Collusion was on a grand scale
Posted By: June 14, 2016
He found that security services had prior knowledge of the South African arms shipment but did not prevent the weapons being smuggled and then failed to intercept some of the shipment, despite intelligence on its whereabouts.
In my view this is collusion in its most basic form and there is no room for ambivalence towards Dr Maguire’s findings, if the report is viewed – as it was intended – in its entirety.
Allison Morris. Irish News (Belfast). Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Loughinisland families have welcomed the findings of a police ombudsman’s report into the atrocity
IN the aftermath of the damning Loughinisland Police Ombudsman report, further questions must be asked about a massive arms shipment linked to dozens of loyalist murders.
Since last Thursday, when Dr Michael Maguire delivered his findings into the killing of six people by the UVF while watching a football match, there has been much debate about the definition of collusion.
Dr Maguire applied the definition favoured by Judge Peter Smithwick who found that there was Garda collusion with the IRA in the murders of two senior policemen in 1989.
Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were shot dead in an IRA ambush in south Armagh as they crossed the border after a meeting in Dundalk Garda station,
Dr Maguire’s findings were much more damning than a failure to properly investigate and what he called a “hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil” attitude among some members of Special Branch in their control of loyalist informers.
He found that security services had prior knowledge of the South African arms shipment but did not prevent the weapons being smuggled and then failed to intercept some of the shipment, despite intelligence on its whereabouts.
In my view this is collusion in its most basic form and there is no room for ambivalence towards Dr Maguire’s findings, if the report is viewed – as it was intended – in its entirety.
All of those families who lost loved ones through the use of these guns should now have recourse against the state.
A senior loyalist informer, Tommy ‘Tucker’ Lyttle, was one of those who organised the arms deal, as did British army agent Brian Nelson.
The weapons that fell into the hands of the shadowy Ulster Resistance group have never been recovered, while some made their way to other paramilitary organisations and many remain in what one senior loyalist described to me last week as “cold storage”.
It has been said that informers helped save many lives over the course of the conflict, but as seen in the case of UVF man Mark Haddock and IRA agent Stakeknife, they were also permitted to kill on occasions.
Who decided who lived and who died in such cases?
While the RUC may not have known the exact details of the Loughinisland attack – few people would have, given it was in retaliation for the murder of two UVF men just days before – they did have the names of the suspects within hours and didn’t arrest them until a month later.
By any definition there was collusion on a grand scale in this case.
