May 17 2003
A Belfast builder is accused of being London's legendary informer inside the IRA. But who is telling the truth? Peter Fray reports from London.
Freddie Scappaticci apparently didn't want the money or the glory; he just wanted revenge. But for the past 25 years he allegedly managed all three: notorious killer for the Provisional IRA; highly paid informer for the British; and, for himself, almost daily retribution on an organisation, the IRA, which had once beaten and humiliated him.
Scappaticci had it all, that is, until he was revealed in the Irish and British press this week as the British Government's legendary IRA mole, Stakeknife, the kingpin in a network of agents in Northern Ireland run by the army's shadowy and discredited Force Research Unit.
Now the 59-year-old Belfast builder is the IRA's top assassination target. He was believed to be living under 24-hour protection at a former US air base, two hours north of London, where he was being debriefed by intelligence officers. But he surfaced on Wednesday at his solicitors' office in west Belfast. He vehemently denied that he was Stakeknife. He admitted that he had been a member of the IRA but says he left 13 years ago.
Security forces continued to insist he was Stakeknife, while Sinn Fein, alleging a plot by anti-republicans, called for "full disclosure" from the British.
But officially the British Government is not saying a word, leaving Stakeknife and Scappaticci in the in-tray of Britain's top policeman, Sir John Stevens. His 14-year inquiry into the British security force's collusion with unionist and republican murderers has unearthed devastating and politically damaging results... read more.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/16/1052885401701.html