NIO unionists undermined talks - Mitchell
Former U.S. senator and talks chairperson George Mitchell is accusing the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) of attempting to sabotage the peace process by leaking information on British government policy to the media.
According to the August 29 edition of the Sunday Telegraph, Mitchell said during an interview with London Weekend Television programme, America 2000, due to be shown this coming Sunday that both the British and Irish governments as well as the political parties here all leaked information to ``manipulate public opinion''.
However he expressed particular alarm and anger at the frequency of leaks from the NIO. Criticising the NIO, the former senator said he believed that it was behind leaks aimed at sabotaging British government policy: ``What was unique about many of the leaks from the NIO is that they were designed to undermine the policy of the British government of which they were a part.''
In the past three years in particular, there have been a series of damaging leaks emanating from the NIO. In December 1996, during intense negotiations between the Irish and the British Tory governments of the time, in the lead up to the publication of the Downing Street Declaration, the proposed deal was leaked to the London Times.
It was thought that huge sections of the Declaration were rewritten after the leak. Then in 1998, several leaks exposed the deep-seated unionism of the NIO.
One document dubbed the `gameplan' document which advocated ``Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road'' was in circulation in June 1997 at a time when British Secretary of State Mowlam was in a process of negotiating with both the Garvaghy Road Residents and Portadown Orangemen to find a solution to that year's Drumcree march.
The British government, when agreement couldn't be found, used up to 2,000 British soldiers and RUC to force the Orange Parade down the road that year.
The document was leaked in February 1998 then in April 1998 John Steele, NIO security minister at the time, left his job in the NIO.
As reported in An Phoblacht at the time Steele and his deputy Stephen Leach were responsible for the `gameplan' document. A second leak in March was of a publicity document drafted by then NIO publicity director Tom Kelly.
The document, passed on to the DUP, outlined how the British government planned to rally support for a Yes in last year's referendum.
In a further development, the names Steele and Leach turned up in court during a judicial hearing taken by the LOCC into the appointments of Apprentice Boy Tommy Cheevers and ex-UDA boss Glenn Barr to the Parades Commission. Both Steele and Leach were on the panel that appointed the pair. Both later resigned from the Commission.
The latest leak of this type occurred last week, when key sections of the Patten report on policing, which is due to be published on 9 September, were leaked to the Belfast Telegraph, a leak which is now being used by unionists to invalidate the report, with David Trimble advising Patten to bin the report.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)