De l’Iran à l'IRA

On se rappelle des péripéties, la semaine dernière, pour savoir à qui attribuer la provenance des bombes sophistiquées qui avaient tué sept soldats britanniques en Irak. Ayant fait depuis belle lurette de la vérité une compagne de ses convictions et de ses intérêts, Blair en avait aussitôt déduit que ces bombes étaient iraniennes. Les dernières nouvelles sont intrigantes.

The Independent of Sunday nous rapporte que la technologie utilisée sur ces bombes viendraient des services de contre-terrorisme britanniques qui l’auraient passée à l’IRA dans une opération d’infiltration au sort incertain. L’IRA aurait transmis cette technologie à d’autres groupes terroristes, dont les Palestiniens, le tout aboutissant à l’Irak d’aujourd’hui. L’histoire vaut d’être rapportée tant elle mesure bien la complexité extraordinaire du terrorisme international qu’on aimerait tant réduire à la lutte du Bien contre le Mal.

« Britain claims that the bomb-making expertise now being used in southern Iraq was passed on by Iran's Revolutionary Guard through Hizbollah, the revolutionary Islamist group it sponsors in Lebanon. But a former agent who infiltrated the IRA told The Independent on Sunday that the technology reached the Middle East through the IRA's co-operation with Palestinian groups. In turn, some of these groups used to be sponsored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.

» The former agent added: “The photographic flashgun unit was replaced with infra-red and then coded infra-red, but basically they were variations of the same device. The technology came from the security forces, but the IRA always shared its equipment and expertise with Farc guerrillas in Colombia, the Basque separatists, ETA and Palestinian groups. There is no doubt in my mind that the technology used to kill our troops in Basra is the same British technology from a decade ago.”

» Even more alarming is the claim that the devices were supplied by the security services to an agent inside the Provisionals as part of a dangerous game of double bluff. According to investigators examining past collusion between the security forces and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, members of the shadowy army undercover outfit, the Force Research Unit, and officers from MI5 learned in the early 1990s that a senior IRA member in south Armagh was working to develop bombs triggered by light beams. They decided the risks would be diminished if they knew what technology was being used.

»  “The thinking of the security forces was that if they were intimate with the technology, then they could develop counter-measures, thereby staying one step ahead of the IRA,” a senior source close to the inquiry explained. “It may seem absurd that the security services were supplying technology to the IRA, but the strategy was sound. Unfortunately, no one could see back then that this technology would be used to kill British soldiers thousands of miles away in a different war.” »

Mis en ligne le 16 octobre 2005 à 13H27