MI5 wants secret court session over IRA informant’s lawsuit
May 7, 2013 9 Comments
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, has requested a secret court hearing to deliberate a lawsuit from a high-profile spy who infiltrated the Provisional Irish Republican Army, commonly known as IRA. The mole, Martin McGartland, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, was recruited by the Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in the 1980s. The information he supplied to the security agencies over several years is widely credited with having saved the lives of at least 50 British police officers and soldiers. His autobiographical experiences formed the basis of the 2008 motion picture 50 Dead Men Walking, written and directed by Kari Skogland and starring Jim Sturgess as Martin and Ben Kingsley. McGartland’s cover was dramatically blown in 1991, when the IRA began suspecting that he might be an MI5 mole. After several hours of interrogation by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, McGartland managed to escape his captors and throw himself out of a third-floor window. He survived serious injuries and was taken into hiding by MI5, living in a series of safe houses across Britain for nearly a decade. However, in 1999 the IRA caught up with him at an MI5 safe house in North Tyneside, in the northeast of England, where he was shot by an IRA hit team while walking to his car one morning and left for dead. McGartland is now suing MI5 and its institutional patron, the British Home Office, claiming that they failed to support him after he was shot by the IRA. In his lawsuit, McGartland claims that government funding he was receiving for treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder was withdrawn after he publicly criticized the British government’s counterterrorism policies. But on Monday, it emerged that Home Office solicitors had filed a formal request to hold the trial as a Closed Material Procedure (CMP) hearing. This type of practice, which recently became law under the 2013 Justice and Security Act, allows the court to decide a case without giving the plaintiff party any details of the information against them. In many cases, the government resorts to CMP ostensibly to protect ‘sources and methods’. But McGartland’s legal team said yesterday that the secret hearing was designed “solely to cover up [MI5’s] own embarrassment and wrongdoing and not, as the Government has been claiming, to protect national security”. British newspaper The Independent, which broke the story, spoke to the Home Office and was told by a spokesman that “there are ongoing legal proceedings in this case and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment”.
intelNews.org 
Realistically, since I’m not an expert in British government, what, if any obligations do these intelligence organizations have to their informants/ sources after they complete their service or it has ended? I think you know the danger you are getting in when you take the job. You take the job because of patriotic, personal, or similar reasons, not because of the compensation. I give credit to all those that serve but I think people would agree that its a hazardous job and shouldn’t blame the government because you weren’t compensated adequately.
Most of the time your government will hang you out to dry any time they view you as a liability. You can sometimes trust your friends but it is never wise to trust institutions.
Just goes to prove the covert adage that truth can be stranger than fiction in the spy game. “Harry’s Game” was an earlier excellent addition to the undercover IRA genre. Here’s the “50 Dead Men Walking” trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inc3z-YWE-M .
Like all spooks. The terror is run by them. It’s just one of those facts nobody talks about.
[Edited as per our comments policy, below. This person is posting under different names, but using the same IP address. IA].
[Edited as per our comments policy, below. This person is posting under different names, but using the same IP address. IA].
[Edited as per our comments policy, below. This person is posting under different names, but using the same IP address. IA].
The Justice and Security Bill 2013 is a UK charter of cover-up so that MI5 (British Security Service), the British Government (including its corrupt Home Office) can conceal their own wrong doing. How do we know this? The latest news paper reports concerning former British Agent Martin McGartland has confirmed that MI5 is going to apply for a closed hearing, a secret hearing in the McGartland case. The McGartland case, as the the reports confirm, have nothing at all to do with ‘National Security’. The case relates only to MI5 case officers incompetence, those MI5 case officers withdrew medical support from Martin McGartland after he was blasted up to 7 times by PIRA terrorists. MI5 recklessness withdrew the treatment even after they had received 2 separate medical reports stating that McGartland required between 3 and 5 years further treatment. MI5 ignored the medical advice and Martin McGartland was left for 9 years without any type of treatment or medication. Both of witch MI5 stopped (withdrew) overnight. The end result was that McGartland’s health seriously deteriorated during that period. This is an important case because it relates to nothing at all more that a very straightforward case of negligent, a failure by MI5, Security Service, a breach of duty of care. MI5 are now going to use closed material proceedings (CMP) in the Martin McGartland case so that they can Lie to the court (in secret of course) and so that they can cover-up their own wrongdoing; http://www.scribd.com/doc/142524339/MI5-Security-Service-Bids-to-Have-Provo-Spy-s-Case-Heard-in-Secret
MI5 allegedly applies for secret court session after informant sues for being denied protection:: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mi5-allegedly-applies-for-secret-court-session-after-informant-sues-for-being-denied-protection-8605107.html
Martin McGartland’s solicitor, Nogah Ofer, has been speaking on the BBC about this case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgaUnXL_ti8