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Showing posts with label Provisional IRA Internal Security Unit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Provisional IRA Internal Security Unit. Show all posts

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'I know the path i ought to go,
I follow fearlessly.
Inquiring not what deeper woe,
Stern duty stores for me'. Emily Bronte.

After holding a commemoration Mass for Michael in late June 2003 in a packed Saint Oliver Plunkett Church, Lenadoon, West Belfast, I noticed Michael's Company OC sitting in one of the pews at the back. When I approached him he smiled and said,  ' You done well big lad. If something like this had have happened to me, I would want a brother like you to find out what happened and to never give up.' I replied that my journey in finding the truth about Michael was really just beginning and assured him that I was' fit for battle '. We parted company with a handshake.

When I attended my next meeting with the strategic' think tank' of former comrades in August 2003, we discussed whether to accept the outcome of the 16 month long IRA investigation into Michael's execution, in light of what Brendan Hughes had told me. One of those at the meeting pointed out that Michael may have been cleared but the people who had interrogated him were British agents, therefore by default ' the whole waterhole had been poisoned'. He went on to state that not only was the Internal Security Unit ( ISU) compromised but also those on the periphery of the ISU as well. 

A second member of my team agreed and suggested I withdraw from any further meetings with the IRA leadership. I already knew things weren't sitting right with Michael's case and repeatedly told the two IRA personnel that, but felt I was being stonewalled to some degree. However, I finally told the team that i would go along with the 'sanitised version' concerning Michael because my Mother wasn't going to live forever and I wanted to give her closure and peace of mind before she died. That was my reasoning for my alignment to the IRA 's version of events surrounding Michael, whether right or wrong. 

In one of my many conversations with my Mother I specifically recall her reflecting on her life and being left a widow with four children. She said:

I never brought Michael into the world for anyone to take him away from me for no apparent reason. But I can now go to my grave knowing that my son' s good name and honour has been restored. 

My Mother died brokenhearted nonetheless on 26th May 2010. Thankfully, I was with her when she died and the promise I made to her back in early 1986, to go back in time and find out what had happened to her son, was still unfulfilled even though she was unaware of that fact. Therefore, i resolved to carry on and to fulfil a promise made, so called yet again on spiritual forces to come to my aid. And in the fullness of time they arrived.
 
The final meeting with the IRA leadership took place in September 2003 at an undisclosed location. The two senior IRA investigating officers informed me that an agreed text between the Kearney family and the IRA' s Army Council, (joint Army / Family statement), was ready for public release. They also added that this would be the final meeting and if I had any further questions then they would attempt to answer them.

In response i asked them 2 simple questions:

  1. Was Freddie Scappaticci, one of the men who had interrogated my brother, a British agent?
  2. Was Volunteer Michael Kearney executed for compromising the Short Strand bombs in March 1979?

Their reply was terse. In relation to Freddie Scappaticci they said 'the man is innocent until proven guilty' and 'Michael Kearney was not executed in relation to the Short Strand bombs'.

I immediately interjected and told them that Freddie Scappaticci was a British military officer and not IRA personnel and secondly Michael was executed in relation to the Short Strand bombs. A Mexican stand off ensued and the atmosphere changed dramatically for a moment, before the final meeting was drawn to a close.

Subsequently, the 'sanitised version' of events went ahead and the 'joint Army / Family' statement was released through the local press, as I planned phase 2 of the operation to clear my brother's name fully and expose the British agents lurking in the undergrowth.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIX

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'False friends will launch their covert sneers,
True friends will wish me dead.
And I shall cause the bitterest tears that you have ever shed' -  Emily Bronte.

After watching Freddie Scappaticci deliver his odious speech in his solicitor's office on 14th May 2003, Sylvia Jones became enraged at this charade and decided to bring it to an end. Jones had been the journalist with the Cook Report back in August 1993 and had secretly bugged the car Scappaticci climbed into at the Culloden Hotel. She felt her profession was being undermined and dragged through the mud so wrote an article in the newspaper, The People, on 20th July 2003, in which she recounted meeting Scappaticci on 26th August 1993 in the car park of the Culloden Hotel outside Hollywood, County Down. She wrote:

A senior officer in the then RUC warned us in the strongest terms that everything possible should be done to protect Scappaticci because even the slightest slip could put his life in danger and threaten their most important source of intelligence. 

She then released the tape recording of Scappaticci from the bugged car to settle the matter. When Scappaticci was presented with the tape recording in the solicitor 's office he had the audacity to ask could he challenge the tape recording, but was told he couldn't because an independent' voice over expert ' had verified that the voice on the recording matched Scappaticci's voice, in other words they were one in the same person.

The man who had duped the IRA leadership for so long and ironically had entered into a dubious pact with them in order to save his own skin while indirectly helping the IRA hierarchy to save their credibility, had finally run out of road. He contacted his military handlers who faithfully extracted him from the island of Ireland, leaving behind his wife and children. And thus began his life in exile.

In early June 2003 I received a phone call to go to a house in West Belfast in relation to my brother Michael's death. When I arrived i was greeted by a man who told me that he had been Michael's Company OC in 1979. He actually went on to say that he felt guilty about meeting me because 'I am the man who handed your brother over to those shower of traitors and still don't feel good about it'.

When I pressed him further he explained:

When Michael was released from Castlereagh in June 1979 he came to me and I debriefed him. It was me who told him to write out his de-briefing report and to put it somewhere safe as he would need it in the near future. He told me he had been given a severe beating by the Special Branch in Castlereagh and was under pressure. So, to take the pressure off him somewhat he had revealed the whereabouts of a small cache of explosives which were redundant and waterlogged. I myself knew about the cache and knew it was waterlogged, so told Michael not to worry about a useless dump. Immediately after this I informed Brigade about Michael's situation and told Brigade I had debriefed my Volunteer.

Their reply: 'That's not a problem, we value your counsel'.

I thought that was the end of the matter until a few days later, Wednesday June 27th 1979, I was ordered by a Brigade Staff Officer to go and collect Michael and hand him over to 'the Security Team', which was the newly formed Internal Security Unit (ISU). When I protested and told him there was no need for the ISU to be brought in, I was told Brigade had invited the unit in, as was now standard procedure, and they wanted to interrogate Michael in depth. When I said I would need to be with Michael as he wouldn't know anyone in the Security Team, I was told by the Brigade officer,  'He will be fine, there will be a familiar face there.' Which meant Michael would know someone who would be familiar to him. I was ordered to drop Michael off near the Glenowen Inn, Glen Road, West Belfast and that there would be two cars waiting for him in the car park. After I dropped him off at the roundabout on the Glen Road, I watched him walk toward the Glenowen and never saw him again.

When I heard that Michael Kearney was executed in the early hours of 12th July 1979 I went ballistic and demanded an explanation from Brigade who had orchestrated this and invited in Internal Security to further interrogate Michael. To say there was 'dissatisfaction among rank and file' would be an understatement, as other IRA Volunteers and our own support base in Lenadoon were outraged at what had happened to Michael.

A few months later those of us who were disgruntled the most over Michael Kearney's execution were taken aside and had to listen to a statement being read out from Brigade, which claimed Michael Kearney had been a paid agent who had compromised weapons and tipped the British off over the Short Strand bombs, 42 cylinder bombs which had been captured on 6th March 1979. I never believed the validity of this Brigade statement, and thought Michael Kearney had been scapegoated to die to cover up someone else.

After the meeting ended I thanked Michael's former OC for his honesty and returned to my group for a further update. A complicated situation just got even more complicated.

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


Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XVIII

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ ' Be not afraid, i go before you always. Come follow me and i shall give you rest.'

After my brother Michael was cleared from any suspicion that he was a paid informer on 28th January 2003, the IRA leadership not only cleared him but continued to meet me in a series of clandestine meetings until September of that year.

I had been informed by the IRA leadership that Freddie Scappaticci had been involved in the Court Martial and subsequent execution of my brother, but had not played a central role, which I accepted. However, in May 2003 a journalist, Greg Harkin, appeared at the front door of Freddie Scappatticci's house in the Riverdale area of West Belfast and accused him of being a British agent with a codename, Stakeknife.

I was still meeting the IRA leadership at the time so raised my concerns with them at our next meeting, underlining that if true then Michael had been interrogated by the British more so than the IRA. My concerns were dismissed and Iwas told by the two IRA staff officers that Scappaticci was " innocent until proven guilty".

Before the IRA investigation commenced in October 2001 I had deliberately organised and set up a secret strategic 'think tank' of 5 former IRA soldiers, which included myself, with a 6th man in place designed to be a 'spearhead'. The role of this 6th man was to co-ordinate and impress upon the IRA leadership the need to commence an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the execution of Volunteer Michael Kearney on the 12th July 1979. He succeeded in carrying out that task and hence the unprecedented IRA investigation came about as a result.

After meeting the IRA leadership in May 2003 I then reported back to my own group and discussed the current situation. To confuse matters further all shades of the Republican Movement were informing their base that Freddie Scappaticci had been the victim of a gutter press with a sinister British Intelligence motive to undermine the Peace Process. Incredibly, people who I had earlier thought were intelligent and free thinkers, were accusing me of being a 'dissident' which I was not, and for attempting to 'smear a hard working Republican from Riverdale, the victim of an anti-Republican media campaign'.

A member of my own group then suggested that I settle the matter and arrange a meeting with Brendan Hughes (The Dark) who had particular knowledge of the IRA's Internal Security Unit (ISU), as he was in charge of GHQ Intelligence which overseen the workings of the Internal Security Unit. I was informed that Brendan took on this role after his release from prison in November 1986.

Consequently, a few weeks later in June 2003, after climbing the stairs of Divis Tower, I appeared outside the small flat at the top of the tower and rapped the front door, eager with anticipation.

When the door opened I met my old comrade with a smile on his face and we embraced. When I entered his living room he motioned me toward his sofa with the words :" be careful what you say in here because a bug was discovered recently under that sofa". I automatically asked, "was it RUC Special Branch?" But he replied, "no, Sinn Féin!". With a puzzled look upon my face we moved on with the matter in hand.

I told him that my brother Michael had been cleared by the IRA leadership and he became emotional, a common trait of his, and hugged me. I informed him that the publicity would come later in the year as I was still meeting the IRA leadership with a view to agreeing a text for a public statement and the official statement had to be agreed by the Army Council.

He enquired about my mother and I was happy to tell him that she was still alive which brought a sigh of relief from him, as we both understood how poignant and important that was in the overall scheme of things.

We then discussed the current media speculation concerning Scappaticci and the confusion from all sides. When I informed him that my brother Michael had been interrogated by Scappaticci he replied:

Seamus, your brother was interrogated by a British Military Officer, not a member of the IRA. Standing over your brother was an enemy officer, the only thing missing was the fact that Scappaticci wasn't wearing his British Army uniform, complete with his riding crop.


After this revelation he began to explain, "I believe that whole unit was infiltrated". He went on to elaborate on the mechanics of the Internal Security Unit and how they worked for British Intelligence since their inception in 1978. He had voiced his concerns to a senior figure in the IRA leadership but was dismissed by him who instead told him he was paranoid and had been in prison too long.

He mentioned the Joe Fenton case and told me he had become afraid after his execution in February 1989 and left the IRA as a result, claiming Belfast was rotten.

When i asked Brendan for the names of those involved in the ISU he got up and opened a drawer and took out a sheet of paper and a pen. I watched intently as he wrote the names down on the paper and then handed it to me. I studied the names, five in total, and then stuffed the sheet of paper into my pocket.

At exactly 2pm that day Brendan Hughes suddenly stood up, put his jacket on and told me he had to leave. We hugged and then shook hands. I thanked him for his honesty and he smiled in return. He reminded me of my loyalty to the Irish Republic and to the Army we both fought in and to give no quarter to traitors who undermined the integrity of that Army.

When I returned to my group and informed them of developments, we all more or less came to the conclusion that Michael and his story would not be straightforward and my journey toward truth and justice would be a long and arduous one.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XVII

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'For who forgives the accursed crime of black treachery?
Rebellion, in its chosen time,
May freedom's champion be.'


The day after the rap at the door from the journalist Greg Harkin on 10th May 2003, Scappaticci was summoned to a clandestine meeting with his military handlers at his holiday home in Portaferry on the County Down coastline.

They suggested strongly that a furniture removal van be organised and sent to the family home to remove him, his wife and children into the safety of protective custody, but Stakeknife was having none of it. Instead he told his handlers that he could 'brassneck it out' and figured that the IRA leadership would aid him in his denials because of the current peace process. He already had an insurance policy in place as he held an enormous amount of sensitive information on the IRA hierarchy and they knew it. Therefore, he was prepared to take his chances in the roll of the dice.

Freddie Scappaticci decided to apply the age old maxim, 'The best form of defence is attack', so made the first move by contacting the Republican Movement himself and arranged a meeting with two senior IRA personnel, one of whom had suspected him thirteen years earlier of being an agent in the Sandy Lynch affair. As he set facing both men the tension in the room began to rise, until Scappaticci blatantly denied the allegation that he was the agent Stakeknife. On hearing this the two senior IRA officers were given an opening and took it by simply advising Scappaticci to issue a firm and public denial in which the IRA would not contest. In other words a 'gentleman's agreement' was reached which served both parties. The meeting ended.

Next in his line of vision was the Republican base in West Belfast, the ordinary men and women who had shouldered and endured the long war. If he was to remain amongst them then he had to dupe them into thinking he was on their side during the struggle. Therefore on the 12th May 2003 he gave an interview with the Andersonstown News and issued a firm denial of the allegations against him which placated a sizeable section of people who accepted he wasn't Stakeknife but just 'a hard working Republican, stitched up by a venomous British gutter press'. As far as Scappaticci and his FRU handlers were concerned the ploy was beginning to work.

On 14th May 2003, a meeting in his solicitor's office on the Falls Road took place, attended by the renown journalist Brian Rowan, with the IRA's Director of Intelligence and the Adjutant of Northern Command monitoring proceedings in a building opposite. As pre-arranged Scappaticci issued a public statement in which he denied that he was a British agent and with that approach expected the latest piece of theatre to bring the curtain down on the press who had hounded him thus far. To copperfasten the dual arrangement between Stakeknife and the IRA leadership a number of statements were issued from senior Republicans who slammed the press for being so gullible into accepting British intelligence propaganda, and by doing so muddied the waters by claiming the allegations against Scappaticci were' bizarre and without proof'.

However, this act of deception was never going to work for a journalist who watched as Scappaticci spewed out his lies to a waiting audience in a solicitor's office on the Falls Road. Stakeknife along with the IRA leadership had carefully engineered the deception and in so doing had duped their own people, but it would take a feisty and courageous woman to finally corner and out manoeuvre this slithering snake who had escaped justice for so long.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XVI

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'Revenge may stain a righteous sword,
It may be just to slay,
But, traitor, traitor, from that word,
All true men shrink away'.


 
The tide began to turn against Scappaticci when an article appeared in The Sunday Times on 8th August 1999 from a former British soldier, Ian Hurst, a member of the Force Research Unit ( FRU), who pointed the finger at a top spy within the Provisional IRA, code named Stakeknife. There was a media frenzy almost immediately and the rumour mill kicked into action, the posse then dispatched to identify the agent known as Stakeknife.

Ian Hurst stated that he had first heard of Stakeknife in 1982 when he was manning the phones in Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, one evening. A phone call came through from an RUC sergeant who had arrested a man for drink-driving and the man in turn had given the RUC sergeant a number for the barracks and a contact person to speak to. Hurst later learned that the man was Freddie Scapatticci aka Stakeknife - after a conversation in the Army canteen - and was a highly valuable asset to the FRU.
 
Ian Hurst also accused the FRU of the arson attack on offices storing secret contact forms ( MISRs) mainly from Brian Nelson, a Loyalist double agent, at RUC Headquarters in Carrickfergus in 1990, in order to thwart the Stevens Inquiry into collusion.

The identity of Stakeknife had still not been ascertained in October 2001 when a protracted IRA investigation was launched into the execution of Volunteer Michael Kearney in July 1979. Freddie Scapatticci's name was handed over to the two senior IRA investigating officers, but there didn't seem anything machiavellian around him at the time, as very few people were aware of the earlier rumours concerning him.

However, all that changed on 10th May 2003 when a journalist, Greg Harkin, rapped Freddie Scappaticci's front door in Riverdale, West Belfast, and accused him of being the British agent Stakeknife. Event hough he tried to deceive the journalist by telling him he had the wrong Scappatticci, Greg Harkin wasn't convinced and responded by telling him he was certain he had the right man.

Freddie Scappaticci was scared but didn't panic, he was certainly cool under pressure and self disciplined to a high degree. Instead of running he decided to stay and dig in, after all he had outwitted the IRA for years and he reckoned he had run rings around them, so intended to carry on business as usual. 

He circled the wagons and waited.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XV

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'When I look back into the past now from this vantage point, I wonder how I survived the war with so many swamp crocodiles swimming in the same waters as me' - Reflections of an IRA soldier.


Having been ordered to remain under the radar after the Culloden debacle, Freddie Scappaticci more or less complied with his puppet masters military directive. 

Two years later, in 1995, he was formally demobbed and stood down from his role as an operative with the Force Research Unit and left 39th Brigade of the British Army for good. For services rendered to Her Majesty's Government Stakeknife was given a life long war pension and told he would enjoy the protection of the security services until death. Similar to the brilliant mathematician and code breaker Alan Turing who cracked the German enigma machine during the Second World War, Stakeknife would not be publicly recognised for his work, with both men becoming invisible to the naked eye. Both men, Alan Turing and Freddie Scappaticci, were told to quietly walk away and return to civilian life by the Ministry of Defence, Turing in 1945 and Scappaticci in 1995.
 
Getting accustomed to 'civvy street ' (civilian life) proved rather difficult for Stakeknife as it was devoid of danger and excitement. He found that most people live rather mediocre lives and he found the whole experience dull and boring. With the Provisional IRA ceasefire in August 1994 there was really no further use for him which meant that he had fallen between two stools, the IRA on one hand and the British Army on the other. This was copper fastened when the Provisional IRA war effectively ended with the permanent cessation in July 1997. The IRA had bombed their way to the conference table, avoided an unconditional surrender and would trade guns for government. The Provisional IRA, its military units and its combat soldiers left the battlefield as an undefeated Army. The baton was then handed over to its political wing to negotiate on behalf of those who had suffered and endured. On their shoulders would sit the spirits of heroes dead.

In 1997 Freddie Scappaticci was playing soccer at Andersonstown Leisure Centre, West Belfast, when a ghost from his past struck him like a bolt of lightning. He looked at one of the players and saw Anthony Braniff who he had helped execute in September 1981 in the face of his brother.

After the 5-a-side soccer match Scappaticci approached the man and told him he resembled Anthony Braniff. and he was told they were brothers. Scappaticci went on to say: "Your brother should never have ended up stretched out under a window", meaning he should never have ended up in a coffin under the living room window. He lied and emphasised that it was the IRA leadership that was responsible and that he was a mere 'messenger'. At that particular time there were early efforts made by the family to open an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death, but those efforts were in their infancy. However, when Scappaticci was asked to help the family by the elder brother, surprisingly he agreed.

This was the beginning of a long and difficult process for the Braniff family who had not only suffered the lose of Anthony in 1981 at the hands of a British infiltrated unit, but had lost their father David Braniff in March 1989 as he knelt reciting the rosary at their home in Alliance Avenue, Ardoyne, North Belfast. A Loyalist death squad fired several shots into the praying man and escaped the scene.

Eventually, and after painstaking work from the brothers, a meeting was set up, but when Scappaticci was told that a representative of the IRA would attend the meeting also, he became extremely apprehensive and probably regretted the conversation earlier at Andersonstown Leisure Centre.

Stakeknife, it seems, was dropping his guard somewhat and becoming more and more careless. Upon hearing that there would be an IRA presence at the forthcoming meeting Scappatticci immediately stipulated that he would not be entering any location with the IRA if on his own and under their conditions. Therefore, he told Braniff that he would attend the meeting in their family home and he himself would give a short notice prior to showing up at the meeting, thereby taking control away from the IRA. Scappatticci was proving that he knew all about the mechanics of the IRA and would not be walking into a prearranged trap.

Subsequently, once he had given an hour's notice Scapatticci arrived at the Braniff home and began to explain his role in Anthony Braniff's interrogation, claiming he had merely brought Anthony to a house in the Beechmount area of West Belfast and handed him over to the ISU. He named all four individuals involved in the interrogation of Anthony and kept distancing himself from any involvement in his execution. He only admitted to his involvement in the initial interrogation. When the senior IRA representative suddenly entered the Braniff home by the back door and stood menacingly over Scappaticci, telling him to carry on with his speech to the family, Stakeknife realised that his nemesis from Northern Command was in the room, and blurted out: "I claim the 5th Amendment" (the right to remain silent) and walked out.

The whole scenario left the Braniff brothers perplexed after this piece of high drama. However, it was not the end of the theatrical performance as more drama was about to ensue.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIV

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ ''Blood and tears ran down your cheek, the voice of God's mercy remained silent, only death and hunger of strength were the grains for your furrow'.

A rare photo of Freddie Scappaticci 's troop from the Force Research Unit (FRU).

Freddie Scappaticci was in uncharted waters after November 1992 and his formal dismissal from the Provisional IRA. He was still on the British Government's payroll but the regular payments could not continue indefinitely if no 'product' was forthcoming. The fact that he had not found himself in a body bag, lying on a border road like many of his victims, may have given him a sense of invincibility because he continued to live quite openly in Republican West Belfast.

In 1993 the woman who had given him the alibi the previous year was working in Connolly House, Andersonstown, for Sinn Fein. On a number of occasions Scappaticci walked in and engaged her in conversations, mostly related to his electioneering work. It seemed that Scappaticci had lost none of his chutzpah. He wasn't going away quietly.

The IRA leadership were in a quandary at this point in time as it may have figured that Scappaticci, their main 'rat catcher', was too big a figure to simply interrogate and then execute, coupled with the potential threat to the morale of their rank and file if it was discovered he had duped the entire leadership for literally year upon year. Therefore, a policy of 'damage limitation' was adopted from 1992 onwards, basically keeping him at arm's length and hoping he would go along with the unwritten rule of plausible deniability. This would go a long way to prevent mass demoralisation within the ranks of the IRA.

However, although he had been ineffective since 1990 as a result of the Sandy Lynch affair, Stakeknife still had the ability to hold grudges against certain people who he felt had undermined or marginalised him. When an opportunity arose in the shape of the 'Cook Report' Scappaticci took his grudge a step further and made contact with three of the journalists from the programme. Within a tight circle of people it became known as 'Revenge at the Culloden', as the incident took place in the car park of the Culloden Hotel outside Belfast in August 1993.

After he climbed into a bugged car Scappaticci met Clive Entwistle and reporter Frank Thorne, along with Sylvia Jones.

Not realising that the vehicle was bugged Scappaticci stupidly began railing at senior IRA figures, spitting out his venom against those in his mind had castrated and disempowered him. Shortly after this debacle at the Culloden, Scappaticci was reprimanded by his military handlers in the Rat Hole, in Lisburn and ordered never to pull that stunt again. His handlers couldn't believe Scappaticci could be so careless and potentially compromise his security over three journalists. He was no longer at the heart of things concerning the IRA and that seemed to agitate him immensely. His position in the world of espionage and treachery seemed to have taken a left turn into the surreal.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XIII

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'When it comes to Ireland we will always get on better with the cowards, the spies, the traitors rather than the brave. Those who stand against us, the brave, we must discredit, dishonour and then destroy' -  A British soldier with the Intelligence Corp.

Freddie Scapatticci was only back in the North a few weeks when he was spotted by the Second-In- Command (Adjutant) of the IRA's Northern Command. He had been walking through the Kennedy Centre in Andersonstown with a former Blanketman when he recognised Scappaticci and was alarmed to see him back in Belfast.

The Adjutant of Northern Command convened an urgent meeting with his OC, who was Director of military operations in the North, and informed him that Scappaticci had returned from the Free State and in his estimate was a British agent. The OC Northern Command didn't seem perturbed, after all he had dined a number of times with Scappaticci in the family home over the years and had placed his full trust in him, dismissing the earlier signals which had come from elements of the South Armagh Brigade, signals which pointed at Scappaticci being untrustworthy.

However, his Adjutant persisted and had deduced through his own gut instinct and careful analysis that Scappaticci was an agent and had no allegiance to the IRA. His OC thought it a hunch and without sound foundation, but agreed to go along with his Adjutant's suspicion on this occasion as he was viewed in high standing within the upper echelons of the IRA. His Adjutant had looked upon Scappaticci and the ISU with a 'fresh pair of eyes', similar to Brendan Hughes, as both had been imprisoned in the H Blocks and when released were able to look at situations and certain people from a different angle from the 'Old Guard'. Both men had come to the same conclusion - Scappaticci and the Internal Security Unit was rotten.

It was therefore left to the Adjutant of Northern Command to find a way to terminate Scappaticci and 'put him out to graze', thereby limiting the damage which had already been done.

In November 1992 a meeting took place in Belfast between the Adjutant and Freddie Scappaticci. On the basis of a technicality, in which Freddie Scappaticci admitted he spoke to detectives in Castlereagh the previous month, he was formerly dismissed from the IRA. He was informed that he had broken General Army Orders (which covers a multitude of sins), by speaking in Castlereagh and was no longer in the IRA. For his part Scappaticci was aggrieved and felt it unfair as he had only spoken to detectives in relation to his fingerprint on a battery of a scanner, but the Adjutant remained rigid on the issue and concluded the meeting.

To say that Stakeknife was furious would be an understatement. After contacting his military handler and telling him the 'bad news', they both were seething and wanted to kill the IRA' s Adjutant.

The reality was that Scappaticci was no longer at the heart of the IRA and was now crestfallen. Where he went next was another story . . . 

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XII

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'The IRA is my home, the Battalion my family. I don't crave love from a woman's hug, a soldier's life is all I need'.

After the raid on 124 Carrigart Avenue, West Belfast, on Sunday 7th January 1990, Scappaticci and the other two fled across the border and into the town of Dundalk. 

For the former Marine it wasn't a major problem travelling South as he had moved to Dundalk in 1980 so adopted quite quickly to his new surroundings. For Scappaticci and Agent 'Shirley Temple' it was much more traumatic, as both had family roots in Belfast.

For the first year Scappaticci kept in close contact with his former Marine colleague and would meet up in a local bar in Dundalk, both blaming their situation on the 'Lord Chief Justice' and feeling quite bitter that they were now in a vulnerable position with the IRA, as a 'witch hunt' was gaining momentum surrounding the raid at Carrigart Avenue. Scappaticci believed the RUC was over- zealous in storming the house in Carrigart Avenue and as a result endangered the agents inside. Eventually, Scapatticci moved to Clondalkin, an area 10 kilometres west of Dublin city centre, where he settled for quite awhile.

His connection with his former partner in the Marines faded as Scappaticci wasn't a hardened drinker whereas his partner was. Haunted by his past and succumbing to the grip of alcohol, the former Marine was killed in a drunken brawl after he was hit over the head with a whiskey bottle and fell down a flight of stairs in November 1994. His treachery had finally caught up with him.

In November 1991 Scappaticci turned up at the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Dublin and told a female friend that he was homesick and wanted to return to Belfast to be with his family, but understood he couldn't because of his fingerprint on the battery of the scanner at 124 Carrigart Avenue.

In July 1992 Freddie Scappaticci was ordered to attend a high level meeting at Dublin Airport with his handlers. When he arrived he was greeted by a senior RUC officer, George - and his long term FRU military handler, Colonel Colin - both men enquired about Scappaticci's welfare. They told him that he was heading due North again as he was still a valuable asset in their armoury. But when Stakeknife questioned them about the fingerprint on the battery they dismissed it and told him they had a plan to overcome that problem. An alibi would be provided from the woman who lived at Carrigart Avenue which would state that he had carried out electrical work in the property and had his fingerprints all over the house, including on the battery of the scanner. Scappaticci was sceptical but agreed to go along with the plan.

In early October 1992 the owner of 124 Carrigart Avenue came home from work on a sunny afternoon and found Freddie Scappaticci sitting on a sofa in her living room. She had to look twice as he was wearing sunglasses and seemed agitated. He immediately explained that the woman's daughter had let him in and went on to enquire about the fingerprint on the scanner back in January 1990 and to double check about the alibi she would provide. She assured him that the alibi was intact. He then told her that he would more than likely get arrested by the RUC and didn't wish to end up in Long Kesh, so needed the alibi to stay out of prison. When he stood up and was about to leave the house he placed a 20 pound note behind a clock on the mantlepiece, with the parting words, " You'll need that money as the Republican Movement won't be looking after you". He closed the front door behind him on the way out.

As predicted, on 6th October 1992 Scappaticci was arrested on a building site in Belfast but knew this was all theatre and for the optics. He spent 3 days in Castlereagh Interrogation Centre in East Belfast, and when quizzed by DI Mc Gregor about his fingerprint on a battery supplying a scanner, he kept to the script and replied that he had carried out electrical work in that particular house and it seemed he had inadvertently lifted the device in question. Scappaticci thought it plausible even if DI Mc Gregor thought it implausible.

Once the alibi from the woman in the house was received Scappaticci was released on 9th October 1992 without charge. He was now free to live in the North and be reunited with his family.

Two weeks later Agent 'Shirley Temple' was ordered to attend a meeting with his handlers and told that he would also be heading due North immediately. He was assured that no forensics were found at Carrigart Avenue which could connect him to the house, so he would not be arrested like Scapatticci. As a military agent with the Force Research Unit ( FRU) he was to be reactivated once back in the North and was ordered to carry on the fight against the Provisional IRA.

In late October 1992 Freddie Scappaticci was told to go to Bessbrook Barracks in South Armagh to attend a surprise gathering of his troop. When he walked into the army mess /canteen Scappaticci was greeted by his old comrades from the FRU and the 'RatHole'. They gave him a round of applause as he entered, slapping him on the back in recognition of his return to the unit after nearly 3 years. On the canteen wall hung the plaque of the Force Research Unit and its motto: 'Fishers of Men'.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act XI

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ 'Rougher than death the road I choose, yet shall my feet not walk astray. Though dark my way, I shall not lose, for this way is the darkest way'.

With Brendan Hughes off the scene, Stakeknife and the other British agents inside the IRA's Internal Security Unit carried on regardless and with almost complete impunity. However, one thing had changed, and Freddie Scapatticci informed his handler of that change. Since the execution of Joe Fenton a year earlier on 26th February 1989, the IRA leadership had installed 'checks and balances' which meant the ISU had no authority to execute suspected agents until a senior figure within the IRA had personally interviewed the suspect. That role would entail whether the suspect had given information under duress, or had torture been applied to extract a confession. Scappaticci referred to this senior figure as the ' Lord Chief Justice'.

When Freddie Scappaticci told his military handler that the IRA had invited him in to interrogate Sandy Lynch, an IRA operative from the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, the handler passed this information on to the TCG at Castlereagh. The TCG decided to set a trap for the IRA and kill a number of birds with one stone using Sandy Lynch as bait. Firstly, they could capture the 'Lord Chief Justice' along with a number of senior IRA personnel, Secondly, disrupt the Stevens Inquiry as intelligence was telling the TCG that Scappaticci was about to be arrested by John Stevens. And thirdly, they could demonstrate in a show of strength that they had the Belfast IRA by the throat.

Subsequently, on Wednesday, 3rd January 1990 Sandy Lynch was summoned to a meeting with his Special Branch handlers, who informed him that the Internal Security Unit was about to arrest him. The handlers assured him that he would be rescued and to go along with the plan, as the people who would interrogate him were actually agents like himself. Once Lynch heard this he calmed down and agreed to go along with the ruse.

Shortly after this encounter Sandy Lynch arranged to meet two IRA officers in North Belfast on 5th January 1990, one of whom was a British agent code named 'Agent Shirley Temple'. This particular agent was attached to the military Force Research Unit ( FRU) and had already devastated the IRA's Ardoyne Active Service Unit since 1985.

Lynch was driven to 124 Carrigart Avenue in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast and was arrested there by Freddie Scappaticci and his former Marine colleague. Agent 'Shirley Temple' accompanied Lynch into the house and was present when Scappaticci produced a metal detector and began to run the scanner over Lynch's body. When the scanner began to bleep furiously Scapatticci realised someone in the room was wired and it wasn't Sandy Lynch. He then complained that the detector was faulty and removed the battery, pretending to check the device for faults.

Presently, Lynch broke under interrogation and admitted he was a British agent on Saturday morning, 6th January 1990. As was standard procedure, Scapatticci and his former head of the ISU both left the house together and reported back to their respective handlers. Agent 'Shirley Temple' vacated the address also and up dated his FRU handler accordingly.

On the evening of Sunday, 7th January 1990, an unmarked van entered the square and parked a short distance from the target house. A neighbour eagerly watched as masked and armed men disembarked from the van, seemingly military personnel. Seconds later a second unmarked van appeared with an RUC team disembarking from the van. The neighbour watched intently as both parties argued over who was storming the target house, with the military squad standing down and climbing back into their van before speeding off.

The house was stormed and everyone at the address arrested, with the relieved Sandy Lynch being ferried away from the scene.

Significantly, the former Marine went ballistic when he realised that a tube of psoriasis cream with his name on it was still lying on the bed at Carrigart Avenue. That evening he left for Dundalk in the Free State, never to return. Scappaticci soon followed him along with Agent 'Shirley Temple'. In a follow up search of 124 Carrigart Avenue CID discovered the tube of psoriasis cream with a name on it, but no charges were pursued in this case, possibly because Special Branch overruled the CID in favour of their agent. However, the metal detector was recovered by CID and a finger print discovered on the battery - the fingerprint was that of Freddie Scappaticci and that fingerprint would come back to haunt him until his dying day.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act X

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ On his return to Belfast Joe Fenton was arrested by the Internal Security Unit on the 24th February 1989 and taken to a house in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast.

Freddie Scappaticci, prior to lifting Fenton, told his handler that Fenton would probably not survive this interrogation. This second meeting with Scappaticci and Fenton was not a mild affair, and violence ensued throughout his interrogation.

There might have been an attempt to transport Fenton to Dundalk on the orders of Brendan Hughes, who was in Dublin at the time, but all that came to an abrupt end when Fenton told Scappaticci and the former Marine, both men standing together in the bedroom, that the only reason he returned from England was because his handler assured him that his interrogators would protect him as they were on the same team. Little did Fenton realise that he had just signed his own death warrant for sure.

As was standard practice with Stakeknife, if a person being interrogated by him didn't present a threat to his personal position, then he would interrogate and vacate the scene, his particular job completed. On the other hand, if he felt his position was threatened then he would have to eliminate that threat, which in this case meant Joe Fenton couldn't possibly reach Brendan Hughes and tell him about the treachery of the men in charge of the ISU.

Therefore, instead of leaving the scene Freddie Scappaticci allowed his colleague to vacate the house but stayed behind to make sure Joe Fenton kept his secret to himself. He moved into the kitchen and waited for the firearm to arrive.

Having gone back upstairs and grabbing Fenton by the scruff of the neck, both men struggled on the staircase as Scappaticci dragged him into the street. As far as an IRA operation went, this was bizarre and completely unconventional, indicating that Scappaticci had to dispatch Fenton into the afterlife himself for fear he might reveal his secret.

While being force marched toward the Glen Road bus terminus, Fenton suddenly broke free and attempted to escape, but Scappaticci immediately shouted to his armed IRA accomplice to open fire, which he did, hitting him in the back and felling him. With Scapatticci standing over a badly wounded British agent, he ordered the gunman to finish him off with 3 shots to the head. Joe Fenton lay dead, along with his secret about Stakeknife.

After leaving the execution site Scappaticci immediately phoned his handler and briefed him on what had just happened. Speaking on the phone, he explained that he had no choice but to kill Joe Fenton himself, as Fenton had found out that he, Scappaticci, was a British agent, like himself. He felt his cover had been blown. Ten minutes later the RUC received a call about a body lying on the Glen Road.

When the news reached Dublin, Brendan Hughes went apoplectic and immediately enquired as to the reason why Fenton had been shot dead out of hand. The reply from Scappaticci was that there was ' too much Brit activity in the area', which meant Fenton couldn't be transported to Hughes.

Brendan Hughes did not believe this feeble excuse, realised Belfast was rotten, became frightened for his life and resigned from the Army he loved.

The controversy surrounding the execution of Joe Fenton resulted in an IRA Court of Inquiry which took place in Letterkenny, County Donegal, chaired by the Northern Command operations officer. One of the most pressing questions which was raised at the Inquiry was why Fenton was not delivered to Hughes and his staff, which drew attention to Scappaticci and the ISU. The outcome was that new 'checks and balances' would be introduced thereby limiting the authority of the Internal Security Unit to execute so freely. 

Perhaps for the first time, and at Brendan Hughes's persistence, Scappaticci and the ISU were at last coming under some sort of scrutiny.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act IX

Seamus Kearney ðŸŽ¤ Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant taste death only once' - William Shakespeare @ Julius Caesar.


In the aftermath of the Loughgall ambush, code named ' Operation Judy', on 8th May 1987 in which 8 heavily armed IRA Volunteers were killed by a 24 strong squad from the SAS, an IRA enquiry was launched into the circumstances surrounding the operation.

Alongside the IRA 's Northern Command operations officer, the OC of the Internal Security Unit, Freddie Scappaticci, got to work on attempting to ascertain what exactly happened. Fundamentally, British Intelligence, through their agent Scappaticci, were made aware of every aspect of the IRA enquiry, including the names of IRA personnel who escaped the ambush, safe houses, billets on the night before the operation, where the weapons were stored, etc. As it turned out the enquiry was inconclusive and a shadow of doubt would continue to hang over the Loughgall ambush for years to come.

After moving a quantity of explosives from an IRA dump to a safe house in 1981, Joe Fenton was arrested and taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre. A Special Branch officer told him that they were aware of his work for the IRA and in particular the transporting of a quantity of explosives. With nowhere to turn Joe Fenton, through threats and blandishments, agreed to work for Special Branch and thus entered a world of espionage and the dark art of spying on the Provisional IRA.

His main handler, who controlled a total of 18 agents from the IRA, INLA and Loyalist paramilitaries, provided him with survival techniques in the field and protected him to the utmost.

In 1982, Special Branch provided Fenton with 15,000 pounds sterling to set up his own estate agency, Ideal Homes on the Falls Road, West Belfast. He also received supplementary payments of over 2,000 pounds sterling. As an estate agent he was able to offer the Provisional IRA empty houses, meeting houses and temporary arms dumps. After taking up the offer, Special Branch proceeded to bug the IRA houses and thereby penetrate the IRA's Belfast Brigade, virtually wiping out their weapons dumps and Active Service Units from 1982 onwards.

In 1985 Fenton panicked and told his handler that his nerve had gone and cited that the IRA were investigating a number of botched operations, which he felt could lead to him.

His handler passed his concerns up the chain of command to the TCG, which made a corporate decision to sacrifice two of their own agents in order to deflect from Fenton. Subsequently, the handler passed the two names over to Fenton, who in turn passed the names to his senior Belfast Brigade contact. Within days the Brigade had invited in the Internal Security Unit to investigate the pair and Freddie Scappaticci kept his handler informed from that point onwards.
 
As a result of the TCG's actions a husband and wife, Gerard and Catherine Mahon, were arrested and interrogated by Scappaticci and his British agents within the ISU, and subsequently executed on 9th September 1985. Catherine, after seeing her husband being shot in front of her, broke loose and attempted to run away but was shot in the back. Both died at the scene and Joe Fenton gained a new leash of life.

Two years later in 1987 Fenton was again under pressure after a series of seizures and compromised IRA operations left him vulnerable again. He complained to his handler that he needed the pressure off him and the handler sent his concerns up to the TCG. Within a short space of time another person's name was handed over to Fenton via his handler and on 12th April 1987 Charles Mcllmurray was abducted by Scappaticci and the ISU, interrogated and executed. His body was found in a van left at the rear of a service station at Killeen, on the border.

Despite his long service with the British, Joe Fenton's fortune was about to end with the release of his nemesis, Brendan Hughes (The Dark) in November 1986. When Brendan was offered one of Fenton's bugged houses in Rockville Street, Falls Road, he declined the offer and became suspicious of Fenton and his relationship with the Belfast Brigade IRA. When he voiced his concerns over Fenton he was ignored, but Fenton panicked when his Belfast Brigade contact told him that Brendan Hughes was suspicious of him.

After a mortar team was captured in the Andersonstown area during the Summer of 1988 the suspicion on Fenton grew, especially after a link between the British successes and properties provided by Ideal Homes was established.
 
Inevitably, the Belfast Brigade invited in Freddie Scappaticci to investigate Joe Fenton in August 1988, the meeting between Scappaticci and Fenton taking place in the Lower Falls area. The actual meeting was a mild affair, but Fenton left it dishevelled and disorientated, and informed his handler that his nerves were at breaking point. The fact that Brendan Hughes was gunning for him sent a shiver up his spine. In the latter half of 1988 his business, Ideal Homes, began to crumble and he lost interest in business as the IRA lost interest in him. He was no longer an asset to the British nor the IRA, and this had a detrimental impact on his overall health.

He went to England on the pretext of going to a boxing match and disappeared for around eleven days in February 1989. Brendan Hughes left instructions with Scappaticci and the ISU that Joe Fenton was to be lifted by them on his return and taken across the border to be interrogated by him personally.
Meanwhile, Fenton met his long term handler, the Special Branch officer who had controlled him from the start, at an address in England. He was in an extremely distressed and agitated state, babbling on about Brendan Hughes finally exposing him and expressing a determination not to return to Belfast.
Despite his best efforts to impress upon his superiors in the TCG that Fenton had lost his nerve and needed to be extracted forthwith, the handler failed and Fenton was told to return to Belfast.

The only way they could get Fenton to calm down and agree to return to his native city was by telling him that the 'cavalry' would come and rescue him if he was abducted by the IRA. Furthermore, it was stressed to him that the people who would interrogate him would be on the same team, a reference to Freddie Scappaticci and co. As a result Joe Fenton agreed to return to Belfast.

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

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act ⅤⅠⅠⅠ

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