Witness Detection

By Jack Holland

As revelations mount about the reputed informer Dave Rupert’s tax violations, the lawyer for Mickey McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, against whom Rupert is going to testify, has asked for a postponement of his client’s bail application, due this week.

Rupert was named in a Dublin court on Tuesday as chief witness against McKevitt.

Sources say that the delay is an indication that the revelations about Rupert, who owes more than $500,000 in federal taxes, might have damaged his credibility as a prosecution witness.

McKevitt’s lawyer might delay the hearing in order to gather more information about Rupert’s role, according to a reliable source. It is being suggested by supporters of McKevitt, who is being held on charges that he directed a terrorist organization, that Rupert agreed to act as an informer in return for a waiver on his tax violations.

"Paid perjurer’s don’t make good witnesses," one said.

A source close to the McKevitt case said that to date the state has not presented any evidence against the accused man. According to the same source, the prosecution has indicated that Rupert will be a witness but had yet to reveal the nature of the evidence he will be presenting.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Rupert, who was a leading member of the Chicago area Irish Freedom Committee, owed $325,165 to the IRS in Cook County, Ill.

It was further revealed this week that he owes another $233,091 in Florida, and $2,359 in Maryland. Federal tax liens were placed on Rupert in Pinellas County, Fla., on April 5, 1994 and in Montgomery County, Md., on March 31, 1997.

Rupert, associates said, has not be seen in Chicago since last fall. He disappeared after a dispute between the Chicago and New York chapters of the Irish Freedom Committee, which was founded in 1986 to support Republican Sinn Fein. Rupert and his supporters wanted the IFC to also raise money for RIRA prisoners, as well as those associated with Continuity IRA, which is linked to Republican Sinn Fein. They were expelled in April 2000, though a spokeswoman for the Chicago units claimed that the majority of IFC members voted to endorse support for both republican groups and that it was New York that broke away.

Allegations and counterallegations have swirled around the case, with Rupert’s supporters claiming that they had no reason to suspect him as an informer, since he was "vouched" for by leading members of Republican Sinn Fein.

Rupert is thought to have fled with his wife, Maureen, to Ireland to escape his tax problems sometime in 1994. Among prominent Republican Sinn Fein members who knew him in Ireland was former Bundoran urban district councilor Joe O’Neill.

O’Neill said that he first met Rupert at a "business meeting" to discuss a property deal sometime in the mid-1990s. According to O’Neill, Rupert bought a bar, The Drowse Inn, near Bundoran. Asked if Rupert appeared to have lots of money, O’Neill laughed and said: "I paid for most of the meals when we went out."

It has been alleged that when Rupert fled to Ireland around 1994, he used federal tax money to open the bar. O’Neill said it has since been razed.

"I would have known Dave Rupert more than most people," O’Neill said. "If he was an agent he was beyond me. He’s a very good one if he was."

O’Neill denies vouching for Rupert.

"They never asked me," he asserted. "I never had any suspicions about him until he started preaching politics." That was some three years after they first met, according to O’Neill, who lost his seat last year.

Rupert was also reportedly seen at meetings in Dublin and Chicago with prominent Republican Sinn Fein leaders.

Despite the tax liens, Rupert returned to the U.S. in 1996 with his wife. Just when he switched his allegiance to the Real IRA, the organization responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people, is not certain.

How seriously the tax revelations will damage Rupert’s credibility remains to be seen. Much will depend on the nature of the other evidence against McKevitt.

"If [Rupert] had the houses bugged," said a security source, "there’ll be evidence on tape, admissible under certain guidelines." He said that if the gardai have done a good job, "there’ll be video evidence. And Rupert will be able to corroborate the taped evidence."

Meanwhile, the FBI in Chicago, who last week said that it "had no standing whatsoever" in the case, said that it was a "misinterpretation" to suggest that this meant the agency was not involved. The spokesman said the FBI would neither confirm nor dispute the assertion that Rupert was their agent.

A Chicago spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service said it was "prohibited from divulging Information" on any case linked to the Witness Protection Program, under which it has been reported Rupert was being concealed.

The skinny on McKevitt

According to police intelligence, Dundalk, Co. Louth-based Michael McKevitt first came to prominence in 1985, linked to Provisional IRA Active Service Units in South Armagh.

By 1994, McKevitt was identified by the RUC as the quartermaster general of the Provisional IRA on the GHQ Staff. He became the target of an extensive surveillance operation involving E9, a small specialist unit within the RUC Special Branch.

In late 1995 or early ’96, police believe, he moved briefly on to the IRA’s ruling body, the Army Council, as adjutant general.

In October 1997, McKevitt left the IRA after a dispute about the leadership’s signing up to the non-violence principles in order to take part in the all-party talks process which led to the Good Friday agreement.

He reportedly became the chief of staff of the Real IRA. In March, he was arrested on charges of directing a terrorist organization.