THE CRIMINAL justice system has “badly failed” the victims of the Real IRA 1998 Omagh bombing, according to a House of Commons committee which has criticised British prime minister Gordon Brown over the non-disclosure of intelligence information.
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee yesterday launched a report at Stormont into the Omagh bombing which called for a new inquiry into whether intelligence on the bombers was passed on to investigating detectives.
“If not, why not?” asked the committee’s Tory chairman Sir Patrick Cormack.
The committee also comprises cross-party members including MPs from the DUP, the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP.
The committee concluded that questions remained about whether the bombing, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, could have been “pre-empted by action” against the Real IRA bombers who carried out earlier bomb attacks in 1998.
The committee’s report largely focused on a review of the use of intelligence intercept information carried out by the British intelligence services commissioner Sir Peter Gibson.
His review was prompted by a BBC Panoramaprogramme alleging serious intelligence failings over the Omagh bombing.
Sir Patrick complained that while a summary of Sir Peter’s review was released, the full classified report was not made available to the committee or to him personally in spite of repeated requests to the British prime minister. “Sir Peter Gibson reported to the prime minister in double quick time but sadly we, the committee and I have only seen a redacted version of the full version which is four times longer,” said Sir Patrick.
Downing Street on British national security grounds defended its decision not to release the Gibson report.
“Obviously, when national security is involved, there can only be a limited number of people with whom that can be shared,” said a spokesman for Mr Brown.
No one has been convicted of the bombing, which was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles.
Co Louth builder Colm Murphy was cleared last month after a retrial in Dublin, while south Armagh electrician Seán Hoey was acquitted after a trial in the North in 2007.
The committee stopped short of calling for an independent inquiry into the bombing, which the Omagh families group is demanding.
“There is a compelling case for some further inquiry into what did or did not occur in relation to Omagh, but whether a full-scale public inquiry is the proper route for that is less clear,” it reported.
Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aidan died in the bombing, welcomed the committee’s report but repeated his call for a “full cross-Border” inquiry into the bombing.
The committee sought a definitive statement on whether the names of those thought to have been involved were known to the intelligence services, Special Branch, or the RUC in the days immediately after the bombing, and if so, why no arrests resulted.
It asked the British government to justify the argument that the public interest was best served by keeping telephone intercepts secret rather than “using them to bring murderers to justice”.
Sir Patrick said far too many questions remained unanswered.