Omagh bomb victims' families to meet Brown

The Omagh bomb victims’ families will challenge Gordon Brown today over claims that vital intelligence on the bombers was withheld from police.

Relatives of the victims of the 1998 Real IRA outrage are meeting with the British Prime Minister to discuss alleged failings by the security services both before and after the attack.

A television documentary last year claimed that the government’s listening station GCHQ had tracked the bombers on the day of the atrocity but failed to alert police.

The allegation made by BBC's 'Panorama' was rebutted last month by a government-commissioned inquiry carried out by Intelligence Commissioner Peter Gibson.

However, Omagh families are unhappy with Gibson’s findings and say he did not address another key claim made in the programme – that in the wake of the bomb, information on the identity of the perpetrators was not passed to police officers in Omagh.

Twenty nine people, including a mother pregnant with twins, were killed when the 500lb car bomb exploded in the town centre after misleading warnings.

The attack inflicted the single biggest loss of life during the Troubles in the North.

The families’ meeting with Gordon Brown is their second visit to Downing Street after holding talks with Tony Blair in 2007.

Michael Gallagher, who lost his son Aiden in the bombing, said: “I have not met anybody who was impressed with what Gibson said.

“He did not address the central part of the Panorama programme which asked why all available information was not passed on.”

Mr Gallagher said the families would also be discussing with Mr Brown their landmark civil action against the five men they suspect were responsible for the bombing and which is currently entering its final stages in the High Court in Belfast.

They believe the intelligence services are still holding back information which could aid their case.

The families are also preparing a presentation next month to MPs on the Northern Ireland Select Committee over their continuing call for an independent cross border inquiry into the Omagh bomb investigation.