- Secret documents obtained by an IRA spy network included
transcripts of telephone conversations between Tony Blair and President
Bush, security sources confirmed yesterday.
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- As Northern Ireland enters its biggest crisis since the
1998 Good Friday Agreement, the province is bracing itself today for a
final meeting of the power-sharing Assembly. Direct rule from Westminster
is likely to be imposed within days.
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- The disclosure that terrorists gained access to confidential
White House information is likely to provoke a furious reaction in America.
David Trimble, Northern Ireland's First Minister and leader of the Ulster
Unionists, compared the republican espionage as "10 times worse than
Watergate", which led to the resignation of President Nixon.
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- Confidence in sharing power between the Unionists and
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, has collapsed following the revelations
connecting them to terrorist intelligence gathering.
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- The IRA and Sinn Fein allegedly used information from
their spy ring during talks at Weston Park in July last year. Throughout
five days of deadlocked negotiations, Sinn Fein procrastinated over arms
decommissioning before accepting concessions from the Government. They
are said to have known the Government's "bottom line" on negotiations
on a number of occasions.
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- Documents taken included memos from John Reid, the Northern
Ireland Secretary, to intelligence chiefs and Lt Gen Sir Alistair Irwin,
the Army commander in Northern Ireland who was allegedly targeted by the
Provisionals.
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- Minutes of separate private meetings held by Mr Blair
with Mr Trimble and Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader,
were also taken. So were notes from a meeting between Jane Kennedy, the
security minister, and the director of the Organised Crime Task Force.
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- Denis Donaldson, Sinn Fein's chief administrator, has
been charged with five counts of possessing documents useful to terrorists
in carrying out acts of violence. Fiona Farrelly, a republican community
worker, faces two similar charges.
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