Gardaí have launched an investigation into the publication of photographs on a US website of members of the Special Detective Unit, or special branch. A total of 14 photographs have been published, apparently showing the officers at work outside courthouses and other locations.
In New York the owner of the website denied there was anything sinister in the publication of the photographs, saying his service was simply dedicated to exposing all elements of international state secrecy.
The Garda crime and security branch has been given a copy of the photographs, which were posted on Thursday and yesterday. Gardaí are keen to ascertain who sent them to the website and why.
However, a Garda spokesman said it was not clear if the publication of the pictures broke any Irish laws. "There are no threats against the gardaí published with these pictures and nothing that would suggest incitement to hatred," he said. "If a photograph was taken of a garda and it was reproduced in a paper then so be it, there is nothing illegal about that."
The photographs were published on www.cryptome.org, which is run by a New York-based architect, Mr John Young.
Mr Young denied their publication would put the lives of the officers, or their families, at risk. "The really smart people know who they are anyway and can target them. So this way at least they can take precautions."
He said he had no intention of taking the pictures off the website, even if the gardaí or the Irish Government asked him to.
"In the past the FBI have called me to take down photographs on behalf of other governments. But it is legal in the US to publish."
He would not reveal who had sent in the photos and said that on most occasions he did not know the identity of the source of material published on his website. He said Cryptome had no way of knowing if the individuals in the photos were actually members of the special branch.
"Since we are not professionals we don't know if they are accurate but we put them up and leave it to people to decide if they are true ... It is good to have debate about this type of stuff.
"Principally we have a position against government secrecy, and that applies to any government whether it is Britain, Japan or Ireland. So we do what we can to stop this type of secrecy by publishing the photographs."
He said he did not know if there were any more photographs to come from the Republic but he was inviting more documents to be sent.
The website, established in 1996, is visited on average by about 50,000 people per day.