Ex-Special Branch agent Marty McGartland says the British security services are trying to stop him talking to the Sunday World.
Today, the West Belfast man who infiltrated the IRA, sends a blunt message back – 'You wont gag me!'
MI5 axed a £4,200 a year rehabilitation payment McGartland was receiving because he slammed the return of supergrass trials in the North and warned republicans and loyalists against turning state's evidence.
In an interview with the Sunday World last month, McGartland claimed his own experience, and that of other agents, showed the security services used them – then "spat them out" when they'd served their purpose.
He alleged the current UVF supergrass trial at Belfast Crown Court was "a pantomime not justice" and warned star witnesses, brothers Robert and Ian Stewart, the security services might well be "callous and ruthless" to them after the case.
"When the Sunday World story appeared, MI5 contacted me and said my interview would prevent people thinking of working for them from coming forward and would frighten off those already on the pay-roll.
"That's exactly what I intended to do," said McGartland who spied on the Provos for five years. "I don't want anyone else to experience the nightmare myself and other ex-agents have gone through. You're promised the sun, the moon and the stars and then you're cast aside when you're past your sell-by-date.
"I've no time for any paramilitary groups – the IRA have tried to murder me twice. But that won't stop me telling the truth about the security services. They exploit and then abandon and neglect those republicans and loyalists they recruit.
"I wont go along with the lie that when an agent is resettled in England everything is hunky dory. It's not – it's a mess. And when you've problems MI5 don't want to know."
McGartland vowed he wouldn't be "blackmailed or bullied" into silence: "If they think stopping my money will shut me up, they don't know me. MI5 have been in contact again within the last 24 hours threatening further sanctions if I give any more interviews.
"I am deliberately speaking out in Sunday World today to show I won't be intimidated. They can huff and puff all they like but they won't deny me the most basic human right – freedom of speech. If I was a nodding dog saying everybody should turn supergrass, they'd be upping my money, not taking it off me!"
MI5 also accused McGartland of placing the lives of former agents like Raymond Gilmour in danger by his claims that the security services had now abandoned the Derry informer.
In a statement, Gilmour said: "My friend Marty McGartland spoke the truth. MI5 have abandoned us. Marty placed me in no danger. MI5 are trying to stop us talking about the horrible reality of our lives."
