IFC NewsList - June 2003
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NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: What Price Pretense? The stupendous fraud of the GFA Date: 06 30 03 By Boston Irish Freedom Committee member Eoghan O’Suilleabhain, from the current edition of The Blanket at http://lark.phoblacht.net The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Blanket June 26 2003 What Price Pretense? by Eoghan O’Suilleabhain “Trickle down politics doesn’t work much better than trickle down economics.” - Bill Moyers -------- Mi5 and Mi6 no doubt worked overtime to make sure David Trimble got the UUP ballots he needed to win again. But given that Trimble has no problem with the British suspending their puppet Stormont assembly, and given growing detractors within his own party want out of it like the DUP says it does, you got to wonder what all this hullabaloo is about trying to save David Trimble. What price pretense? Since all fraud eventually ignites ignorance it was only a matter of time before more and more hoodwinked Irish Republicans in Derry or elsewhere started to see through the GFA (Good for Alban) lie and then want to bomb its makers. Of course the Provos are all for the GFA and Stormont because they are (for all intents and purposes) just deep mole British agents anyway as Freddy Scapaticci and Ed Moloney among others have proven. But even if they are not all deep moles, like Bill Moyers’ analysis of the American Democratic Party, “I don’t get why conceding your opponent’s premises and fighting on his turf isn’t the sure-fire prescription for irrelevance and ultimately obsolescence.” So what this all means I'm afraid is that the current level of instability in NI is just the calm before the storm. And this will always be a cyclical Irish experience so long as: 1) British occupation and rule (like Israeli occupation and rule) is unjustifiably held to a different standard in the West than say Turkish, Russian or Indonesian occupation and rule; 2) The Irish Government (ROI) is a weak minded banana republic of the co-opted and corrupted; 3) Many Irish people suffer from what Sean McBride called the slave mentality to even give a toss about all the forms of British interference in the affairs of their Country...thanks to the Catholic Church & the Ballyseedy mindset of many of the ROI governments past and present. Which of course leaves just an enlightened and angry few left to try and spark the rest of us hopefully with insight rather than incendiary, but since past is prologue, not likely. And that, dear readers, is the price of a stupendous fraud. Oh well, but since Bill Moyers has been on a roll lately know: “New ages don’t arrive overnight, or without ‘blood, sweat, and tears.’” ************************************************ |
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NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Informant tells tales of intrigue, terror and semtex-stuffed toys Date: 06 29 03 ------------------------ Irish Independent Sunday June 29, 2003 Spy Rupert tells tale of intrigue, terror and semtex-stuffed toys Liz Walsh SEMTEX-stuffed teddy bears. Skipping ropes lined with detonating cord. Beer kegs earmarked for bomb casings at IRA "theme" parks. "Stolen" car bombs exploding mysteriously on a boreen, driverunknown. The tale of intrigue recited by American spy David Rupert in the opening days of the trial of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was truly astonishing, often winding, occasionally humorous. And, like other Real IRA trials, the shadow of Omagh hung over the proceedings in the Special Criminal Court. All eyes were on Rupert, a six foot eight inch, 22-stone giant of a man, as he emerged into the packed courtroom from behind a cordon of armed detectives on Monday morning to testify against McKevitt. Rupert, four times married and three times bankrupt, had his first taste of Ireland in 1992, when he began dating Linda Vaughan, a lobbyist for the Florida State Senate and for Noraid. In a soft American drawl, Rupert told the court he found Ireland "relaxing", like turning back the clock 40 years and "going home". Through Vaughan, he met prominent republicans including Joe O'Neill, a Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) member from Bundoran. Joe O'Neill found Rupert a willing listener as he talked him through his version of Irish republicanism. Rupert made return visits to Ireland in July and December, 1993. Unknown to him however, the Special Branch was wondering about the identity of the burly Yank hanging around known republicans and asked the FBI. In April 1994, Rupert was back in the Chicago office of his trucking firm when, out of the blue, FBI agent Ed Buckley walked in. Buckley wondered if he would be interested in supplying information on particular individuals and their links to support groups in the US. According to Rupert, he turned Buckley down flat but swiftly changed his mind citing his "moral teachings" as the reason. "I like to come here [Ireland]. He was offering to expense me for my trips, so I agreed to take him up on the issue," he told prosecutor George Bermingham SC in a matter-of-fact voice. Rupert returned to Ireland later that year - this time as a spy - and "hung close" to Joe O'Neill. The following year, the FBI gave Rupert $8,500 to lease the Drowse Bar, in Leitrim. It had an adjoining caravan park, which Rupert referred to as "my IRA theme park" because of its large republican clientele. Rupert began reporting back to the FBI and later also to the gardai, specifically to chief superintendent Dermot Jennings [now assistant commissioner]. But while the FBI 'McKevitt was taking copious notes and glancing frequently at the prosecution witness. Rupert, face averted, did not look back' was paying him generous expenses, the gardai's offer was strictly mileage. Rupert was not impressed: "I just let it ride," he drawled. Back in the Drowse Bar, Joe O'Neill approached Rupert and asked if he would set aside 10 or 12 beer kegs, allegedly for use as bomb casings. Rupert claims he noted the serial numbers and passed them on to the gardai. In 1997, O'Neill had another request. This time he asked Rupert if could acquire some Semtex in the US, detonating cord and detonators. The Semtex, O'Neill allegedly suggested, could be stuffed into teddy bears, the cord hidden in "jump ropes", the detonators inside radios and the whole shebang forwarded to a school in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal where O'Neill's sister worked as a teacher. Asked if he had complied, Rupert said no. In February 1997, he signed a formal contract with the FBI whereby he would be paid $2,500 monthly plus expenses. In return, he would continue supplying intelligence on dissident republicans. Rupert was now on the payroll. During three days of direct examination, Rupert gave names, events, places, but was somewhat sketchy on dates. He sat face turned towards the bench, turning to counsel only when Mr Birmingham prodded him on his recall of certain events. "I'm coming to that," he said dismissively several times. A few feet away 53-year-old McKevitt was taking copious notes and glancing frequently at the prosecution witness. Rupert, face averted, did not look back. The FBI team looked intently at their man in the witness box. With one exception, the FBI agents look remarkably like Middle American Evangelical Christians, all neat hairstyles and similar dress code. From 1994 to 1999, David Rupert hung close to people associated with RSF and its military wing, the Continuity IRA - the "do nothings" as he referred to them. His impression was "let's talk about it, let's collect money for it, but let's not do anything about it because we might end up in jail". There was, however, one exception - a man named Mickey Donnelly from Derry who Rupert met at an RSF Ard Fheis in Dublin. Mickey Donnelly, Rupert claimed, was "hardcore Continuity Army". His attitude was "let's do some damage". He was also gung ho to "shoot a cop". Donnelly, Rupert explained to the court, was one of the "hooded men" [internees ill-treated by the British Army in the Seventies] and it effected him badly. Donnelly began talking of a new group - Oglaigh na hEireann - that was forming from the remnants of the Real IRA following the Omagh atrocity. The name Michael McKevitt cropped up. At this stage, Rupert was also working - at the FBI's suggestion - for MI5, reporting to a British agent named Norman. On his own admission, Rupert was ferrying large sums of cash - up to $17,000 a go, from the US to Ireland. When Donnelly suggested that Rupert meet the "higher ups" in the new organisation, Rupert reported this to MI5. "See what develops," his MI5 handler advised. Rupert said he agreed to meet Michael McKevitt, Seamus McGrane, Donnelly and another republican, Philip Kent. And so it was that on a Sunday morning in September 1999, the American spy, the alleged leader of the Real IRA and the three others sat around the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan drinking tea and - according to Rupert - discussing military strategy. McGrane, referred to as "Shay" was introduced to Rupert as head of training for "Oglaigh na hEireann". It didn't click with Rupert that "Shay" was short for Seamus - "I thought they were referring to Che Guevara," he told the court. Rupert felt he and McKevitt "clicked" and "the meeting went real smooth". He claimed McKevitt spoke about a renewed armed campaign following the "tactical ceasefire" declared by the Real IRA after Omagh. The new organisation was a disparate group, comprising 98 per cent of the Continuity IRA, all of the Real IRA, some INLA and a few disaffected Provos. According to Rupert, Michael McKevitt was very forthcoming about military strategy. Car bombs were passe - unless deployed in central London or against military targets. He allegedly spoke about Omagh being a 20/80 per cent operation: the Real IRA provided the car and built the bomb and left it to the Continuity to pick the target and deliver it. "He said the boys should have just driven it out the country and let it go. But they drove it down the road and parked it and created the Omagh atrocity," said Rupert. Before Omagh, the Real IRA built another bomb and left it to the Continuity to deliver with instructions to "use it" within two weeks. Three weeks elapsed without any word of the bomb. When the Real IRA went looking for it they were told someone had stolen the car, bomb and all. Shrugging his shoulders, Rupert told the court he heard it "went off" on a small country road somewhere. David Rupert was paid $1.25m (€1.7m) for intelligence gathering for the FBI and MI5, the court heard. In December 2000, he agreed to testify. He signed a new contract with the FBI giving him monthly payments of $20,000 plus a one-off payment for testifying. Over the course of three days, David Rupert alleged that Michael McKevitt asked him to acquire weapons in the US and act as liaison for the new organisation. In short, he painted a picture of McKevitt as a man very much in charge of the Real IRA. On Thursday afternoon, it was the turn of the defence. In the first hour, the defence established that 51-year-old Rupert was three times bankrupt with a trail of debtors in his wake. He reneged on loans from acquaintances and was charged in connection with "bad cheques". And what were you driving during this period of financial hardship? Mr Hartnett enquired. A Silver Shadow Rolls Royce and a DeLorean perhaps? The Rolls was 15 years old, Rupert countered. And how did the people of Rupert's hometown, Messina - a "hick town" counsel suggested - regard this thrice bankrupt swanning around in a Rolls, Mr Hartnett continued? The witness glared at counsel and indicated that he didn't really know. And no, he said, he could not recall saying the DeLorean was "built by a crook, driven by crooks". Michael McKevitt is accused of membership of the IRA and also with directing that organisation, a charge that rests entirely on the evidence of David Rupert. The trial continues tomorrow. ************************************************ Continued updates at http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/mckevitt_trial.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
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NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Rupert suffers credibility problem Date: 06 29 03 More news coverage of the outrageous allegations of paid informant David Rupert at http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/mckevitt_trial.htm The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Sunday Business Post 29/06/03 00:00 Rupert suffers credibility problem By Barry O'Kelly A little over three years ago, supergrass David Rupert sent an e-mail to his FBI handlers, after being inspired by a television programme about al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The Americans and the Brits, he suggested in typical gung-ho style, should try to set up a meeting between bin Laden and the target of Rupert's spying, alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt. The spy agencies demurred be-cause of the obvious difficulties in persuading a Muslim fundamentalist inAfghanistan to meet a Christian republican in Ireland whom he had never heard of before. The story, revealed in Rupert's e-mails which have seen by The Sunday Business Post, did not warrant a mention in the informant's testimony against McKevitt last week. It might have given the court an insight into his fertile imagination. Rupert could well be telling the truth about McKevitt, but the picture the New Yorker has painted is a peculiarly American story. McKevitt's name has been linked with just about every ogre in US foreign policy. Rupert claimed last week that the veteran republican from Co Louth was trying to set up deals with the Iraqi government, Libya's Colonel Gadaffi, the Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger guerrillas and suicide bombers from theMiddleEast. The talk of suicide bombers pre-dated their emergence as universal figures of fear after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Rupert (51) claimed he met McKevitt 20 times between 1999 and 2000. He said they spoke about the August 1998 Omagh bombing, the worst atrocity of the Troubles, and about plans to appoint an American affiliate to the Real IRA army council. McKevitt, 53, from Dundalk,Co Louth, is the first person in the state to be charged with directing terrorism. He denies the charge. The case is expected to run in the Special Criminal Court for another four weeks. The chief prosecution witness, 6ft 5in tall and weighing 20 stone, is the biggest man in acourt room packed with burly detectives. He turns up every day in an expensive, well-cut suit and steel-rimmed glasses, and speaks in a calm drawl. His story is well-rehearsed and peppered with colourful anecdotes. He looks and sounds like a good guy, but the defence team say he is anything but.This will become apparent when the defence. This they intend to show when challenging his evidence this week. Rupert's background is a murky world of alleged scams with Afro-Caribbean criminals in Chicago, life assurance frauds, gambling deals with the Mafia and a string of bankruptcies. The four-times bankrupt claimed that he decided to testify against McKevitt after watching a heart-rending TV documentary on the Omagh bomb attack. Defence lawyers say Rupert was down to his last $1,100 when the FBI approached him to inform on McKevitt. He later made a deal to be paid on the basis of the quality of the information he furnished. This was eventually replaced by a contract after he threatened to blow his own cover. Rupert agreed in court that his FBI contract now paid him a total of $19,000 a month. It is the best regular wage he has ever had, he said. Under cross-examination, he admitted that he had left many creditors in the small town where he lived, adding: "When you file for bankruptcy, you are released from a legal obligation to pay." He admitted that he drove a Rolls Royce, despite failing to pay off his debts. He also drove a DeLorean sports car, but maintained that he had never heard the saying about DeLorean cars - "built by a crook, driven by a crook". Rupert agreed that 1974 was a bad year for him. His "well-insured" house burnt down, he faced bankruptcy and was charged with issuing two bad cheques. The supergrass had no Irish background and, at that time, no apparent interest in Irish affairs. That he was able to worm his way into republican circles in the early 1990s says much about the nature of the dissident groups outside the Provisional IRA at the time. Rupert said he was introduced to republicans in Ireland by the Florida-based lobbyist Linda Vaughan after they met in an Irish-American bar in 1992. "I started dating her. It seemed like a good thing to do," Rupert told the court. "She was political. She talked of the Irish problem and put an Irish republican slant on it." Vaughan was a lobbyist for Noraid, the pro-republican Irish-American fundraising body. She introduced Rupert to republicansVincent Murray from Sligo and Joe O'Neill from Bundoran, the court heard. He made repeated trips to Ireland and came to the attention of the Garda Special Branch, who photographed him. In 1994, the FBI's Chicago agent Pat Buckley approached him and asked him to inform on republicans. Rupert conceded he was broke when the FBI first made advances to him. He said his trucking business had collapsed following an accident in Kentucky in which three children died. Rupert told the court he had agreed to become Buckley's informer some months later because "from my moral teachings, I found it morally acceptable to do so". Informed sources say he was facing a massive tax bill at the time. He was also open to persuasion on another front. His brother Dale had been arrested some months earlier with more than aton of cannabis.Dale was jailed for just two years after naming two of his associates to the FBI. It is suspected that one of them was David. Rupert's account of the collapse of the trucking company is also suspect. Infor med sources say that he filed for bankruptcy a week before the accident happened. Rupert conceded that Buckley "was offering to expense my trips, so I agreed to take him up on the issue". Rupert's first contact with republicans was at a meeting organised by Republican Sinn Féin (RSF) in 1992. Vaughan spoke at the meeting, which was a commemoration of the 1981 hunger strikes. Rupert later met members of RSF, the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and people connected with the Provisional IRA. From 1992 to 1994, Rupert "came in contact with people in the republican family and socialised with them". He also worked to strengthen his credibility by infiltrating the republican scene in America. He says he was encouraged to do so by the Bundoran RSF activist Joe O'Neill. The two men discussed getting all the US republican groups together under one umbrella. They formed a group called the Irish Freedom Committee, whose members included Joe Dillon in Boston and veteran Irish republican Frank O'Neill. Rupert also told the court of meeting a republican called Hurley who worked on the police bomb squad in Essex County. The establishment of the committee improved his stature back in Ireland, according to Rupert. The RIRA and CIRA were both anxious for him to source funds from the US. One of his key contacts was Derry republican Michael Donnelly, who "got the boot from the Continuity IRA" after making a major show of arms at the annual Michael Flannery dinner fundraising event in the US. The supergrass said he was introduced to Michael McKevitt in 1999. He claimed that at their first meeting, McKevitt spoke about the Omagh atrocity, which claimed 31 lives, including unborn twins. According to Rupert, McKevitt said it was a joint operation between the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, with the latter identifying Omagh as a target. His testimony on this crucial issue was scattered. His affidavit stated that McKevitt told him it was a 70 per cent CIRA, 30 per cent RIRA operation. On the witness stand, he quoted him as saying the ratio was 80-20. He also testified that RIRA made the bomb, but later said it was made by CIRA. The case continues. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
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NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Censorship at the Echo – IFC responds Date: 06 28 03 Letter from IFC National Chairman Joseph Dillon, written in response to the censoring and subsequent resignations of Irish Echo reporters Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly. For more information please go to “Censorship at the Irish Echo” on the Irish Freedom Committee website at http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/echo_censorship.htm , or to The Blanket at http://lark.phoblacht.net The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Letter from IFC Chairman Joseph Dillon: Censorship is the work of dictators --------------------------------- Mr. Tom Connelly The Irish Echo 309 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10016-6548 June 26, 2003 Dear Mr. Connelly; As a long-time subscriber to the Echo, I have been extremely disturbed and shocked to learn of your publisher’s censoring the columns of Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly, resulting in their resigning from your staff. From my perspective, these gentlemen had brought incisive and enlightening commentary to a newspaper which, to my mind, had seemed to be just plodding along. As an American publisher, Mr. Finlay’s cowering before criticism, whether from state, church or commercial interests, certainly deprives him of the respect due to the owner of a newspaper which should respect all viewpoints. How about your front-page coverage of Mr. David Trimble, a life-long bigot who, in truth, despises the natives of the land in which he had been born? Also, to genuflect before a representative of a foreign political party, Mr. Adams’, a party the leadership of which has been proven to be but self-serving, pseudo-Brits, is intolerable. And, despite Mairtin O’Muilleoir’s recent statement in the Echo, trusted sources in West Belfast have recently affirmed that his Andersonstown News is certainly a front, a mouthpiece for, Mr. Adams’ former republican party. To conclude: The Irish Echo is, and will continue to be, far less readable and interesting without the brilliance of Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly. Censorship is the work of dictators and should have no place in the publishing of a newspaper. Having said that, I inform you that I will not be renewing my subscription when it comes due. Dear old Charlie Connolly, a man of integrity who sincerely loved Ireland, must be turning over in his grave! Sincerely; Joseph T. Dillon Chairman, Irish Freedom Committee Boston MA ************************************************ MORE READING: Censorship at the Echo http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/echo_censorship.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
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NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Rooftop Protest at Maghaberry Jail Date: 06 28 03 In statements released to the media today from Belfast, human rights activists Marian Price and Martin Mulholland said that the latest protest by prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol comes as " no surprise." "We have repeatedly warned that the oppressive policies of
the prison administration would lead to disaster. |
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COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: FBI funded agent-provocateur pub Date: 06 24 03 From triple agent Rupert's second day of testimony -------------------- Irish Examiner Agent gave kegs for bomb use, court told 24/06/2003 - 1:43:07 pm An FBI agent who infiltrated dissident republican terror organisations was told to hand over smuggled beer kegs to use in bombs, a court heard today. David Rupert, the US spy testifying at the trial of Michael McKevitt, claimed his handlers helped him buy a pub in Co Leitrim in June 1996. At the time Mr Rupert, aged 51, had become a close associate of Joe O’Neill, described as a senior member of Republican Sinn Fein. Mr Rupert told the Special Criminal Court that after he started running the Drowes Bar in Tullathan, Mr O’Neill approached him about a number of empty beer kegs that supplier Guinness would not be prepared to take back. He said: “In republican circles they often use hand language in lieu of saying bomb or bomb casings or shootings. “Joe’s hand language for bomb was such (making signal). By indicating such, I understood he wanted to use them for bomb casings.” Mr Rupert said he took down the serial numbers of each of the kegs and passed them on to a senior garda officer, Dermot Jennings, who had become his contact in case any were used in an explosion. The double agent, who was paid a total of $1.25m (€1.08m) by US and British intelligence services to investigate the rogue republican groupings, is the key witness in the case against McKevitt. The accused, aged 53 and from Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth, is the first person ever to be charged in the State with the offence of directing terrorism. He is also standing trial on allegations that he is a member of the Real IRA, the organisation behind the August 1998 Omagh atrocity which killed 29 people and two unborn babies. McKevitt has pleaded not guilty to both charges. On the second day of his evidence, Mr Rupert, a striking 6ft 5in tall man weighing more than 20 stone, told how he made several visits to Ireland after first being approached by FBI agent Ed Buckley in Chicago in an attempt to breach the dissident republicans. He had previously worked with the US agency in an operation during the 1970s centred around the drugs trade in New Jersey. But after the approach by agent Buckley in 1994 he began to focus on Republicans such as Mr O’Neill and Vincent Murray. His relationship with Mr O’Neill became particularly strong, as he accompanied him to fundraising functions across Ireland. At one of these events in Dublin during Christmas 1994, the veteran republican was handed an envelope containing $10,000 (€8,650) in cash from a Boston contact, Mr Rupert told the court. “Joe didn’t want to be carrying this in case we were stopped at a road block and he would have no reason for carrying $10,000 in cash,” he said. As the spying operation intensified, Mr Rupert decided to sell up his trucking business and move with his wife at the time, Maureen, to run a pub in Ireland. “It gave a greater access to the republican community and I could be in a casual situation where you could have an exchange of conversation so it didn’t appear as though you were interested in certain subjects, being intelligence,” he explained. After FBI chiefs gave the plan the green light, Mr Rupert and his wife returned to Ireland and with the help of Mr O’Neill they identified the Drowes Bar. The agent’s wife had given up her job as a truck stop manager and with the aid of cash from the FBI, the couple made the switch. The pub was located beside a caravan park used mostly by people from Belfast and Dungannon in Northern Ireland who were closely linked to Provisional Sinn Fein, the court heard. Mr Rupert said: “I usually make reference to it as my IRA theme park.” Mr Rupert said that when he returned to the United States he received an offer of a contract from the FBI. He decided to accept it saying: “My options were limited. I took the FBI up on their contract. “What they were looking for was to make me an intelligence asset and for me to travel to Ireland and to try to sort out the associations between the money that was being gotten in the US and where it was winding up, how it was funding terrorism in Ireland.” He said that under the terms of the contract he would received $2,500 a month which he described as “extremely minimal”, considering what he had earned before. Shortly after his contract began with the FBI, Joe O’Neill asked Mr Rupert about shipping a number of items from the US to Ireland. He said: “He broached me on the subject of obtaining Semtex, detonator cords and detonators and proceeded to tell me how to ship them.” Mr Rupert said he found this extremely upsetting. Mr O’Neill suggested that Mr Rupert put the Semtex inside teddy bears, the detonator cords inside skipping ropes – as they were hollow – and the detonators inside radios. “It concerned me because I had to make a number of trips across the Atlantic,” he said. “I was wondering how many fools were putting this stuff in luggage on the plane I was travelling on.” Mr O’Neill gave him the address of a school in Ballyshannon where his sister was a teacher. He said that during his work for the FBI he never sent any of these materials as requested. He then told how British intelligence were also interested in him working for them. Mr Rupert said: “They asked if I had any qualms over working with them. “I believed at the time I made a quip about how I was a whore and would work for anybody but I was being facetious because I wouldn’t work for anyone that was looking to serve any bad purpose.” Up to this stage all of the agent’s briefings were face to face with his bosses but he later came up with the idea of using e-mail to file his reports. He took an encryption programme, learned how to use it and from then on sent encrypted e-mails jointly to the FBI and the British security services. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: McKevitt faces FBI spy – Day three of trial Date: 06 24 03 The Guardian reporting on yesterday’s appearance of triple agent David Rupert at the trial of Michael McKevitt in Dublin’s Special Courts. For continuously updated news on the trial, including background on years of FBI/MI5/Garda payments to the supergrass witness, go to the Irish Freedom Committee website at http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/mckevitt_trial.htm The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Guardian Tuesday June 24, 2003
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Supergrass witness was hypnotized by British MI5 Date: 06 22 03 ------------------- Sunday Business Post Sun, June 22, 2003 Supergrass Rupert `hypnotised' by British agents The trial of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt will hear that the chief prosecution witness was hypnotised by MI5, writes Barry O'Kelly, Crime Correspondent. The Sunday Business Post can reveal that an e-mail from MI5 shows that the American supergrass David Rupert was asked in 1999 to undergo hypnosis by his spy handlers in London, to "jog his memory". Rupert (51) is believed to have told the security agency he would do whatever was required of him. He will begin his testimony against McKevitt in the Special Criminal Court tomorrow. McKevitt (53), a veteran republican from Blackrock, Dundalk, is the first person to be charged with directing terrorism. The defence will seek to discredit Rupert. Two teams of lawyers from Ireland and America are taking part in the trial. This newspaper has learned that the supergrass will be asked about undeclared remuneration, illegal operations for the Continuity IRA, drug dealing, financial swindles, organised crime and an indirect link with the Omagh bombing. He will also be cross-examined about his strained relations with the Garda Special Branch. An MI5 report, seen by this newspaper, quotes a senior garda as saying he was "a bullshi**er". Amnesty International, British Irish Rights Watch and the American Law Alliance will have monitors in the non-jury court. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Spy's dark past overshadows testimony Date: 06 22 03 -------------------- Sunday Business Post Sun, June 22, 2003 Spy's dark past overshadows the trial of Michael McKevitt By Barry O'Kelly The supergrass described as a man of great courage in the Real IRA trial of Michael McKevitt has defrauded his former wife, left 350 creditors stranded and run scams with gangsters in New York, Chicago and Florida. These and other uncomfortable biographical details will be put this week to American David Rupert, who begins his testimony against McKevitt in the Special Criminal Court tomorrow. McKevitt (53), a veteran republican from Blackrock, Dundalk, is the first person in the country to be charged with directing terrorism. The state presented Rupert last week as a brave spy whose contract with the FBI precluded him from engaging in illegal activities as an informant between 1994 and 2001. That image will be ridiculed over the coming days when the court will hear damning information about Rupert's past, much of it based on self-incriminating e-mails he sent to his handlers. The Sunday Business Post understands that allegations about undeclared remuneration, illegal operations for the Continuity IRA, drug dealing, financial swindles and an indirect part in the Omagh bombing will be raised. Rupert (51), a striking 6ft 5in New Yorker with German and Mohawk Indian roots, is likely to be pressed about income he received from the British intelligence agency MI5 and the settlement of a $900,000 debt with the American revenue authorities. McKevitt's lawyers will claim that the total cost of running him as an agent so far was significantly higher than the $1.25 million mentioned in court last week. He will also be asked about his associations with Afro-Caribbean criminals in Chicago, Native American smugglers on the Canadian border with America, a notorious L ebanes e gangster, an associate of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and an Italian mafioso in Florida. The defence has established that Rupert is a four-times bankrupt with a trail of 350 creditors behind him. His last business collapse left him owing the American revenue $900,000. McKevitt's lawyers are likely to question Rupert about how he settled this bill. They will also question him about the curious events surrounding the arrest of his brother Dale with more than a ton of cannabis, in or around the time he was persuaded to become an informant. Dale was jailed for just two years after he named two of his associates to the FBI; it is alleged that one of them was his brother David. Rupert previously worked in forestry, construction, life assurance and the trucking business. "It's fair to say that his career had its ups and downs," said state lawyer George Bermingham. It will be claimed this week that Rupert's career in life assurance abruptly ended after he defrauded his father-in-law boss. A succession of business failures in America followed, including a pub called Charlie's Tavern, Gemini Trucks, Transport Arrangements and the Wildside Bar. Rupert was facing bankruptcy when he came to Ireland in 1992 with his then girlfriend, a Tallahassee lobbyist called Linda Vaughan, who had a "keen interest in Irish affairs of the republican persuasion". Vaughan spoke at a meeting commemorating the 1981 hunger strikes during the visit. The meeting in the northwest was organised by Republican Sinn Féin (RSF). Rupert later met members of RSF, the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and people connected with the Provisional IRA. In 1992, 1993 and 1994 Rupert "came in contact with people in the republican family and socialised with them". In early 1994 FBI agent Pat Ed Buckley approached him at his home in America. He told him that the FBI were investigating him and asked him about the possibility of providing information on republicans in Ireland. Rupert said he would think about it. Three months later, he agreed to become a tout in return for the FBI paying his air fares and expenses in Ireland. He formally joined the FBI payroll three years later, and he agreed to work for MI5 shortly afterwards. As part of its case that McKevitt was a serious player in the Real IRA, the state said last week that Rupert would quote the Dundalk man talking about the Omagh bombing in 1998. The supergrass would say that he was told the atrocity, which claimed 29 lives, was a joint operation between the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA , with the latter identifying Omagh as a target. This testimony may ultimately prove deeply damaging for Rupert. Rupert was working solely as a spy inside the CIRA in the months leading up to the bombing. According to reliable sources, it will be alleged that his e-mails from this period demonstrate that he had an active part in identifying Omagh as a bomb target. Informed sources say that Rupert videotaped potential targets in Aughnacloy, Enniskillen and Omagh in the months leading up to the bombing. Some of the CIRA activists he was working with at the time are believed to have provided intelligence information to the Omagh bombers. In a message in April 1998 to his handler in London, officer N, Rupert said he had driven the scout car for an abortive car bomb run, the target of which was either Derry or Omagh. He was accompanied on the run by the then chief of staff of the CIRA. "This [operation] yesterday was a military operation and I was part of it," he said. After the bombing, Rupert made the startling admission to his British handlers that Omagh was one of the potential targets he had "mentioned" to the CIRA activists. Last week the court heard that Rupert first came into contact with McKevitt at a meeting in Co Monaghan on August 29 1999. He was apparently introduced to him by a Derry republican. Rupert would say he was told by McKevitt that the future for republicanism lay in cyberterrorism and attacks on the financial heart of Britain. The informant will be quizzed over the coming days about the fact that he made remarkably similar claims when he was spying on the CIRA. The cross-examination will also raise embarrassing questions about the roles of the three intelligence agencies involved, the Garda Special Branch, the FBI and MI5. The Gardai dispensed with Rupert's services in 1997, until he was presented by MI5 as a supergrass against McKevitt four years later. The British illegally used him as an agent during this period, MI5 documents confirm. The documents, seen by this newspaper, also show that the Gardai had little faith in him. An MI5 intelligence report quotes a senior garda as saying Rupert was "a bullshitter". A prosecutor wisely added the rider last week that David Rupert jokingly described himself as a whore who would do anything for money. The MI5 documents provide ample evidence of this. In one report an officer noted that Rupert was grumbling about not being paid enough. He changed his tune after the handler gave him a £10,000 bonus. The trial in the three-judge, nojury Special Criminal Court is expected to last about six weeks. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: €1.7m supergrass to testify tomorrow Date: 06 22 03 -------------------------------- Sunday Irish Independent Sun June 22nd 03 €1.7m RIRA spy will tell of London plot LIZ WALSH THE American spy due to testify against alleged leader of the Real IRA Michael McKevitt has arrived in Ireland and takes the stand in the Special Criminal Court tomorrow. David Rupert was paid €1.7m by the FBI and MI5 to infiltrate dissident republican organisations, it emerged last week. The case against McKevitt for directing a terrorist organisation rests entirely upon Rupert's testimony in the first case of its kind in this country. It is understood that Rupert has been in the county for some days and is being kept at a secret location. There are concerns, however, that Rupert - 6'8" tall and weighing more than 22 stone - will actually fit into the witness box. There was some discussion among FBI men who arrived at the court last Wednesday as to whether it would have to be adapted or a new box brought in. Assuming he fits in the box, Rupert will sit just feet away from McKevitt. The alleged Real IRA leader was allowed to leave the dock and sit with his lawyers because of problems hearing the proceedings. Outlining the case for the State, George Birmingham SC said Rupert will tell the court that he met with Michael McKevitt on 20 occasions and alleges the Louth man told him he wanted his campaign to "extract a huge financial toll" in London. In return for infiltrating dissident republican groups, Rupert "looked for" and "received remuneration" to the tune of €1.7m. He describes himself, the State concedes, as a "whore" who would work for whoever paid him. According to the State, however, David Rupert is a "figure of quite remarkable courage" who performed an "extraordinarily dangerous task" with great skill over a number of years. The defence portrayed Rupert as a conman with a criminal past who would do anything for money, including telling lies about his association with the accused. It emerged in court that Rupert had entered into a contract with two US journalists to write a book about his experience, from which he would receive 55 per cent of profits. Rupert is expected to be on the stand for at least four days and will be subjected to a rigorous cross-examination as the defence seeks to undermine his credibility. The new offence of directing an illegal organisation carries a maximum term of life imprisonment. Michael McKevitt is also charged with membership of the IRA. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Censorship at the Irish Echo Date: 06 20 03 The Irish Freedom Committee is asking our friends and supporters to please send a letter to the Irish Echo in support of the principled stance taken by reporters Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly in standing up to censorship. Contact information for the Irish Echo is below. For further reading please visit The Blanket or see the Irish Freedom Committee webpage referenced at the bottom of this mailing. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Censorship at the Irish Echo June 19, 2003 Statements by Irish Echo reporters Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly ------------------------------------ Two columnists at the Irish Echo newspaper in New York have resigned from the paper accusing its publisher of censorship. Both claim that Sinn Féin, the Irish political party led by Gerry Adams, brought pressure to bear on the Echo publisher, Sean Finlay, about the content of their columns since they were hired last year. Finlay's latest act of censorship this week produced angry letters from his own editorial staff accusing him of caving in to intimidation and betraying the newspaper's editorial independence. The Echo is the oldest and largest circulation Irish newspaper in the United States. Sean Finlay, a communications millionaire, bought the newspaper early last year from Claire Grimes, whose family had owned the paper since the 1940s. As part of the newspaper's re-launch last September Finlay revamped the paper and added new columnists, including Eamon Lynch and Patrick Farrelly. Below are their accounts of the events which led to their resignations from the Echo. ----------------------------------------- Eamon Lynch -- eamon@eamonlynch.com Several weeks ago I learned of legal threats against the popular website
Nuzhound.com, which links to daily news stories about Northern Ireland. The threat came from Mairtin O Muilleoir, publisher of the Belfast-based
Andersonstown News. O Muilleoir, a former Sinn Fein Belfast City Councillor and a confidant of Gerry Adams, demanded that Nuzhound remove
links to two articles in the online magazine The Blanket that were critical of the political coverage in O Muilleoir's newspaper. Please include your contact info for verification |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: McKevitt Trial adjourned until Monday Date: 06 19 03 ------------------ BBC News Thursday, 19 June, 2003, 14:09 GMT 15:09 UK McKevitt case adjourned Michael McKevitt denies all the charges The trial of the alleged leader of the dissident republican Real IRA has been adjourned until Monday. Michael McKevitt, 53, is the first person in the Republic of Ireland to appear at Dublin's non-jury Special Criminal Court charged with directing terrorism. The offence was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government in the wake of the Omagh bombing in 1998. The County Louth businessman is also charged with membership of an illegal organisation. He denies the charges. Mr McKevitt faces a possible life sentence if found guilty. On Thursday, the court heard that Garda Special Branch detectives searched the home of Mr McKevitt after studying a 40-page dossier compiled by an FBI and MI5 agent. E-mails were also studied before the officers raided Mr McKevitt's house in Dundalk which led to his arrest in March 2001. Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Maguire told how he spent three days examining documents provided by David Rupert, the US businessman allegedly paid by American and British intelligence services to infiltrate the Real IRA. Mr Maguire said: "I examined a particular statement by the man called David Rupert which comprised of over 40 pages. "There were a number of e-mails and I looked at some of them. They contained specific allegations in relation to Mr McKevitt." The trial is taking place at the Special Criminal Court The detective told the court that Mr McKevitt's home in Blackrock, Dundalk was searched on 28 March. He said he "had reasonable grounds to believe the evidence connected Mr McKevitt with membership of an unlawful organisation... and with direction of an unlawful organisation". The trial was then adjourned until Monday because defence lawyers insisted they wanted to hear Mr Rupert's evidence before continuing with the garda officers. Mr Rupert, the construction company boss who allegedly spied on the Real IRA and other dissident republican groupings for the FBI and British and Irish security services, is crucial to the prosecution's case. The trial which is expected to last for up to six weeks. Mr McKevitt is one of five people the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing are taking a separate civil action against in Northern Ireland. The Real IRA attack on 15 August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant with twins. The Real IRA was formed after a split within the mainstream IRA. The dissident group is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process. ************************************************ Audio – BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/39182000/rm/_39182636_shaneharrison.ram ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: RUC informer to lose police protection Date: 06 18 03 ----------------- Irish News June 17, 2003 RUC informer to lose police protection by Barry McCaffrey An RUC informer who revealed that police had received two warnings prior to the 1998 Omagh bombing has been told his police protection will end in September. The police agent, who uses the pseudonym ‘Kevin Fulton’, first came to prominence in 2000 when it was revealed that he had tpped-off police three days before the Omagh attack that the Real IRA was preparing a major bomb destined for somewhere in Northern Ireland. While Fulton did not give the precise target, he named the bomb-maker and his whereabouts. In the aftermath of the Omagh inquiry, Fulton fled to England claiming that his cover had been blown and that his life was now in danger. Since then he has lived in a safe house in England provided to him by police. In April, security minister Jane Kennedy’s office wrote to Fulton stating that while his life was under threat in Northern Ireland, he would no longer be provided with a new identity in England. The letter stated that the Northern Ireland Office did not believe Fulton would be in danger living in England under his real name. Speaking from his English safe house last night, Kevin Fulton said that the NIO had yesterday informed his solicitor that his police protection would be withdrawn on September 12. “They have informed my solicitor that from September I am on my own and that I will have to leave the safe house and can no longer live under the pseudonym Kevin Fulton. “I firmly believe that they are doing this because I have become an embarrassment to the security services because of what I have revealed about what they did in Northern Ireland. “Now I believe they want me killed.” The decision not to provide Fulton with a new identity comes just six months after the NIO used his former police handler to offer Fulton a deal, if he called-off legal action in which he threatened to name other British army agents. Fulton denies that he was behind last month’s naming of a west Belfast man as the army’s ‘Stake-knife’ agent within the Irish Republican Army. In April, British/Irish Rights Watch spokeswoman Jane Winter expressed her concern at the threat to withdraw protection for the former agent. “Kevin Fulton is one of a number of people, who were effectively spies who worked undercover for the state on the understanding that they would be treated fairly if their double life was ever exposed. “He now finds himself in the situation where the government were protecting him yesterday. “Today they are cutting him lose,” Ms Winter said at the time. A police spokeswoman last night said that the PSNI did not comment on individual cases. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: McKevitt Trial starts today Date: 06 18 03 The Special Courts show trial against Michael McKevitt has started today, with what are expected to be two days of legal arguments before FBI and MI5 -paid and -trained witness and agent-provocateur David Rupert takes the stand on Monday. As previously reported, Rupert will likely be giving his testimony by video, making it impossible for McKevitt’s lawyers to cross-examine him. Michael McKevitt is now going into his third year of internment based on the dubious allegations of this paid state agent, who was in arrears of $700,000 in back taxes to the US Government when he was recruited by the FBI and Britain’s MI5 to deliver allegations against Irish republicans in Ireland and the US. Tantamount to Rupert’s usefulness to the British and Irish governments will be his role in obscuring British Government involvement in planning and executing the Omagh massacre. As revealed in David Rupert’s own e-mails to MI5, the British government was aware of Rupert’s role in scouting Omagh town prior to the bombing. The British government has since been shown to have had ample knowledge of the Omagh bomb before it was planted, yet allowed it to go off for reasons of its own. On the day of the bombing the British Army was confined to barracks and police staff were placed at a minimum. No security personnel were injured, and all of the victims were made to stand in the vicinity of the bomb. It is also interesting to note that in today’s news “Kevin Fulton”, the British double agent who has revealed his contacts with the security forces prior to the Omagh bombing, has now been warned that his police protection will be dropped after September. Please send a card to Michael McKevitt at Portlaoise Prison to encourage him during the upcoming days and weeks as this show trial continues. Please also continue to pressure the Irish Free State government and demand that Michael McKevitt be granted a fair trial. For contacts please see the Irish Freedom Committee website at www.irishfreedomcommittee.net The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ MORE NEWS Trial set for suspect linked to Omagh bombing Boston Herald - Jim Dee Wednesday, June 18, 2003 http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/international/ira06182003.htm Real IRA suspect trial begins BBC News Wednesday, 18 June, 2003, 12:58 GMT 13:58 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2999558.stm ************************************************ OMAGH COVER-UP!! Go here to see and hear the testament of Lawrence Rushe, whose wife was murdered in the Omagh atrocity, confronting Britain’s RUC colonial police for its complicity and foreknowledge of the bombing. “This is a conspiracy by the British Government and by everyone involved in its administration. This is an example of administrative terrorism; that's what it is. Why did Sinn Fein close their office the day before the bomb? Why was the Army confined to barracks? Why sir, the RUC, why did they in active fact have only three men on the streets of Omagh, and twenty-four men out in surrounding areas?” (Lawrence Rushe at RUC press conference, 08/15/01). OMAGH COVER-UP http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/omagh_cover-up.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Prisoner Transfers – Jim McCormack, Aidan Hulme Date: 06 13 03 The Irish Freedom Committee has been notified that Jim McCormack, the last of the “Belmarsh Five” to be transferred following sentencing, has been moved late last night to Whitemoor Prison. Jim will now be held with John-Paul Hannan, moved from Belmarsh two weeks ago; as well as Michael McDonald and Declan Rafferty. While the men are not all housed together they will be able to see one another at exercise and at chapel on Sundays. Meanwhile we have also learned that Aidan Hulme is to be temporarily transferred back to Belmarsh in anticipation of further surgery to his knee, probably sometime during the coming week. Get well cars should be directed to his current address at Long Lartin. Please note the address change below for Jim McCormack – or go to www.irishfreedomcommittee.net and click on “POWs” for the most up-to-date information. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ PRISONER RELOCATED JIM McCORMACK |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Irish State Collusion with MI5 - McKevitt trial Date: 06 09 03 For more on MI5 foreknowledge of and involvement in the Omagh atrocity see the links following the story below. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Blanket Irish State Collusion with MI5 - McKevitt trial exposes strange going-ons Eamonn McCann • Hot Press, 05.06.03 The SDLP and Sinn Fein have demanded that the Dublin Government take a tough line with Tony Blair over the activities of British spies in Ireland. Bertie Ahern has agreed to do his best. Answering a question from Joe Higgins in the Dail, however, in the week after the Steak Knife/Scappaticci revelations, Ahern sighed that he had frequently pressed Blair on this very issue but had never gotten satisfaction. This was a very unsatisfactory answer. The record shows that Fianna Fail in government has consistently collaborated with the British intelligence services in their Irish adventures and covered up their criminal activities. Writing last month---using documents recently obtained from the Public Records Office in Kew by British-Irish Rights Watch---I described the response of the Government of Jack Lynch in the early 1970s to the clear subversion of the Irish State by a British espionage operation. This gist was this. On December 21st 1972, a MI6 officer operating under the name "John Wyman" was arrested in a hotel in Dublin in the act of receiving a dossier of documents from garda sergeant Patrick Crinnion, private secretary to the head of the Special Branch, Chief Superintendent John P. Fleming. The Irish Government assessed the material as being "of a critical nature." The incident came at a tense time in Anglo-Irish relations, at the close of the worst year of the Troubles and just three weeks after two people had been killed and more than a hundred injured in bomb blasts in Dublin. The bomb attacks came as the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Bill, described by Justice Minister Des O'Malley as "draconian", was being debated in the Dail. Opposition to the measure instantly collapsed. It was widely speculated that British intelligence agents had had a hand in the attack. Now, a British agent had been captured in an act of subversion against the Irish State. Two days later, Lynch told British Premier Edward Heath that the incident need have no effect on relations between the two countries. In a document dated December 23rd and marked "Top Secret and Personal", Heath's private secretary, Robert Armstrong, recorded a meeting at Downing Street with the Irish ambassador to Britain, Donal O'Sullivan. It told that, "For public relations reasons his (O'Sullivan's) Government would have to oppose bail (for Wyman): but the strength with which they would do so was another matter." As for the possibility of a lengthy jail sentence: "He had the impression that this was unlikely: indeed he said there might be no sentences at all." At the Special Criminal Court on the following February 27th, Wyman and Crinnion were each sentenced to three months and immediately released. Neither has surfaced publicly since. Armstrong added that "Mr. Lynch was very anxious that his own relationship with the Prime Minister should not in any way suffer as a result of this incident." Nor did it. Fast forward three decades to October last year and another case at the Special Criminal Court. Dundalk man Michael McKevitt, charged with membership of the (Real) IRA and with directing terrorism, was seeking production of documents which he hoped would undermine the credibility of the key witness against him, an American called David Rupert who, it is not denied by any party to the case, was working in Ireland for both MI5 and the FBI. McKevitt failed in the action. His trial is set to go ahead on June 16th. However, it emerged during the October hearing that he wasn't alone in worrying about Rupert's credibility. On the second day of the action, McKevitt's lawyers questioned a British Government barrister, Simon Dennison QC, about a document produced in February 2001 by MI5 referring to a problematical telephone conversation between an unnamed MI5 officer and Garda Assistant Commissioner Dermot Jennings. The conversation had concerned copies of e-mails which might have to be entered in evidence at McKevitt's trial, between the witness Rupert and his intelligence handlers. The problem was that in one of the e-mails Rupert was recorded alleging that Jennings had shown himself indifferent to terrorist acts in the North. The e-mail predated Omagh. But to put this allegation into the public arena in the controversial aftermath of the atrocity, and in the context of a trial in which Omagh was sure to be on everybody's mind, would be extremely damaging to Jennings and to the Southern security forces generally. One passage in the MI5 operative's document read: "I told Jennings that it might help me to understand what we are trying to do regarding e-mails if I read to him an extract of one of them sent in 1998. I then read the extract which alleged Jennings expressing indifference to terrorism in NI and only being interested in illegal activity ROI (Republic of Ireland). Jennings was shocked. He expostulated that the statement was untrue and that he would never have said any such thing. I responded that the problem was that the allegation was there in the e-mail and we now had to decide what to do about it. If the Defence got hold of it and Jennings denied the report's veracity, that would make Rupert an untrustworthy source. Jennings urged that the report would be removed. I said I felt strongly this was a matter of liason sensitivity that justified redaction." (Redaction means to edit or censor.) On the face of it, here we have a very senior Garda officer discussing with a member of a foreign intelligence service whether and in what form relevant evidence might be presented to a trial touching on the security of the Republic. The document was revealed in the course of proceedings on October 9th last. An afternoon spent trawling through the Irish newspapers of the days following yielded not a single editorial comment, much less expression of outrage or alarm. But that's not the heart of it. The sharp point is that the document was dated February 8th 2001---before McKevitt was arrested, much less charged. That is, MI5 was pro-actively engaged with a senior garda officer in manipulating in advance the evidence which might be presented by the gardai to the DPP to justify McKevitt's arrest and arraignment. On the third day of the hearing, a FBI officer called Krupkowski was being cross-examined about a schedule of documents referring to meetings between Rupert and his handlers. At one point, a Garda Detective Superintendant O'Sullivan brought a folder into the court and handed it to the witness. Krupkowski referred to the folder but didn't quote from it. A discussion ensued about how this material had come to be in the possession of the gardai. O'Sullivan was called to the witness box to explain. "The documents...were in the possession of the BSS (British Security Service, MI5) in a room at the back of the court and they are at all times controlled by these people. I merely brought them from that room to the Court, my Lords....I handed one of them to the witness without ever examining or looking what the contents were." So, MI5 operators were stationed in a room off the court holding documents which might be required by a FBI officer in the witness box, and a senior garda detective was on hand to act as a runner between MI5 and the FBI, apparently on the proviso that he wouldn't try to sneak a glance at what he was carrying. Nothing in coverage of the hearing suggested concern at this strange sequence of events in an Irish court. Ahern says that he shares in the widespread anxiety about collusion by British intelligence agents with subversive and criminal elements in Ireland. But this doesn't seem to have dissuaded the Irish State, with the support of Fianna Fail in government, from colluding with the same British agencies over a period of 30 years. http://lark.phoblacht.net ************************************************ IFC NewsList August 11, 2002 - Omagh Widower Sues British State OMAGH COVER-UP: Statement by Lawrence Rushe IFC NewsList July 31, 2002 - McKevitt Trial: British Government Seeks Anonymity, Secret Evidence IFC NewsList October 7, 2002 - Explosive New Tapes to Lift Lid on Omagh Bomb ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Omagh police probe informer’s attack warning Date: 06 08 03 See links to OMAGH COVER-UP at bottom. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Sunday Times June 08, 2003 Omagh police probe informer’s attack warning Liam Clarke POLICE have opened a new line of inquiry into the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people in northern Ireland five years ago. Families of the victims have welcomed the move which they believe could identify the bomb-maker. In a significant U-turn, detectives are to interview Kevin Fulton, a police informer who has long claimed to have warned his handlers days before the atrocity that a bombing was imminent. He is now living in a London safe house, fearing assassination. Fulton’s evidence was dismissed as unreliable by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the former head of the RUC, and has never been properly followed up by police investigators. This is despite Fulton’s claim that he met a known Real IRA activist in the days before the bombing who was covered in processed fertiliser of the type used in republican bombs. The man — referred to in police documents as “man A” — is also known to have made a phone call to the convoy of cars that carried the bomb into Omagh. Because neither Fulton nor “man A” have been interviewed by police, conspiracy theories have burgeoned. Many among the victim’s families suspect that “A” also had links with the authorities. Superintendent Norman Baxter, the head of the investigation, confirmed last week that “we have written to Kevin Fulton’s solicitor asking to interview Fulton as a witness in relation to a specific line of inquiry”. In the letter Baxter says that he wished to “explore deeper some of the information provided by your client in July 1998”. In July 1998, Fulton was a highly placed informer for the RUC’s anti-racketeering squad. Part of his job was to monitor “man A”, a known terrorist and racketeer who lived just over the border in the Irish republic. For legal reasons, he cannot be named. As part of a plan to win the terrorist’s confidence, Fulton supplied “A” with six flak jackets for use in robberies. On August 12, 1998, Fulton told his handlers that when “A” met him, the terrorist had been wearing a boiler suit and had been covered in processed fertiliser. Although Special Branch was warned, no action was taken and three days later the Real IRA car bomb exploded. ************************************************ OMAGH COVER-UP!! Go here to see and hear the testament of Lawrence Rushe, whose wife was murdered in the Omagh atrocity, confronting Britain’s RUC colonial police for its complicity and foreknowledge of the bombing. “This is a conspiracy by the British Government and by everyone involved in its administration. This is an example of administrative terrorism; that's what it is. Why did Sinn Fein close their office the day before the bomb? Why was the Army confined to barracks? Why sir, the RUC, why did they in active fact have only three men on the streets of Omagh, and twenty-four men out in surrounding areas?” (Lawrence Rushe at RUC press conference, 08/15/01). OMAGH COVER-UP http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/omagh_cover-up.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Missing man lost cash in provo money scam Date: 06 08 03 Gareth O’Connor remains missing without a trace after four weeks. For more news on this story see the links at the bottom. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Irish Independent Sunday June 8, 2003 Missing man lost cash in republican money scam ALAN MURRAY THE IRA is suspected of seizing up to £0.5m from a crooked investment scheme into which missing County Armagh man Gareth O'Connor put his cash. And it's believed the 24-year-old was abducted and murdered by the IRA because he demanded his money back and threatened the prominent republican figures who ran the scheme. Smugglers and illegal petrol and oil traders in County Armagh and County Tyrone are also believed to have lost substantial sums of cash when the pyramid-type scheme went bust. Reliable nationalist sources in the border area say that over £1m may have gone missing and that the total amount could be over £2.5m. "Some of the illegal traders put in big amounts of cash, maybe up to £100,000 in some cases but they've lost it. O'Connor put most or all of his money in it and when he couldn't get it back made threats against a republican man who was running it. "It's suspected that the man called in the IRA for protection and they murdered Gareth O'Connor, closed down the scheme and pocketed £0.5m that was still in circulation," one source told the Sunday Independent. O'Connor has been missing for almost a month from his County Armagh home. The father of two was last seen alive on Sunday, May 11 when he set off for Dundalk Garda Station to meet bail conditions. O'Connor was facing charges of membership of the Real IRA and his car was last seen passing through Newtownhamilton on his way to Dundalk in County Louth. The IRA has denied any involvement in O'Connor's disappearance but his father Mark has blamed the organisation for his abduction. "I just wish that if he's not alive that they would tell us where his body is. The way we're thinking now is that Gareth has been murdered," he said. Monsignor Dennis Faul said he too feared that he had been abducted by the IRA. "You know by the silence. When there isn't a word spoken, you know the IRA is involved. It has put fear into the ordinary people and it's part of this mafia-type culture that exists in South Armagh. I would appeal for the return of this man's body to his family if he is dead," the Carrickmore-based priest said. Nationalist sources say that a former Sinn Fein figure was the front man for the pyramid-type investment scheme in which O'Connor and others invested their cash. Many who accumulated large amounts of money from oil, petrol and diesel smuggling and other illegal scams thought the scheme offered a safe haven from the taxman and Customs and Excise investigators on both sides of the border. "They also thought they would make some interest from the scheme but it all went wrong and a large amount of money disappeared. Some went straight to the IRA because they get their oil trading 'licences' from the organisation's chief of staff and he ordered an investigation. The IRA closed down the scheme and pocketed the money that was left, maybe a £0.25m or £0.5m. "But O'Connor was out of this loop and he made noises and threats against the republican figure [who] asked the IRA to take care of O'Connor. Most people around here conclude that Gareth O'Connor is dead and that the IRA abducted and killed him," one source said. The disappearance of Mr O'Connor has underlined the continued illegal activities of the IRA in the border areas and the power and fear the organisation continues to exert over the nationalist community. Security sources say they suspect O'Connor was abducted by the Provisionals and has been murdered. ************************************************ IFC NewsList 05 25 03 - Gareth O’Connor ‘Gone Without a Trace’ IFC NewsList 05 14 03 – Armagh Man Missing after Provo Death Threat ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: FBI to give informer Rupert $1M lawsuit indemnity Date: 06 02 03 ---------------- Sunday Business Post Mon, June 2, 2003 ReaI IRA informant Rupert gets $1m lawsuit indemnity from FBI 01/06/03 00:00 By Barry O Kelly, Crime Correspondent Real IRA informer David Rupert, scheduled to testify in the Special Criminal Court in two weeks, has obtained a written guarantee from the FBI indemnifying him for up to $1 million against any lawsuit arising from the case. Rupert is the chief witness against the alleged RIRA leader, Michael McKevitt. McKevitt (51), of Blackrock, Dundalk, is the first person to be charged with the offence of directing terrorism. He is also charged with IRA membership. The "Amendment To Agreement - Witness Security and Relocation Plan" notes that the New York-born informant had "expressed ongoing concerns about the arrangements for his security and that of his spouse". This document states that Rupert would receive the lawsuit insurance "in light of recent events in which a known litigious Irish republican sympathizer has been diligently investigating David Rupert's background, [Rupert] reasonably believes that he may be subjected to frivolous and vexatious lawsuits. "The FBI hereby agrees to indemnify David Rupert and his spouse, and each of them, from and against any and all judgements rendered against them as to any of their acts or omissions in regards to the FBI Chicago investigation of Michael McKevitt, the Real IRA and other Irish terrorism matters." Rupert has given interviews to a Dublin journalist writing a book about the Omagh bombing and the Real IRA. The American is thought to have a separate arrangement with a Florida publisher. The state is understood to have offered McKevitt a plea bargain, in which he would plead guilty to Real IRA membership, while the charges of directing terrorism would be dropped. Rupert, a four-times bankrupt recruited by the security services in 1993, tried to encourage the breakaway Continuity IRA to procure biological weapons, according to e-mails he sent to MI5. CIRA sources claim they had no interest in the chemical weapons plan, which was not acted upon, although Rupert states in the documents that they were "interested". In one e-mail, sent by Rupert to his MI5 handler in 1998, he wrote: "I had outlined the weapons deals briefly in the US. I talked about the computer deal and then the big one, biologicals. I said I understand they are quite easy to get in the US as a laboratory experiment type deal. They were interested." In later e-mails to MI5, Rupert apparently referred to the smuggling of American arms into the Republic via Belfast. One e-mail, seen by this newspaper, states: "If somebody did catch the suitcase, ultimately it would end up on your officers' lap. If they seized them, so what?" Rupert also spoke in the emails about getting SKS assault rifles from an associate in the US National Guard. The British security agency had no clearance to run Rupert as an informant in the Irish Republic and specifically told him to steer clear of the gardai at the time. An MI5 intelligence document, dated October 2000 and headed David Rupert: Human Intelligence Source, warns: "No authorisation in ROI [Republic of Ireland]." ************************************************ IFC NewsList 06 01 03 - Rupert to give testimony by remote video link ************************************************ The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: October Fifth Association – ‘Born Again Civil Righters?’ Date: 06 01 03 Please see the links following the letter below for more on the October Fifth Association’s “Political Status Conference” hosted in Derry this past February. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ “Knockavoe”, 15 Crawford Square, Derry City BT48 7HR Letters Page, Irish News. Born Again Civil Righters? A Chara, Recent letters to your column must have brought back many memories, and certainly mixed emotions, as diverse contributors brought to readers varying degrees of heat, light and shade. It is not my aim here to make comment on those views expressed, for as a co-founder of NICRA in 1967 my own memories were recorded in a paperback entitled “Ulster’s White Negroes – From Civil Rights to Insurrection" (AK Press, 1994). The work traces the roots of the civil rights movement, right up to its supposed demise on Bloody Sunday, January 1972. The former Mid-Ulster independent MP, Mrs. Bernadette McAliskey (nee Devlin), kindly wrote the foreword. For the sake of future generations I would urge those with literary ability to write of their own experiences, so that the revisionists in our midst do not hold sway on this critical era in our forward push for human dignity, democratic essentials and a greater degree of social equality. Around 1997 a group of veterans established a loose local network which has adopted the rather lengthy title October Fifth (1968 Civil Rights Veterans & Supporters) Association. In the weeks prior to the 30th anniversary of Derry’s first NICRA march on October 5th 1968, several key veterans organised a film show, symposium and the re-tracing of our steps from the Waterside Railway Station. This time we reached our destination, Guildhall Square, this time with the apparent cordial co-operation of the then “pre-reformed” colonial police force. We had small resources and little time to organise so only around 250 attended. Our banner was neutral only insofar as it was red and white, the colours of both the Derry soccer and Gaelic football teams. Our large slogan, for all to plainly see proclaimed, “For Jobs, Decent Wages and Full Human Rights”. I, and other veterans and supporters of the civil rights cause strongly believe, that as we approach the 35th anniversaries of Coalisland-Dunngannon, Duke Street and later on the equally historic and dramatic Belfast-Derry march (which was viciously attacked at Burntollet Bridge), that we should contemplate the re-creation of the civil rights association, even if only as a loose network across the Six Counties. It would take a much longer letter to argue the many reasons for such a conclusion, but at grass-roots level the need for such is blatant, particularly in the urban areas. Towards that end the October Fifth Association established an Internet forum which is located via www.voy.com/103427/ On that forum one can find a few obituaries alongside songs, writings on the earlier days, and some exposure of current issues. It would be excellent if this resource was availed of by other veterans and supporters not merely to record historical facts, but to tackle current issues, and widen out the campaign by way of building up a network with at least one central forum at its disposal. Our e-mail address is oct5th_vets68@hotmail.com . We have adopted as our symbol, the black and white oak leaf, designed by a local lady, and adopted within a few weeks of Derry’s first NICRA march, by the Derry Citizens’ Action Committee. Alas, it passed into history too quickly. I was its last serving Hon. Secretary. We shall overcome, someday! Let us all ensure that comes sooner, rather than later. Is Mise, Le Meas Mór, Fionnbarra Ó Dochartaigh BA [Hons.] Address supplied. ************************************************ OCTOBER FIFTH ASSOCIATION sponsors Political Status Conference in Derry February 2003 IFC NewsList 02 24 03 - DERRY CONFERENCE ADDRESSES HUNGER STRIKE,
BLANKET PROTEST FEARS |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Rupert to give testimony by remote video link Date: 06 01 03 The Irish Free State will go to enormous lengths to enable FBI/MI5 informant David Rupert to deliver his fabricated paid evidence to the trial of Michael McKevitt in safety, possibly using a remote video link to avoid Rupert having to be present at the trial at all. Created by the FBI in the US and shaped by Britain’s MI5, David Rupert’s testimony will have nothing whatsoever to do with the truth but will be designed solely to protect Britain’s own role in the Omagh bombing, and to convict an innocent man for its own hand in planning and executing the massacre. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Sunday Times - Ireland June 01, 2003 FBI’s Real IRA spy may give video evidence Maeve Sheehan DAVID RUPERT, the MI5 agent who infiltrated the Real IRA, may testify against its alleged leader, Michael McKevitt, by video link. The American lorry driver is the key witness against McKevitt, 51, who is charged with directing terrorism. Gardai are mounting a huge security operation to protect Rupert, who spied on the Real IRA for MI5 and the FBI, and the authorities are considering asking the trial judge to allow him to give evidence by video when the trial opens on June 18. If this is allowed, Rupert will not have to travel to Dublin. In case it is not a contingency protection plan using armed detectives and the emergency response unit is ready. It is not clear whether British and American authorities would help pay for the expensive security exercise. The trial is expected to run for at least six weeks and Rupert is likely to give evidence for several days. McKevitt’s defence lawyers will oppose vigorously the request for a video link. They claim Rupert is a criminal who was enticed with money to spy on republicans. His credibility will become an important issue. Garda sources have denied speculation that the authorities will pull Rupert out of the trial. They dismissed reports that the state was seeking a plea bargain with McKevitt in which he would plead guilty to IRA membership. The charge of directing terrorism would then be dropped. McKevitt has been accused of masterminding the Omagh bombing in 1998, which killed 29 people. He could be jailed for up to 20 years. He is the first person in the republic to be charged with directing terrorism. His trial has been held up by legal challenges, including an application for documents giving details of Rupert’s meetings with his handlers. The last obstacle was cleared in March, when the Supreme Court rejected McKevitt’s demand for access to British security service and American FBI documents. He has already received substantial material on Rupert, some of which has been discussed in court. Last year, McKevitt’s defence lawyers argued that Rupert was a criminal and an unreliable witness. They told a court that the American had a chequered career in building, forestry, trucking and catering before his business collapsed in 1992. One of his lorries, the court was told, was involved in a fatal traffic accident that led to compensation claims of $15m (¤12.7m) against his company. In the same year he is said to have come into contact with Republican Sinn Fein and its paramilitary wing, the Continuity IRA. This came to the attention of gardai, who contacted the FBI. In September, 1994 the FBI’s Chicago office approached Rupert and urged him to report on his meetings in Ireland. In December 1995, he emigrated to Ireland, renting the Drowse Bar in Co Leitrim, but the enterprise failed when the FBI refused to give him financial support. In June 1997 the FBI asked him to help British security officials, who met him in August 1997. He later communicated with them through encrypted e-mails. Rupert will claim that McKevitt asked him to help find weapons in America for the Real IRA. He will also claim to have attended several Real IRA army council meetings when McKevitt was present. Rupert visited Ireland 25 times between August 1992 and October 2000. He had befriended McKevitt and his wife, Bernadette SandsMcKevitt, a sister of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. ************************************************ OMAGH COVER-UP!! Go here to see and hear the testament of Lawrence Rushe, whose wife was murdered in the Omagh atrocity, confronting Britain’s RUC colonial police for its complicity and foreknowledge of the bombing. “This is a conspiracy by the British Government and by everyone involved in its administration. This is an example of administrative terrorism; that's what it is. Why did Sinn Fein close their office the day before the bomb? Why was the Army confined to barracks? Why sir, the RUC, why did they in active fact have only three men on the streets of Omagh, and twenty-four men out in surrounding areas?” (Lawrence Rushe at RUC press conference, 08/15/01). OMAGH COVER-UP http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/omagh_cover-up.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |