Colin Wallace

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Colin Wallace is a former British soldier and psychological warrior who was one of the members of the 'Clockwork Orange' project, which is alleged to have been an attempt to smear a number of British politicians in the early 1970s.

1 Early life
2 Clockwork Orange
3 Collusion with loyalist paramilitaries
4 After HQNI
5 References
6 External links
7 Bibliography

[edit] Early life

Wallace was born in Randalstown, Northern Ireland, and educated at Ballymena Academy. He joined the Territorial Army in 1961, and later joined the Ulster Special Constabulary, or 'B Specials'.

[edit] Clockwork Orange

At the onset of The Troubles in 1969, Wallace was assigned to Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, the headquarters of the British Army in Northern Ireland, as a public relations officer.

As well as carrying out overt public relations work for the Army, Wallace was also covertly briefing journalists with disinformation aimed at the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Wallace claims that he planted a number of bogus news stories such as one titled "Danger in those Frilly Panties" in the Sunday Mirror, which suggested that female IRA volunteers were causing premature explosions due to static electricity caused by their underwear, in order to divert the IRA's bombmakers from the real cause.

Wallace also alleges that in 1973 he was involved with right-wing members of the security forces in Clockwork Orange, a disinformation campaign aimed not at paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland, but at British MPs. Journalists from foreign news organisations would be given briefings and shown forged documents, which purported to show that these politicians were speaking at Irish Republican rallies or were receiving secret deposits in Swiss bank accounts.

People named by Wallace as having been briefed against in this manner include Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Merlyn Rees and Tony Benn and Ian Paisley.

[edit] Collusion with loyalist paramilitaries

A letter from Colin Wallace to Tony Stoughton, the Chief Information Officer of the British Army Information Service at Lisburn, on August 14 1975 noted the connections between UVF loyalists and intelligence agencies of the British Army and of the RUC Special Branch:

"There is good evidence the Dublin bombings [see Dublin and Monaghan bombings] in May last year were a reprisal for the Irish government's role in bringing about the [power sharing] Executive. According to one of Craig's people [Craig Smellie, the top MI6 officer in the North of Ireland at the time], some of those involved, the Youngs, the Jacksons, Mulholland, Hanna, Kerr and McConnell were working closely with SB [Special Branch] and Int [Intelligence] at that time. Craig's people believe the sectarian assassinations were designed to destroy [then Northern Secretary Merlyn] Rees's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, and the targets were identified for both sides by Int/SB. They also believe some very senior RUC officers were involved with this group. In short, it would appear that loyalist paramilitaries and Int/SB members have formed some sort of pseudo gangs in an attempt to fight a war of attrition by getting paramilitaries on both sides to kill each other and, at the same time prevent any future political initiative such as Sunningdale."^[1]

In a further letter dated September 30 1975 Wallace revealed that MI5 was trying to create a split in the UVF in order to foment violence:

"because they wanted the more politically minded ones ousted. I believe much of the violence generated during the latter part of last year was caused by some of the new Int people deliberately stirring up the conflict. As you know, we have never been allowed to target the breakaway UVF, nor the UFF, during the past year. Yet they have killed more people than the IRA!"^[2]

[edit] After HQNI

Wallace resigned from the civil service in 1975 in order to avoid dismissal, ostensibly for privately briefing journalists with classified information. Wallace always claimed that this was consistent with his job duties and maintains that the real reasons for his dismissal were related to his resignation from the 'Clockwork Orange' project in October 1974 and his investigation of a child abuse scandal at the Kincora boy's home, which he claims was blocked because the leading perpetrator was an undercover agent for MI5.

In the House of Commons in 1990, the junior defence minister Archie Hamilton confirmed that Wallace was able, at his discretion, to reveal some classified information to journalists, as part of his job duties.

Hamilton also confirmed the existence of a project called 'Clockwork Orange' but said that there was no evidence that it involved any briefings against Irish or British politicians.

In the 1980s, when trying to convince the press of these allegations, Wallace produced some documents, including a series of handwritten notes by himself which he claimed were taken at meetings with other members of the plot, including the M.P. Airey Neave. These were later subjected to a forensic examination by journalists, and the results were consistent with the notes having been taken contemporaneously.

In 1980, Wallace was convicted of the manslaughter of the husband of one of his work colleagues. The conviction was quashed in 1996, ten years after he was released from prison. The journalist Paul Foot, in his book 'Who framed Colin Wallace', suggested that Wallace may have been framed for the killing, possibly by members of the British security forces.