Article

2003-05-11 Britain

Top British spy in IRA flees as papers blow cover

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-05-11 02:50 pm|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Well, except 40 seems a little bit excessive. Wonder if they used him to take out the more incorrigible of the IRA hard boys from within?

Posted by Frank G 2003-05-11 15:09:39|| 2003-05-11 15:09:39|| Front Page Top

#2 They still have the Official Secrets Act over there, don't they? If ever a case called for a prosecution it's this one -- newspapers deliberately taking out an active intelligence source.

Posted by Ray 2003-05-11 21:28:30|| [campuscgi.princeton.edu/~ray/weblog/] 2003-05-11 21:28:30|| Front Page Top

#3 What are the chances that this was stage-managed? As in 1) his cover was about to be blown by the Provos anyway, so let it leak and shock/scare those Provos who weren't in on it, or 2) they had gotten everything they could get out of him and keeping him inside wasn't the right strategy anymore, or 3) having it leak causes the Provos to do something really stupid (reveal an operation, blow another source, blow a double, etc.) that is more useful than keeping him in.

Just food for thought. Brits are very smart intel players; while it's possible that the newspapers actually did the work on their own, it could be a managed leak designed to make something else happen.

Posted by Steve White 2003-05-11 23:21:53|| 2003-05-11 23:21:53|| Front Page Top

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