QUESTIONS ABOUT which branch of the security services in Northern Ireland was monitoring IRA communications on the day two RUC men were shot were asked at the Smithwick Tribunal yesterday.
Lawyers for the tribunal Dara Hayes and Fintan Valentine both referred to previous evidence of unusually high levels of IRA communications activity recorded in south Armagh on the day of the shootings.
However, a former chief inspector of the RUC task and co-ordinating group based at Gough Barracks in Armagh, who was responsible for “covert resources”, said it was not his division which would monitor walkie-talkie, CB or hand-held radio traffic in the area.
Referred to only as Witness 29, he said his unit was “solely responsible for tasking and co-ordinating covert resources be they police or military”.
But he said different branches of the RUC were run on a “compartmentalised” or need-to-know basis.
He said his unit would assist local RUC units with covert surveillance to gather information on “lifestyles” and would gather intelligence, and co-ordinate reactive operations to apprehend terrorists.
But he reiterated that it did not monitor radio traffic and he said it had no role in handling agents.
Cross-examining Witness 29, Garda counsel Michael Durack SC said “somebody must have been monitoring” IRA communications on the day RUC Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan were killed.
They were shot dead along the Border as they returned north from Dundalk where they had been meeting Garda officers.
Mr Durack said it had been suggested there had been 25 to 30 people involved in the IRA assassination unit and that four roads between Dundalk and the Border had been covered.
However, the witness said he “couldn’t put a finger on” the numbers of IRA active service members or assistants who might have been involved.
But he said his experience was that the IRA “would plan and prepare” and he would assume there was “some sort of walkie-talkies or CB radios involved”.
Mark Robinson, counsel for the PSNI, objected on a number of occasions to the line of questioning, saying it was straying into the methodology of the security services.
He asked Judge Peter Smithwick if he would consider hearing the remaining evidence in closed session.
He said he was not against the questions being answered but it should be considered for a private session.
After a short adjournment so Mr Durack and Mr Robinson could consult each other on the line of inquiry, the cross-examination resumed.
However, it again led to difficulty and Mr Robinson again asked Judge Smithwick “should we go into closed session”?
But after Witness 29 repeated he “wouldn’t have any knowledge” of the communications traffic in any event, Mr Durack told Judge Smithwick: “I’ll leave it there rather than cause any further panic.”
Mr Durack said he had been endeavouring to find out who was responsible for monitoring the IRA radio traffic, following information given to the tribunal that there had been an unusually high level of such communications.
The tribunal continues today.
