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| Malachi O'Doherty |
Pat Finucane was offered to the UDA as an alternative to their first choice of target. They were more keen to kill Gerry Adams, but the security services directed them away from him, with someone pointing out Finucane as a higher-value target.
This is not a shock expose I am offering; it is information available from the de Silva report into the killing of Pat Finucane.
One of the unfortunate side-effects of the continuing deadlock over the demand for a public inquiry into Finucane's murder is that what has already come to light is undervalued.
David Cameron, as Prime Minister, in refusing a public inquiry, went some way to clarifying the horror of what had happened by inviting Sir Desmond de Silva QC to examine intelligence on the killing and to report on its contents.
What de Silva delivered is a shocking account of the collusion with paramilitaries by both the Army and RUC Special Branch (SB).
Geraldine Finucane, who was herself wounded in the attack that killed her husband, described the report as a whitewash.
Continue reading @ Belfast Telegraph.
"In the months before his death. I had started meeting Pat Finucane on a fairly regular basis. We would meet in the Landsowne Court hotel, have a few drinks and talk about the only subject journalists like me, and lawyers like Pat Finucane, were talking about in those days which was: ‘What the fuck is Adams up to?’
ReplyDeleteWhat I did not know then, but know now, is that Pat had his own connection to the BB where, doubtless, the same questions were being asked, although perhaps in an angrier tone than our Wednesday evenings in the Lansdowne Court. It would have been clear to the British that the BB was problem."
This raised an eyebrow from Ed Moloney's page.
What was PF's connection to the Belfast Brigade of the IRA and why would he be privvy to discussions on what Adam's was up to?
Lawyers representing people whether republican or loyalist had their contacts and knew their way around. Much like journalists, they operate in close proximity to the combatants. Many of them had an interest in what way the wind was blowing. If I was in Pat's position back in the day I'd be asking the same sort of questions. Lawyers come across things the rest of us never see. I have met more than a few who have asked "WTF is going on?"
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