Northumbria Police are turning a blind-eye to criminality and protecting IRA terrorists involved in an attempted murder

The following Daily Telegraph report from June 1999 includes; MARTIN MCGARTLAND, the former Special Branch agent who infiltrated the IRA, was shot last week by a republican "active service unit" from Belfast with the sanction of the leadership, say the security services. Northumbria Police continue, to this very day, to lie, cover-up in their public statements, see here: http://www.northumbria.police.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/ne ws_releases/details.asp?id=28113 - Note the BIG FAT Lie wthin
the statement of: "Our main line of enquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland. He, Northumbria Police is protecting IRA terrorists Not people with Irish Republican sympathies Martin McGartland asks; So why, after 13 years, are both Sue Sim (Chief constable of Northumbria Police) and Chris Thomson (Head of PSD and SIO) continuing to lie cover-up and break the law when dealing with my case. Why are they both still protecting the IRA terrorists involved, they are still to this very day covering up their involvement in my attempted murder as well as lying to me, the press and even the public in their public statements. Sue Sim and Chris Thomson must now tell the truth, they must also face up to the truth. They are both shameful Liars who are not fit to wear police uniforms.

IRA units 'behind a new wave of violence'

Daily Telegraph By Toby Harnden, Ireland Correspondent

MARTIN MCGARTLAND, the former Special Branch agent who infiltrated the IRA, was shot last week by a republican "active service unit" from Belfast with the sanction of the leadership, say the security services. McGartland was shot six times in the hands and body as he tried to fend off a gunman in his garden in Whitley Bay, Tyneside, on Thursday. When the 6ft-tall terrorist, wearing a Nike baseball cap and surgical gloves, thought McGartland, 29, was dead, he fled to a waiting car. Security sources on both sides of the Irish Sea are convinced that the Provisional IRA carried out the attack. One Northern Ireland anti-terrrorist officer said: "We believe that members of the Belfast Brigade, using a weapon purchased in England, tried to murder McGartland. It was a Provisional IRA job." The IRA attack, the first on the mainland since Tony Blair was elected, marks a significant increase in republican violence at a time when the Good Friday Agreement is under threat. The overall security picture appeared bleak yesterday. Sean O'Callaghan, the former IRA informer, said that he had been told by antiterrorist officers that he had been followed by known Provisionals and two of his former addresses in England had been "checked out" in the past four months. Senior politicians have been told to take extra care over security. Among those warned of an IRA threat were several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, Viscount Cranborne, former Tory leader in the Lords, and Lord Fitt, former SDLP leader. Three people have been murdered by the IRA in Northern Ireland this year. First was Eamon Collins, former IRA man, beaten and stabbed to death. In recent weeks, Brendan "Speedy" Fegan and Paul "Bull" Downey, drugs dealers, have been shot dead. The Government's decision not to apply any political sanction on Sinn Fein after the killings is said by opponents to have emboldened the Provisionals.

McGartland's murder would have served the dual purpose of being popular with their supporters and applying political pressure on Mr Blair. Mr O'Callaghan said: "I've been told there is a very serious threat to my life. It comes as no surprise to me. While terrorist organisations can murder people without paying a political price, then they will continue to do so. As far as the anti-terrorist officers who gave me the warning were concerned, there was no doubt that the Provisional IRA was responsible for shooting Martin McGartland." There has been anger among Unionists that the increase in IRA violence has coincided with the granting of a personal protection weapon for James McCarry, a Sinn Fein councillor in Ballycastle, Co Antrim. Mr McCarry will be the first Sinn Fein member for 80 years to be legally allowed to carry a firearm. His request was initially refused but Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, intervened to overrule the RUC. Tony Blair admitted yesterday that the Good Friday agreement might not succeed. After receiving a pledge of support from President Clinton he said: "I don't know, I think it's very difficult indeed. It's very frustrating for the people of Northern Ireland because all the big questions have been resolved." David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, was also downbeat and said he no longer believed that the IRA would give up its weapons. He said: "For the sequencing of events to happen, there has to be a realistic prospect or a half-decent chance of decommissioning. If I thought that, I would look at it. But the thing is melting away." Martin Ferris, of Sinn Fein, said that, if agreement on forming an executive was not reached by Mr Blair's deadline of June 30, then the Government should suspend the Ulster Assembly but continue to release prisoners. Implementing other aspects of the agreement, he said, included "a new policing service, new anti-discrimination laws, progress on demilitarisation and justice agendas and release of political prisoners". Meanwhile, 10 people were arrested in connection with last August's Omagh bombing in security swoops on both sides of the border. During one of four arrests in South Armagh, RUC officers in Jonesborough were pelted with stones and missiles."