Police draw fire in N. Ireland

Michael Brogden, a professor in criminal justice at Queens University, Belfast, says the Special Branch must be the focus of change. Mr. Brogden says the branch operates as a "force within a force" which, over the years, has fostered an unhealthy culture where virtually any criminal is regarded as a potential informer and given indemnity from prosecution, so long as he agrees to supply information.

"Most senior-ranking police officers have passed through Special Branch and have adopted its operational lead," he says. "Because of the mystique developed over many years, Special Branch has developed an arrogant belief that all other crime prevention and detection work comes secondary to its fight against paramilitary violence."

Special Branch still operates under guidelines that say, in effect, that no arrest can be made in Northern Ireland without its agreement. If it believes the suspect can provide information, the branch can give immunity from arrest.

Professor Brice Dickson, chief commissioner with the Human Rights Commission in Northern Ireland, rejects this principle: "To sacrifice the life of the victim of that person for the potential of saving the lives of other, as yet unidentified people, is a calculated risk that doesn't deserve to be made."

Protestants, however, are resisting many police reforms, which they say undermine the effort to combat paramilitary violence. Their political representatives in the Ulster Unionist Party, who have a majority on the Police Board, which was formed to hold law enforcers publicly accountable, are expected to reject the ombudsman's recommendations in the Omagh report.

A group calling itself the "Red Hand Defenders" has claimed responsibility for Stobie's killing. The Red Hand Defenders is a cover name for the illegal loyalist Ulster Defence Association, a group Stobie once belonged to and informed on to the police.

A year after the Finucane murder, Stobie claimed to have, while he was a paid police informer, supplied the gun used to murder the lawyer.

Finucane had been a thorn in the side of the police and legal establishment by successfully using the process of judicial review to obtain information about a disputed police "shoot to kill" campaign against suspected IRA members.

The Finucane family says it believes a conspiracy to murder him involved not only loyalist paramilitaries and the police, but also British military intelligence agents and probably senior London politicians. In response to these claims, the British government has ordered the appointment of an independent judge to assess the evidence and evaluate whether an inquiry is merited - a move the Finucane family calls a cynical delaying ploy.

Stobie had told journalists that he warned his Special Branch handlers twice before the murder that a major target was about to be shot by the UDA. He said he also told them where the murder weapon was the day after the shooting. He said that the police did nothing to prevent the attack and mounted a surveillance operation after the shooting to watch the guns being moved, with no attempt to make arrests.

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