Did Czechs Sell Semtex to IRA? Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - irsp@mail.netwizards.net BBC Summary of World Broadcasts Firm denies selling Semtex to Northern Ireland's rebels Excerpt from report by the Czech newspaper Hospodarske noviny on 23 January London/Prague: Referring to documents belonging to the German secret service and police, the British daily The Times reported on 8 January that terrorists from Northern Ireland had purchased the Semtex explosive in the Czech Republic in 1994. Jiri Ruzek, director of the Czech Security Intelligence Service (BIS), told CTK that, while the BIS does monitor transfers of weapons and explosives, it cannot reply to specific questions from the media... The Times wrote on 8 January that four members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) [names given] had met an "an Omnipol representative in Plzen" in August 1994 and purchased Semtex from him. The newspaper erroneously wrote that Omnipol is the manufacturer of Semtex. In actual fact, the explosive was and continues to be manufactured by the Pardubice-based [eastern Bohemia] firm Synthesia. Omnipol had only been trading in Semtex until 1989 or 1990, Omnipol Director-General Michal Hon told CTK, ruling out any involvement of his firm in illegal dealings with the INLA... Director Hon admitted that the person who introduced himself as an Omnipol representative might have been a former employee of this firm. According to Hon, many employees left Omnipol in 1990, and some of them set up their own firms and continue to trade in arms. Since 1997, three-fifths of Omnipol staff have been young, newly-hired people, although Hon admits that some employees of the old [communist-era] Omnipol are still working for the company. Synthesia spokesman Ales Mokren said that Synthesia was only engaged in legal trade with Semtex and ruled out the company's involvement in dealings with terrorists. He also ruled out the possibility of anyone having stolen Semtex from Synthesia and having subsequently sold it. "Our security measures are sufficiently strict. All the records we keep are absolutely precise," he noted, pointing out that not a single instance of theft of Semtex from the production premises was known. Nonetheless, according to information published by the media, cases of illegal trading with Semtex are not rare in the Czech Republic... ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-01.30.01-03:14:37-8552