Britain's Secret War: Tartan Terrorism and the Anglo-American State

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Because of the nature of the investigation we don't want to go into any details about precisely what was contained in the letters," he added. Police traced the telephone number - passed on to them as the result of one of the calls - and members of Strathclyde Police's Tactical Firearms Unit set out to arrest Busby. A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “It beggars belief that the SNP think this is a suitable candidate for a council election. Clearly the SNLA has managed to recruit a fresh handful of tartan "ultras" who deplore this tolerance. For them, its willingness to operate within the Westminster-created Scottish Parliament makes the SNP a treacherous ally of unionism. Inside was a note reading: "Just because you can't see us doesn't mean we're not there... next one's a bomb."

At this stage the only indication is an initial used on the letter so we can't at this stage - in any shape or form - identify who is responsible for that, or whether indeed there is any allegiance to such a group. He added: "We were also to place a mortar launcher across the M8 motorway pointing towards Glasgow Airport. If I had opened it wrongly, it would have been different, but it came from the SNLA and was later recognised to be the work of an anarchist, probably a loner, but it could have had serious effects." As former colleague Arnot McWhinnie recalled: “From following the Tartan Army in Argentina, to investigating the activities of Tartan terrorists in Scotland, and all the other huge stories in between, Gordon was a true giant of journalism. He was like a dog with a bone and never let go of a story until he either landed it or satisfied himself it wasn’t true.” Scotland is divided enough. The last thing local communities need is councillors who will divide them even further. Read More Related Articles

In 1993 Andrew McIntosh was jailed for 12 years for conspiring to coerce the government into setting up a separate government in Scotland. The High Court in Aberdeen heard McIntosh had masterminded a campaign of disruption and fear which included placing bombs outside oil industry offices and sending letter bombs to the Scottish Office in Edinburgh. McIntosh served six years and was released in 1999. He died in 2004 after being arrested on firearms charges. [3] Dubbed "tartan terrorists", the SNLA is one of a number of fringe organisations seeking independence for Scotland.

The wonderfully named British intellectual Merlin Coverley has just brought out the first mainstream book on hauntology which was called –fittingly – Hauntology. There looks to be a real problem with SNP vetting, even at this early stage of the council elections.”

Tartan terror: Why Scotland is so obsessed with the supernatural

At the top of his game, he was an awe inspiring figure to watch, but one who always had time for the young reporters, eager to learn. War was one outlet, but ritual became the primary, everyday way of controlling fear. Praying to the unseen, unknowable gods who governed our lives, appeasing them and making offerings to them, was the first route to calming our innate terror. “Please God, don’t let this happen” are words which every person has spoken at one time or another from the dawn of humankind until today. In fact, this obsession with ghosts, the uncanny and the otherworldly, is so prevalent in today’s society that the study of it has even spawned a new academic discipline – “hauntology”. Mr Thompson would not say what was written in the letters, or why the two individuals had been targeted. Sheriff Thomas Millar told him he must serve the four months once he has finished the six-year term.

In 1994, he took early retirement, and the entire Record staff gathered on the editorial floor for the traditional banging out. He walked away with the cheers ringing in his ears. This was followed in 1966 by the formation of a new radical nationalist group calling itself the 1320 Club (a reference to the Declaration of Arbroath, a document sent from Scotland to Rome that year, which reaffirmed Scotland's determination to remain independent from England). Members operated inside the ranks of the SNP. They believed armed terror might be necessary to defend an independent Scottish government from interference by London. Festivals like Hallowe’en allow us to confront these ideas which are almost too big for the human mind to grasp. Hallowe’en – or All Souls as the early Christian church refashioned the pagan festival Samhain – is the time when the dead can enter the world of the living, when the boundary between our world and their world breaks down. At its very root such rituals are an honouring of the countless generations which have gone before us –after all, if they hadn’t struggled and lived we wouldn’t be here. Hallowe’en, and these other festivals of death, allows us to remember them. The High Court in Aberdeen heard in August 1993 how McIntosh spread fear and disruption by placing bombs outside oil offices and sending letter bombs to the Scottish Office in Edinburgh. He got 12 years and served six. Read More Related ArticlesAnother SnG spokesperson told VICE: "We don't trust any journalist, as half the stuff that has been published seems to have just been made up, and the rest is merely half-truths." This goes some way towards explaining the failure of truly radical nationalists to make much headway in Scotland, either during the referendum or throughout the 20th century. After Cameron’s 1993 conviction, MPs signed a House of Commons early day motion calling on the SNP to “match its anti-racist rhetoric with appropriate action” and expel her from the party for life. At weekends and days off, it was suggested I use these times to recce targets and familiarise myself with routes and take photographs." Busby fled to Dublin after the 1983 letter-bombing campaign, where he reportedly tried to join forces with the IRA but the offer is said to have been refused. In July 2010 Adam Busby Sr. was sentenced by an Irish court to four years in jail after being convicted in June 2010 of making hoax bomb threats against transatlantic flights. [7] Associated organisations [ edit ]