Revealed: IRA bombs killed eight British soldiers in Iraq

[cal04]

Terror devices used by the IRA in a vicious murder campaign in Ulster blew up British servicemen as the world blamed Iran

Eight British soldiers killed during ambushes in Iraq were the victims of a highly sophisticated bomb first used by the IRA, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The soldiers, who were targeted by insurgents as they travelled through the country, died after being attacked with bombs triggered by infra-red beams. The bombs were developed by the IRA using technology passed on by the security services in a botched "sting" operation more than a decade ago.

This contradicts the British government's claims that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices.
The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that the bombs and the firing devices used to kill the soldiers, as well as two private security guards, were initially created by the UK security services as part of a counter-terrorism strategy at the height of the troubles in the early 1990s.

According to security sources, the technology for the bombs used in the attacks, which were developed using technology from photographic flash units, was employed by the IRA some 15 years ago after Irish terrorists were given advice by British agents. "We are seeing technology in Iraq today that it took the IRA 20 years to develop," said a military intelligence officer with experience in Northern Ireland. He revealed that one trigger used in a recent Iraqi bombing was a three-way device, combining a command wire, a radio signal and an infra-red beam - a technique perfected by the IRA. Britain claims that the bomb-making expertise now being used in southern Iraq was passed on by Iran's Revolutionary Guard through Hizbollah, the revolutionary Islamist group it sponsors in Lebanon.

But a former agent who infiltrated the IRA told The Independent on Sunday that the technology reached the Middle East through the IRA's co-operation with Palestinian groups. In turn, some of these groups used to be sponsored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath party. The former agent added: "The photographic flashgun unit was replaced with infra-red and then coded infra-red, but basically they were variations of the same device. The technology came from the security forces, but the IRA always shared its equipment and expertise with Farc guerrillas in Colombia, the Basque separatists, ETA and Palestinian groups. There is no doubt in my mind that the technology used to kill our troops in Basra is the same British technology from a decade ago."

rest of the article
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/ulster/article320004.ece

[MaineDem]

1. What???

This is not going to be received well. If it's true.

[tocqueville]

6. Even worse : UK kills UK

"Even more alarming is the claim that the devices were supplied by the security services to an agent inside the Provisionals as part of a dangerous game of double bluff."

read the whole article

[joefree1]

2. Cool, When do we invade Ireland?

America must protect it's source of Guiness Beer. Heck of lot more fun then invading Iran, eh?

[Scurrilous]

3. Strange headline...

...makes it sound as if the IRA is killing British soldiers in Iraq.

[Rose Siding]

5. Yes it does.

Strange choice for the Independent.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Are we saying the IRA is on the side of the Iraqi Patriots? OMG

[tocqueville]

8. no it says that the insurgents have access...

to IRA technology that was primarily passed on to the Palestinians in exchange for other services. But the worse is that it was INITIALLY the MI6 (British) that passed on the technology to the IRA for infiltration reasons.

[glitch]

9. This blowback is turning into a tornado.

Talk about what goes around comes around.

[Mika]

11. Headline should read "MI6 bombs killed eight British soldiers in Iraq" n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. If the US and the British governments stopped the obscene levels

of mostly unaccounted funding for their 'clandestine services', the world would be a much more peaceful place.

[slaveplanet]

20. Or?

It is the Mi6 setting the bombs to escalate the war?...then blaming the Bath loyalists thru a chain that, just as chance would have it...begins with Mi6

Those pesky IRA, they are the
cause of all ills... don't blame us for helping them...

No one could possibly have forseen planes being used...

Blah, Blah, Blah :puke:

[bonito]

7. Very strange indeed. n/t

[illflem]

10. All it points to

is that bomb technology is available to all who seek it without ideological or national boundaries. Saying that one nation or group holds rights to certain bomb making methods is nonsense.

[daleo]

22. True, it's not like these have patents.

I imagine word gets around about how to make various bombs pretty quickly. These assumed linkages are probably bogus most of the time.

[WildClarySage]

12. Sounds like maybe someone is trying to derail (again) the Irish/English

peace progress by fanning the flames now that the IRA has disarmed.

[dogman]

13. Were these in the possession of the jailed Brit soldiers?

The ones "rescued" by the UK from the Iraqi jail.

[0007]

15. Good question!

[DemoTex]

14. Strangest. Story. Of. This. War.

Sow the wind; reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8) The whirlwind has arrived, and I think it will be an F-5. We got us a WW-3. Thank you Mr. Bu$h.

[emad]

16. "Cheney admits IRAN and IRAQ spelling very similar to IRA"

From TheSpoof, circa June 2004:

Washington DC (Riotous) - Aides of Vice President Dick Cheney have issued a hasty statement on behalf of the beleagured ex-Halliburton CEO amid new CIA reports naming Iran as the transit point of Al Qaeda 9/11 operatives:

"Mr Cheney now admits he and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld may have got the geography wrong in sending US troops to Iraq instead of Iran. The original intelligence came from the Colonel Oliver North Wing of the Pentagon and was unfortunately partly shredded through clerical error before it could be decoded properly.

"The words 'terrorists' and 'IRA' were clear on the communique from the UK's MI6 contacts at Mossad HQ in Las Vegas detailing the post-9/11 threat to the US.

"The Defense Department was pretty sure that the IRA - that is the Irish Liberation Army - could not be involved because UK Premier Tony Blair 's close aides Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell said so. The Vice President therefore advised that the missing letter after the "a" must be a "q" and not an "n" because Saddam was a bad boy with more oil than sense and with an election due later in 2004, American voters had a need to know that their gas tanks could be filled up at around $1 a gallon in the forseeable future."

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i5892

[orpupilofnature57]

17. It's sa wonder they don't have Massachusetts on the list or just Hyannis

[emad]

19. Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe

Russians help Iran with missile threat to Europe
By Con Coughlin
(Filed: 16/10/2005)

Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran to acquire technology needed to produce missiles capable of striking European capitals.

The Russians are acting as go-betweens with North Korea as part of a multi-million pound deal they negotiated between Teheran and Pyongyang in 2003. It has enabled Teheran to receive regular clandestine shipments of top secret missile technology, believed to be channelled through Russia.

Western intelligence officials believe that the technology will enable Iran to complete development of a missile with a range of 2,200 miles, capable of hitting much of Europe. It is designed to carry a 1.2-ton payload, sufficient for a basic nuclear device.

The revelation raises the stakes in the confrontation between Iran's Islamic regime and the West - led by the United States and European countries including Britain.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/16/wiran16.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/16/ixnewstop.html

[ErisFiveFingers]

21. Great. IRA baiting, maybe?

Weren't some UK soldiers recently arrested for setting up bombs?

So, it would be suprising that UK military technology, once given to the IRA, was also employed in Iraq?

This whole thing stinks.