=========================================================================================================================
Marty Says; Help the RUC Special Branch heroes.
These former RUC special Branch officers give their all and they must be compensated for their injuries.
I know, as someone who worked with SB officers between 1987-1991, what these very brave men and women went through.
It was constant danger 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year.
Why did they do it? To protect the people of Ireland, north and south, from the bombers and killers of the IRA, INLA, IPLO, UVF, UFF etc. The brave men and women of the RUC special branch put their own lives in grat danger. They were expected to go into the loins den, to meet killers and to get the information from spies, informers and agents, the information that would be used to save life.
When the SB officers whent out they Never knew if they would ever return from such meetings.
The SB officers put themselves in great danger daily, day in day out. The information those SB officers obtained resulted in the lives, of a very large numbers of people, who would otherwise have been murdered, being saved.
We should be thanking the brave SB officers and ensuring they get the compensation needed for there injuries and the care they require.
If there is anything, anything at all that I can do to help these brave men and women just get in touch, via facebook, bebo, friend of friend etc.
Good Luck and god bless you all.
Martin McGartland
=========================================================================================================================
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under, it has been claimed.
RUC stress case 'could name' informers
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
As the first 10 cases to be heard in a renewed post-traumatic stress lawsuit were identified, the most senior retired policeman involved in the action warned of the lengths they were prepared to go.
The former deputy head of CID in Belfast, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said: "The guys are saying they will be relying on facts and situations which they were placed in, vis-a-vis looking after killers and murderers who were also known informants.
"Effectively a lot of them are going to use these type of scenarios to support their illness. They were subjected to dealing with this type of thing on a daily basis.
"That's all going to be opened up in court, the names of informants and what the police were subjected to."
Detailing his own experiences, the ex-detective said he was seriously injured by an IRA bomb in Donegall Street, Belfast in the early 1970s and narrowly survived when INLA men opened fire on him in Newry, Co Down in 1987.
He is among scores of former officers planning to represent themselves as personal litigants after losing a class action against the Chief Constable.
Up to 5,500 officers had sued over how they were treated for anxiety and depression suffered during decades of exposure to violence.
They believed they secured victory two years ago when a judge ruled there had been systematic failures within the force.
But any hopes of a multi-million pound compensation award were then dealt a crushing blow when 10 test cases were rejected.
A challenge to the verdicts brought on generic issues and five of the lead cases was subsequently dismissed by the Court of Appeal last June.
With uncertainty surrounding the intention of thousands of those officers involved in the original case, a High Court judge is now planning to set them a deadline for confirming whether or not they want to continue.
Lawyers for the Chief Constable have already ruled out any further mediation and warned that any plaintiffs who proceed and lose their case will each face legal bills of at least 50,000.
Mr Justice Gillen is expected to allow time for any applications to strike-out cases once the deadline passes.
In the meantime he also confirmed today that the first batch of 10 actions have been selected.
"Their cases have been chosen at random and it is intended to process their cases," he said.
The judge added: "I have to protect the Article 6 right to a fair trial, but at the same time I have to recognise that a fair trial depends on the circumstances.
"The circumstances here are that if there is a very large number of cases I cannot allow them to be delayed. Justice delayed is often justice denied."
After a further review hearing was set for September one of those in the first 10 cases claimed they could lead to major revelations.
The retired Special Branch officer, who also requested anonymity, said outside court: "This could end up bigger than Bloody Sunday when all the cans of worms are opened."
© UTV News
Link here; -http://www.u.tv/News/RUC-stress-case-could-name-informers/1053d5c5-764c-4e1e-840c-b3a58433fc1c
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
IRA's criminality ignored to keep process alive
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Martin McGartland Knows All About It. Northumbria Police have been turning a blind-eye to his attemped murder by the IRA for 11 years, Marty stated from day one that Northumbria Police, Mi5 and others were doing so to keep the process alive.
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IRA's criminality ignored to keep process alive
Belfast Telegraph, Monday, 21 June 2010
Last week was a tough week for the forgotten and innocent victims of terrorism.Wall-to-wall coverage of Saville, underscoring a perverse hierarchy of victims, along with the frenzied vilification of the security forces, has left many law-abiding citizens dismayed.
The First Minister's compliant acceptance and endorsement of Saville, without so much as a whimper about its findings that his partner, McGuinness, was in possession of a sub-machine gun and, if so, perjured himself, only added to the feeling that all sense of right and wrong has been so dumbed down to placate the 'peace process' that we are a society without any moral compass. The priority of preserving the terrorists in government process at all costs also explains the deliberate suppression of a most far-reaching event in Co Laois. In collaboration with Interpol, Gardai a few days ago discovered a huge currency counterfeiting operation in an IRA bunker, which has been netting the IRA millions across the world. Run by a 'pardoned' IRA murderer and three members of Sinn Fein it explodes the officially sanctioned myth IRA/Sinn Fein has abandoned all criminality and, thus, is fit for government.
If, as appears, IRA/Sinn Fein has indeed been caught out involved in an international currency counterfeiting operation, what action will we see from those who assured us they had ensured such criminality was over and that Sinn Fein was now fit to be partnered in government?
This should be a moment of truth. Sadly, I fear it will be another dishonest indulgence of denial, as preserving the process is again judged more important than getting worked up about a bit of international criminality by a party of government.
JIM ALLISTER
Leader, Traditional Unionist Voice
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/iras-criminality-ignored-to-keep-process-alive-14850271.html
Martin McGartland Knows All About It. Northumbria Police have been turning a blind-eye to his attemped murder by the IRA for 11 years, Marty stated from day one that Northumbria Police, Mi5 and others were doing so to keep the process alive.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRA's criminality ignored to keep process alive
Belfast Telegraph, Monday, 21 June 2010
Last week was a tough week for the forgotten and innocent victims of terrorism.Wall-to-wall coverage of Saville, underscoring a perverse hierarchy of victims, along with the frenzied vilification of the security forces, has left many law-abiding citizens dismayed.
The First Minister's compliant acceptance and endorsement of Saville, without so much as a whimper about its findings that his partner, McGuinness, was in possession of a sub-machine gun and, if so, perjured himself, only added to the feeling that all sense of right and wrong has been so dumbed down to placate the 'peace process' that we are a society without any moral compass. The priority of preserving the terrorists in government process at all costs also explains the deliberate suppression of a most far-reaching event in Co Laois. In collaboration with Interpol, Gardai a few days ago discovered a huge currency counterfeiting operation in an IRA bunker, which has been netting the IRA millions across the world. Run by a 'pardoned' IRA murderer and three members of Sinn Fein it explodes the officially sanctioned myth IRA/Sinn Fein has abandoned all criminality and, thus, is fit for government.
If, as appears, IRA/Sinn Fein has indeed been caught out involved in an international currency counterfeiting operation, what action will we see from those who assured us they had ensured such criminality was over and that Sinn Fein was now fit to be partnered in government?
This should be a moment of truth. Sadly, I fear it will be another dishonest indulgence of denial, as preserving the process is again judged more important than getting worked up about a bit of international criminality by a party of government.
JIM ALLISTER
Leader, Traditional Unionist Voice
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/letters/iras-criminality-ignored-to-keep-process-alive-14850271.html
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Northumbria Police Press Release is fundamentally racist, politically motivated and also misleading, say Martin McGartland
Letter by Martin McGartland;
Dear Sir,
Northumbria Police Press Release is fundamentally racist, politically motivated and also misleading.
I have to respond to Northumbria Police's Press Release, which was also reported in your newspaper on thursday 17th June 2010 regarding my June 1999 attempted murder.
The Press Release Included the words "Our main line of inquiry, therefore, continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland."
If Northumbria Police believe, as they have told me they believe, that my attempted murder was carried out by members or former members of the Provisional IRA who resented my work as a security force agent they should say so in plain terms. Their attempts to skirt round this fact are not only misleading, they convey a subtext which is fundamentally racist.
For a start not all the suspects who I know of are Irish. Secondly Irish republicanism is a respectable political ideology which should not be equated with terrorism or murder. Fianna Fail, the ruling party
in the Irish republic, describes itself as “the republican party” and is the largest republican organisation on the island. Most people who support a republican ideal have no truck terrorism and do not deserve
to be pilloried in this way.
I am now formally calling on the Northumbria Police to amend the wording of their appeal and to make it clearer and fairer. It breaches their own code of conduct and if they refuse to amend it I will make a formal complaint and also take the matter further.
I also want to place on the record that I believe that Northumbria Police are involved in a cover-up when dealing with my 1999 attempted murder case. I also believe that Northumbria Police know who shot me and that they know where to find them but feel constrained from taking the appropriate action by political considerations.
Intended or not, this has the effect of protecting IRA terrorists who were involved in my shooting and reduces the effectiveness of their appeal.
Yours,
Martin McGartland
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above letter was written by Martin McGartland after Northumbria Police said;
Renewed appeal over shooting.
Dated: 17 Jun 2010
Northumbria Police
Police officers investigating the attempted murder of a man over a decade ago have renewed their appeal for information.
Martin McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, 11 years ago today.
Despite being shot a number of times at close range, Mr McGartland survived the attack on June 17, 1999.
Although a number of arrests have been made, nobody has ever been charged with the attempted murder, and an extensive investigation is continuing.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: "Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
"Our main line of enquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
"Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject."
Detectives are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation.
Other lines of enquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene which had been bought only two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, originating from somewhere in the Glasgow region.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards. This is another line of enquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson added: "Although nothing substantial came out of last year's appeal, which marked the 10th anniversary of the incident, we are determined to make sure that anyone who may have any information about this attack has the opportunity to come forward.
"Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People's loyalties can change a lot in eleven years, and people may now be prepared to help us - it's a long time for people to keep silent about something like this.
"Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Police still have an audio tape message left on a telephone answering machine a few days before the shooting by a man who is believed to be one of those involved in the attack. The caller was asking about the sale of a van which was similar to that used to conceal the gunman immediately before the shooting. To hear this tape again, log on to www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link here:- http://www.northumbria.police.uk/details.asp?id=28113
Dear Sir,
Northumbria Police Press Release is fundamentally racist, politically motivated and also misleading.
I have to respond to Northumbria Police's Press Release, which was also reported in your newspaper on thursday 17th June 2010 regarding my June 1999 attempted murder.
The Press Release Included the words "Our main line of inquiry, therefore, continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland."
If Northumbria Police believe, as they have told me they believe, that my attempted murder was carried out by members or former members of the Provisional IRA who resented my work as a security force agent they should say so in plain terms. Their attempts to skirt round this fact are not only misleading, they convey a subtext which is fundamentally racist.
For a start not all the suspects who I know of are Irish. Secondly Irish republicanism is a respectable political ideology which should not be equated with terrorism or murder. Fianna Fail, the ruling party
in the Irish republic, describes itself as “the republican party” and is the largest republican organisation on the island. Most people who support a republican ideal have no truck terrorism and do not deserve
to be pilloried in this way.
I am now formally calling on the Northumbria Police to amend the wording of their appeal and to make it clearer and fairer. It breaches their own code of conduct and if they refuse to amend it I will make a formal complaint and also take the matter further.
I also want to place on the record that I believe that Northumbria Police are involved in a cover-up when dealing with my 1999 attempted murder case. I also believe that Northumbria Police know who shot me and that they know where to find them but feel constrained from taking the appropriate action by political considerations.
Intended or not, this has the effect of protecting IRA terrorists who were involved in my shooting and reduces the effectiveness of their appeal.
Yours,
Martin McGartland
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above letter was written by Martin McGartland after Northumbria Police said;
Renewed appeal over shooting.
Dated: 17 Jun 2010
Northumbria Police
Police officers investigating the attempted murder of a man over a decade ago have renewed their appeal for information.
Martin McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, 11 years ago today.
Despite being shot a number of times at close range, Mr McGartland survived the attack on June 17, 1999.
Although a number of arrests have been made, nobody has ever been charged with the attempted murder, and an extensive investigation is continuing.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: "Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
"Our main line of enquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
"Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject."
Detectives are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation.
Other lines of enquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene which had been bought only two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, originating from somewhere in the Glasgow region.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards. This is another line of enquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson added: "Although nothing substantial came out of last year's appeal, which marked the 10th anniversary of the incident, we are determined to make sure that anyone who may have any information about this attack has the opportunity to come forward.
"Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People's loyalties can change a lot in eleven years, and people may now be prepared to help us - it's a long time for people to keep silent about something like this.
"Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Police still have an audio tape message left on a telephone answering machine a few days before the shooting by a man who is believed to be one of those involved in the attack. The caller was asking about the sale of a van which was similar to that used to conceal the gunman immediately before the shooting. To hear this tape again, log on to www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link here:- http://www.northumbria.police.uk/details.asp?id=28113
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Northumbria Police's Secret Shame -Northumbria Police and the IRA cover-up
Northumbria Police's Secret Shame
Northumbria Police are Hopeless - Clueless and Spineless. Northumbria Police have been dealing with the attempted murder case of Martin McGartland since June 1999. Northumbria Police have never charged anyone with Martin's shooting.
"Would it help Northumbria Police if we dug up Sherlock Holmes.", asks Martin.
Martin McGartland says "Northumbria Police have been involved in an 11 year cover up since the day of the shooting. Northumbria Police have never come clean above the IRA being involved in my attempted murder.
Northumbria Police continue to lie, cover-up to hide their own failings in this case and also to protect those in the IRA who tried to murder me. I say Northumbria Police know who shot me, they also know where to find them. However, Northumbria Police are covering-up attempted murder and turning a blind-eye to IRA involvement."
Northumbria Police are Hopeless - Clueless and Spineless. Northumbria Police have been dealing with the attempted murder case of Martin McGartland since June 1999. Northumbria Police have never charged anyone with Martin's shooting.
"Would it help Northumbria Police if we dug up Sherlock Holmes.", asks Martin.
Martin McGartland says "Northumbria Police have been involved in an 11 year cover up since the day of the shooting. Northumbria Police have never come clean above the IRA being involved in my attempted murder.
Northumbria Police continue to lie, cover-up to hide their own failings in this case and also to protect those in the IRA who tried to murder me. I say Northumbria Police know who shot me, they also know where to find them. However, Northumbria Police are covering-up attempted murder and turning a blind-eye to IRA involvement."
Northumbria Police's Secret Shame -Northumbria Police and the IRA cover-up
Northumbria Police's Secret Shame
Northumbria Police are Hopeless - Clueless and Spineless. Northumbria Police have been dealing with the attempted murder case of Martin McGartland since June 1999. Northumbria Police have never charged anyone with Martin's shooting.
"Would it help Northumbria Police if we dug up Sherlock Holmes.", asks Martin.
Martin McGartland says "Northumbria Police have been involved in an 11 year cover up since the day of the shooting. Northumbria Police have never come clean above the IRA being involved in my attempted murder.
Northumbria Police continue to lie, cover-up to hide their own failings in this case and also to protect those in the IRA who tried to murder me. I say Northumbria Police know who shot me, they also know where to find them. However, Northumbria Police are covering-up attempted murder and turning a blind-eye to IRA involvement."
Northumbria Police are Hopeless - Clueless and Spineless. Northumbria Police have been dealing with the attempted murder case of Martin McGartland since June 1999. Northumbria Police have never charged anyone with Martin's shooting.
"Would it help Northumbria Police if we dug up Sherlock Holmes.", asks Martin.
Martin McGartland says "Northumbria Police have been involved in an 11 year cover up since the day of the shooting. Northumbria Police have never come clean above the IRA being involved in my attempted murder.
Northumbria Police continue to lie, cover-up to hide their own failings in this case and also to protect those in the IRA who tried to murder me. I say Northumbria Police know who shot me, they also know where to find them. However, Northumbria Police are covering-up attempted murder and turning a blind-eye to IRA involvement."
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case;
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case;
“Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Marty says; "If Northumbria Police repeat the above lie often enough they may begin to believe it."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to read more about the Martin McGartland case, Northumbria Police cover-up go to Martin McGartland facebook, bebo or our blogs.
“Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Marty says; "If Northumbria Police repeat the above lie often enough they may begin to believe it."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to read more about the Martin McGartland case, Northumbria Police cover-up go to Martin McGartland facebook, bebo or our blogs.
Friday, June 18, 2010
His new identity as Martin Ash was blown by Northumbria Police who prosecuted him ... is an intelligence cock-up
Martin McGartland - Northumbria Police; " ... an intelligence cock-up ..." "... I always wonder why I got the call..."
"Draw your own conclusions somewhere between stitch up, casual attention to detail, or human error. That, to me, remains as big a story as who shot him." etc.
Here Here Tony. Tony Horne was more fortunate than I because I too remember that night vivdly and I had called the Alan Robson show when I was highlighting my case as he was given police escort on the night at a time when I was pleading with Northumbria Police for any sort of help, protection, after Northumbria Police had exposed my identity by reading mmy name, home address, out in open court and which were printed in national newspapers for all to see. Thank you to Tony Horne for taking time to write his piece on the subject and although his article is very accurate, there are a few areas that I am happy to clarify, first being I was not in any shape or form a "double agent", that would mean I would have been an IRA terrorist who for whatever reason had been turned, blackmailed or in some way won over by the security services. No, I was at no time before or during my infiltration of the IRA either a member of the organisation or even a sympathiser, I was recruited by the security services for the purpose of infiltrating the IRA and to forwarn security services about all the workings, planning of future bombings, shootings and other attacks which were being discussed or planned.
Secondly, I have never lived in Canada at any time, this was just something which originated as a result of the film, Fifty Dead Men Walking, of which I had absolutely nothing to do with, in fact I took legal action against film makers and I and my solicitors sought and won changes to the film and also we ensured that legal disclaimers appeared at the bginning and also at the ending of the film, which makes it known that I was not in any way connected or involved with the film and that it was not a true account of my life story nor of my book of the same name. I was also paid damages and also compensation by the film makers. I have been on record stating that the film is as Near To The Truth As Earth Is To Pluto. I also said that the film is 90% total fiction.
To this day, 11 years after my attempted murder, Northumbria Police cointinue with their cover-up in my 1999 case. Northumbria Police are also covering up IRA involvment in my case. Northumbria Police are failing to tell the truth when dealing with my case.
===========================================================================================================================
Tony Horne column, June 18 2010
Jun 18 2010 Tony Horne
CHILLING. That’s the word I would use to describe my state of mind in the last 24 hours. Not chilling out, but chilling as in spine-chilling.
I heard yesterday morning that Northumbria Police have renewed their appeal for information into the Whitley Bay shooting of Martin McGartland in 1999.
God, I remember that day. It hasn’t been on my mind much since but it is dominating my thoughts today.
In the summer of 1997, I hosted Alan Robson’s Night Owls show for two weeks on Metro Radio. It was only the second time in my professional career that I had hosted a talk show.
It went well, but I was out of my depth. At about 11.20, or maybe 12.20, I took a call from Mr McGartland. I didn’t have a clue who he was.
As you may know by now, he was an IRA double agent who went on to tell his amazing story of saving lives in Fifty Dead Men Walking, including the story of his own escape from an IRA execution by jumping from a third-floor window.
His new identity as Martin Ash was blown by Northumbria Police who prosecuted him on driving offences, one of which was holding driving licences in different names. This, you have to say, is an intelligence cock-up.
He spoke on our show for about 20 minutes. I listened, barely interrupting. In my inexperience, I had given him a political platform. Afterwards, I didn’t say another word on the radio and was given a police escort home. Though that’s not true as I was only escorted to where the Angel is now, since I became County Durham’s constabulary’s problem after that. I couldn’t sleep that night. The story was still spinning in my head.
Fast forward to yesterday 11 years ago, and I get a phone call around 9am whilst I am on the radio.
I’m summarising but I swear the words included: “I have some information about a friend of yours, Martin McGartland who has just been shot in Whitley Bay”. Well, we weren’t friends, clearly.
I knew it was a massive story and within an hour papers in Belfast were ringing me. Of course, it is an old trick for the media to be tipped off before the police, but when I think about this story, I always wonder why I got the call.
Was that random chance or was I linked to him in someone’s mind?
Even back then in an era of much less media, you would have to do pretty well to remember that I had stood in for eight shows on a night time phone-in two years previously.
I don’t recall the accent of the phone call breaking the shooting news, but I think it was local rather than Irish.
Clearly by this point his identity was widely known in Whitley Bay. You have to ask to this day, how on earth someone who had been re-invented and relocated for his own safety, was then shopped over a motoring offence?
Draw your own conclusions somewhere between stitch up, casual attention to detail, or human error. That, to me, remains as big a story as who shot him.
Google him, and you’ll see that he disowned the film of his life story but was doing publicity for it only 18 months ago. In the movie, he is now living in Canada.
I think I can safely say, as I reflect on that day, that Martin McGartland is therefore not living in Canada.
Link:- http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/entertainment-in-newcastle/tony-horne/2010/06/18/tony-horne-column-june-18-2010-72703-26680546/
"Draw your own conclusions somewhere between stitch up, casual attention to detail, or human error. That, to me, remains as big a story as who shot him." etc.
Here Here Tony. Tony Horne was more fortunate than I because I too remember that night vivdly and I had called the Alan Robson show when I was highlighting my case as he was given police escort on the night at a time when I was pleading with Northumbria Police for any sort of help, protection, after Northumbria Police had exposed my identity by reading mmy name, home address, out in open court and which were printed in national newspapers for all to see. Thank you to Tony Horne for taking time to write his piece on the subject and although his article is very accurate, there are a few areas that I am happy to clarify, first being I was not in any shape or form a "double agent", that would mean I would have been an IRA terrorist who for whatever reason had been turned, blackmailed or in some way won over by the security services. No, I was at no time before or during my infiltration of the IRA either a member of the organisation or even a sympathiser, I was recruited by the security services for the purpose of infiltrating the IRA and to forwarn security services about all the workings, planning of future bombings, shootings and other attacks which were being discussed or planned.
Secondly, I have never lived in Canada at any time, this was just something which originated as a result of the film, Fifty Dead Men Walking, of which I had absolutely nothing to do with, in fact I took legal action against film makers and I and my solicitors sought and won changes to the film and also we ensured that legal disclaimers appeared at the bginning and also at the ending of the film, which makes it known that I was not in any way connected or involved with the film and that it was not a true account of my life story nor of my book of the same name. I was also paid damages and also compensation by the film makers. I have been on record stating that the film is as Near To The Truth As Earth Is To Pluto. I also said that the film is 90% total fiction.
To this day, 11 years after my attempted murder, Northumbria Police cointinue with their cover-up in my 1999 case. Northumbria Police are also covering up IRA involvment in my case. Northumbria Police are failing to tell the truth when dealing with my case.
===========================================================================================================================
Tony Horne column, June 18 2010
Jun 18 2010 Tony Horne
CHILLING. That’s the word I would use to describe my state of mind in the last 24 hours. Not chilling out, but chilling as in spine-chilling.
I heard yesterday morning that Northumbria Police have renewed their appeal for information into the Whitley Bay shooting of Martin McGartland in 1999.
God, I remember that day. It hasn’t been on my mind much since but it is dominating my thoughts today.
In the summer of 1997, I hosted Alan Robson’s Night Owls show for two weeks on Metro Radio. It was only the second time in my professional career that I had hosted a talk show.
It went well, but I was out of my depth. At about 11.20, or maybe 12.20, I took a call from Mr McGartland. I didn’t have a clue who he was.
As you may know by now, he was an IRA double agent who went on to tell his amazing story of saving lives in Fifty Dead Men Walking, including the story of his own escape from an IRA execution by jumping from a third-floor window.
His new identity as Martin Ash was blown by Northumbria Police who prosecuted him on driving offences, one of which was holding driving licences in different names. This, you have to say, is an intelligence cock-up.
He spoke on our show for about 20 minutes. I listened, barely interrupting. In my inexperience, I had given him a political platform. Afterwards, I didn’t say another word on the radio and was given a police escort home. Though that’s not true as I was only escorted to where the Angel is now, since I became County Durham’s constabulary’s problem after that. I couldn’t sleep that night. The story was still spinning in my head.
Fast forward to yesterday 11 years ago, and I get a phone call around 9am whilst I am on the radio.
I’m summarising but I swear the words included: “I have some information about a friend of yours, Martin McGartland who has just been shot in Whitley Bay”. Well, we weren’t friends, clearly.
I knew it was a massive story and within an hour papers in Belfast were ringing me. Of course, it is an old trick for the media to be tipped off before the police, but when I think about this story, I always wonder why I got the call.
Was that random chance or was I linked to him in someone’s mind?
Even back then in an era of much less media, you would have to do pretty well to remember that I had stood in for eight shows on a night time phone-in two years previously.
I don’t recall the accent of the phone call breaking the shooting news, but I think it was local rather than Irish.
Clearly by this point his identity was widely known in Whitley Bay. You have to ask to this day, how on earth someone who had been re-invented and relocated for his own safety, was then shopped over a motoring offence?
Draw your own conclusions somewhere between stitch up, casual attention to detail, or human error. That, to me, remains as big a story as who shot him.
Google him, and you’ll see that he disowned the film of his life story but was doing publicity for it only 18 months ago. In the movie, he is now living in Canada.
I think I can safely say, as I reflect on that day, that Martin McGartland is therefore not living in Canada.
Link:- http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/entertainment-in-newcastle/tony-horne/2010/06/18/tony-horne-column-june-18-2010-72703-26680546/
Northumbria Police Lies about Martin McGartland case, attempted murder.
Martin McGartland was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home in Whitley Bay in June 1999.
The IRA only discovered where Martin McGartland was living, and his new name, after Northumbria Police read out, in open court, his name and home address. Martin’s name and address was then published in UK newspapers. During the past two years Northumbria Police have peddled lies about above Martin McGartland’s case and have covered up IRA involvement in Martin’s 1999 attempted murder.
In Northumbria Police’s last two press releases, June 2009 and june 2010, they continue with their cover-up and their lies. They state; “Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Northumbria Police make this statement 10 and 11 years after Martin’s shooting and given they now have evidence and intelligence to show that the IRA were behind the shooting. Northumbria Police have been involved in a cover-up in the Martin McGartland case since the June 1999 shooting. They continue to protect those involved in the shooting and cover-up IRA involvement in the attack.
“I have asked Northumbria Police if there is any evidence to show that the IRA was involved in my shooting, Northumbria Police will not answer that question. I also asked if there was any intelligence that the IRA was involved, Northumbria Police said they would not answer question about intelligence. “, says Martin McGartland. The Cover-up continues.
The IRA only discovered where Martin McGartland was living, and his new name, after Northumbria Police read out, in open court, his name and home address. Martin’s name and address was then published in UK newspapers. During the past two years Northumbria Police have peddled lies about above Martin McGartland’s case and have covered up IRA involvement in Martin’s 1999 attempted murder.
In Northumbria Police’s last two press releases, June 2009 and june 2010, they continue with their cover-up and their lies. They state; “Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Northumbria Police make this statement 10 and 11 years after Martin’s shooting and given they now have evidence and intelligence to show that the IRA were behind the shooting. Northumbria Police have been involved in a cover-up in the Martin McGartland case since the June 1999 shooting. They continue to protect those involved in the shooting and cover-up IRA involvement in the attack.
“I have asked Northumbria Police if there is any evidence to show that the IRA was involved in my shooting, Northumbria Police will not answer that question. I also asked if there was any intelligence that the IRA was involved, Northumbria Police said they would not answer question about intelligence. “, says Martin McGartland. The Cover-up continues.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Martin McGartland -Northumbria Police Appeal, 11 years on and still no charges
Renewed appeal over shooting.
Dated: 17 Jun 2010
Northumbria Police
Police officers investigating the attempted murder of a man over a decade ago have renewed their appeal for information.
Martin McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, 11 years ago today.
Despite being shot a number of times at close range, Mr McGartland survived the attack on June 17, 1999.
Although a number of arrests have been made, nobody has ever been charged with the attempted murder, and an extensive investigation is continuing.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: "Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
"Our main line of enquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
"Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject."
Detectives are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation.
Other lines of enquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene which had been bought only two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, originating from somewhere in the Glasgow region.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards. This is another line of enquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson added: "Although nothing substantial came out of last year's appeal, which marked the 10th anniversary of the incident, we are determined to make sure that anyone who may have any information about this attack has the opportunity to come forward.
"Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People's loyalties can change a lot in eleven years, and people may now be prepared to help us - it's a long time for people to keep silent about something like this.
"Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Police still have an audio tape message left on a telephone answering machine a few days before the shooting by a man who is believed to be one of those involved in the attack. The caller was asking about the sale of a van which was similar to that used to conceal the gunman immediately before the shooting.
To hear this tape again, log on to www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link:- http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/news_releases/details.asp?id=28113
Dated: 17 Jun 2010
Northumbria Police
Police officers investigating the attempted murder of a man over a decade ago have renewed their appeal for information.
Martin McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, 11 years ago today.
Despite being shot a number of times at close range, Mr McGartland survived the attack on June 17, 1999.
Although a number of arrests have been made, nobody has ever been charged with the attempted murder, and an extensive investigation is continuing.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: "Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
"Our main line of enquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
"Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject."
Detectives are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation.
Other lines of enquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene which had been bought only two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, originating from somewhere in the Glasgow region.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards. This is another line of enquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson added: "Although nothing substantial came out of last year's appeal, which marked the 10th anniversary of the incident, we are determined to make sure that anyone who may have any information about this attack has the opportunity to come forward.
"Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People's loyalties can change a lot in eleven years, and people may now be prepared to help us - it's a long time for people to keep silent about something like this.
"Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."
Police still have an audio tape message left on a telephone answering machine a few days before the shooting by a man who is believed to be one of those involved in the attack. The caller was asking about the sale of a van which was similar to that used to conceal the gunman immediately before the shooting.
To hear this tape again, log on to www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link:- http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/news_releases/details.asp?id=28113
Northumbria Police and the 11 Year Cover-up. It's Groundhog Day - Northumbria Police are a Joke.
Northumbria Police and the 11 Year Cover-up. It's Groundhog Day - Northumbria Police are a Joke.
Northumbria Police, their so called top cop Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, Groundhog Day finds himself repeating the same old story year after year. The Northumbria Police Cover-up of the Martin McGartland shooting, by the IRA in 1999, continues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refer to story, appeal link of 2009; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
Refer to story, appeal link of 2010; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
This is the 2010 story, police appeal;
Now here are both Northumbria Police, Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, appeals. The first, word for word, and the latest 17th June 2010 one;
Fresh plea over IRA double agent shooting
Jun 17 2010 by Sophie Doughty, Evening Chronicle
Martin McGartland was shot six times at close range, but survived
POLICE today renewed their pledge to hunt the hitmen behind the attempted assassination of IRA double agent Martin McGartland.
It is 11 years to the day since the he was shot six times outside his Whitley Bay home on Duchess Street in 1999 in a crime that stunned Tyneside.
He survived, despite being shot at close range as he sat in his car.
Although a number of arrests have been made no-one has ever been charged with the attempted murder, which Mr McGartland insists was carried out by IRA hitmen.
But officers from Northumbria Police have never given up hunting the gunmen. And now detectives are making a new appeal for anyone who knows what happened to come forward.
Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: ?Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
?Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
?Mr McGartland?s history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject.?
Detectives recovered DNA from the scene and this is still being used to eliminate people from the inquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson hopes there are people out there who know what happened and feel able to contact police. ?Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People?s loyalties can change a lot in 11 years.?
Other lines of inquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene, which was bought just two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller is said to have had a Glasgow accent.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack.
One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in before the attack and maybe afterwards.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
:: A recording of the message about the van a few days before the shooting can be heard at www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here is the 17th June 2009 appeal;
Cops renew plea over Tyneside 'IRA shooting'
Jun 17 2009 by Sophie Doughty, Evening Chronicle
Martin McGartland was shot six times at close range, but survived
HE WAS shot six times outside his Tyneside home 10 years ago today.
And now police are making a new appeal for help to catch the hitman responsible for the mystery shooting of IRA spy Martin McGartland.
The cold-blooded shooting, which stunned Tyneside, bought the troubles of Northern Ireland to the doorsteps of Whitley Bay a decade ago.
Mr McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, on June 17, 1999. But miraculously he survived, despite being shot six times at close range.
No-one has ever been charged with the attempted murder, which double-agent Mr McGartland insists was carried-out by IRA hitmen.
But officers from Northumbria Police have never given up in their hunt for the gunmen.
And today, they are using the 10th anniversary of one of Tyneside?s most shocking unsolved crimes to appeal for information.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: ?We are absolutely determined to do everything we can to solve this case.
?Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated assassination attempt.
?Mr McGartland has asked that Northumbria Police clarify the situation as far as we can and I am happy to do so.?
Five people have been arrested in connection with the shooting but no-one was ever charged.
Over the last 10 years police have taken a staggering 1,004 witness statements, conducted 1,122 house-to-house inquiries, collected 2,764 pieces of evidence, and assembled 5,043 documents.
Detectives are also continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation. And as technology advances they are using new methods in an attempt to crack the case.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards.
Other lines of inquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene, which had been bought only two days before the attack.
And police have released a recording of a telephone message left on an answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, believed to be from the Glasgow area.
article_mpuAdvertisement
Click here to listen to the recording
Det Chief Supt Thomson hopes the time that has passed since the shooting will make it easier for anyone that knows anything to come forward.
?Ten years is a long time for people to keep a secret about something like this,? he said.
?Over time, word can leak out and be talked about.
?Also, people?s loyalties can change a lot in 10 years, and people may now be prepared to help us.
?We are keeping abreast of new forensic techniques and we do apply them when appropriate.?
It was originally suggested that Mr McGartland could have been shot by local criminals.
However, while detectives have still not confirmed a motive for the assassination attempt, they do not believe this to be the case.
'Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject,? Det Chief Supt Thomson added.
?Our main line of inquiry, therefore, continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.?
Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on (03456) 043 043, ext 69162 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on (0800) 555 111.
Link: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can You Tell what it is yet? This is a joke, Northumbria Police are a joke and their so called top cop, Det Chief Supt Thomson, is a joke. You can see why no others have been arrested and why no one has ever been charged, even after 11 years.
Ends
Northumbria Police, their so called top cop Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, Groundhog Day finds himself repeating the same old story year after year. The Northumbria Police Cover-up of the Martin McGartland shooting, by the IRA in 1999, continues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refer to story, appeal link of 2009; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
Refer to story, appeal link of 2010; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
This is the 2010 story, police appeal;
Now here are both Northumbria Police, Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, appeals. The first, word for word, and the latest 17th June 2010 one;
Fresh plea over IRA double agent shooting
Jun 17 2010 by Sophie Doughty, Evening Chronicle
Martin McGartland was shot six times at close range, but survived
POLICE today renewed their pledge to hunt the hitmen behind the attempted assassination of IRA double agent Martin McGartland.
It is 11 years to the day since the he was shot six times outside his Whitley Bay home on Duchess Street in 1999 in a crime that stunned Tyneside.
He survived, despite being shot at close range as he sat in his car.
Although a number of arrests have been made no-one has ever been charged with the attempted murder, which Mr McGartland insists was carried out by IRA hitmen.
But officers from Northumbria Police have never given up hunting the gunmen. And now detectives are making a new appeal for anyone who knows what happened to come forward.
Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: ?Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated murder attempt which caused Mr McGartland serious injuries.
?Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.
?Mr McGartland?s history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject.?
Detectives recovered DNA from the scene and this is still being used to eliminate people from the inquiry.
Det Chief Supt Thomson hopes there are people out there who know what happened and feel able to contact police. ?Over time, word can leak out and be talked about. People?s loyalties can change a lot in 11 years.?
Other lines of inquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene, which was bought just two days before the attack, and a message left on a telephone answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller is said to have had a Glasgow accent.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack.
One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in before the attack and maybe afterwards.
Anyone with any information is asked to contact Northumbria Police on 03456 043 043, ext 69191 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
:: A recording of the message about the van a few days before the shooting can be heard at www.northumbria.police.uk/vanmessage
Link; http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now here is the 17th June 2009 appeal;
Cops renew plea over Tyneside 'IRA shooting'
Jun 17 2009 by Sophie Doughty, Evening Chronicle
Martin McGartland was shot six times at close range, but survived
HE WAS shot six times outside his Tyneside home 10 years ago today.
And now police are making a new appeal for help to catch the hitman responsible for the mystery shooting of IRA spy Martin McGartland.
The cold-blooded shooting, which stunned Tyneside, bought the troubles of Northern Ireland to the doorsteps of Whitley Bay a decade ago.
Mr McGartland was shot as he sat in his car in Duchess Street, Whitley Bay, on June 17, 1999. But miraculously he survived, despite being shot six times at close range.
No-one has ever been charged with the attempted murder, which double-agent Mr McGartland insists was carried-out by IRA hitmen.
But officers from Northumbria Police have never given up in their hunt for the gunmen.
And today, they are using the 10th anniversary of one of Tyneside?s most shocking unsolved crimes to appeal for information.
Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Thomson, who is leading the investigation, said: ?We are absolutely determined to do everything we can to solve this case.
?Although this was an unsuccessful attack, it was a cold-blooded, calculated assassination attempt.
?Mr McGartland has asked that Northumbria Police clarify the situation as far as we can and I am happy to do so.?
Five people have been arrested in connection with the shooting but no-one was ever charged.
Over the last 10 years police have taken a staggering 1,004 witness statements, conducted 1,122 house-to-house inquiries, collected 2,764 pieces of evidence, and assembled 5,043 documents.
Detectives are also continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation. And as technology advances they are using new methods in an attempt to crack the case.
Two semi-automatic pistols and some ammunition were found in the Gateshead area within months of the attack. One of the guns was forensically linked to the shooting and police believe those responsible may have stayed in the Gateshead area in the run up to the attack and possibly afterwards.
Other lines of inquiry centre around a van abandoned at the scene, which had been bought only two days before the attack.
And police have released a recording of a telephone message left on an answering machine a few days earlier, asking about a van for sale. The caller had a Scottish accent, believed to be from the Glasgow area.
article_mpuAdvertisement
Click here to listen to the recording
Det Chief Supt Thomson hopes the time that has passed since the shooting will make it easier for anyone that knows anything to come forward.
?Ten years is a long time for people to keep a secret about something like this,? he said.
?Over time, word can leak out and be talked about.
?Also, people?s loyalties can change a lot in 10 years, and people may now be prepared to help us.
?We are keeping abreast of new forensic techniques and we do apply them when appropriate.?
It was originally suggested that Mr McGartland could have been shot by local criminals.
However, while detectives have still not confirmed a motive for the assassination attempt, they do not believe this to be the case.
'Mr McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his own books on the subject,? Det Chief Supt Thomson added.
?Our main line of inquiry, therefore, continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.?
Anyone who may have information can contact Northumbria Police on (03456) 043 043, ext 69162 or the independent charity Crimestoppers on (0800) 555 111.
Link: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can You Tell what it is yet? This is a joke, Northumbria Police are a joke and their so called top cop, Det Chief Supt Thomson, is a joke. You can see why no others have been arrested and why no one has ever been charged, even after 11 years.
Ends
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Martin McGartland police agent in IRA , disowns Fifty Dead Men Walking
From The Sunday Times
Liam Clarke
March 29, 2009
Martin McGartland police agent in IRA , disowns Fifty Dead Men Walking
Martin McGartland disowns Fifty Dead Men Walking, Kari Skogland's film of his book with Jim Sturgess playing the RUC cop
Martin McGartland the former IRA man who was working undercover for the British government
Martin McGartland, a former police agent within the IRA, was torn between admiration and anger as he watched the first cut of Fifty Dead Men Walking with a leading Belfast libel lawyer next to him. Jim Sturgess’s portrayal of him was disturbingly accurate. “Jim is a brilliant actor,” McGartland said. “He has got me down to a T, apart from the fact that I didn’t smoke or drink. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I first watched it — it was like seeing myself all those years ago.”
Whole scenes are drawn from his life. On the screen, McGartland saw himself walking down the street with a child on his shoulders and getting into a fight with a British soldier. He saw Sturgess selling stolen goods door to door. “It was the way I talk, the way I act. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing a better job — but why did the film-makers feel it necessary to turn my story on its head?”
The film, and McGartland’s decision to disown it, opens up the question of how recent history, the lives of living people, should be portrayed on screen.
After McGartland watched the film, he demanded, and got, several last-minute changes. For instance, a voiceover by Sir Ben Kingsley, who plays McGartland’s RUC Special Branch handler, sets the historical context and describes McGartland as “his own man”. A number of scenes were cut or voiced over, and disclaimers were inserted at the beginning and end to say that key events and personalities had been changed.
Related Links
* Jim Sturgess takes on role as IRA informer in Fifty Dead Men Walking
McGartland asks: “They are saying it was based on a true story, but what is the definition of ‘based on a true story’? Is it 50% true, 70% true, 10%?”
He contends that the movie is fundamentally a lie that misrepresents his career and his motivation. He believes that if Kari Skogland, the director, had stuck closer to the account he gave in his book and in a BBC documentary, then she would have had a better film.
He was enraged when Skogland, Rose McGowan (who plays an IRA member) and Sturgess talked in interviews about how they were “chaperoned” around Belfast by former IRA prisoners and taken drinking by them at republican clubs. In one interview, McGowan tells how she sat drinking a bottle of cider with an IRA man who tells her he would like to shoot McGartland.
“Why would you want to mix with these people and take their estimation of the situation at face value? Why would you be impressed with this sort of talk? Why did they not talk to me, or my family, or retired police officers, to find out the way things were?” he asks.
For an undercover agent, McGartland is passionate about making his motivation clear; he says he has spent 17 years doing so, despite physical attacks on himself and his family. As one police officer put it: “He doesn’t buy into the Clark Kent side of being Superman.” Yet he is cunning when it comes to security about his security. When I first met him, he made me book a hotel room for him and arrived “knackered from the drive”. Years later, I learnt that he had been living only a couple of miles from where we met.
Like many other youngsters in west Belfast, where the IRA campaign meant there was little investment and few jobs, he became involved in crime and despised the IRA, which he saw as an oppressive force. A seminal moment was when the IRA shot and injured his brother-in-law. In the film, the teetotal McGartland is portrayed as getting involved with the IRA through drinking companions and friends and being relentlessly courted by the Special Branch to turn informant. In real life, McGartland worked for the RUC Special Branch for two years before joining the IRA. “I did it after a uniformed policeman, who I called Billy in the book, stopped me to ask if I would go and meet some of his close friends. I went into Grosvenor Road police station and met these two blokes, and I agreed to work for them straightaway,” he says. “As soon as Special Branch approached me, I agreed to work for them. They didn’t have to coach me, they didn’t have to ask me two times. I wanted to do it.”
McGartland worked for Special Branch for two years from 1987, watching IRA suspects for them and toning down his conflicts with the IRA in order to get more access. He was able to avert several attacks and identify arms dumps during this period: “I was amazed at how precise their information was, and wondered who else was working for them.” In 1989 he was asked to join the IRA. He was initially reluctant, because of the risks and the danger of getting involved in murder. “I only joined the IRA to infiltrate it and save life,” he says. “I wanted to damage it. That was the whole point.” He lasted another two years within the organisation before an IRA internal review of a series of failed attacks and arrests led them back to him. He was invited to a meeting at Sinn Fein headquarters, where he was abducted.
His kidnappers managed to dodge police surveillance at traffic lights, and he was taken to a third-storey flat in the Twinbrook estate to await interrogation. While using the loo, he jumped from the window and was saved when a local woman called the police. They gave him a new identity, Martin Ash, and a new life near Newcastle upon Tyne. But a speeding offence resulted in his true identity coming out in court, and he was later shot getting into his car, almost certainly by the IRA.
In the film, he is resettled in Canada, but there are, to his mind, more serious changes. He is shown watching an informer being tortured and being on the point of shooting him.
“That never happened,” he says. Parts of the film were cut after legal protests. One showed him watching a bomb being placed under a van and failing to report the incident to his handler, to preserve his cover. That never happened. He says: “The fact that the IRA were on to me after two years shows I reported everything I could. Things that I knew about kept going wrong, that is how they rumbled me.”
McGartland doesn’t hide his bad points. He admits his involvement in selling goods stolen from shops, something he found more lucrative than working for the police, but he insists his basic motivation was moral. He says: “If you knew that someone was going to get blown up — he has young kids, he has a wife and so on — and you know that that man’s life is going to end tomorrow, would you be able to go to bed that night and get up in the morning, and know that man would be dead, but you would be safe if you turned a blind eye? I couldn’t.”
Link:- http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5982263.ece
Liam Clarke
March 29, 2009
Martin McGartland police agent in IRA , disowns Fifty Dead Men Walking
Martin McGartland disowns Fifty Dead Men Walking, Kari Skogland's film of his book with Jim Sturgess playing the RUC cop
Martin McGartland the former IRA man who was working undercover for the British government
Martin McGartland, a former police agent within the IRA, was torn between admiration and anger as he watched the first cut of Fifty Dead Men Walking with a leading Belfast libel lawyer next to him. Jim Sturgess’s portrayal of him was disturbingly accurate. “Jim is a brilliant actor,” McGartland said. “He has got me down to a T, apart from the fact that I didn’t smoke or drink. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I first watched it — it was like seeing myself all those years ago.”
Whole scenes are drawn from his life. On the screen, McGartland saw himself walking down the street with a child on his shoulders and getting into a fight with a British soldier. He saw Sturgess selling stolen goods door to door. “It was the way I talk, the way I act. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing a better job — but why did the film-makers feel it necessary to turn my story on its head?”
The film, and McGartland’s decision to disown it, opens up the question of how recent history, the lives of living people, should be portrayed on screen.
After McGartland watched the film, he demanded, and got, several last-minute changes. For instance, a voiceover by Sir Ben Kingsley, who plays McGartland’s RUC Special Branch handler, sets the historical context and describes McGartland as “his own man”. A number of scenes were cut or voiced over, and disclaimers were inserted at the beginning and end to say that key events and personalities had been changed.
Related Links
* Jim Sturgess takes on role as IRA informer in Fifty Dead Men Walking
McGartland asks: “They are saying it was based on a true story, but what is the definition of ‘based on a true story’? Is it 50% true, 70% true, 10%?”
He contends that the movie is fundamentally a lie that misrepresents his career and his motivation. He believes that if Kari Skogland, the director, had stuck closer to the account he gave in his book and in a BBC documentary, then she would have had a better film.
He was enraged when Skogland, Rose McGowan (who plays an IRA member) and Sturgess talked in interviews about how they were “chaperoned” around Belfast by former IRA prisoners and taken drinking by them at republican clubs. In one interview, McGowan tells how she sat drinking a bottle of cider with an IRA man who tells her he would like to shoot McGartland.
“Why would you want to mix with these people and take their estimation of the situation at face value? Why would you be impressed with this sort of talk? Why did they not talk to me, or my family, or retired police officers, to find out the way things were?” he asks.
For an undercover agent, McGartland is passionate about making his motivation clear; he says he has spent 17 years doing so, despite physical attacks on himself and his family. As one police officer put it: “He doesn’t buy into the Clark Kent side of being Superman.” Yet he is cunning when it comes to security about his security. When I first met him, he made me book a hotel room for him and arrived “knackered from the drive”. Years later, I learnt that he had been living only a couple of miles from where we met.
Like many other youngsters in west Belfast, where the IRA campaign meant there was little investment and few jobs, he became involved in crime and despised the IRA, which he saw as an oppressive force. A seminal moment was when the IRA shot and injured his brother-in-law. In the film, the teetotal McGartland is portrayed as getting involved with the IRA through drinking companions and friends and being relentlessly courted by the Special Branch to turn informant. In real life, McGartland worked for the RUC Special Branch for two years before joining the IRA. “I did it after a uniformed policeman, who I called Billy in the book, stopped me to ask if I would go and meet some of his close friends. I went into Grosvenor Road police station and met these two blokes, and I agreed to work for them straightaway,” he says. “As soon as Special Branch approached me, I agreed to work for them. They didn’t have to coach me, they didn’t have to ask me two times. I wanted to do it.”
McGartland worked for Special Branch for two years from 1987, watching IRA suspects for them and toning down his conflicts with the IRA in order to get more access. He was able to avert several attacks and identify arms dumps during this period: “I was amazed at how precise their information was, and wondered who else was working for them.” In 1989 he was asked to join the IRA. He was initially reluctant, because of the risks and the danger of getting involved in murder. “I only joined the IRA to infiltrate it and save life,” he says. “I wanted to damage it. That was the whole point.” He lasted another two years within the organisation before an IRA internal review of a series of failed attacks and arrests led them back to him. He was invited to a meeting at Sinn Fein headquarters, where he was abducted.
His kidnappers managed to dodge police surveillance at traffic lights, and he was taken to a third-storey flat in the Twinbrook estate to await interrogation. While using the loo, he jumped from the window and was saved when a local woman called the police. They gave him a new identity, Martin Ash, and a new life near Newcastle upon Tyne. But a speeding offence resulted in his true identity coming out in court, and he was later shot getting into his car, almost certainly by the IRA.
In the film, he is resettled in Canada, but there are, to his mind, more serious changes. He is shown watching an informer being tortured and being on the point of shooting him.
“That never happened,” he says. Parts of the film were cut after legal protests. One showed him watching a bomb being placed under a van and failing to report the incident to his handler, to preserve his cover. That never happened. He says: “The fact that the IRA were on to me after two years shows I reported everything I could. Things that I knew about kept going wrong, that is how they rumbled me.”
McGartland doesn’t hide his bad points. He admits his involvement in selling goods stolen from shops, something he found more lucrative than working for the police, but he insists his basic motivation was moral. He says: “If you knew that someone was going to get blown up — he has young kids, he has a wife and so on — and you know that that man’s life is going to end tomorrow, would you be able to go to bed that night and get up in the morning, and know that man would be dead, but you would be safe if you turned a blind eye? I couldn’t.”
Link:- http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5982263.ece
Real IRA - Martin McGartland death threat . Real IRA says Martin McGartland is a target for them. 1
Real IRA- Martin McGartland death threat. Real IRA says Martin McGartland is a target for them. 1 minute ago
REAL IRA Will Target Martin McGartland
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How Real IRA Killed Denis Donaldson
Real IRA Representative - 'We always intended to claim the operation [killing of Denis Donaldson] but we wanted to wait until we had first executed crown force personnel. That was secured at Massereene'
The Real IRA say they want to kill five named men who informed on the provos' activities. They also claim here how they killed Denis Donaldson, whose assassination in Co Donegal they describe as a 'matter of principle', writes Northern Editor Suzanne Breen
Denis Donaldson pictured with Martin McGuinness in December 2005
Garda� investigate the scene at Donaldson's house near Glenties, Co Donegal after the killing in 2006
Real IRA members on a training exercise
Donaldson (second from right) with 'Tomboy' Loudon, Gerry Roche and Bobby Sands pictured in the Lo.....................................
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.............................
Denis Donaldson didn't scream when the two masked men sledgehammered down the door and forced their way into his cottage with a loaded shotgun. "The look on his face wasn't even one of shock. He seemed to know what was coming," says the Real IRA Army Council representative.
Had he cried out for help, no-one would have heard. His nearest neighbour in the remote lane outside Glenties, Co Donegal, was two kilometres away. His wife Alice, who still lived in west Belfast, and his grown-up children, visited regularly. But his killers had Donaldson under surveillance. When they struck, they knew he was alone.
Donaldson was totally vulnerable. He didn't have a personal protection weapon. "He had no plan to defend himself. He hadn't a baseball or hurley bat, a knife or anything like that at hand," says the Real IRA spokesman.
"He just ran into the back room. There was a struggle, and he ended up on the ground. He didn't cry out or plead for mercy. He remained silent all the time." Donaldson was killed by the Real IRA gunman as he lay on the floor, according to the Army Council representative.
Donaldson's right hand was virtually severed in the shooting. There was some media speculation that this was symbolical because of the money he'd taken from the British for his services. "That wasn't so," says the Army Council spokesman. "His hand was blown away because he'd raised it to protect his head." The attack was over in minutes.
Donaldson wasn't tortured, as previous informers have been. Neither was there any attempt to question him. The Real IRA didn't consider abducting and interrogating him: "There was no need to debrief him because he'd done no damage to our organisation."
Embarrassment to the Provos
Initially, the killing looked amateurish because of the use of the shotgun. But it was more professional than it appeared. Used at close quarters, a shotgun is lethal and is virtually forensically untraceable.
It's just over three years since his killers left Donaldson lying on the floor of his pre-Famine cottage, hidden in the Doochary hills. The Army Council representative claims he was shot on the night of 3 April, and not the following morning as some media reports stated. He says a neighbour, who claimed to have seen Donaldson the next morning, was "mistaken".
But it wasn't until the evening of 4 April that a passer-by, noticing the damage to the front of the cottage, contacted garda� and his body was discovered. Four months earlier, Donaldson (56), Sinn F�in's chief administrator at Stormont, had admitted being a long-serving British spy.
Provisional IRA members, acting either independently or with leadership authorisation, were the most likely suspects for his murder. Days after the killing, sources close to the Real IRA told this reporter they didn't believe dissidents were responsible. Donaldson alive was an embarrassment to the Provos. They couldn't see a reason for dissidents to kill him. So why did the Real IRA do so?
The Real IRA representative says its seven-strong Army Council debated at length whether to kill Donaldson: "Some individuals thought it was better propaganda value keeping him alive because it increased grassroots Provisionals' dissatisfaction with their leadership.
"They were angry at Donaldson's treachery and angry at their leadership for not executing him, for letting him slip off to Donegal unharmed. The Provisional Army Council did a dirty deal with Donaldson like they did with Freddie Scappaticci.
"But the other argument put forward among our leadership was, that by executing Donaldson, we could show ? unlike the Provos ? that we weren't prepared to tolerate traitors. We would prove that while the Provos shirked their duty under the green book [IRA rulebook], true and faithful republicans would not."
'They haven't a clue'
The Army Council representative is dismissive of the garda investigation into Donaldson's murder: "We don't believe it's going anywhere. They haven't a clue." Garda� insist the investigation remains alive.
But why has the Real IRA waited three years to claim responsibility? Until now, there wasn't even a whisper that the organisation was involved. "Only a dozen people knew we executed Donaldson ? our Army Council and the volunteers involved. Our wider membership will be as surprised by our statement as everybody else," says the spokesman.
"We always intended to claim the operation but we wanted to wait until we had first executed crown force personnel. That was secured at Massereene. The time is particularly right now, when we're being accused of treachery by others, to show what we do to traitors."
The Army Council representative says Donaldson's killing wasn't due to a personal grudge against him: "None of the information he gave his handlers affected our organisation. While some in our leadership knew him from their days in the Provisionals, he hadn't personally harmed them. But he was a self-confessed informer, and it became a matter of principle to execute him."
An eye for women
Donaldson had joined the IRA in the mid-1960s. He grew up in the Short Strand, a small nationalist enclave in east Belfast. In 1971, he was sentenced to 10 years in Long Kesh for explosive offences. There, he became friends with Bobby Sands. There are photographs of Donaldson, Sands, and other IRA men, arms locked around each other in camaraderie.
After his release, he became involved with Sinn F�in but he remained active in the IRA. As a senior intelligence officer, he travelled the world to meet organisations like the PLO and ETA, providing valuable information for his handlers. In the 1990s, he was sent to run the Noraid office in New York, clashing with its publicity director, Martin Galvin, who came to doubt his motives.
Donaldson was a highly sociable, popular character with an eye for women. He was very close to Gerry Adams. He wasn't intellectual but smart in a streetwise way.
His pleasant, modest manner meant he sat in on numerous confidential conversations. No-one suspected him. "Ach, it's only Denis!" they'd say.
There were rumours he'd been blackmailed by the security services into working for them after he was caught stealing from Marks & Spencer as a young man. However, that didn't explain why he remained in their employment for so long. After his admission in December 2005 that he'd been a spy for well over two decades, Donaldson was questioned at length by Sinn F�in figures.
He later received assurances from the Provisional Army Council that his life wasn't in danger. So he moved to the Donegal cottage he'd previously used as a holiday home. The Real IRA's admission that it killed him means other informers, living in Britain or abroad, are now under threat.
Prime target
The Real IRA spokesman claims its prime target is long-serving British agent, Freddie Scappaticci, who formerly ran Provisional IRA internal security, and whose information led to the death and imprisonment of scores of republicans.
"Other targets would be P**** ****** [an informer whose alias is Kevin Fulton], Martin McGartland, Christopher Black, Raymond Gilmour and Dave Rupert," he says. Rupert, an FBI-MI5 agent, was paid millions for successfully infiltrating the Real IRA. His testimony led to the conviction of former Real IRA leader, Mickey McKevitt.
Missing from the Army Council representative's stated list of 'targets' is Paddy Murray, a Provisional IRA member who later joined the Real IRA. He was jailed for abduction and assault last year but was later spirited out of Maghaberry prison.
Although Murray and his family have protested his innocence, he is now widely believed to have been an informer. He is reportedly living under a witness protection scheme in Britain. The Real IRA refuses to comment on his status, however it is likely to be pursuing him despite its silence.
The paramilitary group's threats against informers will further increase the pressure on many men who, years after leaving the North, are still living on their nerves.
April 12, 2009
Link:- http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/apr/12/how-real-ira-killed-denis-donaldson/
REAL IRA Will Target Martin McGartland
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Real IRA Killed Denis Donaldson
Real IRA Representative - 'We always intended to claim the operation [killing of Denis Donaldson] but we wanted to wait until we had first executed crown force personnel. That was secured at Massereene'
The Real IRA say they want to kill five named men who informed on the provos' activities. They also claim here how they killed Denis Donaldson, whose assassination in Co Donegal they describe as a 'matter of principle', writes Northern Editor Suzanne Breen
Denis Donaldson pictured with Martin McGuinness in December 2005
Garda� investigate the scene at Donaldson's house near Glenties, Co Donegal after the killing in 2006
Real IRA members on a training exercise
Donaldson (second from right) with 'Tomboy' Loudon, Gerry Roche and Bobby Sands pictured in the Lo.....................................
.......................................
.............................
Denis Donaldson didn't scream when the two masked men sledgehammered down the door and forced their way into his cottage with a loaded shotgun. "The look on his face wasn't even one of shock. He seemed to know what was coming," says the Real IRA Army Council representative.
Had he cried out for help, no-one would have heard. His nearest neighbour in the remote lane outside Glenties, Co Donegal, was two kilometres away. His wife Alice, who still lived in west Belfast, and his grown-up children, visited regularly. But his killers had Donaldson under surveillance. When they struck, they knew he was alone.
Donaldson was totally vulnerable. He didn't have a personal protection weapon. "He had no plan to defend himself. He hadn't a baseball or hurley bat, a knife or anything like that at hand," says the Real IRA spokesman.
"He just ran into the back room. There was a struggle, and he ended up on the ground. He didn't cry out or plead for mercy. He remained silent all the time." Donaldson was killed by the Real IRA gunman as he lay on the floor, according to the Army Council representative.
Donaldson's right hand was virtually severed in the shooting. There was some media speculation that this was symbolical because of the money he'd taken from the British for his services. "That wasn't so," says the Army Council spokesman. "His hand was blown away because he'd raised it to protect his head." The attack was over in minutes.
Donaldson wasn't tortured, as previous informers have been. Neither was there any attempt to question him. The Real IRA didn't consider abducting and interrogating him: "There was no need to debrief him because he'd done no damage to our organisation."
Embarrassment to the Provos
Initially, the killing looked amateurish because of the use of the shotgun. But it was more professional than it appeared. Used at close quarters, a shotgun is lethal and is virtually forensically untraceable.
It's just over three years since his killers left Donaldson lying on the floor of his pre-Famine cottage, hidden in the Doochary hills. The Army Council representative claims he was shot on the night of 3 April, and not the following morning as some media reports stated. He says a neighbour, who claimed to have seen Donaldson the next morning, was "mistaken".
But it wasn't until the evening of 4 April that a passer-by, noticing the damage to the front of the cottage, contacted garda� and his body was discovered. Four months earlier, Donaldson (56), Sinn F�in's chief administrator at Stormont, had admitted being a long-serving British spy.
Provisional IRA members, acting either independently or with leadership authorisation, were the most likely suspects for his murder. Days after the killing, sources close to the Real IRA told this reporter they didn't believe dissidents were responsible. Donaldson alive was an embarrassment to the Provos. They couldn't see a reason for dissidents to kill him. So why did the Real IRA do so?
The Real IRA representative says its seven-strong Army Council debated at length whether to kill Donaldson: "Some individuals thought it was better propaganda value keeping him alive because it increased grassroots Provisionals' dissatisfaction with their leadership.
"They were angry at Donaldson's treachery and angry at their leadership for not executing him, for letting him slip off to Donegal unharmed. The Provisional Army Council did a dirty deal with Donaldson like they did with Freddie Scappaticci.
"But the other argument put forward among our leadership was, that by executing Donaldson, we could show ? unlike the Provos ? that we weren't prepared to tolerate traitors. We would prove that while the Provos shirked their duty under the green book [IRA rulebook], true and faithful republicans would not."
'They haven't a clue'
The Army Council representative is dismissive of the garda investigation into Donaldson's murder: "We don't believe it's going anywhere. They haven't a clue." Garda� insist the investigation remains alive.
But why has the Real IRA waited three years to claim responsibility? Until now, there wasn't even a whisper that the organisation was involved. "Only a dozen people knew we executed Donaldson ? our Army Council and the volunteers involved. Our wider membership will be as surprised by our statement as everybody else," says the spokesman.
"We always intended to claim the operation but we wanted to wait until we had first executed crown force personnel. That was secured at Massereene. The time is particularly right now, when we're being accused of treachery by others, to show what we do to traitors."
The Army Council representative says Donaldson's killing wasn't due to a personal grudge against him: "None of the information he gave his handlers affected our organisation. While some in our leadership knew him from their days in the Provisionals, he hadn't personally harmed them. But he was a self-confessed informer, and it became a matter of principle to execute him."
An eye for women
Donaldson had joined the IRA in the mid-1960s. He grew up in the Short Strand, a small nationalist enclave in east Belfast. In 1971, he was sentenced to 10 years in Long Kesh for explosive offences. There, he became friends with Bobby Sands. There are photographs of Donaldson, Sands, and other IRA men, arms locked around each other in camaraderie.
After his release, he became involved with Sinn F�in but he remained active in the IRA. As a senior intelligence officer, he travelled the world to meet organisations like the PLO and ETA, providing valuable information for his handlers. In the 1990s, he was sent to run the Noraid office in New York, clashing with its publicity director, Martin Galvin, who came to doubt his motives.
Donaldson was a highly sociable, popular character with an eye for women. He was very close to Gerry Adams. He wasn't intellectual but smart in a streetwise way.
His pleasant, modest manner meant he sat in on numerous confidential conversations. No-one suspected him. "Ach, it's only Denis!" they'd say.
There were rumours he'd been blackmailed by the security services into working for them after he was caught stealing from Marks & Spencer as a young man. However, that didn't explain why he remained in their employment for so long. After his admission in December 2005 that he'd been a spy for well over two decades, Donaldson was questioned at length by Sinn F�in figures.
He later received assurances from the Provisional Army Council that his life wasn't in danger. So he moved to the Donegal cottage he'd previously used as a holiday home. The Real IRA's admission that it killed him means other informers, living in Britain or abroad, are now under threat.
Prime target
The Real IRA spokesman claims its prime target is long-serving British agent, Freddie Scappaticci, who formerly ran Provisional IRA internal security, and whose information led to the death and imprisonment of scores of republicans.
"Other targets would be P**** ****** [an informer whose alias is Kevin Fulton], Martin McGartland, Christopher Black, Raymond Gilmour and Dave Rupert," he says. Rupert, an FBI-MI5 agent, was paid millions for successfully infiltrating the Real IRA. His testimony led to the conviction of former Real IRA leader, Mickey McKevitt.
Missing from the Army Council representative's stated list of 'targets' is Paddy Murray, a Provisional IRA member who later joined the Real IRA. He was jailed for abduction and assault last year but was later spirited out of Maghaberry prison.
Although Murray and his family have protested his innocence, he is now widely believed to have been an informer. He is reportedly living under a witness protection scheme in Britain. The Real IRA refuses to comment on his status, however it is likely to be pursuing him despite its silence.
The paramilitary group's threats against informers will further increase the pressure on many men who, years after leaving the North, are still living on their nerves.
April 12, 2009
Link:- http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2009/apr/12/how-real-ira-killed-denis-donaldson/
Northumbria Police - Jack Straw - Martin McGartland - IRA - Cover Up
How Jack Straw, vigilant censor of MI5
revelations, left an informer out to dry
John Ware
Monday, 29 September 1997
The Home Secretary was quick to censor the revelations of David Shayler to `ensure the lives’ of MI5 agents. The safety of Martin McGartland, RUC informer, appears to have been of less concern. John Ware wants to know why
The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, says MI5 agents could die if the former MI5 officer David Shayler is allowed to disclose evidence which he claims demonstrates the incompetence of the Security Service.
Mr Straw says he has an “absolute duty to ensure agents’ lives” are not put at risk. That is the basis on which he has successfully sought an injunction against The Mail on Sunday whose editor wants to publish “the facts of a case of national and international importance which would have revealed MI5′s incompetence in the handling of a serious terrorist incident”.
Mr Straw would have us believe that he’d agonised over so grave a step as censorship – “I have no wish to prevent legitimate debate or criticism of the Security Service” – no doubt mindful of his government’s commitment to freedom of information.
“Censorship” is certainly a word that should rankle with Mr Straw. He was himself a journalist on Granada’s World In Action programme. And in 1971, as a duffel-coated President of the National Union of Students, he petitioned the then Conservative Home Secretary, Reggie Maudling, against the expulsion of a German Marxist student leader Rudi Dutschke whose presence was said to be a threat to the security of the state. As Mr Shayler revealed, in those days M15 had Mr Straw down as a “communist sympathiser”.
But that was then. Now as Home Secretary he is ultimately responsible for MI5. And if the MI5 Director General tells him the publication of a newspaper article could cost lives, he has to take that seriously – even if the risk is theoretical.
Why, then, in another case involving a real live agent, whose risk of being executed by the IRA is very high indeed, has the Home Secretary been playing down the threat to his life?
Martin McGartland spied for the RUC Special Branch and saved many lives. As the late Brian Fitsimons, former assistant chief constable in charge of the Special Branch, told me: “McGartland was a very productive agent.”
Since 1991 the 27 year old has lived in Blyth, Northumbria as “Martin Ashe” – the identity provided for him by the RUC. Last May he was tried at Newcastle Crown Court for perverting the course of justice because he had two driving licences in the name of “Ashe” which listed two different addresses.
The police said he was trying to avoid disqualification by distributing penalty points for speeding between the two licences. McGartland denied his, insisting he needed the licences as an extra layer of protection.
In 1992 the IRA had interrogated his girlfriend and he feared they’d forced her to divulge where he was living. He says the police refused to move him: “I’ll never forget what they told me:’Don’t worry about it, son. You’ll be OK.’” He didn’t believe them. So he moved – though only half a mile away. And he took out a second licence with a fictitious address in Durham.
McGartland feared the IRA could get his address from licence records – and with good reason: Northumbria Police has already dismissed one civilian for disclosing information about his identity from their computer. The purpose of the second licence was to send the IRA off on a false trail if they came looking for him having discovered he no longer lived at his first address.
There is no doubt that McGartland was on the IRA’s wanted listed. They’d broken his younger brother Joseph’s legs, an arm and four ribs with iron bars. And he himself received a mass card, signed “Your friends in Connolly House [Belfast HQ of Sinn Fein], Crumlin Road and Long Kesh.” It promised that the “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for the repose of the soul of Marty McGartland.”
Before the trial McGartland warned the Crown Prosecution Service that the only way he could escape a prison sentence was to explain to the jury who he really was and why he’d taken out two licences – which involved disclosing who he really was.
The jury took 10 minutes to acquit him and even the judge said McGartland did not seem to be a criminal. But his cover was blown McGartland’s real identity and address were reported in the newspapers.
McGartland asked the authorities to give him a new identity and relocate him immediately. One thousand nine hundred local residents – astonished to discover their chaotic Irish neighbour was a latter-day 007 – signed a petition supporting him. Close neighbours have been frequently wakened by his screaming nightmares: “Don’t do it, don’t do it.” Some neighbours are pretty terrified themselves. One is having her locks changed by Northumbria Police.
At first the Crown refused to pay McGartland a penny. After many letters from his lawyer to the solicitors acting for “various Crown authorities” – which they refused to name – they agreed to pay pounds 3,000 towards his removal expenses “as a gesture of goodwill and with no admission of liability”.
But McGartland’s house is now blighted. Who would want to buy a property that was an IRA target? Until recently, the “authorities” have refused to even consider covering any losses. Jack Straw has told McGartland’s local MP, Alan Campbell, that there is no need for him to move straightaway because there is no “immediate” threat to him. “I hope this is of some reassurance,” says Mr Straw.
The small sum now being offered contrasts with the millions of pounds that McGartland’s tip-offs spared the taxpayer by stopping buildings from being blown up – not to mention the many lives he saved. McGartland was also very nearly executed by the IRA because of an RUC blunder in August 1991.
For several months he had complained to his Special Branch handlers that he feared the IRA had rumbled him. His active service unit had had to abort too many operations in which he’d been involved.
Then in July 1991, McGartland’s handlers learnt that his ASU was going to machine-gun a bar frequented by soldiers in Bangor. They demanded that McGartland deliver the guns that were to be used to RUC headquarters to be fitted with tracking devices.
Two IRA operatives were arrested en route to the raid. A few days later McGartland was summoned to a meeting with the head of the IRA’s internal security. Although McGartland feared the game was up, his handlers persuaded him to keep his appointment, promising they would watch over him every step of the way. The Special Branch had calculated there could be a bonus if he was caught. He could lead them to other IRA terrorists as they interrogated him. He was to be used as human bait.
But the RUC’s surveillance unit lost sight of McGartland before he was driven away at speed by two IRA men from his meeting. As one officer said: “I thought `Well, it’s over. He’s gone.’ And I waited for news of his body being found.”
McGartland, meanwhile, was awaiting the executioner’s bullet in a third- floor flat. When he saw a bath filled up with cold water, he knew he would be tortured first. On an impulse he hurled himself headlong through the window. “I remember the glass breaking in slow motion. Then my lights went out.” He sustained serious head, shoulder and back injuries, but his astonishing courage saved him. He was picked up by an army patrol.
Six weeks later he was packed off to Northumbria with a new identity. The police bought him a house for pounds 53,500 and gave him pounds 40,000 to provide him with furniture, a car, spending money and a training course for a heavy goods vehicle licence.
But McGartland had paid a heavy price. He’d left behind his family and had no friends in Newcastle. He suffered recurring nightmares, needed constant painkillers, and he became depressed. He couldn’t settle into a job and he frittered away his money But the RUC who’d recruited him at 17, had cut the umbilical chord.
Like many agents McGartland wanted recognition. He tried to sell his story and began to appear on TV programmes and to give newspaper interviews. This can’t have gone down too well with the authorities.
When his solicitor applied for compensation for his injuries, the RUC claimed to have no record of him. He pursued the claim in the courts. But when he asked the RUC for protection in Northern Ireland so he could attend his court case, they refused. “Any protection that was afforded you, you blew by your antics,” one officer told him.
Then the RUC told the Northern Ireland Office they’d already paid McGartland pounds 120,000 which, they said, included injury compensation. His receipts showed the figure was pounds 95,000, a shortfall of pounds 25,000. Only after Tory, Labour and Unionist MPs intervened, did the NIO compromise with an offer of pounds 10,000.
Earlier this year, McGartland published a book detailing his exploits. At the same time the CPS was considering whether to prosecute him for perverting the course of justice. After consulting the RUC, it was decided there was no threat to his security. Listening to some RUC officer discussing this issue, there’s a strong whiff of disdain: McGartland was recruited as a teenage petty criminal and in his attempts to hog the limelight he’d moved above his station. It’s hardly surprising he came a cropper.
No doubt, running McGartland as an agent was taxing. Like most agents, he sometimes broke the rules by not telling his handlers everything in order to cover his back with the IRA. Sometimes he bartered information for money. But, as one ex-RUC officer recognises, “I would have to say that we got more out of him in a few years than we got out of many agents in 20 years. It was short – but very sweet while it lasted.”
McGartland was very young to be drawn into the grown-up world of spying. By 21, he had saved many lives. But now he doesn’t know how to save himself.
His obsession with his string of grievances and his craving for recognition leave him incapable of building a more stable future. What burden of responsibility should the Crown now bear for trying to ensue that the rest of his life is not wasted?
Not much, seems to be the answer. As the new Home Secretary, perhaps still seeking the approval of the security and intelligence establishment that once had him down as soft and on the left, Jack speaks of this as being “very much a security matter”. But it is also a human tragedy.
In his letter to McGartland’s MP, Alan Campbell, Jack Straw suggests that it is his “propensity for self-publicity that has caused [him] so many of the problems he currently faces”.
Mr Straw misses the point. McGartland may have raised his profile but he never once revealed that he was “Martin Ashe” in any article or TV programme. It was the Crown’s decision to prosecute him that led to that. Now that he has been acquitted, he claims he is entitled to the same level of assistance a he was before the court case invalidated his protection.
The McGartland case also raises a question about double standards: in Newcastle an ex-Special Branch agent whose life is manifestly at risk is deemed by the Home Secretary not to be in any “immediate” danger. In London, a risk, perhaps theoretical, to the lives of MI5 agents is enough for him to ban publication of a matter of public interest about a secret and largely unaccountable organisation.
The one feature common to both cases is publicity. Do the intelligence services still cling to the belief that it is dangerous for light to be shed on their workings. If so, why does New Labour swallow old myths?
The story of Martin McGartland will feature in `Here and Now’ , BBC1, 7.30pm tonight.
Link:- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/media-how-jack-straw-vigilant-censor-of-mi5-revelations-left-an-informer-out-to-dry-1241822.html
revelations, left an informer out to dry
John Ware
Monday, 29 September 1997
The Home Secretary was quick to censor the revelations of David Shayler to `ensure the lives’ of MI5 agents. The safety of Martin McGartland, RUC informer, appears to have been of less concern. John Ware wants to know why
The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, says MI5 agents could die if the former MI5 officer David Shayler is allowed to disclose evidence which he claims demonstrates the incompetence of the Security Service.
Mr Straw says he has an “absolute duty to ensure agents’ lives” are not put at risk. That is the basis on which he has successfully sought an injunction against The Mail on Sunday whose editor wants to publish “the facts of a case of national and international importance which would have revealed MI5′s incompetence in the handling of a serious terrorist incident”.
Mr Straw would have us believe that he’d agonised over so grave a step as censorship – “I have no wish to prevent legitimate debate or criticism of the Security Service” – no doubt mindful of his government’s commitment to freedom of information.
“Censorship” is certainly a word that should rankle with Mr Straw. He was himself a journalist on Granada’s World In Action programme. And in 1971, as a duffel-coated President of the National Union of Students, he petitioned the then Conservative Home Secretary, Reggie Maudling, against the expulsion of a German Marxist student leader Rudi Dutschke whose presence was said to be a threat to the security of the state. As Mr Shayler revealed, in those days M15 had Mr Straw down as a “communist sympathiser”.
But that was then. Now as Home Secretary he is ultimately responsible for MI5. And if the MI5 Director General tells him the publication of a newspaper article could cost lives, he has to take that seriously – even if the risk is theoretical.
Why, then, in another case involving a real live agent, whose risk of being executed by the IRA is very high indeed, has the Home Secretary been playing down the threat to his life?
Martin McGartland spied for the RUC Special Branch and saved many lives. As the late Brian Fitsimons, former assistant chief constable in charge of the Special Branch, told me: “McGartland was a very productive agent.”
Since 1991 the 27 year old has lived in Blyth, Northumbria as “Martin Ashe” – the identity provided for him by the RUC. Last May he was tried at Newcastle Crown Court for perverting the course of justice because he had two driving licences in the name of “Ashe” which listed two different addresses.
The police said he was trying to avoid disqualification by distributing penalty points for speeding between the two licences. McGartland denied his, insisting he needed the licences as an extra layer of protection.
In 1992 the IRA had interrogated his girlfriend and he feared they’d forced her to divulge where he was living. He says the police refused to move him: “I’ll never forget what they told me:’Don’t worry about it, son. You’ll be OK.’” He didn’t believe them. So he moved – though only half a mile away. And he took out a second licence with a fictitious address in Durham.
McGartland feared the IRA could get his address from licence records – and with good reason: Northumbria Police has already dismissed one civilian for disclosing information about his identity from their computer. The purpose of the second licence was to send the IRA off on a false trail if they came looking for him having discovered he no longer lived at his first address.
There is no doubt that McGartland was on the IRA’s wanted listed. They’d broken his younger brother Joseph’s legs, an arm and four ribs with iron bars. And he himself received a mass card, signed “Your friends in Connolly House [Belfast HQ of Sinn Fein], Crumlin Road and Long Kesh.” It promised that the “Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for the repose of the soul of Marty McGartland.”
Before the trial McGartland warned the Crown Prosecution Service that the only way he could escape a prison sentence was to explain to the jury who he really was and why he’d taken out two licences – which involved disclosing who he really was.
The jury took 10 minutes to acquit him and even the judge said McGartland did not seem to be a criminal. But his cover was blown McGartland’s real identity and address were reported in the newspapers.
McGartland asked the authorities to give him a new identity and relocate him immediately. One thousand nine hundred local residents – astonished to discover their chaotic Irish neighbour was a latter-day 007 – signed a petition supporting him. Close neighbours have been frequently wakened by his screaming nightmares: “Don’t do it, don’t do it.” Some neighbours are pretty terrified themselves. One is having her locks changed by Northumbria Police.
At first the Crown refused to pay McGartland a penny. After many letters from his lawyer to the solicitors acting for “various Crown authorities” – which they refused to name – they agreed to pay pounds 3,000 towards his removal expenses “as a gesture of goodwill and with no admission of liability”.
But McGartland’s house is now blighted. Who would want to buy a property that was an IRA target? Until recently, the “authorities” have refused to even consider covering any losses. Jack Straw has told McGartland’s local MP, Alan Campbell, that there is no need for him to move straightaway because there is no “immediate” threat to him. “I hope this is of some reassurance,” says Mr Straw.
The small sum now being offered contrasts with the millions of pounds that McGartland’s tip-offs spared the taxpayer by stopping buildings from being blown up – not to mention the many lives he saved. McGartland was also very nearly executed by the IRA because of an RUC blunder in August 1991.
For several months he had complained to his Special Branch handlers that he feared the IRA had rumbled him. His active service unit had had to abort too many operations in which he’d been involved.
Then in July 1991, McGartland’s handlers learnt that his ASU was going to machine-gun a bar frequented by soldiers in Bangor. They demanded that McGartland deliver the guns that were to be used to RUC headquarters to be fitted with tracking devices.
Two IRA operatives were arrested en route to the raid. A few days later McGartland was summoned to a meeting with the head of the IRA’s internal security. Although McGartland feared the game was up, his handlers persuaded him to keep his appointment, promising they would watch over him every step of the way. The Special Branch had calculated there could be a bonus if he was caught. He could lead them to other IRA terrorists as they interrogated him. He was to be used as human bait.
But the RUC’s surveillance unit lost sight of McGartland before he was driven away at speed by two IRA men from his meeting. As one officer said: “I thought `Well, it’s over. He’s gone.’ And I waited for news of his body being found.”
McGartland, meanwhile, was awaiting the executioner’s bullet in a third- floor flat. When he saw a bath filled up with cold water, he knew he would be tortured first. On an impulse he hurled himself headlong through the window. “I remember the glass breaking in slow motion. Then my lights went out.” He sustained serious head, shoulder and back injuries, but his astonishing courage saved him. He was picked up by an army patrol.
Six weeks later he was packed off to Northumbria with a new identity. The police bought him a house for pounds 53,500 and gave him pounds 40,000 to provide him with furniture, a car, spending money and a training course for a heavy goods vehicle licence.
But McGartland had paid a heavy price. He’d left behind his family and had no friends in Newcastle. He suffered recurring nightmares, needed constant painkillers, and he became depressed. He couldn’t settle into a job and he frittered away his money But the RUC who’d recruited him at 17, had cut the umbilical chord.
Like many agents McGartland wanted recognition. He tried to sell his story and began to appear on TV programmes and to give newspaper interviews. This can’t have gone down too well with the authorities.
When his solicitor applied for compensation for his injuries, the RUC claimed to have no record of him. He pursued the claim in the courts. But when he asked the RUC for protection in Northern Ireland so he could attend his court case, they refused. “Any protection that was afforded you, you blew by your antics,” one officer told him.
Then the RUC told the Northern Ireland Office they’d already paid McGartland pounds 120,000 which, they said, included injury compensation. His receipts showed the figure was pounds 95,000, a shortfall of pounds 25,000. Only after Tory, Labour and Unionist MPs intervened, did the NIO compromise with an offer of pounds 10,000.
Earlier this year, McGartland published a book detailing his exploits. At the same time the CPS was considering whether to prosecute him for perverting the course of justice. After consulting the RUC, it was decided there was no threat to his security. Listening to some RUC officer discussing this issue, there’s a strong whiff of disdain: McGartland was recruited as a teenage petty criminal and in his attempts to hog the limelight he’d moved above his station. It’s hardly surprising he came a cropper.
No doubt, running McGartland as an agent was taxing. Like most agents, he sometimes broke the rules by not telling his handlers everything in order to cover his back with the IRA. Sometimes he bartered information for money. But, as one ex-RUC officer recognises, “I would have to say that we got more out of him in a few years than we got out of many agents in 20 years. It was short – but very sweet while it lasted.”
McGartland was very young to be drawn into the grown-up world of spying. By 21, he had saved many lives. But now he doesn’t know how to save himself.
His obsession with his string of grievances and his craving for recognition leave him incapable of building a more stable future. What burden of responsibility should the Crown now bear for trying to ensue that the rest of his life is not wasted?
Not much, seems to be the answer. As the new Home Secretary, perhaps still seeking the approval of the security and intelligence establishment that once had him down as soft and on the left, Jack speaks of this as being “very much a security matter”. But it is also a human tragedy.
In his letter to McGartland’s MP, Alan Campbell, Jack Straw suggests that it is his “propensity for self-publicity that has caused [him] so many of the problems he currently faces”.
Mr Straw misses the point. McGartland may have raised his profile but he never once revealed that he was “Martin Ashe” in any article or TV programme. It was the Crown’s decision to prosecute him that led to that. Now that he has been acquitted, he claims he is entitled to the same level of assistance a he was before the court case invalidated his protection.
The McGartland case also raises a question about double standards: in Newcastle an ex-Special Branch agent whose life is manifestly at risk is deemed by the Home Secretary not to be in any “immediate” danger. In London, a risk, perhaps theoretical, to the lives of MI5 agents is enough for him to ban publication of a matter of public interest about a secret and largely unaccountable organisation.
The one feature common to both cases is publicity. Do the intelligence services still cling to the belief that it is dangerous for light to be shed on their workings. If so, why does New Labour swallow old myths?
The story of Martin McGartland will feature in `Here and Now’ , BBC1, 7.30pm tonight.
Link:- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/media-how-jack-straw-vigilant-censor-of-mi5-revelations-left-an-informer-out-to-dry-1241822.html
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