Kincoragate: Loose Ends

The Lobster No. 4, 1984

It has been claimed (in Sunday News 20th Feb. and The Phoenix, 19th Feb.1983) that
at the heart of the disclosures over the Kincora scandal is an internal row in the
intelligence services. A dissident faction is thought to have formed in the Secret
Service. The scuffles over revelations concerning Kincora started with the writing of a
book by Rupert Allason, pen name Nigel West, son of a leading MI6 officer.

The original fight was about whether the KGB had deeply penetrated every aspect of
British Intelligence. Now a lot of dirty linen is being washed in public and the
background to the purges in British Intelligence in Northern Ireland and, perhaps,
some details of the private life of Sir Maurice Oldfield, the MI6 chief, are likely to
emerge.

“Bachelor Oldfield’s dislike of women except his aged mother was so
notorious that even the Sunday Times included mention of it in an
obituary. It is often wrongly assumed that Oldfield’s links with Ireland
date only from his appointment as Ulster Security Coordinator in 1979.
But as Director of MI6 throughout the 1970s he was not only closely
connected with Irish affairs, including the Kincora operation, but was a
regular visitor to Belfast.” (S.N. as above)

One story released, though not included in the Terry Report on Kincora, is the
homosexual assault made on the attractive male personal secretary of Oldfield. At
least one statement was made about the incident which occurred in Oldfield’s private
apartment on the top floor of Stormont Castle. A senior English civil servant found the
attractions of Maurice’s assistant too much and attempted to molest him. A scuffle
ensued among the exclusively male gathering, as a result of which the civil servant
returned to London.

The Counter Intelligence branch of the Secret Service, MI5, is now believed to be
running the show in Northern Ireland after the removal of MI6’s top man in Ulster,
David Wyatt. Mr Wyatt, a casualty of the internal row in the intelligence services, was
replaced by an MI5 officer. Described by one source as being a ‘link with the foreign
office’, he was trusted by the Foreign Office mandarins even more than security
overlord Sir Maurice Oldfield, appointed by Mrs Thatcher in 1979. The appointment
in 1980 of Sir Brooks Richard, an ex-diplomat, as Security Co-ordinator in Northern
Ireland, was seen as giving the Foreign Office ‘game set and match in the mandarins’
rivalries over who runs the various bits of British Intelligence.’ (Guardian 23/2/81)

When Wyatt departed his two MI6 assistants went with him, leaving MI5 in sole
charge of ‘mainland’ intelligence operations in Northern Ireland.

In recent months some public figures have claimed that a special security squad has
been involved in several disputed killings of terrorists. A source of the Sunday News
suggested that there might be a link between the new hierarchy and such a squad,
which is alleged operates direct to the Home Office. The intelligence masters are
widely believed to operate from the old Speaker’s House in the grounds of the
Parliament buildings at Stormont.

The new Kincora inquiry will be chaired by a retired English circuit judge, William
Hughes. When asked on ‘The World At One’ (BBC Radio 4, 18th January 1984) if the
inquiry would take evidence on the alleged activities of the intelligence agencies,
James Prior, Northern Ireland Secretary of State, replied that if there was any
evidence, it would. This appears less than likely because the published terms of
reference (Times 29th Jan.1984) stated that the enquiry would look at the
administration of children’s homes in Northern Ireland, indicating that the Terry
Report had already dealt with the ‘wilder allegations’.

Only one week after the announcement of the new inquiry it was revealed (Sunday
News 29th Jan. 1984) that the Northern Ireland Eastern Health Board is fighting for a
blanket ban on homosexuals in ‘direct caring roles’. The DHSS recommended that
information from police records should be sought on suspect applicants for jobs in
children’s homes. The department would establish a ‘pre-employment consultancy
service’, which boards and voluntary organisations would be obliged to use. It
provides for files based on police records and the opinions of past employers to be
kept on all those people applying for residential caring posts.

One Board member said “I believe the Board is trying to cover itself after Kincora.
They wanted to get this through before the Terry Report so that they could say ‘We
have done everything necessary.’

Still unreleased (as far as I know) are reports on two inquiries. One (Sunday News
29th May 1983), the RUC detectives who probed the Kincora affair, also investigated
incidents at another children’s home. Involved in the homosexual assaults at the
Craigavon Home was a “military intelligence warrant officer.” The assaults on young
boys took place over a two year period. Two, (Times 26th September 1983) alleged
homosexual activity within the RUC. Four men were suspended after Sir John
Hermon, RUC Chief, received a letter believed to be from a former woman police
officer. Investigations centred on alleged activities in West Belfast more than two
years ago. I should make it clear at this point that I have nothing against
homosexuality per se. The problem being that in Northern Ireland, as Kincora clearly
showed, homosexuality is open to blackmail and intimidation – even in these
enlightened times – by the intelligence services.

Lord Avebury, and the Duke of Norfolk

More on Colin Wallace (See Lobster 1). Liberal Peer, Lord Avebury, and the Duke of
Norfolk, have joined forces to help prove his innocence. Avebury has written to
witnesses who gave evidence at the 1981 trial (‘It’s A Knockout’) of Wallace, who was
information officer of the Duke’s local Arin Council in Sussex at the time. The Duke
has had discussions with Avebury at the House of Lords, and apparently says that
there are mysteries about the case. (Daily Express 7th Feb.1984) Wallace’s wife,
Eileen, is secretary to the Duke at Arundel Castle.

Closely involved with Wallace on psyops was Paratroop Colonel Maurice Tugwell,
initially head of the Information Policy Unit. Tugwell has previously been an
intelligence officer in Palestine, and had also served in Malaya, Cyprus, Arabia and
Kenya. He stayed at Lisburn till March 1973, when he transferred to Iran as an
instructor at the Imperial Armed Forces College. He was awarded the CBE the same
year. In 1975 he went to Nottingham, and in 1976 he took up a defence fellowship at
King’s College, London, where he wrote a thesis on ‘The Problems of Dealing with
Revolutionary Propaganda’.

Tugwell’s job as Colonel General Staff (Information Policy) was, as described by
terrorism ‘expert’ Richard Clutterbuck, ‘not merely to react to the media -or events –
but to take a positive initiative in presenting the news to best advantage for the
Security Forces’.

In early 1973, Tugwell, in the wake of internment, published an article, ‘Revolutionary
Propaganda And The Role of The Information Services in Counter-Insurgency
Operations’. In it he stated ‘Interrogation methods used by the Security Forces in 1971
brought in a mass of valuable information. These methods, combined with the
internment of known terrorists, threatened to destroy the IRA’s capacity and to destroy
it quickly… None of those interrogated by those methods suffered any injury or ill effects.’

Tugwell later turned up at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. (Ireland and
the Propaganda War – Liz Curtis, Pluto Press 1984 pp232/3)