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Security & intelligence: In brief

01 November 1992

New chair of Security Commission: Lord Justice Lloyd has been appointed as chairman of the Security Commission. The Commission investigates cases of suspected breaches of security. The other members of the Commission are: Sir Michael Palliser, Sir Alan Cottrell, Sir John Blelloch, Lieutenant General Sir Derek Boorman and Sir Christopher Curwen. Lord Justice Lloyd was the Commissioner under the Interception of Communications Act (1985) from 1986 to 1992. 10 Downing Street press release 15.7.92.

Belgian mercenaries killed Dag Hammarskjold: After the plane carrying Dag Hammarskjold, the United Nations Secretary-General, crashed in Rhodesia in 1961 the board of inquiry found that there was no evidence to suggest "the aircraft was fired upon". Now evidence supplied by a former UN official shows that the plane carrying 14 people was shot down by mercenaries on behalf of a mining cabal in the Belgian Congo. In 1975 the US Church Committee blamed the CIA for the assassination of Patrice Lumumba the first Prime Minister, of the Congo (Zaire). Guardian 11.9.92.

Special Branch stop meeting: In September last year a meeting was planned in Glasgow to mark the tenth anniversary of the hunger strikes in Northern Ireland. A hotel, part of a large chain, was booked for the meeting. After a visit from Special Branch officers from the Strathclyde police who told the hotel that the meeting was to "raise money for the IRA" the hotel cancelled the bookings. They were taken to court by the organisers of the meeting but settled out of court and paid £750 in compensation. Irish Democrat October 1992.