But the issues raised by the Stakeknife affair are so profound that it is inevitable that there will be calls for more comprehensive, probing investigations into the security forces and the IRA.It seems that the years ahead hold more revelations.Agents and whistleblowersKEVIN FULTONKevin Fulton, a double agent who infiltrated the Provisional IRA, claimed to have warned of an imminent bomb attack three days before the Real IRA atrocity at Omagh.Fulton claimed that he had received information that a well-known dissident republican terrorist was making a large bomb. He claims he passed on the terrorist's name and car registration to his handler at the RUC, who wrote a report to be seen by senior figures within the intelligence community and the Army. When Sir John was asked to investigate alleged collusion in the early 1990s, he uncovered Nelson's activities and had him charged. Nelson subsequently pleaded guilty to 20 charges, including five of conspiracy to murder, and was jailed for 10 years. Sir John believes many of those involved in running Nelson as an agent should also be charged with offences such as conspiracy to murder.MARTIN INGRAMAn Army whistleblower known as Martin Ingram exposed evidence of illegal activities by the security forces in Northern Ireland.In a series of articles printed in The Sunday Times, Ingram revealed the activities of the Force Research Unit (FRU), a covert Army intelligence cell.He claimed that figures within the intelligence community organised the burning of a police office in Carrickfergus in 1990. The office was being used by detectives under Sir John who were investigating the leaking of intelligence to loyalist paramilitaries. He also said weapons recovered from IRA dumps were returned to protect its agent and used to kill a soldier.
Ingram became a key witness for the Stevens inquiry.Paul Peachey. A new wave of allegations of Army intelligence misbehaviour has accompanied the naming at the weekend of a Belfast republican described as a key security force asset in the upper ranks of the IRA. There has been no official confirmation of Stakeknife's identity but the agent is now under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, who has already reported up to a score of people, including police and Army personnel, to the Northern Ireland director of public prosecutions.Sir John's detectives are to question Stakeknife in the near future. The allegation is that Army intelligence officers turned a blind eye to their agent's involvement in murders because his information was so valuable to them.The west Belfast republican named as Stakeknife, who comes from a large family with a strong republican background, was last night understood to have left Northern Ireland. One report said he may have been taken to a British military intelligence base in Dorset.Sir John Stevens said yesterday: "We will be questioning Stakeknife soon.
We fear other informants have been sacrificed to save him and we will be asking him about that."Stakeknife, who lived at addresses in both Belfast and Dublin and was interned during the 1970s, was regarded as having close associations with the Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. The Government paid him up to £80,000 a year, using a secret bank account, for information he was able to provide as it waged its war against militant republicans.Among Stakeknife's IRA roles was that of a senior member of its "Security Department," which was responsible for catching and killing informers. One suspicion is that he had powers of life and death over suspected informers and agents. The possibility is that he was, with the sanction of the Army, deciding whether those being held by the IRA should live or die.Sinn Fein refused to comment on the claims about the affair. A party spokesman said: "There won't be anybody saying anything about this."The Ulster Unionist Party leader, David Trimble, said he was not shocked that the British security forces had apparently penetrated so far into the IRA.
