WHAT BAXTER SAID
What Baxter said...
-Omagh could happen again
Mr Baxter warned the pattern of activity in the run up to Omagh was now being repeated with a series of bomb alerts.
"Omagh can't be seen as an individual incident.
"Omagh was the last in a series of incidents (earlier bombs in Markethill, Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Lisburn) dating into the middle of the 1990s, the middle of 1997, and so there's a long lead-in to the Omagh explosion."
-PSNI officers are in danger
"We have a blind eye being turned to dissident activity and I have to say that the border is exposed again,"
"It would be remiss of me not to advise this committee that you could be sitting here in 10 years time discussing another atrocity because the government and the authorities have failed to acknowledge what is happening."
-Intelligence was not shared with police
"I'm not in a position to know what was or was not being conducted by the intelligence community but if such things as telephone numbers, either on the day or in the period leading up to Omagh, were available within the intelligence community that should have been shared with investigators at a very early stage."
-Omagh atrocity could have been prevented
"These bombers had free reign from the middle of 1997 and the authorities.
"Whoever they were, allowed that to continue.
"At each one of those terrorist incidents (earlier bombs in Markethill, Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Lisburn) there was a point of intervention which could have disrupted this terror gang."
"There could have been opportunities to arrest this gang after Lisburn, after bombs in May (1998), July and even after Banbridge.
"The information sits behind the intelligence which may have been of value in the early days of the inquiry."
-Omagh could happen again
Mr Baxter warned the pattern of activity in the run up to Omagh was now being repeated with a series of bomb alerts.
"Omagh can't be seen as an individual incident.
"Omagh was the last in a series of incidents (earlier bombs in Markethill, Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Lisburn) dating into the middle of the 1990s, the middle of 1997, and so there's a long lead-in to the Omagh explosion."
-PSNI officers are in danger
"We have a blind eye being turned to dissident activity and I have to say that the border is exposed again,"
"It would be remiss of me not to advise this committee that you could be sitting here in 10 years time discussing another atrocity because the government and the authorities have failed to acknowledge what is happening."
-Intelligence was not shared with police
"I'm not in a position to know what was or was not being conducted by the intelligence community but if such things as telephone numbers, either on the day or in the period leading up to Omagh, were available within the intelligence community that should have been shared with investigators at a very early stage."
-Omagh atrocity could have been prevented
"These bombers had free reign from the middle of 1997 and the authorities.
"Whoever they were, allowed that to continue.
"At each one of those terrorist incidents (earlier bombs in Markethill, Moira, Portadown, Armagh, Lisburn) there was a point of intervention which could have disrupted this terror gang."
"There could have been opportunities to arrest this gang after Lisburn, after bombs in May (1998), July and even after Banbridge.
"The information sits behind the intelligence which may have been of value in the early days of the inquiry."
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/1176
Published Date: 12-Nov-09
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