Irish Independent: Watchdog chief 'used false passport on Colombia visit': “Speaking after the CPI published a report on the disputed Shell pipeline in Mayo, Mr McDowell said: "I have the greatest misgivings about why this self-appointed investigating body has such an executive director.”: The CPI was accused of being a front for Sinn Fein-IRA intelligence gathering in the House of Lords earlier this year.”: Saturday November 26, 2005

THIS is the application for a false passport that the head of the controversial Centre for Public Inquiry (CPI) used to travel to Colombia.

Frank Connolly, brother of one of the Colombia Three, Niall Connolly, is believed by gardai to have used the passport when he travelled to the South American country with a top IRA figure - months before the Colombia Three were arrested.

The passport application was submitted with a forged signature of a Belfast priest, Father Thomas Tarney, and a birth certificate in the name of John Francis Johnston, with an address in Andersonstown in Belfast.

Neither Fr Tarney nor Mr Johnston knew of the application when they were later interviewed.

Frank Connolly last night insisted that suggestions he used a false passport were "completely untrue".

When queried about an application bearing a false name he said: "I'm not making any further comment." When pressed further he rang off.

US billionaire Chuck Feeney, who backs a charity which has commited around $4m (3.4m) in funding to the CPI, was shown details of the CPI executive director's links to Sinn Fein/IRA.

TheIrish Independent has learned that Justice Minister Michael McDowell showed Mr Feeney the documentary evidence that the CPI's executive director, Frank Connolly, a former journalist, used a false passport for a secret visit to Colombia.

Denial

The Government has stepped up its efforts to persuade Mr Feeney's charity to walk away from the self-styled investigative body. Last night, Mr McDowell refused to accept Mr Connolly's latest denial about his trip to Colombia in April 2001.

Mr Connolly told radio presenter Vincent Browne the Taoiseach "interfered" with his funders, and queried his (Connolly's) suitability as CPI executive director.

The Taoiseach met with Mr Feeney in August and raised his concerns regarding the CPI, and a further meeting with Mr McDowell was arranged.

The Justice Minister has said he awaits an explanation from Mr Connolly on why he visited Colombia with a senior IRA man in April 2001.

Speaking after the CPI published a report on the disputed Shell pipeline in Mayo, Mr McDowell said: "I have the greatest misgivings about why this self-appointed investigating body has such an executive director.

"(Frank Connolly is) A person who, for starters, has many major questions to deal with in respect of his travel to Colombia under an assumed identity with a known subversive in advance of the subsequent visit of the Colombia Three."

The minister's misgivings about Mr Connolly are deeply embarrassing for CPI's chairman, retired High Court Judge Feargus Flood.

Mr Feeney's charitable foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, has pledged $750,000 (639,000) a year to the CPI over the next four years.

A senior Government source said it was their understanding that Mr Feeney's organisation did not intend to renew its funding of the CPI.

Atlantic Philanthropies has a policy of not discussing its charitable work with third parties.

Garda intelligence files contain details of Mr Connolly's trip to Colombia when he passed through immigration in Bogota on April 19, 2001 using a false passport.

Mr Connolly was using an Irish passport with his own photograph but in the name of John Francis Johnston. with an address in Andersonstown, Belfast.

He was accompanied on the trip to South America by a senior Provisional IRA operative from Belfast, Padraig Wilson, who also used a false passport in the name of John Edward Walker.

Mr Connolly's Spanish-speaking brother Niall, using a false passport in the name of Ralph McKay, was a third member of the party.

He later returned to the country as part of the Colombia Three.

All three false passports were fraudulently obtained from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Wilson, one of the Provisionals' top bomb-makers, was a principal contact with General John de Chastelain leading up to the IRA's decommissioning.

Cuba

Niall Connolly, formerly Sinn Fein's permanent resident representative in Cuba, was arrested trying to leave Bogota airport in 2001 with James Monaghan and Martin McCauley. In the past Mr Justice Flood has said he never asked Frank Connolly about allegations that he had used a false passport to visit Colombia.

But since Mr McDowell has openly asked for an explanation of Mr Connolly's visit to Colombia using "an assumed identity", Mr Justice Flood - along with the other members of the CPI board - will be coming under increasing pressure to ask their executive director for an explanation.

Frank Connolly has refused to answer the question, dismissing it as "absurd".

The CPI was accused of being a front for Sinn Fein-IRA intelligence gathering in the House of Lords earlier this year.

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