peaccenicked
29th March 2002, 16:23
Friday, March 29, 2002
British Army trained loyalist bombers
By Mark Sage
A GROUP of men who claim the British Army trained loyalist death squads involved in bombing missions in the Republic are to meet Irish government officials. The men will travel to Dublin where they will tell Department of Foreign Affairs officials that the British Army trained and equipped loyalist death squads and encouraged assassinations and bombing missions.
The department yesterday confirmed the meeting would go ahead after the allegations were made by self-confessed Army agent Willie Carlin in an interview on Wednesday. Mr Carlin claimed the British Army supplied training and information used to target and murder civilians on both sides of the border.
He said many of the agents were recruited into the Force Research Unit of the Army, which acted as an intelligence body above the British government and Special Branch. Mr Carlin alleged that the purpose of the FRU, which recruited him in 1974, was to redirect loyalist killing gangs away from sectarian murder towards legitimate republican targets: Operations were allowed to go ahead and people lost their lives as a result.
He claimed that John Francis Green, who was killed in Monaghan in 1975, was assassinated by loyalists acting on information received by the British Army.
The people who killed him got their information from the FRU and they were allowed through the border. The route was cleared for them to kill Green and they were allowed safe passage back to Northern Ireland, he told RTE. The decision to go public and approach the Government came after Britain abandoned the agents as peace prevailed.
A group of those agents were now threatening to release information claiming that the British authorities withheld information about killings, break-ins, SAS activity in the Republic and information that wasnt passed on, he said. They also claim that loyalist attackers were encouraged and given bomb-making training to plant car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, which killed 33 people in 1974.
Mr Justice Henry Barron is currently heading an inquiry into the attacks amid claims by survivors and families of the dead that British security forces colluded with the bombers.
British Army trained loyalist bombers
By Mark Sage
A GROUP of men who claim the British Army trained loyalist death squads involved in bombing missions in the Republic are to meet Irish government officials. The men will travel to Dublin where they will tell Department of Foreign Affairs officials that the British Army trained and equipped loyalist death squads and encouraged assassinations and bombing missions.
The department yesterday confirmed the meeting would go ahead after the allegations were made by self-confessed Army agent Willie Carlin in an interview on Wednesday. Mr Carlin claimed the British Army supplied training and information used to target and murder civilians on both sides of the border.
He said many of the agents were recruited into the Force Research Unit of the Army, which acted as an intelligence body above the British government and Special Branch. Mr Carlin alleged that the purpose of the FRU, which recruited him in 1974, was to redirect loyalist killing gangs away from sectarian murder towards legitimate republican targets: Operations were allowed to go ahead and people lost their lives as a result.
He claimed that John Francis Green, who was killed in Monaghan in 1975, was assassinated by loyalists acting on information received by the British Army.
The people who killed him got their information from the FRU and they were allowed through the border. The route was cleared for them to kill Green and they were allowed safe passage back to Northern Ireland, he told RTE. The decision to go public and approach the Government came after Britain abandoned the agents as peace prevailed.
A group of those agents were now threatening to release information claiming that the British authorities withheld information about killings, break-ins, SAS activity in the Republic and information that wasnt passed on, he said. They also claim that loyalist attackers were encouraged and given bomb-making training to plant car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan, which killed 33 people in 1974.
Mr Justice Henry Barron is currently heading an inquiry into the attacks amid claims by survivors and families of the dead that British security forces colluded with the bombers.