Brits intercept Irish telephone calls

A report on Britain's Channel 4 news in July revealed that a British electronic listening post intercepted most of the 26 Counties' international communications travelling via an undersea cable laid between Portmarnock, Co Dublin and Anglesey, Britain in 1998.

The spy post was located in a 13-storey structure at Capenhurst in Cheshire at a cost of stg. £20 million and operated from 1989 to 1998. The cable crossing the Irish Sea carried the equivalent of more than 10,000 simultaneous telephone calls from Ireland to Britain. From Anglesey the calls were transferred to radio beams and intercepted by the Capenhurst tower.

This "Electronic Test Facility" (ETF) was operated by British military intelligence at its GCHQ electronic spying agency.

The facility enables the British to illegally bug telephone, fax, email and data communications from Ireland.

According to senior intelligence sources, although the primary reason for the spying was to gather information on Republicans, the station also received useful economic intelligence.

This enabled the British to sabotage the 26 Counties economic efforts by detouring foreign investment to Britain.

Human rights groups say the activities at the Capenhurst tower con-travene the European Convention of Human Rights.

Madeline Coluin of Britain's Justice group said the (British) warrants issued to GCHQ to spy on international commun-ications appeared to breach Britain's Human Rights Act because there was no way to complain about them.

"What went on at Capenhurst is wholesale information piracy" according to Nicholas Bohm, a lawyer specialising in telecommunications.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is planning to take Britain to the European Court of Human Rights over its bugging operations.

The existence of the tower was exposed when it was put up for sale by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) three months ago. Channel 4 pretended to be potential buyers and filmed the building.

It had become obsolete after Telecom Éireann switched to fibre-optic cables last year. Unlike radio beams, fibre optic cables cannot be intercepted by aerials.

British bugging of the 26-County telephone and electronics communications now operates through British MOD fibre-optic cables, satellite and microwave interception stations in Drumadd Barracks, Co Armagh and Morwenstow in Cornwall, among other GCHQ stations.
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British policy to abolish political status -- Ancram

On May 25, 1999 a 28-year-old Republican prisoner, Tommy Crossan was subjected to a serious and unprovoked attack by an anti-Republican prisoner in the unsegregated Maghaberry jail in Co Antrim.

The west Belfastman was kicked in the back while on his landing at 7.30pm. He was assaulted again as he lay dazed on the ground. His injuries necessitated stitches to his head and he also suffered swelling and bruising to his head and chest.

Tommy and three other Republican prisoners have been seeking segregation from ordinary prisoners and loyalist prisoners on the same wing since their arrests in November 1998 and January 1999. The prison governor's "guarantees" of protection have been proved false.

A fifth political prisoner, aged 20, was removed to Hyde Bank Juvenile Prison on a technicality. These Republican prisoners have been isolated from each other and their families' safety is also threatened on visits to their loved ones. They have been strip-searched repeatedly and sentenced to 28-day periods of solitary confinement on trumped-up charges.

British minister in the Six Counties, Michael Ancram, wrote in a letter to Tony Benn MP on July 1, 1999 as follows:
"It is Government policy that, following the [Stormont] Agreement, all those arrested and remanded into custody for, or convicted of, offences committed after 10 April (the date of the Agreement) will be held in HMP Maghaberry or HMP Magilligan. This applies whether or not a 'political' motive is claimed; and whether or not any terrorist organisation to which a prisoner may claim to be affiliated is on cease-fire."

This confirms that British policy is to abolish political status for Irish political prisoners. This policy was NOT publicised when the Stormont Agreement was being debated in April/May 1998 and is NOT contained anywhere in the text of the Agreement. It forms part of a hidden agenda which is implicitly supported by the pro-Stormont Agreement parties: SDLP, Provisionals, the Dublin administration, etc.

So much for the 'good faith' of Dublin and London administration in partitioned Ireland! Bobby Sands and nine of his comrades laid down their lives in the historic 1981 hunger-strikes for recognition as political prisoners. This was the tragic culmination of a prison campaign which began with the Blanket Protest in 1976. Is their sacrifice and the sacrifice of many others down the years to be discarded now in exchange for seats in Stormont and British pay-cheques? Surely not.

Support the Maghaberry prisoners four demands:

• Segregation;
• Recognition as a group;
• The right to have their own spokesperson; and
• A prison wing of their own.

  Speak out now and make the British government learn from history so that they do not repeat the mistakes of the Thatcher administration in 1981 which led to so much trauma, suffering and tragedy.

  Limerick

  Political status is also being denied to Josephine Hayden in the Dickensian conditions in Limerick jail. Currently the only woman political prisoner in the 26 Counties, Josephine, has been incarcerated with up to 16 ordinary female prisoners in 'C' Wing which has only eleven cells. This wing was condemned by the CPT (European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) yet continues to be used as a women's prison by the Dublin administration.

  Because she is the only woman political prisoner and rejects the Stormont sell-out Josephine has been denied political status for the past three-and-a-half years of a six-year sentence. In addition she has suffered heart problems and been denied release on humanitarian grounds.

  PORTLAOISE

  Republican prisoners in Portlaoise jail in the 26 Counties who are faithful to the All-Ireland Republic and have not sold out to the latest partition settlement are also under continued pressure in regard to their political status. It is our belief that the Dublin administration will seek to end that status once all the Provisional prisoners have been released.

  Help the campaign by writing to the media, politicians, trade unions, the churches, etc. Attend pickets, collect signatures and funds, make a donation.
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  Trimble sues internet bookseller over 'The Committee'

  David Trimble is trying again to stop publication of a book he wishes was never printed. Having failed in his effort to threaten US-based Roberts Rinehart Publishers into dropping the book, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party is now suing the world's largest internet bookseller, Amazon.com.

  Trimble's latest manoeuvre coincided with the paperback release of the best-selling book, The Committee: Political Assassination in Northern Ireland, which Amazon.com describes as "a gripping story of terrorist atrocities and political corruption".

  According to the London-based establishment newspaper, the Sunday Times, Trimble is suing for libel in Britain "over allegations that he was associated with a loyalist murder conspiracy", as discussed in the book.

  In an editorial entitled "The Truth on Trial", the Sunday Times acknowledged that it may turn out the book's author, award-winning journalist Seán McPhilemy, "is possibly one of the most successful investigative journalists in Irish history", and that "he will have exposed a scandal that could see ministers and police officers jailed".

  Roberts Rinehart Pub-lishers denounced Trimble's action, saying "if Mr Trimble truly wanted the facts to come out, he would have joined Seán McPhilemy in calling for a public inquiry. Instead he devotes his time and energy to trying to stop this book."

  Russell Smith, the senior US libel defence attorney for the publisher and author, says that "this move by Trimble is an attack not only against the book, but against the internet, and against the freedom of the British and Irish people to read what they want to read."

  Trimble previously had written an angry cease-and-desist letter to the book's publishers, in which he defended all of the alleged members of the Committee, which include two known and deceased loyalist death squad members, Billy Wright and Robin Jackson, and two persons recently convicted of offences in connection with anti-nationalist riots in Drumcree.

  In another development, according to the Sunday Times, Trimble today tried to belittle efforts to subpoena him and compel him to testify under oath in the $100 million US libel suit against the book by two Protestant Portadown businessmen. Trimble, the supposed statesman, called this "a stupid stunt", adding that "Roberts Rinehart knows I already have offered to give evidence . . ."

  Attorney Smith responded: "While it is not true that Mr Trimble communicated any such offer to us, we welcome it now, and we have written to Mr Trimble today to take him up on his offer." In another development, Committee witness James Sands, who supposedly "recanted" his eyewitness account of high-level collusion between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, has come forward to confess that his abrupt change of story was a complete hoax on the part of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

  In a filmed interview, and in a sworn affidavit, this former political associate of David Trimble says he stands by all of the revelations he made to Channel Four Television in 1991, as recounted in the current book.

  Sands has confessed how the RUC stage-managed his later "recantation", which was then amplified by the Sunday Times. In his affidavit, Sands tells what happened: "After the RUC learned of my identity, I was detained and held against my will in British army barracks and various police stations for a week. I was told what to say by RUC officers prior to my tape-recorded questioning.

  "The RUC made it clear to me that if I did not co-operate with them and do whatever they ordered me to do, I would be prosecuted or possibly even killed. I never would have freely given any of the statements which I made to the RUC. By 'made it clear', in relation to death threats, I mean that RUC officers told me that if I did not 'recant', I could be assassinated by loyalist paramilitaries. They told me I should co-operate 'for [my] own safety'."

  Sands also has provided Seán McPhilemy's Box Productions with a new, filmed interview on the subject of the murder conspiracy, and he focuses in particular on the RUC's role in organising the assassination of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Sands, who confirmed what he told Channel Four in 1991, explains how the go-ahead for the murder was given at a well-attended meeting of the Committee at Finaghy Orange Hall in Belfast.

  In his filmed interview, he identifies some of those present and states that the RUC representatives were particularly insistent that the killing be done quickly. Shortly after that Committee meeting, which was held at the end of January 1989, Pat Finucane was shot dead while having Sunday dinner with his wife and children.

  STEVENS

  Sands further revealed in the interview how two RUC officers arrived at his home in Antrim just three weeks previously, in an effort to sabotage the current investigation into the Finucane murder by London Metropolitan Police officer John Stevens.

  Sands states that the RUC representatives warned him that the Stevens team soon would be questioning him, and advised him to "stick to the story" from his "recantation", namely, that the Channel Four documentation was "a hoax".

  Thus it appears that just as in the case of the 1990 Stevens Inquiry into Crown Forces collusion, the RUC is aware of the current Stevens team's movements in advance and is taking deliberate steps to prevent access to the truth.

  Sands, who has been neither paid nor promised any benefit for coming forward, believes that he and possibly even his wife and children are in grave physical danger because of what he knows. He realises that his current statements may add to that task, but says that it is "the only moral think for me to do".

  "Events in Northern Ireland in the years since my detention by the RUC, as well as events in my own life, have caused me to want to come clean. I realise that by coming forward and disavowing my 'recantation', I risk criminal prosecution and possibly even death. I believe, however, that the only moral thing for me to do is to tell the truth, even if it may harm me personally."

  According to Irish America magazine, the book is to the Northern Irish "troubles" what Uncle Tom's Cabin was to the issue of American slavery, and for that reason "it packs enough power to abolish the RUC".

  Sands statements are also yet another blow to libel plaintiffs David and Albert Prentice, wealthy Portadown businessmen who are attempting to prosecute a libel suit against the author and publisher of the book in the US.

  In May of this year the District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington dealt the first blow when it barred the Prentices from using the "discovery" process to rummage through author Seán McPhilemy's journalistic notes, memoranda and other documents.

  PAPERBACK

  The paperback edition of The Committee, which is now available, contains new revelations about RUC death squads and provides details of over 100 assassinations, nearly all of which officially are "unsolved".

  Further information concerning the book, as well as the full text of the recent sands affidavit, is available on the internet at: www.robertsrinehart.com/truth_in_ireland.htm.

  Persons interesting in helping to defray the costs of defending against the ongoing lawsuit filed against the book by alleged Committee members are encouraged to send their donation to:

  The Truth in Ireland Legal Defence Fund,
  c/o Roberts Rinehart Publishers,
  PP Box 666,
  Nicot,
  Colorado 80544,
  USA.
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  Inquiry call into death of Irishman in British custody

  "Since when has enjoying an evening with one's family become a capital offence in Britain?" a spokesperson for the Irish in Britain Representation Group (IBRG) asked after a decision to clear three Metropolitan police officers of manslaughter charges relating to the death of an Irishman in London in 1994.

  On July 29 a British jury rejected claims that the London policemen used unreasonable force to hold a 23-stone man down.

  The case revolves around Richard O'Brien who died in London Metropolitan police custody five years ago. The IBRG which represents Irish people in Britain has demanded an independent public inquiry into Richard O'Brien's death.

  The group states that O'Brien "was neither drunk nor disorderly" when he was arrested outside a social club in south London.

  The IBRG also said it believed anti-Irish racism was "rife" among London police and called for a change of attitudes towards the Irish in any future police reforms.

  "There needs to be a deconstruction of police attitudes and behaviour towards the Irish community," the spokesperson said. "The O'Brien case is not an isolated one -- there is a high number of Irish deaths in custody -- and the O'Reilly case in Coventry has raised similar questions about police stereotyping of the Irish."

  Leo O'Reilly died in British police custody after being held in a Coventry cell for 15 hours in July 1994.

  "The IBRG calls for ethnic monitoring in the polcie and judicial system to include the Irish," the spokesperson added.
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  Web layout by SAOIRSE -- Irish Freedom August 7, 1999 Send links, events notifications, articles, comments etc, to the editor at: saoirse@iol.ie marked "attention web-editor".