Category: Kitson, Brigadier Frank
-
Learning to kill
Frank Kitson’s first overseas military assignment was to Germany, in 1946, with the rank of second lieutenant. He remained there for seven years. He found plenty of sport to occupy his spare time such as racing horses in Rhine Army competitions, trout fishing and ‘many wonderful opportunities for shooting … and by shooting I don’t…
-
The Bloody Sunday Plot.
Introduction. The official position of the British Government relating to Bloody Sunday is based on the 2010 report of Lord Saville of Newdigate, i.e., that a group of paratroopers engaged in the massacre of thirteen innocent people in Derry, with a fourteenth dying later, for no reason. Unfortunately, Saville ignored or discounted substantial evidence indicating…
-
Mobile torture chamber.
Introduction. The brutality displayed by David Cleary (Soldier F) and Ron Cook (Soldier G) of 1 Para on Bloody Sunday in Derry on 30 January 1972 was not an aberration. After murdering a string of unarmed civilians, they were taken to Fort George, where they beat up a group of innocent prisoners, including a priest.…
-
Soldier G.
By David Burke. Soldier G was Soldier F’s ‘partner’. Both soldiers served with the Support Company of 1 Para. Soldier F’s real name is David Cleary. Soldier G was Ronald Alan Cook. Cook was a private in 1 Para on Bloody Sunday. His military number was 24180769. He was probably 21 at the time of…
-
Kitson, Afghanistan and Iraq.
By David Burke. 1. The counter-insurgency gurus. From 1970 to 1972, Brigadier (later General Sir) Frank Kitson served as Brigadier of 39 Brigade in Belfast. Some argue he damaged relations between the British government and the Nationalist community more than any other individual in the British Army. This website has many stories about Kitson, and…
-
Prime Suspects.
Introduction: Margaret Thatcher, MI5 and the cold-blooded murder of an Irish lawyer. The independent public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane hopes to examine ‘to what extent were his killers encouraged, assisted, protected or directed’ by the British state, at least according to barrister Matthew Hill, its lead counsel. He added that, ‘There is…
-
‘EFGH’
By David Burke. 1. ‘No other perpetrator involved would be given anonymity, for some reason, Soldier F is a protected species.’ In 2021, Colum Eastwood MP of the SDLP was named ‘Soldier F ’ in the House of Commons, under privilege. ‘Soldier F’ had faced murder charges for his actions on Bloody Sunday, which…
-
Kitson’s Private Army.
By David Burke. Brigadier Frank Kitson ran the 39th Airborne Brigade area, i.e. Belfast, as if he were a mob boss with the city ashis patch. He let the paratroopers under his command run riot in that domain. Some of the more decent and honourable British Army officers were aghast at their excesses and asked…
-
50 spook and dirty trick stories (2024).
Click on the link below to read a selection of stories from The Phoenix 2024, including: Brig. Frank Kitson’s dirty war; what really happened on Bloody Sunday (not the nonsense in the Savile Inquiry report); Patrick Crinnion, MI6’s spy inside the Gardaí; the Dublin and Monaghan bombings; Barrie Gane of MI6; Freddie Scappaticci; the Kincora…
-
30 dirty trick intelligence stories from 2020 to 2023.
The Phoenix ceased publication in June 2026. The magazine was the only real source of articles about collusion, the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, Kincora, MI5 dirty tricks and attacks on Irish neutrality, etc, on Irish newsstands. It has to be brought back – somehow. Otherwise, we will be relying on The Irish Times and other similar publications…
-
From Russia with Lethality.
By David Burke. In October 1977, Hibernia, a weekly Dublin periodical, published an article by Brian Trench about the assassination of Seamus Costello, Chief of Staff of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA). The Hibernia article is rich in detail about the feuding between the INLA and the Official IRA. Costello had once been a…
-
Lying like a trooper.
By David Burke. 1. Where was the ‘EFGH’ Unit of Support Company of 1 Para during the Ballymurphy Massacre? Internment began on 9 August 1971. By the 11th, ten people had been murdered by paratroopers in Ballymurphy. Decades later, the coroner who oversaw the inquest for the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre confirmed that…
-
Natural Born Killer.
By David Burke. Brigadier (later General) Frank Edward Kitson was responsible for the Ballymurphy massacre. He was the Brigadier of 39 Brigade – that is to say he was the officer in charge of all British soldiers in Belfast during the Ballymurphy massacre. His accomplice was Colonel Derek Wilford, the then commander of 1 Para.…
-
Mentioned in Despatches.
By David Burke. Internment – arrest and detention without trial – was introduced by the Stormont Government of Northern Ireland in August 1971. Hundreds of Nationalists were rounded up and detained. Members of the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando were not targeted for arrest. The swoops were carried out by British troops including the…
-
Missing UVF Bomb Massacre Files.
On 4 December 8:45 p.m., a UVF gang set out on a bombing mission. One of those involved was Robert James Campbell. The UVF bomb exploded outside a small pub in Belfast called McGurk’s, a cosy place where Catholics and Protestants from the same neighbourhood – all of whom knew each other well – met…
-
Kitson-RUC plot to safeguard the UVF.
The campaign for the truth about the infamous McGurk’s bar bombing of 1971 has uncovered the existence of a covert intrigue hatched by the British Army’s counter-insurgency (i.e., dirty tricks) guru, Brigadier Frank Kitson, and the RUC, to conceal the truth about the UVF’s bomb attack massacre at McGurk’s bar in 1971. Kitson and the…
-
McGurk’s Bar cover-up.
Tory PM Edward Heath concealed the identity of a paramilitary organisation which perpetrated a massacre in Belfast in 1971. He did so in the hope of acquiring the votes he needed to win a majority in the House of Commons to enable the UK to join the EEC, the forerunner of the EU. What he…
-
Kitson’s foreknowledge of a third massacre.
New evidence has emerged about the UVF’s bombing of McGurk’s Bar in Belfast in December 1971. The explosion caused the entire structure of the premises to collapse, killing fifteen Catholic civilians – including two children – and wounding seventeen more. It was the deadliest attack in Belfast during the Troubles. Brigadier (later General Sir) Frank…
-
Hooded men.
1. No one shouted ‘Stop’. 2. The ‘Beasting’ of prisoners in Derry 3. Torture and mutilation 4. Torture and mutilation as a counter-insurgency tactic in Her Majesty’s Colonies 5. The Hooded Men. 6. Delegating murder and torture to British agents in Loyalist paramilitary gangs. 7. Torture, mutilation and murder by a British agent in the…
-
The Judicial Fixer (Webbook).
1. Brigadier Frank Kitson subverts the law. 2. Judicial compromise. 3. An Allegedly Independent Judge pre-judges the Murder Victims by Attending a Meeting at which they were referred to as ‘the other side’ 4. Threats to Muzzle the Ever Compliant British Media 5. Black Propaganda 6. John Hume wanted an “independent authority” to conduct the inquiry 7. Fabricated Evidence. 8. Lord Saville…
-
Sir Richard White’s black heart (Webbook).
Introduction. In 1971, 342 people were swept up by the British army and interned, i.e. subjected to indefinite detention without a trial. Britain’s intelligence community was looking for people they hoped would be able to provide them with information about members of the IRA. 14 men were chosen for ‘special treatment’ and taken to a secret…
-
From the Vaults: Kitson’s War with the I.R.A by Sean Boyne.
Sean Boyne, the Dublin-based author of the highly regarded volume, ‘Gunrunners, the Covert Arms Trail to Ireland 2006’, had a distinguished career as an investigative journalist. In 1972 he was writing for This Week magazine. On the 8th of June that year, he produced the cover story, ‘Kitson’s war with the I.R.A.’. People reading this…
-
McGurks:
Fifteen civilians – including two children – were massacred in a no-warning UVF bomb attack on 4 December 1971 at McGurk’s Bar Massacre. Even before all the victims were identified, the British state briefed the media with lies about the massacre and its innocent victims. They claimed the pub was controlled by the IRA and that…
-
Britain’s heart of darkness.
Introduction. Channel 4 has just broadcast a documentary entitled “A Very British Way of Torture”. It justified a pre-broadcast claim that it would address the full, shocking story of how Britain secretly used torture in its war against the Kenyan anti-colonialist Mau Mau movement in the 1950s – including murder, rape and forced castrations. The…
-
Colin Wallace: Bloody Sunday, a very personal perspective.
By Colin Wallace. 1. Memories of Brigadier Frank Kitson. David Burke’s fascinating new book on Frank Kitson includes a comprehensive analysis of what has become known around the world as ‘Bloody Sunday’. Reading it has stirred a lot of memories of the time I spent at Army HQ in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. As…
-
Counterinsurgency war criminals.
The denial of justice for political gain. Next week will see the release of the long-awaited inquest report into the Ballymurphy massacre during which British soldiers killed and wounded a large number of unarmed civilians in Belfast. The atrocity took place after the introduction of internment in August of 1971. Adding insult to inqury, the…
