OMAGH INTERCEPT REVIEW RECEIVES GUARDED WELCOME
Omagh intercept review receives guarded welcome
BY COLIN O'CARROLL
c.ocarroll@newsletter.co.uk
OMAGH bomb relatives have given a guarded welcome to the news that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced a review of intelligence material after claims in a TV documentary that the bombers' phones were being tapped.
Relatives of the 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, who died in the 1998 atrocity, warned the Government on Tuesday that they would take legal action to secure the material if it was not handed over within seven days.
They have called on the Government to "do the right thing" and surrender all recordings and transcripts of phone conversations of the Real IRA bombers monitored by the GCHQ listening centre at Cheltenham in London.
Intelligence services commissioner Sir Peter Gibson will now examine all intercept material from the security and intelligence services and how it was shared.
Relatives are worried the three-month review will be too late to help their civil case.
Their lawyers have confirmed legal moves will be launched to get the material being sought unless an urgent remedy is found.
Solicitor Jason McCue said: "Whilst the families are pursuing their letter and requests with the Prime Minister to obtain the relevant material through a variety of positive ways, we are instructed to be prepared to go to court to make this application to get this information."
Godfrey Wilson, whose 15-year-old daughter Lorraine died while doing charity work in an Oxfam shop, said he hoped the review would lead to full disclosure but was worried it was another tactic to delay the release of information.
"I'm glad to see it, but my big concern is the time it will consume," he said. "The information is there - GCHQ has it - but they are talking about three months to look at this - how long is this going to run? I don't want it dragging on and on.
"With the 10th anniversary coming around and the civil case underway, we'd like to see it sorted out. I don't want to see it going on and on and then find some kind of a cover-up."
The families have garnered vital political support for their quest to have the tapes of any phone conversations handed over.
DUP peer Lord Morrow has pledged to take the issue to the House of Lords: "The programme has opened an additional chasm of unanswered questions, and it is now time to close this once and for all.
"Even if GCHQ intelligence could not have stopped the attack, their input, if handed over sooner and in total, could have brought the murderers to justice.
"If there is intelligence in existence those who sought to withhold it must be made accountable. The truth will out in time, and that time is now. Who allowed it to go ahead? Who was judge, jury and executioner of the innocent? Who held back evidence which put these people to death? Similarly who, by their silence is blocking justice?"
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the review must not be "hollow".
"A purely secret review that might lead to no public outcome other than bland claims that this failure would have made no material difference to events is not what is needed."
TUV MEP Jim Allister said he hoped the review would reveal the truth.
He said: "I trust the review, announced by the PM, into how the Omagh intelligence was handled will be an honest and thorough examination, and not a vehicle to cause delay in facing up to these issues, nor a device to obfuscate the truth."
Mr Allister said the question of any advance knowledge of a plan to bomb Omagh must be answered to dispel any "suspicion which some might have that the Omagh bombing was permitted in order to jog the political and peace processes along".
BY COLIN O'CARROLL
c.ocarroll@newsletter.co.uk
OMAGH bomb relatives have given a guarded welcome to the news that Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced a review of intelligence material after claims in a TV documentary that the bombers' phones were being tapped.
Relatives of the 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, who died in the 1998 atrocity, warned the Government on Tuesday that they would take legal action to secure the material if it was not handed over within seven days.
They have called on the Government to "do the right thing" and surrender all recordings and transcripts of phone conversations of the Real IRA bombers monitored by the GCHQ listening centre at Cheltenham in London.
Intelligence services commissioner Sir Peter Gibson will now examine all intercept material from the security and intelligence services and how it was shared.
Relatives are worried the three-month review will be too late to help their civil case.
Their lawyers have confirmed legal moves will be launched to get the material being sought unless an urgent remedy is found.
Solicitor Jason McCue said: "Whilst the families are pursuing their letter and requests with the Prime Minister to obtain the relevant material through a variety of positive ways, we are instructed to be prepared to go to court to make this application to get this information."
Godfrey Wilson, whose 15-year-old daughter Lorraine died while doing charity work in an Oxfam shop, said he hoped the review would lead to full disclosure but was worried it was another tactic to delay the release of information.
"I'm glad to see it, but my big concern is the time it will consume," he said. "The information is there - GCHQ has it - but they are talking about three months to look at this - how long is this going to run? I don't want it dragging on and on.
"With the 10th anniversary coming around and the civil case underway, we'd like to see it sorted out. I don't want to see it going on and on and then find some kind of a cover-up."
The families have garnered vital political support for their quest to have the tapes of any phone conversations handed over.
DUP peer Lord Morrow has pledged to take the issue to the House of Lords: "The programme has opened an additional chasm of unanswered questions, and it is now time to close this once and for all.
"Even if GCHQ intelligence could not have stopped the attack, their input, if handed over sooner and in total, could have brought the murderers to justice.
"If there is intelligence in existence those who sought to withhold it must be made accountable. The truth will out in time, and that time is now. Who allowed it to go ahead? Who was judge, jury and executioner of the innocent? Who held back evidence which put these people to death? Similarly who, by their silence is blocking justice?"
SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the review must not be "hollow".
"A purely secret review that might lead to no public outcome other than bland claims that this failure would have made no material difference to events is not what is needed."
TUV MEP Jim Allister said he hoped the review would reveal the truth.
He said: "I trust the review, announced by the PM, into how the Omagh intelligence was handled will be an honest and thorough examination, and not a vehicle to cause delay in facing up to these issues, nor a device to obfuscate the truth."
Mr Allister said the question of any advance knowledge of a plan to bomb Omagh must be answered to dispel any "suspicion which some might have that the Omagh bombing was permitted in order to jog the political and peace processes along".
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/778
Published Date: 18-Sep-08
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