Paisley Libya claim rejected
IAN Paisley Jr’s apparent claim that PSNI officers in Libya were there to spy on the country has been rejected by the chairman of the Policing Board.
Last month, when it emerged that he had personally authorised PSNI officers to go and help the Tripoli regime, Mr Paisley hinted that they were there to gather intelligence for Britain.
But, responding to a letter from TUV leader Jim Allister, Barry Gilligan said that claim was wrong.
Last night Mr Allister repeated his call for Mr Paisley to either resign from the Policing Board or be removed by the DUP over his “wild suggestion”.
“When Ian Paisley Junior was exposed as having approved the secondment of PSNI officers to help Gaddafi, he spun a web of defence which included the spectacular claim that in fact the officers were intelligence-gathering.
The former MEP said that Mr Gilligan’s letter spelt out that the officers “do not engage in any sort of information-gathering on overseas deployments”.
Mr Allister told the News Letter: “His (Mr Paisley’s) suggestion that the PSNI officers were intelligence-gathering in Libya stands exposed as fatuous nonsense.
“I call on him not just to publicly apologise for his misleading assertion but to resign from the Policing Board as his judgement stands exposed as so deficient as to render him unfit to serve there.
A DUP spokesman said: “There is no expectation on our part of any component of the security and intelligence services admitting carrying out any intelligence activity.
“Quite frankly I would be greatly alarmed if they did.
“However it is without question that all police officers stationed overseas are deployed to help stem criminality occurring overseas from reaching the UK.”
