Impartial Reporter August 13, 2003 Bundoran Republican attacks evidence of FBI agent Veteran Bundoran republican Joe O'Neill is denying allegations made about him during the trial of Michael McKevitt, the Real IRA leader jailed for 20 years for directing terrorism. In a statement issued to "The Impartial Reporter" he questions the honesty and integrity of the principal prosecution witness in the case, David Rupert, an FBI and MI5 agent who was paid $1.25 million to infiltrate dissident republican groups, including the Real IRA. During the course of his work as a spy the big American ran the Drowes Bar at Tullaghan, just south of Bundoran. He gave evidence that O'Neill approached him about a number of beer kegs at the back of the bar and asked him to set aside 10 or 12. O'Neill's hand language indicated the kegs were for bomb casings. Rupert also claimed that O'Neill approached him about obtaining the Semtex explosives, detonating cord and detonators in the United States and shipping them to Ireland. Rupert said he did not ship the materials to the address in Bundoran which O'Neill had given him. Mr. O'Neill issued a statement to "The Impartial Reporter" during the trial but it is only being published now that the legal process has been completed. In it Mr. O'Neill categorically rejects the allegations made against him. Mr. O'Neill stressed that he was not on trial yet his name had been mentioned numerous times in Dublin's Special Criminal Court. "What this man, Dave Rupert, has stated is completely untrue. A man like him would have no trouble making false accusations for $1.25 million, not to mention the thousands of pounds more from the British MI5 and MI6," said Mr. O'Neill. "The court allowed this man to give false evidence about me and never informed me that they would be made in court. Where are the so-called Civil Rights in this 26-county State," asked the Republican Sinn Fein activist. However, his view of Rupert was not shared by the court. The presiding judge, Mr. Justice Johnson, said the court was satisfied Mr. Rupert was "a very truthful witness" who had considerable knowledge of the republican movement and who referred to people by name. "Overall he had very considerable knowledge of the facts to which he testified," said Mr. Justice Johnson. Referring to the "considerable amounts of money that the witness has received and continues to receive" from the FBI and MI5, Mr. Justice Johnson pointed out that Mr. Rupert was a "contracted and paid agent of the FBI." He was not a supergrass or an informer and "is and can be described as a witness under protection." The judge said that the defence had sought to discredit the witness and show him to be unreliable and untruthful. However, in the court's opinion there was no proof that the witness offered "any deliberate false words." Speaking after the court Victor Barker, whose 12-year-old son James was one of the 29 people murdered by the Real IRA in the Omagh Bombing, thanked Mr. Rupert for "his courage in coming forward to tell the truth." Mr. O'Neill claimed Mr. Rupert's evidence was a ploy to tarnish and attack those who held the true Republican principle. He said he met Mr. Rupert around 1994 when the American was looking to buy a house or pub in Bundoran. "I found him all right till this happened," stated Mr. O'Neill. "We would have talked politics in general. He offered to collect money for prisoners over in America. Sometime, towards the year 2000 he started trying to tell people like myself what we should be doing, pushing us to join the Real IRA," Mr. O'Neill alleged. "I thought it was a wee bit high-handed for a man not long over here and, as the fellow says, I felt there was something not right with him. But don't get me wrong, it still didn't hit me that he was an informer," stated Mr. O'Neill.  © Copyright 2001, William Trimble Ltd.