12 November 1998 Edition
Propaganda war hasn't gone away
By Seán Marlow
The weekend ``revelations'' that the IRA was about to hold an army convention to present their weapons to the Brits shows that the glorious tradition of Colin Wallace is still alive and lying in the ranks of British Military Intelligence - if that's not a contradiction in terms.
For those stalwart readers who have been around since the early 70s, Colin will be fondly remembered for his contribution to creative journalism. Who can ever forget the headline ``DANGER IN THOSE FRILLY PANTIES'' which turned out to be a fairy tale about the supposed premature detonation of explosives caused by static electricity at a time when the British Army was getting paranoid about the increasing role of women volunteers in the resistance to British occupation? (The result was an increase in demand for cotton knickers.)
Or his ``EMERALD ISLE RED PLOT'' in the News of The World on the smuggling of three young Trotskyists (from Stalinist USSR!) into Ireland from a Soviet submarine complete with supplied pictures of a submarine with Russian markings ``off the coast of Donegal''. Wallace later admitted that the picture was taken off the Finnish coast.
Unfortunately for Colin, he fell out with his bosses in Military Intelligence who thought Harold Wilson was a Soviet agent (it IS a contradiction in terms!), and Wallace was shafted and later framed for a killing he didn't commit.
Despite the demise of Colin Wallace, the flood of bizarre stories planted with gullible journalists didn't dry up. But they did get (a bit) more sophisticated. Just after the first IRA ceasefire we had the infamous ``shipment of Polish arms'' to the loyalists which was brilliantly detected and captured by MI5 as it mysteriously entered Teeside port. Turns out that the whole scam was concocted by Military Intelligence (like I said) at a time when spooks' jobs were looking slightly redundant and arms decommissioning was being hyped as a major issue - plus ca change.
It's not only British Intelligence that gives Hans Christian Anderson a run for his money. As in many things, there is a wannabe Irish imitation. Over the years the Garda Special Branch have planted sensational ``scoops'' about republicans via stupid, gullible, malicious and/or lazy ``security correspondents'', especially those in the Independent group and Sunday Times. These stories have included revelations that the IRA was engaged in: selling Angel Dust; running brothels; `reproducing' blue movies and manufacturing fake driving licenses.
Ironically, it was Garda members and government employees who were actually found guilty of involvement in every single one of these nefarious activities. Not one republican was ever even charged.
All of this nonsense may seem ridiculous, but there is a purpose to it. The planting of stories in a compliant media about republicans helps create a climate in which the Special Branch can justify its grossly inflated numbers at a time when it should be redundant. Only last week, government figures revealed a massive £50 million overtime bill for the Gardai while hospital wards are being shut down and nurses being laid off.
That $50 million and much more is being wasted by all those dopey branch men hanging around protests, meetings and even funerals all around the 26 Counties. And by the disgraceful attacks on SFY nearly every weekend on the streets of Dublin.
As anyone working with communities against the scourge of heroin abuse knows, when residents call the gardai for help they are regularly told that ``there is a shortage of manpower''. But, when the community calls a meeting to protest against the pushers, the area is saturated with uniformed and plainclothes gardai.
I think they call this Community Policing - it's not only British Intelligence that's a contradiction in terms.
The weekend ``revelations'' that the IRA was about to hold an army convention to present their weapons to the Brits shows that the glorious tradition of Colin Wallace is still alive and lying in the ranks of British Military Intelligence - if that's not a contradiction in terms.
For those stalwart readers who have been around since the early 70s, Colin will be fondly remembered for his contribution to creative journalism. Who can ever forget the headline ``DANGER IN THOSE FRILLY PANTIES'' which turned out to be a fairy tale about the supposed premature detonation of explosives caused by static electricity at a time when the British Army was getting paranoid about the increasing role of women volunteers in the resistance to British occupation? (The result was an increase in demand for cotton knickers.)
Or his ``EMERALD ISLE RED PLOT'' in the News of The World on the smuggling of three young Trotskyists (from Stalinist USSR!) into Ireland from a Soviet submarine complete with supplied pictures of a submarine with Russian markings ``off the coast of Donegal''. Wallace later admitted that the picture was taken off the Finnish coast.
Unfortunately for Colin, he fell out with his bosses in Military Intelligence who thought Harold Wilson was a Soviet agent (it IS a contradiction in terms!), and Wallace was shafted and later framed for a killing he didn't commit.
Despite the demise of Colin Wallace, the flood of bizarre stories planted with gullible journalists didn't dry up. But they did get (a bit) more sophisticated. Just after the first IRA ceasefire we had the infamous ``shipment of Polish arms'' to the loyalists which was brilliantly detected and captured by MI5 as it mysteriously entered Teeside port. Turns out that the whole scam was concocted by Military Intelligence (like I said) at a time when spooks' jobs were looking slightly redundant and arms decommissioning was being hyped as a major issue - plus ca change.
It's not only British Intelligence that gives Hans Christian Anderson a run for his money. As in many things, there is a wannabe Irish imitation. Over the years the Garda Special Branch have planted sensational ``scoops'' about republicans via stupid, gullible, malicious and/or lazy ``security correspondents'', especially those in the Independent group and Sunday Times. These stories have included revelations that the IRA was engaged in: selling Angel Dust; running brothels; `reproducing' blue movies and manufacturing fake driving licenses.
Ironically, it was Garda members and government employees who were actually found guilty of involvement in every single one of these nefarious activities. Not one republican was ever even charged.
All of this nonsense may seem ridiculous, but there is a purpose to it. The planting of stories in a compliant media about republicans helps create a climate in which the Special Branch can justify its grossly inflated numbers at a time when it should be redundant. Only last week, government figures revealed a massive £50 million overtime bill for the Gardai while hospital wards are being shut down and nurses being laid off.
That $50 million and much more is being wasted by all those dopey branch men hanging around protests, meetings and even funerals all around the 26 Counties. And by the disgraceful attacks on SFY nearly every weekend on the streets of Dublin.
As anyone working with communities against the scourge of heroin abuse knows, when residents call the gardai for help they are regularly told that ``there is a shortage of manpower''. But, when the community calls a meeting to protest against the pushers, the area is saturated with uniformed and plainclothes gardai.
I think they call this Community Policing - it's not only British Intelligence that's a contradiction in terms.