Families call on Brown to publish Omagh report
The UK Prime Minister was challenged today by victims’ families to publish a report of a review of intelligence material surrounding the Omagh bombing.
The review was ordered by Gordon Brown last September after it was claimed GCHQ was monitoring Real IRA phone conversations as the bombers drove the device into the Co Tyrone town in August 1998.
Twenty nine people plus two unborn twins were killed in the attack – the worst single atrocity in the Northern Ireland troubles.
Peter Gibson, the Intelligence Services Commissioner, was invited by the Prime Minister to “review the intercept intelligence material available to the security and intelligence agencies in relation to the Omagh bombing and how it was shared”.
The report was completed and handed to Mr Brown before Christmas and a spokesman said it was anticipated there would be a government comment on it in the next couple of weeks.
However, it is understood that such is the sensitive nature of the content, the report will not be published.
That is not good enough for the families of the Omagh victims.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the bombing, said: “If the report is not published how are the families going to have the confidence that it was a comprehensive investigation?”
An Irish report into a claim by a Garda officer, Detective Sergeant John White, that information given to him by an informant and passed on to senior officers was not passed to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was also never published .
Mr Gallagher said: “That was treated as an internal inquiry and we see this report being treated in the same light.
“If it is not published the families will not be reassured that everything possible that could have been done to stop the bombing, or to catch the bombers, was done.
“Why would the Government want to hide the facts from us?”
