Army wanted a 'big arrest operation' inquiry told

British army commanders were completely determined that "a really big arrest operation" should go through on Bloody Sunday, even…

British army commanders were completely determined that "a really big arrest operation" should go through on Bloody Sunday, even if it meant shooting, according to journalistic archive documents raised at the inquiry yesterday.

Mr Phillip Jacobson, who was a member of the Sunday Times "Insight" team, was questioned about notes retrieved from the newspaper's archives which appeared to quote inside sources on what took place at an internal army briefing session in relation to the Brigade order for the planned operation on January 30th, 1972.

The notes, described as part of the draft for a Sunday Times article on Bloody Sunday, quoted the journalists' source at the army briefing as saying that: "The mood of the meeting was one of complete determination that this really big arrest operation should go through.

"The risk of firing was discussed and quite clearly accepted. Even if it meant shooting, everyone wanted to show that 8th Brigade knew how to go after the hooligans."

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The extract did not make it clear whether the anticipated shooting would be by the army, by the IRA, or by both.

Mr Jacobson told Mr Christopher Clarke QC, counsel to the tribunal, that he had no recollection of writing that passage, and he did not know who the source quoted was.

The witness said he recalled that the army were defensive in their handling of the media following Bloody Sunday.

Media queries had been dealt with very badly in the immediate aftermath, and while HQNI (Headquarters Northern Ireland) had later tried to make up for this, they remained defensive throughout.

He said little detailed information came from the army, whose essential position had been set out in a press release which had been circulated to newspapers.

"Subsequently some facts in that original press release were challenged and, as I recall, found to be untrue," he said.

"That was, I think, the reason for the defensiveness."

Mr Jacobson also said he and colleagues had examined the possibility of additional casualties having been taken to Letterkenny Hospital in the aftermath of the shootings, but when he telephoned the hospital he was told that nobody had been admitted with gunshot wounds.

He told Mr Clarke that he had a contact at the hospital to whom he had spoken on a previous occasion, when he received a very open and frank response about a gunshot casualty.

The witness also said he and his colleagues had secured interviews with senior officers of the Official and Provisional IRA - Mr Reg Tester and Mr Martin McGuinness respectively - and had afterwards concluded that, although there were members of both organisations present at the Civil Rights march on Bloody Sunday, "we never found any evidence that those members present were armed".

The inquiry continues.