Category: Collusion
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Frank Hall: from the UVF to MI5
In my recent post on Maxwell Knight’s unionist connections, I noted how his links to the far-right had led some to suggest the term collusion could be applied to MI5 in the 1930s. I’ve since been re-reading Christopher Andrew’s official history of MI5, as part of my research. Not a promising source on collusion, you…
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Spying on Paisley: How MI5 used Tara to infiltrate the DUP
From my latest post at Patreon: The DUP-Conservative alliance that emerged from the 2017 election might seem like a natural one given the long history of the 'Orange card' as a Tory expedient at Westminster. There is however an equally long record of conflict between the British establishment and the the particular strand of unionism represented…
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Maxwell Knight’s Irish connections – and a word about this page
The Guardian this week reviewed an important new biography of Maxwell Knight, MI5’s key agent runner in the 1930s and 40s. As the review notes, Knight had remarkably close personal links to the far right, having been director of intelligence for the British fascisti in the 1920s. Like previous writers, Henry Hemming concludes that Knight…
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Colin Wallace on the HIA Inquiry
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland recently completed its hearings on abuse at Kincora Boys Home in the 1970s. The hearings were notable for the absence of a number of key witnesses, among them former British Army information officer Colin Wallace. In his absence, Wallace's evidence came in for strong criticism at the inquiry, as…
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The case for a full inquiry – A round-up of Spinwatch coverage of Kincora
Cross-posted from Spinwatch: On Friday, the Belfast high court rejected calls for the Goddard Inquiry into child sexual abuse to look at abuse at Kincora Boys' Home in Belfast in the 1970s. Instead, the issue will remain with the Northern Ireland-focused Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry. Victims of abuse at the home have vowed to fight the decision,…
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Time for truth on hackers’ targeting of collusion inquiries
Did corrupt private detectives infiltrate the Metropolitan Police witness protection programme? That was the claim made by Tom Harper of the Independent on 26 June, citing a 2008 report by the Serious Organised Crime Agency.1 The eight-page Soca memo referred to intelligence that PIs were employed by the “criminal fraternity” to “frustrate law enforcement”. The Independent understands…
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When spooks target human rights lawyers
The Wilson doctrine forbidding surveillance of MPs without Prime Ministerial approval was originally imposed, according to Chapman Pincher, because Harold Wilson feared that "MI5 was anti-Labour and over-zealous to identify any left-wing Labour Parliamentarian as pro-communist." It didn’t work of course, as Ramsay and Dorril recounted in detail in their book Smear: Wilson and the…
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Dáil to debate collusion
Bertie Ahern said today that the Dáil will have a full debate on collusion in February. The announcement came at the unveiling of a memorial to three musicians killed in the 1975 Miami Showband massacre: Tony Geraghty, Fran O’Toole and Brian McCoy. Stephen Travers, one of the band members who survived the ambush, also vowed…
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European Court rules on Glennane gang collusion
The European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that the role of security force collusion in the killings of eight people in South Armagh in the 1970s was not properly investigated. The killings are believed to have been the work of the Glennane Gang, a group of loyalists and security force members also linked to…
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Learning the lessons? Iraq and the truth about the Irish troubles
Back in 2003, there was a lot of talk that the British Army’s experience in Northern Ireland gave it an expertise in ‘winning hearts and minds’ that would be useful in Iraq. That idea no longer seems to have the same currency: [US marine] Col Anderson said British troops "did the best they could", but…