British admit `dirty tricks'
THE British government admitted that `dirty tricks' had been used by their intelligence services in the Six Counties as their Defence Minister and former Six-County direct ruler, Tom King, announced a civil service inquiry into the dismissal of former British Army Press Officer Colin Wallace.
Wallace who was based at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, in the early 1970s, was forced to resign for leaking a restricted document to a journalist in 1975. Wallace has always maintained that he was authorised to leak information as part of a `disinformation' campaign designed to discredit individuals and organisations in the Six Counties.
Last Tuesday, Archibald Hamilton, British Minister for the Armed Forces, announced, in a written reply to a Commons question, that papers had `come to light' which confirmed that Wallace's duties involved ``providing unattributable covert briefings to the press''. Hamilton also admitted that, arising out of this issue, ministers in previous years had issued statements to the Commons which were ``inaccurate'' - parliamentary double-speak for the establishment lying through its teeth.
Speaking on behalf of Sinn Féin, Mitchel McLaughlin said: ``British government counterinsurgency strategy in the North was formulated in the early 1970s and largely based on their colonial experience in over 50 conflicts in the preceeding 25 years.
Phoblacht, Thursday 1 February 1990
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