Revolting, sinister tactics to turn Seamus McKenna into a state witness

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Sunday September 08, 2013 08:20 by M. O’ hAnluain

Unfortunately, it appears that Ireland has become increasingly more interested in hanging onto the shirt tails of the US than ever before, allowing agents from that country to work within the boundaries of this ‘state’ without adequate clearance. For years, this so called ‘neutral state’ has continuously been abused by the covert activities of the British Security Services and now we have additional interference by the US, impinging here at will. The rendition flights at Shannon are one typical example, another case in point was the involvement of US agents in the McKevitt trial in 2003, where it emerged that MI5 and the FBI were running an informer within the jurisdiction for up to a decade.

In a recent Sunday Independent article (28 July 2013) penned by a Sean O’Driscoll (a US attorney), he described how he spent “years trying to convince the late Seamus McKenna to give evidence against his fellow bombers” referring to those responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing. Mc Kenna had been accused of involvement in the Omagh bombing but had been acquitted.

O’Driscoll outlined details of various alleged meetings between himself and Seamus McKenna and the conversations, which he says, took place. Of course, it is easy to quote from a dead person who cannot contradict or counteract the allegations made, therefore the article must be viewed with a great deal of scepticism,

I would have no doubt that Mr O Driscoll was acting on behalf of the security services, most likely the FBI in conjunction with MI5 and by extension a small (if any) input from the Irish authorities. Interestingly O’Driscoll refused to outline any of this in the article, which leaves its content scarce on fact.

After reading it several times, I concluded that it was one of the most disturbing stories that I have come across. Throughout the article, one couldn’t help but feel a sense of uneasiness about how someone deliberately set about to prey on such a vulnerable person in an attempt to extract some ‘hollow’ story for reward of some sort, because to even suggest that it was voluntary on O'Driscoll's behalf, rings hollow. I doubt anyone would disagree with me in describing O’Driscoll’s actions as those of a parasite preying on defenceless individuals in the hope of extracting some kind of ‘information’ through drunkenness from the most susceptible of people.

According to O’Driscoll, Mr McKenna was a chronic alcoholic, yet throughout the alleged meetings, it certainly appears as though O’Driscoll was deliberately filling this ‘chronic alcoholic’ with alcohol in a bid to induce McKenna into agreeing to turn states evidence in a bid to feed his addiction. Overall, this is a truly horrifying story with not an ounce of creditability by any stretch of the imagination. What O’Driscoll’s personal pay off would be can only be speculated, however there is little doubt that others lurking in the background were financing the overall project?

According to his article, he outlined how he contacted some wealthy friends in the US who would offer McKenna financial assistance and a safe passage out of the country after he had done the deed as a prosecution witness. Exactly who these “wealthy friends” were was not disclosed. One can only conclude that whoever they were they had some involvement with the state agencies. If Mr O’Driscoll had nothing to hide, he should have elaborated more and described how he found Mr McKenna’s address and why he felt the need to embark on such a venture into the town of Dundalk often described as a hotbed for militant republicanism. Was he not nervous about such a venture and was he being protected throughout the time he was in the area? He also should have come clean and outlined, on whose behalf was he working, who was financing him, and after he extracted the information where did he report? Were the Irish authorities aware of his venture and did they warn him of the potential dangers?

Before Mr O’ Driscoll writes such stories, he should ensure that he gives a little more honest detail particularly on his motivation, his financial backers and of course his handlers and advisers, before he expects the Irish people to swallow such baloney, Sorry Mr O’Driscoll, it is too much to expect people to believe that it was a solo run; we all know that it wasn’t, if anything can be drawn from your article it is that you are a person people should be wary of and avoid.