FBI SPY FAILED TO APPEAR DUE TO MONEY ROW OMAGH CASE HEARS
FBI spy failed to appear due to money row, Omagh case hears
A ROW over money stopped an American businessman who infiltrated the Real IRA from giving evidence at the Omagh bombing civil action, it was claimed yesterday.
Lawyers for jailed Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt alleged in the High Court that FBI spy David Rupert took no part in the case when his former handlers refused to pay him more.
During closing submissions at the landmark legal case being brought against five men held responsible for the 1998 atrocity Mr Rupert was portrayed as a fraudster who was ready and willing to perjure himself.
The trucking boss-turned-intelligence agent was a key prosecution witness at the criminal trial in Dublin in 2003 when McKevitt was convicted of directing terrorism.
But Michael O'Higgins SC, representing McKevitt, urged Mr Justice Morgan to take note of Mr Rupert's failure to appear at the multi-million-pound compensation case, or even to give evidence by video-link.
He stressed how lawyers for victims' families who had brought the lawsuit had tried in vain to get an explanation from the FBI about why Mr Rupert was not being supplied.
"It gives rise to the inference that Rupert fell out with the FBI over money," he said.
"When his contract ran out he was looking for more money. They wouldn't pay it and because the price wasn't right he more or less told them, in colloquial terms, 'Hump off."
Mr O'Higgins compared the situation with the Dublin trial when, he said, the FBI put in a "mammoth effort" to ensure Mr Rupert's attendance.
"The fact the shutters were literally pulled down and a responsible agency would not give any explanation is a huge cause for concern," he said.
McKevitt, who is serving a 20-year-sentence, is being sued along with Liam Campbell, Seamus McKenna, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly by relatives of some of those killed in the Real IRA attack on Omagh. All five deny liability.
According to Mr O'Higgins, the defence has suffered prejudice by not being able to cross-examine Mr Rupert.
He told the court that he would have wanted to question the spy about meetings he claims to have had with McKevitt - encounters which were not witnessed by others.
"We say that nowhere in any of the conversations is there any suggestion Mr McKevitt was involved in the Omagh bombing," the barrister said. The court also heard that the grouping his client was alleged to have been "busy" in was not the Real IRA but a new organisation which drew on strands from three republican paramilitary factions.
Although Mr O'Higgins accepted the plaintiffs' submissions that Mr Rupert was not classed as an accomplice in the case, he argued that neither could he be described as an ordinary witness.
Referring to emails and correspondence from the businessman, the barrister said: "At all times, even when reading the document, bear in mind the mind which created it - and it's a bad mind.
"It's a mind that never has anything to the fore of it other than his own personal and - usually identical - financial benefit."
A ROW over money stopped an American businessman who infiltrated the Real IRA from giving evidence at the Omagh bombing civil action, it was claimed yesterday.
Lawyers for jailed Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt alleged in the High Court that FBI spy David Rupert took no part in the case when his former handlers refused to pay him more.
During closing submissions at the landmark legal case being brought against five men held responsible for the 1998 atrocity Mr Rupert was portrayed as a fraudster who was ready and willing to perjure himself.
The trucking boss-turned-intelligence agent was a key prosecution witness at the criminal trial in Dublin in 2003 when McKevitt was convicted of directing terrorism.
But Michael O'Higgins SC, representing McKevitt, urged Mr Justice Morgan to take note of Mr Rupert's failure to appear at the multi-million-pound compensation case, or even to give evidence by video-link.
He stressed how lawyers for victims' families who had brought the lawsuit had tried in vain to get an explanation from the FBI about why Mr Rupert was not being supplied.
"It gives rise to the inference that Rupert fell out with the FBI over money," he said.
"When his contract ran out he was looking for more money. They wouldn't pay it and because the price wasn't right he more or less told them, in colloquial terms, 'Hump off."
Mr O'Higgins compared the situation with the Dublin trial when, he said, the FBI put in a "mammoth effort" to ensure Mr Rupert's attendance.
"The fact the shutters were literally pulled down and a responsible agency would not give any explanation is a huge cause for concern," he said.
McKevitt, who is serving a 20-year-sentence, is being sued along with Liam Campbell, Seamus McKenna, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly by relatives of some of those killed in the Real IRA attack on Omagh. All five deny liability.
According to Mr O'Higgins, the defence has suffered prejudice by not being able to cross-examine Mr Rupert.
He told the court that he would have wanted to question the spy about meetings he claims to have had with McKevitt - encounters which were not witnessed by others.
"We say that nowhere in any of the conversations is there any suggestion Mr McKevitt was involved in the Omagh bombing," the barrister said. The court also heard that the grouping his client was alleged to have been "busy" in was not the Real IRA but a new organisation which drew on strands from three republican paramilitary factions.
Although Mr O'Higgins accepted the plaintiffs' submissions that Mr Rupert was not classed as an accomplice in the case, he argued that neither could he be described as an ordinary witness.
Referring to emails and correspondence from the businessman, the barrister said: "At all times, even when reading the document, bear in mind the mind which created it - and it's a bad mind.
"It's a mind that never has anything to the fore of it other than his own personal and - usually identical - financial benefit."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0996
Published Date: 25-Mar-09
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