Operation #Tuleta:Peter Hain confirms investigation by police of high security hacking

News International's chief executive denies that company was involved in any interference with Hain's computers

Letters from Peter Hain and Tom Mockridge to the Guardian

• 

Peter Hain says 'the Guardian story [about the possible hacking of his computers] was an entirely accurate account of my interaction with Operation Tuleta'. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Peter Hain has confirmed that police have met him to investigate the possible hacking of his computers while he was in his high security cabinet post as Northern Ireland secretary between 2005 and 2007. The approach by officers from Operation Tuleta was first reported in the Guardian last month.

News International, the former publisher of the News of the World, which has been accused in another case at the Leveson inquiry of using a former soldier to plant computer viruses, had challenged the Guardian report about the police investigation. In an email to the paper the company's chief executive, Tom Mockridge wrote: "News International has been advised that Mr Hain's computer equipment (and that of the Northern Ireland Office) was not and has not been the subject of an investigation by Operation Tuleta and there is no belief or suspicion that this equipment was hacked."

But Hain said in a letter the NI claim was incorrect. "The Guardian story was an entirely accurate account of my interaction with Operation Tuleta.

"I met with DI Beswick, head of Operation Tuleta, at his request last month to discuss an investigation into the possible hacking of three of my computers during my time as secretary of state for Northern Ireland. Two of these computers were issued by the Northern Ireland Office. One was my personal computer. I have provided the Met with account details for all three computers as they requested. This is a matter of national security and subject to a police investigation."

He added: "But I can say that the police confirmed to me they had not eliminated any news organisation from their investigation."

Mockridge denies that News International was involved in any interference with Hain's computers. The Leveson inquiry has heard from Ian Hurst, a former British army intelligence agent who recruited and ran agents within the IRA in Northern Ireland. Hurst, who also used the pseudonym Martin Ingram, told the inquiry his computer was hacked into by a Trojan virus in 2006 by private investigators on behalf of the News of the World.

The Met, whose Operation Tuleta is one of three linked investigations into computer hacking, phone hacking and police corruption, declined to comment on the meeting with Hain. Met detectives working on Tuleta have made one arrest, of a man aged 52, in Milton Keynes last month. He was held at a Thames Valley police station and later bailed. The Tuleta team reports to Scotland Yard's deputy assistant commissioner, Sue Akers.

On Wednesday detectives working on Operation Elveden, the investigation into alleged illegal payments to police, made their first arrest of a police officer. A 52-year-old woman, believed to be a royal protection officer, was arrested in Essex.

In total there have been eight arrests in connection with Elveden, and 16 arrests by officers in the Met's phone-hacking investigation, Operation Weeting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/23/peter-hain-investigation-police-hacking?CMP=twt_gu

#Stakeknife : Some Stories Never Die

One such is the extraordinary Stakeknife story.

The legend of Freddie Scappaticci is about to receive renewed attention.


http://redfellow.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/some-stories-never-die/

#Smithwick : Narrow Water Cover-Up Claims Are Not Lies Insists Agent

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/narrow-water-coverup-claims-are-not-lies-insists-agent-16091881.html

The #Smithwick Tribunal

Tribunal of Inquiry  into suggestions that members of An Garda Síochána or other employees of  the State colluded in the fatal shootings of RUC Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and RUC Superintendent Robert Buchanan on the 20^th March, 1989.

The Smithwick Tribunal was established by Resolutions passed by Dail Eireann and Seanad Eireann on the 23^rd and 24^th March 2005 respectively, and by Instrument entitled Tribunals of Inquiry Evidence Act 1921 (Establishment of Tribunal) Instrument 2005.

The sole member of the Tribunal is His Honour Mr Justice Peter Smithwick

http://www.smithwicktribunal.ie/smithwick/HOMEPAGE.html

#Smithwick Tribunal May Hear Evidence From Scappaticci

FREDDIE SCAPPATICCI, the man who denies he was a British double agent in the IRA known as “Stakeknife”, may give evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal.

The tribunal was yesterday told Mr Scappaticci was in fact “Stakeknife”, regardless of his consistent public denials. Kevin Fulton, who worked as an informer for British security services after infiltrating the IRA in the Dundalk area in the 1980s, said Mr Scappaticci was a member of the IRA’s internal security, or “nutting squad”.

But in an occasionally heated exchange with Martin O’Rourke SC, counsel for Mr Scappaticci, Mr Fulton said it was “an actual fact” that “your client is an informer and he is Stakeknife”.

Following a break for lunch Mr Scappaticci’s legal team applied for additional legal representation. When tribunal chairman Judge Peter Smithwick asked if this meant Mr Scappaticci would make a statement and appear as a witness, he was told by the legal team that this was “under active consideration”.

Mr Fulton had earlier told the tribunal he also believed convicted IRA volunteer Patrick “Mooch” Blair was effectively another British agent who was “being protected by some state agency – North and South”.

Mr Fulton said Blair had made a bomb just days before the Omagh bombing and he believed this had in fact been the Omagh bomb. He and his M15 handlers had then decided to target Blair for arrest.

An elaborate sting involving the sale of £10 million worth of Viagra tablets was set up, but he said all his efforts to target Blair were thwarted, usually by police north and south of the Border.
He told Michael Durack SC, for the Garda, that he had been eventually told by his handler: “I am not to talk to you anymore.” Mr Fulton said he came to believe Blair was protected by State agencies and “walked on water” and was “more or less an agent”.

Mr Fulton – who is also known as Peter Keeley – has also alleged retired detective sergeant Owen Corrigan of Dundalk Garda station was an IRA mole in the Garda. But he agreed with Mr Durack that when he sought Garda help in securing “a financial package” from the British in 2002, he hadn’t mentioned any Garda-IRA collusion.

The tribunal is inquiring into suggestions of collusion between members of the Garda or other employees in the State in the murder of two RUC officers, Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan, in March 1989.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1217/1224309215606.html

Garda Collusion Allegations :Author of the book ‘Bandit Country’, Toby Harnden, speaks exclusively to the Examiner

Speaking exclusively to The Dundalk Examiner, author of Bandit Country Toby Harnden gave us the following statement in relation to Garda collusion allegations...

"I have always said that I would be happy to assist any inquiry into the circumstances of the Breen and Buchanan killings, subject, of course, to my duty as a journalist to protect confidential sources. That remains the case."
 
"I willingly assisted both the Garda and the RUC on separate occasions in 2000 when two officers from each force flew out to speak to me informally. No one from Judge Peter Cory's inquiry team saw fit to contact me, an omission that clearly calls into question the thoroughness of his investigation."
 
"In 'Bandit Country', I identified the two Garda officers suspected of collusion with the IRA as Garda X and Garda Y. At this stage I am not going to make any comment as to their names."
"As far as I can recall, before publication of my book in November 1999 I had never met or spoken to Kevin Myers."
 
"My book is a serious work of scholarship based on extensive research as well as interviews with British Army, RUC, Garda and IRA members, amongst others. The section on the killings of Ch Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan - by far the most detailed account of what happened - speaks for itself and I would urge anyone interested in this issue to read it carefully before rushing to any judgements."
 
"The section is, however, only one element of the history of South Armagh. About 150,000 copies of 'Bandit Country' have been bought in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere in the world and I have no doubt that the publicity surrounding the Breen and Buchanan killings - the overwhelming majority of it not generated by me - has played but a small part in this."

Garda Eoin Corrigan : DETECTIVE TO FIGHT SPY CLAIMS

Dundalk Examiner (Page 1 dated Friday, April 8, 2005) (Page 4 dated 26 March, 2005)

EXCLUSIVE

Ex-Garda says tribunal allegations are fiction

By Larry Carberry

A Garda detective alleged to be an IRA spy has said he is delighted that a government inquiry which will clear his name is being set up.
 
Former Special Branch Det. Sgt. Eoin Corrigan has described claims that he worked for the IRA while serving as a Special Branch officer in Dundalk as "total fiction." Mr. Corrigan is to be a key figure in the judicial tribunal chaired by Judge Peter Smithwick into the killing of RUC men Chief Supt. Harry Breen and Supt. Bob Buchanan at Edenappa in March 1989.
 
They had just crossed the Border on a return journey from Dundalk Garda Station when their car was ambushed Claims that a rogue garda had set up the operation were made in the British media.
 
Later, Eoin Corrigan was named by Jeffery Donaldson in the House of Commons. Because of Parliamentary privilege, the former garda officer could not take legal action.
 
Det. Sgt. Corrigan, now Drogheda businessman, has until now refused to speak to the media since the allegations were first made.
 
He has spoken exclusively to The Dundalk Examiner.
 
PAISLEY
 
"Ian Paisley was the first man to shout that there was Garda collusion in the Breen-Buchanan ambush. After that, a lot of people jumped on the band-wagon," said Mr. Corrigan.
 
"I am absolutely confident that some of those who made these claims will be shown up."
 
Two of those who reported the allegations of Garda collusion, journalists Kevin Myers and Toby Harnden, are expected to refuse to appear at the tribunal, where they would be questioned about their sources. Both have already been criticised by Judge Peter Cory, the Canadian investigator who examined their claims at the request of the Irish Government.
 
Det. Sgt Corrigan is confident that the truth about him would emerge from the Smithwick inquiry. But he is uncertain if the whole truth will emerge.
 
"I don't rule out that, for their own reasons, false information about me may have been fed to the RUC by certain Garda members. How else would Paisley and the others have got my name?"
 
SUBVERSIVES
 
At the time, there was friction among Garda officers in Dundalk. "Some of the things that were said about me were very hurtful," said Mr. Corrigan.
 
"Nobody was more opposed to the IRA than me. I had 30 years of service, in and out of the Special Criminal Court, and keeping surveillance on subversives at great personal risk. I am hurt at the suggestion that I conspired in the Breen-Buchanan killings."
 
The ex-sergeant said: "Nobody gave the IRA more hassle than I did."
 
The former Special Branch man also spoke about a Newry convict, Peter Keeley, who provided information to unionist MPs and to Judge Peter Cory.
 
Keeley who uses the name Kevin Fulton is quoted by Judge Cory as making allegations about Garda collusion.
 
Fulton appears on British TV regularly wearing a mask and claiming to be a former British spy.
"My lawyers have said they cannot wait to get him in the tribunal witness box. They believe they will take him to pieces - if he turns up," Mr. Corrigan told The Dundalk Examiner.
 

DROMAD
 
The former Special Branch officer also revealed that gardai had no advance information which would have allowed the IRA to set up the ambush.
 
He said the two RUC men had said before leaving Dundalk Garda Station that they intended to return the way they come - travelling on the N1 from Newry through Dromad. There was an escort waiting for them at Killeen, but they went up a back road.
 
"This may have been for security reasons. Or they may have changed their minds on the journey, and decided to go the Edenappa way. But one thing is certain, they were followed all the way from Dundalk," said Mr. Corrigan.
 
The IRA had every Border crossing covered long before those RUC men arrived. Breen was their target. The IRA wanted him because he appeared on TV to talk about the SAS killings of 8 IRA men at Loughgall. He was in charge of that operation, he said.

Ian Hurst : Smithwick Tribunal

http://cryptome.org/0005/hurst-fru.pdf

Robert Black Jailed For Jennifer Cardy Murder

Collect picture of Jennifer Cardy provided by the PSNI.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/robert-black-jailed-for-murder-of-ulster-schoolgirl-jennifer-cardy-16088463.html

Images : Northern Ireland Troubles 1970

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/in-pictures-northern-ireland-troubles-1970-16087805.html

#Finucane Family Launch Legal Bid Against British Goverment

The British government is to face a legal challenge over its failure to launch a public inquiry into security force collusion in the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane, it has emerged today.

Relatives of the Belfast solicitor are to seek a judicial review of UK Prime Minister David Cameron's decision that Desmond de Silva QC should instead review the papers on the case.

Mr Finucane's widow Geraldine stormed out of Downing Street when informed of the Government plan in October and has now confirmed her intention to launch a challenge in the High Court in Belfast next week.

British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson apologised at Westminster for the state's collusion in the 1989 killing in which Mr Finucane was shot 14 times by gunmen from the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in front of his wife and three children.

During talks on the peace process at Weston Park in Shropshire in 2001 the government of the day entered into an agreement with the Irish Government to hold inquiries into allegations that their respective security forces were linked to a number of notorious murder cases, including the Finucane killing.

The Finucane family said that having considered their options, they were now to mount a legal challenge.

Ms Finucane said: "Not for the first time have we had to resort to legal proceedings to vindicate our legal rights.

"It is clear that the British government have cynically reneged on the commitment made at Weston Park.

"The Cameron decision is also incompatible with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life).

"We take the view that the decision not to hold a public judicial inquiry is just another obstacle which we will have to overcome.

"We are determined to get to the truth surrounding my husband's murder. Our campaign will continue."

The legal papers will be lodged in the High Court within days and a date for hearing will be sought.

In the wake of the Weston Park talks, it was eventually agreed that the Westminster government would conduct inquiries into four cases, while the Dublin Government would hold one inquiry.

All have been held, except the proposed probe into the Finucane case.

It is now known that many of those involved in the murder were agents of the state, but the family has said they want to find out who sanctioned the killing and to expose the full extent of the plot.

The family had objected to holding a probe under what they saw as restrictions contained in the Inquiries Act, but following talks with the Conservative-led Government, after the Secretary of State sought a meeting with the Finucanes, there had been predictions that a deal was to be brokered on the shape of a mutually agreed inquiry.

Mrs Finucane and her family left the Downing Street meeting in October and held a press conference where they said they were angry at the surprise announcement of a review of the case.

The family has refused to co-operate with the review.

Mr Paterson defended the British government's decision at the time. At Westminster he repeated the apology issued over the state collusion, and said the plans to call in a top lawyer were the best way forward.

Mr Finucane was 39 when he was shot 14 times by the UDA gunmen as he was eating dinner.

His family have campaigned for a full public inquiry since the attack, and his widow has said she felt insulted after Mr Cameron proposed the QC-led review of her husband's death.

Given Mr Finucane's high-profile status as a lawyer who had successfully represented clients facing allegations of IRA activity, the claims of a security force role in the murder quickly emerged.

Retired Canadian judge Peter Cory, asked by the British and Irish governments to examine the allegations of collusion following the Weston Park deal, recommended a public inquiry into the death.

A separate report by former Met commissioner John Stevens in 2003 also said there was collusion.
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/finucane-family-launch-legal-bid-against-british-government-531357.html

PANORAMA :Video - Ian Hurst - Tabloid Hacks Exposed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zn7hk

Ian Hurst's statement 2 Smithwick secret court is on Cryptome. RUC/MI5/Army corruption on a staggering scale . NB illegal to tweet!