Talk:Operation Century

Untitled
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL.

Could one of the Wikipedia monitors kindly clearly indicate which particular sections of this OPERATION CENTURY article are/or could be in breach of Copyright. With that clarification the difficulty might then be resolveable. --TheGuntz (talk) 05:47, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

see article for online link to Basildon Evening Echo Operation Century news report. TheGuntz.

A further publically available verificatory source for this undercover police operation is Observer Crime Correspondent Tony Thompson's book "BLOGGS 19" (2000) about the super-grass in the Rettendon Murder Case - at pages 157 to 159 and 244/245 it contains a brief narrative description of Operation Century (tho' not using its actual code name). Furthermore extensive national press reports in late January 1998 at the end of the Rettendon Triple Murders prosecution briefly refer in passing to this undercover operation. No national newspapers subsequently took up policy issues arising from the tactics that were deployed.

In his 2006 book "BONDED BY BLOOD: The truth behind the Rettendon Range Rover Murders" through pages 154 to 156 and at 184 Bernard Omahoney has a brief narrative account of this undercover operation - one detail he gives is incorrect and he does not use the "Operation Century" offical code name. TheGuntz.

To further help Gordon Ross - if you do go onto Bernard Omahoney's Essex Boys /Rettendon Triple Killing website (or do any other searches for "OPERATION CENTURY" as such) you will not find references to it under this Operational code name - it was not and still remains not widely known as such. What you will find in the Omahoney Essex Boys "DOCUMENTS" sub-section under the year 1996 are four separate police undercover tape recording texts described as police "pretending to be IRA" - this IRA label was also given to them by the Basildon Evening Echo reports as details emerged during the Rettendon Murder prosecution. TheGuntz. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheGuntz (talk • contribs) 22:06, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

To Gordon Ross and whom-so-ever the following link http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news234.htm can be opened onto a 1999 Schnews bulletin web page which if opened and scrutinised provides for anyone interested source details for the 1999 report "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND: OPERATION CENTURY". TheGuntz

To Gordon Ross - I hope you get this reply okay to your query which I have just seen. In the body of the article for instance Essex Police "Service Delivery Standards" are referred to as they were in the period when controversy was current and they should be available in Essex Constavbulary and other archives - they are not secret. The relevant parts are reproduced in the referenced publication "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND: OPERATION CENTURY" which is the most comprehensive public source for this operation. The operation itself did not get any public discussion before the criminal prosecution of those who were convicted of the murders when as the article makes clear CENTURY came to light. The daily Basildon Evening Echo carried worthwhile regular reports as the final criminal proceedings were under way including quite a lot of detail about CENTURY but the national press almost wholely concentrated on the murders themselves. Also by coincidence as the criminal trial got under way it coincided with the death of Princess Diana and coverage that might otherwise have surfaced did not. Bernard Omahoney has his extensive website about these Essex Boys murders and I have now indicated that full texts of most of the undercover phone calls (there were not many calls as thay soon had to be abandoned for reasons which the article explains) have now been uploaded in his "DOCUMENTS" section but he has never fully gone into the operational or policy pros and cons of CENTURY itself on his website or in his various boks about the murders or convictions - he has to some extent but not in a way that offers addiitonal documentation. The same is true of Observer Crime Correspondent Tony Thompson in his book "BLOGGS 19" about the RETTENDON MURDERS supergrass Darren Nicholls. Altho the criminal convictions themselves are a decade old the case is still wide open and is being re-investigated by lawyers acting for those convicted and new informsation has very recently come to light. I have thought of putting "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND: OPERATION CENTURY" on the web but it is a lot of work and I am not especially skilled at the task. I don't know if any of this helps and please get back to me if I could help further. I am rather unhappy about the tone of your "talk" comments - if you think that this OPERATION did not take place go to Collindale newspaper library look up the SUN newspaper item refrred to in the article (which is reproduced in "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND") and furthermore at Collindale also look at the newspaper file for late 1997 early 1998 of the BASILDON EVENING ECHO which as stated above carried daily extensive reports about this OPERATION and relavent dates are given in the article. I am NOT surprised that a search against "OPERATION CENTURY ULSTER" finds nothing - it was basically an Essex Operation. You are surprised it was in the downmarket SUN newspaper - sometimes life is like that - ths SUN in this case took real exception to the oparational tactis that were deployed. Anyway the BASIDON EVENING ECHOChief Reporter write plenty about it I - I would be very unhappy if this article gets deleted because insufficent leg work hasn't been put into checking out sources that are cited and referred to. Just checked hard copy news report -The date for the SUN article was 21 January 1998. (---) TheGuntz. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TheGuntz (talk • contribs) 19:52, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Is there any verifiable evidence that this actually happened?

A google search for "Operation Century Ulster" returns no matches except for this article. Likewise with a search for "Rettendon Triple Killings". Unless someone can produce an actual newspaper report on this, it should maybe be deleted... GordonRoss (talk) 11:43, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Just looked at the online Sun archive; the newsreport cited by the article does seem to exist but the date is wrong: http://www.thesun.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/S.asp?pubsel=TSN&SrchText=&DateFromDD=01&DateFromMM=Jan&DateFromYY=1998&DateToDD=04&DateToMM=May&DateToYY=1998&ResultListMax=100&head=cops+pose+as+ira&byline=&sect=&Caption=&edn=&page=&SortOrder=Desc&SortField=Date&Submit1=Search&BackDD=Day&BackMM=Month&BackYY=Year&source=thesun&SortField=Pub&SortOrder=asc&SortField=EDN&SortOrder=asc&SortField=Page&SortOrder=asc&ST=NS&SortSpec=&ResultMaxDocs=100&Site=ALL&Collection=NI&ResultCount=20&summreqd=yes&indexkey=25522146435797859160&advsrch=0&QueryText=%28%28cops+pose+as+ira%29+%3CIN%3E+head%29+%3CAND%3E+%28PUB%3DTSN%29+%3CAND%3E+%28%28SDate%3E%3D1%2F1%2F1998%29+%3CAND%3E+%28SDate%3C%3D5%2F4%2F1998%29%29&_P=1

Is there a more reputable source than the Sun though? I'm a bit suspicious that there is no public record of this case other than a 10 year old report in a trashy tabloid not well known for its journalistic standards; surely something like this would have some kind of internet trail if it actually happened as the Sun claimed? And why didnt they follow it up? That article is the only hit for "Operation Century" in the Sun archives going back to 1996. GordonRoss (talk) 11:54, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

I need help with these instructions that you have asked me to accomodate - I am a real wiki novice - I have been trying to sort it thro - there is a messge that OPERATION CENTURY is a "current event" and it confuses me because it isn't a current event so far as I understand it. TheGuntz 15:43, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I too, am mystified by the currentevent tag so I have removed it. The tags that remain are obvious. (In case they not obvious to TheGuntz - read the manual of style and compare and contrast with similar articles already here.) -- RHaworth 17:58, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

There is a problem in trying to accurately portray what levels of threat and abuse Essex Police/Special Branch descended to during the course of this operation - the language was extremely foul mouthed and threatening (and could have been taken by the suspects as amounting to death threats) and for reasons of conformity with Wikipedia standards the actual words though available on the original tape recordings cannot be reproduced here.

There is a publication specifically about this police operation from which this Wikipedia information is largely taken. I am not competant enough in Wikipedia editing procedures to source this publication for reference purposes. If anyone who is able can assist that would be helpful. What follows now are details of the publication in question. '''"WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND": OPERATION CENTURY. by IAN CAMERON. London. September. 1999. The publication was reviewed in "Lobster Bulletin"''' and by Schnews in one of their news bulletins - details are available. I entered the above information about sources for this article to try and meet the boxed observation (on the article page) that sources were not indicated - if the above sources need citing elsewhere in the Operation Century article I would value help from a more able editor than I to correct that - I have written most of this O C article but not as an act of vandalism but to the best of my ability.

I did a bit of wikification, cleanup, etc. on this article. It still runs long, probably has too many section breaks, is still missing sources, etc. JubalHarshaw 18:48, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Certain editors of this article after 26 July 06 have made great errors with sections of the information that was correctly and accurately included up to that date. As the article reads at the time of writing this talk contribution (30 Dec 06) there are serious errors with the text that are glaringly obvious. As the originating author of this article I will re-visit this article as soon as I can to make the necessary textual corrections. I note that in the history section on 24 August three different persons attempted to re-edit this article and one confesses that his attempt has left him confused.

The major errors refered to immediately above have now been corrected. (The Guntz. 3 January 07).

This article is still tagged as requiring information "sources" to be more fully identified - as the primary author I tried to do my best. And earlier on this discussion page have requested help. The Basildon Echo newspaper that I have referenced contained information and tne (London) Sun newspaper report (also refered to) was very significant in that its reporter clearly took exception to the "bizzare" (Sun wording) police undercover tactics - the referenced report "WE'RE BREAKING NEW GROUND: OPERATION CENTURY" contains further detailed information re the involvement of the Sun newspaper journalist in pursuing this police operation. TheGuntz

Editing Problem - 20 April 08 - I have twice tried to make a small editing change - here is part of the article text as it exists > Operation Century was the code name for a sting operation for investigating a triple murder at Rettendon (Essex, England) Essex Police in 1995. < - I tried to re-edit so that the date 1995 appears as follows - the small distinction I am seeking to make is that the murders werte actually in 1995 whereas the sting operation was in teh following year. Anyway this what follows is the revision I tried twice to make > Operation Century was the code name for a sting operation for investigating a 1995 triple murder at Rettendon (Essex, England) by Essex Police. If anyone could help would be appreciated. --86.27.179.92 (talk) 23:30, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

No references at all, and just one personal blog
Article is literally just one persons view on a situation, and either needs sources or to be deleted asap2A00:23C4:220:CF01:7D52:9A5B:315B:8815 (talk) 22:27, 25 January 2022 (UTC)