Ex-RUC officers threaten to oust 'agents'
Sunday January 28 2007
FORMER RUC officers in the North are threatening to blow the whistle on top-level informers if any more ex-police officers are arrested or accused by Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan of collaborating with loyalists.
Retired detectives were enraged at last week's report which they say unfairly branded the RUC as being involved in widespread collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
They pointed out that, statistically, the force arrested and convicted far more loyalist killers than republicans.
They were particularly annoyed at the public fashion in which three retired officers were arrested last September by investigators working for Mrs O'Loan.
While the detectives were not identified in last week's report, their former colleagues say they may as well have been.
The Police Ombudsman's file was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions in the North with a view to bringing charges. The DPP declined to do so, citing lack of evidence.
The O'Loan report last week caused a storm drawing intense criticism of the old RUC.
Former Branch men are now saying that if the Ombudsman continues to make public claims about them, then they are prepared to breach the Official Secrets Act and release secrets that could include the identities of high-level informers.
This could include former IRA agents run by the RUC and Garda during the Troubles, and some agents who may have since become prominent in Sinn Fein.
