The Force Research Unit was a top secret unit of the British Army which was engaged in running informers and has been alleged to be involved in a number of assassinations in Ireland. It has reportedly now been renamed the Joint Support Group and seems to be associated with the Special Reconnaissance Regiment created in 2005.
Archiv: Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA / PIRA)
Tributes to Reverend Robert John Bradford
(16. November 1981)
The Prime Minister (Mrs. Margaret Thatcher)
The right hon. Member for Down, South (Mr. Powell) has spoken for the whole House and for the United Kingdom in expressing our horror and revulsion at the assassination of his hon. Friend, who was killed because he was a Member of this honourable House.
Robert Bradford was well known as a conscientious and devoted constituency Member, yet he was murdered on Saturday morning when he was helping his constituents—helping them so that he could better serve them here in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
We shall pursue with the utmost vigour those who committed this wicked crime and we shall persevere in our duty to rid our country of the evil of terrorism.
…
MP could have been saved: MP ‚sacrificed to protect agents within ranks of the provisionals‘
(15.4.2007)
It was another horrific day in a blood-spattered year in which 117 people lost their lives in the Troubles – 1981, the year of the hunger strikes.
Today, however, 26 years later, Sunday Life can reveal that neither Rev Bradford nor Mr Campbell should have died in the IRA attack – RUC Special Branch and Army Intelligence had prior knowledge of the incident an incredible THREE DAYS beforehand.
They told neither the Rev Bradford, nor his police protection officer.
Three years ago, a former officer with the shadowy Army intelligence-gathering outfit the Force Research Unit (FRU) contacted me with information on several murders which took place during the Troubles.
Investigating the murder of Rev Robert Bradford – Lyra McKee wants your vote
(23.7.2013)
„For the last 11 months, I’ve been asking questions about Reverend Bradford’s murder and the last months of his life. I’ve interviewed dozens of his friends, colleagues and acquaintances as well as ex-security officials, seeking answers
While Reverend Bradford’s wife wrote a fantastic biography on him, the facts around his death have yet to be established. As one former intelligence official remarked to me, Bradford’s killing was one of a number that didn’t have any “logic”. „