25 July 2004. Thanks to A.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2761-1190535,00.html
July 25, 2004
Tony Geraghty and Liam Clarke
Court blocks whistleblower
THE Ministry of Defence has won a gagging order against Tony Buchanan, a former undercover soldier, which prevents The Sunday Times from publishing further disclosures over the murder of the last soldier to die in Northern Ireland.
The injunction, issued at the request of Treasury solicitors, seeks compensation from Buchanan for "breaching confidentiality" by telling what he knew about the killing.
Lance-Bombardier Stephen Restorick died on February 12, 1997, at the hands of an IRA sniper team in south Armagh.
Buchanan's offence had been to reveal in The Sunday Times that a fatal decision was taken by RUC Special Branch, advised by MI5 and military intelligence, not to arrest the IRA gang that shot him less than an hour before the attack.
Buchanan, not his real name, was a member of the 14th Intelligence and Security Company, an SAS-trained surveillance unit known as "the Det", which operated under police command against paramilitaries during the Troubles. It was responsible for planting and monitoring listening devices.
Colleagues told Buchanan how the IRA sniper gang was under Det surveillance less than an hour before they struck.
The gang's car and one of its guns, an AK-47 rifle, had been fitted with tracking devices.
But when the gang was detected moving towards the vehicle checkpoint that Restorick was manning, an order was issued to the Det and an SAS backup unit to stand down and not intervene.
The revelations raised questions as to whether Restorick was put at risk to protect the life of an informant in the gang or to avoid ill feeling in IRA ranks. At the time the government and MI5 were working to get the IRA to renew a ceasefire that had been broken by the Canary Wharf bombing a year earlier and which was restored on July 19, 1997.
The surveillance team pleaded to be allowed to arrest or kill the gang but was ordered not to do so by a senior RUC officer who headed the tasking co-ordination group that commanded them.
The officer insisted that the gun was being moved by the IRA for "administrative reasons" and not for an attack. Minutes later the Det and SAS squad heard the single high-velocity shot that killed Restorick. The only explanation they were given was that a risk of casualties was inevitable in this type of operation.
After the story was printed Nuala O'Loan, the province's police ombudsman, met Restorick's mother and ordered a full reinvestigation of the murder and of the police decision- making.
The gagging order issued against Buchanan will now have the effect of preventing him co-operating with the ombudsman's inquiry.
"The fact remains that Restorick didn't have to die," said Buchanan last night. "That is why I have spoken out and why I would like to help the ombudsman get to the truth."
Buchanan, who served nine years in British special forces, now works for a security company in Iraq. He learnt of the gagging order last Wednesday when he was called to the British consulate in Baghdad's green zone to "receive papers".
There he was met by men who described themselves as "only messengers" and asked him how long he intended staying in Iraq. "I told them I had no comment and walked out with the papers," he said.
When Buchanan read the documents he learnt that the Ministry of Defence had used secret High Court hearings on July 7, 8 and 14 in London to obtain the order. The hearings were held without informing him and therefore he was not represented. The ministry also claimed legal costs and compensation for "breach of confidence". It is now demanding an initial payment of £15,000.
Last night Rita Restorick, Stephen's mother, condemned the ministry's action and laid the blame at the door of Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, who is also her MP.
"Tony Buchanan has been in touch with me. It is despicable that he should be penalised for bringing a mother information about the death of her son," she said. "Why are they claiming damages? Damages for what? This is the government which refused me any compensation at all for the psychiatric condition I suffered after Stephen's death.
"Yet they are saying that they want £15,000 damages from this soldier who has tried to help me."
Justin Felice, director of investigations for the Northern Ireland police ombudsman, confirmed that his office had not been told of the gagging injunction. When asked why Buchanan was being prevented from speaking to the ombudsman an defence ministry spokesman said he was not authorised to make any comment.
Felice said: "I need to interview Tony Buchanan as part of my inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Stephen Restorick.
"I need to find out what he knows.We will look at the implications that this injunction has for the ombudsman's office. If it prohibits us speaking to him we will seek to have it varied and we will be seeking the assistance of the MoD in our investigation."
He intends to ask the ministry to put him in touch with other Det and SAS soldiers involved in the incident, including some who are listed by codename in the injunction as possible witnesses against Buchanan.
Details of the Sunday Times story in which Buchanan talked about Restorick's murder had been checked with the defence advisory committee, an official body set up to advise journalists on issues of national security. The defence ministry used the advisory committee to request one change, which this newspaper agreed to.
Last night Rear Admiral Nicholas Wilkinson, secretary of the committee, said the injunction obtained by the defence ministry had relied on secrecy clauses in the contracts signed by members of the special forces and not on any argument about national security.
"I do not believe that there was any danger to national security in the article," he said.
"It is hardly a matter for the Official Secrets Act because these things aren't secret. What they are doing is trying to frighten people who have signed a contract and trying to frighten newspapers into not dealing with them."