NORTHERN IRELAND: Inside Castlereagh: Files stolen from Special Branch HQ
01 March 2002
Shortly after 10.00pm on 17 March, three people entered Special Branch headquarters, overpowered the only police officer on duty in "Room 220" and left some 20-30 minutes later with a number of files and documents, and possibly computerised information. The incident happened at the notorious Castlereagh police complex which is not only home of the 800-strong Special Branch and the interrogation centre (closed in December 1999), but also housed the British Army’s Joint Support Group (JSG), formerly called the Force Research Unit (FRU). It has long been assumed that Castlereagh was one of the most secure police stations on these islands.
This is not the first time there has been a raid on offices belonging to the security services and in apparently secure compounds. In January 1990 the office used by the inquiry team investigating alleged collusion between the security forces, including FRU, Special Branch and loyalist paramilitaries, under Sir John Stevens, was burnt down. The office was within a police base at Carrickfergus, Co Antrim and contained documents and statements linked to the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane. Unlike the current incident, the Carrickfergus fire received no publicity at the time, even though it was reported in 1998 that Stevens thought the RUC investigation of the fire was "a travesty and a disgrace" (Sunday Telegraph 29 March 1998). It was strongly suspected that the fire was arson perpetrated by a CME (covert method of entry) unit of FRU (Sunday Times, 21.11.99).
The Castlereagh raid was a huge embarrassment for Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who retired in March, himself a former head of Special Branch, and comes on top of sharp public criticism from Nuala O'Loan, the Police Ombudsman, of both Special Branch and Flanagan for their handling of the investigation of the "Real IRA" bombing of Omagh in August 1998 which killed 29 people and injured 200.
Room 220 is the main reception point for incoming calls from Special Branch informers. It is known as such because "220" was the telephone extension of the reception point where duty officers verify callers' code names and route information to their Special Branch handlers. It is believed that Room 220 had been relocated to temporary accommodation shortly before the raid. The intruders were able to bluff their way into the complex and to penetrate highly sensitive and secure areas of the complex. Clearly they knew where the new room was and had sufficient knowledge of Castlereagh security systems to move about the complex and escape with relative ease. Apparently there are no video tapes of the incident from the numerous surveillance cameras which cover the complex.
Official sources have released very little information about the raid although unofficial briefings to journalists have provided a multitude of contradictory scenarios, all of which have effectively taken the focus off Special Branch, the Intelligence Services and associated special units such as JSG. PSNI's two press releases to date (mid-April) amounted to less than 250 words in total. It has acknowledged that the duty officer was assaulted and incapacitated and that "some documentation is missing". Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Wright, the head of criminal investigation for the Belfast metropolitan area, is leading the criminal investigation into the raid. PSNI has also set up "a high level team" to assess "the possible impact" of the missing information. It may be that this team was responsible for initiating a series of aggressive police raids and the arrests of nine people on 31 March and 4 April.
Three days after the break-in, Northern Ireland Secretary of State John Reid announced in the House of Commons a "review to proceed in parallel with the criminal investigation" to be conducted by Sir John Chilcot with the assistance of Colin Smith. In his statement, Reid repeatedly referred to the incident as "a breach of national security" and in the brief debat