Sinn Fein boss won't face charges over cop murders ... DESPITE his dabs (finger prints) being found all over 'decoy1 car used in brutal 1971 ambush...

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has been cleared of any involvement in a double-murder – in spite of his
fingerprints being found on a 'decoy' car used to divert cops from the men who gunned down two of their colleagues in an IRA ambush.

A Police Ombudsman probe into the investigation of the horrific double-slaying has found that although DNA linked Adams to a. car matching the vehicle used by gunmen and burnt out a short distance away, there was not enough evidence to quiz the Sinn Fein leader about the October 1971 killings.

Undercover RUC officers Cecil Cunningham and John Haslett had been sitting in a car at the junction of Twaddell Avenue and Woodvale Road when a Provo hit earn raked their vehicle with gunfire.

The two cops — one a long-serving id decorated officer and the other an UC rookie — both died from gun shots to the chest.

They were part of a four-man team king turns to keep surveillance on a savings bank and post office that had •en targeted in a number of armed robberies.

As the pair sat observing the bank, gunmen opened fire from a green-coloured Ford Cortina car, hitting the cop car at least half a dozen times.

At the time of the brutal double murder Gerry Adams was a rising star in the Belfast brigade of the IRA and within three years was the Provo commanding officer in the city.

More than 35 years later, while he was overseeing his party's move into the Executive alongside the DUP, Adams was at the centre of a Historical Enquiries Team probe into the horrific murders.

He has since been cleared of direct involvement in the double-murder, in spite of his palm an fingerprints being recovered from an identical green Ford Cortina car burnt out in the Ardoyne shortly after the shootings.

The prints recovered at the time of the shootings matched prints taken from Adams when he was arrested in the early 1970s, although the match was only made in the early 1990s following advances in forensic science. However, even then the Sinn Fein president was not questioned by detectives about how his prints came to be on the stolen vehicle after cops were unable to find firm evidence linking the car directly to the double-slaying.

The failure of police to interview Adams led to a series of complaints to the Police Ombudsman from a relative of one of the murdered officers. The subsequent Ombudsman investigation — launched by Nuala O'Loan and completed by her successor Al Hutchinson — found there was no evidence to link the individual whose prints were found directly to the killings.

The Ombudsman report does not disclose the identity of the individual, but Adams' identity has been confirmed by police sources.

Said a Police Ombudsman spokesman: "Several eye witnesses at the time of the shooting were not able to give the registration number of the car used in the attack, but did manage to recall some of the digits it contained.

"Those did not match the registration number of the car which was found later.

"Indeed there does not appear to have been any evidence to link the car to the attack."

He added: "We have concluded that the police identified the fingerprints in 1994 and at that stage again looked at the issue of whether the car in which they had been found had been used in the attack.

"Given that there was nothing to link the prints to the attack, there is nothing to suggest police investigating the shooting of the officers should have progressed this line of inquiry."

However, Sunday Life understands from police sources that although there was no physical evidence linking the car to the shootings, intelligence pointed to Adams' car being a decoy to help the killers get away with murder.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson last night called for police to keep the murder file open and continue to press to bring the cop killers to justice.

"It has consistently been our view that no one's above the law and if there is clear evidence that any individual, no matter who they are, has been involved in an act of terrorism, then obviously it is a matter for the police and the courts to pursue prosecution," said the Lagan Valley MP.

"It seems that in this case the police have decided there is not sufficient evidence to take forward a prosecution, but it is important that the file and the case is kept open so that in the future if substantial evidence comes forward to link anyone to the murder of these two police officers, the matter is brought before the courts.

He added: "It's widely believed that Gerry Adams was involved in the IRA and I don't think anyone believes otherwise."

Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said that Adams was being cleared at a time when Sinn Fein was being treated with kid gloves.

"One would always be suspicious that there has of late been an anxiety not to embarrass Sinn Fein and not to dig up anything that would have the potential to do that," said the MEP.

"I'm quite sure there have been considerable pressures in that respect."

The Sinn Fein president, who according to a spokesman is currently on holiday, was not available to comment on the investigation last night.

Constables Cunningham and Haslett are believed to have been targeted after their cover was blown by IRA sympathisers who recognised the older officer — a well-known figure in the area.

Mr Cunningham, who came from a police family, was originally from Florencecourt, Co Fermanagh and served in Clogher and Cookstown, before being transferred to Belfast, and lived in the north of the city. The 46-year-old dad-of-one had been awarded the Long Service Medal three years before he was gunned down.
His young colleague John Haslett (21), from the Gilnahirk area of east Belfast, had only been in the police a year at the time of his murder.

At the inquest the coroner described the killings as "a most ghastly and cold-blooded murder, all the more terrifying because it was carried out on the streets of the city in broad daylight".

No one was ever brought to justice for their murders.

The flies were re-opened in 2006 by detectives in the Historical Enquiries Team, set up to investigate unsolved terrorist murders, and review all other cases dating back to the start of the Troubles.

As revealed by Sunday Life at the time, when pressed about the investigation in a private session of the Policing Board in September 2006, Chief

Constable Sir Hugh Orde gave a pledge that the HET would interview Gerry Adams — and any other loyalist or republican — if they were suspected of involvement in. any unsolved crime.

His comments came as the Sinn Fein president was preparing for crunch talks at St Andrews on the road to the re-establishment of the Executive last year.

The case was also at the centre of a mysterious Vatican 'cover-up' last year, when someone using a Vatican computer removed links to articles about Adams' role in the murder investigation from his Wikipedia website.

The Holy See's spokesman, Fr Fredrico Lombadri, denied any official Vatican involvement in removing internet links, saying that an individual may have accessed a Vatican computer as a "private individual" 30th March 2008 Sunday Life

Unanswered questions

The Police Ombudsman's findings in the horrific murders of Constables Cecil Cunningham and John Haslett will come as a mixed blessing to the under fire Gerry-Adams.

Al Hutch in son's probe has cleared him of the murders of the two cops, but still leaves unanswered questions about his links to a 'decoy1 car used to help the killers get away with murder.

And it comes at a time when the Sinn Fein leader is under extreme pressure from his grassroots support.

Just last week a column in the pro-Sinn Fein newspaper, the Andersonstown News, savaged Adams, pointing an accusing finger at the West Belfast MP for the spiralling j violence in the area that has cost the lives of Provo veteran Frank McGreevy and grocer Harry Holland.

That stinging attack, which the paper later apologised for, followed hot on the heels of embarrassing revelations from former Downing Street chief-of-staff Jonathan Powell that everyone from Tony Blair to David Trimble had played a part in scripting republican statements throughout the peace process. And Adams' credibility had been further damaged last month when his former driver Roy McShane fled after coming out as an MI5 spy, the latest in a line of British agents close to Adams. 30th March 2008 Sunday Life