extracts from BBC panorama: 'a licence to murder'

I was confronted by a Special Branch colleague. He says: "If we put a bar up, or an obstacle up, be like the rest of them, don't go over it or under it, go away." He says: "You walked into the offices of English detectives and you spoke about us and you think there's no come back, you think there's no retribution. You listen to me…" And he lost it. He threatened me. He said that "We'll send our Ninja men in to your house, there's not a lock that we can't get past. And they'll come out of your loft with a wee bag" he says "with a couple of dirty LVF guns in it.

... Silent but ever present in the shadows were representatives of military intelligence, Special Branch and MI5.

Jim Gamble has a strong background in counter terrorism and was Head of Special Branch Intelligence in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Here he was in charge of all counter terrorism and operations relating to Irish terrorism in the UK and overseas. Having joined the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 1982 (formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary) he set about securing a wide range of command experience serving as both a uniform and detective officer in what was one of the most challenging policing environments in the UK.

Jim Gamble is Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and brings with him over 25 years in UK policing - from leading the fight against terrorism as the head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit in Belfast to most recently tackling organised crime as the Deputy Director of the National Crime Squad.

Career Twenty-five years in the police force, starting as a uniformed officer in his native Northern Ireland, where he rose to be head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit; deputy head of the National Crime Squad, which fights organised and hi-tech crime; set up the NCS specialist peadophile online investigation team (Polit), which led Operation Ore; played a key role in setting up the Virtual Global Taskforce, the international police response to paedophile crime.

Jim Gamble from County Down made the switch from Northern Ireland to England last year.

He was a detective superintendent with the PSNI and now works in London as an assistant chief constable with National Crime Squad.

It was the lure of promotion and the prospect of doing specialised intelligence work that brought him to England.

Jim Gamble is the first CEO of the CEOP Centre and brings over 25 years in UK policing - from leading the fight against terrorism as the head of the Northern Ireland anti-terrorist intelligence unit to most recently tackling organised crime as the Deputy Director of the National Crime Squad. During his time in Northern Ireland he covered both uniform and detective roles in a rapidly changing and often volatile environment before leading anti-terrorist responses in both the UK and abroad. With the National Crime Squad he oversaw a complex and highly intricate portfolio ranging from firearm deployment to hi-tech crime and overall intelligence, professional standards and security as a central figure in the UK’s fight against organised crime.

... The published report did not identify by name any of the retired Special Branch officers involved in collusion. A secret version of the report that includes these names was delivered over the weekend to Orde, Hain and a handful of other British officials ...

... Blair's secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, said UVF veterans and former police officers both should stand trial for crimes.

“I want Tony Blair and the Attorney General to sit in front of my family and tell me why these police officers will not be charged,” he said. ...

... He also called for the removal of Mr Flanagan from his post and for him to be stripped of his knighthood.

The inquiry may even prove embarrassing for Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who was RUC chief constable at the time of the 1997 killing of Raymond McCord. A UVF gang was accused of killing McCord, a former RAF radar operator, whose murder triggered the ombudsman's inquiry. Sir Ronnie, a former head of special branch, is now Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. He and Ms O'Loan clashed over the publication of her previous investigation into the Omagh bombing.

Yesterday Mr McCord Snr claimed: "The RUC colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in killing not only republicans but also Unionist people."

"Others, including some serving officers, gave evasive, contradictory and, on occasion, farcical answers to questions. On occasion, those answers indicated either a significant failure to understand the law or contempt for the law," her 162-page report found.

O'Loan said Special Branch officers suppressed forensic evidence and didn't follow up leads that pointed to involvement of their Ulster Volunteer Force informers in at least 82 crimes.

The North's Police Ombudsman has published a damning report concluding that senior police officers protected loyalist paramilitaries involved in up to 15 murders between 1991 and 2003.

Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan's investigators revealed that three retired assistant chief constables, seven detective chief superintendents and two detective superintendents were among those who did not cooperate with their inquiry into how an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) unit based in north Belfast was protected by its Special Branch handlers, but the destruction of files has thwarted attempts to bring anyone to account.

Jim Gamble, the assistant chief constable in charge of the paedophile unit, joins in. "My last job was in Special Branch in Belfast. That was pretty tough, but this is even worse," he says. "Yet most of these people can't admit to themselves they're paedophiles."

To bolster his argument, Mr Clarke yesterday deployed Jim Gamble, the assistant chief constable of Britain's National Crime Squad to argue for data retention.

He has consistently rubbished claims that the police had received warnings days before the Omagh attack, saying that it was "an outrageous untruth".

When the Guardian revealed details of a warning provided by Kevin Fulton, the RUC was dismissive, saying that it hoped the ombudsman's report would provide "reassurance" to the families of the victims.

On July 30, Sir Ronnie insisted that any suggestions that the RUC had received advance warnings from an agent were "rubbish". In an interview with the Press Association, he said: "They are without foundation, they are also irresponsible and add to the anguish of the victims' families who have already suffered so much.

"The RUC would not ever ignore intelligence about a bombing in order to protect any special branch interests."

Last night, however, the force's position had changed significantly. For the first time, it has accepted that there had been warnings, but said that they could not have prevented the bombing.

Sir Ronnie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in administrative and legal studies and is a graduate of the FBI Academy.

He was awarded the OBE in 1996 and received a knighthood three years later.

However, the Ombudsman's report, published today said the tip-off "was not retrospective and has been found to have substance".

Just before publication of the Bennett Report in the spring of 1979 Dr. Robert Irwin, a RUC Surgeon with responsibility for interrogation centres, gave an interview to London Weekend Television. In it he revealed that he had seen roughly 150/160 prisoners with various injuries which could not have been self-inflicted. These revelations were supported by another RUC surgeon, Dr Dennis Elliot, and the Association of Police Surgeons.

Significantly Dr Irwin's testimony related to a three year period including 1978 when Ronnie Flanagan was Duty Inspector in charge of Castlereagh. The findings of the Bennett Report into 'present conditions' at the interrogation centres also relate to the period when Ronnie Flanagan was in charge. The key role of the Duty Inspector (DI) is underlined in the Report. The "actual business of supervising interviews falls largely to the inspector on duty."

Fr Sean says Ronnie Flanagan has a long and dubious record with incidents over the many years of the North's Troubles and he had grave concerns that a man such as him should be invited to train the FBI in anti-terrorism.

He said there have been several incidents - the most well known being the Pat Finucane murder - which makes him angry to see such injustice continuing to go on in Northern Ireland.

The campaign to keep Flanagan out of America used the Police Ombudsman's Report as further evidence of what believe to be a 'unfortunate choice'of candidate.

But that just Ronnie's way, Mrs Flanagan said: "Oh, he's always been stubborn when it comes to admitting he's wrong. It was the same when Amnesty International and the Bennett Report reported that he had been in charge of torture and illegal beatings in the Castlereagh interrogation centre back in the late 70s."

Mrs Flanagan also wishes he'd just owned up to the illegal shoot-to-kill policy of the specialist SAS-trained anti-terrorist Special Branch team he led in the 80s. "Oh, there was a lot of fuss about that. I remember Ronnie being all riled up. I told him just to tell them he did what he had to do, but he told me that they'd put him in jail if he told the truth."

Northern Ireland's beleaguered chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, has the prime minister's full confidence, despite the police ombudsman's damning accusations of poor leadership in the Omagh bomb inquiry, Tony Blair's spokesman said yesterday.

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date he first asked Sir Ronnie Flanagan to investigate policing in Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [36940]

John Reid: I asked Sir Ronnie Flanagan on 21 October, in his capacity as HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, to conduct the review of policing in Iraq.

Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:

What are the terms of reference of the study by Sir Ronnie Flanagan into the Iraqi police force.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My Lords, we keep progress on security sector reform under very close review. As part of that process, we have asked Sir Ronnie Flanagan to provide both his objective assessment of the UK's policing programme in Iraq and recommendations to ensure that UK support is delivering an effective Iraqi police service that serves the needs of all the Iraqi people.

Indeed, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the head of HMIC and former head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a man who had to confront terrorism on a daily basis in Northern Ireland, has called the present police arrangements, including those in Wales, ‘woefully inadequate.'

the life and death of a human rights defender

Before publication of the final UN report, RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan is given a draft copy which contains the names of defence lawyers making the complaints about death threats, intimidation and harassment. Rosemary Nelson is one of the main complainants. Ronnie Flanagan is quoted in the UN report as saying that allegations concerning RUC intimidation and harassment of solicitors is part and parcel of a political agenda to portray the RUC as part of the unionist tradition. He also says that paramilitary organisations wanted to ensure that detainees remained silent during interrogation and accuses defence solicitors of conveying this message to their clients (Paragraph 21). Initially, Ronnie Flanagan denies making these claims. When notes taken by a UN assistant verify the comments, the Chief Constable then says he can not guarantee the safety of the lawyers who have already given evidence. The names of all the defence lawyers are removed from the final UN report.

Late 1997 After complaints laid by Rosemary Nelson, an Independent Commission for Police Complaints (ICPC) investigation begins into claims that RUC officers made death threats against Mrs Nelson. As with all ICPC investigations however it is RUC officers who are tasked to investigate other RUC officers. ...

... Vigils and protests are held throughout the North and in London. Martin Finucane, brother of murdered Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, describes as "pathetic and inept" the appointment of a senior English police officer to oversee the inquiry and states that only a full, international, independent inquiry into Rosemary Nelson's murder would be satisfactory.

Making the announcement, David Blunkett said he was 'confident' that Flanagan would make "a valuable contribution to raising police standards".

Relatives of those who died in the bombing have described themselves as 'stunned' by Blunkett's decision. A relative said the appointment was 'obviously political' and the British government was sending a clear message of confidence in Flanagan. "We do not share this view," he said.

The recent Ombudsman's report exposed the investigation into the Omagh bombing, in which Flanagan claimed he would "leave no stone unturned", as woefully inadequate. There are growing fears that this has little to do with ineptitude. If the investigation is a travesty, it's because the RUC have something to hide.

There's nothing incompetent about Ronnie Flanagan. This is a ruthless and clever man who, within his long and successful career in the RUC (latterly the PSNI), has consistently placed himself at the centre of some of the most controversial aspects of this discredited force.

Within two years of joining the RUC in 1970, the then Sergeant Flanagan, was stationed at one of the most notorious interrogation centres in the history of the current conflict. In Castlereagh, denied access to a solicitor and held for many days, detainees faced a brutal regime of sleep deprivation, ritual humiliation, psychological torture and severe beatings.

But nothing Flanagan witnessed in those early years troubled him and after promotion and a short period in Derry, he returned as a Duty Inspector in charge of Castlereagh in 1978. The centre was already under scrutiny following evidence of human rights abuses against detainees.

Flanagan comments "an invitation to murder" - IRSP 8 December 2000

The Belfast Comhairle Ceanntair of the IRSP has called on RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan to resign forthwith after his comments blaming the murder of Trevor Kell on Irish republicans.
IRSP North Belfast representative Paul Little said:

"On what basis did Ronnie Flanagan make this assumption? It appears that he made his comments on the basis of the combined military statement by the pro-agreement loyalists 30 minutes before the murder attacks on two Catholics in north Belfast. Whilst most citizens will want to know who carried out the cowardly murder of Mr. Kell, they will want to know this on the basis of sound evidence, not the haunch of the discredited RUC chief. His comments are irresponsible at best and an invitation to carry out sectarian murder at its worst."

Flanagan 'may take legal action of Omagh report'

And, in a show of the emotion attached to the report, which said ‘‘failed leadership’’ hampered the investigation of the bombing, he said he would commit suicide in public if he believed the criticisms were true.

Flanagan resists resignation calls

Former RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan tonight resisted demands for his resignation over revelations that police in Northern Ireland protected a loyalist murder gang. ...

...SDLP leader Mark Durkan said he has written to Prime Minister Tony Blair urging him to sack Sir Ronnie if he does not stand down. ...

Raymond McCord - who triggered the Ombudsman's investigation with his complaint that Special Branch agents beat his son Raymond to death in 1997 - Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness and Mr Durkan were all scathing towards the former chief constable.

Defiant Flanagan comes out fighting

Former RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan today dismissed calls for his resignation as the head of a UK-wide policing body as he prepared to come out fighting in the wake of Nuala O'Loan's devastating collusion report.

The Ombudsman yesterday reported on what she said was widespread collusion between police and UVF informers responsible for at least 10 murders - many of which occurred when Sir Ronnie was Chief Constable or head of Special Branch. ...

...

But SDLP leader Mark Durkan told the Belfast Telegraph that the Ombudsman's report had left Sir Ronnie with no option but to stand down from his position within HMIC.

He said: "He was the head of Special Branch and then the Chief Constable during the most serious episodes of collusion revealed by Nuala O'Loan. He was never a man who gave the impression of being remote or detached from what was going on in his organisation.

"Either he was not in control of a dysfunctional organisation, or he knew full well but kept the truth hidden. In either event, he should not head up the Inspectorate of Constabulary."

Speaking on Channel Four News last night, Secretary of State Peter Hain refused to confirm if Sir Ronnie would face further questions.

This exposes Britain not as peacemaker, but perpetrator

Now it's official: the state sponsored death squads for years in Northern Ireland and this collusion prolonged the war

Nuala O'Loan is a heroine. None of us should under-estimate the moral courage this fastidious lawyer has mobilised merely do her job as Northern Ireland's police ombudsman: to tell the world that collusion describes the relationship between the British state and loyalist gunslingers.

Raymond McCord is a hero. When his own loyalist leaders and militias refused to acknowledge his quest for justice for his murdered son, he risked his life by turning to the purported enemies of his state - the human-rights organisations. ...

... Collusion tells us about our institutions and their purpose. After 1987 - when the loyalist paramilitary organisations were beginning to contemplate peace - Britain re-armed, reinvigorated and refocused them, taking control through its proxies among the warlords, and prolonged the war. Their reputations as ruffians, religious maniacs and pumped-up thugs merely gilded the reputation reserved by the British as law-abiding peacemakers. ...

... All these pressures are bearing down on Britain. It has been exposed not as peacemaker but as perpetrator, spreading terror and spilling blood; as the most powerful presence among the warlords. That is the national narrative we need to contemplate before we can consign collusion to the past.

... What better way to prove that the police have changed than by hanging out to dry a handful of those ‘rogue elements’ from the past? In one fell swoop, the authorities manage to make the wrongdoings of yesterday’s conflict look like the work of small groups of bent coppers, while coaxing today’s various parties to sign up to the peace process and accept Britain’s new ‘consensual’ agenda for Northern Ireland – an agenda which, as we have pointed out on spiked before, seeks to stifle genuine political debate and argument.

Police destruction of blood stained clothes (because they were a health hazard) and the inexplicable loss of key pieces of evidence would hinder re-opened cases.

"I would hope there would be prosecutions. But I just don't know," she said. ...

... Mrs O'Loan said security had to be stepped up on Raymond McCord, the father of one of the UVF victims who triggered her investigation by campaigning to find the truth behind the death of his son, Raymond jnr.

"Mr McCord had multiple death threats during the course of this investigation. I was concerned that he would not survive the investigation," she said.

In a statement this week, Sir Ronnie said: "With respect to the specific matters dealt with in the Ombudsman's report, at no time did I have any knowledge, or evidence, of officers at any level behaving in the ways that have been described."

The PSNI today confirmed that Sir Ronnie was officially informed of McCord case allegations by another police team almost seven years ago - while he was still Chief Constable. ...

... And it is also now known that Raymond McCord held face-to-face talks with Sir Ronnie at RUC headquarters around the end of the 1990s.

... Mr McCord today said: " There is no question that I raised Haddock at the meeting I held with Sir Ronnie, when I was accompanied by DUP politician Nigel Dodds. The meeting must have been in 1998 or 1999.

Flim-Flam Flanagan

Flanagan was chief constable of the RUC for five of those years but he has vehemently denied he knew anything about what was going on within his own force.

Flanagan's position untenable

‘‘What is needed now is a full parliamentary investigation into what went on. The Ombudsman’s report has raised extremely serious questions which need to be answered in a public forum.”

Corbyn said he was confident that the Labour-dominated Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which consists of 13 MPs, would back his call. Last week, Flanagan denied any knowledge of the allegations contained in the Ombudsman report.

However, DUP MP Nigel Dodds has revealed that he had accompanied Raymond McCord, whose son’s murder sparked the inquiry, to a meeting with Flanagan in 1999.

It emerged that the Stevens Inquiry team, investigating allegations of RUC and loyalist collusion, had also contacted Flanagan about the allegations in 2000.

The SDLP and Sinn Fein have called for Flanagan to quit his present job, with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness calling for him to be sacked. ...

... ‘‘This guy needs to go – if the same thing had happened in England, there would be a national outcry.”

Flanagan could not be contacted for comment.

"Sir Hugh Orde told this newspaper that Ronnie Flanagan was made aware of my allegations in 1998 and yet nothing has been done about this," he said.

"If Ronnie Flanagan's trying to say he didn't know about collusion what was it I went to meet him about? The traffic arrangements in north Belfast?" he said.

"Sir Hugh Orde told this newspaper that Ronnie Flanagan was made aware of my allegations in 1998 and yet nothing has been done about this," he said.

“Rosemary Nelson was one of the lawyers to instigate the UN investigation and to whom Flanagan referred. On 15 March 1999 Rosemary Nelson was killed when a bomb was attached to her car,” said Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice.

“Rosemary had received threats directly from RUC officers and threats were made to Rosemary via her clients whilst in RUC custody. Collusion has been evidenced in her killing by Judge Cory and her killing is the subject of an on-going if limited inquiry,” said Thompson.

...

Meanwhile the campaigning group Lawyers Alliance for Justice has called on the British Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to bring charges against all officers in the RUC involved in collusion.