The following is courtesy of the Northern Ireland Information Service and the Irish American Information Service.

Dec. 3, 2003

Security

Sinn Fein and the SDLP have called for the immediate publication of the Cory Report - Irish News P8. In its editorial the Irish News P6 comments that the report "has the potential to provide at least some of the explanations which the relatives of victims deserve to receive. There is an overwhelming case for its publication at an early stage".

An elderly Protestant married to a Catholic has vowed not to leave his South Belfast home after loyalists attacked it for the 36th time - Irish News P5, Irish Independent P12, Mirror P20.

Security forces and prosecutors were yesterday accused of a "litany of skullduggery" following the arrest of three men charged in connection with a foiled Real IRA bomb plot - News Letter P2.

A Belfast Crown Court jury were yesterday shown a security video which captured the moment an Army Land Rover knocked over one of two men on the Antrim Road last year - News Letter P5.

The mother of murdered James McMahon has challenged her son's killers to tell her why he was savagely beaten to death - News Letter P10, Irish News P5.

The mother of Peter McBride, who was murdered by two British soldiers in 1992, launched a third legal bid yesterday to get them thrown out of the Army - News Letter P10.

Ihab Shoukri, a leading Belfast loyalist accused of murder, was released on bail yesterday - Irish News P5.

Derry's Bogside Residents Group has declared it has no plans to protest at Saturday's Lundy Day march in the city - Irish News P8.

The report on who perpetrated the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 is to be referred to a Dail committee tomorrow - Irish Times P8, Irish Independent P15.

Program: GMU
Date and time: Dec. 3, 2003 – 08.23
Subject: Peter Cory Report

SEAMUS McKEE

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and the SDLP’s Mark Durkan have called for the Peter Cory report to be published. Mark Durkan joins us now.

The Government argues that there are good reasons for not publishing yet, people named in it have to be informed and so on. You don’t accept that?

MARK DURKAN

Well, no, the Governments were already in possession of the Cory Report whenever they said that the report would be available by the 1st of December. So they set that deadline whenever they were in possession of the report. They also said that the families would be informed first. We now have a situation where some journalists seemed to have been given various leaks and tip-offs about what way it may or may not be involved. And the Governments need to hold to their commitment, to their terms, their promise to the families.

SEAMUS McKEE

Do you suspect there are other reasons why this report, the British Government, is not publishing?

MARK DURKAN

Well the fact is the British Government themselves said, and it was Tony Blair who said it would be the 1st of December that this would be available. He also promised that the families would be told first. So they should hold to their promise, and you have to be suspicious whenever people don’t hold to their own promise, to their own stated timescale, to their own stated terms.

SEAMUS McKEE

What do you suspect?

MARK DURKAN

Well it’s not a matter of what anyone suspects. The fact is we have a promise that has not been fulfilled. And it’s not as though the Cory Report was anybody’s desired way of doing things. Families wanted public inquiries to be done straightway on their own open and full and proper terms, but it was the two Governments who decided that the way to deal with these cases was to have the investigation by Cory, by Judge Cory first, to decide whether or not there was enough of a basis to have any public inquiry.

SEAMUS McKEE

Well the Irish Government hasn’t published either, of course.

MARK DURKAN

Yes, yes, and it was the Governments who decided these terms.

SEAMUS McKEE

Well the Irish Government hasn’t published either the reports into alleged collusion between Garda officers and the IRA, and the murders of two RUC officers and Lord and Lady Gibson. Are you saying the Irish Government should publish now as well?

MARK DURKAN

Well, what I’m saying is Governments should hold to the terms that they gave, and it was Tony Blair who said the 1st of December. It was Tony Blair who said that the families would be told first. And that hasn’t happened.

SEAMUS McKEE

The Irish Government could just go ahead and publish, couldn’t it?

MARK DURKAN

The Irish Government can just go ahead and publish. Let’s take this back. We, the SDLP, at Weston Park were very clear that we wanted inquiries into certain cases. The Irish Government were then pressed almost kind of on like a tit for tat basis by the Ulster Unionist Party for inquiries into other cases. In terms of dealing with those cases the Governments came up with the idea of appointing an international jurist to look at a number of cases.

SEAMUS McKEE

But couldn’t the Irish Government just publish first?

MARK DURKAN

Sorry, Seamus, it was the Governments who came up with this process. It’s not a matter of whether the British Government or the Irish Government should publish first. I’m saying the Governments should do what they said they were going to do. Both Governments should do what they said they were going to do. In particular the British Government should do what they said they were going to do. It was the Governments who came up with this route of using an international jurist like Judge Cory to look at cases to see whether a public inquiry was needed into any of the given cases. They said that where he recommended an inquiry there would be one. They said that straightforwardly.

Judge Cory has now done his report into all six cases, and it was the Governments who said that he had to report on all six cases before anything could happen. He couldn’t report on them individually. So the Government set that course. The Governments have now had his report. The British Government, through no less than the Prime Minister, said that decisions would be there by the 1st of December.

They also said the families would be notified first, and we have a situation where families are not being properly told, advised or consulted with. So Governments are failing their own promise here, and all I am doing is asking Governments to fulfill their own promise, their own commitment.

Dec. 4, 2003
ADAMS CALLS FOR CORY REPORTS TO BE PUBLISHED

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has called for the publication of a report into allegations of collusion between security forces and paramilitary organizations in a number of killings.

Speaking after meeting the Taoiseach in Dublin this afternoon, Adams said Ahern had assured him that the Government would publish two reports it had received from Canadian judge Peter Cory "as soon as possible".

Adams insisted the British government should now also push ahead with the publication of the four reports it had received from the judge.

It is believed the Cory Report will reveal that Special Branch officers gave a gun to the UDA that was later used in six murders. A Browning 9 mm pistol used in six loyalist killings was in the possession of Special Branch for two weeks before it was handed back to the UDA.

The weapon was subsequently used in two separate sectarian mass murder attempts. In 1991, masked UDA men burst into the Devenish Arms and used the Browning pistol to shoot at customers.

Aiden Wallace, a 22-year-old Catholic, was shot dead and three others were seriously injured, including eight-year old Christopher Lawless. The boy was shot in the face and lost an eye when one of the gunmen spotted him hiding under a table.

Three months later two UDA gunmen, one armed with the same pistol, burst into Sean Graham's bookmakers on the Ormeau Road and opened fire on the crowded shop. Five people were killed, including a 15-year-old boy and a 66-year-old pensioner.

According to leaks to the media, a report handed to the British Government by Peter Cory points to evidence that Special Branch took possession of the Browning from UDA quartermaster Billy Stobie in late 1989 but returned the weapon two weeks later without any apparent attempt to track its movements.

Judge Cory had been tasked by the two governments to investigate six specific cases, including the killing of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and Robert Hamill.

It had been known that the Browning pistol used in the attack on the Devenish Arms and Ormeau bookmakers had been part of a batch of British Army weapons stolen by the UDA from Palace Barracks in 1987. But it had not been known that the weapon had been in the possession of Special Branch two years later in late 1989. The stolen pistol was returned to the UDA by Special Branch.

Before his murder in 2001, William Stobie had revealed that in 1989 he had been ordered by his Special Branch handlers to take any illegal UDA weaponry in his possession to Knocknagoney RUC barracks in east Belfast for inspection.

Stobie handed over two Heckler and Kochs, two Browning pistols and two Uzi submachine guns to his handlers for two weeks. There had been no attempt to attach a tracking device to the Browning pistol before its return to the UDA.

Revelations about the yet to be published Cory Report have sparked further controversy after it was revealed that the British government had promised the report would not be made public until scrutinized by the families of the victims.

"In September, Secretary of State Paul Murphy told us in writing that the families would be informed about Judge Cory's reports before there was any public announcement," said Martin Finucane.

But it appears now that the British government has gone back on its promise and has instead briefed the media about Mr Cory's findings before the families.

Delay in publication of the report is believed to have resulted in British government attempts to have some sections of the report removed. At the time Cory handed over his reports to the British and Irish governments, the judge insisted that he wanted the material published in full without any significant changes. The delay follows the intervention of the British Attorney General.

Commenting on speculation around the Report, Gerry Adams said: "if even a small part of the media reports around Judge Cory's investigation is accurate, it reinforces the case we have been making for many years about the depth and extent of institutionalized collusion. The Cory Report should be published immediately and the inquiries should also be held without further delay".

"There has already been too much delay, to many efforts to cover up the truth around collusion. Collusion was part of administrative procedure here for a long time. It involved the highest level of the British Government and its agencies," Adams said.

Dec. 18, 2003
PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO BREEN/BUCHANAN DEATHS

A public inquiry is to be held into the shooting dead of two senior RUC officers by the IRA in 1989.

The inquiry to be set up in light of the findings of the Cory Report, which was published today. The report was investigating claims of alleged collusion between the IRA and some members of the Gardai (Irish Police).

The report, by retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory, recommends the establishment of a public inquiry into the IRA murders of RUC Supt Bob Buchanan and Insp. Harry Breen. They died while returning from a meeting with gardaÌ in Dundalk when they were attacked.

In a separate report also published today, Judge Cory does not recommend such an inquiry into the IRA murders of Lord Justice and Lady Gibson in a car bomb in 1987. They were returning from their holidays when they died in a roadside bomb attack just north of the Border.

Concerning the deaths of the two RUC men, Judge Cory found there was evidence that, if it were to be accepted, could be found to constitute collusion.

Although Judge Cory said the Provisional IRA did not need any assistance from the Garda to carry out the ambush and murders of the RUC officers, he said the timing of the ambush was so precise that it "might lead to a conclusion that it could have only resulted from information given to [the] PIRA [Provisional IRA] by the gardaÌ".

He added that a consideration of the relevant factors "might lead to a conclusion that information must have been given to the PIRA by a Garda officer or employees to carry out the killings," but he added "it could just as readily lead to a conclusion that PIRA neither had nor needed to rely upon collusion by Garda officers or employees to carry out the killings."

Regarding the killings of Lord Justice Gibson, and his wife Lady Gibson, Judge Cory said there was "no evidence of any information being given by the Garda or by any governmental agency to PIRA regarding the movements of the Gibsons."

Announcing the establishment of a public inquiry into the RUC deaths, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said "the success or failure of the inquiry which will be held into these horrific murders will, in substantial part, depend on the degree of co-operation . . . from potential witnesses."

Judge Cory has sent four similar reports to the British government concerning killings in Northern Ireland amid allegations of collusion between loyalists and security forces. However, the British government has so far refused to publish those reports, because of what it claims are "legal and human rights" matters.

Judge Cory investigated the cases of solicitor Pat Finucane, loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright, Portadown solicitor Rosemary Nelson and Catholic man Robert Hamill, who was kicked to death by a loyalist mob while RUC officers allegedly looked on.

Following agreement between the two governments in 2001, Judge Cory was appointed to undertake an investigation of the allegations of collusion.

Commenting on the publication by the Irish government of their sections of the Cory Report, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Justice Gerry Kelly demanded that the British government now publish their sections of the report.