His name was published on 11th May 2003 in the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Herald, the Sunday World and the Sunday People[3]. The Scottish Sunday Herald approached the D Notice Committee in the days prior to publication on 11th May 2003 and were told that they would not be injuncted if they named Stakeknife so long as a newspaper in another jurisdiction had named him already. When they asked the committee whether they would put Scappaticci’s life at risk if they named him, he was told that Stakeknife was out of the country[4], which was apparently untrue. Andrew Jaspan, editor of the Sunday Herald, waited for the first editions of the three Irish Sunday papers that named Stakeknife before going to press himself[5]. Some newspapers claimed that Stakeknife was named as Scappaticci on the Cryptome website, but this was not in fact the case[6].
He joined the IRA in 1970 and was interned with Gerry Adams in 1971[10]. He was interned again in 1974[11]. He is reported as having approached British military intelligence in 1978 and volunteered to act as an informer after he was severely beaten up by a Belfast IRA man[12]. He became the Force Research Unit’s most highly placed agent within the IRA[13]. A dedicated team, known as “the rat hole” was set up within FRU solely to handle Stakeknife[14].
Over time, Stakeknife rose through the ranks of the IRA to become a key figure in the “security department” known as the “nutting squad”, which sought out and eliminated informers and security force agents. He is alleged to have been second in command under John Joe Magee[15]. The IRA is said to have executed over 50 people: 16 IRA members, 7 ex-members, and 24 others.[16] ...read more
http://www.birw.org/archive_stakeknife.html
