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John
Le Carre wrote a spy novel called 'The spy who came
from the cold'. It centred on an apparently 'disgruntled'
member of British intelligence who used a planned
'disaffection' from his handlers to spread disinformation
and even to engineer a 'defection' to the other side.
It was made into a famous film with Richard Burton
in the lead and was shot in Dublin and Wicklow. The
Burton character fingered a loyal member of 'the other
side' as a double-agent in order to protect Britain's
real intelligence asset.
Today,
we have "disgruntled" former members of
the intelligence community like 'Martin Ingram' and
'Kevin Fulton' who are apparently revealing 'secrets'
about agents in the IRA. Their stories are 'revealed'
in British establishment media. The story that they
are not satisfied with their "pension arrangements"
does not add up. If the secrets they hold are so explosive,
the British would do everything to keep these gentlemen
on-side. Instead we appear to have an elaborate charade
involving gagging orders, arrests of journalists,
use of the Official Secrets Act - all of which are
bound to fail eventually. In fact they are guaranteed
to fail to such an extent that the information released
is probably a product of British intelligence success,
not of its failure. Some of the actors involved may
or may not be genuine in their intent. This does not
prevent them from being used by unseen directors in
the intelligence community.
The
carefully released media 'revelations' about the person
named as 'Stakeknife' seemed designed to put him in
harm's way from the IRA. Had the person named died
at their or other hands, the British could have washed
their hands of the matter and considered it a job
well done. If Mr Scappaticci were their agent, they
would have moved him long ago. Not to have done so
would be to strike fear and terror into the heart
of every genuine agent. Their craven belief is that
their handlers are sincere when they say that they
will rescue them from potential harm and will protect
them.
Something
else does not fit. Mr Scappaticci is reputed to have
earned over stg£80,000 a year from the late
1970s to the early 1990s. He reputedly dropped out
of activity in 1993, but has not scooped up the substantial
financial benefits of his apparent efforts on behalf
of Her Majesty.
The
whole thing stinks and this fog appears designed to
draw attention away from John Stevens' report on collusion
with loyalists and to muddy the demand that the British
to allow the people of the North the basic right to
vote in an election. It is also designed to cause
disaffection and confusion in the ranks of the 'the
enemy': the IRA and the broad republican community.
So
called dissident republicans who are convinced that
the peace process is some kind of elaborate 'British
plot', brought about by agents infiltrated into the
heart of the republican movement are having their
every fantasy confirmed by the fantastic story of
'stakeknife'. They should stop to think about the
fact that this story is coming from and is being spun
from the British end. Spy stories are based on an
elaborate confusion of people and events. They are
designed to confuse and are generally based on a simple
confidence trick. The biggest intelligence asset the
British would appear to have is belief in the existence
of 'stakeknife'. The story now being spun in the media
is that there is yet another 'stakeknife'. So the
molehunt continues and the conspiracy thoeries leap
over each other. More stories will be fed to the gullible.
The politics of the Peace Process will be reduced
to more childish speculation about simple betrayal
by (as the song says) "some dirty oul' spy".
Dirty oul' spies do exist but their effect is exagerated
and hyped by people seeking sensation and politically
sectarian simplicity.
Real
life is much more complex and much more real. One
thing is for sure, the British 'dirty war' is not
over.
Do
not be shocked and neither should anyone be awed.
We have seen it all before and we will see it again.
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