Allegations of collusion between the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries will be suppressed in a "trade-off" by intelligence services over the row about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Sinn Féin claimed yesterday (Tuesday).
Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin briefed MPs and peers from all parties in Westminster on Sinn Féin's dossier on collusion, which it launched last week.
He claimed that British intelligence services would use their "leverage" over the government in the row over claims that it exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
He said that this could lead to a "suppression of the truth or indeed further collateral damage on the developing political peace process in the north".
Sinn Féin is campaigning for an independent judicial inquiry into alleged security force collusion into loyalist paramilitary killings.
In a 17-page document the party called for the disbandment of the Joint Services Group, which it said was the new name for the Force Research Unit.
At a press conference in Westminster, Mr McLaughlin said MPs should investigate the collusion before any inquiry into whether Parliament and the public were misled over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass dest-ruction as justification for war.
"There is a very significant leverage arising out of the controversies of the intelligence information debate in respect of Iraq," he said.
"That may have very negative implications for disclosure and for the peace process itself in Ireland.
"We are calling on the politicians that we meet today to be aware of that leverage, that enhanced leverage that the intelligence services have on top of what they normally enjoy, and to ensure that it does not result in a further suppression of the truth or indeed further collateral damage on the developing political peace process in the north.
"I could cite chapter and verse the examples of interference with efforts to uncover the truth about the dirty war in Ireland.
"The interference and the disruption of evidence in terms of the Bloody Sunday inquiry is only one example.
"What we are saying is that Tony Blair is in considerable debt, if you like, to his own intelligence services in terms of the arguments and the justification he advanced for the war in Iraq.
"In terms of the pressure that was beginning to build, which (the) Stevens (inquiry into collusion) was only part of ... the intelligence service now have a very considerable leverage on the British government to ensure that continued disclosure or the establishment of a full inquiry into the dirty war would not happen.
"We think that would be quite disastrous for the peace process."
