Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Castlereagh raid was inside job

Finucane, Nelson, Omagh files missing?

Special Branch and British Military Intelligence officers are to be questioned in connection with the illegal entry and theft of secret documents at Castlereagh Interrogation Centre last weekend.

Initial official reports of the incident, in which three men entered one of the most secure institutions in the North to delve through highly classified material for almost an hour, sought to play down the significance of the material kept in the office.

The level of inside knowledge required to carry out the raid suggests that that gang knew what they were looking for and knew where to look. Despite the spin, one indisputable fact remains clear. The nature of the raid presupposes a very specific motive and the material netted by the gang is unlikely to be anything other than highly significant.

In recent months, we have seen the killing of Special Branch informer and UDA quartermaster William Stobie, days after he publicly supported the call for an independent inquiry into the killing of Belfast defence lawyer Pat Finucane.

Loyalist Stephen McCullagh was found dead in suspicious circumstances just hours after offering Special Branch information about the sectarian killing of Daniel McColgan. McCullagh was never seen alive again after entering a police barracks.

Going back further, the Stevens inquiry investigating Crown forces collusion, including the role of Special Branch and covert British army units, had their offices torched. Stevens' predecessor John Stalker, investigating the summary execution of unarmed republicans by a covert unit directed by the Special Branch, was deliberately discredited and removed.

The announcement on Wednesday by British Secretary of State John Reid to call an inquiry into the Castlereagh raid further exposes the fact that there are no mechanisms for democratic accountability of the Special Branch and their activities.

Moreover, the British government's failure to implement the Patten Report's requirements for a new beginning for policing has left the Policing Board powerless to investigate this matter.

The Special Branch is a force within a force, immune from accountability and immune from scrutiny. Recent promotions of Special Branch officers into senior positions of authority throughout the PSNI have polluted any hopes of a new policing ethos within the force.

They have to go. There cannot be a new beginning to policing while Special Branch still exists.