CHICKENS ARE COMING HOME TO ROOST
Chickens are coming home to roost
May I have space again to reply on behalf of Sinn Fein to further misleading and what can only be described as absurd comments of SDLP councillor and MLA Eugene McMenamin in regards to the Special Branch accountability and the PSNI?
Firstly it has long been common practice for nationalist politicians and even community workers to expose RUC Special Branch abuses of young members of our community.
In this most recent case the young man involved has a domestic situation turned against him, resulting in threats being used to make him spy for the PSNI.
It is standard practice in such cases that young and old alike are advised to go to the press, the local priest, and a solicitor as a means of freeing themselves from the sinister grasp of Special Branch.
The response of Eugene McMenamin to breaking this circle of abuse is to claim Sinn Fein was exploiting the young man. As elected representatives, Sinn Fein councillors had a responsibility to point out that this incident is further proof if more proof was needed that the repressive legacy of the RUC remains intact in the PSNI.
And to point out that the SDLP had to be forced into making a statement about it. This incident could have been any readers' son or daughter but regardless the SDLP was willing to remain silent on this PSNI misuse of a local community situation.
Cllr McMenamin's comments raises the question, if the young man had come forward to Cllr McMenamin would he had made the incident public knowledge in order to help others in similar trapped situations?
Or is it the case, that Cllr McMenamin would rather keep such incidents out of the public eye and in doing so shield the dark side of the "new" PSNI from the scrutiny of the public?
In his over-eagerness to attack Sinn Fein he misses the point. The local community can judge the merit of his comments.
Central to his recent statement was the absurd assertion that PSNI/RUC Special Branch is accountable. This is an absolutely amazing assertion to make in a week when the papers across this island are pointing out the inability of the policing board to even investigate the "inside job" at Castlereagh.
Castlereagh interrogation centre, apart from being infamous as a centre of torture, is under the remit of the policing board yet the policing board has not even the powers to investigate. The SDLP members of the policing board stand in silent embarrassment.
This is an excellent example of Cllr McMenamin's words of accountability in action.
The issue of accountability goes to the very heart of policing. The role of Special Branch goes to the very heart of policing. Whether in relation to the Omagh bomb, investigation, the murder of Pat Finucane or scores of others disputed killings the activities and procedures of Special Branch remain at the heart of nationalist mistrust. Special Branch is a force within a force, as stated by Patten. Special Branch remains a force within the PSNI.
Of all the disputed killings the case of Pat Finucane is the one which dramatically exposes the real role of Special Branch. Tommy Lyttle who confessed to having a part in the killing was a Special Branch agent; Willie Stobie, the man who provided the gun was a Special Branch agent; the man who confessed to the killing later became a Special Branch agent and the man who supplied the intelligence, Brian Nelson, was a British Army agent.
Why has the RUC/PSNI not convicted anyone for the killing of Pat Finucane? The Special Branch men involved in the killing of Pat Finucane are members of the PSNI. They remain accountable to no one.
In recent weeks Ronnie Flanagan has appointed to superintendent rank a large number of Special Branch men and allocated them positions throughout the PSNI. Flanagan has spread the virus of Special Branch across the PSNI. The SDLP ignore these sinister developments.
I think Eugene may be the only person on this island who believes that under present procedures Special Branch is accountable.
The SDLP members appear to have adopted the role as window dressers for the PSNI and its pet toothless tiger, the Policing Board.
As a political party, in decline, they are now more concerned with painting the illusion of change. The SDLP now find themselves in the foolish position, as Eugene McMemamin finds himself, of having to make outlandish claim of accountability, which "the dogs in the street" know have no basis whatsoever to reality.
Even the most naive political observer would find it difficult to assert the Special Branch is accountable and fewer still would be foolish enough to claim that Special Branch was accountable to the Policing Board.
In his rush to defend his weakening position Cllr McMenamin appears to have forgotten that the Policing Board unanimously rejected the principal recommendation of the Ombudsman's findings into the Omagh investigation and in fact called upon the British Secretary of State to launch a review of the office.
Indeed the recent fact that only nine RUC/PSNI members in the last six years were prosecuted speaks volumes about his claims of a new beginning to policing. The SDLP signed up to the flawed Mandelson bill on policing and the chickens are now coming home to roost!
May I have space again to reply on behalf of Sinn Fein to further misleading and what can only be described as absurd comments of SDLP councillor and MLA Eugene McMenamin in regards to the Special Branch accountability and the PSNI?
Firstly it has long been common practice for nationalist politicians and even community workers to expose RUC Special Branch abuses of young members of our community.
In this most recent case the young man involved has a domestic situation turned against him, resulting in threats being used to make him spy for the PSNI.
It is standard practice in such cases that young and old alike are advised to go to the press, the local priest, and a solicitor as a means of freeing themselves from the sinister grasp of Special Branch.
The response of Eugene McMenamin to breaking this circle of abuse is to claim Sinn Fein was exploiting the young man. As elected representatives, Sinn Fein councillors had a responsibility to point out that this incident is further proof if more proof was needed that the repressive legacy of the RUC remains intact in the PSNI.
And to point out that the SDLP had to be forced into making a statement about it. This incident could have been any readers' son or daughter but regardless the SDLP was willing to remain silent on this PSNI misuse of a local community situation.
Cllr McMenamin's comments raises the question, if the young man had come forward to Cllr McMenamin would he had made the incident public knowledge in order to help others in similar trapped situations?
Or is it the case, that Cllr McMenamin would rather keep such incidents out of the public eye and in doing so shield the dark side of the "new" PSNI from the scrutiny of the public?
In his over-eagerness to attack Sinn Fein he misses the point. The local community can judge the merit of his comments.
Central to his recent statement was the absurd assertion that PSNI/RUC Special Branch is accountable. This is an absolutely amazing assertion to make in a week when the papers across this island are pointing out the inability of the policing board to even investigate the "inside job" at Castlereagh.
Castlereagh interrogation centre, apart from being infamous as a centre of torture, is under the remit of the policing board yet the policing board has not even the powers to investigate. The SDLP members of the policing board stand in silent embarrassment.
This is an excellent example of Cllr McMenamin's words of accountability in action.
The issue of accountability goes to the very heart of policing. The role of Special Branch goes to the very heart of policing. Whether in relation to the Omagh bomb, investigation, the murder of Pat Finucane or scores of others disputed killings the activities and procedures of Special Branch remain at the heart of nationalist mistrust. Special Branch is a force within a force, as stated by Patten. Special Branch remains a force within the PSNI.
Of all the disputed killings the case of Pat Finucane is the one which dramatically exposes the real role of Special Branch. Tommy Lyttle who confessed to having a part in the killing was a Special Branch agent; Willie Stobie, the man who provided the gun was a Special Branch agent; the man who confessed to the killing later became a Special Branch agent and the man who supplied the intelligence, Brian Nelson, was a British Army agent.
Why has the RUC/PSNI not convicted anyone for the killing of Pat Finucane? The Special Branch men involved in the killing of Pat Finucane are members of the PSNI. They remain accountable to no one.
In recent weeks Ronnie Flanagan has appointed to superintendent rank a large number of Special Branch men and allocated them positions throughout the PSNI. Flanagan has spread the virus of Special Branch across the PSNI. The SDLP ignore these sinister developments.
I think Eugene may be the only person on this island who believes that under present procedures Special Branch is accountable.
The SDLP members appear to have adopted the role as window dressers for the PSNI and its pet toothless tiger, the Policing Board.
As a political party, in decline, they are now more concerned with painting the illusion of change. The SDLP now find themselves in the foolish position, as Eugene McMemamin finds himself, of having to make outlandish claim of accountability, which "the dogs in the street" know have no basis whatsoever to reality.
Even the most naive political observer would find it difficult to assert the Special Branch is accountable and fewer still would be foolish enough to claim that Special Branch was accountable to the Policing Board.
In his rush to defend his weakening position Cllr McMenamin appears to have forgotten that the Policing Board unanimously rejected the principal recommendation of the Ombudsman's findings into the Omagh investigation and in fact called upon the British Secretary of State to launch a review of the office.
Indeed the recent fact that only nine RUC/PSNI members in the last six years were prosecuted speaks volumes about his claims of a new beginning to policing. The SDLP signed up to the flawed Mandelson bill on policing and the chickens are now coming home to roost!
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0997
Published Date: 04-Apr-02
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