June 6, 2003 PSNI Tried to Infiltrate Us, Say Dissident Republicans
By Barry O'Kelly, Crime Correspondent, http://www.thepost.ie

The 32 County Sovereignty Movement has claimed that an attempt last week by the PSNI to recruit one of its members as an informant is the latest in a series of efforts to infiltrate the group.

"There have been at least fou r other m e mb e rs ap proached on a number of occasions by plain clothes officers from the PSNI Special Branch, for the purposes of giving information on the movements of people," said Marion Price, secretary of the group.

"It's always on the basis of, `your life is under threat' or `we'll make it worth your while' or `we'll get you locked up if you don't help'," she said.

Stephen Moore, a member of the movement from the Falls Road area of Belfast, said he was approached last Tuesday while returning with members of his family from a wedding in England.

He said: "At Aldergrove airport, I was approached by two men, whom I suspect to b e Sp e cial Branch, and brought to a room. They refused to produce identification and began to question me as to why I was in England. I said, `holiday', and one of them said, `Was it not a wedding?'. They then produced photographs of my family and myself at the wedding."

He said one officer then asked him about Carl Reilly, a a member of the National Executive of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

Moore claimed: "He asked if I knew him and if I would set him up. `We will make it worth your while to set him up for assassination,' he said.

"They continued to say that a top Provisional informer had provided them with information that my life was under threat, and that if I set up Carl Reilly, this threat would be lifted."

Marion Price said she was perplexed by the crudity of the approach. "This shows the PSNI is another version of the RUC," she said. "And yet they say we're all in a new dispensation."