Adams demands probe into gun-attack report
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams today called on the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman to investigate a gun attack on him over 20 years ago after a newspaper claimed Special Branch knew of a plot a week in advance.
The West Belfast MP announced he had instructed his solicitor to write to Nuala O’Loan following the publication of a report in the Andersonstown News that linked the old RUC Special Branch to the gun attack on him in 1984.
Mr Adams was hit several times as he was driven away from a court in Belfast, but escaped with minor injuries. Three other people in the vehicle with him were also shot.
The newspaper claimed a retired former RUC detective had confirmed a UDA informant, who was a double agent working for Special Branch, told his handlers a week before the attack that it was to take place.
Mr Adams said: “This is not the first time that a source within the British system has confirmed that the UDA gang who carried out the attack were colluding with the Special Branch and British Military Intelligence.”
He said that in the book Big Boy’s Rules by BBC reporter Mark Urban the author confirmed some years ago that a British Military Intelligence source confirmed to him a UDA agent had tipped them off about a plan to assassinate Mr Adams.
The Sinn Féin leader added: “I have asked my solicitor to write to Nuala O’Loan and ask that this latest information be thoroughly investigated.”
A spokesman for the ombudsman said she had yet to receive the letter and therefore could not comment on whether an investigation would be undertaken.
