NEWS > 21 December 2005

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21 December 2005

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Police reject spy claims

Northern Ireland's Policing Board has rejected Sinn Fein claims that the IRA spy scandal at Stormont was a politically-fuelled con.

After republicans hit out at Sir Hugh Orde's reassertion that hundreds of documents were stolen during an intelligence-gathering operation that brought down the power-sharing executive and has now led to the unmasking of a Sinn Fein aide as a mole, the watchdog insisted the Chief Constable's actions were justified.

Sir Desmond Rea, chairman of the board which holds police to account, also declared: "The revelations of the last week and the claims of Sinn Fein do not square up."

He urged the Chief Constable to go even further in disclosing details of the searches and material seized by his officers during the investigation in October 2002 into a republican intelligence-gathering operation.

With the furore over the affair showing no sign of relenting, Sir Hugh today insisted bundles of papers including details on politicians, civil servants and police and prison officers were recovered during searches in West Belfast.

"These documents exist. They are real," he stressed.

"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."

His assertion brought a furious reaction from senior Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly, who claimed the documents were found at the home of Denis Donaldson, the party official revealed on Friday to be a British agent.

Mr Donaldson, 55, the republican party's head of administration at Stormont, was arrested during the original police operation and accused along with two other men of involvement in the espionage plot.

But the case against all three was dropped 12 days ago by the Public Prosecution Service because it was no longer in the public interest

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Article sourced from

This is London - London, Engla21 December 2005

Police reject spy claims

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This is London - London, Engla
21 December 2005