REACTION TO UTV INSIGHT PROBE
Reaction to UTV Insight probe
'Ultimate responsibility rests with Sir Ronnie, NIO and PM'
VICTOR Barker, whose son James was among the dead is horrified and sickened by the revelation by Insight that the senior investigating officer actually committed to paper his intention to close the inquiry down at such an early stage and without any prosecution.
He tells Insight, "I'm also not convinced that it's of Sir Ronnie's making. It may be someone else's making but certainly, ultimately, the responsibility not only rests with Sir Ronnie Flanagan, it rests with the Northern Ireland Office and with ultimately the Prime Minister."
The Police Ombudsman's assessment that the RUC Chief Constable has shown defective leadership in the investigation into the Omagh bomb has caused grievous pain to those bereaved and injured and served to undermine general public confidence.
Michael Gallagher, who lost his son Aidan in the bomb, tells the programme, "what I expected and I think every civilised person in this country would have expected was for the State to use all the resources that they had. These should have all have been made available to the Police that were investigating the Omagh bomb and that was not the case."
This, according to Lord Ken Maginnis, is evidence that there is a hidden agenda behind the Ombudsman's report.
"To try to actually destroy the integrity of Special Branch, which is what is happening in this case, is irresponsible and places lives of ordinary members of society in danger in years to come.
"We've had 30 years of this, people like myself have known the benefit of Special Branch keeping their own counsel, that's why some of us are alive today. If this is able to be disseminated amongst every uniformed policeman then, as you know, there would be no secrets in Ulster," the former Fermanagh South Tyrone MP and Ulster Unionist Security Spokesman tells the programme.
According to Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty this is precisely the problem. "I thought that this [report] clearly exposed what we have been saying for some time. The very core of what's wrong is the way Special Branch conduct themselves. The way that they are a force within the force, that they're not accountable and work very closely with MI5."
The relationship between the chief constable and the ombudsman has now degenerated into a very public undignified squabble. With both testing the limits of their power and authority the stage is now set for a destabilising showdown. Caught in the crossfire are the victims of Omagh, bewildered and confused and reduced to bystanders in a political power play.
The SDLP assembly member for West Tyrone Joe Byrne is a member of the police board.
He tells Insight that the Ombudsman's report raises serious questions: "I think there is something wrong with the Police Service in the modern age, in the 21st century if we cannot bring people to book for such an atrocity.
"I think that the current deficiencies that were in the Service structurally, procedurally and the mechanisms of communication were not adequate or sufficient to make sure that we had a fully robust investigation," Mr Byrne concludes.
'Flawed, limited and inaccurate'
TO the Police Ombudsman, the specific failings surrounding the Omagh investigation are symptomatic of the conflict between Special Branch and CID over the handling of sensitive intelligence and the refusal to provide all that information to investigators.
An entire chapter of her report is devoted to the relationship between Special Branch and the rest of the force. For the Ombudsman the intelligence warnings on Omagh are merely symptoms of a structural failing to disseminate intelligence.
According to the report: "This enquiry has found substantial and important intelligence within Special Branch which has not been shared with the senior investigating officer of the Omagh Bomb investigation team. The intelligence Special Branch gave was flawed, limited and inaccurate.' It concludes 'The RUC have been unable to provide the Police Ombudsman with any policy governing the relationship between Special Branch and the rest of the force in relation to the dissemination of intelligence.
According to Chris Moore, Insight reporter, "What the full Ombudsman's report makes clear is that the leak of the report in December, one week before the publication, also served a hidden agenda. It centred the debate on indeterminate prior warnings from an anonymous source and a paid informant and not on the actual failings of the subsequent RUC investigation into the bomb, which is, in fact, the key focus of the Ombudsman's final report.
"The Chief Constable could find himself in an invidious position. He is now being presented with a damming report based on an investigation his force had instigated. If the Ombudsman's conclusions, drawn from an internal review instigated by the RUC itself, are substantiated, the damage to the credibility of the Chief Constable could be irreparably damaged."
The Chief Constable has promised a detailed response to the Ombudsman's report in Omagh next Thursday.
The Insight investigation 'Policing in the Dock' is on UTV at 10:30pm tonight (Thursday).
'Ultimate responsibility rests with Sir Ronnie, NIO and PM'
VICTOR Barker, whose son James was among the dead is horrified and sickened by the revelation by Insight that the senior investigating officer actually committed to paper his intention to close the inquiry down at such an early stage and without any prosecution.
He tells Insight, "I'm also not convinced that it's of Sir Ronnie's making. It may be someone else's making but certainly, ultimately, the responsibility not only rests with Sir Ronnie Flanagan, it rests with the Northern Ireland Office and with ultimately the Prime Minister."
The Police Ombudsman's assessment that the RUC Chief Constable has shown defective leadership in the investigation into the Omagh bomb has caused grievous pain to those bereaved and injured and served to undermine general public confidence.
Michael Gallagher, who lost his son Aidan in the bomb, tells the programme, "what I expected and I think every civilised person in this country would have expected was for the State to use all the resources that they had. These should have all have been made available to the Police that were investigating the Omagh bomb and that was not the case."
This, according to Lord Ken Maginnis, is evidence that there is a hidden agenda behind the Ombudsman's report.
"To try to actually destroy the integrity of Special Branch, which is what is happening in this case, is irresponsible and places lives of ordinary members of society in danger in years to come.
"We've had 30 years of this, people like myself have known the benefit of Special Branch keeping their own counsel, that's why some of us are alive today. If this is able to be disseminated amongst every uniformed policeman then, as you know, there would be no secrets in Ulster," the former Fermanagh South Tyrone MP and Ulster Unionist Security Spokesman tells the programme.
According to Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty this is precisely the problem. "I thought that this [report] clearly exposed what we have been saying for some time. The very core of what's wrong is the way Special Branch conduct themselves. The way that they are a force within the force, that they're not accountable and work very closely with MI5."
The relationship between the chief constable and the ombudsman has now degenerated into a very public undignified squabble. With both testing the limits of their power and authority the stage is now set for a destabilising showdown. Caught in the crossfire are the victims of Omagh, bewildered and confused and reduced to bystanders in a political power play.
The SDLP assembly member for West Tyrone Joe Byrne is a member of the police board.
He tells Insight that the Ombudsman's report raises serious questions: "I think there is something wrong with the Police Service in the modern age, in the 21st century if we cannot bring people to book for such an atrocity.
"I think that the current deficiencies that were in the Service structurally, procedurally and the mechanisms of communication were not adequate or sufficient to make sure that we had a fully robust investigation," Mr Byrne concludes.
'Flawed, limited and inaccurate'
TO the Police Ombudsman, the specific failings surrounding the Omagh investigation are symptomatic of the conflict between Special Branch and CID over the handling of sensitive intelligence and the refusal to provide all that information to investigators.
An entire chapter of her report is devoted to the relationship between Special Branch and the rest of the force. For the Ombudsman the intelligence warnings on Omagh are merely symptoms of a structural failing to disseminate intelligence.
According to the report: "This enquiry has found substantial and important intelligence within Special Branch which has not been shared with the senior investigating officer of the Omagh Bomb investigation team. The intelligence Special Branch gave was flawed, limited and inaccurate.' It concludes 'The RUC have been unable to provide the Police Ombudsman with any policy governing the relationship between Special Branch and the rest of the force in relation to the dissemination of intelligence.
According to Chris Moore, Insight reporter, "What the full Ombudsman's report makes clear is that the leak of the report in December, one week before the publication, also served a hidden agenda. It centred the debate on indeterminate prior warnings from an anonymous source and a paid informant and not on the actual failings of the subsequent RUC investigation into the bomb, which is, in fact, the key focus of the Ombudsman's final report.
"The Chief Constable could find himself in an invidious position. He is now being presented with a damming report based on an investigation his force had instigated. If the Ombudsman's conclusions, drawn from an internal review instigated by the RUC itself, are substantiated, the damage to the credibility of the Chief Constable could be irreparably damaged."
The Chief Constable has promised a detailed response to the Ombudsman's report in Omagh next Thursday.
The Insight investigation 'Policing in the Dock' is on UTV at 10:30pm tonight (Thursday).
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0920
Published Date: 17-Jan-02
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