An IRA commander who ordered a string of murders is unmasked today as the
Gardai's most senior spy in the terror group.
The News of the World can reveal that security chiefs both north and south
are aware of the mole, known in security circles as Top Gun.
He was present himself at several shootings, including the deadly sniper
attacks in the early 1990s.
And he was allowed to continue his terror campaign when he quit the Provos
after their 1994 ceasefire - and joined the Real IRA.
In return he provided details on large arms hauls and his information led to
the arrest of several key republicans.
The informer acted as a director of operations for the Provos along the
Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh borders.
A senior security source in Dublin told us: "The Irish government has been
briefed on the existence of the informer and this can't be blamed on British
intelligence.
"He was run by the Garda and it was certain key officers who decided which
attacks they would allow to go-ahead. This will be as big as the Stakeknife
affair."
Our source confirmed details had been passed to the Dublin committee set up
by former Irish Justice Minister John O'Donoghue to probe collusion
allegations.
It is investigating claims by Ulster's police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan that
Irish cops allowed the Real IRA to carry out bombings in 1998.
Police chiefs in Belfast and senior Irish have now been shown evidence of
how Top Gun took part in murders.
The spy was recruited in the mid-1980s while a key Provo commander. AFter
the truce his handlers encouraged him to join the Real IRA to pass on
information.
A News of the World investigation has unearthed detailed information on
operations the Irish police allegedly allowed the IRA to carry out. They
include:
- Sniper attacks, which claimed the lives of RUC officers Alan Corbett, 25,
and Jonathan Reid, 30 - Corbett at Belcoo in 1992 and Reid at Crossmaglen in
1993. An adapted AK-47 was used in both shootings.
- A murder attempt on a Fermanagh district council dog warden in February
1992. Provo Joseph McManus was shot dead when the warden, a part-time UDR
soldier, fired back.
- Landmine attacks on security force patrols in south Armagh. Scores of
police and Army members died in the bombings in the late 1980s and early
1990s.
- Shootings and bombings on police and soldiers on the Tyrone border at
Strabane.
- Mortar bomb attacks on Army posts in South Armagh and on Belleek police
base in 1998 after the Good Friday Agreement.
The Provos had two sniper teams in place, one of which was smashed by an SAS
raid in 1997 on a South Armagh farmhouse. The informer's hit team was never
captured.
Evidence presented to authorities in Dublin as well as security chiefs on
both sides of the border disclosed the Garda spy was even present at some of
the sniper shootings.
He was exposed when Garda detective sergeant John White claimed Real IRA
attacks in the north were being allowed to go-ahead to protect an informant
in the Real IRA.
The Irish inquiry team is comprised of Eamonn Barnes, a former director of
public prosecutions, Dermot Nally, a former government secretary, and Joe
Brosnan, an ex-department of justice secretary-general.
They were due to have issued their report by now but have been delayed by
the new developments.
In the Dail on March 12 the Irish Minister for Justice Michael McDowell
hinted that fresh evidence had been uncovered.
He said: "In early December it emerged that there were further lines of
inquiry which the Group felt should be pursued. When I receive the report I
will make a statement on the group's findings."
Sources said the final report will confirm that bomb and gun attacks were
allowed to go ahead but that publication of much of the evidence will have
to be restricted.
Meanwhile former IRA man Freddie Scappaticci, who has denied reports that he
was the agent known as Stakeknife, was still lying low last night we we
revealed that Stakeknife is a codename for more than one top British spy in
the IRA.
The Families of the Disappeared pressure group believes these agents could
help recover the bodies of terrorist victims murdered and secretly buried
along the border.
The News of the World has learned that a superspy has been linked to at
least four disappeared cases.
We can reveal that the bodies he could help return to their families
include:
- Bernard Megraw: The 22-year-old was snatched by the IRA from his Twinbrook
home in April 1978. A dig for his remains at Kells in Co Meath in 1999 found
no trace of him.
- Gerard Evans: The painter, 24, from Crossmaglen, vanished in March 1979
outside Castleblaney in Co Monaghan.
- Charles Armstrong: The 57-year-old dad-of-five disappeared in 1980 as he
drove to Sunday morning Mass in Crossmaglen. Digging at a Co Monaghan field
last May turned up nothing.
- Danny McIlhone: The west Belfast man, 30, was reportedly killed in 1981 for
stealing IRA weapons. The Provos claimed he was secretly buried in Co
Wicklow but the unmarked grave has yet to be found.
Disappeared campaigner Seamus McKendry, whose own mother-in-law Jean
McConville was murdered and buried in an unknown grave on a border beach,
appealed to the authorities to use Stakeknife to recover remains.
He told the News of the World: "I am sure that Stakeknife, whoever he may
be, has, without doubt, information on deaths and disappearances.
"I hope he can help bring closure to this for the families so we can have
proper funerals for our loved ones."
Special Branch in Belfast still has a top level informer inside the IRA who
helped smash the Stormont spy ring.
The identity of the IRA mole was made known to former Ulster Secretary John
Reid as well as MI5 and police chiefs who raided Sinn Féin offices at
Stormont last October and the homes of leading republicans across Belfast.
The Operation Torsion inquiry, which led to the discovery of an IRA
intelligence gathering operation at the heart of government, was sparked off
by the informer.
