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9 February 2006 Edition

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IMC 'intelligence' came from Kinkaid's department

BY LAURA FRIEL

IMC 'intelligence' came from Kinkaid's department

Last week the so-called Independent Monitoring Commission's unshakable belief in British securocrat briefings led them into direct confrontation with General John de Chasterlain and the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD). In its latest declaration the IMC claimed there was "credible" intelligence in support of the DUP refusal to accept that a a process of the IRA putting all of its weapons beyond use had in fact taken place.

The IICD, the body tasked with overseeing the decommissioning process, who actually witnessed the events and with detailed knowledge of the extent and process, rubbished the IMC's assertion.

But securocrat determination to thwart the search for democracy does not entirely rely on the IMC. Widely reported briefings by head of the PSNI's Crime Operations Department, Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid set the political agenda prior to the report being released.

In a so-called confidential briefing to the Policing Board, Kinkaid claimed the IRA had retained some of its weaponry. When days later the IMC reiterated Kinkaid's assertion it was presented as further evidence. This is an old trick, presenting a second airing of the same allegation as somehow amounting to confirmation.

It has now emerged that in fact the IMC briefing came from Kinaid's department in the first place. Somehow the affinity of a former RUC officer with the political agenda of the DUP seems less of a revelation than a convenience.

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