Claims that intelligence agents tracked the Omagh bombers on the day of the attack but failed to alert police were rejected in an official report today.
Sir Peter Gibson, the Intelligence Services Commissioner, said he had found no evidence to back up allegations the Government’s listening station GCHQ intercepted information that could have prevented the 1998 atrocity.
Twenty-nine people, including a mother pregnant with twins, were killed when a Real IRA car bomb exploded in the town after misleading warnings.
No-one has ever been convicted of the attack, which inflicted the single biggest loss of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Sir Peter was called in by the British government to examine the role of GCHQ after a BBC Panoramaprogramme alleged the agency was monitoring calls between the bombers before and after the explosion.
He found that while GCHQ could intercept mobile phone calls, it did not have the technology to use them to track the live movements of the bomb car and scout car on the day.
"The portrayal in the Panoramaprogramme of the tracking on a screen of the movement of two cars, a scout car and a car carrying a bomb, by reference to two "blobs" moving on a road map has no correspondence whatever with what intercepting agencies were able to do or did on August 15th 1998," he said.
"On the basis of evidence from an independent expert witness from a mobile communications service provider I am satisfied that, in 1998, it was neither possible to track mobile phones in real time nor to visualise the location and movement of mobile phones in the way that was shown in the Panoramaprogramme."
The BBC documentary also claimed information on the possible identity of the bombers was not passed to RUC detectives in the hours and days after the attack.
Sir Peter said he was satisfied all the data obtained by GCHQ was given to RUC headquarters and its intelligence unit, Special Branch.
However, he did highlight gaps in the information flow between Special Branch and the investigation team working on the case.
This concurs with an investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman in 2001, which found that Special Branch had not passed all its intelligence on the bombers to detectives in Omagh.
Special Branch would have had to gain GCHQ’s permission if it wanted to forward its intelligence on to the RUC in Omagh but Sir Peter revealed that no official request to do that was ever made.
He also noted that Special Branch only briefed the Omagh investigation team twice and police in the Republic of Ireland once.
“It was not part of the terms of my review that I should investigate, nor have I investigated, the reasons why Special Branch South acted in the cautious way it did, nor have I investigated the soundness of those reasons, although I do not doubt that Special Branch South took the actions it did for what it considered to be good operational reasons.”
Sir Peter also said there was no evidence before him that police in the Republic had warned the RUC of a likely attack.
He said there was no intelligence to suggest terrorists were planning to strike in Omagh.
“The evidence that I have reviewed is consistent and clear to the effect that there was nothing to suggest either that a bomb attack was going take place on August 15th or that the town of Omagh was to be the target of any bomb attack.”
British prime minister Gordon Brown, who will meet some of the victims’ relatives at Downing Street next month, is expected to face fresh demands for a full cross-border judicial inquiry.
Even though the families are involved in a multi-million pound High Court compensation claim against the five men they allege were responsible for the bloodshed, they still want the British and Irish Governments to agree to the tribunal.
Northern Ireland Secretary of State Shaun Woodward said the Briths government shared the public’s deep regret that the bombers had not been brought to justice.
He added: “And while it remains right the police and other agencies charged with protecting the public from terrorism are accountable for their conduct and subject to scrutiny, we must never forget the bomb was the deliberate work of the RIRA and we all have a continuing duty to do all we can to bring those criminals to justice.”
Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde said he agreed with Sir Peter.
“I also strongly endorse his view that none of that information could have prevented the atrocity,” he said.
Sir Peter’s findings were drawn from a much fuller report, which has been classified for security reasons.
Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden was killed in the bomb, said he would be asking to see the full version.
He stressed the victims’ families were not against the security forces or the intelligence agencies.
“But we believe that mistakes were made and those mistakes should be examined and put right to give us a better chance of preventing any future attack and catching those responsible,” he added.
Panoramareporter John Ware said he stood by his story and said that, in certain respects, Sir Peter's report was "highly selective and a little disingenuous".
He said it had not focused on the key theme of his programme - why detectives had not been given the information.
“It [the report] says all the information was shared with Special Branch,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.
“The question we raised in this programme, and one that still remains a very live issue, is why the detectives at the end of the food chain didn’t get to know everything the Special Branch knew and what GCHQ knew.”
Sinn Féin West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty said he was not satisfied with the review, while SDLP Assembly member Alban Maginness also called for further examination of the role of the security services.
PA