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Stakeknife's Dirty War: How Scappaticci, British Intelligence and Special Branch Ran the IRA (2023)
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| Size | Seeds | Peers | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 233.6 MiB | 3 | 0 | 77 |
64 kbps m4b
Release date: November 7, 2023
Listening Length: 8h10m
Freddie Scappaticci was born in 1946 and raised in a deeply nationalist area of Belfast. When the Troubles broke out in 1969, he joined the Provisional IRA, where he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming commander of Belfast in 1984.
From the outside, Scappaticci appeared to be a dedicated volunteer, but inwardly, he had become disenchanted with the IRA and, in 1977, he started working for British intelligence. At the same time, he took up a leading role in a newly formed IRA Internal Security Unit (ISU), aka ‘The Nutting Squad'. He personally executed two suspected informers and condemned at least thirty-seven more to death.
Was he the serial killer that history portrays him? Undoubtedly. But it's not that simple, because every time he passed the death penalty on an informer, he told his British intelligence handlers about the intended execution, giving them the opportunity to prevent the killing.
Did the tasking and co-ordinating group, the primary British intelligence organisation in Northern Ireland during the troubles, aid and abet the IRA in the mass-murder of British citizens? That is the question Richard O'Rawe poses in Stakeknife's Dirty War. But O'Rawe goes further: he lays out a very compelling case that points to the TCGs running the IRA's war from the mid-1980s to the 1994 ceasefire. Such was the British intelliegence penetration of the IRA, that Freddie Scappaticci, aka ‘Stakeknife', was in control of all IRA operations in the Belfast Brigade area. This book will shock listeners, and cause them to reevaluate everything they formerly held to be true about Stakeknife's dirty war in Ireland.
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Comments
all the groups and
sub factions were riddled with snouts(informers). it was standard practise of every int cell(intel unit within each battalion) to have a snatch team. those teams would drive around in an armoured vehicle and pick up known players, especially new ones and give them an offer.. play ball or maybe it gets out that you are a grass.
it was incredibly effective but things slipped past or maybe higher ups let it slip pass as then it gets govt and the UK mainland masses more on side. also some would have been let skip as a "fundraiser". ie when it was coming to budget time and the MOD were worried about their precious budget... things happened that would give cause to prevent a cut.
Scappaticci was very well known in certain military int circles to be a grass. While i never had an dealing with him myself(way above my paygrade back tbh) i did see him exit the back of an APC at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn when i was crossing from the med centre to the main HQ building( fucking tetanus shot required for me!). He was in every patrol book and was very often mentioned in briefings. our unit was told to report but leave him(a pretty good sign he was a grass). What he did do is get rid of his potential rivals by him engineering their demise. death by rumour really.
Also of note is that in Northern Ireland the special Branch and MI5 joined at the hip.
I had heard the codename at the time but never put him and it together as there were so fucking many codenames for grasses it was astonishing. my unit was rather more finely focused on certain people to track preparations and prevent or co-ordinate attempts to prevent the acts they planned.
VERY rarely did something happen without being "intel led" or more simply from grasses.
I'll have a good ol listen to this and see if any units i was part of get a mention!
edit to add :i was genuinely shocked to hear he was still alive and not at the very least "disappeared" by the folks he was informing on.
I've known about the [long
I've known about the [long hidden by British govt] Stakeknife story for years - even before it was "acknowledged" formally.
Can you give us an quick synopsis of your service in Eire ? We're you the age that spanned Ireland service and the Falklands??
On another note we should
On another note we should start a chit chat thread on the recent findings that in the county where I grew up [Hereford/Worcester] 3 different police and military intel branches raided a farm near to SAS [Hereford] HQ for INTERNATIONAL DRUGS SUPPLY....
ie: SAS involvement - i'm guessing in the opiate shipping trade.
If you check my past forum posts here from years back I was going on about higher level military and this - what I've long called "above govt" dodginess with re to poppy trade - esp since two BRITISH SAS soldiers were caught doing weird shit in Basra...
They supply the drugs and imprison us simultaneously...
https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/23983359.sas-soldiers-arrested-herefo...
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my service in ireland was with the army :-)
having worked WITH but was not one of the SAS, dun no about the drugs thing at all. not anything i ever encountered in my time in the army at all.
even if those civilian charges are dropped there a fair chance they'll get done under military law. specifically section 69c of the army act 1955(revised a few times but this is contant) in that on such and such a date they did "X" and thus brought the army into disrepute.
it's known as "the bastard clause" in military circles as you can get done for 69C for pretty much anything.. it's a bit of a cunt.
I am a tad young for the Falklands but my uncle and cousin were there. My cousin with airborne medics and my uncle with 3 Para.
The units i was with in Ireland dealt more with observation of both people and places and our info was then mostly passed on to be actioned on the lower end by the Green Army(normal uk soldiers) or the Royal Ulster Constabulary's Headquarters mobile support units "HMSU's"
(pretty hard bastards tbh and very very highly trained by the SAS) and the SAS themselves. we would provide them the intel ands at times briefings and support as far as observational capability was concerned.
I performed these duties in a few countries from Kuwait/Iraq 1990 to bosnia and kosovo(horrible cunty places filled with people who make irish sectarian violence look fucking utterly amateur by comparison. I was also there for the search at lockerbie for the booming. civvy police had nowhere near the people needed to Army,navy and RAF were drafted in to lead the search teams. I had to photographically document the finding for the two search teams i was working with there. very very busy time and it was absolutely FUCK all to do with libya. ALL intel at the time coming from Italy, Germany and human sources elsewhere(dunno who the fyuk they were or were from but i heard them talked about by officer and certain suited fannies) pointed to Syria using iranian operatives. Iranians were the ones who stated that blowing yourself up was only a step beyond the Shia chest beating/whipping thing.. an extension of self flagellation and thus... into paradise.
It's a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend really.
I think that Ghaddafi was just picked to blame as it suited a desire to put him down with his trading oil in euros and not dollars.. the yanks can't be having that and his talk of an african union and the gold dinar. maybe.. maybe not but i can say that absolutely no-one at the time at all said there was any.. ANY suggestions of Libyan involvement.
Ireland though.. you won't get much by specifics out me. just a few snippets or opinions. I genuinely don't know how long the official secrets act on those things will run.
I asked my Sgt Major during my service.. how can you tell which is 10, 15, 25, 40, 50 75? 100 till i can talk?? his comment was "treat it all like it's 75 years and you'll not get your arse felt" (getting your arse felt is another way of saying getting arrested).
in summary though my service in ireland involved, driving cars like a fucking lunatic to follow people in coordination with other members of my team. filming and photographing them, their contacts and where they went and what they were doing. then fucking off, developing the film, printing each one in at least triplicate, submitting reports.. rinse...repeat. there were some times where as a last resort weapons had to be drawn and and space was made for withdrawal. if we had have been caught we would have been utterly fucked, taken, tortured and killed by either side over there. units like mine were highly prized as a catch by either side.
You can ask about stuff from 1987 till 1994 and it'll be something I might know something about, i know a little about stuff that went on after from my old muckers. that only happens at small unofficial reunions where were can "grab a sandbag" and have a good catch up. i know some stuff about what happened before as we had to learn about the subjects , their history, actions and such. to catch a cunt you have to understand a cunt.
I have heard of a LOT of mad shit done by the SAS,and some is fucking hilarious.. like Rendlesham Forest .. that was no UFO..LOL
now was that farm on MOD property? if so then it may be something to follow up. But in my opinion if it was an unofficial but sanctioned operation they would NOT store things somewhere outside their secure control. that runs counter to operation security and adds a big question mark on security related things.
my guess and this IS just a guess.. potentially some guys on the make for some bucks.
I might be wrong about it but in my experience with them and knowledge of them i genuinely can't see it. I can deffo see 5 or 6 pulling that shit but not 22 (or 21 and 23 for that matter ).
just my pennies worth
pax wrote:
Thx for interesting response...
On the Falklands issue - are your 3 para relatives still alive?
I did a very detailed bit of research [including going to Kew gardens for military and Govt FOIA documents] on a certain Falklands War episode that I found first hand evidence of it being [as me and a Kiwi guy assumed way before] covered up....
....I found UK docs that were UNLIKE all similar Falklands docs - declared not pubic for 100 years - on the very themes we were examining.
I think it was either Paras or UK Commandos that went in to this certain Island I had info on...
Cheers
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pax wrote:
OK - on the Rendlesham note I can waffle for hours....
But if we are looking into whether it was a true ET "craft" or something else... there's a few very weird but not WEIRD whacky - areas to look into....
So there was apparently an MoD or UK Intelligence type test going on around that time - called "operation fish....xx" or something [i forget but can find out] - which [i'm not saying it was the case] if true might shed light on some of the very strange evidence that main character larry Warren gave to his Military police and even higher up types in that fateful december...
I've spoken to Larry in person - he confirmed he even saw a M.i.B. type car with LUMINOUS dashboard - now a car model from the late 70s/early 80s didn't have this type of system to my knowledge...?!
So what exactly went on? I have my own ideas.
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I'll summerise my response to your overall points in the passage you wrote:
I've long believe that civillian imports of narcotics can in ANY way support the vast markET for substances European nations need....
so I'm 99.9% sure that the UK [and other] military branches [esp SPECIAL SERVICES] are currently and have for decades used their role to bring in top level, huge amounts of heroin and cocaine into our various nations....
MY point about my home county area of Hereford recently being bust and catching two SAS types just backs my point up further ;-)
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shuffle wrote:
ok so.... if a couple of people from a group do something then ALL of them MUST be guilty of the same?
that's poor reasoning .
Most heroin that comes to europe actually comes in containers via antwerp. there's a fact for you>
As i said before. in my military career I never heard or knew of anyone doing that. The worst thing i heard of was when the Worcester and Sherwood Foresters (WFR's or Woofers))sold ground to air missiles to the IRA. I am fairly sure those morons are still in jail. The regiment was known as "We Flog Rockets" after that. ;-)
The kinda stuff you are talking about isn't done by regular army. if anyone it's done by either MI5 or 6.
you know.. just because you think it, doesn't make it true.
As for Larry... that's fucking hilarious that he still thinks it's aliens mind you, he's probably making money out it.