Loyalist Billy Wright's 1997 assassination had to be approved by a notorious IRA commander

Loyalist Billy Wright's 1997 assassination had to be approved by a notorious IRA commander, according to newly released British army intelligence documents.
The INLA, which killed Wright inside the Maze prison, sought the consent of the IRA in Belfast before the murder, military intelligence officers have claimed. The group held meetings with the IRA commander, from Ardoyne, north Belfast, who also ordered the 1993 Shankill bomb attack, they said. Undercover army surveillance units had key members of the INLA leadership who were central to the murder plot under round-the-clock observation in the days leading up to Wright's assassination, the documents confirm. The classified material was released last week to the ongoing public inquiry into the killing of the Loyalist Volunteer Force leader in the maximum-security prison. Wright's family have alleged that the prison authorities and the security forces 'turned a blind eye' to the dangers the LVF founder faced while sharing a block with INLA inmates. They also claim the security forces could have prevented the murder because they had intelligence warnings that he was being targeted. A military intelligence officer known as Captain AA told the inquiry that the meetings, under constant surveillance, could have related to Wright's murder. He said that he was a battalion intelligence officer with responsibility for north and west Belfast from September 1997 to May 1998. Under questioning last week by the Rev John Oliver, the former Anglican Bishop of Hereford who is one of three inquiry panel members, Captain AA said that the INLA had to seek the approval of the IRA to kill Wright. Captain AA said: 'It would have been foolhardy of them [INLA] to carry out an operation without at least the tacit consent of PIRA.'A further British military assessment disclosed to the tribunal states: 'It is assessed the INLA meetings held at Belfast address 1 on the 16th and 19th of December were in connection with the murder of Billy Wright.'Wright's murder almost destroyed the fragile political negotiations leading to the Good Friday Agreement a few months later. Wright's killing caused a wave of loyalist retaliatory gun attacks in Belfast and mid-Ulster.Wednesday, 25 October, 2000, 13:23 GMT 14:23 UK
Wright killing inquiry demandThe murder sparked a series of reprisal killings in the following months. His father, David, believes there was a conspiracy behind the murder. He handed in a report detailing the circumstances surrounding the killing at Downing Street on Wednesday. The report was prepared by British-Irish Rights Watch, a London-based human rights group which has supported calls for inquiries into the deaths of Portadown man Robert Hamill, who died after being attacked by loyalists, and Rosemary Nelson, a lawyer killed by a loyalist car bomb. BIRW director Jane Winter said the primary responsibility for Billy Wright's murder lay with the three INLA men involved in the shooting. "However, that such a notorious figure could have been so easily be murdered within the confines of a prison, places a very high responsibility on the state." "I find it remarkable that, even today, I do not know the name of the governor that was in charge of my son's welfare that particular morning. "The government won't even tell me who was in charge of security that morning." Repeated requests by Mr Wright for a meeting with the prime minister or secretary of state have been turned down. Mr Wright's visit to Downing Street comes less than a week after his son's killers secured early release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.Christopher McWilliams told reporters he would support an inquiry into the killing but said unionist politicians making the demand were "hypocrites". Billy Wright: Murdered inside the Maze prison.Billy Wright was among the most feared loyalist paramilitary figures. He was involved in the Ulster Volunteer Force before leaving the organisation to form his own splinter group, the Loyalist Volunteer Force. An inquest into Wright's killing in 1999, concluded it had been carried out by three INLA men in an elaborate premeditated and pre-planned attack. He was shot as he sat in the back of a prison van. His killers managed to smuggle two handguns into the prison and were able to climb out of their prison block and over a roof before jumping into the yard where the van was parked.