I am real plastic Irish !! i love the people want to be them and think that the fact i have redhair means i can pretened that i have some irish in me somewhere! I have spent ALOT of time in the North and have fallen in love with the honesty patience and humilty of the people on both sides of the fence that were effected and still even today relive the horror of the not so distant past. The Omagh Bombing was one of the larger tragic moments of the troubles and some questions are still not answered... questions that are still imprtant today, Not only for the people of Omagh but to us now facing terror from whoever. We have systems in place to keep us safe, but do they work ? do we do all we can ?
What The Police Were Never Told was revealed that GCHQ had been eavesdropping on some of the mobile telephones used to coordinate the Omagh bombing.
The programme broadcast on 15th September last year also alleged that the detectives whose job it was to catch the bombers were never given vital intelligence that had been gleaned from the GCHQ intercepts.
Two days after transmission Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered Sir Peter Gibson to conduct a review into "any intercepted intelligence material available to the security and intelligence agencies in relation to the Omagh bombing and how this intelligence was shared".
Sir Peter delivered his report to the Prime Minister before Christmas and a summary of his review was published Wednesday, 21 January.
Does Sir Peter Gibson's report mean that Panorama got it wrong over Omagh?
There are three key issues contained within the programme. The first is the revelation that GCHQ was, at the request of Special Branch in Northern Ireland monitoring mobile phones of some of the bombers on the day of the bombing and in the weeks leading up to it.
The second is the question, predicated on the intercepts being done in "real time" of whether or not the bombing could have been prevented.
The third and final issue is the question that occupied the bulk of the programme; why were the detectives hunting the bombers not told about the intelligence that GCHQ had gathered - intelligence which could have allowed them to make early arrests.
Sir Peter Gibson's report deals only with the second issue - could the bombing have been prevented?
He does not deny that interception took place and the central question remains as to why intelligence gathered by GCHQ and passed to Special Branch was not shared with the CID officers whose job it was to catch and imprison the bombers. In this regard we are still waiting for answers.
