Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act ⅤⅠⅠ

Seamus Kearney 🎤 The Internal Security Unit ( ISU) had become a refined killing machine by 1986, with the original team of British agents still firmly in place.

Their main role was to observe, collect and funnel information back to the Task Coordinating Group (TCG), via their respective handlers, whether with Special Branch, Ml5 or the military Force Research Unit ( FRU). Every morsel of information was squeezed out of each agent to provide a profile on IRA members, along with political direction of the overall Republican Movement, including the identification of 'hawks and doves' inside the IRA. The 'hawks' would be singled out for assassination if the opportunity arose. For example, in the case of IRA Volunteer Larry Marley, who was targeted and assassinated in April 1987. Others would follow. The ' doves' would be allowed to flourish and hollow out the IRA from within as the TCG viewed it, and labelled 'assets', but not necessarily agents of the State.

Freddie Scappaticci was now in control of the ISU and would gain a certain amount of information from his handler, including who in the unit was an agent like himself. The handler would usually speak in cryptic form by advising Scappaticci to avoid certain IRA personnel who ventured into his sphere of interest, or by indicating that another was 'harmless' etc. Everything came through the handler and that applied to the others in the ISU.

One of the greatest threats to Scappaticci came in October 1987 when the UDA /UFF received accurate intelligence on him as a senior IRA member and set about his assassination. Brian Nelson, an Intelligence Officer with the UDA but also a FRU agent, attended the meeting and later informed his handler on the proposed operation to eliminate Scappaticci. When the FRU handler received the information he sent it up the chain of command to the TCG and all hell broke loose in Castlereagh.

An elaborate plan was conceived to steer the UDA / UFF away from Scappaticci and unto another target with the same Italian sounding name. Brian Nelson received the relevant information on the bogus target from his handler, and Nelson in turn convinced the UDA leadership that the real target was not Freddie Scappaticci but Francisco Notarantonio, a Republican from West Belfast. The UDA leadership swallowed the bait and on 9th October 1987 a Loyalist gun team broke into his home in Ballymurphy and shot him dead. Freddie Scappaticci was saved.

The Force Research Unit had proven their worth and loyalty to Stakeknife and he embraced the comradeship that was now formed. A set of rooms were built below ground in one of the headquarter buildings in Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, known as the 'Rat Hole'. Only a restricted number of senior NCOs, warrant officers and senior officers were permitted entry, and the rooms were not only guarded on a permanent 24 hour basis but were also continually manned. The 'Rat Hole' was air-conditioned and similar to a subterranean bunker.

For much of the time Scappaticci's meetings with his handlers followed the same pattern as most agents: a phone call, a pick up in a car watched by two other vehicles manned by armed officers and then a drive to a secret location. Most of the time Scappaticci carried a pager on his person to ensure 24 hour contact with his handler. If asked about the pager he would reply that he needed it for his clients in the building trade. On several occasions Scappaticci visited the 'Rat Hole' and was warmly received by his FRU team.

In an unprecedented move Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister, was informed about the agent Stakeknife and the quality of his intelligence on the IRA. Eventually, at the weekly meetings of the Government's Joint Intelligence Committee, at No. 10 Downing Street, Thatcher would ask the head of Ml5 to read out extracts from Scappaticci 's Military Intelligence Source Reports ( MISRs), as she rated him so highly. She emphasised to her committee members that they must do everything in their power to protect Scappaticci, as he was the most important person working for the British against the IRA. It was Thatcher who suggested that the British Government should pay him a high sum ( starting at 75,000 and eventually reaching 80,000 pounds per year - tax free). The account was opened by Ml5 in a British bank based in Gibraltar.

For his part, Scappaticci explained on a number of occasions to his handlers that he despised the IRA leadership because they had steadily accrued wealth for themselves while they continued to urge the new recruits to give up their lives for the cause. He justified his treachery to the Irish cause by blaming everyone else, a typical trait of a traitor.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.