:00:08. > :00:16.Tonight, dispatches from the covert war between the security forces and
:00:17. > :00:18.dissident republicans. And we ask, who is winning the war in the
:00:19. > :00:42.shadows? These days, political violence is
:00:43. > :00:48.supposed to be a thing of the past. But not everybody wants it that way.
:00:49. > :00:55.From hoaxes to bombs, from mortars to murder. Dissident Republicans are
:00:56. > :01:02.capable of being ruthless. The dissidents are back, bringing
:01:03. > :01:07.disruption to the streets. All they need is one success and one success
:01:08. > :01:14.will bring mayhem to the country. There is nothing in this world that
:01:15. > :01:24.can prepare you for that. They took away my future. But MI5 says it has
:01:25. > :01:31.a plan to keep the pressure on. These people will eventually either
:01:32. > :01:35.give up or piquant. It is a battle, fought in secret, relying on
:01:36. > :01:39.intelligence. But is this what success looks like? I do not think
:01:40. > :01:47.that anybody here would expect me to be grateful. Some of the most
:01:48. > :01:52.serious cases of dissidents terrorism remain unsolved. So how
:01:53. > :02:03.successful is this secret war and do victories on the ground resist --
:02:04. > :02:07.damage secret policing? I'm going to Northern Ireland's high security
:02:08. > :02:11.prison, to meet a man officially classified as one of the country's
:02:12. > :02:20.most dangerous dissident Republicans. Martin Corry is a
:02:21. > :02:27.63-year-old man from Lurgan. He was a grave-digger until 2010, when he
:02:28. > :02:30.was arrested at his home. He may not be the most high-profile Republican
:02:31. > :02:39.in Northern Ireland, but nowadays, his image is plastered, posted and
:02:40. > :02:42.painted across the heartlands of Northern Ireland. He is a convicted
:02:43. > :02:50.killer, freed on licence but then put back in prison on the basis of
:02:51. > :02:52.secret evidence. Martin Corey's family maintained that he does not
:02:53. > :02:55.know the specifics of the charges against him but from the court
:02:56. > :02:58.papers we have seen, it is possible to get an insight. He is accused of
:02:59. > :03:05.papers we have seen, it is possible being a continued IRA leader, of
:03:06. > :03:10.trying to recruit members and procure weapons. But he has not been
:03:11. > :03:15.questions, and has not faced trial for any of it. He has been there for
:03:16. > :03:21.three and a half years. If he has committed a crime, but the charges
:03:22. > :03:25.to him. So what is so sensitive about Martin Corey's alleged
:03:26. > :03:29.dissident terrorist activity, and why can it not be made public? I am
:03:30. > :03:39.on my way to find out from the man himself. Martin Corey was originally
:03:40. > :03:41.jailed 40 years ago for the murders of two RUC officers, ambushed by the
:03:42. > :03:54.IRA. He was released in 1992 of two RUC officers, ambushed by the
:03:55. > :03:57.licence, winning that if he breached certain conditions, the government
:03:58. > :04:04.could return him to prison. 18 years later, that is what they did. They
:04:05. > :04:10.revoked his licence, because they felt that he was a risk to society.
:04:11. > :04:15.Who felt that he was a risk to society? The law is the law. Nobody
:04:16. > :04:24.is above it or beyond it. Everybody has the right for their day in
:04:25. > :04:26.court. Martin Corey's licence was revoked on the basis of an
:04:27. > :04:32.intelligent smile submitted by the security service. A judge said that
:04:33. > :04:36.that procedure was unfair and ruled that Martin Corey should be freed on
:04:37. > :04:42.bail. That decision has been overturned and he is still inside. A
:04:43. > :04:47.handful of people have seen the secret in Telecom
:04:48. > :04:55.handful of people have seen the Corey. I would be aware of all the
:04:56. > :05:00.material in respect to that case. I am satisfied that it was sufficient
:05:01. > :05:05.that the revocation of his licence should be examined. It has also been
:05:06. > :05:10.seen by a security cleared lawyer. As recently as yesterday. But the
:05:11. > :05:20.substance of the allegations against him remains hidden. This case tests
:05:21. > :05:26.the traditional standards of justice against the needs of an intelligence
:05:27. > :05:30.war. For most people, justice means evidence tested in open court. But
:05:31. > :05:36.intelligence agencies want to keep their secrets in order to disrupt
:05:37. > :05:39.terrorist groups. And when they get the upper hand, the question is, in
:05:40. > :05:47.the long term, will it make things better or worse? Taking Martin Corey
:05:48. > :05:52.off the street has led to Republicans coming onto the
:05:53. > :05:57.streets, and that gives Sinn Fein's opponents the potential to start up
:05:58. > :06:02.a Republican base. Secret evidence is wrong, regardless of what reason
:06:03. > :06:05.they give for it. Secret evidence and secret police, that is the stuff
:06:06. > :06:11.you want to relegate to history. That should not be happening in a
:06:12. > :06:13.normal society. Sinn Fein supports the campaign to release Martin
:06:14. > :06:17.Corey, not least because they argue that actions like this detention
:06:18. > :06:22.undermine national list confidence in policing. We have seen a number
:06:23. > :06:27.of high-profile cases. We are seeing policing being polluted, and the
:06:28. > :06:32.undermining of confidence. policing being polluted, and the
:06:33. > :06:39.is to enforce policing. It is not helped by the interference of MI5
:06:40. > :06:41.and imaginations. -- their machinations. The difficulty for
:06:42. > :06:45.Sinn Fein is that it highlights an issue that is at and Republicans use
:06:46. > :06:52.against them, the fact that most sensitive security matters remain
:06:53. > :06:55.with London. The PSNI has the operational lead against dissident
:06:56. > :07:01.Republicans meaning that they carry out arrests and investigations. But
:07:02. > :07:06.MI5 is in charge of gathering intelligence. People sleep easier in
:07:07. > :07:08.their bed at night in Northern Ireland because we have people
:07:09. > :07:13.watching, listening, observing what is going on. There are people alive
:07:14. > :07:19.in Northern Ireland today, even in recent months, because the security
:07:20. > :07:23.services were able to intercept what the dissidents were up to and were
:07:24. > :07:27.able to prevent terrorist attacks. The Security service is the official
:07:28. > :07:33.name for what is more commonly known as MI5. It was put in charge of
:07:34. > :07:38.intelligence gathering on dissidents because the threat is considered a
:07:39. > :07:41.matter of UK national-security. But Nationalist critics say that MI5's
:07:42. > :07:48.reputation during the troubles means it cannot be trusted. It is very
:07:49. > :07:53.important in a situation like Northern Ireland, where there is a
:07:54. > :07:58.history of abuse, that the control and current ability mechanisms
:07:59. > :08:04.should be here within Northern Ireland, not outside. And we do not
:08:05. > :08:12.have that here as far as intelligence gathering is concerned.
:08:13. > :08:21.This building is the heart of MI5 in Northern Ireland. At the last Kent,
:08:22. > :08:26.it had about 500 employees. It is about a fifth of the organisation's
:08:27. > :08:34.total resources. What that is in pounds and pence is a state secret.
:08:35. > :08:38.All that effort is being pumped into what one former head of MI5 called a
:08:39. > :08:47.strategy to squeeze the energy from the dissidents by 2015. They are
:08:48. > :08:50.operating a policy of disruption. They are not necessarily that keen
:08:51. > :08:56.on filling jail cells full of people for all sorts of different
:08:57. > :09:05.offences. They are more keen on planting the seeds of dissent. The
:09:06. > :09:06.question is, is it working? It seemed to in the summer as headline
:09:07. > :09:10.events went off without a hitch. seemed to in the summer as headline
:09:11. > :09:13.in recent weeks, there has been a resurgence in dissident attacks,
:09:14. > :09:20.forcing people from their homes and taking life on the streets.
:09:21. > :09:23.According to MI5's new boss, who used to run the Northern Ireland
:09:24. > :09:30.operation, the security forces are winning. The number of terrorist
:09:31. > :09:35.attacks in Northern Ireland is diminishing as we crack down and the
:09:36. > :09:43.number of people in the courts is going up. Another dissident groups
:09:44. > :09:47.have been closely monitored by the security services and the PSNI. That
:09:48. > :09:53.has significantly restricted their capacity to engage in the type of
:09:54. > :09:58.high-level terrorist activity that they would like to be engaged in.
:09:59. > :10:02.Secret surveillance and undercover operations are a key element in the
:10:03. > :10:07.strategy to squeeze them. Michael Campbell was jailed in Lithuania for
:10:08. > :10:23.trying to buy weapons in an MI5 sting. He was cleared last month
:10:24. > :10:26.when a judge ruled he had been entrapped, but even though his
:10:27. > :10:32.conviction fell, the operation appears to have advanced MI5's
:10:33. > :10:37.strategy because it's so is doubt about the dissidents. It is as much
:10:38. > :10:44.a psychological war as anything else. Michael Campbell, his
:10:45. > :10:47.conviction was overturned. But if you are in the real IRA you are
:10:48. > :10:54.reluctant to engage in any act of tea with somebody you do not know.
:10:55. > :11:00.Yet, they have continued to strike. The murder of a prison officer,
:11:01. > :11:04.David lacked was a chilling and unpredicted attack. His killers came
:11:05. > :11:13.from a new IRA, said to be a particularly dangerous alliance of
:11:14. > :11:20.dissidents. But we have learned that group has already fractured, in part
:11:21. > :11:25.because of distrust about which members are compromised by working
:11:26. > :11:31.for the intelligence services. The dissident groups at the moment are
:11:32. > :11:34.fragmented. They have had a project to create a new IRA. That has effect
:11:35. > :11:41.every ended now. With had not worked out. A lot of these people, even
:11:42. > :11:47.within individual groups don't trust one another any more. The group
:11:48. > :11:50.within individual groups don't trust behind David Black's murder has been
:11:51. > :11:59.damaged, but no one has been convict did. That failure raises questions
:12:00. > :12:05.about whether disruption really works alongside securing
:12:06. > :12:12.convictions. And which of those is MI5's priority. David lacked's case
:12:13. > :12:22.is not the only one unresolved. Nobody has been convicted of the
:12:23. > :12:30.murder of police constable, Roman care. When you see them walking out
:12:31. > :12:43.smiling, it is a smack in the mouth to ordinary people. The lack of
:12:44. > :12:53.conviction for David lack an Ronan Kerr, what does that point to? We
:12:54. > :12:57.have convictions for possession of explosions and firearms. We work
:12:58. > :13:02.hard at preventing attacks happening. Right now the most
:13:03. > :13:07.significant remaining dissident conviction, that of two men for the
:13:08. > :13:13.murder of PC Stephen Carol hangs in the balance. The Court of Appeal is
:13:14. > :13:16.considering the convictions of John Paul Wotton and Brendan McConvill.
:13:17. > :13:22.What happened on the night of the murder brought the night -- Secret
:13:23. > :13:26.Service is out of the shadows, laying bare the potential tension
:13:27. > :13:27.between intelligence agencies and their need to gather information,
:13:28. > :13:34.against the police's their need to gather information,
:13:35. > :13:37.evidence fit for open court. Stephen Carol was shot dead almost four
:13:38. > :13:43.years ago when he came to this Craigavon housing estate to
:13:44. > :13:50.investigate a broken window. They took away my future, as they have
:13:51. > :13:54.done to other people. They did not care whether they killed one
:13:55. > :13:59.policeman, my husband, or whether they killed how many in that car.
:14:00. > :14:03.The extraordinary thing about Stephen Carol's murder is that at
:14:04. > :14:08.the very moment he was shot, a secret surveillance operation was
:14:09. > :14:11.already underway. But some of the evidence from that operation has
:14:12. > :14:20.disappeared entirely, for reasons no one has explained. At the time of
:14:21. > :14:28.the killing, a car belonging to John Paul Wotton was being trailed. A
:14:29. > :14:33.sophisticated, covert tracking device was hidden in the cart
:14:34. > :14:41.beaming out its location every two minutes. It had been placed by a
:14:42. > :14:45.secret army units, probably a special reconnaissance Regiment.
:14:46. > :14:49.According to the judge, at PSNI investigator could not get their
:14:50. > :14:58.hands on the tracker information immediately after the killing. Some
:14:59. > :15:01.of the data was handed over to investigated -- investigators two
:15:02. > :15:05.weeks after the murder, but it was four months until detect this could
:15:06. > :15:11.get the actual device from the Army and only after they threatened to
:15:12. > :15:14.get a warrant. Security services should cooperate where evidence they
:15:15. > :15:19.held would assist the police. should cooperate where evidence they
:15:20. > :15:23.that is not happening, that is something that I as a member of
:15:24. > :15:27.Parliament would be concerned about. The data showed the car had parked
:15:28. > :15:32.near the murder scene before the killing. But ten minutes after
:15:33. > :15:39.Stephen Carol were shot, it was on the move. Over the next three hours,
:15:40. > :15:46.the cart moved around Craigavon, making four separate stops. At
:15:47. > :15:53.trial, the prosecution alleged he was transporting Stephen Carol's
:15:54. > :15:58.killer. The tracker's readings said it stop here at 1:15am. We know the
:15:59. > :16:01.cart was moved after that, but information from the tracker stops
:16:02. > :16:12.here. According to the judge there was no data after 1:15am.
:16:13. > :16:19.That left a gap of more than 14 hours between the last known
:16:20. > :16:21.movements of the car and be addressed the next day. I gap
:16:22. > :16:33.created because someone had deleted the tracker's data. The soldier who
:16:34. > :16:36.placed the tracker told the court he had taken it out of the car after
:16:37. > :16:41.the arrest and left it on the table while he went on leave. When he came
:16:42. > :16:47.back, the tracker had been deliberately wiped, including the
:16:48. > :16:51.data on the car's last movements. But no one could explain why. If
:16:52. > :16:57.there is a suggestion evidence was wiped, that sounds to me like gross
:16:58. > :17:02.incompetence. Or it could we more sinister. It could be that the
:17:03. > :17:07.evidence was removed to cover somebody, to protect somebody. I
:17:08. > :17:14.don't know, I don't know the inside story. But the kindest words with
:17:15. > :17:21.the gross incompetence. But if you look on the other side of the coin,
:17:22. > :17:25.is it a cover up? Sinn Fein said the actions of the intelligence unit
:17:26. > :17:29.undermined the PSNI, a police force they support. They remain deeply
:17:30. > :17:37.sceptical about the methods and object is of British intelligence.
:17:38. > :17:45.In my opinion they know exactly why it was wiped. But the underlying
:17:46. > :17:51.point is this is a modem -- modus operandi of MI5. An army unit had a
:17:52. > :17:57.tracker on John Paul Wotton's car, did the PSNI know about that? Yes we
:17:58. > :18:02.did, and we had control of that entire operation from start to
:18:03. > :18:10.finish. Do you know information was wiped? No, because by that time
:18:11. > :18:14.there was a huge police operation in place and I am convinced I had
:18:15. > :18:19.access to all material and there is no ulterior motive or other agenda
:18:20. > :18:27.running in respect of this. Something had been deleted? I cannot
:18:28. > :18:31.say I was pleased about that, but we went down other evidential routes to
:18:32. > :18:37.prove the actual movements of that particular vehicle. For
:18:38. > :18:43.nationalists, the presence of a secret army reconnaissance unit is
:18:44. > :18:48.controversial, made worse by the apparent absence of independent
:18:49. > :18:55.scrutiny of its activities here. That is because of a specific legal
:18:56. > :18:59.loophole. The UK's secret intelligence gatherers, including
:19:00. > :19:05.MI5 are sub host to a range of watchdog bodies and commissioners. A
:19:06. > :19:09.key figure is the intelligence services Commissioner who oversees
:19:10. > :19:16.the conduct of MI5 and others. But he is specifically prevented from
:19:17. > :19:18.investigating Ministry of Defence personnel in Northern Ireland and
:19:19. > :19:24.that means the undercover army unit that lost the tracker's data. The
:19:25. > :19:28.former independent overseer of UK terror law says he is not aware of
:19:29. > :19:33.the detail of the case, but the tracker should not have been wiped.
:19:34. > :19:36.If anything was deliberately deleted, it should not have been
:19:37. > :19:40.deleted at all. It is the only deleted, it should not have been
:19:41. > :19:46.useful comment I can make. The police and security service in
:19:47. > :19:49.astonishingly difficult circumstances sometimes, work well
:19:50. > :19:54.together and have a united leadership on these issues. It was a
:19:55. > :19:58.year after Stephen Carol's murder that Martin Corey was returned to
:19:59. > :20:06.jail. One of the few known reasons for his arrest is he associated with
:20:07. > :20:10.a Lurgan Republican, a man police believe was involved with Stephen
:20:11. > :20:16.Carol's killer, but has not been brought before the courts. I have
:20:17. > :20:19.been in to see Martin Corey, but I was not allowed to record the
:20:20. > :20:24.conversation of ring in a pen and paper, but we did talk for over an
:20:25. > :20:31.hour. I had my fingers scanned, I was given this little bit of paper
:20:32. > :20:39.to produce to go in and visit Martin Corey. I found him a very entrenched
:20:40. > :20:45.Republican, old school. He said he was a leader of the continuity who
:20:46. > :20:50.was trying to buy weapons and trying to recruit members. One of the
:20:51. > :20:54.surprising things he told me, he believes he is back in jail because
:20:55. > :21:02.he refused to become an informant. He said he was approached approached
:21:03. > :21:10.repeatedly by two plainclothes PSNI operators. He refused to give
:21:11. > :21:14.information and they threatened him that his licence would be revoked.
:21:15. > :21:19.He says it is because of this he is back in jail. The PSNI said they
:21:20. > :21:22.don't comment on intelligence matters, but they use of agents is
:21:23. > :21:29.governed by the matters, but they use of agents is
:21:30. > :21:32.legislation. Martin Corey's situation has led some to invoke one
:21:33. > :21:38.of the most divisive memories from Northern Ireland's troubled past. He
:21:39. > :21:43.is being detained as a result of intelligence reports, intelligence
:21:44. > :21:49.sightings, what ever you want to call it. But that is not evidence.
:21:50. > :21:56.That is an important point to make, because this is effectively
:21:57. > :22:00.internment without trial. To use the word interment, it is a big
:22:01. > :22:05.accusation? I think I am using it accurately, not just as a politician
:22:06. > :22:10.but is also as a lawyer. I don't believe there has been due process.
:22:11. > :22:16.The fact remains, although evidence is secret, the process is legal.
:22:17. > :22:21.Licences are not revoked in the court of public opinion. They
:22:22. > :22:27.revoked by people who the law charges for taking those decisions.
:22:28. > :22:31.It is ridiculous to suggest a man has been denied his Liberty based on
:22:32. > :22:39.an arbitrary decision. The people taking this decision take it on the
:22:40. > :22:42.evidence presented to them. Gerry Conlon of the Guildford four is
:22:43. > :22:49.worried about justice not being seen to be done. I have been imprisoned
:22:50. > :22:57.for 15 years for something I did not do. Totally innocent man. I watched
:22:58. > :23:02.my father die in a British prison for something he did not do. He is
:23:03. > :23:06.back in court these days as an observer, worried about the use of
:23:07. > :23:10.shadowy intelligence in observer, worried about the use of
:23:11. > :23:15.cases. British justice has always been based on that you know the
:23:16. > :23:23.accusations you are facing and you face your accusers. Even though what
:23:24. > :23:29.happened to others was wrong and the law was subverted in order to secure
:23:30. > :23:34.conviction, British justice when it is applied in its proper context, is
:23:35. > :23:40.probably the best judicial system in the world. How can you say it is the
:23:41. > :23:47.best in the world? British justice, if it is run as it should be, and I
:23:48. > :23:52.have no doubt in most cases it is, it is probably one of the best legal
:23:53. > :23:56.systems in the world. But we live in a democracy and it is not good
:23:57. > :23:59.enough to say we have had secret information we cannot share. This
:24:00. > :24:05.enough to say we have had secret going down the Guantanamo Bay
:24:06. > :24:09.route. A Sunday in north Belfast and Republicans gather for a ceremony to
:24:10. > :24:16.remember Thomas Begley, the IRA bomber. Some of these people used to
:24:17. > :24:21.trouble MI5, but now they are mainstream and they are dismissive
:24:22. > :24:27.of the dissidents. They are not having any effect, not going
:24:28. > :24:35.anywhere. The people who are involved in these other republican
:24:36. > :24:41.groups are entirely wrong. A week later, and evidence that Sinn
:24:42. > :24:46.Fein's critics are attempting to use allegations of interment as a
:24:47. > :24:48.rallying cry. Supporters of Martin Corey have organised a picket along
:24:49. > :24:54.the road. It was built on a world Corey have organised a picket along
:24:55. > :25:01.record attempt, but the numbers are less than overwhelm and. It is about
:25:02. > :25:05.getting people who have political dissent of the street. Putting them
:25:06. > :25:12.in jail and scaring other people from joining in. The police say
:25:13. > :25:15.there is no substance to that allegation and anyone jailed will
:25:16. > :25:21.have gone through the proper judicial process. These people know
:25:22. > :25:26.we are constantly working towards building a case against them. We
:25:27. > :25:34.have charged 261 people since the 1st of April, 2010, of axe of
:25:35. > :25:40.terrorism. That is a chunk of people who have been active in the
:25:41. > :25:43.dissident groups. Although many have been charged, few have been
:25:44. > :25:50.convicted and some claim that suits MI5.
:25:51. > :25:54.In County Tyrone, I meet a man who was remanded in jail after the
:25:55. > :25:59.police said his fingerprints were found on a plastic bag containing a
:26:00. > :26:07.new type of bomb. A man who accepts the title of Dissident Republicans
:26:08. > :26:12.publicly but denies any role in terrorism. The messages on the wall,
:26:13. > :26:16.do you feel you have been at the sharp end?
:26:17. > :26:23.The writing is not from a bygone area. But the someone who has spent
:26:24. > :26:29.nine months on numerous charges, I have never seen any of the evidence
:26:30. > :26:36.that was used against me. What is notable about this case is that
:26:37. > :26:40.after spending months in jail on explosives and terrorist charges,
:26:41. > :26:44.his case was dropped. We don't even know if the evidence exist. I don't
:26:45. > :26:50.think there was ever enough to hold me. I think they knew that and they
:26:51. > :26:56.used the remand period to inter me because of my political beliefs. Why
:26:57. > :27:00.would you become a target? With these powers, it is a case of who is
:27:01. > :27:06.giving us trouble in what areas and who isn't singing off him switch --
:27:07. > :27:14.hymn sheet. I have seen absolutely no evidence of arrest to be used as
:27:15. > :27:18.a technique of disruption. If I did, I would criticise it severely
:27:19. > :27:27.and I do not believe ministers either locally, or UK ministers
:27:28. > :27:31.would support it. This problem is, the criminal justice system is so
:27:32. > :27:38.slow that it is possible these cases are just normal. I think you can
:27:39. > :27:40.certainly said the slow system creates a temptation for the police
:27:41. > :27:46.and intelligence agencies to kick people into the long paperwork, if
:27:47. > :27:53.you like. You need to be an angel to resist that temptation, perhaps.
:27:54. > :27:56.Whatever their tactics, the security services strategy seems to have
:27:57. > :28:03.lowered the death toll inflicted by dissidents. I think police on both
:28:04. > :28:08.sides of the border and security services in Northern Ireland are
:28:09. > :28:11.fighting a different type of war against Dissident Republicans. I
:28:12. > :28:16.think that the moment it is being successful. As long as the dissident
:28:17. > :28:23.threat remains in Northern Ireland, so should MI5, say their supporters.
:28:24. > :28:26.The security services are saving lives in Northern Ireland. Their
:28:27. > :28:34.work is preventing many attacks by Dissident Republicans. No citizen in
:28:35. > :28:42.Northern Ireland who operate within the law has nothing to be frightened
:28:43. > :28:45.about with these operations. But MI5's presents a road 's efforts at
:28:46. > :28:53.giving the police the confidence of their communities. What good are
:28:54. > :28:57.they doing? In my opinion, non-. We need to worry about who is looking
:28:58. > :29:04.at the bigger political picture. MI5 can be affect did in disrupting the
:29:05. > :29:07.dissidents the years, but if they are using secret evidence, a
:29:08. > :29:12.political issue builds up that needs to be addressed and we don't have
:29:13. > :29:16.the mechanism to address that. Secrets and violence flourish in
:29:17. > :29:23.darkness. The hope must be the war of the shadows gives way to the pale
:29:24. > :29:28.dawn of peace. That no more lives are lost and that the battle for
:29:29. > :29:48.hearts and minds is a victory for us all.
:29:49. > :29:52.By the 1920s, nearly one in four residents was Jewish.
:29:53. > :29:57.Even so, the predominance of Jewish songwriters on Broadway
:29:58. > :30:00.was then, and remains today, a phenomenon.
:30:01. > :30:04.They're almost all Jewish, but the great exception that makes