British security forces condemned by Finucane report

1.00pm - By DAVID McKITTRICK

LONDON - MI5, army intelligence and Special Branch all knew of loyalist plots to kill the Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane but did not warn him and did not act to prevent his murder, an independent report concluded today.

The report and three others commissioned by the Government from a retired Canadian judge will result in four new public inquiries.

Three will be set this year but the inquiry into the 1989 Finucane case will be delayed until after the trial of a Belfast man who is charged with his murder.

Other related cases may also be pending.

The announcement of the inquiries was welcomed by the families of three people who died in controversial circumstances.

These are Robert Hamill, who was killed by loyalists, loyalist leader Billy Wright and human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson.

But the outcome was described as very disappointing by Mr Finucane's widow Geraldine, who accused the authorities of continuing to cover up the truth about her husband's death "with their delaying tactics".

Her complaints were echoed by the Irish government, with Dublin foreign minister Brian Cowan saying he was very disappointed by the timing.

The new inquiries will have the same powers as the long-running investigation into Bloody Sunday, though the authorities are to seek to restrict their costs and duration.

The recommendations of Judge Peter Cory for the four new inquiries were attacked by Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, who accused him of failing to understand Northern Ireland and of displaying "astonishing naivety".

The Finucane report provided a wealth of damning detail on the operations of the intelligence services, with the judge saying MI5, the army and the police had all separately been told by agents that loyalists were targeting Pat Finucane.

The judge found that MI5 had been told by one of its agents that the loyalist Ulster Defence Association was keen to kill Mr Finucane.

A meeting between MI5 and Special Branch concluded that the threat was "very real and imminent", but decided no action would be taken because intervention would compromise the security of the agent.

Four years later no action was taken when a similar report was received.

Two months before the Finucane assassination in 1989 an MI5 agent reported that UDA leaders had discussed killing three solicitors, one of whom was easily identified as Mr Finucane.

The judge noted: "Once again, no action was taken to warn Patrick Finucane or to intervene in any way."

He was also critical of the RUC Special Branch, which he said had failed in its duty to protect all individuals, concentrating almost entirely on the IRA and paying little attention to loyalist groups.

He concluded: "The documents indicate that in some instances Special Branch failed to take any steps to prevent actual or planned attacks on persons targeted by Loyalist terrorist groups.

"UDA threats appear to have been ignored. This discrepancy in the treatment of IRA and UDA targets may be indicative of a selective, perhaps subconscious, bias on the part of the Special Branch. It may well be that only a portion of the population was receiving effective protection against the threat of terrorist violence."

The judge said army intelligence appeared to tolerate the commission of crimes by its agents, "perhaps perceiving this to be a necessary evil in the fight against terrorism".

One agent, he concluded, often requested and received information from his handlers.

He commented: "They considered the normal rules - including the rule of law - to be suspended and the gathering of intelligence to be an end that was capable of justifying questionable means."

- INDEPENDENT