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Published: 29 October
2002
Reporter: Alex Thomson
Channel 4 News
reveals for the first time, extraordinary evidence that the Irish
police had a major informant, who was the man the Real IRA used to buy
their bomb-carrying cars, and that the police allowed the car bomb to
go through to Omagh.
Alex Thomson’s investigation
centres on the story of an Irish detective from Donegal, Detective
Sergeant John White. He's still a serving officer, so cannot appear in
the film.
In the
months running up to the bomb, a long-established informant began to
give details on cars being stolen for a breakaway group from the Provisional
IRA.
By January
1998 - the informer was at the heart of a major car-thieving ring in
Dublin. They were working for a group of dissident Republicans, a group
who would become known as the Real IRA.
The Dublin
informer was at the centre of the car-stealing operation. His
information would lead to a stunning series of bomb seizures - John
White says he was the best informer Ireland had ever had.
Channel 4
News reports how the car-stealing process involved a senior Real IRA
figure based in Kilcock, just west of Dublin, who would phone the
informer asking for particular vehicles for car-bombing or mortar
attacks.
At 2.25
a.m. on 25th February 1998 the informer met his police handler
Detective Sergeant White on the Coolmine Industrial Estate in Dublin. He
handed over a stolen car to him -- instead of to the Real IRA.
The police
then took the car off and fitted it with a tracking device - a bug. But
that job was to take two and a half hours to finish. That left the
informer sitting back on the industrial estate in the dead of night
getting very nervous. If the Real IRA were ever to get suspicious and
start asking questions it would have been difficult to explain a delay
like that.
The police
then tracked the stolen car -- now bugged -- to a shed in Dundalk close
to the border. There, on March 21st detectives arrested two men and
seized 1,200 pounds of homemade explosives in a spectacular coup. By
now the police knew they were dealing with the Real IRA.
Less than
a fortnight later -- another bugging operation -- this time the stolen
car was tracked to Dublin docks. On April 2nd police moved in just as a
primed 900 pound carbomb heading for London was about to drive onto the
ferry.
Detective
Sergeant John White was delighted, according to his brother Micheal
White: “Oh he was, he was, over the moon you know? As I've said I've
never seen him on such good form."
Channel 4
News reports that by now the informer was seriously scared for his
life. He knew that the Real IRA up in Dundalk were concerned about all
the security lapses -- the seizures of the bombs and that they blamed
the people around Dublin for that.
He also
knew that the penalty if he was found out would be torture followed by
a bullet through the head.
Terrifed
of execution, he wanted out. He met John White and White's superiors in
a house in Dublin. Eventually, in exchange for payments of ten thousand
pounds cash -- he agreed to carry on as an informer
Cars were
in almost constant demand - the Real IRA were desperate to make their
mark.
On May
22nd another car was stolen in Dublin and bugged via the informer.
Police
were then able to arrest two cousins driving 1,000 pounds of homemade
explosive towards the border in two cars. Yet another coup - and
probably yet more lives saved by the Irish police.
But from
August 11th that year, something changed. That day, in Dublin, the
informer tipped off john White that a car for 'something big' in the
North was needed - a 'special order' for a large car-bomb.
Theb, John
White and two superior officers wanted to meet him in a pub on the
western fringes of Dublin. Both were tense, they appeared to know
things that he didn't.
Channel 4
News has seen three secret sets of confidential documents about what
went on in the pub, according to John White.
It was
only four days before the Omagh bomb detonated. John White recalls that
a superior - one of the most senior policemen in Ireland - was doing
most of the talking.
John White
describes what happened in the pub: "He took a sip of his pint,
and I can see it as clearly as if it's happening here this minute, and
he put the pint on the counter and he said, John, I think we are going
to let this one go through, or else we ARE going to let this one go
through.
“This is
as clear to me as if he is sitting here now at the moment doing it. And
I glanced over to the other man, he eyes were down and he wouldn't look
up. A long silence developed. I thought maybe they were testing me out
at this stage to see would I go along with this or what would I
say."
Three days
later, back in Donegal, John White was still troubled about that
meeting. He believes police superiors wanted to protect the informer's
cover by allowing something to go through.
That very
day - the day before Omagh - the informer was in touch again. He now
said the Real IRA leader in Kilcock had got the car he needed - but it
was stolen by somebody else.
Even
though the police were unable to bug the vehicle this time, John White
asked why there was no surveillance on vehicles in and around Kilcock -
they knew just where the Republican boss lived. Channel 4 News put this
to the police but have not yet received a response.
The next
day, Saturday afternoon, the bomb detonated in Market Street, Omagh
crowded with shoppers and tourists.
Across the
border, in Donegal, John White was devastated. Michael White told
Channel 4 News: "We talked about what happened at Omagh. And he
went onto explain that he felt that people who he was working with at
the time failed to intercept the bomb going through to Omagh and I
suppose maybe as a result he felt guilty about that."
John White
insists it wasn't the first time attacks were let through. He says in
February and May attacks on fortified RUC stations were allowed to go
ahead in order to protect the source's cover.
But he
also makes another serious allegation against the Irish state itself --
that just after Omagh a Government minister cut a deal with the Real
IRA - no arrests for Omagh in return for a ceasefire.
Channel 4
News has seen a secret debriefing document by John White in which he
states:
"...the
Real IRA had agreed a deal with a Government Minister. (The leader in
Kilcock) stated that in return for calling a ceasefire no RIRA members
would be harassed or receive undue Garda attention...(he) explained
that no-one would be charged on circumstantial evidence or where they
were incriminated in written statements by others."
The Irish
Prime Minister has openly admitted that proxy contacts were going on
after Omagh. In August 1998, Bertie Aherne said: "All of the time
there are both religious and community people who endeavour to do their
best working with both governments and working with these organisations
to try to turn them away from violence."
A few
weeks after the bomb the Real IRA did declare a ceasefire. But Channel
4 News has seen court documents showing that charges against people
arrested after Omagh were dropped on the orders of the state without
explanations.
The
charges were struck out by the Court (The Judge) at the request of An
Garda Siochana (the Irish police) and the reasons for doing so are not
on record.
When the
relatives of those killed wanted to know why -- a police officer said
they'd have to sue them to find out. Laurence Rush, whose wife Libby
was killed in the attack, said: "He says well you'll have to take
me to a civil actin to get that - and that’s the answer I got - you'll
have to take me on a civil action to get that information."
This isn’t
just the claim of one man, according to the programme. Police in Northern
Ireland and the Police Ombudsman's Office there have a covert tape
recording of John White secretly taping the informer in a car. The
informer confirms a deal's been done between the Irish government and
the Real IRA:
INFORMER:
I'm telling you all the charges were dropped. They all made statement,
it was all f.....g dropped against the whole f.....g lot of them.
WHITE:
That's proof. that's proof....Would you say that he met the minister
himself, he wouldn't have, sure he wouldn't?
INFORMER:
Someone f.....g met him but he he told me two days later, remember I
said that to you?
WHITE: You
did yeah. You wouldn't be rearrested...
INFORMER:
All the charges against everybody, everybody that was arrested on that
would be dropped.
WHITE: And
the story was that he wouldn't be proscuted, isn't that right?
INFORMER:
Yeah there would be no-one prosecuted.
WHITE Yeah
INFORMER:
There was a deal done.
WHITE:
Yeah.
The Irish
Government is well aware of these allegations. In March this year the
Northern Irish Police Ombudsman sent them a summary of John White’s
story. Channel 4 News has seen a copy. A special tribunal has been set
up to examine White’s claims.
As for
John White, his home in Letterkenny has been raided. Papers have been
stolen from his locker at the police station and he's facing legal
charges which he says are an attempt to smear him and silence him...
The Irish
police and government declined either to be interviewed or even answer
most questions put to them and the police have issued the following
statements:
“...there
is no basis for any suggestion that there was information available to
the Garda Siochana which could have enabled them to prevent the Omagh
atrocity.
The
allegations….are without foundation and appear to emanate from a
mischevious source.”
The
relatives of those killed say there is abundant evidence - both north
and south of the border - that both police forces could have done more,
much more , to stop the bomb.
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