Formation The SNLA was founded in 1980 by Adam Busby, a former soldier who served in the
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Busby was also a founding member of the
Scottish Republican Socialist Party, and a former member of the
Scottish National Party (SNP), having joined the
Dumbarton branch on his 16th birthday. The SNLA was formed in the wake of the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum. Busby felt that this outcome called for a more forceful approach towards achieving independence, on the grounds that there was "no constitutional way forward". On 17 March, a letter bomb was sent to the
House of Commons addressed to
John Nott, the then-
Secretary of State for Defence. A man had telephoned the Glasgow offices of
The Scotsman, claiming that a bomb had been sent to Nott by the SNLA in response to the newly announced changes to the UK's
Trident programme. The bomb subsequently arrived at the House of Commons on 17 March, and was reported after being discovered by a
Ministry of Defence member. The device was initially thought by the media to have been the work of Irish republican paramilitaries, such as the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), as it coincidentally arrived at the commons on
St. Patrick's Day. To coincide with the
1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election the following week, two further letter bombs were sent to two separate Scottish
Social Democratic Party offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow; both devices were subsequently defused by the authorities upon discovery by office staff. and purported that the London Conservative Party office had been sent a hoax package, not a letter bomb. The letter bomb was discovered by Jenkin's secretary, and was later defused by police. Following this incident, security was tightened for an upcoming visit to Edinburgh from then-
prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who was due to attend a private dinner taking place in the
Assembly Rooms in celebration of the centenary of the
Scottish Conservatives. In 1983, the group reportedly carried out 27 attacks, which primarily involved sending letter bombs to public figures including
Diana, Princess of Wales, and Margaret Thatcher. The letter ignited after being opened by Kelly's secretary, Eric Hamilton. The device was discovered by
Salisbury MP candidate
Robert Key, who called the police, leading to the device's defusal. The group claimed responsibility in a Glasgow-postmarked letter sent to the Press Association, which stated "Scottish National Liberation Army claims the London letter bomb attacks of 3–4 June." The day before, the group sent a letter to the Press Association which stated "SNLA attacks on 19/20. No more cuts," in response to a decision made by the
National Coal Board to close the colliery. The device contained a written letter, which although largely destroyed by the explosion, was found to bear 'SNLA' on the remains. Shortly afterwards, Dinsmore was reportedly facing a criminal charge for sending a letter bomb to the
Earl of Mansfield at
Scone Palace in
Perth. Following Busby and Dinsmore's retreat, a separate cell for the organisation was set up in Dublin, which continued to exist for over 20 years. The group sent a note to the Press Association claiming responsibility for the device, warning that "SNLA attacks take place now. More will follow." Scotland Yard were sceptical of this claim, however, and believed the attack was more likely to have been carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), as the scale of the attack did not match previous attacks carried out by the SNLA, and also due to Thomas Quigley, who was actively involved in
simultaneous attacks carried out by the Provisional IRA, being charged with conspiracy to carry out bomb attacks in England the previous week. In October, the SNLA had sent a letter to police stating their intention to carry out a mass bombing campaign in London along with other major towns and cities throughout England. The IRA initially did not claim responsibility for the bombing, and Scotland Yard believed that the SNLA were behind the attack, however, a spokesman for the IRA later claimed the group were responsible for the attack, and no involvement from the SNLA was mentioned. Following this attack, it was determined that the SNLA may have had links to the
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), who threatened to carry out a similar bombing campaign around the same time. An anonymous caller phoned a news agency claiming the group had "planted a six-pound plastic explosive and sealed it in a veterinary medical chest under the City Hall stage," along with claims that the bomb had remained undetected for 25 days, only being discovered 48 hours before the conference, and that it was set to be detonated remotely. Kelly's arrest and conviction were brought about after an undercover
Special Branch agent volunteered to inform the police on the SNLA's activities, fearing that the Scottish nationalist movement would turn violent. The agent also reportedly held conversations with Kelly at his home, which had been
bugged, allowing detectives to listen in. Scotland Yard described the device as "viable", and that it could have resulted in serious injury had it been opened. The attack was carried out by planting a miniature device in an empty fifth-floor sub basement inside the building; the fire lasted for more than six hours and caused serious structural damage, The device was defused by police after being alerted by a Commons sorting office staff member, who discovered the device. The group claimed the device was sent to British Steel in response to the closure of a
Gartcosh steel works, Two days later on 24 April, the group phoned the Press Association following a bombing that occurred at a
British Airways office in
Oxford Street, London, claiming responsibility for the attack. The caller provided detailed information on how the bomb was constructed, and claimed that British Airways was targeted in response to an attempt by the UK government to completely privatize the company, which the group believed would result in significant job losses, along with total withdrawal of airline services in remote areas of Scotland. who claimed responsibility for the bombing "in retaliation for Britain's involvement in the
American bombing of Libya." and both claims from the SNLA and the Angry Brigade were later discounted by police. In July, the group claimed responsibility for a letter bomb posted to then-
Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, which ignited after being opened by
Home Office security staff. An anonymous caller phoned
the Scotsman on behalf of the organisation claiming the delivery was made by an alleged body within the SNLA called the "
Willie McRae Commando". The group phoned the Press Association hours after the blaze, claiming that the group had carried out an attack on the site, and stated that the site was targeted allegedly due to the site being used for "disposal of civilian and nuclear waste".
1990s In December 1991, the
Sunday Mail had received claims from the SNLA that the group had planted a bomb on the grounds of
Holyrood Palace in a renewed attempt to assassinate the Queen. The group claimed to have broken into the grounds of the palace armed with 11lbs of explosives on the night of 27 June, where
Anne, Princess Royal was sleeping, with the Queen due to arrive the following day. The High Court in
Aberdeen heard that McIntosh had orchestrated a three-month campaign of fear tactics, which involved placing hoax explosives outside Aberdeen-based oil industry buildings and mailing genuine letter bombs to
Dounreay nuclear plant in
Caithness, the
Scottish Office in Edinburgh, and the headquarters of
Anglian Water in
Huntingdon, located in the constituency of then-prime minister
John Major. McIntosh was arrested on 28 August following a police search of his home, in which a
firearms certificate covering the possession of a
.22 pistol, a
9mm Browning, and a
revolver was discovered, along with a semi-automatic rifle, and a
Walther P22, which were not covered by the certificate. When questioned by
Grampian Police about the hoax explosive devices placed outside oil industry offices following his arrest, which McIntosh allegedly admitted to have been "privy to their making," McIntosh was also found to have been a former member of Scottish
ultranationalist group
Siol nan Gaidheal, which he had briefly joined in 1992 after being disillusioned with the Scottish National Party (SNP). He was later expelled from the group after a few months following a leadership clash. In January 1995, the SNLA reportedly claimed to have accessed confidential
British Telecom customer files, including the home number of then-Scottish Secretary
Ian Lang. A caller from Dublin contacted the Press Association and stated that Lang’s number had been used to issue a death threat against him. Several shopping centers in
Birmingham were also evacuated as a result of bomb threats made by the group. In April, numerous airports in Scotland were on high alert after the group threatened to carry out bomb attacks on aircraft if demands made by the group were not met by 18 May, which included imposing a ban on "English immigration". The group also claimed to have developed a new type of letter bomb that was designed evade detection systems and detonate inside aircraft cargo units upon reaching a certain height. Webber had previously made a claim to
Scottish Sun journalist Alan Muir that the group "wanted Scotland to be free, to be a nation on its own, without the shackles of England and without the English being here, having our jobs". In May 1996, Busby's extradition warrant was dropped by the
Crown Office following an arrest by Dublin police on terrorism-related charges. On 22 May, Busby appeared before Dublin's
Special Criminal Court, where he was accused of possessing letter bombs addressed to then-Labour leader Tony Blair and Shadow Scottish Secretary George Robertson. Busby was denied bail by the Special Criminal Court after police expressed concerns that he would flee if released. Detective Inspector Peter Maguire, who objected to the bail application, stated that Busby posed a risk of interfering with or intimidating witnesses, and described Busby’s activities as "threats and intimidation to English people living in Scotland and to people in political life in the UK." In March 1997, Busby was sentenced to two years in prison for sending threats of violence by fax to the
Daily Record, and the Press Association news agency. The threats reportedly contained a hit list of intended targets, which included English-born MP for
Clydebank and Milngavie Tony Worthington, along with threats of petrol bomb attacks against "English colonists" in Scotland. In May 1999, another Dublin-based organisation member, Hugh Smith McMahon, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence for making a hoax telephone claim that he had planted an explosive device on the
Kessock Bridge in Inverness. In July 1999, Busby was rearrested after being linked to a blackmail plot to commit mass murder by contaminating English and Welsh water supplies with
weedkiller unless British troops were withdrawn from
Northern Ireland. The arrest was made after a month-long joint investigation was carried out by Scotland Yard and the
Gardaí after letters were sent to senior figures, including then-prime minister Tony Blair, demanding a "total British military and political withdrawal" from Northern Ireland by June 16, followed by threats of retaliation without warning if the deadline was not met. A spokesman for the Scottish Separatist Group (SSG), who denied involvement in the e-mail attack, claimed that the Northern Constabulary was allegedly targeted due to significant employment of English police officers, along with the SNLA's dissatisfaction with the force's handling of past investigations. The same year, Adam Busby Jr., the son of the organisation founder, was sentenced to six years in jail for carrying out various petrol bomb attacks. In 2002,
Cherie Blair became a target of a renewed campaign by the SNLA when she was sent an anonymous parcel containing a vial that was crudely labelled as containing
aromatherapy oil, but which on investigation proved to contain
caustic acid. In addition, a renewed letter bomb campaign was waged against Scottish politicians, parcels were recovered after a man claiming to be from the SNLA made an anonymous phone call to Scotland Yard, claiming that up to 16 packages were distributed to various targets. Smith also allegedly sent a total of 44 hoax anthrax letters between August 2001 and February 2002, in which one letter was posted to Prince William's halls of residence at St. Andrew's University, which contained a warning that stated "By the time you read this letter you will not be able to breathe and will be suffering respiratory failure." The poisoned bottle sent to Philp was accompanied by a letter signed 'SNLA' stating "This is necessary to convince the British Government that we will lethally poison England's water supplies, if they do not withdraw totally from Scotland." In 2012, following the UK government's offer to legislate to allow the
Scottish Government the powers to hold a referendum on Scottish independence, the group issued a statement to media outlets declaring a ceasefire, with hopes of achieving independence more "peacefully and democratically". In February 2015, Busby was extradited back to Scotland. In October of that year, however, a Glasgow court ruled that Busby, who at the time was diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis, was medically unfit to be tried over multiple bomb threats. In 2017, the
Sheriff court of
Lothian and Borders in Edinburgh ruled that Busby, by then 69, was too ill to be sent to the US, as his illness was at an advanced stage. ==Associated organisations==