Top British Spy in IRA Flees as Papers Blow Cover
The British army’s top intelligence agent inside the IRA, a suspect in up to 40 murders, was reported to be in hiding after several Sunday newspapers in Ireland and Britain blew his cover. Newspapers said British intelligence services had spirited the man, code-named “Stakeknife,” out of Ireland just hours before the papers published his name. As a double agent, “Stakeknife” served as the head of the Irish Republican Army’s internal security unit — known as the “nutting squad.” His job was to track down, interrogate, torture and kill suspected informers in the ranks, reports said. The man is suspected in up to 40 murders, carried out on both sides of the Irish border with the permission of his British army “handlers” to protect his position within the IRA, reports said. Full Story