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| NEWS > 23 January 2007 |
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Israel's chief of police resig
Israeli police chief Moshe Karadi has resigned after a government commission into alleged misconduct by the police said he should leave the job.
Mr Karadi insisted he had done nothing wrong but wanted to set an example.
The commission said he should be removed for failing to make sure that the police thoroughly investigated the 1999 murder of a suspected crime boss.
He is also said to have ignored links between senior officers and leading figures within criminal circles.
Mr Karadi was not police commissioner at the time of the killing, but a department... Read more
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News Letter - Belfast,UK
23 January 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Police and UVF links: who at t
The Police Ombudsman's shocking revelations on collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries have left one key question unanswered.
Who at the top levels of the police and political establishment knew the extent of the murky links between Special Branch and the UVF?
Nuala O'Loan yesterday confirmed that 40 retired officers, including two chief constables, failed to cooperate with her inquiry into collusion between the police and the UVF in the loyalist north Belfast estate of Mount Vernon in the 1990s.
Her report, published yesterday, revealed that paid informants were directly involved in 10 murders and linked to a series of other crimes.
Last night, there were calls for former chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who did cooperate with the inquiry, to resign from his posting as head of the UK Inspectorate of Constabulary.
The scale of the collusion unearthed by Mrs O'Loan's team has also prompted questions as to whether or not the
practice was sanctioned at the highest levels of power, here and in Westminister.
The Government last night ruled out a wider investigation into collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.
Secretary of State Peter Hain, who said he'd "no doubt" collusion went on
elsewhere, said a full public inquiry
wasn't necessary.
"There is nothing at all to suggest that such an inquiry will uncover any new or additional evidence that has not already been unearthed by the Police Ombudsman during the painstaking investigation conducted over the past three years," he said.
The Ombudsman's damning report revealed how Special Branch officers allowed informants to murder with immunity.
The top-earning informant – widely believed to be gang boss Mark Haddock – was paid almost £80,000 over 13 years.
According to Mrs O'Loan, Special Branch took proactive steps to ensure the moles were not caught and even "baby-sat" them during police interviews to make sure they didn't incriminate themselves.
Officers also created false police notes and blocked searches for UVF weapons.
However, it has been confirmed that none of the officers involved in collusion with the loyalist terror gang are to be prosecuted.
Mrs O'Loan said the lack of relevant documentation, whether it was lost or destroyed, ruled out any legal action being taken against the Special Branch team who ran the UVF gang.
"Because of a lack of evidence there will be no prosecution of any individual involved," she said.
"Not least because of the policies of Special Branch during this time."
The UVF gang in Mount Vernon was run by a man referred to as "Informant 1" – believed to be Mark Haddock.
Haddock is serving a 10-year sentence for an unrelated attempted murder.
The report into collusion came about after Raymond McCord campaigned for several years to have the
circumstances of his son Raymond Jnr's death investigated.
Yesterday, after almost a decade, the UVF were blamed for the murder of the 22-year-old on November 9, 1997.
"Informant 1" and his gang was also responsible for the murder of nine people other than Mr McCord Jnr, attempting to murder another 10, dealing in drugs and attempting to bomb Sinn Fein offices in Monaghan.
The Police Ombudsman has called for the murders and attempted murders to be re-investigated by the PSNI and made 20 procedural recommendations to the Chief Constable. Sir Hugh Orde has accepted and pledged to implement these.
Apart from the 40 officers who failed to cooperate, Mrs O'Loan said other officers offered little or no assistance to the investigation, despite helping accommodate retired officers as much as possible, with many giving "evasive, contradictory, and on occasion, farcical answers to questions. On occasion those answers indicated either a significant failure to understand the law, or contempt for the law".
However, it was the management of the UVF informants that Mrs O'Loan was the most critical of.
"There was no effective strategic management of these informants," said the Police Ombudsman.
"As a consequence of the practices of Special Branch, the position of the UVF, particularly in north Belfast and Newtownabbey was consolidated and strengthened over the years. How could this happen?
"The handling of informants was done on a day-to-day basis. There were very few rules. There was no management intervention to ensure informants were properly managed and supervised.
"The PSNI have produced no evidence that action was taken by the RUC to
prevent what ultimately happened."
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