TV TAP CLAIM PROMPTS NEW OMAGH PROBE CALL
TV tap claim prompts new Omagh probe call
BY STEVEN MCCAFFERY
THE London and Dublin governments will today come under the strongest pressure yet to agree to an international inquiry into the Omagh bombing following fresh allegations the attack could have been prevented.
It is claimed intelligence officials were recording the bombers' mobile phone calls as they prepared to plant the 1998 car bomb which killed 29 people, including unborn twins.
Bereaved relatives said their demands for a public inquiry must now be answered as a new documentary alleges the phone-tap information was never passed to detectives probing the atrocity.
The Westminster Government is also being challenged to reveal if it knew the bombers' phones were tapped, after the details of a Home Office meeting reportedly showed senior officials discussing how a failure to use information from a telephone intercept led to an unspecified terrorist act.
The Omagh investigation has been dogged by controversy, with security forces already accused of mishandling the case. The bombers have never been brought to justice and Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden died in the blast, said the case for an inquiry was now overwhelming.
"We have been demanding a public inquiry since 2002 into the abysmal failure of the police inquiries," he said.
"In all conscience the Government can no longer resist this."
The allegations are to be reported in a BBC Panorama documentary to be screened tonight.
It is unclear if the intelligence officials were listening to the bombers' calls as they made them, or if the calls were recorded, but it is claimed that the full details of the intercepts were not passed to officers investigating the mass murder.
"Panorama has established that Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was recording mobile phone conversations between some of the bombers as they drove from the Irish Republic to the market town of Omagh," said the programme makers.
"The revelation that the intelligence services were listening to bombers - both on the day of the bombing and in the weeks leading up to it - raises new questions about whether the single worst atrocity of the Troubles could have been prevented."
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said a UUP delegation had been briefed early in the summer by Omagh relatives in support of their campaign to have a full inquiry. He added that he had been considering what to recommend to party colleagues.
"Clearly nobody would lightly call for an inquiry when so many are already being held or are pending," he said. "However, the revelations alleged in the Panorama programme add to the uncertainty and create the impression that somewhere somebody is holding back vital information."
As a result of these developments, Sir Reg was reconsidering the call for an inquiry.
Panorama reports what it describes as several well-placed sources saying that GCHQ was monitoring the bombers' mobile phone calls at the request of Special Branch.
Ray White, a former assistant chief constable in charge of Special Branch for the PSNI, is said to have confirmed this, although the RUC Chief Constable at the time, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, is said to have been unaware of the intelligence.
The documentary makers said: "One source tells Panorama GCHQ sent details of the conversations to Northern Ireland within six hours of the bombing, but White tells Panorama that his former colleagues in Special Branch categorically deny this. He says they received nothing from GCHQ until the Tuesday after the bombing."
- Panorama's Omagh: What The Police Were Never Told is to be broadcast on BBC 1 tonight at 8.30pm.
BY STEVEN MCCAFFERY
THE London and Dublin governments will today come under the strongest pressure yet to agree to an international inquiry into the Omagh bombing following fresh allegations the attack could have been prevented.
It is claimed intelligence officials were recording the bombers' mobile phone calls as they prepared to plant the 1998 car bomb which killed 29 people, including unborn twins.
Bereaved relatives said their demands for a public inquiry must now be answered as a new documentary alleges the phone-tap information was never passed to detectives probing the atrocity.
The Westminster Government is also being challenged to reveal if it knew the bombers' phones were tapped, after the details of a Home Office meeting reportedly showed senior officials discussing how a failure to use information from a telephone intercept led to an unspecified terrorist act.
The Omagh investigation has been dogged by controversy, with security forces already accused of mishandling the case. The bombers have never been brought to justice and Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden died in the blast, said the case for an inquiry was now overwhelming.
"We have been demanding a public inquiry since 2002 into the abysmal failure of the police inquiries," he said.
"In all conscience the Government can no longer resist this."
The allegations are to be reported in a BBC Panorama documentary to be screened tonight.
It is unclear if the intelligence officials were listening to the bombers' calls as they made them, or if the calls were recorded, but it is claimed that the full details of the intercepts were not passed to officers investigating the mass murder.
"Panorama has established that Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was recording mobile phone conversations between some of the bombers as they drove from the Irish Republic to the market town of Omagh," said the programme makers.
"The revelation that the intelligence services were listening to bombers - both on the day of the bombing and in the weeks leading up to it - raises new questions about whether the single worst atrocity of the Troubles could have been prevented."
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said a UUP delegation had been briefed early in the summer by Omagh relatives in support of their campaign to have a full inquiry. He added that he had been considering what to recommend to party colleagues.
"Clearly nobody would lightly call for an inquiry when so many are already being held or are pending," he said. "However, the revelations alleged in the Panorama programme add to the uncertainty and create the impression that somewhere somebody is holding back vital information."
As a result of these developments, Sir Reg was reconsidering the call for an inquiry.
Panorama reports what it describes as several well-placed sources saying that GCHQ was monitoring the bombers' mobile phone calls at the request of Special Branch.
Ray White, a former assistant chief constable in charge of Special Branch for the PSNI, is said to have confirmed this, although the RUC Chief Constable at the time, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, is said to have been unaware of the intelligence.
The documentary makers said: "One source tells Panorama GCHQ sent details of the conversations to Northern Ireland within six hours of the bombing, but White tells Panorama that his former colleagues in Special Branch categorically deny this. He says they received nothing from GCHQ until the Tuesday after the bombing."
- Panorama's Omagh: What The Police Were Never Told is to be broadcast on BBC 1 tonight at 8.30pm.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/772
Published Date: 15-Sep-08
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