Celtic parcel bombs: Manager, lawyer and politician targeted
Police said to be linking timing of incidents to media coverage of Old Firm controversies involving Celtic and Glasgow rivals Rangers Parcel bombs intended to kill or maim have been sent to the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, and two other prominent fans of the club – the manager's lawyer and a senior Labour politician.
The three devices, discovered at several locations in the west of Scotland over the past month, are considered dangerous, a senior police source confirmed.
One, addressed to Lennon at Celtic's training ground, was intercepted by Royal Mail staff, but a second was forwarded to the constituency office of the Labour MSP Trish Godman, a former deputy presiding officer of the Scottish parliament and a Celtic fan.
Her office staff became suspicious and alerted Strathclyde police. Detectives initially believed the parcels were elaborate hoaxes intended to distress their targets, but later decided that they were viable explosive devices.
The third device was addressed to Paul McBride QC who, speaking at the Faculty of Advocates lawyers' offices in Edinburgh, had made outspoken attacks on the Scottish Football Association for its treatment of Lennon over alleged disciplinary offences.
It is understood all the devices were sent from within Scotland. Anti-terrorism branch officers were initially involved, but have ruled out loyalist terrorist involvement.
The device sent to McBride was apparently posted in Ayrshire. It was discovered in a letterbox by a postal worker and taken to a sorting office.
Ministers in the Scottish government secretly convened a cabinet sub-committee meeting on Saturday to discuss the discoveries. News media were asked not to report the incidents to avoid prejudicing a police investigation.
A source close to McBride said he was "appalled and disgusted at being targeted for voicing honest opinions and has nothing but praise for the way police conducted themselves in this inquiry".
Police sources told the BBC the devices were liquid-based and not nail bombs, but were rudimentary and did not seem to have been made by someone with paramilitary training.
There are reports that police are linking the timing of the incidents to media coverage of the Old Firm controversies involving Celtic and their Glasgow rivals Rangers, or Celtic's complaints of discriminatory treatment.
Police have warned another high-profile figure linked to the incident, the Glasgow-born BBC broadcaster Aasmah Mir, 39, who is an avid Celtic fan and married to Piara Powar, a director of the campaign group Football Against Racism in Europe (Fare), the Daily Record reported.
Fare recently complained to Uefa about sectarian chanting by Rangers fans at European matches.
Officers are expected to appeal for calm ahead of this weekend's Old Firm clash. Previous games between the two sides this season have seen dozens of arrests for disorder and public order offences.
The incidents mark a significant escalation in a campaign against Lennon, a Northern Irish Catholic, that has involved death threats, hate mail, bullets sent in the post and a previous letter bomb.
Lennon, his wife and children have left their home, and have been living under 24-hour guard at a secret location for some weeks.
The former Northern Ireland player has been involved in repeated disputes with the Scottish football authorities and Rangers over refereeing decisions, the conduct of each team's players and his own behaviour.
Although he has not directly been in disputes about sectarianism, senior figures at Celtic, including the chairman and former Labour home secretary, John Reid, and the Catholic church were involved in public rows over alleged bias against the club.
In March, the first minister, Alex Salmond, convened a meeting involving both clubs, the football authorities and Strathclyde police to clamp down on the violent on-field disputes involving both clubs and sectarianism in the stands, largely involving Rangers fans.
Both clubs agreed to allow senior police officers onto training grounds to remind players they face arrest for on-field misconduct.
Asked about the latest discoveries, Salmond told BBC Scotland: "We will not tolerate this sort of criminality in Scotland, and as an indication of the seriousness with which we view these developments the cabinet sub-committee met last Saturday to ensure that the police investigation has every possible support to come to a successful conclusion."
Michael Kelly, a former Celtic director and the Lord Provost of Glasgow, told the BBC: "This now is terrorism, purely and simply.
"It's got nothing to do with football and the background of the summit and the Old Firm game. It's up to the police to refocus their targets on these people and to catch them."
Guardian
