An intriguing story, and one that sheds more attention on growing allegations that the British security forces long colluded with death squads and terrorists in Northern Ireland.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030514/80/e010u.html
Scappaticci emerges to deny “Stakeknife” claims
A former IRA activist named as the top informer within the guerrilla group has emerged from hiding to deny he was a British Army double agent suspected of up to 40 murders. Alfredo “Freddy” Scappaticci admitted he once had links to the IRA, but said he had no idea why Sunday newspapers named him as “Stakeknife”, the top IRA figure who secretly undermined the Catholic group’s war against British rule in Northern Ireland. “I am telling you I am not guilty of any of these allegations, I have not left Northern Ireland since I was challenged by reporters on Saturday night,” Scappaticci told reporters on Wednesday at his lawyer’s office in a Catholic district of west Belfast. “Nobody had the decency to ask me if any of these allegations were true, and why the police had not come to question me about these allegations.”
Dressed in jeans and a checked shirt, Scappaticci appeared nervous and mostly read from a prepared statement during the interview given to counter reports he had fled to England after going into hiding. Asked if he had ever been a member of the IRA, Scappaticci said: “I was involved in the republican movement 13 years ago, but I have had no involvement this past 13 years.” He did not comment directly on media reports that as Stakeknife, he was a top member of the IRA’s feared internal discipline unit, the “Nutting Squad”, and suspected of up to 40 murders, carried out with the permission of his British “handlers”. On Tuesday, Scappaticci’s lawyer said the west Belfast builder denied “each and every one” of the allegations made since he was identified as Stakeknife. The identity of Stakeknife has been a source of intense speculation in Belfast for years and the Scappaticci saga raised fresh questions about the shadowy tactics of British intelligence forces in Northern Ireland. A month ago London police chief John Stevens accused elements of the security forces of helping pro-British Protestant guerrillas kill Catholics. Scappaticci’s lawyer Michael Flanigan on Wednesday attacked the “reckless and extremely damaging” media coverage of the case. “The past three days have been very traumatic for Mr Scappaticci, who now intends to resume his private life,” he said.
