Andrew Hunter (British politician)
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This article is part of SpinWatch's Northern Ireland Portal. |
Andrew Hunter is a former Conservative MP. In 1992 he compiled a dossier on alleged cooperation between the IRA and the ANC.[1] According to Hunter, the dossier was based on tip-offs from RUC Special Branch. In 2004 he joined the Democratic Unionist Party.[2]
South African Intelligence links
The Observer reported in 1995 that Hunter had links to Apartheid South African intelligence and one of its front organisations, the International Freedom Foundation:
- A former security police officer told The Observer that they had supplied information to Hunter that had led to the expulsion from Britain of former ANC representative Solly Smith.
- Hunter, a former advocate of recognition for the now defunct South African homeland, Bophuthatswana, admitted to The Observer last week that he had met, and received intelligence from, the security police as well as the national intelligence service.
- He said his prime purpose was to obtain information on terrorists, and that they shared a common interest on this front. 'Everything they told me was in the hands of MI5 and MI6 as soon as possible,' he said. He produced reports for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on links between the ANC and the IRA - a subject he wrote about for foundation publications - and the ANC's support for terrorist operations in South Africa.
- 'They didn't really give much information,' he complained. 'One item they gave me was disinformation. I didn't know about it until much later.' And the security police helped him to gain access to three ANC members, detained without trial - Susan Westcott, Ian Robertson and Hugh Lugg - to question them about ANC activities in London and links with the IRA.
- Ironically, for a man investigating terrorism, Hunter's key contact in the South African security police was Colonel Vic McPherson, now a suspect in the South African police bombing of the ANC's headquarters in London in 1982. McPherson was one of seven police officers who were awarded the Police Star, the highest police commendation, for that incident.[3]
Affiliations
Notes
- ↑ Tory MP 'tipped off MI5 about IRA meeting', by Thomas Harding, Daily Telegraph, 4 December 2002.
- ↑ Tory MP Andrew Hunter joins DUP, BBC News Online Last Updated: Friday, 10 December, 2004, 18:23 GMT
- ↑ Philip Van Niekerk, HOW APARTHEID CONNED THE WEST, The Observer, 16 July 1995.
