MI5 SPIES HOT IN KILLERS TRAIL
MI5 Spies hot on the killers' trail
By JAMES HARDY, Deputy Political Editor
SPY chiefs have compiled a massive dossier on the men believed to be behind the Omagh outrage.
MI5 started focusing on the 32 Counties Sovereignty Committee as other terrorist groups gave up violence.
The Committee was set up in October after Republican hardliners split with Sinn Fein over the peace process. Security Service boss,
Cambridge-educated, Irish terrorism expert Stephen Lander, ordered agents in Northern Ireland to track its members - many of whom are involved with the Real IRA.
MI5 turned much of its �35million domestic terrorism budget and dozens of officers over to monitoring dissident groups who rejected the Good Friday peace deal.
The spy agency has now built up a full picture of the Real IRA's activities.
Intelligence reports fed back to Downing Street suggest the organisation has little public support and limited funds.
The Real IRA is believed to have only a handful of experienced bombmakers and terrorist planners capable of mounting a sustained campaign.
Leading Republicans now expect the Real IRA and the Committee to be left isolated after Irish Premier Bertie Ahern pledged to smash the group.
Reformed terrorist killer Eamon Collins said: "When I was an IRA man we always feared that we would feel the wrath of the southern government. We felt it seldom but when we did it blew hard."
He predicted that the IRA would not tolerate ex-members plundering its arms caches and anyone caught would be "assassinated immediately".
Over the past six years, MI5 claims in its annual report, that it has got 16 convictions for terrorism. And it has thwarted city centre bombings and terrorists' attempts to steal weapons.
It is now spreading its influence. It emerged in June that it was joining an EU anti-terrorist intelligence network.
By JAMES HARDY, Deputy Political Editor
SPY chiefs have compiled a massive dossier on the men believed to be behind the Omagh outrage.
MI5 started focusing on the 32 Counties Sovereignty Committee as other terrorist groups gave up violence.
The Committee was set up in October after Republican hardliners split with Sinn Fein over the peace process. Security Service boss,
Cambridge-educated, Irish terrorism expert Stephen Lander, ordered agents in Northern Ireland to track its members - many of whom are involved with the Real IRA.
MI5 turned much of its �35million domestic terrorism budget and dozens of officers over to monitoring dissident groups who rejected the Good Friday peace deal.
The spy agency has now built up a full picture of the Real IRA's activities.
Intelligence reports fed back to Downing Street suggest the organisation has little public support and limited funds.
The Real IRA is believed to have only a handful of experienced bombmakers and terrorist planners capable of mounting a sustained campaign.
Leading Republicans now expect the Real IRA and the Committee to be left isolated after Irish Premier Bertie Ahern pledged to smash the group.
Reformed terrorist killer Eamon Collins said: "When I was an IRA man we always feared that we would feel the wrath of the southern government. We felt it seldom but when we did it blew hard."
He predicted that the IRA would not tolerate ex-members plundering its arms caches and anyone caught would be "assassinated immediately".
Over the past six years, MI5 claims in its annual report, that it has got 16 convictions for terrorism. And it has thwarted city centre bombings and terrorists' attempts to steal weapons.
It is now spreading its influence. It emerged in June that it was joining an EU anti-terrorist intelligence network.
Further Information
Publisher: THE MIRROR
Ref: TM/022
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
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