Monday, January 22, 2007

Belfast Police Covered Up Crimes of Informants

Via seattlepi -

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Police intelligence officers covered up at least 10 killings and other crimes committed by Protestant outlaws who were on the payroll as informants, an investigation found Monday.

Following a 3-year probe, Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan concluded that former officers in the Special Branch paid informants in the outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force who were permitted to pursue killings, bombings, drug dealing and extortion.

Her report called for police to reopen dozens of cases from the 1990s and investigate ex-officers involved in cover-ups of their informants' crimes.

The commander of the predominantly Protestant police force, Chief Constable Hugh Orde, said he accepted O'Loan's conclusions and recommendations in full. In the report, both he and O'Loan noted that the police force's intelligence-gathering arm had been overhauled since 2003.

Britain's secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, said the report illuminated "a very dark corner of behavior by a limited number of Special Branch officers in the 1990s." He said both UVF veterans and former police officers should stand trial.

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