Policeman's Guide to Staying Alive

Policeman’s Guide to Staying Alive

The Irish Observer (theirishobserver.blogspot.com) speaks exclusively to a former Provisional IRA Intelligence Officer in order to try and learn how PSNI officers may best avoid or reduce the risks posed by ‘dissident’ terrorists.

1. Do you think that the risks posed by dissidents to police officers have changed in any way since your time in the IRA and the methods used by the PIRA to target and attack police officers?


2. I think there are a number of differences now compared to when I was active. Dissidents are fewer in number in terms of geographical spread and support net works, this does not make them any less effective but it does mean that their attacks are more geographical tight. I would also suggest the greater number of Catholics now joining the Police gives the dissidents access to more soft targets. I would imagine that the dissidents are presently building a portfolio of targets, they won’t shoot or blow up a police officer just because they have his/her details, they will strike as and when it suits them.


3. Did you target Police officers when you were in the PIRA and if so how was that done?


4. My main task for the PIRA was targeting members of the RUC, UDR, British Army and British military installations. People who are not familiar with the way in which we operated tend to think this is some sophisticated computer based operation; the fact is that the people targeting security personnel are ordinary people who live among you in the community. Of course there are areas where police officers are relatively safe however if you take a small border town where the community is fairly mixed Catholic/Protestant within that Catholic community there is going to be a percentage of persons who are sympathetic to the IRA. These people don’t have to be members of the IRA or the dissidents, but simply people who find out that someone has joined the security services and mentions it intentionally or incidentally to someone who is able to supply that information to people who have the capacity to carry out an attack. Much of the information that I had access to came from people talking without knowing that I was someone who would be bringing that information back to an IRA Active Service Unit.


5. So what would your first piece of advice be to any PSNI Officer or other security personnel who are presently facing the dissident threat?


6. The same advice I used to give IRA volunteers, keep your mouth shut. Loose talk costs lives. Younger officers in particular will be tempted to tell everyone and any one that they are in the PSNI. They will have a few drinks, meet someone in a night club and without thinking they will talk out of shop. You just never know where that information is going to end up. I was recently told about a young off duty Catholic PSNI officer socialising in a night club in Cookstown and showing his warrant card to prove to a young lady that he was in fact a PSNI officer. If I had received this information when I was active I would have been encouraging the young women to get him back to the night club so that he could be targeted. Alcohol was a gift to someone like me when I was active, I got so much information through lose talk you would not believe it.


7. What was the IRA’s favoured attack method?


8. Clearly the PIRA championed the use of landmines, mortar attacks, car bombs, RPGs and so forth. However we dedicated a great deal of time to targeting smaller targets on a smaller scale. We wanted to unnerve both the security forces and the general Protestant community. So while a car bomb in Belfast was great for international headlines it had little or no impact on the Protestants in rural communities. So the targeting of individual police officers and other security force personnel was essential in undermining community confidence in the States ability to protect them. The PIRA were very excited when they perfected the booby trap bomb. This was a favoured method of attack on police and other security personnel. For example one individual could be tasked with planting a booby trap bomb under a police officers car. This reduced the risk to IRA personnel and maximised the psychological impact on the Protestant and security force community.


9. What about shooting individual security personnel?


10. This is a high risk tactic it has too many variables, but there were those members of the IRA and now dissidents who like to get up close and personal during some of their attacks. Police officers will be killed as and how the dissidents can achieve that end, bombs I think will be the main focus of the dissidents. The booby trap will be used with more effect and now that the dissidents have many former senior PIRA members assembling their bombs for them I think the bomb and the spectacular will be their main focus. Individual police officers will be targeted by both gun and booby trap attack.


11. So if you were talking to a PSNI Officer today what would you tell him/her to do in order to try better to protect themselves?


12. To new recruits I would say the following; more experienced officers know the score. Keep your mouth shut. Ask not to get stationed in an area where you are known. If you are a Catholic from Tyrone get based in Belfast. Don’t live in an area where you are likely to be identified. If you’re a Catholic don’t play for the local GAA club as someone may not be as pragmatic as you are. Socialise in a safe place, for example if you are a Catholic police officer don’t go to a big Night Club in Cookstown, go out in Belfast and stay with close friends/family. Protestant officers will know from family, friends and tradition where they are best able to socialise. Each officer will have been given the basic training of checking under their cars each morning etc however, they cannot be trained in the thinking of the determined ‘dissident’.


13. What would the process be in relation to the targeting and then attacking of a police officer?


14. Well it can take many forms. It could be as simple as someone saying I hear that John Blogs has joined the PSNI. Upon hearing this that person may intentionally or incidentally mention it to someone who is connected to the dissidents. That person will then report to an actual dissident, that dissident may be interested in the target, he/she will then use other methods to establish all the facts available about the said police officer. The dissidents will then determine if it is possible or at least worth the risk to carry out an attack on that officer. They will establish where and how the officer parks his car at night, if the car is accessible in darkness they may simply drive into the area one person will walk to the policeman’s/woman’s car plant the booby trap under the car and drive away. This is the perfect attack and they don’t care who gets hurt as the attack was meant for the police officer and that will justify the attack no matter who is hurt. In terms of personal security this type of attack is more likely at the moment than an individual officer being targeted in a gun attack. On the street and while on patrol officers will face an array of traditional attacks as we have seen in recent weeks and months.


15. Do you think the dissidents can achieve any political goal by their on going campaign?


16. The dissidents have no political legitimacy they are mainly motivated by criminal enterprise; we have seen it is south Armagh with the PIRA where so called republicans had made millions off the back of the conflict. The dissidents are no different they don’t want the police in their areas as they cannot carry on their criminal enterprises when the law can be enforced. For example in South Armagh the ‘dissidents’ are simply made up of former PIRA members who have watched as the law has moved in on their criminal enterprises. When you see people like the former IRA Chief of Staff, Thomas Slab Murphy coming before the courts in the Irish Republic facing charges relating to tax evasion and so forth it is clear that many will do what ever it takes to keep the police out of South Armagh. These people in the RIRA, CIRA and so forth are nothing more than criminals wrapped in a flag just as many PIRA were before them.


17. Do you believe that the dissidents pose a serious threat at this time?

18. I think they pose a very specific threat, I think they have many motivations, I think they will continue to target and attack members of the security forces, I think they will want to carry out a number of attacks in Fermanagh/South Tyrone in the aftermath of the election of a unionist candidate in that constituency due to the historic nature of that seat for republicans in terms of Bobby Sands and the hunger strikes. This week marks the 29th Anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands, it marks the 23rd Anniversary of Loughgall and it is also the week that sees Fermanagh/South Tyrone going back to unionists, what do you think they are going to do.


19. Many thanks for this interview and hopefully it can help to save lives.


20. You’re welcome.