MASTER OF DEATH
MASTER OF DEATH
By DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
TERROR boss Michael McKevitt honed his skills in the Provisionals for 25 years before setting up the renegade Real IRA.
McKevitt, who yesterday became the first person convicted in the Republic for directing terrorism, helped organise some of the IRA's most ambitious projects - and worst atrocities.
The 53-year-old from Dundalk joined the IRA in the early 1970s. He started his career in terrorism by moving' weapons for other paramilitaries and keeping them safe. Before long, he was in charge of every IRA weapon.
His commanders recognised his potential as a "backroom man" and he rose through the ranks to become quartermaster of the IRA's Northern Command in the 1970s and Quartermaster General in 1984. In these roles McKevitt:
o PLOTTED the bomb attack at Warrenpoint, Co Down, in August 1979 which killed 18 soldiers
o HELPED smuggle four shipments of weapons from Colonel Gadaffi's Libya
o VISITED Libyan capital Tripoli to supervise the top-secret operation
o SAT on the IRA's executive committee and was involved in Army Council meetings.
McKevitt later pointed out the site of the Warrenpoint attack and boasted of his role to key witness, FBI agent David Rupert.
As Quartermaster General he masterminded the smuggling operation that saw Colonel Gadaffi give the IRA huge amounts of weaponry as gifts in 1985 and 1986 - revenge for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's support of US attacks on his regime.
This was one of the Provos' biggest operations ever and ensured they were able to continue their acts of terror for another decade.
McKevitt is known to have personally supervised the operation in Tripoli.
The shipments landed in Arklow, Co Wicklow, before being stored under his direction in specially-built bunkers throughout the Republic.
Among the Libyan arms were four tonnes of plastic explosive Semtex, 1,200 assault rifles, 25 heavy machine guns, 60 light machine guns and millions of rounds of ammunition.
Security forces only found out about the operation after French authorities stopped the Eksund, loaded with 150 tonnes of weapons, off the coast of France in October 1987.
Sources estimate that the IRA still has around half of these weapons.
McKevitt's central role in the Provisional IRA leadership was cemented by his relationship with Bernadette Sands, a sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. The couple married in recent years.
But he remained very much a background figure. He was stopped and detained many times by gardai but was always polite and affable. One senior detective who had frequent dealings with McKevitt said: "Micky never showed us overt hostility or aggression."
Gardai are convinced that McKevitt was never a "player" who took an active part in terrorist operations.
They believe he was too valuable as an organiser and keeper of the IRA's vast arsenal to risk active duty.
However, it in this hugely powerful role that McKevitt found himself in increasing conflict with the Adams/McGuinness leadership.
The crunch came at a special IRA Convention at Gweedore. Co Donegal, in October 1997, called to approve acceptance of the Mitchell principles which would commit republicans to using purely peaceful means.
McKevitt and other members of the executive opposed any move to decommission and accused the Army Council of running down the organisation's military capacity.
He resigned from the executive after the convention voted to support Adams and McGuinness.
McKevitt took key members of the IRA "engineering department" and activists in South Armagh. Louth and Dublin to form Oglaigh na hEireann. They became known as the Real IRA, a term invented by the media to distinguish them from the Provo's and followers of the Continuity Army Council who splintered in 1986.
But McKevitt failed to split the Provo's and the Adams/McGuinness leadership held their control.
The following year the Real IRA mounted bomb attacks in Northern Ireland but more frequently than not were frustrated by the security forces, particularly south of the border.
However, the terror group wrote its place in the annals of Northern Ireland's bloody Troubles when a car bomb exploded In Omagh on August 15, 1998, killing 29 people and unborn twins. McKevitt later told Rupert the bombing - the worst single atrocity in 30 years of violence - was a joint operation between the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.
He said the Real IRA had stolen a car and built the car bomb while the CIRA chose the target and delivered it.
McKevitt told Rupert that he claimed "20 per cent responsibility" for the attack.
But the atrocity and associated public outrage forced him and the Real IRA on to the defensive. The organisation announced a ceasefire but in reality it was trying to reform and regroup.
McKevitt decided to formalise links between his Real IRA and the CIRA and to bring in former INLA terrorists and disaffected Provisionals into Oglaigh na hEireann.
He told Rupert of an "army conference" on a beach in the Co Donegal's Inishowen peninsula in June 1999.
McKevitt said he had taken about 98 per cent of the CIRA, all of the former Real IRA, some INLA and "a few members of the Provisional IRA".
Rupert, whose testimony helped convict McKevitt at the Special Criminal Court, first met him in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan in September, 1999.
At 6ft 8ins and weighing 20 stones, the German-American from upstate New York stumbled into Irish republicanism by accident.
He was drawn to it after visiting Ireland in 1992 with his then girlfriend Linda Vaughan who, he told the court, was a lobbyist for Noraid in Florida.
Rupert began associating with dissidents in Donegal and Sligo and his frequent trips to Ireland brought him to the attention of the Garda Special Branch who contacted the FBI.
In the summer of 1994 FBI Special Agent Patrick Ed Buckley walked into Rupert's office in Chicago and made him an offer he initially declined but later could not - to work for the FBI and report back on the dissident republicans.
Rupert, married four times, worked in construction, logging, insurance, the bar business and trucking.
He told the court: "I thought about the situation and what I had learned about the situation here.
"From my moral teachings I found it morally acceptable to do. I like to come here and he was offering to expense me for my trips so I agreed to take him up on the issue."
Rupert began filing email reports to the FBI on meetings, mainly with members of Republican Sinn Fein and the Continuity IRA.
He later began filing the same reports to British security forces and met MI5 handlers during stopovers on his way to Ireland.
It was an alleged dissident republican from Derry who introduced Rupert to McKevitt and brought him to the Four Seasons Hotel.
McKevitt made a crucial error of judgment in placing his trust in the "Big Yank".
Cut off from his former comrades in the "republican family" and their broader political experience, McKevitt seemed to have let his defences slip.
Desperate for new technology to relaunch his terror campaign he accepted Rupert's claims to be a computer expert and asked him to obtain computer equipment in the US.
McKevitt wanted to launch "cyber terrorism" with a new cell and to bring the campaign to Britain primarily.
He used Rupert to bring funds from sympathisers in the US and appointed him as his Army Council representative in the US.
Rupert met McKevitt up to 20 times, installed computer equipment at his home in Blackrock, Co Louth, and went to Army Council meetings at a house in Greenore, Co Louth, and "engineers meetings" at a house in Dundalk.
But unknown to McKevitt most of these meetings were under Garda surveillance and Rupert was reporting back to his FBI and MI5 handlers.
McKevitt's trial was told Rupert has been paid $1.25mil-lion for his work.
The spy has claimed that McKevitt told him he wanted to set up a new terrorist group that would carry out attacks in Britain and that he was seeking outside help, including from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
When the authorities decided to prosecute McKevitt it was clear Rupert would be their star witness in any court proceedings.
McKevitt was arrested on March 29, 2001, when Special Branch detectives led by Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O'Sullivan paid an early morning call to his home. He was finally caught by his own carelessness and hubris.
As Rupert told the trial: "He said to me he wasn't the head of the Army Council and he didn't want it to be known as his army. I have been in business a long time and when you meet the man in charge it's not hard to tell."
Ironically, the organisation that McKevitt set up to continue the "armed struggle" has itself imploded and in an acrimonious split.
McKevitt now finds himself almost isolated among dissident republicans.
By DIARMAID MacDERMOTT
TERROR boss Michael McKevitt honed his skills in the Provisionals for 25 years before setting up the renegade Real IRA.
McKevitt, who yesterday became the first person convicted in the Republic for directing terrorism, helped organise some of the IRA's most ambitious projects - and worst atrocities.
The 53-year-old from Dundalk joined the IRA in the early 1970s. He started his career in terrorism by moving' weapons for other paramilitaries and keeping them safe. Before long, he was in charge of every IRA weapon.
His commanders recognised his potential as a "backroom man" and he rose through the ranks to become quartermaster of the IRA's Northern Command in the 1970s and Quartermaster General in 1984. In these roles McKevitt:
o PLOTTED the bomb attack at Warrenpoint, Co Down, in August 1979 which killed 18 soldiers
o HELPED smuggle four shipments of weapons from Colonel Gadaffi's Libya
o VISITED Libyan capital Tripoli to supervise the top-secret operation
o SAT on the IRA's executive committee and was involved in Army Council meetings.
McKevitt later pointed out the site of the Warrenpoint attack and boasted of his role to key witness, FBI agent David Rupert.
As Quartermaster General he masterminded the smuggling operation that saw Colonel Gadaffi give the IRA huge amounts of weaponry as gifts in 1985 and 1986 - revenge for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's support of US attacks on his regime.
This was one of the Provos' biggest operations ever and ensured they were able to continue their acts of terror for another decade.
McKevitt is known to have personally supervised the operation in Tripoli.
The shipments landed in Arklow, Co Wicklow, before being stored under his direction in specially-built bunkers throughout the Republic.
Among the Libyan arms were four tonnes of plastic explosive Semtex, 1,200 assault rifles, 25 heavy machine guns, 60 light machine guns and millions of rounds of ammunition.
Security forces only found out about the operation after French authorities stopped the Eksund, loaded with 150 tonnes of weapons, off the coast of France in October 1987.
Sources estimate that the IRA still has around half of these weapons.
McKevitt's central role in the Provisional IRA leadership was cemented by his relationship with Bernadette Sands, a sister of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. The couple married in recent years.
But he remained very much a background figure. He was stopped and detained many times by gardai but was always polite and affable. One senior detective who had frequent dealings with McKevitt said: "Micky never showed us overt hostility or aggression."
Gardai are convinced that McKevitt was never a "player" who took an active part in terrorist operations.
They believe he was too valuable as an organiser and keeper of the IRA's vast arsenal to risk active duty.
However, it in this hugely powerful role that McKevitt found himself in increasing conflict with the Adams/McGuinness leadership.
The crunch came at a special IRA Convention at Gweedore. Co Donegal, in October 1997, called to approve acceptance of the Mitchell principles which would commit republicans to using purely peaceful means.
McKevitt and other members of the executive opposed any move to decommission and accused the Army Council of running down the organisation's military capacity.
He resigned from the executive after the convention voted to support Adams and McGuinness.
McKevitt took key members of the IRA "engineering department" and activists in South Armagh. Louth and Dublin to form Oglaigh na hEireann. They became known as the Real IRA, a term invented by the media to distinguish them from the Provo's and followers of the Continuity Army Council who splintered in 1986.
But McKevitt failed to split the Provo's and the Adams/McGuinness leadership held their control.
The following year the Real IRA mounted bomb attacks in Northern Ireland but more frequently than not were frustrated by the security forces, particularly south of the border.
However, the terror group wrote its place in the annals of Northern Ireland's bloody Troubles when a car bomb exploded In Omagh on August 15, 1998, killing 29 people and unborn twins. McKevitt later told Rupert the bombing - the worst single atrocity in 30 years of violence - was a joint operation between the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.
He said the Real IRA had stolen a car and built the car bomb while the CIRA chose the target and delivered it.
McKevitt told Rupert that he claimed "20 per cent responsibility" for the attack.
But the atrocity and associated public outrage forced him and the Real IRA on to the defensive. The organisation announced a ceasefire but in reality it was trying to reform and regroup.
McKevitt decided to formalise links between his Real IRA and the CIRA and to bring in former INLA terrorists and disaffected Provisionals into Oglaigh na hEireann.
He told Rupert of an "army conference" on a beach in the Co Donegal's Inishowen peninsula in June 1999.
McKevitt said he had taken about 98 per cent of the CIRA, all of the former Real IRA, some INLA and "a few members of the Provisional IRA".
Rupert, whose testimony helped convict McKevitt at the Special Criminal Court, first met him in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan in September, 1999.
At 6ft 8ins and weighing 20 stones, the German-American from upstate New York stumbled into Irish republicanism by accident.
He was drawn to it after visiting Ireland in 1992 with his then girlfriend Linda Vaughan who, he told the court, was a lobbyist for Noraid in Florida.
Rupert began associating with dissidents in Donegal and Sligo and his frequent trips to Ireland brought him to the attention of the Garda Special Branch who contacted the FBI.
In the summer of 1994 FBI Special Agent Patrick Ed Buckley walked into Rupert's office in Chicago and made him an offer he initially declined but later could not - to work for the FBI and report back on the dissident republicans.
Rupert, married four times, worked in construction, logging, insurance, the bar business and trucking.
He told the court: "I thought about the situation and what I had learned about the situation here.
"From my moral teachings I found it morally acceptable to do. I like to come here and he was offering to expense me for my trips so I agreed to take him up on the issue."
Rupert began filing email reports to the FBI on meetings, mainly with members of Republican Sinn Fein and the Continuity IRA.
He later began filing the same reports to British security forces and met MI5 handlers during stopovers on his way to Ireland.
It was an alleged dissident republican from Derry who introduced Rupert to McKevitt and brought him to the Four Seasons Hotel.
McKevitt made a crucial error of judgment in placing his trust in the "Big Yank".
Cut off from his former comrades in the "republican family" and their broader political experience, McKevitt seemed to have let his defences slip.
Desperate for new technology to relaunch his terror campaign he accepted Rupert's claims to be a computer expert and asked him to obtain computer equipment in the US.
McKevitt wanted to launch "cyber terrorism" with a new cell and to bring the campaign to Britain primarily.
He used Rupert to bring funds from sympathisers in the US and appointed him as his Army Council representative in the US.
Rupert met McKevitt up to 20 times, installed computer equipment at his home in Blackrock, Co Louth, and went to Army Council meetings at a house in Greenore, Co Louth, and "engineers meetings" at a house in Dundalk.
But unknown to McKevitt most of these meetings were under Garda surveillance and Rupert was reporting back to his FBI and MI5 handlers.
McKevitt's trial was told Rupert has been paid $1.25mil-lion for his work.
The spy has claimed that McKevitt told him he wanted to set up a new terrorist group that would carry out attacks in Britain and that he was seeking outside help, including from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
When the authorities decided to prosecute McKevitt it was clear Rupert would be their star witness in any court proceedings.
McKevitt was arrested on March 29, 2001, when Special Branch detectives led by Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O'Sullivan paid an early morning call to his home. He was finally caught by his own carelessness and hubris.
As Rupert told the trial: "He said to me he wasn't the head of the Army Council and he didn't want it to be known as his army. I have been in business a long time and when you meet the man in charge it's not hard to tell."
Ironically, the organisation that McKevitt set up to continue the "armed struggle" has itself imploded and in an acrimonious split.
McKevitt now finds himself almost isolated among dissident republicans.
Further Information
Publisher: THE MIRROR
Ref: TM/188
Published Date: 07-Aug-03
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