May 1, 2004 Ex-Soldier to Tell All on 'Dirty War' Collusion
Links between IRA, 'Stakeknife' and Garda to be revealed...

A former intelligence officer and an agent who worked inside the IRA are about to reveal new details on the 'dirty war' between the British Army, the Irish police and Republican Provisionals.

The Observer has learnt that the men, former Force Research Unit soldier Martin Ingrams and IRA informer Kevin Fulton, will give evidence to a public inquiry in the Republic into how the Provos used members of the Garda Siochana to set up officers from Northern Ireland.

Their testimony will centre on the role of 'Stakeknife', the Army's most important IRA double agent, and how he 'ran' several Irish officers who provided intelligence leading to the murder of two RUC policemen in 1989.

Canadian Judge Peter Cory has recommended that the Irish government hold a public inquiry into the killing of Bob Buchanan and Harry Breen on 20 March 1989. In his report the judge found that there had been evidence of co-operation between their IRA assassins and members of the Garda along the Irish border. Dublin has agreed to his recommendation but has yet set a date for the inquiry.

Ingrams and Fulton - both names are nom de guerres - will tell the inquiry that Stakeknife's handlers in the British Army knew about the collusion between the Provos and the Garda.

They will allege that Freddie Scappaticci - the former head of the IRA'sInternal Security Unit - is Stakeknife, the link between the IRA's GHQ and corrupt Garda officers along the border region in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Scappaticci has categorically denied working for the security services.

The Observer has learnt the identity of the Garda officer whom Judge Cory believes set up the RUC detectives in 1989. However, he cannot be named for legal reasons.

Ingrams, a former NCO in the secretive FRU intelligence corps, said: 'There were piles of documents and situation reports back in the late 1980s at the FRU about this Garda officer.'

Speaking from a secret location in the Irish Republic yesterday, he added: 'I was well aware of this Irish policeman's work with the Provos, in particular his relationship with "Stakeknife". That begs an important question - if the British security services knew that this southern Irish policeman was working for the IRA, why did they not provide intelligence that would stop him setting up RUC men like Breen and Buchanan?

'If any public inquiry summons me to give evidence, I will do so in the public interest north or south. And I know that Kevin Fulton feels the same. He had a long relationship with "Stakeknife". In turn he knows how "Stakeknife" worked with rogue Garda officers and used them for the IRA.'

Although Fulton has not made any official comment it seems certain the former FRU agent, who has provided police with intelligence on atrocities such as the 1998 Omagh bomb, will come forward.

Ingrams has also vowed to give evidence at the expected public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. 'All I want to do is shine a light into a very dark hole. To show for instance that the RUC knew about all the British Army's agents,' he said.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
The Observer