Stretching Credulity   George Young • 25 October 2003   In reading the article Tangled Times by Eamonn McCann I was struck by one particular paragraph where he says "Suggesting that the British have issued the Provos "a licence to murder" stretches credulity beyond breaking point." Is this the same British who, while working with the UDA Intelligence Officer, Brian Nelson, colluded in the murders of God knows how many Republicans and Nationalists, and who, basically, wrote the book in counterinsurgency.   I would suggest to anyone who believes the above statement to read the books "Low Intensity Operations" and "Gangs and Counter-Gangs" by Brigadier Frank Kitson, which really became the manuals for British counterinsurgency in Malaya and Kenya.   I would also point to the case of Albert Baker, whose gang operated in Belfast in the early 1970`s. Baker`s gang were responsible for the notorious "Romper Room" murders, where Catholics were beaten, tortured, mutilated and finally shot. Baker who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1974, admitted his role as a British agent and said "the murders were designed to fit into a British Intelligence plan to terrorize the Nationalist community and push off support for the IRA".   I am not suggesting, nor do I believe, that this is the case within the Provisional movement but would only ask readers of THE BLANKET to keep these facts in mind when pondering statements like Eamonn`s.                 Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews + Letters + Archives

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