2006/02 and 2006/03, The Sovereign Nation (February/March, 2006)

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32 County
Sovereignty
Movement
February - March 2006
EXPOSED!
30 Year Campaign
to Defeat
Republicanism.
British informer Denis Donaldson - 'Held key position in PSF'
Given recent revelations regarding Provisional Sinn Fein, many Republicans have been asking themselves "have they been part of one long British inspired strategy to defeat Republicanism?"
Hindsight is a wonderful thing and looking back over the last three decades a number of incidents can be pinpointed as allowing the Provisional movement to appear to be in a position of strength but in reality actually undermining the Republican Struggle. Many republicans believe the origins of this counter-insurgency strategy can be linked back to the emergence of a certain faction of activists in the mid to late 70's who later went on to dominate the Provisionals right up to the present day.
This faction, based in the main in Belfast, came to prominence following the IRA truce in 1975 which left the provisional movement in disarray. The IRA of the period were gradually beginning to realise that there would be no short victory over the British Army and that a new 'long war' of attrition was necessary. Ironically those who castigated the old provisional leadership for their failures during the 1975 truce went on to initiate a much longer and more damaging truce which settled for much, much less than those in 1975. British state papers released under the 30 year rule in 2005 have indicated that the word 'withdrawal' had been used by the British and that a truce had been maintained to explore this pos¬ sibility.
Along side the restructured PIRA that emerged from the post truce period came a realisation within the provisionals that a Political machine would have to be nurtured in order to fight the long war strategy. Provisional Sinn Fein was Inmded the opportunity to
grow with the hunger strikes of 1980 and 1981. At this point it could be argued, that agents of influence within the Provisionals and their masters would have been neg¬ ligent if they had not recognised the potential in infiltrat¬ ing both sections of the provisional movement. Initially agents were used primarily to thwart military attacks but the opportunity to influence the long term political direc¬ tion of the Provisionals toward a political settlement that was acceptable to the British was surely not lost on the British establishment.
If the assertions made by former blanket man Richard O Rawe are correct, that the Provisional leader¬ ship rejected overtures that would have ended the 1981 hunger strike earlier in order to promote Sinn Fein and those who would eventually assume control, then many uncomfortable questions must be asked.
Who really benefited from the ten men dead? In the wake of the hunger strikes why did the provisionals demand complete control over other Republican organi¬ sations? Were the feuds between other Republican groups instigated by Provo agents in order to divert sup¬ port from these groups towards the Provos thus control¬ ling the whole republican base? Given the level to which it would appear the Provisionals have been infiltrated then anything is possible.
The restructuring of the Provos into cell struc¬ tures was perceived as a security measure but how effec¬ tive was it when those in control of the security of these cells, namely Internal Security, was staffed almost entire¬ ly by British agents? As well as being responsible for out¬ ing touts, Internal Security had access to debriefing doc¬ uments and details of personnel that would have ren¬ dered the whole cell system virtually obsolete. Republicans can only speculate how manv volunteers
were betrayed by this unit to long periods of incarcera¬ tion - and they were the lucky ones! This unit, which had the complete trust of the Belfast leadership, was also implicated in the murders of a number of men as agents in order to protect themselves. How many we will never know for sure but families that have borne the shame of having a family member executed as a tout may have car¬ ried that shame to deflect attention from Scappatici and his henchmen.
One example is Derry man Paddy Flood who was executed by Internal Security when forensic reports on a device he had constructed detailed the fact that no battery had been built into a Timer Power Unit. Flood was interrogated for seven weeks before he 'confessed'. In light of recent revelations where the forensic science lab have been leaned on by the RUC to add or omit cer¬ tain details in their reports, it is fair to ask why the pro¬ visionals readily accepted proof given by their enemies when even British courts have stated that forensic details have been inadmissible due to widespread RUC/Brifish Army tampering. Was Paddy Flood sacrificed to save someone higher up in Derry?
The whole truth of the extent of infiltration inside the provisional movement may never come to light but those given roles within the provos and those side¬ lined or killed as a result of their opposition to the devel¬ oping trends within that movement point to some unavoidable conclusions. It is feared by more and more Republicans that the British used agents within the pro¬ visional movement to defeat Republicanism. What we are now seeing is the British subsequently 'revealing' these self same agents to control the Provisionals.
See Page 5 for further In-depth analysis...