Republicans' details leaked to press as clampdown intensifies.

[Katayusha Mk2]

The Sunday Life carried a sinister story entitled 'Unmasked: The men the government has accused of plotting a terrorist campaign' in last Sunday's edition. The article states:

A leaked government document has ‘unmasked’ alleged members of the Real IRA terror group which is trying to turn Northern Ireland into a war-zone.

The sensitive report, contained in a Northern Ireland Office Ministerial document, was obtained by Sunday Life just hours after dissident republicans tried to murder a Catholic PSNI officer in Fermanagh and blow up the Policing Board's Belfast HQ last weekend.

It names six men who the security services believe are now key figures in the Real IRA following the jailing of former leader Liam Campbell.

Four men are not only named but pictured in the article and this can only be seen as a prelude to the harassment and potential targeting of these men. This is not only blatant trial by media but must be seen in the same light as the collusionary passing of intelligence files to Loyalists except that now it is being done through the media in plain public view.

What sort of society allows for people to be blatantly targeted and libeled in this manner; not one that is normal by any stretch of the imagination.

What is most interesting is that this document was leaked from a 'ministerial office' to Ciaran Barnes, a PSF-linked journalist from the Anderstown News stable. Have PSF now fully accepted the mantle of collusion?

[alex77]

would an article like this not be used against the police if these men were ever on trial,isnt there something about prejudice

[picador]

Thanks for the link Kat. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue who these people were - apart from Connolly who features in the Sunday World on a weekly basis (yes, I know someone who buys it!)

Is it any less reprehensible to knowingly repeat a libel (by posting a link in this case) than it is to make the original libel in the first place?. I'm curious that you should view this as libel in any case. Surely it is a great honour to be accused of resisting British rule. Methinks thou dost protest too much!

I also note that you more than happy to label the journalist who reported this story as PSF linked and then further insinuate that he is involved in collusion.

[Katayusha Mk2]

would an article like this not be used against the police if these men were ever on trial,isnt there something about prejudice

Prejudice underlines British policing in Ireland, it always has. The question is why the shinners appear now to be performing the tasks once carried out by the FRU.

[picador]

would an article like this not be used against the police if these men were ever on trial,isnt there something about prejudice

After reading the article it seems that some of these men have been fortunate in their previous encounters with the justice system.

[picador]

Prejudice underlines British policing in Ireland, it always has. The question is why the shinners appear now to be performing the tasks once carried out by the FRU.

Two of those named were caught red-handed with a rocket launcher by undercover Brits and were subsequently acquitted!

[Flutehook]

After reading the article it seems that some of these men have been fortunate in their previous encounters with the justice system.

Life's a riot with Spy Vs Spy!

[Sync]

Not crazy about this at all. Whatever else these people have done, they haven't been convicted or charged with being members of the illegal RIRA. It could well have prejudiced future trials.

[Katayusha Mk2]

Thanks for the link Kat. Otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue who these people were - apart from Connolly who features in the Sunday World on a weekly basis (yes, I know someone who buys it!)

Is it any less reprehensible to knowingly repeat a libel (by posting a link in this case) than it is to make the original libel in the first place?. I'm curious that you should view this as libel in any case. Surely it is a great honour to be accused of resisting British rule. Methinks thou dost protest too much!

I also note that you more than happy to label the journalist who reported this story as PSF linked and then further insinuate that he is involved in collusion.

Methinks you are a twat. People are being set up through leaked documents being published in the press. It's not unlike the posting of 'targeting files' on the walls of East Belfast but in that instance it was the British leaking the files not former Republicans.

[picador]

Not crazy about this at all. Whatever else these people have done, they haven't been convicted or charged with being members of the illegal RIRA. It could well have prejudiced future trials.

After Murphy, Mullan and O'Connor were acquitted on the rocket launcher charges they acquitted of membership of a prescribed organisation - on the technical grounds that the Real IRA had not been specified as illegal at the time!