UDA Claim to Have Castlereagh Files

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday July 26, 2004 13:26 by Peadar O'Donnell

A Castlereagh dossier, containing details on republicans, went missing last week, and now the UDA claim it's in their hands. 28 RIR soldiers have been taken off duty at the base as the British Government investigate.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey has said that weekend revelations that the UDA are claiming to be in possession of the missing Castlereagh dossier 'will reinforce the belief amongst nationalists and republicans that the British government are actively trying to cover-up a collusion scandal'.

28 members of the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR) have already been taken off the base following the incident, but British politicians are insisting that they somehow know weher the document is, but can't get it (a bit like those WMDs in Iraq, methinks). Amazingly, there has been little or no commentary in the mass media - compared with the blaze of publicity that followed the last leak from the base.

Mr Maskey said:


" For sometime now Sinn Féin have been attempting to get the British government to come clean over the Castlereagh collusion scandal. Instead they have repeatedly refused to do so. Ian Pearson lamely claimed not to know where the missing dossier was but in the same breath claimed to know that it was not in the hands of unionist paramilitaries. His position has no credibility.


" As the media leaks continued it was established that the collusion scandal centres on the RIR, a regiment with a long history of links to unionist paramilitaries and it goes beyond Castlereagh and also centres on their role in staffing spy posts in nationalist areas.


" The British government has refused to inform those people named in the missing dossier that their details are missing. In their attempt to suppress this story the British government are deliberately endangering people's lives.

" Over the weekend the UDA have claimed to be in possession of the missing document. This revelation will reinforce the belief amongst nationalists and republicans that the British government are actively trying to cover-up a collusion scandal which if fully uncovered could be as damaging as the Brian Nelson affair."