British Intelligence and Covert Action Book Review
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Fortnight Publications
The Ministry of Dirty TricksThe Ministry of Dirty Tricks
Review By Kennedy Lindsay September 1983
Bloch and Fitzgerald's study paints British intelligence skullduggery and criminality on a broader geographical canvas. Once again the accumulation of facts is formidable and is underpinned by chapter and verse references. The authors write from a marxis viewpoint and there is an introductions by Philip Agee, the CIA defector. This may cause some to dismiss the book unread. That would be a mistake. Explanations and comments can sometimes be queried, but the central body of carefully documented facts stands four-square. Seldom is the story complete, but all history is a process of selection and always there remain the unknown and the unknowable.
The authors of both books tend to lump the different British intelligence organisations together and, Nothern Ireland is the subject to include the RUC with them. There is a failure to appreciate the savagery of the feuds between the organisations and how they select and persue objectives and policies at cross-puposes to one another.
When i was writing the British Intelligence in Actions, I was very conscious that few would believe that employees of the British gevernment could be responsible for the crimes I outlined.; More people now accept that these things are true. But there is still no cry of alarm - no realisation that the decencies and liberal values of our democratic way of life are doomed if they are allowed to continue. It is no accident that Airey Neave, a former head of M19, was Margaret Thatcher's campaign manager during the contest for the leadership of the party, nor that George Bush, vice-president if the United States, is a former director of the CIA.
I can confirm that one person who was elected to the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly and laterto the Constitutional Convention experienced an attempt by M16 to ensure him in a scheme to import illegal arms; and by the Army Intelligence to entice him into providing a cache for illegal arms. The murder plot approach was made at the time of the Ulster Workers Council strike and involved assassination of Brigadire Ronald Broadhurst, an outstanding harmless Faulknerite Unionist. The aim, presumably, was to cause a public backlash towards the pro-Sunningdale 'center' parties.
At the time of the Constitutional Convention the official representatives if the OUP, Vanguard and the DUP agreed on a scheme which included: 1. Power-sharing by means of a "voluntary coalition"; and 2. the RUC and internal security to be controlled by a commitee of which the chairman would always be a member of the SDLP or other Irish republican party. Rev William Beattie, the official representative of the DUP, personally presented the scheme to the official representatives of the SDLP through Sir Robert Lowry, the Convention chairman.
During this crutial period, Rev Ian Paisley was absent in North America. Each evening he received a detailed report by telephone on the day's proceedings. The Conversations were taped by three seperate British intelligence organisations, and a synopsis was also prepared for use at cabinet level. It is alleged that Dr Paisley is now aware of what happened and would prefer if the holders of the tapes were not to publish transcritps.
The first edition of my book had to be published in the Irish Republic because of the British Official Secrets Acts. The authors of the two books under review have dealt with the same problems by joint publications under which each book carries the imprint of a British publisher and an Irish one.