Paranoia and disinformation in Israel

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday July 15, 2003 10:03 by HarryB

British and Zionist "intelligence" not so bright

14/07/2003
Irish bomb maker nabbed after West Bank manhunt
Suspected of coming to upgrade Palestinians' explosives

By Amos Harel and Sharon Sadeh

A member of the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) was arrested on Saturday south of Ramallah under suspicion that he had come to Israel to teach Palestinian terrorists how to upgrade their explosives.

British sources told the Observer newspaper yesterday that the man, John Morgan, was a member of the mainstream IRA guerrilla group, but four years ago switched allegiances to the dissident splinter group known as the Real IRA, which refuses to accept the Good Friday agreement of 1998 concerning cessation of acts of war in Northern Ireland.

Apparently, Morgan has been known as a terrorist for more than a decade, but the British authorities lost track of him three years ago. Recently, they learned that he may be traveling to Israel. The Israel authorities were notified, and a widespread manhunt began.

Apparently, Morgan came to Israel three weeks ago, as a tourist with a foreign passport at Ben-Gurion International Airport, and entered the territories shortly after. The hunt for the Irishman was accelerated last week, and on Saturday roadblocks were built around Ramallah for this purpose. Morgan was apprehended south of Ramallah at a temporary roadblock not far from the Hizmeh road block that separates Jerusalem and Pisgat Zeev from the West Bank, when an IDF and border police force stopped his car and inspected his papers. Morgan was taken by the Shin Bet for questioning.

Sources close to the questioning told Haaretz that Morgan is denying the allegations. They confirmed that the suspect has "a history in the IRA and knowledge of explosives." A military source said that "on the face of it, this affair is very concerning." The Shin Bet is now trying to establish whether Morgan indeed came to the West Bank to train terrorists, and whether he was doing it for free, because of empathy for their cause, or for pay.

The IRA is known for its knowledge of explosives and mortar shells, though this is the first indication of any connection between the IRA and the Palestinians in the current conflict. Last March, articles in the international press reported that the West Bank sniper who killed 10 Israeli soldiers and settlers in March 2002 may have been an IRA-linked mercenary, but Israel's defense establishment denied this scenario at the time, as did senior Palestinian terrorists. Two of these terrorists, who are still incarcerated in Israel, said recently that they still do not know who the sniper was.

Since the onset of the intifada in October 2000, Hezbollah and other terror organizations, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon and Al Qaeda operatives, have been tying to dispatch explosives experts to the territories. Although Palestinian terror organizations have improved their skills in this field over the past three years, their capabilities are still seen as lagging.

The Shin Bet has already thwarted several similar attempts of this sort in the past. For example, a British national was arrested in East Jerusalem in the beginning of 2001, and a Canadian national was apprehended in Hebron in the summer of 2002. In May of this year, the Navy intercepted an Egyptian boat carrying a Palestinian who had undergone extensive explosives training with Hezbollah.

The terror attack at Mike's Place in Tel Aviv in April, in which three people were killed, was carried out by two British nationals of Pakistani descent. It is still not clear how the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which dispatched the two, got hold of the sophisticated explosives they had used. The Shin Bet is still exploring a possible connection with Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Israel and Britain are checking a lead indicating that one of the two Palestinians who were deported to Dublin a year ago as part of the Israeli-Palestinian agreement to end the siege on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is in touch with the Real IRA and is trying to establish ongoing cooperation between the organization and the Palestinians. Irish sources said that the suspicions are as yet unconfirmed.

In May 2002 two Palestinian militants, Rami Kamel, 23, and Jihad Jaara, were deported to Ireland. The other Palestinians deported under the agreement were relocated to Spain, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal.

Under the agreement between the EU and Israel, which has not been fully divulged, the Palestinians were given a one-year visa that was later extended. They were allowed to move freely within the countries to which they were relocated, but not allowed to travel anywhere else in Europe, and were to be kept under supervision. Israel has reserved the right to demand their extradition.

15/07/2003
U.K. checking data on journalist mistaken for Real IRA man

By Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters

LONDON - British intelligence is rechecking the truth of information recently sent to Israel about a Northern Irish bomb expert suspected to be in the West Bank and helping Palestinian terror cells. The John Morgan arrested Saturday near Ramallah turned out to be a journalist and pro-Palestinian peace activist, not a member of the Real IRA.

Israeli security officials also said that Morgan may have been mistakenly arrested, Israel Radio reported late Monday.

Irish sources told Haaretz the British security services had no up-to-date picture of the suspected terrorist, so they identified him only by name, and John Morgan is a common name.

The Morgan believed to be a bomb specialist - not the one held in Israel -is in his 40s, lived in south Armagh, and is known to British and Irish security services. An Irish police source said this Morgan "disappeared three years ago as if the earth swallowed him and we began to suspect he was up to something."

But the Morgan arrested near Ramallah, also in his 40s, is a known journalist and teacher who lives in Belfast and works in promoting Gaelic language and culture. He also uses his Gaelic name, Sean O'Muireagain, not the approximate English translation John Morgan.

He is involved in several educational projects and in La, a Gaelic newspaper. Just two weeks ago he was featured in the local Anderson's Town News, which reported on his cultural preservation work.

He is also a member of a pro-Palestinian organization known as the Irish-Palestinian Solidarity Movement, a Belfast branch of the International Solidarity Movement, which sends non-violence volunteers to the occupied territories to help human rights groups and Palestinians to deal with the Israeli military occupation authorities.

"It's preposterous, we believe this is mistaken identity, they've picked up an Irishman, he's from Belfast, and maybe they've put two and two together and got 16," Kathleen Connell, secretary of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Belfast, told Reuters.

She said he had traveled to the Middle East a couple of weeks ago to make contacts for a school twinning project.

"Sean is a member of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, he's been a member for the past two or three years, he's been active in Belfast for many years as a cultural activist and an Irish language activist," she said.

"He's got no connection, as far as I know, with south Armagh or Newry or any of the places that have been mentioned in the newspapers that this supposed bomb-maker is supposed to come from."

Israel has been trying to clamp down on the peace activists, claiming they help terror groups, a charge the ISM vehemently denies and insists it accepts only people committed to non-violent civil disobedience. ISM on Monday issued a statement saying O'Muireagain was not working with them and the movement did not know him.

O'Muireagain's friends said he was taking a vacation in the territories to look for ways to create contacts between Palestinian and Irish schools. He was due back in Belfast soon to take part in a city cultural festival.

Since his arrest Saturday his family and friends have heard nothing from him and Israeli authorities have spurned their efforts to get official information. The British foreign ministry said it had asked Israel to allow a consular official to see the arrested man.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/