Saville enquiry: Shadowy group linked to collusion and murder

[emad]

Shadowy group linked to collusion and murder
By Sean O'Neill



THE Force Research Unit (FRU), commanded by Colonel Gordon Kerr, ran secret agents inside the Northern Ireland paramilitary groups at the height of the Troubles. It reported only to the General Officer Commanding in the province and its existence was not known to many Army officers. The FRU’s brief was to gather information on terrorist groups and its defenders claim that it prevented murders. Critics say it colluded in many sectarian killings.

Brian Nelson, the intelligence officer of the Ulster Defence Association, was its most infamous agent. The best-known incident of collusion was the murder of the Belfast solicitor Patrick Finucane. FRU members have told the Stevens inquiry team that they also ran a high-ranking agent, codenamed Stakeknife, inside the IRA. Colonel Kerr was interviewed under caution by Lord Stevens’s team and the GOC in Belfast took legal advice before handing a dossier on Nelson to the police inquiry.

Lord Stevens says that a former FRU agent had claimed that a team had been sent from England to start the fire in his offices. The arsonist may have crawled through a gap between the roof and a suspended ceiling and lifted polystyrene tiles to gain access and start the fire.

He adds: “In almost 30 years as a policeman I had never found myself caught up in such an entanglement of lies and treachery.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-1777625,00.html

[evermind]

1. cryptome has been following FRU stories for a while now

a google search on "fru site:cryptome.org" turns up some interesting stuff as, er, supplementary reading to that Times article..

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

2. "Martin Ingram" & Greg Harkin's book

"Stakeknife" covers pretty much all of the FRU allegations. "Martin Ingram" has always struck me as a credible & genuine whistleblower without any particular axe to grind. Here's a radio interview with him (whose hosts have an obvious political bias, but hey!):

http://www.irishfreedom.net/radioshow/RFE2-14-04.mp3

Cryptome.org is always worth a look. It's been a while since he's been e-mailed N. Ireland stuff, but that's always been worth glancing a skeptical eye over. I think John Young's best scoop has been getting hold of a copy of Central TV's secretly taped interview with Freddie Scappaticci:

http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.htm