GCHQ 'monitored Omagh bomb calls' [video 3 min 7 sec]
The UK's electronic intelligence agency GCHQ recorded mobile phone exchanges between the Omagh bombers on the day of the attack, the BBC has learned.
The BBC's Panorama says the calls were monitored as the bombers drove the car bomb into the County Tyrone town.
The attack on 15 August 1998 was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles, and killed 29 people.
The Panorama programme has led to calls from bereaved relatives for a full inquiry.
'Shadowy and secret'
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay, a member of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said the BBC's revelations needed to be "thoroughly investigated".
The MP for Thurrock said: "It is disgraceful that there is no parliamentary oversight of the intelligence and security services.
"All there is, is... the shadowy and highly secret, so-called 'intelligence and security committee'.
"Its existence simply will not be sufficient to assuage grieving relatives, nor the public, that we were well served by our security services in this incident."
The committee, set up in 1994 with the task of overseeing the security services, has nine members hand-picked by the prime minister and reports to them.
The 500lb (227kg) Omagh bomb was planted by members of the Real IRA - renegade IRA members opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.
Despite police inquiries on both sides of the Irish border over the last 10 years, at the cost of tens of millions of pounds, none of the bombers are in jail.
Well-placed sources told Panorama that GCHQ was monitoring the bombers' phones that day, a claim confirmed by Ray White, former assistant chief constable in charge of crime and Special Branch for the Northern Ireland police service...
Read entire article at BBC
The BBC's Panorama says the calls were monitored as the bombers drove the car bomb into the County Tyrone town.
The attack on 15 August 1998 was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles, and killed 29 people.
The Panorama programme has led to calls from bereaved relatives for a full inquiry.
'Shadowy and secret'
Labour MP Andrew Mackinlay, a member of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said the BBC's revelations needed to be "thoroughly investigated".
The MP for Thurrock said: "It is disgraceful that there is no parliamentary oversight of the intelligence and security services.
"All there is, is... the shadowy and highly secret, so-called 'intelligence and security committee'.
"Its existence simply will not be sufficient to assuage grieving relatives, nor the public, that we were well served by our security services in this incident."
The committee, set up in 1994 with the task of overseeing the security services, has nine members hand-picked by the prime minister and reports to them.
The 500lb (227kg) Omagh bomb was planted by members of the Real IRA - renegade IRA members opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.
Despite police inquiries on both sides of the Irish border over the last 10 years, at the cost of tens of millions of pounds, none of the bombers are in jail.
Well-placed sources told Panorama that GCHQ was monitoring the bombers' phones that day, a claim confirmed by Ray White, former assistant chief constable in charge of crime and Special Branch for the Northern Ireland police service...