The legal and political saga that has followed the Omagh bombing took another turn yesterday when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a review of intelligence intercepts on the attack which killed 29 people in 1998.
Sir Peter Gibson, the Intelligence Services Commissioner, is to review "the intercepted
intelligence material available to the security and intelligence agencies in relation to the Omagh bombing and how it was shared".
The move is viewed by many as a reluctant concession in the face of mounting pressure. It has come as a direct response to this week's BBC Panorama programme which revealed that the intelligence listening centre, GCHQ, was monitoring mobile phone calls made by the bombing team. The Cabinet Office said the review should be completed within three months, with Brown expected to outline its outcome in the Commons.
This may be a problematic timetable, however, since some of the Omagh bereaved have taken a civil case against alleged members of the Real IRA, which carried out the attack. The case opened in the Belfast courts in April and is to resume shortly after the summer legal recess.
Yesterday the families asked for relevant material from the new review to be made available before their case comes to a close. Its terms of reference appear to have been limited to the Panorama revelations concerning delivery of the bomb, rather than allowing for a wider survey of intelligence material before and after the attack.
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