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| 1602.1 | The rest of the Article from ET | AD::HOKINSON | | Thu Aug 01 1996 15:53 | 117 |
| [Image] Electronic Telegraph
UK News
Thursday August 1 1996 Issue 440
[Image]
[See text menu at bottom of page]
[Image] 'SAS' author held after claims over IRA executions
By Toby Harnden, Ireland Correspondent
---------------
External Links
AN AUTHOR who claimed to be a member of an SAS squad
that murdered unarmed IRA suspects in Northern Ireland
was arrested yesterday and flown to Belfast for
[Image]SAS questioning under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
information
The man, who used the pen name Paul Bruce to write The
Nemesis File: The True Story of an Execution Squad, was
[Image]Royal detained at 5.45am at his home in Weston-super-Mare,
Ulster North West Somerset, by seven officers from the Royal
Constabulary Ulster Constabulary. He was still being held at the
high-security Castlereagh station last night.
[Image]Sinn Among items seized was the manuscript of his book
Fein containing a new chapter that his publisher said would
substantiate his claims.
[Image]Belfast In the book, which became a best-seller, Bruce, 48, said
Telegraph that he had been one of four members of an SAS squad
that executed about 30 men in 1971 and 1972 and buried
them in unmarked woodland graves. Defence sources
[Image]An ridiculed the claims and Sinn Fein described them as
Phoblact "totally outlandish".
According to Bruce, he joined the SAS after a short
[Image]Northern spell in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Ireland He said that he took part in a double murder in October
Information 1971 in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, shooting one
Page suspect in the face and the other in the heart in front
of a shop that was open. However, no such murders were
ever reported.
---------------
He claimed that at least 27 IRA suspects were murdered
after being delivered to his squad, often drugged, by
another SAS unit. Bruce said that he killed 13 himself.
In an unpublished interview earlier this year, he said:
"I want it all cleared up once and for all and I will
seriously consider returning to Northern Ireland to show
where we dumped the bodies.
"I know I could be charged with murder but I don't
believe I will be convicted. If they charge me they have
to charge the others in the squad and the ones who gave
us our orders.
"The man has always said he would talk to the RUC. To
drag him out of his bed in that way seems very
heavy-handed"
"I will give the police the real names of the others.
One is dead, killed in the Falklands. Another is
contactable but I don't know where the last one is."
Bruce's claims have been the subject of parliamentary
questions by Rupert Allason, the Conservative MP and spy
writer, and Ken Livingstone, the Labour MP. John Blake,
Bruce's publisher, said he was amazed by the arrest.
"The man has always said he would talk to the RUC. To
drag him out of his bed in that way seems very
heavy-handed." He said that the Government had been part
of a "disinformation campaign" designed to discredit the
author. "We knew it was only a matter of time before
remains would start being found. This book is true."
Although Bruce gave precise locations of burial sites in
his book, it is understood no bodies have been
discovered. RUC sources said that the claims were so
serious they had to be investigated but Bruce's arrest
did not necessarily indicate that a crime had been
committed.
The co-author of the new chapter in the book, due to be
published in three weeks, was Fred Holroyd, a former
captain in the Intelligence Corps who claims to have
worked for MI6 in Northern Ireland.
He left the Army in 1976 after suffering what his
superiors described as mental stress and has been
claiming for some years that killer gangs murdered IRA
suspects in the 1970s.
A senior SAS source said Bruce was "definitely never a
member of this regiment". The Ministry of Defence
believes Bruce was a former member of REME who worked
with the SAS and used his limited knowledge to write a
sensationalist story that would earn him a lot of money.
Security sources in Northern Ireland said that there was
a determination to get to the bottom of Bruce's
allegation. If the story was fictitious, he could be
charged with wasting police time.
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| 1602.2 | RUC arrests author of fresh allegations against SAS in North | GYRO::HOLOHAN | | Fri Aug 02 1996 09:29 | 55 |
|
By Alison O'Connor (Irish Times 8/1/96)
An author who claimed he was once part of an SAS death squad which executed
IRA suspects in Northern Ireland has been arrested by the RUC.
The man, who used the alias Paul Bruce to publish The Nemesis File: the true
story of an execution squad, was arrested in a dawn raid on his home in
England yesterday and flown to Belfast for questioning.
The RUC would confirm only that a man, whom they did not name, had been
arrested and was now being questioned "about serious crime".
However his London-based publishers, Blake Publishing, claimed he had been
held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They said police had seized the
manuscript of the paperback edition of The Nemesis File which, they say, will
contain a new chapter with further revelations about SAS activities in Northern
Ireland.
The book is due to go on sale on September 1st.
The original edition, published last autumn, claimed that between 1971 and
1972 his squad executed more than 30 men, all of whom were buried in
unmarked, woodland graves.
It claimed to know the exact sites of these graves, that the first victims were
unarmed IRA suspects and that latterly the victims were innocent young men
picked at random in Catholic areas.
The British Ministry of Defence was dismissive of the claims, expressing
"serious doubts" as to whether the author was a former SAS member.
Publisher Mr John Blake said a "campaign of dis-information" had been carried
out by the authorities but now, he believed, they were beginning to accept that
the information was true.
"We have always said he would be happy to speak to the RUC. I find it
incredible that they now decide to send seven officers to knock on his door in
England and arrest him. I think they know the information in the book is true
and they may even have found some of the graves", he said. In the new chapter
in the paperback version, a named MI6 officer confirmed that these things did
take place and said the author was a hero for telling the truth, Mr Blake said.
According to the publishers, the author was arrested at 5.45 a.m. when the
RUC officers called to his flat in the west country. His publisher was informed
of the incident by a telephone call from the author's girlfriend.
The book has sold "brilliantly well" in hardback, according to the
publisher, and was on the Sun- day Times Top 10 Bestseller List for the
first four months of this year.
|
| 1602.3 | | MOVIES::POTTER | http://www.vmse.edo.dec.com/~potter/ | Fri Aug 02 1996 10:16 | 9 |
| I believe the author (who hasn't been brave enough to give his real name) has
admitted that it was all a hoax, and in fact was only ever a mechanic with
REME. The book apparently is full of very basic errors, too.
Of course, I'm sure that any competent conspiracy theorist will believe that
it's all some kind of plot.
regards,
//alan
|
| 1602.4 | | BIS1::MENZIES | Resume the Ceasefire!!! | Fri Aug 02 1996 10:29 | 7 |
| Enjoy your holidays Mark, where did you go anyway ?
It does seem strange that the SAS would pick someone from REME. Even
today the government is trying to reduce its recruitment bias towards
Para. I'm going to avoid comment untill i've found iut more.
Shaun.
|
| 1602.5 | | TERRI::SIMON | Semper in Excernere | Fri Aug 02 1996 12:23 | 12 |
| Anybody can join the SAS from what ever source. As long as they can
pass the selection, I've seen them in Brecon, running up Pen-Y-Fan.
The book is a reasonable story if taken as that, just a story. Not very
nice the the Irish, North or South. Sadly it does a dishonour to the SAS.
The RUC has released Bruce, real name Inman, as there isn't a shred of
evidence. I now understand that Inman has confessed that the book is a
hoax.
Simon
Hope you had a fine holiday Mark
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| 1602.6 | Vivid imagination | WARFUT::CHEETHAMD | | Fri Aug 02 1996 12:23 | 5 |
| BBC reported yesterday (1-Aug) that the guy had admitted that the only
involvment he had in NI was for a couple of months as a REME mechanic
and that the book was a work of fiction. The RUC have released him.
Dennis
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| 1602.7 | | BIS1::MENZIES | Resume the Ceasefire!!! | Fri Aug 02 1996 12:40 | 7 |
| Well what a complete sad twanker the author is then. I mean I can
imagine him sitting in his unfullfilled life, dreaming up macho
scenarios to bull his mates with in the pub. Then he decides to write a
book about one of them, using the secrecy of the SAS as a way of
claiming that its non-fiction. Honestly, the guy is a coplete twat!
Shaun$Annoyed
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| 1602.8 | but a rich sad twanker | WARFUT::CHEETHAMD | | Fri Aug 02 1996 12:55 | 6 |
| Unfortunately, due to the gullibility of the Great British public, he
made lots of money from his lies, apparently the tome was a great
success in hard back. I must admit to having a look at a copy in a
bookshop but it reeked of phoney even to my unpractised eyes.
Dennis
|
| 1602.9 | Food for the roses.. | METSYS::BENNETT | Straight no chaser.. | Fri Aug 02 1996 14:36 | 21 |
| People often want to believe stuff like this. Official (over-)
reaction often adds the "oxygen of publicity".
For example, remember the huge row about the Spy Catcher book.
Thatcher wanted it banned in all countries. She sent Alan Clark
to Australia to contest its publication there. Alan Clark duly did
the business, coining the now famous phrase "Economical with the
actualite". When I tried reading the book, it turned out to be a
poorly written disappointment.
Another example: in Ireland, the best way to get a clamouring readership
for a book is to have it banned by the Catholic Church. An increased
demand is a virtual certainty as a result. Books by James Joyce were
banned, as were the novels by Edna O'Brien. Huge controversy raged
over whether young Catholic university students, North and South, should
obey their tutors and read them as part of their curriculum, or obey
the Catholic Church.
The whole charade is a load of horse manure.
John
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| 1602.10 | | BIS1::MENZIES | Resume the Ceasefire!!! | Mon Aug 05 1996 06:43 | 13 |
| >>Unfortunately, due to the gullibility of the Great British public, he
>>made lots of money from his lies
What sort of comment is that, are you now an expert of racial genetic
inheritance ? Do you really think that the great British public is more
gullible than any other country's public.
A book that generates controversy will alwayes generate popular demand
and this is the same for any society or country, as previously
mentioned. I know it sound like i'm being a bit fussy but such comments
propel racism.
Shaun.
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| 1602.11 | Yup | WARFUT::CHEETHAMD | | Mon Aug 12 1996 13:15 | 12 |
| re .10
Sorry about the delay, out of the office.
>>Do you really think that the great British public is more gullible
>> than any other country's public
Yup, Many of them (should that be us as I'm British) buy, read and
believe that b*****d Murdoch's newspapers.
Dennis
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