A FORMER Special Branch agent, who tipped off the RUC about a planned Real IRA
                                    bombing, two days before the Omagh massacre, may give evidence at the trial of the
                                    Colombian Three.
                                    The former agent, who uses the name 'Kevin Fulton', is the key source for an
                                    intelligence dossier, presented at the trial of the three Irishmen, earlier this month.
                                    According to documents, recent bombs used by Colombia's FARC rebels, exactly match
                                    those developed by the IRA in the past two decades.
                                    James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly - all alleged IRA members arrested
                                    in August 2001 - are currently on trial, charged with training FARC insurgents.
                                    Although similarities in IRA and FARC technology have been reported before, the new
                                    dossier is much more precise, showing comparative photos of improvised IRA and
                                    FARC mortar-tubes, backed up by technical analysis.
                                    Presented to the court in Bogota by a Colombian anti-terrorist team, much of the dossier
                                    was compiled by British intelligence, based on original information supplied by Fulton.
                                    Monaghan, previously named as IRA 'director of engineering (bombing)', is said to have
                                    perfected IRA sequential timer units, to fire a series of home-made 'blockbuster'
                                    mortars, using gas-cylinders from a static position - often the back of a lorry abandoned
                                    near the target.
                                    These allowed the bombers to escape up to an hour before detonation, when the
                                    bombs were launched remotely.
                                    This technique was used with deadly effect on Newry RUC barracks, in 1984, when
                                    nine officers were killed.
                                    Eight launchers of the IRA's biggest mortar - the 'Mark 16' barrackbuster - were
                                    detonated, each firing 50lbs of home-made explosive, made from reduced
                                    ammonium-nitrate fertiliser and diesel oil.
                                    A car engine rotor arm and battery-powered micro-circuit, remotely fired the bombs in
                                    series.
                                    According to the Colombian authorities, FARC used a similar system last August when it
                                    attempted to assassinate President Uribe, as he was sworn in to office, killing 21
                                    civilians.
                                    Uribe's cars have since been fitted with a British military jamming-device, developed in
                                    Northern Ireland to stop IRA-style radio-detonated bombs.
                                    Fulton, who joined the Army in England, in the early 1980's, was recruited by military
                                    intelligence, as an agent shortly afterwards and returned home to join the IRA.
                                    There, he helped develop IRA bombing technology in the 1980s and 1990s, at a time
                                    when James Monaghan was active locally, providing information to MI5 and the Army's
                                    Force Research Unit.
                                    The same technology was used to carry out the 1992 mortar-ambush in Newry, which
                                    killed Constable Colleen McMurray and badly injured her colleague, Paul Slaine.