Just for the historical record, these rather faded cuttings from the Daily Express are just two of the stories that Wallace planted on Chapman Pincher while working in Information Policy.
By Chapman Pincher the man who gives you tomorrow’s news -today
THE SECURITY forces in Northern Ireland are facing a serious threat from American ex-Vietnam soldiers being recruited to fight with the I.R.A. as paid gunmen and saboteurs.
Until now the few Americans involved have served mainly as instructors and they have tended to remain in Eire. But British Intelligence now has wind of a big recruiting campaign in the U.S. backed by pro-I.R.A. organisations in New York.
There is no shortage of ex-Vietnam veterans – many of them Catholics of Irish origin – prepared to hire out their services. And the U.S. organisations are prepared to pay for them, as they are already paying for some arms shipments to the I.R.A.
Cash lure
The Intelligence authorities are perturbed because professionals with experience of street fighting and demolition could give a new dimension to the I.R.A.’s effectiveness.
The move to employ them actively as gunmen seems to be linked with a drive by pro-Irish muggers in New York to steal the passports of British visitors. The route to Ulster is likely to be via Eire using an American passport – but a British passport could be useful in the event of being picked up as a suspect across the border.
Many Vietnam veterans who have left the U.S. Army are finding it difficult to find jobs in which they can settle down. The prospect of big pay as mercenaries in Ulster appeals to them.
I understand the U.S. State Department is aware of the situation, though loath to admit it. But there is nothing it can do to stop a discharged serviceman from visiting Eire.
From the Daily Express
Chapman Pincher
The Column of Disclosure
Documents in my possession show the I.R.A. is now rivalling Russia’s K.G.B. in ingenuity when it comes to disseminating false information to discredit the Army.
They confirm that Special Branch and the other anti-terrorist services have little hope of combating the I.R.A. without resorting to “dirty tricks” such as exploiting double agents.
The papers, which purport to be part of a long internal I.R.A. memorandum, disclose a most dastardly plot by the British.
They warn that large quantities of “doctored” ammunition are being manufactured at Royal Ordnance Factories to be funnelled by devious routes to the I.R.A.
The ammunition contains such an excessive charge of propellant – even, perhaps, with a dash of explosive – that when it is fired it will blow up the gun and injure or even kill the gunman.
Examine
Explosives experts who helped to compile the memo report, according to their “contact” – presumably a spy in the Government service – hundreds of these doctored rounds are already on their way to Northern Ireland.
They warn I.R.A. commanders to examine all rounds carefully and even to weigh them before issuing them to gunmen.
“We also think that if the British are going to these lengths with cartridges they are probably playing the same games with detonators, fuses, grenades, mines and mortar bombs”, the memo states. A mortar bomb could easily be doctored to blow up the crew as soon as it is fired.
To increase the hideousness of the plot, the document warns the perfidious British are not only doctoring British ammunition but Russian, Czech and American cartridges which also reach the I.R.A.
My inquiries have established this memo is a fake – false information being pushed around in the hope of showing that the British will stoop to any devilry.
It is even designed to give the I.R.A. leadership an excuse to blame Britain when one of its own weapons accidentally blows up and kills the user.
I imagine that the professional fakers at the Disinformation Centre in Moscow are quite envious – that is unless they had a hand in it.