ARmy Rumour SErvice

Some more lite reading:

BBC News - Smithwick Tribunal hears more claims about Martin McGuinness

and

McGuinness 'approved' lethal attacks - The Irish Times - Wed, Apr 25, 2012

As has been said, Hurst does not appear to be the most reliable 'witness' and quite what his motives are anyone guess (perhaps simply attention and creditably)... but to think many Irish were seriously considering voting in Martin McGuinness as head of state... makes you wonder...

Originally Posted by Alec_Lomas

Might already be on a taped interview held in a downtown Boston university building?

Or even better appearing in a courtroom with the opening line 'According to this transcript you say you were involved.........' Something which would certainly brighten my day.

Originally Posted by Fred_Frog_1987

Gib and Loughall were propaganda own goals? I thought they were highly successful military operations.

Brings to mind one of my all time favourite sayings -

"Big boys games. Big boys rules."

Originally Posted by Cabbage_man

[SNIP]If Martin McGuinness was found to be a ‘tout’ who fed high grade intelligence to us over the past 20-30 years, should our views towards him change?
[/SNIP]

Nope. It should simply confirm that he is what we have always suspected - he's ambitious, self-centred, disloyal, vicious, and a thug.

Reminds me of:

Originally Posted by Archibald.

!
The chapter "A very fine Soldier" deals with British infantryman Cameron Hastie's trial for involvement in a state-sponsored murder conspiracy and his subsequent unduly lenient sentence.

Pish.

He got taken in, did something daft to help a sob story setup, breached security. I met him a while afterwards (on a firing point, of all places). Phrased as above it makes it sound like a huge plot and a deliberate part of a larger plan, when it was nothing of the sort.

Originally Posted by Civvy-Ginge

I couldn't agree with you more, both were excellent results however, Gib, the politicians went straight on the offensive about there being a car bomb found, when nothing was found for days (I can't remember how long). pira/sinn fein jumped on that straight away, it ended up with the UK losing a great PR opportunity, the same to a lesser extent with Loughall, when we should have been reminding all and sundry what the scum were up to when they were shot, we had to go on the defensive because an innocent was shot during the event. My point was that on each occasion, our own spin was not up to the standard of theirs.

Still, on a positive note, none of the Gibralter 3 or the Loughall 8 ever re-offended. 'nuff said.

On the last point, you are correct.

On Gib, I think you mistake Daily Wail hysteria, for genuine public concern, and my recollection of the Loughall (and associated) events - is that seen from a PoV outside the Province, they raised nary a flutter from the average British voter. If it felt (in Ulster) as if some Brit advantage was unglued as a result, then that was symptomatic of the (understandable) self-absorption of Ulsterfolk, immersed as they were in the struggle, as a day-to-day impediment on their lives.

Weird though that ANYONE believes that Martin left the IRA to go into politics.

Originally Posted by PoisonDwarf

Weird though that ANYONE believes that Martin left the IRA to go into politics.

Both Gerry and he were advised to make the leap. Shooting PIRA however it's achieved is one matter, shooting politicians of any persuasion is an an entirely different scenario. I doubt it would help you to know that we subsequently trained his CP team some years after, albeit via a PMC.