The BBC and Denis Donaldson

This is the first of a BBC Northern Ireland programme Spotlight, on the collapse of the so-called Stormontgate trial, ending with the televised confession of Denis Donaldson that he had been a spy for British intelligence and RUC Special Branch for the past twenty years. Note the hunting references. Donaldson is shown hunting in county down, using a double-barrelled 12-bore shotgun. The phrase "The hunter became the hunted" is used.

Then, a few weeks after that programme was aired, Denis Donaldson was apparently found dead, with multiple shotgun wounds, in his cottage in a remote part of West Donnegal. The report quotes people as saying things like "This had all the hallmarks if a typical IRA execution." But it also mentions that the IRA did not typically use a shotgun in executions, and that a professional assassin wouldn't leave behind shotgun cartridges that could be traced to the weapon he had taken away with him.

Now anyone who watches the second programme carefully will see how the BBC and other journalists were part of the chain of events that lead to Dobaldson's death. This, coupled with the hunting motif and the use of a shotgun, and evidence apparently carelessly left behind, ... To me, it seems to be a message to the media.  If they then recall what was the focus of attention in the first programme, they will have a good idea what organisations were the most likely suspects in the case. Of course this doesn't mean that it was the RUC Special Branch who killed Denis Donaldson. It could just as well have been someine trying to make it look like the Special Branch or the FRU or MI5 were sending the message. See Denis Donaldson Was Betrayed By Everyone Who Knew Him

Note how the journalists seem oblivious of the possibility that they themselves would likely be being surveilled by the RUC and British intelligence, or even the IRA. If the IRA intelligence unit had the capability to intercept phone calls between the British Prime Minister and the President of the United States, then listening in on calls by a BBC investigator would not have been too hard for them either. See Martin McGuiness on Northern Ireland.

The IRA interrogator Freddie Scappaticci was recruited by MI5 in the eighties, around the same time as Denis Donaldson.

From this Irish Times piece How, and why, did Scappaticci survive the IRA’s wrath?

In 2003 Scappaticci was eventually outed as Stakeknife by a former military intelligence operative, Ian Hurst. He was spirited out of Belfast to England where MI5 offered him protective custody.

Scappaticci, though, had lost none of his chutzpah. He rejected MI5’s offer and flew straight back to Belfast where he sought a meeting with the IRA. The IRA, he calculated, had every reason to support his denials.

He gambled that Sinn Féin, by now engaged in the peace process, could not afford to admit publicly that he had been a spy. If so, it would undermine their official line that they had fought the British to an honourable draw.

Any such admission would provoke the rank and file into questioning whether the IRA had been pushed into peace, paralysed by the penetration of agents like him.

On his return to Belfast, Scappaticci met two of the IRA’s most senior representatives, Martin “Duckster”’ Lynch and Padraic Wilson. Ten years earlier, Wilson had said he suspected Scappaticci was an informer.

Now, Wilson, Lynch and Scappaticci came to an understanding: Scappaticci would issue a firm denial which the IRA would not contest. To this day, this has been the IRA’s official position.

Interviewed by detectives under the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens, Scappaticci stayed silent until the interview was formally over. Then, he asked if he could say something. Eagerly anticipating some new nugget, the two officers, both British, assented. Scappaticci said: “Look boys, I’m not the monster people think I am.” And that was it. That was all he said.

Then, this story came out in December last year: Freddie Scappaticci pleads guilty to animal pornography possession

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, who leads the investigation for Operation Kenova, said: “This result is an indication that wherever criminal behaviour is identified during my investigation, evidence will be presented for the purposes of prosecution.

“Operation Kenova continues to recover evidence in relation to our core terms of reference and as and when it is appropriate to speak further, I will do so.

“I would encourage anyone who might be able to assist with this important inquiry to please contact my team via the details on the Kenova website, or by calling Crimestoppers.”

So Boucher doesn't have the faintest idea about computer security either! We need secure communications, people!