Martin McGartland was shot 6 times and almost killed in June 1999. Martin McGartland was shot by the IRA who were led to his 'safe house' by Northumbria Police after they took a flawed court case against him in 1997. During the court case Northumbria Police read out Martin's name and his full home address in open court. Those detailed were reported in the media. Martin McGartland says; Sue Sim, Northumbria Police are covering Up IRA involvement in my attempted murder. They also continue to cover-up the entire shooting case. Sue Sim has been and continues to be directly involved in that cover-up."
=========================================================================================================================
SO Raoul Moat is dead, and while I'm sure the people of Rothbury are mightily relieved it's Northumbria Police who should REALLY be grateful.
Because at least this way there won't be any more blood on their hands. No more innocent people dead, no more young mums clinging to life in hospital, no more cops with their faces shot off.
But the biggest embarrassment is surely the fact that Moat outfoxed and outran a major police force for more than a week. And despite their best efforts it was HIM who finally decided how and when he was going to die.
Northumbria Police - and I'm talking about the head honchos here, not the poor beggars on the ground taking orders from incompetents - have acted like a bunch of Keystone Cops in the hunt for Moat, proving without doubt that when the big stuff happens - they just can't hack it.
Crack
So bad were they, so embarrassing, that officers from 15 other forces, crack Scotland Yard marksmen, Army survival experts and an RAF Tornado jet were all drafted in to help. I mean how many people does it take to catch a lone gunman?
And when this is over, the people of Northumbria have every right to ask what the hell their taxes are being spent on when a police force with every resource at its disposal is incapable of catching one deranged nutter. A force whose inability to act quickly or effectively actually PUT people in danger rather than protected them from it.
As for Sue Sim, who started the week as Acting Chief Constable and ended it re-branded as Temporary Chief Constable, she needs to get back where she belongs - counting paperclips and banging up drunks in Newcastle on Saturday nights. Because while I'm sure she's a nice woman (apart from the unfortunate resemblance to Maggie Thatcher) she's shown that when it comes to leading a police force, doing what she's been trained to do - she's as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
Moat made abject fools of the police trying to catch him. In the seven days he was on the run he TWICE popped into a mate's house in Newcastle. You'd have thought that after the first time an officer might have been posted outside the door in case he came back. But no. And of course he DID come back two days later. Another missed opportunity. Just one of many.
On Thursday locals saw Moat, large as life, strolling down Rothbury High Street. Was he agitated? Did he look like a man who felt the net was closing in? Nope.
So unconcerned was he that he broke into one family's home while they were out, had a kip, helped himself to food from the fridge then walked to some local allotments where he picked himself some nice ripe tomatoes. And exactly where were Northumbria Police? Well, they were telling everyone Moat wasn't in the town at all - but out on the Moors.
Rothbury's tiny, for God's sake. Was it really beyond the wit of an entire force, with massive back-up, to smoke out a lone man with zero resources who'd been sighted half a dozen times in one day? And of course all of this could have been avoided - if Northumbria Police had acted on information from Durham jail that Moat intended to "seriously hurt" ex- girlfriend Samantha Stobbart on his release.
So, why wasn't she taken from her home and protected? Why wasn't her now dead boyfriend protected? What in God's name had to happen before the chiefs at Northumbria got off their backsides and took this thug who's got form for violence, seriously? We're always hearing that good policing is about prevention. So why the hell didn't they take steps to prevent the carnage that followed?
Raoul Moat's legacy won't just be that he was a killer. It will be that he exposed and made monkeys out of an entire police force in a way that no investigation, no official report, ever could.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/columnists/carolemalone/872778/Moat-bunglers-cop-a-drumming.html
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Northumbria Police hounded Martin McGartland and led IRA killers to his door
Court clears top IRA mole
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
Link; http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
21 May 1997
Britain's former top IRA spy was last night making a fresh bid to start a new life, after being cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court, of trying to pervert the course of justice. Mr Martin McGartland, 27, who has lived under the name of Martin Ashe for the last six years, had claimed he was in fear of a terrorist death squad when he used duplicate driving licences to avoid a ban. The jury took just 10 minutes to find the author of Fifty Dead Men Walking, which is fast becoming a best seller, not guilty at the end of a five-day trial. Later, it was made clear he would be moving away from Tyneside, and the legal firm which represented him issued a statement criticising the moves which brought him to court and exposed him to danger from the IRA. It read: ''It is Mr McGartland's view that the prosecution should never have been brought in light of his services to the public in Northern Ireland. ''The prosecution has exposed him to further danger, which his resettlement on the mainland was meant to avoid. ''Mr McGartland believes that the prosecution was brought with total disregard for his own safety, and that the Crown showed no insight into the real and imagined dangers encountered by those living in the shadow of the IRA.'' The trial took place in secret after his barrister, Mr Glen Gatland, applied to Judge Denis Orde to make an order banning publication of proceedings until the end, as it was feared the IRA might try to target the court. During the trial the court was told that after fleeing Ulster, where it is claimed he helped save 50 lives by passing on secrets to the police, he became convinced he was being followed by potential assassins. Almost every time he speeded away to elude them he was stopped by police, and he used duplicate driving licences to escape a ban after totting up 12 speeding points in the summer of 1993. He could not reveal to police his reasons, as he feared detection. Magistrates thought he only had three points each time he appeared in court, because he handed in different licences. He was, however, on the verge of losing his licence under the totting-up procedure, and has since served a six-month ban. While in operation in Ulster, he was known as Agent Carol, and the information he passed on was from top level IRA sources, and was thought to have prevented numerous bombings and shootings, and exposed arms and explosives caches. Former Ulster intelligence gathering chief, Superintendent Ian Phoenix, who died in the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre, was said to have rated him as the most successful double agent he had known. Eventually, Mr McGartland's cover was blown and he was seized by IRA gunmen in August 1991, after helping the security forces for four years. He managed to escape from a third storey window, suffering serious head injuries which left him with partial brain damage.He was then given a new identity and relocated by Special Branch. Mr McGartland has taken action against Northumbria police after learning his new name and real name were being held on file. This led to a computer programmer being sacked from the force.
Link; http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-clears-top-ira-mole-1.397341
Monday, July 5, 2010
Martin McGartland calls on Northumbria Police to carry out an independent internal investigation into leaks
Martin McGartland calls on Northumbria Police to carry out an independent internal investigation into leaks
The following is Martin McGartland's letter to Northumbria Police dated Monday 5th July 2010.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ms Aubrey,
Re:- Police Leaks of sensitive information concerning my 1999 attempted murder, misconduct in public office by those behind such leaks, abetting misconduct in public office.
Please can you confirm that Northumbria Police will now be opening an internal investigation into the leaking of information to media relating to my attempted murder case. This information was published in the News of the World on Sunday 4th July 2010;
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_news/865845/Mystery-Scot-is-Prime-suspect-behind-MI5-assassination-attempt.html?postingId=868465
Will NP also confirm that the internal investigation will be carried out, dealt with by an independent third party given the history between NP and myself. Such an internal investigation needs to be open, fair and also transparent so that I can have total confidence in same. If however, NP are not prepared to bring in independent third party, can you please write to me explaining why not.
I maintain that there is police corruption by officers connected to my 1999 attempted murder case and that they too are behind this latest leak of confidential information, including the damaging smears made by NP officers against me between 1999 and 2010.
There is also the issue of the News of the World newspaper, reporter aiding and abetting misconduct in public office by publishing such information and or protecting officer(s) involved. You will be well aware that this is not the first time Northumbria Police have leaked information about me, my attempted murder case. In 1999 NP officer leaked very damaging and untruthful information and lies about me when I was fighting for my life. NP told members of the press that my attempted murder was ‘nothing to do with the IRA’ and that shooting was ‘drugs related’ and that I was a member of a ‘drugs gang’. You also know I took legal action against your force and also many other newspapers who reported the lies, smears against me. I was successful in each and every one of those cases and the newspapers confirmed that they only printed the information which NP gave them because they believed it was accurate. However, the newspapers accepted, some in open court, that the reports were completely untrue and that I had not at any time been connected to or involved in drugs. The newspapers also published full and unequivocal apologies to me in their newspapers and each paid me very substantial damages and my legal costs were paid in full. I also retain sworn affidavits from each of the journalists involved, where they gave detailed accounts of what they were told on the day by NP and I also have recordings of other journalists confirming same. The truth was that NP did this to take the heat off themselves, to save face and or embarrassment, but the problem being, is that this has continued and has resulted in a full scale cover-up in my attempted murder case, which dates back to 1999 and has included Chief Constables from NP, many other senior officers, MI5, CPS and others. It should never be forgotten that it was NP who led the IRA men who tried to kill me on the 17th June 1999 to my door. This is also the reason why I say NP have for over 11 years now covered-up IRA involvement in my attempted murder. NP continue with that cover-up to this day.
There have also been other leaks by Northumbria Police, its officers. In 1999/2000, NP officers gave a local Newcastle newspaper reporter information about the amount it was costing NP to protect me. However, I am bound to say, if NP had never taken a malicious prosecution against me in 1997 in which I was found not guilty by a jury in 10 minutes, then they would never had needed to protect me because the IRA would never have known where I was or that Martin Ashe and Martin McGartland were one and the same person. It was NP who read out my name and even home address in open court and those details were published in national newspapers. During that court case, NP even told the court that I had not been kidnapped by the IRA nor had I escaped by jumping from a third floor window nor had my brother been kidnapped by the IRA and severely beaten and left for dead. NP deliberately lied and told the court that these things never happened and that it was a figment of my imagination. The problem was, NP knew very well that they did happen but decided to quite deliberately lie in an effort to try to discredit me in their bid to try to get a conviction against me at all costs, the Judge and the Jury saw through all of the lies and acquitted me of all charges within 10 minutes. NP and its Chief officers are continuing with a very deliberate, hurtful and damaging smear campaign, grudge and vendetta against me and this is affecting decisions, investigations and complaints relating to my cases where they are being whitewashed and covered-up and my human rights are being breached on a daily basis by NP and others and I am being discriminated against continually by NP and been subject to deliberate and very lengthy delays, all of which has caused me unbearable stress, anxiety and has had an effect on my health.
You will also know that NP employee was sacked for leaking confidential information about me in the past. Again, I was told little or nothing about the case and it was yet another NP cover-up and whitewash. All of this is taking place at a time when I am finding it impossible to get answers to the most simple of questions concerning my attempted murder case. Moreover, Northumbria Police continue to cover-up IRA involvement in my attempted murder. They are doing so when they are well aware that the IRA carried out the attack, the dogs in the street know it and NP are causing me great damage and stress by continuing to hide, cover-up in my case. Who other than the IRA would want to kill me and who would go to such lengths to do so.
It is concerning to me that the News of the World can publish information about my attempted murder and give details of who ordered my shooting when NP are telling me they don’t know who shot me after what NP have claimed to me, has been a thorough 11 year investigation but yet a journalist can print such information concerning my attempted murder. There are many unanswered questions in this case and NP, whether they like it or not, are going to have to answer those questions.
Please will you ensure that Sue Sim is sent copies of all correspondence in this, all other matters. I can confirm that I may well be making further complaints. A complaint I made against your previous Chief Constable has been in the hands of Northumbria Police Authority and they have still not investigated that complaint, subjected me to 3 year plus delay and despite requests by the IPCC to deal with my complaint, NPA continue to ignore same. I have had to make a further complaint against NPA Chief Executive in September 2009 and again, this has never been investigated and NPA are blatantly refusing to answer my emails concerning those complaints. All, any complaints I have been making against NPA, NP and even CPS, IPCC are being whitewashed. Furthermore, the SIO in charge of my case, (Mr Thomson), is in effect acting as judge, juror and executioner, given he is head of NP PSD (Professional Standards Department) and is investigating himself and finding no evidence of any wrongdoing against himself and or other senior NP officers..
I must ask that NP please email me concerning this matter as quickly as possible and give full details of what NP are going to do about this latest matter. I will forward a copy of this email to Chris Thomson for his information. I have already written to him asking if there is any truth in any of the claims published in the News of The World article and I await his reply concerning the same.
Yours sincerely,
Martin McGartland
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awaiting Reply from Northumbria Police, standby.
The following is Martin McGartland's letter to Northumbria Police dated Monday 5th July 2010.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ms Aubrey,
Re:- Police Leaks of sensitive information concerning my 1999 attempted murder, misconduct in public office by those behind such leaks, abetting misconduct in public office.
Please can you confirm that Northumbria Police will now be opening an internal investigation into the leaking of information to media relating to my attempted murder case. This information was published in the News of the World on Sunday 4th July 2010;
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_news/865845/Mystery-Scot-is-Prime-suspect-behind-MI5-assassination-attempt.html?postingId=868465
Will NP also confirm that the internal investigation will be carried out, dealt with by an independent third party given the history between NP and myself. Such an internal investigation needs to be open, fair and also transparent so that I can have total confidence in same. If however, NP are not prepared to bring in independent third party, can you please write to me explaining why not.
I maintain that there is police corruption by officers connected to my 1999 attempted murder case and that they too are behind this latest leak of confidential information, including the damaging smears made by NP officers against me between 1999 and 2010.
There is also the issue of the News of the World newspaper, reporter aiding and abetting misconduct in public office by publishing such information and or protecting officer(s) involved. You will be well aware that this is not the first time Northumbria Police have leaked information about me, my attempted murder case. In 1999 NP officer leaked very damaging and untruthful information and lies about me when I was fighting for my life. NP told members of the press that my attempted murder was ‘nothing to do with the IRA’ and that shooting was ‘drugs related’ and that I was a member of a ‘drugs gang’. You also know I took legal action against your force and also many other newspapers who reported the lies, smears against me. I was successful in each and every one of those cases and the newspapers confirmed that they only printed the information which NP gave them because they believed it was accurate. However, the newspapers accepted, some in open court, that the reports were completely untrue and that I had not at any time been connected to or involved in drugs. The newspapers also published full and unequivocal apologies to me in their newspapers and each paid me very substantial damages and my legal costs were paid in full. I also retain sworn affidavits from each of the journalists involved, where they gave detailed accounts of what they were told on the day by NP and I also have recordings of other journalists confirming same. The truth was that NP did this to take the heat off themselves, to save face and or embarrassment, but the problem being, is that this has continued and has resulted in a full scale cover-up in my attempted murder case, which dates back to 1999 and has included Chief Constables from NP, many other senior officers, MI5, CPS and others. It should never be forgotten that it was NP who led the IRA men who tried to kill me on the 17th June 1999 to my door. This is also the reason why I say NP have for over 11 years now covered-up IRA involvement in my attempted murder. NP continue with that cover-up to this day.
There have also been other leaks by Northumbria Police, its officers. In 1999/2000, NP officers gave a local Newcastle newspaper reporter information about the amount it was costing NP to protect me. However, I am bound to say, if NP had never taken a malicious prosecution against me in 1997 in which I was found not guilty by a jury in 10 minutes, then they would never had needed to protect me because the IRA would never have known where I was or that Martin Ashe and Martin McGartland were one and the same person. It was NP who read out my name and even home address in open court and those details were published in national newspapers. During that court case, NP even told the court that I had not been kidnapped by the IRA nor had I escaped by jumping from a third floor window nor had my brother been kidnapped by the IRA and severely beaten and left for dead. NP deliberately lied and told the court that these things never happened and that it was a figment of my imagination. The problem was, NP knew very well that they did happen but decided to quite deliberately lie in an effort to try to discredit me in their bid to try to get a conviction against me at all costs, the Judge and the Jury saw through all of the lies and acquitted me of all charges within 10 minutes. NP and its Chief officers are continuing with a very deliberate, hurtful and damaging smear campaign, grudge and vendetta against me and this is affecting decisions, investigations and complaints relating to my cases where they are being whitewashed and covered-up and my human rights are being breached on a daily basis by NP and others and I am being discriminated against continually by NP and been subject to deliberate and very lengthy delays, all of which has caused me unbearable stress, anxiety and has had an effect on my health.
You will also know that NP employee was sacked for leaking confidential information about me in the past. Again, I was told little or nothing about the case and it was yet another NP cover-up and whitewash. All of this is taking place at a time when I am finding it impossible to get answers to the most simple of questions concerning my attempted murder case. Moreover, Northumbria Police continue to cover-up IRA involvement in my attempted murder. They are doing so when they are well aware that the IRA carried out the attack, the dogs in the street know it and NP are causing me great damage and stress by continuing to hide, cover-up in my case. Who other than the IRA would want to kill me and who would go to such lengths to do so.
It is concerning to me that the News of the World can publish information about my attempted murder and give details of who ordered my shooting when NP are telling me they don’t know who shot me after what NP have claimed to me, has been a thorough 11 year investigation but yet a journalist can print such information concerning my attempted murder. There are many unanswered questions in this case and NP, whether they like it or not, are going to have to answer those questions.
Please will you ensure that Sue Sim is sent copies of all correspondence in this, all other matters. I can confirm that I may well be making further complaints. A complaint I made against your previous Chief Constable has been in the hands of Northumbria Police Authority and they have still not investigated that complaint, subjected me to 3 year plus delay and despite requests by the IPCC to deal with my complaint, NPA continue to ignore same. I have had to make a further complaint against NPA Chief Executive in September 2009 and again, this has never been investigated and NPA are blatantly refusing to answer my emails concerning those complaints. All, any complaints I have been making against NPA, NP and even CPS, IPCC are being whitewashed. Furthermore, the SIO in charge of my case, (Mr Thomson), is in effect acting as judge, juror and executioner, given he is head of NP PSD (Professional Standards Department) and is investigating himself and finding no evidence of any wrongdoing against himself and or other senior NP officers..
I must ask that NP please email me concerning this matter as quickly as possible and give full details of what NP are going to do about this latest matter. I will forward a copy of this email to Chris Thomson for his information. I have already written to him asking if there is any truth in any of the claims published in the News of The World article and I await his reply concerning the same.
Yours sincerely,
Martin McGartland
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awaiting Reply from Northumbria Police, standby.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Shooting Northumbria Police Lies, Dirty Tricks and Cover Up of IRA attempted murder.
Shooting Northumbria Police Lies, Dirty Tricks and Cover Up of IRA attempted murder.
We ask; WHY ARE NOTHUMBRIA POLICE STILL COVERING UP IN MARTIN MCGARTLAND CASE - The Dogs in the Street know the IRA tried to kill Martin, The News of the World and many others newspapers know it so why are Northumbria Police, after 11 long years, still covering up IRA involvement in Martin McGartland's 1999 attempted murder?
=========================================================================================================================
IRA's secret Glasgow hitman
MYSTERY SCOT IS PRIME SUSPECT BEHIND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
By Charles Lavery, 04/07/2010
THE prime suspect behind an attempt to assassinate an MI5 supergrass is a mystery Scot who masterminded the IRA hit from his Glasgow base, the News of the World can reveal.
The 52-year-old, who we can only call 'S' for legal reasons, sent a three-man team of Scottish hitmen to Newcastle to kill IRA informer Martin McGartland in 1999.
Northumbria Police last week renewed an appeal for information over the attempted murder of McGartland, who survived being blasted six times during the attack.
And last night a source at the force told how 'S' is a prime suspect.
The terror boss has organised IRA active service units on the British mainland for more than two decades and runs operations from his base in the Calton district of Glasgow.
Our source said: "This individual has come up time and time again during our investigations.
"It seems he sent the team down to Newcastle with the express instruction to carry out their hit.
"That is the line of inquiry being focused on at the moment."
'S' is well known to counter-terror officers in the UK and runs his operations from some Celtic- affiliated pubs in the Calton area, where he is a respected member of the Catholic community.
Sources claim he has been involved in EVERY IRA operation on the UK mainland for three decades.
Northumbria Police also now believe 'S' is directly connected to the attempt to murder McGartland, 40, who was shot as he sat in his car in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, on June 17, 1999.
Five people were arrested but nobody has ever been charged.
Police in Newcastle say he was targeted by Republicans, but their efforts to trace those responsible have hit a wall of silence.
McGartland, already on the run as a known IRA informer to MI5, was moved and given a new identity.
In 2008 he wrote a bestseller about his experiences in 50 Dead Men Walking, which was turned into a hit movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess last year.
Jim Sturgess as Martin McGartland in Fifty Dead Men Walking
We can reveal the team tasked with assassinating McGartland ended up boozing with one of his pals and made a drunken pact just to wound, not kill, him.
Our source said: "S sent the team down to Newcastle. Their orders were to kill, and they did fire six bullets into McGartland - but most of them were in his lower body.
"They struck a deal with a close friend of Marty's and agreed not to kill him."
McGartland, codenamed 'Agent Carol', gave information to Special Branch between 1987 and 1991, as he rose to the centre of IRA and Sinn Féin operations. At one time he was tied up and interrogated by an IRA death squad, and only escaped by jumping from a window.
He moved to England and received almost £100,000 to buy a house and start again in Whitley Bay, using the name Martin Ashe. It was Northumbria Police who brought the IRA hit team to his door when, in 1997, his identity was revealed in court after he was caught breaking the speed limit and prosecuted for holding driving licences in different names, which he explained was a means of avoiding IRA detection. He was cleared of perverting the course of justice.
After the shooting, he was given round-the-clock armed protection and an armoured car. The man leading the hunt for the would-be killers, Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, said: "It was a cold-blooded, calculated assassination attempt.
"McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his bookss. Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by people with Irish Republican sympathies."
Northumbria Police are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation. Other lines of inquiry involve a van abandoned at the scene, which had been bought two days before the attack, and a pistol forensically linked to the shooting.
McGartland, who is still in hiding, declined to comment.
The hitman probe is the latest in a series of links between Glasgow and some of the IRA's worst atrocities.
Hugh Doherty, 59 - linked to 16 IRA murders - came from Toryglen in the city, while Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, 59, was arrested at a safe house in nearby Govanhill.
Story Link;- http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_news/865845/Mystery-Scot-is-Prime-suspect-behind-MI5-assassination-attempt.html
We ask; WHY ARE NOTHUMBRIA POLICE STILL COVERING UP IN MARTIN MCGARTLAND CASE - The Dogs in the Street know the IRA tried to kill Martin, The News of the World and many others newspapers know it so why are Northumbria Police, after 11 long years, still covering up IRA involvement in Martin McGartland's 1999 attempted murder?
=========================================================================================================================
IRA's secret Glasgow hitman
MYSTERY SCOT IS PRIME SUSPECT BEHIND ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
By Charles Lavery, 04/07/2010
THE prime suspect behind an attempt to assassinate an MI5 supergrass is a mystery Scot who masterminded the IRA hit from his Glasgow base, the News of the World can reveal.
The 52-year-old, who we can only call 'S' for legal reasons, sent a three-man team of Scottish hitmen to Newcastle to kill IRA informer Martin McGartland in 1999.
Northumbria Police last week renewed an appeal for information over the attempted murder of McGartland, who survived being blasted six times during the attack.
And last night a source at the force told how 'S' is a prime suspect.
The terror boss has organised IRA active service units on the British mainland for more than two decades and runs operations from his base in the Calton district of Glasgow.
Our source said: "This individual has come up time and time again during our investigations.
"It seems he sent the team down to Newcastle with the express instruction to carry out their hit.
"That is the line of inquiry being focused on at the moment."
'S' is well known to counter-terror officers in the UK and runs his operations from some Celtic- affiliated pubs in the Calton area, where he is a respected member of the Catholic community.
Sources claim he has been involved in EVERY IRA operation on the UK mainland for three decades.
Northumbria Police also now believe 'S' is directly connected to the attempt to murder McGartland, 40, who was shot as he sat in his car in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, on June 17, 1999.
Five people were arrested but nobody has ever been charged.
Police in Newcastle say he was targeted by Republicans, but their efforts to trace those responsible have hit a wall of silence.
McGartland, already on the run as a known IRA informer to MI5, was moved and given a new identity.
In 2008 he wrote a bestseller about his experiences in 50 Dead Men Walking, which was turned into a hit movie starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess last year.
Jim Sturgess as Martin McGartland in Fifty Dead Men Walking
We can reveal the team tasked with assassinating McGartland ended up boozing with one of his pals and made a drunken pact just to wound, not kill, him.
Our source said: "S sent the team down to Newcastle. Their orders were to kill, and they did fire six bullets into McGartland - but most of them were in his lower body.
"They struck a deal with a close friend of Marty's and agreed not to kill him."
McGartland, codenamed 'Agent Carol', gave information to Special Branch between 1987 and 1991, as he rose to the centre of IRA and Sinn Féin operations. At one time he was tied up and interrogated by an IRA death squad, and only escaped by jumping from a window.
He moved to England and received almost £100,000 to buy a house and start again in Whitley Bay, using the name Martin Ashe. It was Northumbria Police who brought the IRA hit team to his door when, in 1997, his identity was revealed in court after he was caught breaking the speed limit and prosecuted for holding driving licences in different names, which he explained was a means of avoiding IRA detection. He was cleared of perverting the course of justice.
After the shooting, he was given round-the-clock armed protection and an armoured car. The man leading the hunt for the would-be killers, Det Chief Supt Chris Thomson, said: "It was a cold-blooded, calculated assassination attempt.
"McGartland's history as an agent for the then Royal Ulster Constabulary and his supplying of information about the Provisional IRA is a matter of public knowledge, documented in his bookss. Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by people with Irish Republican sympathies."
Northumbria Police are continuing to use DNA recovered from the scene to eliminate people from the investigation. Other lines of inquiry involve a van abandoned at the scene, which had been bought two days before the attack, and a pistol forensically linked to the shooting.
McGartland, who is still in hiding, declined to comment.
The hitman probe is the latest in a series of links between Glasgow and some of the IRA's worst atrocities.
Hugh Doherty, 59 - linked to 16 IRA murders - came from Toryglen in the city, while Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, 59, was arrested at a safe house in nearby Govanhill.
Story Link;- http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_news/865845/Mystery-Scot-is-Prime-suspect-behind-MI5-assassination-attempt.html
Friday, June 25, 2010
Padraig (Podraig) Wilson IRA terrorist and Martin McGartland -IRA ARMS CHIEF SENTENCED ME TO DIE
A KEY figure in the Northern Ireland peace process is today named by former Special Branch agent Martin McGartland as the IRA punishment chief who ordered his execution.
Padraig Wilson, who is set to lead the IRA team negotiating disarmament, headed the terrorist organisation's intelligence and discipline operations in Belfast in the mid-1980s.
McGartland, who infiltrated the IRA on the Special Branch's behalf, reveals in the Sunday Mirror today how he went to meet Wilson at Sinn Fein headquarters in 1991 - but was faced, instead, with a punishment squad
who took him away for interrogation and execution. He escaped by jumping from a third-floor window.
Related Results
Wilson, 42, still a prisoner at the Maze but is expected to be released within weeks, was elected to handle the decommissioning talks at an IRA Army Council meeting two weeks ago in the Irish Republic.
Wilson is said to have met Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of the International Decommissioning Commission, in Dundalk yesterday, to start talks on handing over weapons.
Sinn Fein officials refused to confirm Wilson's role. One said such a role would be "an enormous, and perhaps, unfair burden on a prisoner". But security sources said they were expecting the IRA to put up a "smokescreen".
Two priests from Clonard monastery in West Belfast, who set up a secret communications channel between the IRA and the Irish government in the early 1990s, could become involved in the talks.
The IRA is considering asking Fr Alec Reid and Fr Gerry Reynolds to act as independent decommissioning verifiers.
Republicans describe Wilson as one of the most respected IRA leaders and a moderate voice among hardliners.
He was jailed for 24 years in 1991 after being caught with a car bomb in Belfast City centre.
In the mid-1980s, Wilson joined the IRA Belfast brigade staff. His closest ally was David Adams, the cousin of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
As head of its so-called Civil Administration Team, or punishment squad, Wilson had the power over life and death, sanctioning vicious attacks on petty criminals and taking charge of the hunt for Special Branch informers. One he uncovered was Martin McGartland.
In 1991, suspicion fell on McGartland after operations he was involved in were either foiled by the security forces or had to be abandoned because of defective weapons.
McGartland, then aged 21, had spent the previous two years working with Davy Adams, and also in the pay of Special Branch.
One August morning he was called to a meeting with Wilson.
After clearance from his handlers, McGartland went to Connolly House on Andersonstown Road, Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland HQ.
But Wilson was not present and McGartland was taken to a flat in the Twinbrook estate where he later jumped 40ft from a third floor window to cheat death at the hands of an IRA execution team.
Within months, Wilson was caught with an undercar booby trap bomb and sent to the Maze.
He gave the first insight into IRA thinking on disarmament a year ago in a letter to a Belfast newspaper. It said he believed that "voluntary decommissioning" could happen once political institutions were in place.
Now the world holds its breath to see if decommissioning will go through before the May 2000 deadline.
Padraig Wilson, who is set to lead the IRA team negotiating disarmament, headed the terrorist organisation's intelligence and discipline operations in Belfast in the mid-1980s.
McGartland, who infiltrated the IRA on the Special Branch's behalf, reveals in the Sunday Mirror today how he went to meet Wilson at Sinn Fein headquarters in 1991 - but was faced, instead, with a punishment squad
who took him away for interrogation and execution. He escaped by jumping from a third-floor window.
Related Results
Wilson, 42, still a prisoner at the Maze but is expected to be released within weeks, was elected to handle the decommissioning talks at an IRA Army Council meeting two weeks ago in the Irish Republic.
Wilson is said to have met Canadian General John de Chastelain, head of the International Decommissioning Commission, in Dundalk yesterday, to start talks on handing over weapons.
Sinn Fein officials refused to confirm Wilson's role. One said such a role would be "an enormous, and perhaps, unfair burden on a prisoner". But security sources said they were expecting the IRA to put up a "smokescreen".
Two priests from Clonard monastery in West Belfast, who set up a secret communications channel between the IRA and the Irish government in the early 1990s, could become involved in the talks.
The IRA is considering asking Fr Alec Reid and Fr Gerry Reynolds to act as independent decommissioning verifiers.
Republicans describe Wilson as one of the most respected IRA leaders and a moderate voice among hardliners.
He was jailed for 24 years in 1991 after being caught with a car bomb in Belfast City centre.
In the mid-1980s, Wilson joined the IRA Belfast brigade staff. His closest ally was David Adams, the cousin of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.
As head of its so-called Civil Administration Team, or punishment squad, Wilson had the power over life and death, sanctioning vicious attacks on petty criminals and taking charge of the hunt for Special Branch informers. One he uncovered was Martin McGartland.
In 1991, suspicion fell on McGartland after operations he was involved in were either foiled by the security forces or had to be abandoned because of defective weapons.
McGartland, then aged 21, had spent the previous two years working with Davy Adams, and also in the pay of Special Branch.
One August morning he was called to a meeting with Wilson.
After clearance from his handlers, McGartland went to Connolly House on Andersonstown Road, Sinn Fein's Northern Ireland HQ.
But Wilson was not present and McGartland was taken to a flat in the Twinbrook estate where he later jumped 40ft from a third floor window to cheat death at the hands of an IRA execution team.
Within months, Wilson was caught with an undercar booby trap bomb and sent to the Maze.
He gave the first insight into IRA thinking on disarmament a year ago in a letter to a Belfast newspaper. It said he believed that "voluntary decommissioning" could happen once political institutions were in place.
Now the world holds its breath to see if decommissioning will go through before the May 2000 deadline.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Martin McGartland Says; Help the RUC Special Branch heroes.
=========================================================================================================================
Marty Says; Help the RUC Special Branch heroes.
These former RUC special Branch officers give their all and they must be compensated for their injuries.
I know, as someone who worked with SB officers between 1987-1991, what these very brave men and women went through.
It was constant danger 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year.
Why did they do it? To protect the people of Ireland, north and south, from the bombers and killers of the IRA, INLA, IPLO, UVF, UFF etc. The brave men and women of the RUC special branch put their own lives in grat danger. They were expected to go into the loins den, to meet killers and to get the information from spies, informers and agents, the information that would be used to save life.
When the SB officers whent out they Never knew if they would ever return from such meetings.
The SB officers put themselves in great danger daily, day in day out. The information those SB officers obtained resulted in the lives, of a very large numbers of people, who would otherwise have been murdered, being saved.
We should be thanking the brave SB officers and ensuring they get the compensation needed for there injuries and the care they require.
If there is anything, anything at all that I can do to help these brave men and women just get in touch, via facebook, bebo, friend of friend etc.
Good Luck and god bless you all.
Martin McGartland
=========================================================================================================================
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under, it has been claimed.
RUC stress case 'could name' informers
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
As the first 10 cases to be heard in a renewed post-traumatic stress lawsuit were identified, the most senior retired policeman involved in the action warned of the lengths they were prepared to go.
The former deputy head of CID in Belfast, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said: "The guys are saying they will be relying on facts and situations which they were placed in, vis-a-vis looking after killers and murderers who were also known informants.
"Effectively a lot of them are going to use these type of scenarios to support their illness. They were subjected to dealing with this type of thing on a daily basis.
"That's all going to be opened up in court, the names of informants and what the police were subjected to."
Detailing his own experiences, the ex-detective said he was seriously injured by an IRA bomb in Donegall Street, Belfast in the early 1970s and narrowly survived when INLA men opened fire on him in Newry, Co Down in 1987.
He is among scores of former officers planning to represent themselves as personal litigants after losing a class action against the Chief Constable.
Up to 5,500 officers had sued over how they were treated for anxiety and depression suffered during decades of exposure to violence.
They believed they secured victory two years ago when a judge ruled there had been systematic failures within the force.
But any hopes of a multi-million pound compensation award were then dealt a crushing blow when 10 test cases were rejected.
A challenge to the verdicts brought on generic issues and five of the lead cases was subsequently dismissed by the Court of Appeal last June.
With uncertainty surrounding the intention of thousands of those officers involved in the original case, a High Court judge is now planning to set them a deadline for confirming whether or not they want to continue.
Lawyers for the Chief Constable have already ruled out any further mediation and warned that any plaintiffs who proceed and lose their case will each face legal bills of at least 50,000.
Mr Justice Gillen is expected to allow time for any applications to strike-out cases once the deadline passes.
In the meantime he also confirmed today that the first batch of 10 actions have been selected.
"Their cases have been chosen at random and it is intended to process their cases," he said.
The judge added: "I have to protect the Article 6 right to a fair trial, but at the same time I have to recognise that a fair trial depends on the circumstances.
"The circumstances here are that if there is a very large number of cases I cannot allow them to be delayed. Justice delayed is often justice denied."
After a further review hearing was set for September one of those in the first 10 cases claimed they could lead to major revelations.
The retired Special Branch officer, who also requested anonymity, said outside court: "This could end up bigger than Bloody Sunday when all the cans of worms are opened."
© UTV News
Link here; -http://www.u.tv/News/RUC-stress-case-could-name-informers/1053d5c5-764c-4e1e-840c-b3a58433fc1c
Marty Says; Help the RUC Special Branch heroes.
These former RUC special Branch officers give their all and they must be compensated for their injuries.
I know, as someone who worked with SB officers between 1987-1991, what these very brave men and women went through.
It was constant danger 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days of the year.
Why did they do it? To protect the people of Ireland, north and south, from the bombers and killers of the IRA, INLA, IPLO, UVF, UFF etc. The brave men and women of the RUC special branch put their own lives in grat danger. They were expected to go into the loins den, to meet killers and to get the information from spies, informers and agents, the information that would be used to save life.
When the SB officers whent out they Never knew if they would ever return from such meetings.
The SB officers put themselves in great danger daily, day in day out. The information those SB officers obtained resulted in the lives, of a very large numbers of people, who would otherwise have been murdered, being saved.
We should be thanking the brave SB officers and ensuring they get the compensation needed for there injuries and the care they require.
If there is anything, anything at all that I can do to help these brave men and women just get in touch, via facebook, bebo, friend of friend etc.
Good Luck and god bless you all.
Martin McGartland
=========================================================================================================================
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under, it has been claimed.
RUC stress case 'could name' informers
Killers who acted as informers could be publicly named as part of a legal attempt by ex-RUC officers to show the pressures they worked under.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
As the first 10 cases to be heard in a renewed post-traumatic stress lawsuit were identified, the most senior retired policeman involved in the action warned of the lengths they were prepared to go.
The former deputy head of CID in Belfast, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said: "The guys are saying they will be relying on facts and situations which they were placed in, vis-a-vis looking after killers and murderers who were also known informants.
"Effectively a lot of them are going to use these type of scenarios to support their illness. They were subjected to dealing with this type of thing on a daily basis.
"That's all going to be opened up in court, the names of informants and what the police were subjected to."
Detailing his own experiences, the ex-detective said he was seriously injured by an IRA bomb in Donegall Street, Belfast in the early 1970s and narrowly survived when INLA men opened fire on him in Newry, Co Down in 1987.
He is among scores of former officers planning to represent themselves as personal litigants after losing a class action against the Chief Constable.
Up to 5,500 officers had sued over how they were treated for anxiety and depression suffered during decades of exposure to violence.
They believed they secured victory two years ago when a judge ruled there had been systematic failures within the force.
But any hopes of a multi-million pound compensation award were then dealt a crushing blow when 10 test cases were rejected.
A challenge to the verdicts brought on generic issues and five of the lead cases was subsequently dismissed by the Court of Appeal last June.
With uncertainty surrounding the intention of thousands of those officers involved in the original case, a High Court judge is now planning to set them a deadline for confirming whether or not they want to continue.
Lawyers for the Chief Constable have already ruled out any further mediation and warned that any plaintiffs who proceed and lose their case will each face legal bills of at least 50,000.
Mr Justice Gillen is expected to allow time for any applications to strike-out cases once the deadline passes.
In the meantime he also confirmed today that the first batch of 10 actions have been selected.
"Their cases have been chosen at random and it is intended to process their cases," he said.
The judge added: "I have to protect the Article 6 right to a fair trial, but at the same time I have to recognise that a fair trial depends on the circumstances.
"The circumstances here are that if there is a very large number of cases I cannot allow them to be delayed. Justice delayed is often justice denied."
After a further review hearing was set for September one of those in the first 10 cases claimed they could lead to major revelations.
The retired Special Branch officer, who also requested anonymity, said outside court: "This could end up bigger than Bloody Sunday when all the cans of worms are opened."
© UTV News
Link here; -http://www.u.tv/News/RUC-stress-case-could-name-informers/1053d5c5-764c-4e1e-840c-b3a58433fc1c
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case,
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case;
“Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Marty says; "If Northumbria Police repeat the above lie often enough they may begin to believe it."
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If you want to read more about the Martin McGartland case, Northumbria Police cover-up go to Martin McGartland facebook, bebo or our blogs.
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case,
“Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.”
Marty says; "If Northumbria Police repeat the above lie often enough they may begin to believe it."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to read more about the Martin McGartland case, Northumbria Police cover-up go to Martin McGartland facebook, bebo or our blogs.
Northumbria Police latest lies in Martin McGartland case,
Northumbria Police Attempted
Taken From Book, Fifty Dead Men Walking, by Martin McGartland;-
On Thursday morning in June 1999 I unlocked the car door, sat inside the car and started the engine. But before I could close the do or I sensed someone was nearby. I looked up, saw this man wearing a green coat with a gun pointing at me. Instinctively, I lifted my right arm to protect myself. A split second later I felt two thuds hit my right side, the shock reverberating through my body.
I knew in that instant that this gunman was a Provo assassin and from the impact the bullets made on my body I guessed he was using a heavy calibre round, probably a 9mm fired from an automatic. But thank God my brain was still working and I knew that I had to stop him shooting me again. I knew he would go for my head; I knew he would have been told exactly where to target and what to do.
The power of the shots had thrown my body across the car seat to the passenger side and the gunman stretched out his arm so that his gun was close to my head. Before he could pull the trigger I somehow managed to grab the barrel of the gun with my left hand and it went off, the bullet ripping through my hand and lodging in my stomach.
I tried to keep hold of the gun. Something inside my head told me that I had to keep hold of that gun if I was to survive. I wanted to turn the gun so that if he pulled the trigger he would shoot himself. But my strength was fading fast. I felt suddenly powerless, almost at his mercy. I tried to hang on to the gun but I couldn’t. With a concerted tug he managed to wrench the gun from my hand. At that instant I believed I was a dead man.
But the will to survive, to live another day, took over and something stirred deep inside me. I wasn’t finished yet. I tried to lunge towards him again, to grab the gun, but I simply didn’t have the strength. He stepped back a pace and fired four more times hitting me twice in the chest, in the stomach and in the top of the leg.
I heard the ‘tap-tap’ of the automatic and two bullets thudded into my chest with real force. The pain surged through my body and the power of those bullets sent me sprawling backwards across the car seats. I thought he had shot me in the heart and I knew that would be curtains. Before I could sit up I heard the sound of two more ‘tap-taps’ and I felt pain in my stomach and in the top of my leg. I could do nothing to protect myself. I couldn’t move. I was now at his mercy. This was the end.
I thought in that split second that I didn’t want to die, sprawled on the front seat of a car, my body punctured by bullets from a Provo gunman. My mind flashed to the number of times I had seen others killed in this way in Northern Ireland over the years, their dead, broken bodies sprawled grotesquely in the cars they were driving. Something told me that I had to survive.
For what seemed like seconds I waited for more bullets but there were none. I looked up and he had gone, disappeared from sight. Convinced that he had carried out his mission, certain that I was dead, the bastard had fled.
I realised that grabbing that gun had so disorientated the Provo gunman that he panicked. I knew the Prove orders – always shoot people in the head because then we know they’re dead men. And dead men can’t talk.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. I guessed he wouldn’t return for he must have thought that with seven rounds inside me from something like a 9mm automatic I hadn’t a hope in hell of surviving. I wasn’t too sure myself at that stage. Now the pain began to take over, wracking my chest, my side, my stomach and my leg. I looked at my thumb hanging by a thread and repeated over and over, ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’. Somehow, swearing like that helped me get my head together.
I told myself that I was alive and that if I could stay alive until I got to hospital I would be okay. But how the hell could I get to hospital like this? I thought of trying to drive and then told myself I was being stupid. I hoped to hell someone had heard the sound of shots.
As I struggled to get out of the car, to get help, I felt again the thudding impact of the bullets each time they hit my body, knocking me backwards, knocking the stuffing out of me, preventing me from lunging at him and getting the gun. I managed to pull myself out of the car and then I collapsed onto the ground. I knew I had been shot six or seven times, but I was still breathing, though blood was pumping from my chest, my side and my stomach and my thumb looked as though it had been shot away.
My only fear was that I would lie in that garage and bleed to death. I put my arm across my chest to try and stop the blood gushing out but it was everywhere. I wondered if the Prove bastard had hit my heart or a main artery and realised that I had to stay conscious. I tried to feel my heart to see if it was okay and felt it pumping away. But I worried in case all the blood was being pumped out of my body rather than round my arteries.
I kept telling myself that whatever happened I must not fall asleep though I felt like closing my eyes and drifting off into oblivion. I kept talking to myself, saying over and over again, ‘If you fall asleep you will never wake again. If you fall unconscious you will simply die. Now, for fuck’s sake keep awake.’
And then I felt pain. A minute or so must have passed since the Provo bastard ran off, and, until that moment there had been little pain. Now the pain wracked my body, my chest, my side, my stomach, my arm, my hand. Shit, it hurt. I gritted my teeth to try and stop the pain hurting so much but I couldn’t. I kept talking to myself, telling myself that I could handle the pain as long as I lived. I tried telling myself that the pain wasn’t that bad but it was getting to me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.
I also realised that if I didn’t get to hospital quickly I would die. I tried to shout for help but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow I couldn’t find the strength to shout for help, only moans came from my throat. Alone in that garage, with the blood pouring out of my body and with my chest, side and stomach pumping blood through my clothes and on to the floor, I felt my life was over. The bastard Provos had got their revenge.
Then I heard voices shouting ‘Marty’ and it was the most glorious sound of my entire life. Now there was hope. I managed to open my eyes and through blurred vision I recognised my neighbours, the Connon family, bending over me asking if I was alright.
Jesus, it was good to see them; I could have cried when I realised they had come to the rescue; had come to help me. I knew the whole family. They were good, honest people and I knew in that instant that they would help me and save me. Somewhere in my mind I recalled that their elder son Adam, aged around eighteen, had studied first aid and that his mother Andrea was something to do with a hospital.
I heard them asking me questions and I can’t recall if I replied or not. My memory was going and so was my brain. I think I murmured ‘fucking Provos’.
‘Keep quiet, stay still,’ Adam said. ‘An ambulance is on the way. Just lie still and you’ll be okay.’
Adam took off my T-shirt and someone ran off and returned with cling film which he wrapped around my chest and my side in an effort to stem the bleeding. I remember him stuffing stocks into my wounds trying to stop the flow of blood that was everywhere. I recall his mother Andrea cradling my head in her arms, talking to me, soothing me, keeping me conscious as we waited for the ambulance. I owe my life to that family and particularly Adam. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking I would be dead.
The next thing I remember was waking in hospital some 48 hours later, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mother Kate, sister Lizzie and brother Joseph were there standing around my bed and I wondered why they were there as though this was all part of a dream. I couldn’t understand what they were doing there, standing at the end of my bed looking at me. I asked if I was going to live. They gave me the answer I wanted to hear and I drifted once more into unconsciousness.
Five days after the shooting I was still in intensive care guarded round the clock by seven armed police officers, all wearing body armour. Ten days later I was moved from hospital to a safe house but I was still under armed guard. For two years I had pleaded with the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary Jack Straw to give me some protection but they had always refused, saying I was in no danger from the IRA. They even refused to give me any CCTV system to check outside my house for any suspicious strangers.
And yet my former friends in Northern Ireland’s Special Branch knew differently. They knew my life was still under threat even though there was a so-called cease fire, even though peace talks were due to start within days, attended by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Aherne. The Belfast SB knew I was still high on the IRA’s death list. But the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary chose to ignore their advice.
If they had listened to those senior officers who knew the minds of those hard-line IRA activists, I would never have been shot because I would have had some protection. I was never cavalier about my security. I always knew that sometime, somewhere, they would have another go at me. And I was determined to make sure they didn’t get me.
After the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 I had high hopes that one day I would be able to lead a normal, ordinary life; get a proper job, enjoy my life a little without the constant worry of waiting for the unexpected, the knock at the door, a bullet in the back or a gunman waiting by the garage to kill me. The longer the peace deal was intact the more my hopes rose.
Then Eamonn Collins, a self-confessed IRA killer who turned against the terrorist movement, was murdered by the Provos. At the time of his shooting I made a statement saying, ‘Now I feel like I am waiting for someone to come to my house and shoot me.’
I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me.
I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me.
My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’
I know she’s right; my ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.
End
Ps; Within minutes of Martin's shooting, while Martin was fighting for his life, Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government began a cover-up and a smear campaign against Martin McGartland, Why? Simple, they did so to save face given it was Northumbria Police and Mi5 who exposed Martin to danger after they, CPS and Mi5, took a failed malicious prosecution against him in 1987. During the case Northumbria Police read out Martin McGartland's name, home address in open court. Those details were published in UK wide newspapers. However, Northumbria Police continued to repeat the lie that Martin was safe. Martin McGartland was not safe, Mi5, Northumbria Police and CPS knew that, and he was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home on 17th June 1999. Since then Northumbria Police have been covering-up the Martin McGartland case, covering-up for the IRA and refusing to admit in public that the IRA was involved in Martin attempted murder.
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Lots has happened since. You can read the whole story in; Fifty Dead Men Walking (Book) and Dead Man Running (Martin's second book). There has, and continues to be a Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government Cover-up, Jack Straw and home office have been involved. You can follow Martin on Facebook, Bebo and on the Martin McGartland Blogs.
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On Thursday morning in June 1999 I unlocked the car door, sat inside the car and started the engine. But before I could close the do or I sensed someone was nearby. I looked up, saw this man wearing a green coat with a gun pointing at me. Instinctively, I lifted my right arm to protect myself. A split second later I felt two thuds hit my right side, the shock reverberating through my body.
I knew in that instant that this gunman was a Provo assassin and from the impact the bullets made on my body I guessed he was using a heavy calibre round, probably a 9mm fired from an automatic. But thank God my brain was still working and I knew that I had to stop him shooting me again. I knew he would go for my head; I knew he would have been told exactly where to target and what to do.
The power of the shots had thrown my body across the car seat to the passenger side and the gunman stretched out his arm so that his gun was close to my head. Before he could pull the trigger I somehow managed to grab the barrel of the gun with my left hand and it went off, the bullet ripping through my hand and lodging in my stomach.
I tried to keep hold of the gun. Something inside my head told me that I had to keep hold of that gun if I was to survive. I wanted to turn the gun so that if he pulled the trigger he would shoot himself. But my strength was fading fast. I felt suddenly powerless, almost at his mercy. I tried to hang on to the gun but I couldn’t. With a concerted tug he managed to wrench the gun from my hand. At that instant I believed I was a dead man.
But the will to survive, to live another day, took over and something stirred deep inside me. I wasn’t finished yet. I tried to lunge towards him again, to grab the gun, but I simply didn’t have the strength. He stepped back a pace and fired four more times hitting me twice in the chest, in the stomach and in the top of the leg.
I heard the ‘tap-tap’ of the automatic and two bullets thudded into my chest with real force. The pain surged through my body and the power of those bullets sent me sprawling backwards across the car seats. I thought he had shot me in the heart and I knew that would be curtains. Before I could sit up I heard the sound of two more ‘tap-taps’ and I felt pain in my stomach and in the top of my leg. I could do nothing to protect myself. I couldn’t move. I was now at his mercy. This was the end.
I thought in that split second that I didn’t want to die, sprawled on the front seat of a car, my body punctured by bullets from a Provo gunman. My mind flashed to the number of times I had seen others killed in this way in Northern Ireland over the years, their dead, broken bodies sprawled grotesquely in the cars they were driving. Something told me that I had to survive.
For what seemed like seconds I waited for more bullets but there were none. I looked up and he had gone, disappeared from sight. Convinced that he had carried out his mission, certain that I was dead, the bastard had fled.
I realised that grabbing that gun had so disorientated the Provo gunman that he panicked. I knew the Prove orders – always shoot people in the head because then we know they’re dead men. And dead men can’t talk.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. I guessed he wouldn’t return for he must have thought that with seven rounds inside me from something like a 9mm automatic I hadn’t a hope in hell of surviving. I wasn’t too sure myself at that stage. Now the pain began to take over, wracking my chest, my side, my stomach and my leg. I looked at my thumb hanging by a thread and repeated over and over, ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’. Somehow, swearing like that helped me get my head together.
I told myself that I was alive and that if I could stay alive until I got to hospital I would be okay. But how the hell could I get to hospital like this? I thought of trying to drive and then told myself I was being stupid. I hoped to hell someone had heard the sound of shots.
As I struggled to get out of the car, to get help, I felt again the thudding impact of the bullets each time they hit my body, knocking me backwards, knocking the stuffing out of me, preventing me from lunging at him and getting the gun. I managed to pull myself out of the car and then I collapsed onto the ground. I knew I had been shot six or seven times, but I was still breathing, though blood was pumping from my chest, my side and my stomach and my thumb looked as though it had been shot away.
My only fear was that I would lie in that garage and bleed to death. I put my arm across my chest to try and stop the blood gushing out but it was everywhere. I wondered if the Prove bastard had hit my heart or a main artery and realised that I had to stay conscious. I tried to feel my heart to see if it was okay and felt it pumping away. But I worried in case all the blood was being pumped out of my body rather than round my arteries.
I kept telling myself that whatever happened I must not fall asleep though I felt like closing my eyes and drifting off into oblivion. I kept talking to myself, saying over and over again, ‘If you fall asleep you will never wake again. If you fall unconscious you will simply die. Now, for fuck’s sake keep awake.’
And then I felt pain. A minute or so must have passed since the Provo bastard ran off, and, until that moment there had been little pain. Now the pain wracked my body, my chest, my side, my stomach, my arm, my hand. Shit, it hurt. I gritted my teeth to try and stop the pain hurting so much but I couldn’t. I kept talking to myself, telling myself that I could handle the pain as long as I lived. I tried telling myself that the pain wasn’t that bad but it was getting to me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.
I also realised that if I didn’t get to hospital quickly I would die. I tried to shout for help but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow I couldn’t find the strength to shout for help, only moans came from my throat. Alone in that garage, with the blood pouring out of my body and with my chest, side and stomach pumping blood through my clothes and on to the floor, I felt my life was over. The bastard Provos had got their revenge.
Then I heard voices shouting ‘Marty’ and it was the most glorious sound of my entire life. Now there was hope. I managed to open my eyes and through blurred vision I recognised my neighbours, the Connon family, bending over me asking if I was alright.
Jesus, it was good to see them; I could have cried when I realised they had come to the rescue; had come to help me. I knew the whole family. They were good, honest people and I knew in that instant that they would help me and save me. Somewhere in my mind I recalled that their elder son Adam, aged around eighteen, had studied first aid and that his mother Andrea was something to do with a hospital.
I heard them asking me questions and I can’t recall if I replied or not. My memory was going and so was my brain. I think I murmured ‘fucking Provos’.
‘Keep quiet, stay still,’ Adam said. ‘An ambulance is on the way. Just lie still and you’ll be okay.’
Adam took off my T-shirt and someone ran off and returned with cling film which he wrapped around my chest and my side in an effort to stem the bleeding. I remember him stuffing stocks into my wounds trying to stop the flow of blood that was everywhere. I recall his mother Andrea cradling my head in her arms, talking to me, soothing me, keeping me conscious as we waited for the ambulance. I owe my life to that family and particularly Adam. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking I would be dead.
The next thing I remember was waking in hospital some 48 hours later, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mother Kate, sister Lizzie and brother Joseph were there standing around my bed and I wondered why they were there as though this was all part of a dream. I couldn’t understand what they were doing there, standing at the end of my bed looking at me. I asked if I was going to live. They gave me the answer I wanted to hear and I drifted once more into unconsciousness.
Five days after the shooting I was still in intensive care guarded round the clock by seven armed police officers, all wearing body armour. Ten days later I was moved from hospital to a safe house but I was still under armed guard. For two years I had pleaded with the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary Jack Straw to give me some protection but they had always refused, saying I was in no danger from the IRA. They even refused to give me any CCTV system to check outside my house for any suspicious strangers.
And yet my former friends in Northern Ireland’s Special Branch knew differently. They knew my life was still under threat even though there was a so-called cease fire, even though peace talks were due to start within days, attended by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Aherne. The Belfast SB knew I was still high on the IRA’s death list. But the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary chose to ignore their advice.
If they had listened to those senior officers who knew the minds of those hard-line IRA activists, I would never have been shot because I would have had some protection. I was never cavalier about my security. I always knew that sometime, somewhere, they would have another go at me. And I was determined to make sure they didn’t get me.
After the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 I had high hopes that one day I would be able to lead a normal, ordinary life; get a proper job, enjoy my life a little without the constant worry of waiting for the unexpected, the knock at the door, a bullet in the back or a gunman waiting by the garage to kill me. The longer the peace deal was intact the more my hopes rose.
Then Eamonn Collins, a self-confessed IRA killer who turned against the terrorist movement, was murdered by the Provos. At the time of his shooting I made a statement saying, ‘Now I feel like I am waiting for someone to come to my house and shoot me.’
I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me.
I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me.
My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’
I know she’s right; my ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.
End
Ps; Within minutes of Martin's shooting, while Martin was fighting for his life, Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government began a cover-up and a smear campaign against Martin McGartland, Why? Simple, they did so to save face given it was Northumbria Police and Mi5 who exposed Martin to danger after they, CPS and Mi5, took a failed malicious prosecution against him in 1987. During the case Northumbria Police read out Martin McGartland's name, home address in open court. Those details were published in UK wide newspapers. However, Northumbria Police continued to repeat the lie that Martin was safe. Martin McGartland was not safe, Mi5, Northumbria Police and CPS knew that, and he was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home on 17th June 1999. Since then Northumbria Police have been covering-up the Martin McGartland case, covering-up for the IRA and refusing to admit in public that the IRA was involved in Martin attempted murder.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lots has happened since. You can read the whole story in; Fifty Dead Men Walking (Book) and Dead Man Running (Martin's second book). There has, and continues to be a Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government Cover-up, Jack Straw and home office have been involved. You can follow Martin on Facebook, Bebo and on the Martin McGartland Blogs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, June 18, 2010
Northumbria Police; Every year Northumbria Police peddles lies in Martin McGartland case
Martin McGartland was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home in Whitley Bay in June 1999.
The IRA only discovered where Martin McGartland was living, and his new name, after Northumbria Police read out, in open court, his name and home address. Martin’s name and address was then published in UK newspapers. During the past two years Northumbria Police have peddled lies about above Martin McGartland’s case and have covered up IRA involvement in Martin’s 1999 attempted murder.
In Northumbria Police’s last two press releases, June 2009 and june 2010, they continue with their cover-up and their lies. They state; “Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.” Northumbria Police make this statement 10 and 11 years after Martin’s shooting and given they now have evidence and intelligence to show that the IRA were behind the shooting. Northumbria Police have been involved in a cover-up in the Martin McGartland case since the June 1999 shooting. They continue to protect those involved in the shooting and cover-up IRA involvement in the attack.
“I have asked Northumbria Police if there is any evidence to show that the IRA was involved in my shooting, Northumbria Police will not answer that question. I also asked if there was any intelligence that the IRA was involved, Northumbria Police said they would not answer question about intelligence. “, says Martin McGartland. The Cover-up continues.
The IRA only discovered where Martin McGartland was living, and his new name, after Northumbria Police read out, in open court, his name and home address. Martin’s name and address was then published in UK newspapers. During the past two years Northumbria Police have peddled lies about above Martin McGartland’s case and have covered up IRA involvement in Martin’s 1999 attempted murder.
In Northumbria Police’s last two press releases, June 2009 and june 2010, they continue with their cover-up and their lies. They state; “Our main line of inquiry continues to be that Mr McGartland may have been shot by a person or people with Irish Republican sympathies, for reasons closely linked to his former life in Northern Ireland.” Northumbria Police make this statement 10 and 11 years after Martin’s shooting and given they now have evidence and intelligence to show that the IRA were behind the shooting. Northumbria Police have been involved in a cover-up in the Martin McGartland case since the June 1999 shooting. They continue to protect those involved in the shooting and cover-up IRA involvement in the attack.
“I have asked Northumbria Police if there is any evidence to show that the IRA was involved in my shooting, Northumbria Police will not answer that question. I also asked if there was any intelligence that the IRA was involved, Northumbria Police said they would not answer question about intelligence. “, says Martin McGartland. The Cover-up continues.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Northumbria Police attempted IRA murder of Martin McGartland being covered up
Taken From Book, Fifty Dead Men Walking, by Martin McGartland;-
On Thursday morning in June 1999 I unlocked the car door, sat inside the car and started the engine. But before I could close the do or I sensed someone was nearby. I looked up, saw this man wearing a green coat with a gun pointing at me. Instinctively, I lifted my right arm to protect myself. A split second later I felt two thuds hit my right side, the shock reverberating through my body.
I knew in that instant that this gunman was a Provo assassin and from the impact the bullets made on my body I guessed he was using a heavy calibre round, probably a 9mm fired from an automatic. But thank God my brain was still working and I knew that I had to stop him shooting me again. I knew he would go for my head; I knew he would have been told exactly where to target and what to do.
The power of the shots had thrown my body across the car seat to the passenger side and the gunman stretched out his arm so that his gun was close to my head. Before he could pull the trigger I somehow managed to grab the barrel of the gun with my left hand and it went off, the bullet ripping through my hand and lodging in my stomach.
I tried to keep hold of the gun. Something inside my head told me that I had to keep hold of that gun if I was to survive. I wanted to turn the gun so that if he pulled the trigger he would shoot himself. But my strength was fading fast. I felt suddenly powerless, almost at his mercy. I tried to hang on to the gun but I couldn’t. With a concerted tug he managed to wrench the gun from my hand. At that instant I believed I was a dead man.
But the will to survive, to live another day, took over and something stirred deep inside me. I wasn’t finished yet. I tried to lunge towards him again, to grab the gun, but I simply didn’t have the strength. He stepped back a pace and fired four more times hitting me twice in the chest, in the stomach and in the top of the leg.
I heard the ‘tap-tap’ of the automatic and two bullets thudded into my chest with real force. The pain surged through my body and the power of those bullets sent me sprawling backwards across the car seats. I thought he had shot me in the heart and I knew that would be curtains. Before I could sit up I heard the sound of two more ‘tap-taps’ and I felt pain in my stomach and in the top of my leg. I could do nothing to protect myself. I couldn’t move. I was now at his mercy. This was the end.
I thought in that split second that I didn’t want to die, sprawled on the front seat of a car, my body punctured by bullets from a Provo gunman. My mind flashed to the number of times I had seen others killed in this way in Northern Ireland over the years, their dead, broken bodies sprawled grotesquely in the cars they were driving. Something told me that I had to survive.
For what seemed like seconds I waited for more bullets but there were none. I looked up and he had gone, disappeared from sight. Convinced that he had carried out his mission, certain that I was dead, the bastard had fled.
I realised that grabbing that gun had so disorientated the Provo gunman that he panicked. I knew the Prove orders – always shoot people in the head because then we know they’re dead men. And dead men can’t talk.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. I guessed he wouldn’t return for he must have thought that with seven rounds inside me from something like a 9mm automatic I hadn’t a hope in hell of surviving. I wasn’t too sure myself at that stage. Now the pain began to take over, wracking my chest, my side, my stomach and my leg. I looked at my thumb hanging by a thread and repeated over and over, ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’. Somehow, swearing like that helped me get my head together.
I told myself that I was alive and that if I could stay alive until I got to hospital I would be okay. But how the hell could I get to hospital like this? I thought of trying to drive and then told myself I was being stupid. I hoped to hell someone had heard the sound of shots.
As I struggled to get out of the car, to get help, I felt again the thudding impact of the bullets each time they hit my body, knocking me backwards, knocking the stuffing out of me, preventing me from lunging at him and getting the gun. I managed to pull myself out of the car and then I collapsed onto the ground. I knew I had been shot six or seven times, but I was still breathing, though blood was pumping from my chest, my side and my stomach and my thumb looked as though it had been shot away.
My only fear was that I would lie in that garage and bleed to death. I put my arm across my chest to try and stop the blood gushing out but it was everywhere. I wondered if the Prove bastard had hit my heart or a main artery and realised that I had to stay conscious. I tried to feel my heart to see if it was okay and felt it pumping away. But I worried in case all the blood was being pumped out of my body rather than round my arteries.
I kept telling myself that whatever happened I must not fall asleep though I felt like closing my eyes and drifting off into oblivion. I kept talking to myself, saying over and over again, ‘If you fall asleep you will never wake again. If you fall unconscious you will simply die. Now, for fuck’s sake keep awake.’
And then I felt pain. A minute or so must have passed since the Provo bastard ran off, and, until that moment there had been little pain. Now the pain wracked my body, my chest, my side, my stomach, my arm, my hand. Shit, it hurt. I gritted my teeth to try and stop the pain hurting so much but I couldn’t. I kept talking to myself, telling myself that I could handle the pain as long as I lived. I tried telling myself that the pain wasn’t that bad but it was getting to me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.
I also realised that if I didn’t get to hospital quickly I would die. I tried to shout for help but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow I couldn’t find the strength to shout for help, only moans came from my throat. Alone in that garage, with the blood pouring out of my body and with my chest, side and stomach pumping blood through my clothes and on to the floor, I felt my life was over. The bastard Provos had got their revenge.
Then I heard voices shouting ‘Marty’ and it was the most glorious sound of my entire life. Now there was hope. I managed to open my eyes and through blurred vision I recognised my neighbours, the Connon family, bending over me asking if I was alright.
Jesus, it was good to see them; I could have cried when I realised they had come to the rescue; had come to help me. I knew the whole family. They were good, honest people and I knew in that instant that they would help me and save me. Somewhere in my mind I recalled that their elder son Adam, aged around eighteen, had studied first aid and that his mother Andrea was something to do with a hospital.
I heard them asking me questions and I can’t recall if I replied or not. My memory was going and so was my brain. I think I murmured ‘fucking Provos’.
‘Keep quiet, stay still,’ Adam said. ‘An ambulance is on the way. Just lie still and you’ll be okay.’
Adam took off my T-shirt and someone ran off and returned with cling film which he wrapped around my chest and my side in an effort to stem the bleeding. I remember him stuffing stocks into my wounds trying to stop the flow of blood that was everywhere. I recall his mother Andrea cradling my head in her arms, talking to me, soothing me, keeping me conscious as we waited for the ambulance. I owe my life to that family and particularly Adam. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking I would be dead.
The next thing I remember was waking in hospital some 48 hours later, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mother Kate, sister Lizzie and brother Joseph were there standing around my bed and I wondered why they were there as though this was all part of a dream. I couldn’t understand what they were doing there, standing at the end of my bed looking at me. I asked if I was going to live. They gave me the answer I wanted to hear and I drifted once more into unconsciousness.
Five days after the shooting I was still in intensive care guarded round the clock by seven armed police officers, all wearing body armour. Ten days later I was moved from hospital to a safe house but I was still under armed guard. For two years I had pleaded with the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary Jack Straw to give me some protection but they had always refused, saying I was in no danger from the IRA. They even refused to give me any CCTV system to check outside my house for any suspicious strangers.
And yet my former friends in Northern Ireland’s Special Branch knew differently. They knew my life was still under threat even though there was a so-called cease fire, even though peace talks were due to start within days, attended by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Aherne. The Belfast SB knew I was still high on the IRA’s death list. But the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary chose to ignore their advice.
If they had listened to those senior officers who knew the minds of those hard-line IRA activists, I would never have been shot because I would have had some protection. I was never cavalier about my security. I always knew that sometime, somewhere, they would have another go at me. And I was determined to make sure they didn’t get me.
After the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 I had high hopes that one day I would be able to lead a normal, ordinary life; get a proper job, enjoy my life a little without the constant worry of waiting for the unexpected, the knock at the door, a bullet in the back or a gunman waiting by the garage to kill me. The longer the peace deal was intact the more my hopes rose.
Then Eamonn Collins, a self-confessed IRA killer who turned against the terrorist movement, was murdered by the Provos. At the time of his shooting I made a statement saying, ‘Now I feel like I am waiting for someone to come to my house and shoot me.’
I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me.
I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me.
My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’
I know she’s right; my ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.
End
Ps; Within minutes of Martin's shooting, while Martin was fighting for his life, Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government began a cover-up and a smear campaign against Martin McGartland, Why? Simple, they did so to save face given it was Northumbria Police and Mi5 who exposed Martin to danger after they, CPS and Mi5, took a failed malicious prosecution against him in 1987. During the case Northumbria Police read out Martin McGartland's name, home address in open court. Those details were published in UK wide newspapers. However, Northumbria Police continued to repeat the lie that Martin was safe. Martin McGartland was not safe, Mi5, Northumbria Police and CPS knew that, and he was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home on 17th June 1999. Since then Northumbria Police have been covering-up the Martin McGartland case, covering-up for the IRA and refusing to admit in public that the IRA was involved in Martin attempted murder.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lots has happened since. You can read the whole story in; Fifty Dead Men Walking (Book) and Dead Man Running (Martin's second book). There has, and continues to be a Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government Cover-up, Jack Straw and home office have been involved. You can follow Martin on Facebook, Bebo and on the Martin McGartland Blogs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thursday morning in June 1999 I unlocked the car door, sat inside the car and started the engine. But before I could close the do or I sensed someone was nearby. I looked up, saw this man wearing a green coat with a gun pointing at me. Instinctively, I lifted my right arm to protect myself. A split second later I felt two thuds hit my right side, the shock reverberating through my body.
I knew in that instant that this gunman was a Provo assassin and from the impact the bullets made on my body I guessed he was using a heavy calibre round, probably a 9mm fired from an automatic. But thank God my brain was still working and I knew that I had to stop him shooting me again. I knew he would go for my head; I knew he would have been told exactly where to target and what to do.
The power of the shots had thrown my body across the car seat to the passenger side and the gunman stretched out his arm so that his gun was close to my head. Before he could pull the trigger I somehow managed to grab the barrel of the gun with my left hand and it went off, the bullet ripping through my hand and lodging in my stomach.
I tried to keep hold of the gun. Something inside my head told me that I had to keep hold of that gun if I was to survive. I wanted to turn the gun so that if he pulled the trigger he would shoot himself. But my strength was fading fast. I felt suddenly powerless, almost at his mercy. I tried to hang on to the gun but I couldn’t. With a concerted tug he managed to wrench the gun from my hand. At that instant I believed I was a dead man.
But the will to survive, to live another day, took over and something stirred deep inside me. I wasn’t finished yet. I tried to lunge towards him again, to grab the gun, but I simply didn’t have the strength. He stepped back a pace and fired four more times hitting me twice in the chest, in the stomach and in the top of the leg.
I heard the ‘tap-tap’ of the automatic and two bullets thudded into my chest with real force. The pain surged through my body and the power of those bullets sent me sprawling backwards across the car seats. I thought he had shot me in the heart and I knew that would be curtains. Before I could sit up I heard the sound of two more ‘tap-taps’ and I felt pain in my stomach and in the top of my leg. I could do nothing to protect myself. I couldn’t move. I was now at his mercy. This was the end.
I thought in that split second that I didn’t want to die, sprawled on the front seat of a car, my body punctured by bullets from a Provo gunman. My mind flashed to the number of times I had seen others killed in this way in Northern Ireland over the years, their dead, broken bodies sprawled grotesquely in the cars they were driving. Something told me that I had to survive.
For what seemed like seconds I waited for more bullets but there were none. I looked up and he had gone, disappeared from sight. Convinced that he had carried out his mission, certain that I was dead, the bastard had fled.
I realised that grabbing that gun had so disorientated the Provo gunman that he panicked. I knew the Prove orders – always shoot people in the head because then we know they’re dead men. And dead men can’t talk.
It took me a couple of seconds to collect my thoughts. I guessed he wouldn’t return for he must have thought that with seven rounds inside me from something like a 9mm automatic I hadn’t a hope in hell of surviving. I wasn’t too sure myself at that stage. Now the pain began to take over, wracking my chest, my side, my stomach and my leg. I looked at my thumb hanging by a thread and repeated over and over, ‘fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck’. Somehow, swearing like that helped me get my head together.
I told myself that I was alive and that if I could stay alive until I got to hospital I would be okay. But how the hell could I get to hospital like this? I thought of trying to drive and then told myself I was being stupid. I hoped to hell someone had heard the sound of shots.
As I struggled to get out of the car, to get help, I felt again the thudding impact of the bullets each time they hit my body, knocking me backwards, knocking the stuffing out of me, preventing me from lunging at him and getting the gun. I managed to pull myself out of the car and then I collapsed onto the ground. I knew I had been shot six or seven times, but I was still breathing, though blood was pumping from my chest, my side and my stomach and my thumb looked as though it had been shot away.
My only fear was that I would lie in that garage and bleed to death. I put my arm across my chest to try and stop the blood gushing out but it was everywhere. I wondered if the Prove bastard had hit my heart or a main artery and realised that I had to stay conscious. I tried to feel my heart to see if it was okay and felt it pumping away. But I worried in case all the blood was being pumped out of my body rather than round my arteries.
I kept telling myself that whatever happened I must not fall asleep though I felt like closing my eyes and drifting off into oblivion. I kept talking to myself, saying over and over again, ‘If you fall asleep you will never wake again. If you fall unconscious you will simply die. Now, for fuck’s sake keep awake.’
And then I felt pain. A minute or so must have passed since the Provo bastard ran off, and, until that moment there had been little pain. Now the pain wracked my body, my chest, my side, my stomach, my arm, my hand. Shit, it hurt. I gritted my teeth to try and stop the pain hurting so much but I couldn’t. I kept talking to myself, telling myself that I could handle the pain as long as I lived. I tried telling myself that the pain wasn’t that bad but it was getting to me. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.
I also realised that if I didn’t get to hospital quickly I would die. I tried to shout for help but the words wouldn’t come. Somehow I couldn’t find the strength to shout for help, only moans came from my throat. Alone in that garage, with the blood pouring out of my body and with my chest, side and stomach pumping blood through my clothes and on to the floor, I felt my life was over. The bastard Provos had got their revenge.
Then I heard voices shouting ‘Marty’ and it was the most glorious sound of my entire life. Now there was hope. I managed to open my eyes and through blurred vision I recognised my neighbours, the Connon family, bending over me asking if I was alright.
Jesus, it was good to see them; I could have cried when I realised they had come to the rescue; had come to help me. I knew the whole family. They were good, honest people and I knew in that instant that they would help me and save me. Somewhere in my mind I recalled that their elder son Adam, aged around eighteen, had studied first aid and that his mother Andrea was something to do with a hospital.
I heard them asking me questions and I can’t recall if I replied or not. My memory was going and so was my brain. I think I murmured ‘fucking Provos’.
‘Keep quiet, stay still,’ Adam said. ‘An ambulance is on the way. Just lie still and you’ll be okay.’
Adam took off my T-shirt and someone ran off and returned with cling film which he wrapped around my chest and my side in an effort to stem the bleeding. I remember him stuffing stocks into my wounds trying to stop the flow of blood that was everywhere. I recall his mother Andrea cradling my head in her arms, talking to me, soothing me, keeping me conscious as we waited for the ambulance. I owe my life to that family and particularly Adam. If it hadn’t been for his quick thinking I would be dead.
The next thing I remember was waking in hospital some 48 hours later, drifting in and out of consciousness. My mother Kate, sister Lizzie and brother Joseph were there standing around my bed and I wondered why they were there as though this was all part of a dream. I couldn’t understand what they were doing there, standing at the end of my bed looking at me. I asked if I was going to live. They gave me the answer I wanted to hear and I drifted once more into unconsciousness.
Five days after the shooting I was still in intensive care guarded round the clock by seven armed police officers, all wearing body armour. Ten days later I was moved from hospital to a safe house but I was still under armed guard. For two years I had pleaded with the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary Jack Straw to give me some protection but they had always refused, saying I was in no danger from the IRA. They even refused to give me any CCTV system to check outside my house for any suspicious strangers.
And yet my former friends in Northern Ireland’s Special Branch knew differently. They knew my life was still under threat even though there was a so-called cease fire, even though peace talks were due to start within days, attended by both Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Aherne. The Belfast SB knew I was still high on the IRA’s death list. But the Northumbria Police and the Home Secretary chose to ignore their advice.
If they had listened to those senior officers who knew the minds of those hard-line IRA activists, I would never have been shot because I would have had some protection. I was never cavalier about my security. I always knew that sometime, somewhere, they would have another go at me. And I was determined to make sure they didn’t get me.
After the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed in 1998 I had high hopes that one day I would be able to lead a normal, ordinary life; get a proper job, enjoy my life a little without the constant worry of waiting for the unexpected, the knock at the door, a bullet in the back or a gunman waiting by the garage to kill me. The longer the peace deal was intact the more my hopes rose.
Then Eamonn Collins, a self-confessed IRA killer who turned against the terrorist movement, was murdered by the Provos. At the time of his shooting I made a statement saying, ‘Now I feel like I am waiting for someone to come to my house and shoot me.’
I tackled Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams during a radio talk show earlier this year asking him when Sinn Fein/IRA were going to allow people like me to return in safety to Northern Ireland without fear of reprisals. His answer was evasive. That too made me realise that I had to keep my wits about me.
I heard in May this year that MI5 had warned senior politicians, including several former Northern Ireland Secretaries, to take extra care over security for they feared the Provos were intent on launching a new wave of violence. But no one warned me.
My Ma told me when she saw me lying in the hospital with bullet wounds all over my body, ‘Marty, you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get away. You know the Provos will never give up trying to kill you, peace or no peace.’
I know she’s right; my ma was always right. Now I must persuade the Home Secretary and the Northumbria Police to listen, take note and give me some protection.
End
Ps; Within minutes of Martin's shooting, while Martin was fighting for his life, Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government began a cover-up and a smear campaign against Martin McGartland, Why? Simple, they did so to save face given it was Northumbria Police and Mi5 who exposed Martin to danger after they, CPS and Mi5, took a failed malicious prosecution against him in 1987. During the case Northumbria Police read out Martin McGartland's name, home address in open court. Those details were published in UK wide newspapers. However, Northumbria Police continued to repeat the lie that Martin was safe. Martin McGartland was not safe, Mi5, Northumbria Police and CPS knew that, and he was shot 6 times by the IRA outside his home on 17th June 1999. Since then Northumbria Police have been covering-up the Martin McGartland case, covering-up for the IRA and refusing to admit in public that the IRA was involved in Martin attempted murder.
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Lots has happened since. You can read the whole story in; Fifty Dead Men Walking (Book) and Dead Man Running (Martin's second book). There has, and continues to be a Northumbria Police, Mi5 and British Government Cover-up, Jack Straw and home office have been involved. You can follow Martin on Facebook, Bebo and on the Martin McGartland Blogs.
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