Internet terror list is denied by SF

SINN Fein has described as "nonsense" reports that it was posting a "terrorists crib sheet" of British military, intelligence…

SINN Fein has described as "nonsense" reports that it was posting a "terrorists crib sheet" of British military, intelligence and police installations on the Internet.

The party has posted on its Web page on the Internet the detailed brochure which it published, in paper form, at the end of 1994 on British military posts and RUC barracks.

The Web page was put on the Internet by a sympathiser in the United States.

The original document, entitled "Sinn Fein Peace Action Monitor", includes addresses of all RUC stations and locations of British army posts. This was distributed widely by Sinn Fein.

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It also includes a brief section on "Intelligence and GCHQ" installations in Northern Ireland. This describes a security forces base in east Belfast as MI5 headquarters in Northern Ireland.

Two early warning radar installations, in Co Down, listed in the Sinn Fein Web site, as "GCHQ stations" were detailed as long ago as the 1970s by the Irish Times. These stations went out of use in the 1970s as the new British early warning system at Fillingsdale, Lancashire, came into operation.

The information shows that Sinn Fein keeps a detailed monitor of security installations in Northern Ireland but almost all the information is available from the telephone directory or by touring areas where bases are located.

It includes a list of recent planning applications for upgrading police stations but, again, this information is published in newspapers in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Fein yesterday had already posted on its Web page the main speeches and debate results from its weekend ardfheis. It prominently displays an electronic contribution box for its fund raising wing, Cairde Sinn Fein.

The Sinn Fein site is one of the most professionally produced Web pages by an Irish political party. Its supporters also contribute actively on many of the electronic discussions on Irish politics. By contrast, the Government does not have its own Web site and had to borrow a Higher Education Authority site to publish details of the Framework Document.

Political parties and organisations involved in insurgent campaigns are among the more than 30 million Internet users and this has led to international complaints. Earlier this year a company providing Web sites in Europe withdrew permission from the Basque separatist organisation, ETA, after it carried out a series of assassinations and bombings in Spain.

Sinn Fein said yesterday that all the material posted on its Web site was already in the public domain and stories "emanating from London and quoting unnamed security sources are deliberate attempt to mislead and misinform".