The Provos make vicious enemies and Belfast can be a dangerous place when
you cross them.
Over the years, I've met plenty of people - of various shades of nationalist
opinion - who have feared assassination or a "bar-room brawl", after
speaking out against 'the Ra'.
SDLP advice centres have been attacked. There have been abductions and
beatings. This journalist has been verbally and physically abused for
simply writing stories.
Even former IRA men aren't safe. Anthony McIntrye, who spent 18 years in
jail, had his home picketed while his wife was eight months' pregnant.
Thankfully, for himself and his family, there has been no such action at the
home of Freddie Scappaticci who has finally admitted he is "vulnerable" to
claims he is Stakeknife.
The Provos aren't known for their compassionate and non-judgmental nature so
what is going on? People have ended up down holes in the ground on the
basis of far flimsier allegations.
And even forgetting the informer accusation, what about talking to two
English journalists on the Cook Report 48 hours after its slating
investigation into Martin McGuinness? Former Sinn Féin MLA John Kelly was
chastised for simply taking a phone call from the Irish News.
Yet McGuinness wasn't spitting blood about Scap from Washington. The
standard Provo line has been to blame everything on "mischievous journalism"
and the securocrats.
The Provos know their position on Stakeknife is nonsense but they've no
intention of coming clean. The truth could tear them apart internally. The
infiltration of the IRA at such a senior level would mean its leaders were
either incompetent or highly compromised.
It's much more comfortable claiming it's loyalists who are heavily
infiltrated. The whole affair raises disconcerting issues for the Provos
like who was eliminated through death or jail and who rose through the ranks
without a hiccup and why.
It's perfectly possible, and rational from a British intelligence
view-point, that there were several Stakeknifes. But Sinn Féin will hardly
want a Truth Commission to consider that.
