INTELLIGENCE

                       No. 271, 11 Sept 1995
                       Publishing since 1980

Copyright ADI 1995. Reproduction in any form forbidden without explicit
authorization from the ADI. A one-year subscription (23 issues) is US $280.

NORTHERN IRELAND:
TROOPS KEEP "IN SHAPE" WITH INVERTRON WAR GAMES

     Thirteen months into the Northern Ireland "peace process"
and in the absence of a tangible enemy, the remaining British
regiments stationed in the province have retreated into a world
of virtual reality, combating virtual terrorism in the
Invertron Computer Simulation Hall at Ballykinler Army Camp in
County Down.  The previously classified high-tech training
facility can accommodate dozens of soldiers, seated before a
large screen showing hard-line Republican areas of west Belfast
where riots take place or Army patrols are ambushed, while the
"operator" calls in reinforcements or orders retreat.
Invertron is also linked to a specially-adapted sound system
producing the noise and confusion of an urban conflict
situation, including sirens, explosions and screams at "street
level reality".  Dense smoke can be pumped into the building to
add to the mayhem, but it is an optional extra.  Despite the
ceasefire, the IRA retains the capability to resume the war,
according to Brigadier David Strudley, and because patrols have
been reduced by two-thirds, the Invertron center is used by the
Army "as an essential means to maintain its present level of
readiness".  The Invertron also provides "training" in military
techniques for use outside Northern Ireland.  Soldiers are
given maps and binoculars to study areas of Bosnia on-line.
When they come under artillery attack from virtual Serbs, their
job is to reply with a virtual mortar barrage.  The war in
Northern Ireland has built up British expertise in urban
warfare which is recognized worldwide and is a significant
British military export item.  The Invertron system completes
that range of products and may find a good export market.

                            *

IRELAND - Intelligence Files "Hacked" From London?

British MI5 has reportedly hacked Irish Garda Special
Branch (C3) security and intelligence section computer files to
obtain information on Irish citizens.  An internal
investigation is under way and access to C3 files was
apparently obtained through Scotland Yard's legitimate access
to Criminal Branch (C4) files on the same Garda Phoenix Park
headquarters' system in Dublin.  As mentioned above (see p. 32
of this issue), important intelligence material is not kept on
computers that can be accessed from the outside, so it would
seem that the data purloined by London would largely have to do
with criminal investigations.

                         *

NORTHERN IRELAND - "Freds" & 14th ISC Demobilized.

The Irish press has widely commented the demobilization of the
British 14th Intelligence and Security Company (14th ISC) which
first operated in 1970 as the Military Reaction Force under
well-known counter-insurgency specialist Brigadier Frank
Kitson.  Its members came from all three armed services, were
trained by the SAS and specialized in anti-IRA covert
operations.  It recruited "former" IRA volunteers and local
citizens, called "Freds", which have now been abandoned to
their fate.  Some are reportedly seeking "rehabilitation" with
the IRA or considering taking their case to the European Court
of Human Rights.  The 14th ISC has returned its soldiers to
their original units and its officers to the Joint Service
Intelligence Center in Ashford, Kent.

                           *

GREAT BRITAIN: JUDGES GRIND THE AX DURING CEASEFIRE

     While senior British and Irish officials have been trying
to produce an acceptable formula as a basis to begin all-party
discussions on a political future for Northern Ireland, the
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London, has spent the last
thirteen months reviewing all unsolved IRA attacks on the
British mainland since the mid-1980s.  According to
"Intelligence" sources, the CPS -- in a confidential report to
the Home Office -- has drawn up a list of fifteen alleged IRA
suspects to be arrested on sight whatever the status of the
ceasefire.  "Evidence" against another ten individuals is
considered too weak to warrant arrest.  Top of the "hit list"
for Scotland Yard, and the CPS, are Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse
McAuley, who escaped from Brixton Prison in 1990 using a small
handgun smuggled into the jail in the hollowed-out sole of a
training shoe.  In 1993, both men were arrested by the Irish
Garda in Dublin on arms charges and sentenced to four and seven
years, respectively, in Portlaois Prison in the Irish Republic.
They will likely be released early next year as part of the
Irish government's ongoing response to the IRA ceasefire.

     However, the Home Office has informed the Justice
Department in Dublin that the CPS will issue extradition
warrants for both men as soon as they are freed.  Sources in
London believe Scotland Yard has advised government ministers
that it knows the identities of a number of Republican
activists which it claims were responsible for ninety percent
of the attacks on the mainland, including the bombing of the
Royal Marines Barracks at Deal in Kent, the assassination of
Ian Gow MP, the mortar attack on 10 Downing Street, the "siege"
of Heathrow Airport, and the huge Bishopsgate and Baltic
Exchange bombings in the City of London.

                          *

US/GREAT BRITAIN - Tight Bonding in Security & Homosexuals.

Supposedly the world's tightest security and intelligence bond
is the secret UKUSA agreement which, among other provisions,
has the American NSA paying and staffing portions of British
GCHQ eavesdropping stations.  This means the U.S. and Great
Britain share the most highly-classified intelligence and their
intelligence services are more-or-less "calibrated" one with
the other.  Therefore, President Bill Clinton's recent
executive order on secrecy, which states that "sexual
preference" is not a criterion for refusing security clearance
(IN, N. 270/41), will have to have a British equivalent soon.
Since London just can't "come out of the closet" and declare
homosexuality is not a security risk, a commission was formed
"to review the situation".  Announced on 4 September, the
commission will "take evidence" from service personnel and
"visit other nations".  This may just be a round trip to
Washington.

                                  *

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