Collusion story hits USA -- Stormont Watch

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Date Posted: Wed, Jan 24 2007, 20:18:30 PST
Author: New York Times- from A.O.H. Nat. Ex.
Subject: Collusion story hits USA

TO:
iapl_newsroom32@hotmail.com Printed: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 8:10 PM
FROM NED McGINLEY, PAST-NATIONAL PRESIDENT, AOH, USA.

This article is from the NY Times. It is obvious that the "Collusion Story" of Loyalist Murder Gangs in the north has made it to the mainstream media. Please be sure that your local papers hear about this.

AOH PEC Committee

NY Times Article
Report Accuses Belfast Police of Collusion in Gang Killings

By EAMON QUINN
Published: January 23, 2007
BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Jan. 22 — Northern Ireland'ss police ombudsman, in a report on Monday, accused the province's police force of collusion with at least one loyalist Protestant gang in a number of killings and attempted killings and serious drug crimes.

In the 160-page report, Nuala O'Loan, the ombudsman, indicated that police handlers had turned a blind eye to tips from informants in an outlawed pro-British loyalist gang about at least 10 killings and 10 attempted killings.

The gang, part of the Ulster Volunteer Force, saw itself as part of a war to maintain the link with Britain against a campaign to unite Ireland by Sinn Fein republicans and the Irish Republican Army. The outlawed group operated for more than a decade, until 2003, from North Belfast despite being riddled with police informants, Ms. O’Loan said.

She said Monday that the most shocking aspect of her findings was that there seemed to be an intentional lack of supervision by the department of the Special Branch police officers dealing with the informants and that documentation had either been avoided or destroyed in many cases. The police department's failure to act probably extended the gang's killing rampage, she said, presenting the report at a news conference.

Despite the ombudsma's findings of collusion, police officers are unlikely to face charges because of the lack of sufficient documentation to proceed with prosecution, she said.

Her report was issued at a crucial moment for the leaders of Sinn Fein, the main Catholic party in Northern Ireland. They want their party members, at a conference this weekend, to set aside long-held objections to the operations of the Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland police so the group can move ahead to enter a power-sharing government with the main Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists.

The Democratic Unionist Party has said it will not even consider the so-called St. Andrews Agreement proposals, sponsored by Britain and Ireland, for a Protestant-Catholic local government to be set up in Belfast on March 26 unless Sinn Fein first indicates support for the police.

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