(en) WSM.ie: Irish anarcht organization - Into the Shadows - Britain?s dirty war in Ireland

The recent BBC documentary 'Panorama: Britain's Secret Terror Force' may have once again 
put a spotlight on the extent of British state sponsored terrorism in the North and the 
activities of its various shadowy forces; but the level of orchestration, impunity, 
collusion and cover up is yet to be truly uncovered. ---- The documentary revealing the 
activities of the Military Reaction Force (MRF) was aired just a day after Northern Irish 
Attorney General John Larkin called for an amnesty on atrocities committed during the 
Irish troubles. He may be right to break this taboo, but was he lobbied by British 
soldiers and their friends who fear justice taking its course as this evidence comes to light?

The Military Reaction Force, Military Reconnaissance Force or Mobile Reconnaissance Force 
(MRF) was a covert intelligence-gathering and counter-insurgency terror unit of the 
British Army active in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during ?the troubles?. The unit was 
formed during the summer of 1971 and operated until late 1972 or early 1973, in the midst 
of no- go areas set up across working class communities particularly in predominately 
?nationalist? areas. It was during a time when the Provisional IRA was at a peak in terms 
of influence and membership but was also an era of growing sectarian conflict, shootings 
and daily bombings.

The MRF has its origins in ideas and techniques developed by British Army Brigadier Sir 
Frank Kitson, who created "counter gangs" to defeat the Mau Mau in Kenya. He was the 
author of two books on counter-insurgency tactics: Gangs & Counter Gangs (1960) and Low 
Intensity Operations (1971). From 1970 to 1972, Kitson served in Northern Ireland as 
commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade. These manuals reveal the extent of Britain?s 
colonial mindset and its extensive operations to defeat insurgencies from Malaysia to 
adapted present day military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MRF was based at Palace Barracks in the Belfast suburb of Hollywood and its first 
commander was Captain Arthur Watchus. In June 1972, he was succeeded by Captain James 
'Hamish' McGregor. It was split into sections, which were each commanded by sergeants or 
sergeant-majors who had served in the Special Air Service (SAS), Special Boat Service 
(SBS), the Royal Marines and the Parachute Regiment. The unit consisted of up to 40 men, 
and a few women, handpicked from throughout the British Army.

Many details about the unit's modus operandi have been revealed by former members while 
others have yet to be confirmed such as involvement in the New Lodge six massacres and the 
McGurk?s bombing which left fifteen innocent civilians dead and a further seventeen 
wounded. The book Killing For Britain (2009), written by former UVF member 'John Black', 
claims that the MRF organized the bombing and helped the bombers get in and out of the 
area. Local people claimed security forces helped the bombers by removing the checkpoints 
an hour before the attack. One of the bombers?Robert Campbell?said that their original 
target had been The Gem, a nearby pub that was allegedly linked to the Official IRA. It is 
claimed the MRF plan was to help the UVF the bar, and then blame the bombing on the 
Provisional IRA. In an attempt to start a feud between the two IRA factions, diverting 
them from their fight against the security forces and draining their support. Campbell 
said that The Gem had security outside and, after waiting for almost an hour, they decided 
to bomb the nearest 'Catholic pub' instead. Immediately after, the security forces claimed 
that a bomb had accidentally exploded while being handled by IRA members inside McGurk's.

In 2012?13, a former MRF member using the cover name, 'Simon Cursey' gave a number of 
interviews in his book MRF Shadow Troop, about his time in the undercover unit. While full 
of the sort of macho bravado and heroism you would expect from a spy story, the book in 
itself is a fascinating read in terms of profiling the composition, psychology and 
activities of this de facto death squad. In it he describes the unit as ?a small 
undercover unit of three or nine man section, operating from a secret compound location 
near Belfast. There was only one officer and almost all the operational members of MRF 
held ranks ranging from lance corporal to WO2 (warrant officer, class 2). It was however, 
a ?flat?, rather than hierarchal structure; and neither was it some ?rogue? unit as some 
liberal commentators have claimed as it was directly accountable to the GOCNI (General 
Officer Commanding Northern Ireland).? For ?Simon? this was ?an incredible simple chain of 
command, cutting out almost the entirety of the Army structure.? (1) Indeed this structure 
of command to the upper echelons of the British establishment raises further questions 
concerning the level of orchestration and who ultimately sanctioned operations?

The real responsibility for these atrocities lies close to the door of the cabinet and 
'untouchable' senior soldiers of the day, whether past or present. General Sir Mike 
Jackson, former Chief of the General Staff of the British Army and former commander of the 
Parachute regiment has admitted he knew of the MRF and Brigadier Gordon Kerr, who ran the 
previously-uncovered Force Research Unit (FRU), Military advisers Colonel David Stirling 
and counter-insurgency dirty tricks 'guru' General Frank Kitson as well, are unlikely to 
have been far from the crime scene.

Egged on by Ministry of Defence advisers such as Kitson, the Prime Minister of Northern 
Ireland and the Defence secretary of the day must have signed off MRF's shooting of 
innocent unarmed civilians with a nod and a wink, on the understanding that nothing would 
be officially revealed until recently. Given that the MRF was officially confirmed in 
Parliament in March 1994 as well as the recent report highlighting the destroying of 
documents in former British colonies such as in Kenya only serves to highlight the length 
our ruling classes will go to conceal their crimes against humanity.(2)

While the MRF engaged in terror tactics against the mainly nationalist community in terms 
of random drive by shootings against innocent unarmed civilians in an attempt to inflame 
sectarian conflict; this unit and level of British state collusion was not isolated 
incident but fitted a broader pattern and agenda from the Cairo gang in the 1920s to the 
SAS to make sure its Britain?s strategic interests are secure at all costs.

As we now know from countless enquires and accounts such as Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy 
massacre, and the loyalist collusion into assassination of Pat Finucane that Britain that 
far from being an impartial ?peace-keeper? between two ?tribes?, the state was involved in 
an orchestrated campaign of state terrorism, torture and impunity without trial by its 
unofficial and official army of mercenaries. This is in stark contrast to the recent 
Smithwick report into allegations of Garda force collusion into IRA assassination of two 
RUC officers which served as a sop to reactionary unionism and useful distraction for 
widespread British state collusion.

This latest documentary is just the tip of the iceberg and comes after secret documents 
published by the Pat Finucane Centre in 2011 highlighting endemic and systematic collusion 
between the British army regiments and loyalist paramilitaries in the North and that up to 
15% of the Ulster Defence Regiment total membership had loyalist paramilitary links with 
the tacit knowledge of British Army senior officers. (3) Last month the Pat Finucane 
Centre book 'Lethal Allies: British Collusion in Ireland' was published. Drawing on 
previously unpublished reports from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)'s 
Historical Enquiries Team, author Anne Cadwallader retraced the steps of the so-called 
?Mid-Ulster? loyalist gang, claiming it carried out more than 120 savage sectarian 
killings over five years from 1972. Its attacks ranged from individual shootings to the 
Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Most of the gang?s victims were Catholic civilians and Ms 
Cadwallader points out that large numbers of the killings directly or indirectly involved 
members of the now-defunct Royal Ulster Constabulary or the Ulster Defence Regiment.

This entire dark chapter in Northern Ireland in many ways validates the anarchist analysis 
that that state institutionalises misery, injustice and violence in its broadest sense and 
no amount token reforms of window dressing past or present can hide this ugly reality. The 
conflict that blighted so many lives, families and divided communities served as an 
important laboratory for counter insurgency repression and surveillance with its lessons 
being applied today by ?counter-terrorism? advisors from Britain to Israel. British police 
colleges are now training Britain's old colonial powers from Bahrain, to Kenya and Sri 
Lanka in the niceties of destroying organized opposition while working alongside covert US 
special force in supporting its proxy warlords and militias.

In the US, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which is directly accountable to 
the Whitehouse, continues to wage and re-define a global battle of aggression from Yemen, 
to Somalia, to Afghanistan and beyond against its perceived enemies from secret prisons 
and rendition, sponsoring death squads to indiscriminate drone attacks wiping out whole 
families; ?Somehow, in front of our eyes, undeclared wars have been launched in countries 
across the globe; foreigners and citizens alike are assassinated by presidential decree; 
the war on terror transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy,". "How does a war like this 
ever end, and what happens to us when we realise what was hidden in plain sight?" (4)

You will often hear people again and again saying of Ireland's 'troubles' that this 
occurred a long time ago and that we must move on. The reality is the British army still 
continues to occupy part of Ireland using all means at its disposal including the use of 
shadowy forces such as the Special Reconnaissance Regiment and MI5 under the command of 
the PSNI while the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 has still not solved the root 
causes of the conflict or sectarian division because it was not intended to do so. We may 
shrug our shoulders and turn our backs on the past but it will always come back with a 
vengeance. The task is to build and fight for a free and equal society that will finally 
bury everything that is rotten with the present.



WORDS: Sean Matthews.

References:

1) Shadow Troop amazon kindle edition- 1253

2) http://rt.com/news/british-colonies-documents-destruction-512/

3) http://www.wsm.ie/c/secret-documents-reveal-british-state-collusion


4) 
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/24/jeremy-scahill-exposing-us-dirty-war-afghanistan-pakistan-somalia-yemen