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Families angry over Omagh intelligence

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Omagh families have hit out at the government for censoring an official investigation which examined whether vital intelligence was withheld from detectives hunting the bombers.
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    'Closure' - Michael Gallagher

The angry comments were made after a parliamentary committee that conducted its own inquiry into the bombing revealed that the Prime Minister had denied them access to the review of the security services' role carried out by Intelligence Services Commissioner Sir Peter Gibson.

Outlining the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee findings at Stormont on Tuesday, committee chair Sir Patrick Cormack criticised Gordon Brown for only letting them see a heavily edited version of the Gibson report.

Questions

Sir Patrick also called for a fresh examination of the intelligence.

"The key question really is: Would it have been possible to have arrested people and brought them to book immediately after the Omagh bombing and when forensic evidence was, as they say, lively? That is a big unanswered question," Sir Patrick told UTV.

Downing Street defended its decision not to release Sir Peter's report to the committee citing security reasons.

"Obviously, when national security is involved, there can only be a limited number of people with who that can be shared," a spokesperson said.

Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden was of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA attack, said this was not acceptable.

"We're left with no option but to say: what is in this report that is so damning? We're on the side of the intelligence service and the police force. We don't want to disclose an advantage to the terrorists. But surely a man at this level (committee chair Sir Patrick Cormack) should be able to see the report so that he can make his own mind up," he told UTV.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said too many questions remained unanswered over how much the security services knew about the killers' movements around the time of the dissident republican attack 12 years ago and if police officers were left out of the loop.

No one has been successfully convicted of the murders, but last year four men were found liable for the bombing in a landmark civil case taken by the victims' families.

The committee undertook an inquiry into the security services' role following claims in a BBC documentary that the Government's listening station GCHQ had monitored suspects' mobile phone calls as they drove to Omagh from the Irish Republic on the day of the atrocity in August 1998.

Panorama said this information was never passed to Royal Ulster Constabulary detectives assigned to the case.

While the subsequent review by Intelligence Services Commissioner Sir Peter Gibson rejected many of Panorama's assertions, committee chairman Sir Patrick Cormack said the bereaved still needed answers.

"Far too many questions remain unanswered," he said.

"The criminal justice system has failed to bring to justice those responsible for the Omagh bombing.

"The least that those who were bereaved or injured have the right to expect are answers to those questions."

The MPs report raises concerns about the data flow after the attack, in particular whether names of the suspected bombers were known and, if so, why they were not passed to police officers.

The committee's report also found that questions remain about whether the bombing could have been pre-empted by action against terrorists who carried out earlier bombings in 1998.

The report called for a definitive statement on whether the names of those thought to have been involved in the bombing were known to the intelligence services, Special Branch, or the RUC in the days immediately after the bombing, and if so, why no arrests resulted.

It also asked the Government to justify the argument that the public interest is best served by keeping telephone intercepts secret rather than using them to bring murderers to justice.

But the committee fell short of recommending the full public inquiry the Omagh families have been asking for.

"We, the families, will continue to press for a public inquiry", Mr Gallagher told UTV.

"Sir Patrick had mentioned the fact it could cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. We certainly don't want an inquiry that will cost a lot of money and take a lot of time. We have waited for 12 years and we need closure. That closure should come by both governments coming together and co-operating with the families and let us have the truth."

© UTV News

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At 20:54 on 16 March 2010, Carol wrote:
I knew two victims of the Omagh bomb but I am not related to them. I feel that the families and the community will never have closure as long as secrets are kept in order to maintain national security. Tony Blair claimed that' no stone would be left unturned'in his visit to Omagh shortly after the bomb. Somehow I think that this promise has long since been dismissed.
At 20:07 on 16 March 2010, Heeather Black wrote:
As shocking as this is, there can hardly be anyone surprised by the role of agents in the Omagh Bomb. More of a worry is that this could happen again. It looks like the Murky world of spooks, spies and agents still go goes on.
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