THE 1987 murder plot by unionist death squads to assassinate Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams will feature in the report to be published next Wednesday on the shooting dead of Belfast civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane at home, in front of his family, in February 1989.

Collusion between British state forces – responsible to the British Government – and the death squads has always been strongly claimed.

Gerry Adams – now a TD in the Dáil – has called on the Irish Government to “insist, as the family does, that the British keep to their commitment and hold a public inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane”.

Pictured right: Seamus Finucane, brother of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, wants answers about alleged RUC collusion in his brother’s assassination by a unionist death squad

The plot to kill Adams arises because, as the report’s author, Sir Desmond de Silva QC, says to him in a letter:

“Whilst the focus of my report is Patrick Finucane’s murder, it was appropriate for me to examine it in its proper context. Among the surrounding key issues is the role that was played by the British Army agent, Brian Nelson.

“Accordingly, I wanted you to be aware prior to publication that my report touches on the plot by loyalist paramilitaries to attack you in May 1987.”

Gerry Adams said this development is really no surprise to him as collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads was a matter of institutional practice by successive British governments throughout the decades of conflict in the North.

“It played a part in the attack in March 1984 in which I and three others were shot and it has already been reported that the British were aware of the planned to kill me in May 1987,” Gerry Adams said.

“The role of Brian Nelson and in particular of Brigadier Gordon Kerr (Colonel J) – pictured right – is particularly important.

“Nelson was a British military intelligence and Special Branch agent, controlled by the Force Research Unit (FRU) run by Kerr. From 1987 Nelson was also the UDA’s senior intelligence officer. He had responsibility for gathering the information on which UDA/UFF gangs acted and killed Catholics.

Read the article in full at An Phoblacht