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.