RUC KEPT IN DARK ON OMAGH 'THREAT'
RUC kept in dark on Omagh 'threat'
MP calls for bomb inquiry after MI5 intelligence disclosure
PRESSURE mounted on the British and Irish governments last night to hold an inquiry into the Omagh bomb atrocity after it emerged MI5 withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the attack.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said he had concerns about the handling of intelligence before the 1998 attack, after it was revealed MI5 kept police in Northern Ireland in the dark about the bomb plot months before it took place.
A total of 29 people and unborn twins were killed in the Real IRA attack in August, 1998.
Authoritative security sources revealed that MI5 received a tip-off in April, 1998, that a bomb attack was being planned in Omagh or Londonderry.
However, the agency failed to inform the RUC Special Branch of the threat.
Details of this failure to pass on information have only just emerged as part of an investigation into an American FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA.
Mr Donaldson, MP for Lagan Valley, said: "For some time now I have had concerns about information that may have been available to the security services in advance of the Omagh bombing and that goes back to earlier claims by the agent Kevin Fulton, who said he passed on information about some of those involved in the attack.
"There is a need to examine these issues. However, I am not convinced and I am not clear how a cross-border inquiry would work given that we have two separate jurisdictions involved.
"As a party, the DUP would be willing to discuss that issue with the families as there is a need for some kind of inquiry."
Relatives of some of the Omagh dead were astonished by the disclosure.
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."
At the time, the RUC was aware that a planned terrorist operation had been disrupted, but according to security sources yesterday, police found no trace on their records of any MI5 intelligence that Omagh or Londonderry was going to be a target.
It is understood MI5 also failed to inform two senior UK police officers called in by the PSNI to quality-assure a new investigation after the initial one came in for
criticism by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
A spokeswoman for Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said that over the next two years police would work to ensure that proper systems existed between MI5 and the PSN to disseminate intelligence between both organisations.
MP calls for bomb inquiry after MI5 intelligence disclosure
PRESSURE mounted on the British and Irish governments last night to hold an inquiry into the Omagh bomb atrocity after it emerged MI5 withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the attack.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said he had concerns about the handling of intelligence before the 1998 attack, after it was revealed MI5 kept police in Northern Ireland in the dark about the bomb plot months before it took place.
A total of 29 people and unborn twins were killed in the Real IRA attack in August, 1998.
Authoritative security sources revealed that MI5 received a tip-off in April, 1998, that a bomb attack was being planned in Omagh or Londonderry.
However, the agency failed to inform the RUC Special Branch of the threat.
Details of this failure to pass on information have only just emerged as part of an investigation into an American FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA.
Mr Donaldson, MP for Lagan Valley, said: "For some time now I have had concerns about information that may have been available to the security services in advance of the Omagh bombing and that goes back to earlier claims by the agent Kevin Fulton, who said he passed on information about some of those involved in the attack.
"There is a need to examine these issues. However, I am not convinced and I am not clear how a cross-border inquiry would work given that we have two separate jurisdictions involved.
"As a party, the DUP would be willing to discuss that issue with the families as there is a need for some kind of inquiry."
Relatives of some of the Omagh dead were astonished by the disclosure.
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."
At the time, the RUC was aware that a planned terrorist operation had been disrupted, but according to security sources yesterday, police found no trace on their records of any MI5 intelligence that Omagh or Londonderry was going to be a target.
It is understood MI5 also failed to inform two senior UK police officers called in by the PSNI to quality-assure a new investigation after the initial one came in for
criticism by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan.
A spokeswoman for Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said that over the next two years police would work to ensure that proper systems existed between MI5 and the PSN to disseminate intelligence between both organisations.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/640
Published Date: 25-Feb-06
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