COLLUSION
QUESTIONS LIKE VICTIMS NOT FORGOTTEN
"We
will have you up at the Battery for a free drink,"
my friend joked with words mixing Tyrone wit and
Republican spirit, at my news of traveling to
Dublin for weekend meetings between the Irish
Northern Aid executive and Sinn Fein leadership.
The same British ban used as a pretext for the
Royal Ulster Constabulary murder of Sean Downes
during their attack on a peaceful rally in Belfast,
would insure that we might meet in Dublin, or
more likely Monaghan, but not in the Battery Bar
in Ardboe, County Tyrone.
"Our
friends have been about this last week,"
he continued. It was a sort of Republican speak
or code, meaning that the Royal Ulster Constabulary
backed by British troopers had been patrolling
heavily in the Ardboe area.
He
added, "I may be back in the Bronx with you
but will say more when I see you." These
words were ominous. My friend, Liam Ryan, had
spent years in New York saving hard earned dollars
with a dream of going home to Ardboe and buying
a business such as the Battery Bar on scenic of
Lough Neagh. He had married happily and was the
proud father of a young son. For Liam to hint
at leaving Ardboe meant that he was under serious
threat which he would not talk about on a likely
tapped telephone line, but would explain when
we met.
I
would never see him again. The following evening
the crown forces which had been flooding the Ardboe
area, would suddenly disappear. At closing, as
Liam Ryan stood by the door, a loyalist death
squad would arrive at precisely the correct time
and place. Liam Ryan would be murdered as he attempted
to slam the door shut and protect those patrons
still inside. One of the customers would also
be killed by a rifle powerful enough to permanently
scare the structure. There would be little doubt
that RUC patrols had picked and pinpointed Liam
Ryan for death. It was taken for granted that
the RUC had scouted, guided, cleared and shielded
the arrival and escape of the murder gang. The
RUC would eventually arrive, with smug smiles
belying any pretense of sympathy, as they dismissed
any chance that anyone might ever be caught or
identified
My
friend had been murdered . His son would grow
up without a father; his wife was heartbroken,
his parents, brothers and sisters devastated.
It
is hardly a unique or even unusual tale. There
were literally hundreds of such British arranged
collusion murders. Some would even make use of
informer agents like Denis Donaldson or Freddie
Scappaticci. Each could be told from the grieving
perspective of children, spouses, family, and
friends.
However
all such crown collusion murders put together
were not enough to slow much less sidetrack ,
Sinn Fein's compliance with the British imposed
timetable for endorsing the re-named RUC, despite
Nuala O'Loan's public confirmation of RUC complicity
with UVF killers in such murders. .
HASTE
Less
than a week before the special Ard Fheis arranged
to complete the formalities of a party vote for
the RUC-PSNI, the much delayed O'Loan report surfaced
with curious timing. Her inquiry was narrowly
limited to the Mount Vernon UVF. As many as fifteen
murders and a host of other crimes were tallied
by this particular RUC run murder gang, directed
through the paid RUC agent Mark Haddock, during
six years of Blair, and one year of Hugh Orde.
The
report raised serious political questions which
not so long ago would have sparked accusations
by Sinn Fein that the SDLP's acceptance of the
RUC made them apologists for British injustice
and party to a British regime which was inherently
irreformable. Now the party loudly criticizes
RUC-PSNI collusion as British state terrorism
but then hurriedly jumps to endorse the colluding
RUC-PSNI state terrorists.
Rather
than raise crucial questions and refuse to give
formal ratification for the RUC-PSNI without satisfactory
answers, the party seemed in haste to vote quickly,
lest more revelations make the promised Sinn Fein
backing of the RUC-PSNI undeliverable. The questions
and political implications however like the victims
will not be forgotten.
CHAIN
How
high up the British chain of command does complicity
with the loyalist death squads extend? Was it
merely the RUC operational command in the Mount
Vernon UVF area investigated by O'Loan which was
guilty? Was this an aberration or isolated instance
confined to the local RUC operational command
which somehow ran amok unbeknownst to their RUC
superiors, much less top levels within the British
government? Were its tactics perhaps copycatted
by a few rogue agents in other areas? Are all
other sections of the constabulary untainted or
purged of collusion by Orde's self-described root
and branch reform?
ALTERNATIVE
Is
the truth far more sinister? Were the O'Loan findings
actually the tip of an iceberg of crown collusion
in murders like that of Liam Ryan and hundreds
more, sanctioned and approved from the top within
British rule? Was this the outworking of a policy
of planned and premeditated use of what British
military theorist Frank Kitson called counter
gangs? Was this a coordinated strategy used by
the British across the six counties and indeed
when deemed appropriate extended to Dublin, Buncrana,
and Monaghan? Did some who today command and direct
the RUC-PSNI crown constabulary with the backing
of Sinn Fein, gain promotion through the ranks
by their willingness and ability in directing
loyalist murder gangs? What are the political
implications if Sinn Fein has embraced a crown
constabulary which is thusly commanded, molded
and trained as its latest installment payment
of the price of admission to Paisley's Stormont?
PATTERN
One
need only take a cursory glance at the intricate
pattern seen by nationalists and Republicans over
and over again , across the six counties and beyond
for decades to answer these questions. At times
and especially early in the struggle, the targets
would be random Catholics who could often be picked
up and taken to the killing ground without fear
of RUC intervention.
Often
the targeting followed the same nightmare pattern
seen in the murder of Liam Ryan. Nationalist areas
would be heavily patrolled for hours or days.
Homes would sometimes be entered, searched and
mapped. Movements were carefully monitored. Suddenly
the area would clear. Sectarian killers would
arrive with precise information that indicated
a level of scouting well beyond the capability
of the loyalists. The assassins would then withdraw
and travel home without arrest, capture or interference
by the RUC with its many agents and British troop
backed patrols. The RUC would arrive, feign sympathy
and take little action other than perhaps harassing
the mourners.
This
integrated pattern was not limited to Mt Vernon
or Ardboe but was seen again and again right across
the north. It involved picking and pinpointing
victims. RUC and British troop patrols would often
be assigned to saturate and surveil locations.
Loyalists would seem to be scouted and guided
to targets in hostile and unfamiliar areas. Routes
had to be cleared by an OOB or out of bounds notice,
directing all crown force units that a special
operation was underway and that all others should
keep clear. Those RUC assigned to investigate
such murders would be advised not to trouble themselves
or if necessary to conduct a whitewash.
In
some instances such as the murder of courageous
solicitor Rosemary Nelson, explosives were supplied.
At other times, such as the murder of another
courageous civil rights solicitor Pat Finucane,
there was a joint operation between various branches
of the crown forces, with the intelligence provided
by a British Army agent, weapons by an RUC agent
etc
On
special occasions, the crown through its RUC directed
loyalist murder gangs sanctioned strikes across
the border. Eddie Fullerton would be killed in
Buncrana. The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were
carried out by crown agents with crown provided
explosives and are still being covered-up by Britain's
refusal to cooperate with a Dublin government
inquiry.
SANCTIONED
How
could crown collusion in so many murders at such
a high level of cooperation over so wide an area
and so long a period been perpetrated without
the continuing sanction of the commanders of all
British forces including the RUC? Does anyone
seriously suggest that such murders could have
been committed without the approval of the British
direct rulers, cabinet and prime ministers? Does
anyone believe that the crown would not have detected
a pattern, ordered a halt and made examples if
things were not going according to plan? Much
like the Diplock courts which fulfilled Kitson's
call for kangaroo courts to jail unwanted political
opponents, rather than safeguards of justice,
the loyalist murder gangs were used as counter-gangs
by the crown to murder and terrorize. Those who
actually directed the murder and terror were the
same RUC who orchestrated the perjury and jailing
of other victims. Those RUC most proficient and
willing to perform such duties were promoted .
Now they command a RUC-PSNI gifted with the formal
backing and endorsement of Sinn Fein. Some will
be invited to job fairs in Republican areas soliciting
recruits to be assigned to their charge to be
molded and trained.
TIMING
The
timing of the O'Loan report was no accident. The
delays hearken back to stalled requests for funding
in 2003. A preliminary report was completed in
September 2005. Supplementary reports were issued
in March 2006 and October 2006. Some have claimed
that British stalling tactics backfired and delayed
the publication of the report until an untimely
few days before the Sinn Fein vote.
In
fact Republican cynics believe that the report
may have been precisely timed for release in accordance
with British interests. The British wanted a pledge
of endorsement for those enforcing British law
in Ireland emblematic of all the political cover
that the mantle of Sinn Fein acceptance would
bring to the crown constabulary. Such an endorsement
followed by revelations of crown collusion in
the murders of nationalists, could have led to
charges of fraud and cover-up . Instead the party
embraced the RUC-PSNI with all of its blemishes
and blood stains. Compelling questions about the
numbers of serving constables involved in collusion
or about other RUC-PSNI command areas were not
asked nor deemed important enough to delay the
vote owing to constraints of a British timetable
or concerns about the potential impact of the
answers.
INSPIRED
Republicans,
who will not endorse the RUC-PSNI with its blemishes
and blood stains, are now asking other questions.
Who has put manners on whom? Are we turning the
page or have some Republicans been turned? Are
we pulling the levers of safeguards and reforming
the crown constabulary from within as another
step towards a re-united Ireland, or have some
been pulled by the levers of a British establishment
copper-fastening its rule in Ireland? How can
Sinn Fein expect the British to take seriously
any party led campaign on behalf of the victims
of crown collusion with loyalist murder squads,
when the party has just voted to bestow its mantle
of acceptance on the RUC-PSNI who colluded with
loyalist murder squads? What hoops will the party
not jump at the behest of the DUP to enter a Paisley
led Stormont or to get back each time Paisley
steps in and out of Stormont like Lanigan's Ball?
Will full cooperation with the RUC-PSNI mean that
Raymond Gilmore is welcome but that Concerned
Republicans who just say no to the RUC-PSNI are
not?
These
like the questions about RUC-PSNI collusion murders
will not be forgotten or silenced!
