SF disputes spy ring claims

Sinn Féin today vigorously disputed police claims that republicans operated a spy ring at Stormont which led to the collapse three years ago of devolution and the unmasking of one of their members as a British agent.

North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly reacted furiously to Northern Ireland chief constable Hugh Orde’s assertion that hundreds of files, including transcripts of conversations between Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush, were found in a probe in October 2002 into a republican intelligence gathering operation.

Hugh said: “On October 4 (2002) we searched property in West Belfast and recovered hundreds of pages of documents.

“I am looking at some of them now.

“These documents exist. They are real.

“Most have sensitive information targeted against politicians, against civil servants, against members of the police service, against members of the prison service.

“There is also a large number of documents relating, for example, to discussions between the Prime Minister and the President of the United States, discussions between Government and the Northern Ireland political parties, with the exception of Sinn Fein – we have not recovered anything in relation to that party.

“There are documents taken from the Parades Commission. It’s a large number of documents which exist. We have them in our possession and as a result, police had a limited search of one office at Stormont and two discs were taken as part of that investigation.”

His version of events was challenged by Sinn Féin’s policing spokesman who said the documents were found in the home of Denis Donaldson, the party official who was unmasked last Friday as a British agent.

Mr Donaldson, 55, Sinn Féin’s former head of administration at Stormont, was arrested during the October 2002 police operation and accused along with his son-in-law Ciaran Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy of operating the republican intelligence gathering operation.

The case was dropped 12 days ago in Belfast Crown Court by the Public Prosecution Service because it was no longer in the public interest.

The scandal took another sensational twist on Friday when Sinn Fein announced it had expelled Mr Donaldson after he confessed to being a police and army spy for 20 years.

Mr Donaldson appeared on Irish television, admitting he had spied on his comrades in the republican movement after being compromised during a vulnerable time in his life.

Mr Kelly said today: “What Hugh Orde neglects to tell the public is that the documents were recovered from the home of Special Branch agent Denis Donaldson.

“Denis Donaldson was at the heart of a British spy ring and a securocrat conspiracy which brought down the elected government.

“He was not acting on behalf of republicans or our peace process agenda. He was at all times working to the agenda set by the British state who employed him.

“It is clear that the British state agencies who mounted this entire operation knew that there was no value other than political theatre to raid the Sinn Féin offices in Stormont.

“No documents or evidence were recovered in that raid. The two discs taken at random and removed were returned to the party within days.

“Hugh Orde is unable to justify the raid on Stormont because it was unjustifiable. It was politically motivated and intended to cause maximum political damage, a result which was achieved.”

Mr Kelly also said the chief constable needed to face the reality that politically motivated policing operations had taken place in the PSNI.