AL VAGLIO DEL GOVERNO LE AFFERMAZIONI DI IAN PAISLEY JR
Il Governo è chiamato a dar conto delle affermazioni di Ian Paisley sull’operato di ufficiali della PSNI in Libia
E’ ben lungi dal chiudersi il capitolo ‘scandalo’ che lega la PSNI al servizio di polizia libico.
Avevano fatto scalpore le rivelazioni della scorsa settimana, in cui si sanciva il nulla osta di Ian Paisley Jr all’invio in Libia di ufficiali del Police Service of Northern Ireland, per addestrare agenti di polizia libici. All’epoca dei fatti era a capo del Policing Board’s Human Resources Committee.
Ian Paisley Jr a difesa della sua decisione ha affermato sarcasticamente: “In un mondo adulto non bisogna essere dei geni per capire perchè sarebbe stato utile avere in Libia un alto ufficiale, con competenze di intelligence, con l’opportunità di poter esaminare quel Paese e di portare a casa delle informazioni”.
Resta ora l’interrogativo se realmente l’invio di ufficiali in Libia fosse subordinato, sin dall’inizio, al servizio dell’intelligence.
Jim Allister ha espresso scetticismo sulla correlazione tra l’attività in Libia degli agenti della PSNI e i servizi di intelligence, non mancando di sottolineare la sua preoccupazione per la situazione di rischio nella quale gli ufficiali sarebbero stati costretti ad operare.
Nel frattempo Peter Robinson ha fatto sapere che non appoggerà ulteriori invii di forze di polizia in Libia, fino a quando non si sarà giunti ad un accordo con il Colonnello Gheddafi, sul risarcimento chiesto dalle vittime dell’IRA.
Proprio la questione del risarcimento sarà domani il fulcro dell’icontro tra Nigel Dodds, Jim Allister e una delegazione diplomatica, presso l’ambiasciata libica.
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Paisley Jr’s Libya claim queried (BBC News Northern Ireland)
The government has been asked to comment on a suggestion by Ian Paisley Jr that PSNI officers working in Libya may have been gathering intelligence.
On Friday Mr Paisley defended his decision to approve secondments to Libya saying it was “useful” to have an officer bringing back information.
TUV leader Jim Allister has written to the Home Secretary asking if the secondments involved intelligence work.
He said he is worried that officers could be put at risk.
Mr Paisley approved a secondment request for PSNI officers to train Libyan police in 2008 in his role as chair of the Policing Board’s Human Resources sub-committee.
When the decision was revealed by the BBC on Friday there was outrage from some victims groups and unionist politicians.
Intelligence
Mr Paisley’s party colleague Nigel Dodds said it was “totally inappropriate and offensive” given Libya’s history of arming the IRA.
He also said: “Whoever made that decision, whoever thought that was the right way to proceed, must be living in a different world and different planet”
In an interview defending his decision Mr Paisley said: “In an adult world you don’t have to be a genius to work out why it would be useful to have a senior officer, who has got intelligence skills, to look at Libya and to examine that country and to look at the facts that surround that country and to bring that information back to us..
“ In an adult world you don’t have to be a genius to work out why it would be useful to have a senior officer, who has got intelligence skills, to look at Libya and to examine that country ”
Ian Paisley Jr
“”It would have been very churlish from our point of view, being aware of all of the facts that I can’t go into in total detail… whenever we know that other material came in the opposite direction as a result of Libya trying to help.”
Mr Allister said he doubted very much if their was an intelligence aspect to the officers’ work but called on the Home Secretary to make a clear statement on the matter.
“I am concerned about the risk posed to officers on foreign service if this perception is either true or allowed to gather credence,” he said.
“Hence, I believe it is important that the Home Secretary clearly states the position on these matters.”
Meanwhile the DUP leader Peter Robinson said none of his party’s representatives will be supporting any future deployments of police personnel to Libya until they have reached a settlement on the payment of compensation to IRA victims and relations have been normalised.
He added: “Both my parliamentary colleagues, Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson , will be meeting senior diplomats at the Libyan embassy tomorrow to discuss the demand for compensation. The entire party is fully supportive of this campaign.”
The Five Demands 