Tomás Ó Flatharta

Looking at Things from the Left

Archive for the ‘MI5’ Category

A series of Tributes to the Investigative Journalist Ed Moloney – “A strong voice against censorship: both that of the state and the more insidious self-censorship that had crept into journalism”

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A number of tributes to the investigative journalist Ed Moloney are published below.

Also included is an account of how Ed published sensational evidence about the role of William Stobie (at one time a quarter-master in the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association), in the political murder of Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. The British state’s unsuccessful attempt to obtain details of the journalist’s confidential sources were defeated.

It is refreshing to read tributes about about a man I knew well that are kind, affectionate, and that do not pretend Ed was a saint.

He had a short fuse!

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A tribute to the outstanding  journalist Ed Moloney, who passed away in New York Aged 77

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https://wp.me/p1iwpM-4NB

Ed was a great friend and will be missed.

Condolences to Joan McKiernan, and all friends, colleagues, and  comrades.

A reminder : Ed Moloney’s work on issues concerning child abuse in the six-county bit of Ireland which remain unsolved :

John Meehan October 20 2025

Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Versus the BBC concerning the 2006 killing of IRA informer Denis Donaldson – Dublin Jury Awards €100,000

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This is a result which does not surprise close observers of the proceedings.

A very strong argument was advanced by Tom Hogan, counsel for Gerry Adams.

A BBC journalist has rejected a suggestion that she engaged in "a box-ticking exercise" when finding sources to corroborate an allegation against Gerry Adams which is at the centre of a defamation case

RTÉ News (@news.rte.ie) 2025-05-15T11:37:57.106Z


Source :

Tom Hogan, Counsel for Gerry Adams in BBC/Denis Donaldson libel case, puts forward extremely strong argument

The BBC Spotlight reporter Jennifer O’Leary failed to convince the jury about the quality of her 6 anonymous sources.
Any reasonable juror was bound to say to themselves : “It is irrelevant that Adams was, or was not, in the IRA. This claim is not proven – we are asked to take one person’s word for it, and that is not good enough”.

In short, the BBC case was extremely flimsy as it relied on anonymous British intelligence sources.



In this respect, see Anton McCabe’s incisive article below –

Adamned if he does, adamned if he doesn’t

Gerry Adams didn’t order spy’s murder, and ‘Spotlight’’s agent didn’t even say he did

British intelligence sources are serial liars – and the background news is :
The British Northern Ireland Secretary of State Hilary Benn is scrambling to prevent a public enquiry into
the Sean Brown 1997 murder involving 25 – yes 25! – people connected to British intelligence.

Former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams with British King Charles – ex Fianna Fáil TD Seán Haughey looks on

Tánaiste Simon Harris has come out firmly with the Brown family, the GAA, thousands of Derry demonstrators, the Irish News etc – against the British state’s cover-up protecting MI5 murderers.

We are well used to British government cover-ups in Ireland. We are even more used to Dublin governments bowing, scraping, and capitulating to Westminster diktats.

So, it is notable that the Dublin government has grasped the Sean Brown cover-up must end.

John Meehan May 30 2025


After the libel trial result was made public, Gerry Adams called on the Dublin government to meet the family of Denis Donaldson. Jane Donaldson, the daughter of the killed IRA informer, issued a public statement which has the ring of truth.

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The British State and the 6 County Bit of Ireland – Hilary Benn’s Three Cover-Ups Are Protecting State Killers

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Hilary Benn is the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. He is very busy, scrambling to protect state killers.

Appalling vistas have come to the surface.

Hilary Benn, British boss (Six County bit of Ireland) flanked by Stormont 1st and Deputy 1st Ministers Emma Little-Pengelly and Michelle O’Neill

Three major scandals will not go away, public pressure is building up.

Number 1, The murder of Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) Chairperson Sean Brown in 1997

The Sean Brown case is extraordinary – Hillary Benn is covering up the involvement of 25 people connected to British intelligence in a case that dates back to 1997. Let that sink in.

Campaigners for Sean Brown are very clear on what they want. We are well used to British government cover-ups in Ireland, and are even more used to Dublin governments bowing, scraping, and capitulating to Westminster diktats.

So, it is notable that Simon Harris – Dublin government Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) has grasped this cover-up must end. This news report is very telling :

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Belfast Child Abuse Scandal : KINCORA MONSTER DENIED ALL WHEN CONFRONTED BY AUTHOR IN THIS EXTRACT FROM HIS NEW BOOK, KINCORA: BRITAIN’S SHAME

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Child Abuse remains a major crime problem in Ireland, on both sides of the border. Veteran reporter Chris Moore has worked tirelessly researching the issue, and fighting state censorship.

Governments running the two bits of Ireland must stop pocketing knowledge of abuse, and then using the information for political intelligence purposes, and protecting powerful wealthy criminals.

The building at the centre of the scandal was demolished three years ago, but the cover up of the crimes committed behind its walls continues.
It is long past the time that the full truth was told about what happened in the house of horrors.

Suzanne Breen, Journalist, Belfast

McGrath denied his sins to the end – one of his last interviews

Chris Moore, Sunday Life, May 18th, 2025

Source : “McGrath Denied His Sins to the End” Kincora Monster Denied All

KINCORA MONSTER DENIED ALL WHEN CONFRONTED BY AUTHOR IN THIS EXTRACT FROM HIS NEW BOOK, KINCORA: BRITAIN’S SHAME

The UK government has locked up files on Kincora until 2065 & 2085.Veteran investigative journalist Chris Moore’s new book, ‘Kincora: Britain’s Shame’, launched last night in a packed Duke of York bar, means we don’t have to wait until then. #mustread

Patrick Corrigan (@patrick-corrigan.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T09:13:34.658Z

I parked in the forecourt of a neighbourhood shop with the intention of asking if anyone could direct me to McGrath’s home.

I presented a few items for payment, casually asking the shopkeeper if she could point me in the direction of his house.

Politely, but firmly, she declined, saying that as far as she and others in the village were concerned, ‘Billy’ McGrath was a friendly man who said he had been badly wronged in the courts and pestered by reporters.

“I suppose you are one of them,” she said bluntly. I owned up and then respectfully suggested that the evidence that convicted him indicated that, far from being wronged, McGrath had actually got off very lightly.

Collecting my change, I headed out to the car to consider my next move. I could do the door-to-door routine, but the attitude of the shopkeeper suggested I would receive little cooperation. Then, an elderly man approached, wearing a cardigan, dark trousers and slippers, so obviously he had not travelled too far.

I got out of the car and watched as he moved towards the shop. There is a God, I thought. Gingerly I edged around the car, proffering my hand as he reached me.

He accepted, we shook and I announced myself as “Chris Moore from the BBC”. McGrath smiled wryly and told me he had nothing to say.

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‘I was raped by Mountbatten in Kincora at 11; he wasn’t a lord… to me he was king of the paedophiles’ – Journalist Chris Moore makes sensational new allegations in a new book

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Chris Moore from Belfast is no ordinary journalist.

He has worked for decades on the Kincora child abuse scandal. After extensive new research he makes credible allegations about the British royal family’s Lord Mountbatten (killed by an August 1979 IRA bomb in the western Irish county of Sligo) and a wide-ranging British state cover-up.

A new book brings the story up-to-date.

Link :


Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up

Kincora: Britain’s Shame – Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-Up

Readers are recommended to go and see the film “Lost Boys” whenever they get the chance – despite the British State’s efforts to kill the story, aided and abetted by the Irish police force, An Gárda Síochána (Guardians of the Peace).

All of this is grim reading.

The UK government has locked up files on Kincora until 2065 & 2085.Veteran investigative journalist Chris Moore’s new book, ‘Kincora: Britain’s Shame’, launched last night in a packed Duke of York bar, means we don’t have to wait until then. #mustread

Patrick Corrigan (@patrick-corrigan.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T09:13:34.658Z
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Working for Rebel Verdicts – George Blake and Luigi Mangione

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Political trials, on occasion, are not straight black-and-white events : Guilty or Not Guilty?

In the USA a shooter killed the Chief Executive of a private medical insurance company – a tsunami of mass opposition to a healthcare system which puts greed first, and healthcare second, has erupted.

On this blog Joan McKiernan reviewed this extraordinary political development, prompting Paul Hunter to send us this article
Why Most Americans Blame Insurers for UHC CEO’s Death – Paul Hunter

Hunter sings from Joan McKiernan’s hymn-sheet.

Murder is not to be taken lightly. It should be approached with extreme reverence and care. It means violating the sanctity of life, and it has the potential to cause severe heartache and trauma to those who have been left behind. For that reason, I will affirm that it is wrong. But I will not for one second shed a tear for United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and I’m not alone.

Thompson was gunned down by a masked assassin while on his way to a shareholder meeting in Midtown Manhattan on December 4. A man matching his description, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, was arrested in Pennsylvania five days later.

There can be little doubt as to how Thompson died. The murder was caught on camera. But according to a new poll from  NORC at the University of Chicago, roughly 70% of Americans believe that healthcare coverage from insurance companies like UHC bears at least “a moderate amount” of responsibility for his death. It’s easy to see why.

The full article is below.

But what about the parallel to the case of George Blake? Two anti-war activists, Pat Pottle and Michael Randle, sprung Blake from a London jail in the 1960’s with the help of Seán Bourke, an Irish petty criminal who possessed a spark of pure genius.

Here is the connection with Luigi Mangione : Pottle and Randle stated openly they had organised the escape of George Blake and pleaded Not Guilty on the grounds that their action was justified. It remains to be seen if Luigi Mangione will mount a political and legal defence like this. It is a strategy that Luigi and his attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, should examine carefully.

John Meehan January 5 2025

Link : George Blake – Rebel Verdict

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How Much Proof Is Needed? The Case of Vladimir Putin’s Spy Pavel Rubtsov / Pablo Gonzalez

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Speculating about the identity of spies is a largely useless activity unless the secret operator has been unmasked. For example in Ireland, examining the profiles of a few high-profile unmaksed British spies – Freddie Scappaticci, Seán O’Callaghan and Denis Donaldson – the vast majority of the people who came across these informers never guessed anything was wrong until the unmasking.

Pavel Rubtsov/Pablo Gonzalez is an unmasked Russian spy. We do not yet know how much damage he did, how many lives he betrayed, how many people lost their lives, how many lives were ruined, because of the services he offered to Putin’s far-right racist régime.

An important sub-plot in this story concerns members of the international anti-Ukrainian left – including the former Irish members of the European Parliament Clare Daly and Mick Wallace – who associated themselves with campaigns for the release of Rubtsov/Gonzalez after he was detained by Polish state security forces who believed (correctly, it transpires) that their prisoner was a Putin spy.

After Rubtsov returned to Russia as part of a prisoner-exchange he was personally greeted by President Vladimir Putin. The case against the Russian spy had become overwhelming, but ex Irish MEP Clare Daly still peddled a false cover-story :

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Background to current Donaldson investigation: Terrible track record of 6 County British state institutions dealing with politically sensitive criminal cases

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All need to show unconditional solidarity with the two women who came forward in the rape case which led to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson resigning from the leadership of the Democratic Unionist party in the six-county bit of Ireland.

In the Easter Sunday 2024 edition of the Belfast Sunday Life tabloid Lady Eleanor Donaldson is named as the co-defendant in the Jeffrey Donaldson MP rape case. Jeffrey and Eleanor are a married couple.

Two women came forward to the state authorities with allegations categorised as “historical”.  In this context, what does the word “historical” mean, precisely? That is a very important question.

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Freddie Scappaticci, a British Agent in the IRA, was publicly unmasked in 2003 – on March 8 2024 the British State publishes a cover-up report called Kenova – the authors refuse to name Scappaticci – and nobody will be prosecuted

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Ed Moloney is the first journalist who publicly unmasked Freddie Scappaticci. A strange coalition issued denials : Scappaticci himself, the British Government, and Sinn Féin. Shortly afterwards extraordinary proof emerged, which proved beyond any shadow of doubt that Scappaticci was a British informer.

Questions remain – above all whether the state organisations and the then IRA leadership – responsible for many Scappaticci murders – can be made accountable for their actions. The British state is determined to prevent this happening.

On March 8 2024 a cover-up Kenova Report does not name Scappaticci. In the same week we learned that an innocent civilian called Seán Brown, an active GAA member, was killed in 1997 by loyalists, with help from 25 members of the British state security forces. An inquest into the assassination of Seán Brown was stopped because the British State, covering up its dirty work, issued Public Interest Immunity Certificates.

presiding coroner Mr Justice Kinney abandoned the long-running inquest in Belfast and confirmed he would write to Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to ask for a public inquiry.

He said Mr Brown’s inquest could not continue due to material being withheld by state agencies on the grounds of national security.

The PSNI and MI5 have made applications for multiple redactions to sensitive documents connected to the murder under Public Interest Immunity (PII).

https://tomasoflatharta.com/2024/03/05/surveillance-operation-on-lvf-suspect-mark-swinger-fulton-lifted-the-day-before-sean-brown-murder-irish-news-report-lifts-lid-on-a-1997-sectarian-murder-facilitated-by-the-bri/

The stories below are recommended.


Stakeknife ‘told TV crew that McGuinness ordered killings’

Army mole in IRA allegedly told reporters they had not revealed enough about Sinn Fein leader

Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
Monday July 14, 2003

Guardian

The Army/IRA double agent Freddie “Stakeknife” Scappaticci told television documentary makers Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness was a ruthless terrorist leader who sanctioned murder, secret tapes have allegedly revealed.

Mr Scappaticci was exposed two months ago as military intelligence’s top spy within the Provisionals, for whom he was deputy head of the notorious internal security unit, the Nutting Squad, responsible for torturing and killing suspected informers.

So far, Mr Scappaticci, whom the government paid more than £80,000 a year and whom sources have linked to more than 40 murders, has brazened it out, denying everything and returning to his west Belfast home after his security force handlers failed to persuade him to flee the country for his own safety.

Although many IRA members believe he is Stakeknife, the republican leadership has stuck by him, albeit at a distance, perhaps reckoning that the secret services would capitalise further on any IRA attempt to harm or exile him.

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