US EditionMI5 impeded inquiry into Stakeknife agent who murdered for IRA, says official report
The inquiry found MI5 and British Army prioritized protecting agent Stakeknife despite links to 14 murders and 15 abductions, with over 3,500 intelligence reports analyzed.
- On Tuesday, Kenova's final report found `MI5 was involved in briefing and tasking Stakeknife via the throughout his operation as an agent,` widely believed to be west Belfast man Freddie Scappaticci who died in 2023.
- Amid NCND protections, the government refused to identify the agent, with the British Army recruiting him in the late 1970s and MI5's Central Resettlement Unit discussing his relocation after 2003.
- Investigators found the agent linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions; Kenova recovered 3,517 intelligence reports, handlers ran him from the "Rat Hole" and flew him abroad on military aircraft.
- Kenova urged the UK government to name Stakeknife, citing public interest, despite the £40m inquiry producing no prosecutions as MI5 files arrived post-Scappaticci and legacy Act limits.
- The report warns of lost investigative opportunities as Kenova found MI5's late disclosure hindered justice, while PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher called government objections 'untenable and bordering on farce.
34 Articles
34 Articles
Allison Morris: Gasps of disbelief at details of how Stakeknife was treated like a celebrity client with a licence to kill
A blurring of lines, “a significant breach of the demarcation that should exist between an agent and their handlers” is how the Operation Kenova report categorised the relationship between Stakeknife and the spooks who managed him during his time as an informer.
Sydney Morning Herald
The AgeStakeknife: British agent inside IRA committed murders with MI5’s knowledge
UK security services protected the spy – despite his links to more than a dozen killings, abductions and torture during the Troubles – and suppressed the truth about for him decades, a new report reveals.
Nearly 30 years after the end of the civil war in Northern Ireland between Irish Republicans and British Loyalists, British investigators are calling for permission to identify one of the biggest traitors of the IRA by name. Agent Stakeknife, a spy for the British services, infiltrated the Irish Republican Army and ordered multiple kidnappings, murders and other abuses. A report today points to the responsibility of the intelligence services.
A double agent began working for the secret services in the 1970s and was discovered about 30 years later. MI5 continued to deliver documents to the investigation.
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