their hatred of Protestants, so for the sake of the peace process, just like with the on the runs, Blair sided with the terrorists.

PSNI incompetence

Readers may recall that Ed Moloney took issue with the assertion by ACCs Harris and Kerr that they had spoken to him “previously” about his book “A secret History of the IRA”. A month has passed since I asked the Chief Constable to explain what is at least a contradiction. How long does it take either to provide some proof of contact with Mr Moloney or to apologise?

PSNI, their failure to care

Readers will know that my parents were murdered in June 1990. In October 2002 I wrote to the Chief Constable, pointing out that in the intervening years, I had had no contact of any sort with any officer in charge of the investigation. It took a further letter in January 2003 to prise a response out of the Chief Constable. He first nodded the ball, through Supt Harris [yes it is he!] to ACC McQuillan, known [affectionately?] by his colleagues as “the salad dodger”. He failed to reply. Supt Harris then passed the buck to ACC Hunter. She apologised for the delay in reply and for the failure to liaise over the past twelve years. She was unable to explain the failures because ‘senior members of the team…have ended their police careers.”

Two matters arise.

1. I am sure my experience is replicated many times over with other families.

2. What prevents the PSNI from contacting retired officers to discuss such matters? They are, after all, in receipt of substantial pensions from the public purse.

Next time: when is an investigation not an investigation?