British Army agent Stakeknife cost more lives than he saved, says report
More lives were probably lost than saved through the British Army’s operation of its top agent inside the IRA’S internal security unit during the Troubles, a major independent investigation has found.
The interim findings of operation Ken ova examined 101 murder sand abductions linked to the Provisional IRA'S so-called “nutting squad” responsible for interrogating, torturing and murdering people suspected of passing information to the security forces during the conflict.
Operation Kenova, which was undertaken by Bedfordshire Police and ran for seven years at a cost of approximately
£40 million, examined the role of the army' s prized agent embedded in the heart of the IRA'S Internal Security Unit (ISU), an individual known as Stakeknife.
The agent Stakeknife was widely believed to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci, who was 77 when he died last year.
The Operation Kenova report stops short of confirming Scappaticci as Stakeknife – noting that the Government's 'Neither Confirm nor deny' (nc nd) policy prevents the identification of agents.
However, it says that the ken ovate am had passed" strong evidence of very serious criminal has ity" by Scappaticci to prosecutors in Northern Ireland prior to his death.
The report also dismisses rumours that s cap paticci might still be alive. It further branded as "wild nonsense" claims that Stakeknife met Margaret Thatcher and other cabinet minister sand had visited chequers.
Among 10 recommendations in the 208-page report, is a call for the UK authorities to review the application of NCND, linking the "dogmatic" policy with a failure to secure prosecutions in some Troubles cases. It said a review was needed to ensure the" totemic status" of the policy is not allowed to "obscure wrongdoing by the security forces or serious criminality by agents".
The report also calls on the UK and the republican leadership to apologise to bereaved families and victims of the isu, the security forces for failing sam ida" maverick" culture for handling agents and intelligence; and the republican leadership for the IRA'S abduction, murder and torture of people it suspected of being agents, and linked campaigns of intimidation against their families.
In response, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O'neill apologised to the victims' families and said republicans could not disown the suffering and hurt inflicted during the Troubles.theuk government said it could not comment in detail on the Kenova probe until the final report was published.
The Kenova investigation was originally headed up by former Bedfordshire Police chief con stable jon boutch er. mrbou tc her having left the Ken ovate am last year to become chief con stableof the police service of northern Ireland (PSNI). However, he authored the report released yesterday and he presented its findings. "Stakeknife's identity been disclosed to Kenova subject to obligations of confidentiality, which I remained bound by and I cannot make his name public without official authority," Mr Boutcher told a press conference in Belfast. “Thus far, the Government has refused to give such authority and so Stakeknife is not named in this interim report.”