Rupert felt infiltrating 'Real IRA' was 'morally acceptable'

FBI agent Mr David Rupert infiltrated dissident republican groups and reported to US authorities after he decided it was "morally acceptable" to do so, the Special Criminal Court heard today.

He told the court in the first day of his evidence in the trial of the alleged "Real IRA" leader, Mr Michael McKevitt, he was also swayed by an offer from the FBI to finance his frequent trips to Ireland.

The prosecution has claimed Mr Rupert was paid $1.25 million to infiltrate dissident republican organisations, and will give evidence of having met Mr McKevitt on over 20 occasions.

Mr Rupert, a 51-year-old former trucking company boss from upstate New York, told the court of six visits he made to Ireland during the early 1990s with three different women.

He said he had no interest in Ireland or Irish politics prior to his first visit here in April 1992, which he made with a woman of Irish descent he had met outside a bar in Florida. "It seemed like a good idea," to travel to Ireland, which turned out to be a "a gorgeous country" that he "really loved".

He next came to Ireland in August 1992 with a different woman, Ms Linda Vaughan, who he also met in Florida. She had been involved in fundraising for Noraid, had lobbied for the Seán McBride principles and had spoken at a hunger strike commemoration in Bundoran.

It was through her he met a number of men he believed to be strongly republican, including a Sligo bar-owner, Mr Vincent Murray and another publican from Bundoran, Mr Joe O'Neill. Mr Murray's bar "was considered an IRA pub", he said, while Mr O'Neill was "vocally pro-republican."

Mr Rupert said although he never met Mr Murray and Mr O'Neill together, he was of the opinion that "pre-1986, they had belonged to the same political persuasion." At first he was not particularly friendly with either men but later got closer.

The relationship with Ms Vaughan ended, but he made four subsequent visits to Ireland over the next two years, including two in July and December 1993 with his third wife, Ms Jackie Decker, who he met on the Internet.

This marriage "was not working out", he said, so he decided to rent a house alone in Bundoran in the summer of 1994. During these three weeks he spent most of his time with Mr O'Neill, who was "a prolific teacher of his version of Irish republicanism", Mr Rupert said. "He became the teacher and I became the student".

He went back to Chicago, where his marriage ended soon afterwards. Months later, he was in the office of his trucking company, when FBI agent Mr Ed Buckley came to visit him. Mr Rupert said "it did not occur to me that it was about Irish republicanism" until Mr Buckley told him he had photos of him with Mr Murray and Mr O'Neill.

The agent asked him if he would be interested in working to supply the FBI with information on these men and their relationship with the United States, adding the US government would finance his trips to Ireland. Mr Rupert dismissed Mr Buckley initially but eventually agreed to co-operate as he "found it morally acceptable" to do what he was asked.

"I thought about thesituation and what I had learned about the situation here. From my moralteachings I found it morally acceptable to do. I like to come here and hewas offering to expense me for my trips so I agreed to take him up on theissue."

Mr McKevitt (53), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth has pleaded not guilty to two charges - membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA between August 29th, 1999 and March 28th, 2001 and to directing the activities of the same organisation between March 29th, 1999 and October 23rd, 2000.

The trial resumes tomorrow morning.