MI5 and Omagh - The Bomb to End All Bombs?

[SevenStars]

MI5 and Omagh - The Bomb to End All Bombs?

MI5 and Omagh - The Bomb to End All Bombs?

John Hanley • Forum Magazine, 2 March 2006

In 1996 MI5 assigned agent David Rupert the task of infiltrating dissident republican circles in Ireland. Rupert's priceless intelligence gave MI5 an indispensable insight in to the membership and modus operandi of both dissident republican groups on either side of the border. Throughout his stay in Ireland Rupert forwarded all of the relevant intelligence he had acquired to MI5 via encrypted e-mails. Between 1997 and 2001 Rupert posted 2166 e-mails to his paymasters in British intelligence.

On 11 April 1998 Rupert dispatched his most controversial e-mail to MI5 headquarters. It was almost five months before the now infamous maroon Vauxhall Cavalier would decimate the centre of Omagh town and kill 29 people. For this reason the e-mail is all the more startling because in it Rupert informed MI5 that a dissident republican group was planning a car bomb attack in Omagh [E-mail 104, 11-04-98]. The April car bomb attack in Omagh was eventually frustrated by gardai south of the border. However, MI5 management knew the threat was only postponed and not extinguished. Within days MI5 e-mailed Rupert: "We disrupted the intention to use the car bomb, but maybe not for long" [MI5 to Rupert, E-mail 126A, 17-04-98]. MI5 obviously foresaw the strong likelihood of a renewed attempt to bomb Omagh. However, MI5 now held the advantage over the would-be car bombers in that from as early as April 1998 it knew Omagh was a likely target for a dissident republican car bomb attack.

Rupert's e-mails were not the only pre-August 15th information in MI5's possession which pointed to a dissident republican attack in Omagh. A second key piece of intelligence came to light on August 4 when an anonymous phone-caller warned British intelligence of a planned dissident republican gun and bomb attack in Omagh on August 15. MI5 subsequently claimed that it dismissed this anonymous phone-warning as a rogue RUC Special Branch call. However, this was a poor attempt at distraction. The importance in all of this is that whereas Rupert provided specific details with regard to the proposed location of the planned bombing, this phone-warning supplemented his e-mail intelligence by not only confirming the location, but also providing the all important precise date of the planned attack.

However, the windfall of dissident republican intelligence did not end there. MI5 possessed a third piece of high-grade information which indicated that a car bomb attack was scheduled for mid-August. Two days before the Omagh bombing, FRU agent Kevin Fulton met with a Real IRA informant whose clothing, according to Fulton, was covered in dust particles of homemade explosives. Fulton correctly suspected that a car bomb attack was in an advanced stage of planning. Fulton provided British intelligence with the agent's name and car registration number. Yet once again this vital piece of intelligence was ignored.

But perhaps the most startling disclosure concerning MI5's foreknowledge of Omagh came during the inquest into the bombing. According to the Sunday Business Post (26/8/2001) leading British barrister Michael Mansfield QC, acting for Lawrence Rush, cross-examined several RUC witnesses. It emerged that a warning specifying the precise location of the bomb had not been passed on to local officers in time to clear the area.

"After that, we started getting threatening calls. We were told by the RUC that our name was on a death-list," Solicitor Des Doherty said.

The RUC also confirmed to Doherty that a newspaper report of a spy satellite picking out the car used to transport the bomb was correct.

Doherty said. "It is understood that when the RUC contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in America, they produced information from the satellite."

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[SevenStars]

So it looks like the Omagh bomb was "in your name" after all....

[tiocfaidh]

As this article shows, it is important to note that there are two sides to Omagh. Yes, it was wrong for RIRA to plant the bomb, and it surely was not just british agents inside RIRA (like David Rupert) who were involved, but likely also non-compromised RIRA members. But it was just as wrong for the brits to allow it to go off in order to score political points.

[SevenStars]

As this article shows, it is important to note that there are two sides to Omagh. Yes, it was wrong for RIRA to plant the bomb, and it surely was not just british agents inside RIRA (like David Rupert) who were involved, but likely also non-compromised RIRA members. But it was just as wrong for the brits to allow it to go off in order to score political points.

Agreed 100 per cent.

I believe that the armed campaign should have been called off.

That is not my problemn with the Provisional movement.

[British Citizen]

As this article shows, it is important to note that there are two sides to Omagh. Yes, it was wrong for RIRA to plant the bomb, and it surely was not just british agents inside RIRA (like David Rupert) who were involved, but likely also non-compromised RIRA members. But it was just as wrong for the brits to allow it to go off in order to score political points.

Seriously, take a step back and have a cold, hard look at your post.

One of the world's leading democracies allowing 28 of it's own civilians to be killed just to make dissident Republicans look bad?

You cannot seriously believe that, can you???

[SevenStars]

Seriously, take a step back and have a cold, hard look at your post.

One of the world's leading democracies allowing 28 of it's own civilians to be killed just to make dissident Republicans look bad?

You cannot seriously believe that, can you???

THE GREAT HOLOCAUST OF BENGAL

Easily comrade, easily....

[tiocfaidh]

Seriously, take a step back and have a cold, hard look at your post.

One of the world's leading democracies allowing 28 of it's own civilians to be killed just to make dissident Republicans look bad?

You cannot seriously believe that, can you???

I surely am not so quick to dismiss it. I fully believe the British government is very capable of doing just that. Whether they actually did in this case I do not know for sure, but I absolutely am willing to consider all evidence that points that way.

Do you seriously believe that "leading democracies" like the UK and US are not above allowing scores of innocents die to further their agendas?

[British Citizen]

THE GREAT HOLOCAUST OF BENGAL

Easily comrade, easily....

So you're also a holocaust denier?

Your parents must be so proud...

[SevenStars]

So you're also a holocaust denier?

Your parents must be so proud...

I dont deny the jewish holocaust...Do you deny the Bengali one?

[TheTipperaryMan]

The security forces were led to believe the bomb was planted at the courthouse and they were herding the crowds in the direction of Market Street.
The bombers found that the town was packed with crowds and traffic which forced them to abandon the bomb on Market Street when the intended target was the courthouse. The phoned in warning was given by someone who assumed the bomb would already be in place near the courthouse and explode in an evacuated area.

It is obvious British intelligence had informers on the inside telling them about a bomb attack on Omagh that was imminent.
I find it hard to believe the British security forces would not have acted if they knew for sure when and where the bomb would explode.

But it was the RIRA who built the bomb and who sanctioned the attack (remember the bombing was the continuation of a series of bomb attacks across the North which until that point had killed no victims) and who placed the bomb on Market St and they bear the sole responsibility for what happened.

The only conspiracy is the cover up by the British and Irish governments of all the missed chances in stopping the bombing and the botched investigation which allowed the men who the dogs in the street know were responsible to walk because of a lack of evidence.

End of.