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MI5 'kept police in dark over Omagh bomb'
24/02/2006 - 09:56:41
MI5 withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the Omagh bomb atrocity, it was revealed today.
Although the agency helped thwart an attack planned on the Co Tyrone town or Derry at the time of the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, it kept police in the North in the dark about the bomb plot, according to authoritative security sources.
Even after the outrage which killed 29 people, MI5 failed to inform Special Branch of the threat, and details have only just emerged as part of an investigation into an FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA, the dissident republican group, which carried out the attack.
Relatives of some of the Omagh dead said today they were astonished by the disclosure, and with MI5 preparing next year to take control of national security intelligence in the North, one MP called on Downing Street to abandon its plan.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said: “Allowing MI5 to have a lead role in intelligence in Northern Ireland would be like appointing Herod as childrens’ commissioner.”
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan, 21, was among those killed, said: “At best, this is criminal negligence. At worst, it’s assisting a terrorist murder plot.”
Three dissident republicans were arrested and later released without charge at the time of the foiled April 1998 bomb plot.
It followed an MI5 tip-off involving American FBI agent David Rupert, who was working undercover in the ranks of the Real IRA, warning that Omagh or Derry - but most likely Omagh – was to be hit by a dissident republican unit based in Fermanagh and the Letterkenny area of neighbouring Co Donegal.
The car containing a mortar bomb was never found, although it is believed the device may have been the same as one used in an attack on security forces in the border town of Belleek, Co Fermanagh, three weeks later.
At the time, the Royal Ulster Constabulary was aware that a planned terrorist operation had been disrupted, but according to authoritative security sources today, police found no trace on their records of any MI5 intelligence that Omagh, or Derry, was going to be a target.
Details emerged after inquiries in the United States where detectives investigating Omagh spoke with Rupert and examined emails which the agent once exchanged with his FBI and MI5 handlers.
It was Rupert’s evidence to a court in Dublin in 2003 which helped convict the Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, who was jailed for 20 years for directing terrorism.
Police in the Irish Republic are not being blamed for holding back on any information linked to the failed bomb plot, four-and-a-half months before Omagh was attacked in August 1998 by a gang based in south Armagh and Co Louth.
But there is serious unease among security chiefs about MI5’s handling of the affair.
It is understood the agency also failed to inform two senior UK police officers called in by the Northern Ireland Policing Board and the Police Service of Northern Ireland to quality-assure a new investigation after the initial one came in for such fierce criticism by Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan.
Mr Gallagher said today’s revelation would heighten the pressure on the British and Irish governments to set up a full cross-border independent inquiry.
He said: “MI5 is considered one of the top intelligence agencies in the world and had their finger very much on the pulse, yet they failed to notify the RUC that Omagh was a chosen target of a very active terrorist group.”
Mr Gallagher, who met British prime minister Tony Blair in Downing Street last month, added: “There must be a cross-border pulic inquiry to establish a truthful account of all events surrounding Omagh.
“It must be thorough, comprehensive and impartial to find out exactly what happened and who should be held responsible for any failings. It is only then that the families can begin to heal.”
The Omagh relatives are pressing ahead with a High Court civil action seeking £14m (€21m) compensation against the five men they blame for the bombing.
Next September the trial is due to begin of Sean Hoey, 36, from south Armagh, who has denied murdering the 29 people. The case is expected to last six months.
Last week Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain introduced a Bill in the House of Commons which would give MI5 the lead role in handling agents and informers from 2007 – a move heavily criticised by the SDLP and Sinn Féin.
Nationalists claim the agency’s new role also undermines policing reforms because it will not face the scrutiny of the Policing Board.
Mr Durkan said: “This latest revelation underscores the case that MI5 cannot be trusted to work in the true public interest, or relied upon to cooperate properly with other authorities.
“This also highlights MI5’s culture of intelligence for its own sake, used and handled for its own ends rather than through lawful democratic public interest.”
A spokeswoman for the chief constable, Hugh Orde, said that over the next two years, police would work to ensure that proper systems existed between MI5 and the PSNI to disseminate intelligence between both organisations.
She said: “That preparatory work will continue right up until 2007 and will take into consideration lessons learnt from the past.
“The Chief Constable is already on record as saying that he will not sign up to any arrangement that does not have his complete confidence.”
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