The British army's top intelligence agent inside the IRA, a suspect in up to 40 murders, was reported to be in hiding after several Sunday newspapers in Ireland and Britain blew his cover. Newspapers said British intelligence services had spirited the man, codenamed "Stakeknife", out of Ireland just hours before the papers published his name. As a double agent, "Stakeknife" served as the head of the Irish Republican Army's internal security unit — known as the "nutting squad". His job was to track down, interrogate, torture and kill suspected informers in the ranks. The man is suspected in up to 40 murders, carried out on both sides of the Irish border with the permission of his British army "handlers" to protect his position within the IRA. A British government spokesman declined to comment on the reports. "We don't comment on security matters," the Northern Ireland Office spokesman said. The Dublin-based Sunday Tribune, one of four newspapers to name the agent, said "Stakeknife" initially approached British military intelligence as a junior IRA volunteer in 1978 wanting revenge for a severe beating he had received from one of the guerrilla group's top Belfast members.
| That should certainly make things go better. Who needs intel, when there's a paper to get out? |
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