"Stakeknife": MoD 'have bugged phones of journalists'

Cryptome


A writes concerning an injunction banning information about Freddie "Stakeknife" Scappaticci:

The British MoD told Scappaticci to instruct his solicitor to seek an injunction to prevent investigations by journalists.

MoD officials have bugged the phones of a number of leading journalists and tipped off Scap.

However this does not prevent journalists in the Republic of Ireland pursuing Scappticci who often spends weekends in Portrush, Co Antrim, with his wife and family. They also visit him in Gran Canaria and Tenerife as well as Manchester (where Scap has relatives and where he often attends Manchester City football games, a team he once had a trial with as a teenager). Scap has avoided Cassino in Italy, birthplace of his father, in recent months as several newspapers have sent reporters there to look for him. When he does go there, he stays at Hotel La Pace. Link

Matin Ingram - former FRU 'handler' and co-author of the book 'Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland' told the Observer at the weekend:

"The whole thing is a disgrace, because Freddie Scappaticci stands accused of killing for the IRA while all the time he was working for the security forces, for Her Majesty's Government. Yet he is getting the full protection of the courts whilst those who wish to tell the truth about the 'dirty war' in Northern Ireland risk going to jail." Link to 'Stakeknife authors fear book will be banned'