Report: Cover-up in 1972 Northern Ireland bombing

[Allhallowsday]

Report: Cover-up in 1972 Northern Ireland bombing  

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – The British government and the Roman Catholic church colluded to cover up the suspected involvement of a priest in a 1972 bombing that killed nine people and injured 30, a new report said Tuesday.

The Northern Ireland police ombudsman's report determined that Father James Chesney was the prime suspect in the blast in the village of Claudy, just outside of Londonderry and that the police chose not to pursue him. The Irish Republican Army has been blamed for the attack.

"A senior (police) officer sought the government's assistance in December 1972, through their engagement with senior figures of the Catholic Church, to 'render harmless a dangerous priest,'" the report said.

Despite the suspicions of authorities, the church and U.K. officials struck a deal that allowed Chesney to move to a parish in Ireland where British prosecutors lacked the jurisdiction to investigate him. Police approached the leaders apparently because of fears that arresting a cleric would inflame a tense situation.

About 100 people died in July 1972 — the most violent month that year...  

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100824/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nireland_bombing  

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Well, dosen't suprise me.

The somewhat questionable circumstances of the release of the Lockerbee bomber comes to mind, and why he's still alive if he only had 3 months left.  Somewhere, I can't help but ask myself if England is enjoying their new oil wells in Libya..