How Stakeknife infiltrated the IRA and waged terror for the British Army
By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor
STAKEKNIFE'S long and bloody career as a double-agent for the British began in 1978. As a young IRA volunteer, Freddy Scappaticci had fallen out of favour with one of Belfast's top Provos and received a brutal beating. Motivated by revenge, he decided to get even. In British intelligence parlance he became a 'walk-in' -- a para military who walks in off the street and offers their services to the army as an informer.
It was the biggest stroke of luck that ever befell the shadowy Force Research Unit, the ultra-secret wing of the Intelligence Corp which runs agents in Ulster. Scappaticci rapidly progressed through the ranks of the IRA, becoming the head of security for the IRA's northern command -- one of the highest positions in the Provos.
This position saw him vetting every IRA volunteer who joined and interrogating all suspected informers. His military handlers allowed him to carry out up to 40 murders to keep his cover and keep passing information.
The Role of Stakeknife
He was involved in planning a variety of terrorist assassinations, including the murders of police officers, soldiers, civilians, and terrorists. However, it was in his role as the IRA's 'tout-finder general' that Scappaticci did most of his killings.
Payments to Scappaticci from British intelligence went into a bank account based in Gibraltar. Ironically, Scappaticci was the IRA informer who provided the intelligence tip-off which led to the SAS killing three Provos in Gibraltar in 1988. The killings triggered one of the worst periods of Ulster violence. At the funeral of one of the IRA volunteers, loyalist gunman Michael Stone launched a gun and grenade attack on Republican mourners, killing three.
One of those killed by Stone was Caoimhin MacBradaigh, a member of the IRA. During his funeral, a republican mob surrounded a car containing two undercover British soldiers. They dragged them from the vehicle, abducted them, beat them, stripped them, and executed the pair. Scappaticci is also said to have given vital information to the British about IRA operations in mainland Europe targeting British military installations.
The Fixer
In some cases, the IRA men whom Scappaticci executed for being British agents were set up by the FRU. They were seen by the British as too dangerous to be allowed to remain at large and too well protected to be arrested. Covert army units would hamper their operations and ensure planned bombings or shootings in which they were involved went wrong -- suspicion would fall on them as possible double-agents and Scappaticci would move in, kidnap them, torture them, tape their confessions, and kill them.
One FRU source said: 'He was the FRU's fixer. If there was an IRA man they needed taken care of, or if there was an agent who was past his sell-by date then Stakeknife would be used to get rid of them. He was there to do the FRU's dirty work and tie up loose ends.'
The Collusion and Concealment
The FRU, now known as the Joint Services Group, has possibly moved Scappaticci to Chicksands in Dorset where the FRU's L-Branch -- which resettles compromised agents -- is based. A dedicated team, known as 'The Rat Hole', was set up within the FRU solely to handle Scappaticci due to the top-grade nature of his intelligence. MI5 is now to take control of his resettlement.
The worst collusion between the state and terrorists involving Scappaticci came in October 1987. Loyalists were planning a hit on Scappaticci. The FRU uncovered the plot from agents they were running inside loyalist paramilitaries. Intent on not losing their prime IRA asset to loyalist gunmen, the FRU planted information -- via double agents in the Ulster Defence Association -- that made loyalists redirect their attentions towards a 66-year-old retired taxi driver, Francisco Notorantonio.
Loyalists were passed information by the British which said Notorantonio was a senior IRA leader -- in fact, Notorantonio hadn't been directly involved with the IRA since the 1940s. Loyalists murdered the pensioner in front of his grandchildren, and Stakeknife survived.
Files filled with Scappaticci's intelligence on IRA operations were passed from the FRU to the Joint Irish Section -- MI5 in Ulster. From here, it made its way to the desks of members of the British cabinet and at least three prime ministers -- Thatcher, Major, and Blair.
The Ongoing Investigation
Questions are now being asked about why Met commissioner Sir John Stevens -- who has been conducting long-running investigations into collusion between the British state and terrorists in Ireland - has not brought Scappaticci in for questioning. Scotland Yard has been aware that Scappaticci was Stakeknife for some time. However, Met sources say the Stevens team will now ask the Ministry of Defence to hand Scappaticci over for questioning regardless of whether he is in hiding or not.
Scappaticci was also involved in the killing of an informer working for the Irish police -- an act that will have dire diplomatic consequences for the relationship between Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair. From the late 1980s, Tom Oliver, a Co Louth farmer, was passing intelligence on the IRA in the Republic to Garda officers leading to the arrests of a number of senior Provos.
Scappaticci used an IRA safehouse in Co Louth to conduct interrogations of informers. His FRU handlers feared Oliver's relationship with the Garda could see Scappaticci being jailed in Ireland. Oliver's body was discovered in south Armagh July 1991. He had been tortured and shot in the head.
It is thought Sir John Stevens plans to interview Sir Hugh Annesley, the RUC's chief constable between 1989 and 1996, and Lieutenant General Sir John Waters, general officer commanding the armed forces in Northern Ireland between 1988 and 1990. They are likely to be cautioned and questioned about their knowledge over the possible withholding of information relating to police inquiries into collusion.
Scappaticci was also involved in setting up Danny Morrison, Sinn Fein's former director of publicity, for arrest. The security forces allowed a suspected informer called Sandy Lynch to be abducted by the IRA in the hope that Morrison would arrive at the house where Lynch was being interrogated. This would allow the police to move in and arrest the high-profile republican.
While Lynch was tortured by Scappaticci and his team for three days in 1990, the FRU staked out the house, willing to take the chance that Lynch could be killed. Morrison did arrive at the house and was later sentenced to eight years for false imprisonment.
In February this year, the Scottish Sunday revealed how the FRU allowed three IRA men working for them as double-agents -- Aidan Starrs, Gregory Burns, and John Dignam - to die pointlessly. Burns' girlfriend Margaret Perry, who was also to die needlessly, had uncovered the men were double agents. The three set up Perry's murder and were then killed by the IRA's internal security unit. It was Scappaticci who pulled the trigger on all three. The FRU could have spirited the double-agents to safety, but refused to do so.
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness may, privately at least, be heaving a huge sigh of relief that Stakeknife is no more. There has been wild speculation that men like Adams and McGuinness were Stakeknife -- today that speculation is over, but now the truth and reconciliation process have to begin.
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