Trimble demands release of Omagh bomb recordings
Sunday September 21 2008
DAVID Trimble, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, has urged Gordon Brown to "urgently" release the secretly recorded conversations of the Omagh bombers on their way to devastate the town.
Lord Trimble says it is imperative that the recordings and transcripts of what the bombers said as they drove to put the "brick in the wall" should be made available to lawyers representing the families in the ongoing civil case being heard in Belfast.
In a letter signed by fellow peer Baron Bew, the Professor of Irish Politics at Queen's University, and British Labour MP Dave Anderson he also says that public servants should be allowed to assist the lawyers and be able to give evidence without any fear of prosecution or punishment.
Last week's BBC Panorama programme revealed that the British Government's secret listening station, GCHQ, made recordings of at least two of the bombers communicating between a scout car and the bomb car on their way to Omagh and again just seconds after the bomb was put in position.
"The internal review you have announced will help establish if the bombers' phone calls were monitored in real time, why intelligence was not passed to the inves-tigation team and what lessons can be learned for the future", the letter to Downing Street says.
It adds: "Time is short. The case is due to end within a few weeks. We therefore urge you to act with great urgency."
- Alan Murray
