Loyalist gangs are surrogates of the British state

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday June 28, 2002 18:06 by O' Riled

Following the Panorama programmes into British state force collusion with loyalists West Tyrone Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty has argues that it is now abundantly clear that the British Government, at the highest levels, armed, controlled and directed loyalist death squads in their campaign against the nationalist/republican community.

In light of these programmes, and in light of other recent
revelations, which are now firmly in the public domain, the 'bad
apple theory' of state force collusion with loyalists has been
well and truly discredited.

Collusion with loyalists was an official policy - devised and
sanctioned at the highest levels within the British Government.
Representatives from RUC Special Branch, British Military and
Military intelligence have been co-ordinated on a day to day -
basis by government and 'security' officials of the Task
Co-ordinating Group (TCG). In turn, this group came under the
direct control of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) in London,
which reported directly to the British Cabinet. The chain of
command went and still goes right to the top.

Collusion with loyalists has existed for decades, the Dublin-
Monaghan bombings being a prime example. However, the
establishment of this structure in the late-1980's points to the
formulation of a strategy to fine-tune this collusion to such an
extent that loyalist murder gangs would be mere surrogates of the
state - with the state controlling and directing their operations
so as to effect a specific political outcome namely; to attempt
to cower nationalists/republicans into lowering their political
aspirations and demands.

In January 1988, British Military Intelligence, through one of
its prime UDA operatives Brian Nelson, rearmed the loyalist
paramilitary organisations with South African weapons. In the six
years preceding this shipment, the volume of loyalist violence
was at it's lowest since the beginning of present phase of the
conflict.

In the 6 years following the shipment, from January 1988 to 1
September 1994, loyalists killed 229 people. The delivery of the
shipment coincided with the 'leaking' to loyalist paramilitaries
of thousands of P files from various 'security force' agencies.
The personal details of the vast majority of those killed by the
South African weapons were contained on these P files.

Given the repeated failure of the RUC/PSNI to disclose ballistic
evidence in regards to loyalist attacks, it is difficult to
ascertain, with any certainty, the total number of people killed
by the South African weapons up until the present day.

Similar patterns of crown force behaviour/activity emerged
prior to many loyalist killings including:

* Special Branch gloating to detainees in Castlereagh and other
interrogation centres that they were going to have them killed
subsequent to their murder at the hands of loyalist death squads.

* Uniformed RUC members sketching maps of layout of family homes
prior to loyalist attacks.

* High levels of crown force activity preceding loyalist attacks.

Collusion with loyalists was institutionalised - from those who
devised the policy, to those who gave it practical effect on the
ground. All sections of the British Military apparatus were
mobilised in the implementation of this policy.

Likewise, any attempts at getting at the truth were met with
outright hostility and obstruction. The world inhabited by
Special Branch, the British Intelligence services and their
political masters is not open to either public scrutiny or
democratic accountability.

To let this happen would expose the full extent Britain's 'dirty
war' in Ireland. The fate of those who have previously attempted
to peer behind the veil into this murky world is well known.
Detective Chief Constable John Stalker was suspended, taken off
the case and his name was blackened when he began getting too
close to the truth in regards to RUC's shoot-to-kill policy.
Likewise when former British army intelligence officer Fred
Holroyd stated that SAS captain Robert Nairac was involved with
loyalist murder gangs he was duly labelled as a "Walter Mitty
type character". John Stevens, the commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police, has previously conducted two inquiries into
allegations of collusion between loyalists and crown forces. In
1990, there was a 'mysterious' fire that badly damaged the
offices of the inquiry team. The RUC decided not to make the
findings of either report public.

In the coming weeks and months, the British political and
military establishment will once again close ranks to obstruct
the disclosure of the truth about large scale institutionalised
collusion and their role in it.

However, the can of worms has well and truly opened and they may
find it more difficult if not impossible to put the cap back on
this time.