O’Loan says Sinn Fein glossy leaflet is naïve and wrong about MI5

Ballymena SDLP councillor Declan O’Loan has said that he is astonished at the naivety of the Sinn Fein position on MI5 as stated in the glossy leaflet recently distributed by them in regional newspapers.

He said, “The story goes like this. Mr Blair says, “Look lads, you’ve got it wrong. MI5 in their nice new building will be separate from the police.” Sinn Fein reply, “Oh well, that’s all right then, Mr Blair. Thank you very much.”

Declan O’Loan went on, “The reality is very different. The intelligence work of the two bodies will be closely intertwined.

People must realise that secretive intelligence organisations that have no meaningful accountability mechanisms are a threat to democracy. It is in the nature of such organisations to conceal, to evade, to place their own interests above those of the wider society, and ultimately to become corrupt. Only serious checks and balances can prevent this.

The Office of Surveillance Commissioners has failed to detect wrongdoing. It has not upheld one of 380 complaints. In some cases other bodies have brought matters to its attention which it had failed to find. A yearly broad-brush review of MI5 by Lord Carlile will achieve nothing. It is a smokescreen for an accountability system. All democrats, not just some of us, should take this issue very seriously.”