SF Worried By Return Of Undercover Soldiers

Sinn Féin Policing Spokesperson and South Belfast MLA Alex Maskey has slammed moves to redeploy undercover surveillance soldiers in Northern Ireland.

His comments that it is a "backward step" and "deeply worrying to the nationalist and republican community" has also been echoed by Stormont Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness.

He described the deployment as "a major threat" presenting a "danger to the community".

The political statements are on foot of news that covert surveillance soldiers are indeed back at work in Northern Ireland - a move that has already sparking a dispute at the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Its members are to be briefed on the issue by PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde with a Board spokesman confirming yesterday that Sir Hugh "has readily agreed to come to next week's meeting of the Board's Corporate Policy Planning and Performance Committee to brief the Board on the use of military support; their relationship to the PSNI and the accountability arrangements".

This follows yesterday's earlier opposition from both the SDLP and Sinn Féin who said "they are concerned the Board was not told".

But the DUP said the deployment of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment was a national security issue and not a matter for the Board.

Special forces, such as the SAS, operated throughout the Troubles, but left after the 1997 IRA ceasefire.

However, this fresh deployment utilises personnel experienced in surveillance and intelligence gathering, as used most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, (as pictured).

Sinn Féin MLA, Alex Maskey said it was "quite disgraceful".

"We have fought hard for the kind of accountability over the police arrangements that we have at the moment," he said.

"I would be very concerned that those arrangements mean that the chief constable must be open, must be honest and must be accountable through organisations like the policing board, and any lapse in that will not able acceptable to ourselves."

But, DUP Board member Ian Paisley Jr, said the dissident republican threat was a "national security issue, not a matter for the policing board".

"We're there to hold the police to account on operational reasons. This is a national security issue delivering to police more intelligence, more support, more help in the national security battle to ensure terrorism is defeated.

"This poses absolutely no threat to any community in Northern Ireland."

The Army's Special Reconnaissance Regiment was formed in 2005 with recruits drawn from all three services with some posts open to women.

It is based in Hereford, where the SAS also has its headquarters and it supports other special forces units and conventional forces in a variety of operations.

Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said he had asked for some extra support to deal with the threats posed by a small number of what he described as "extremely dangerous people".

"We are talking of a very small number of people who increase my technical capacity," said Sir Hugh.

"They have no operational role, they support my policing operations which are undertaken by my police officers.

"So, in terms of democratic mechanisms, accountability, we have stuck absolutely rigidly to all of those which were put in place of course by the St Andrews Agreement."

See: Threat Of Dissident Republican Attack Raised

(BMcC/JM)