Sein Fein says Shayler has cleared McGuinness
Sein Fein says doubts cast by a former MI5 officer on claims that Martin McGuinness fired a shot before the Bloody Sunday massacre prove that the allegations are bogus.
The party is responding to a newspaper article by former intelligence officer David Shayler.
He claims the agent behind the allegation at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry is a liar.
The inquiry, which resumes on Monday, was told last April that a document from an agent code-named "Infliction" revealed that Mr McGuinness, now the Stormont Education Minister, appeared to have it on his conscience about firing a shot which sparked the massacre.
Thirteen civilians were shot dead by Paratroopers in Londonderry on January 30, 1972, while a Catholic civil rights march was banned. A fourteenth victim died later in hospital.
The families of those killed on Bloody Sunday and their supporters dispute that any shot was fired at the Army at all before the soldiers started shooting.
A debriefing note read at the Inquiry from Infliction claimed: "He (McGuinness) fired the first shot and nobody knows this. This seems to be on McGuinness's conscience. He has spoken to Infliction about it several times."
However, Mr Shayler says he intends to provide information to the Inquiry casting doubt on the agent's reliability.
He wrote in the Observer: "Infliction appeared to have particularly good access to IRA Northern Command. His information was taken seriously and acted upon for a while. Then, one day, there was a direct clash between Infliction's reporting and another source. Infliction was supposedly the reliable source and MI5 went with his version, only to be made to look stupid.
"As a result, it 'terminated' Infliction - ceased to use him as an agent - and labelled the intelligence he had provided as coming from a 'source whose reliability is being re-assessed'."
Mr Shayler queried why evidence from Infliction was being used at the Inquiry chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate.
A Sinn Fein spokesman says Mr Shayler's remarks confirm Mid Ulster MP Mr McGuinness's denial at the time the allegation was first made. "When the allegation was first made, Martin said it had no basis whatsoever," the spokesman said.
