14 Intelligence Company Totally Explained

Everything about 14 Intelligence Company totally explained

ť See also Special Reconnaissance Regiment"

14 Intelligence Company was a British Army unit, part of the Intelligence Corps, operating in Northern Ireland from the 1970s onwards. It specialised in undercover surveillance against suspected members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and loyalist paramilitary groups, though it was accused of colluding with the latter.

Mobile Reconnaissance Force (MRF)
14 Intelligence and Security Company
Army Support Unit (ASU)
Joint Communications Unit (Northern Ireland) (JCU-NI).

Formation

The Barron Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings commented on the formation of 14 Int: "The SAS, though not officially deployed in Northern Ireland until January 1976, had a proxy intelligence role via 14th Intelligence - a company of special surveillance units created to replace the discredited Military Reconnaissance Force in 1972 / 73. Former SAS officer Ken Connor - one of the team which recommended the creation of 14 Int - explained:

The SAS developed a selection procedure, ran the induction course and training and staffed the upper echelons of the company with SAS officers. That gave the Regiment a means of maintaining its influence over an area that technically should have been controlled by the Intelligence Corps... Fourteen Int was organised into three detachments, each about the size of an SAS troop."

The "Det"

The Unit was made up of 4 detachments hence the nickname 'The Det'. These were East Det, based in Palace Barracks, North Det in Ballykelly, and South Det based in Fermanagh. The Main Det was based in RAF Aldergrove. The unit was made up of men and women drawn from all the services, who participated in 'special duties' for periods of 9 to 18 months and beyond, along with "hats" (soldiers such as clerks, signallers, or cooks who performed more mundane duties).
   Female members of the unit were drawn from the WRAC and QARANC. They were able to use professional skills such as nursing to access areas not possible to male operators without attracting attention. Additionally, they'd accompany men on missions (for example posing as courting couples whilst in reality working on intelligence gathering operations.)
   Specialist skills were taught to members by external units such as JSOP at RAF Cosford, Army School of Ammunition at Kineton and the School of Signals at Blandford.
   After a tour with 14 Int Coy it wasn't unheard of for an operator to be transferred to another Unit or Corps than the one he or she originated from.
   The unit has now been absorbed into the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, and now has a global surveillance and counter-terrorist role.
   Uniquely among British special duties units, it recruited women as well as men. The title 14th Intelligence Company has never formally existed, but has entered public awareness through the activities of various books written by former operators. The other nickname in widespread use was the Det - see below.
   The det's activities have been described in books by former operators James Rennie, Duncan Falconer, Andy McNab and Sarah Ford, and by Ken Connor.

Collusion accusations

14 Int was accused of acting in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries.
According to Fred Holroyd, who worked in military intelligence in Northern Ireland in the mid 1970s, Captain Robert Nairac, alleged to be a member of 14 Int, was involved in the illegal killing of Senior Provisional Irish Republican Army member Francis Green (External Link

) in the Republic of Ireland, and in the Miami Showband killings. The assertion that Nairac was involved in the Green assassination is supported by former RUC Special Patrol Group member John Weir, who colluded with loyalist killers:

"I was told that Nairac was with them. I was told by… a UVF man, he was very close to [Robin] Jackson and operated with him. Jackson told [him] that Nairac was with them."

With regard to the Miami Showband attack: "Surviving Miami Showband members Steve Travers and Des McAlee testified in court that an Army officer with a crisp English accent oversaw the Miami attack" - see Miami Showband killings - the implication being that this was Nairac.
A letter from then British Army intelligence officer Colin Wallace to Tony Stoughton, the Chief Information Officer of the British Army Information Service at Lisburn, on August 14 1975 noted the connections between these same UVF loyalists and intelligence agencies of the British Army and of the RUC Special Branch:

"There is good evidence the Dublin bombings in May last year were a reprisal for the Irish government's role in bringing about the [powersharing] Executive. According to one of Craig's people [CraigSmellie, the top MI6 officer in the North of Ireland at the time], some of those involved, the Youngs, the Jacksons, Mulholland, Hanna, Kerr and McConnell were working closely with SB [SpecialBranch] and Int [Intelligence] at that time. Craig's people believe the sectarian assassinations were designed to destroy [thenNorthern Secretary Merlyn] Rees's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, and the targets were identified for both sides by Int/SB. They also believe some very senior RUC officers were involved with this group. In short, it would appear that loyalist paramilitaries and Int/SB members have formed some sort of pseudo gangs in an attempt to fight a war of attrition by getting paramilitaries on both sides to kill each other and, at the same time prevent any future political initiative such as Sunningdale."

In a further letter dated September 30 1975, also referring to the activities of 14 Int, Wallace revealed that MI5 was trying to create a split in the UVF,

"because they wanted the more politically minded ones ousted. I believe much of the violence generated during the latter part of last year was caused by some of the new Int people deliberately stirring up the conflict. As you know, we've never been allowed to target the breakaway UVF, nor the UFF, during the past year. Yet they've killed more people than the IRA!"

Wallace is referring to the same UVF members that Robert Nairac was consistently alleged to have been working with.
For instance, the Barron report into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings notes

“On the ‘Hidden Hand’ programme, it was claimed that [Billy] Hanna, Robin Jackson and Harris Boyle were run as agents by Captain Robert Nairac both before and after the bombings. Nairac was accused of supplying them with arms and helping them plan targets... It is noted that both John Weir and Colin Wallace have made allegations that Nairac was on friendly terms with Robin Jackson and other prominent loyalist paramilitaries.”

RUC Special Patrol Group member John Weir, who admitted colluding with the same UVF personnel,

"claimed Jackson had close links with British Army Captain Robert Nairac. This claim was also made .... by former British intelligence operative Colin Wallace, who expressed the opinion that if the link hadn't been authorized, Nairac would have been removed immediately from Northern Ireland. The significance of the relationship is heightened with the knowledge that Nairac also worked closely with RUC Special Branch officers based in Portadown."

According to Liam Clarke of the Sunday Times, Robin Jackson

had many allies still serving in the UDR and close links to special forces soldiers. These included Bunny Dearsley of military intelligence and Robert Nairac, Tony Ball and other soldiers attached to the undercover 14th Intelligence Unit. These officers met him in a bar in Moira and many suspect that he was involved in murders set up by military contacts at that time. In the late 1970s he was a binge drinker and sometimes boasted to UVF associates of "someone looking after me". Some took this as a reference to God, or even the Devil, but the more likely explanation is that it referred to members of the army's intelligence corps.

Fred Holroyd described a visit he’d made to Nairac’s unit – Four Field Survey Troop – at their base in Castledillon, Co. Armagh. He said:

“I was shown their lockers with all their spare barrels so they could use weapons and then change the barrels and claim that they'd never shot people. I was shown their communications equipment which was quite separate and I suspect went straight through to Hereford to M.O.D. I was shown a number of things which mean that they were funded separately and supported separately from regular Army people. Now there's only one organisation that could sponsor something like that and that's the SAS.”

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