MI5 'failed to pass on Omagh bombing intelligence'

Published on Saturday 25 February 2006 03:02

PRESSURE mounted on the British and Irish governments last night to hold an inquiry into the Omagh bomb atrocity after it emerged MI5 withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the attack.

Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said he had concerns about the handling of intelligence before the August 1998 attack after it was revealed that MI5 kept police in Northern Ireland in the dark about the bomb plot.

The Real IRA attack killed 29 people and unborn twins.

Authoritative security sources revealed MI5 had a tip-off in April 1998 that a bomb attack was being planned in Omagh or Londonderry.

However, the agency failed to tell Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch of the threat.

Details of this failure to pass on information have only just emerged as part of an investigation into an American FBI agent who infiltrated the Real IRA.

Relatives of some of the Omagh dead were yesterday astonished by the latest disclosure.

And with MI5 preparing to take control of national security intelligence in Northern Ireland next year, one MP called on Downing Street to abandon its plan.

Leader of the Nationalist SDLP, Mark Durkan, said: "Allowing MI5 to have a lead role in intelligence in Northern Ireland would be like appointing Herod as children's commissioner."

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan, 21, was killed, said: "At best, this is criminal negligence. At worst, it's assisting a terrorist murder plot."

Mr Donaldson last night stopped short of joining the Omagh families and the SDLP in demanding a cross-border inquiry but insisted there would have to be an investigation into how intelligence was handled.