Second FRU agent named
Details of another FRU agent working high in the ranks of the UDA began
to emerge this week. According to Henry McDonald of the Observer, a UDA
commander based in Lisburn, Ned Greer, was operating as an FRU agent at
the same time as Brian Nelson.
Like Nelson, Greer was supplied with detailed intelligence material by
his FRU handlers that in turn was fed to the South Belfast UDA. According
to McDonald, Greer ran a "terror cell" within the UDA, responsible
for at least the killing of half a dozen Catholics in Lisburn.
The UDA unit also extended its murderous activities to within the 26
Counties. John McMichael brought Greer into the UDA in the 1980s but his
role as an agent continued well into the 1990s. After McMichael's death
in 1987, Greer became second in command within the Lisburn unit.
Greer is identified as a key organiser in the killing of Donegal Sinn
Féin councillor Eddie Fullerton, who was shot dead at his home
in May 1991. According to the report, the four-man murder team sailed
across Lough Foyle in a dinghy and were taken to Fullerton's home on the
back of a farm trailer.
Amongst the team was the UDA's South Belfast Brigadier, a close colleague
of Greer and a Lisburn gravedigger, a known UDA gunman regarded as "a
top assassin". Intelligence from the FRU and information from the
locally recruited UDR helped the UDA target Pádraig Ó Seanacháin,
who was shot dead as he travelled to work at Killen, Castlederg in August
1991.
In 1993, Greer was 'rescued' by his FRU handlers from a housing estate
in Lisburn after he had been spotted driving into a heavily fortified
British Army barracks on the outskirts of Lisburn and his cover as a FRU
agent was blown.
Before his death, John McMichael was also working closely with another
FRU agent. According to a UDA source, Brian Nelson regularly turned up
at UDA Headquarters in Gawn Street on the Newtownards Road.
In the Gawn street HQ, McMichael had an office with a computer; at the
time computers were rare. Nelson was the only person given access to McMichael's
computer.
It has now emerged that two different FRU handlers were involved in three
separate reconnaissance missions to the home of Pat Finucane. One experienced
FRU officer accompanied Nelson on two car trips to the street where the
Belfast defence lawyer and his family lived.
In a third trip, another FRU officer posing alongside Nelson as window
cleaner offered their services to Finucane's neighbour in order to check
out the rear of the house.
According to a source described as "close to the Stevens team",
there are still hundreds of undercover agents, mainly within loyalist
groups, in place. "Some terrorist units seem to have as many agents
as members," said the source.
"If the police aren't careful, they will end up with agents practically
running terrorist organisations, rather than informing on them, with the
danger of perpetuating terrorism rather than putting a stop to it,"
said the source.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that "almost all
of the loyalist paramilitary activity over the last 30 years was largely
secretly and carefully controlled and organised by British intelligence,"
said Tom McGurk of the Sunday Business Post.
According to McGurk, years ago a former British Intelligence officer,
Colin Wallace, claimed "the sheer strategic requirements of containing
two opposing underground forces would be impossible, and the only realistic
military option was to infiltrate one in order that it could be used to
target the other."
Meanwhile, another British FRU agent, known as 'Kevin Fulton', has threatened
to identify another agent allegedly working within IRA and Sinn Féin
and known only as 'Stakeknife'.
According to Neil Mackay of the Sunday Tribune, Fulton is threatening
to expose Stakeknife because he claims the British MoD has failed to honour
a promise of a relocation package after his cover was blown.
Stakeknife has been described as "the jewel in the crown" of
British infiltration into the IRA and was sanctioned to carry out killings
of other members of the British Crown forces and civilians in order to
preserve his cover.
The media is linking Stakeknife to over 40 killings that include British
soldiers, RUC members, civilians and republicans. A British Intelligence
source is quoted as saying that Stakeknife's handlers knew he was killing
security force personnel and civilians in order to keep his cover.
If his identity and activities were exposed, "it would be a public
relations nuclear meltdown", said the source. Threatening to expose
Stakeknife appears to have become common currency when dealing with the
British authorities.
In a second threat, a North Belfast man whose son was killed by the UVF,
Raymond McCord, claims his son's killing was carried out on the orders
of a senior member of the UVF who is also a RUC/PSNI informer. The bereaved
father says the failure to prosecute his son's killers has urged him to
issue this threat.
Ambiguity at the heart of the Stevens' report was exposed again this
week by the comments of a British Army spokesperson following the death
of Brian Nelson, the British agent at the heart of the current collusion
controversy.
Repeated attempts by victims and relatives of victims to establish the
British Army status of Brian Nelson at the time of his death have been
met with official stonewalling.
Responding to media requests for clarification, a British Army spokesperson
claimed that Nelson was "unlikely to get a military funeral"
and "did not know" if Nelson's family was entitled to his army
pension. Repeated inquiries were finally curtailed when the British Army
claimed they did not know if Brian Nelson was dead.
Nelson's sisters have complained that two weeks after the announcement
of their brother's death in the media, they were still waiting for official
notice.
Commenting on Nelson's arrest and subsequent conviction in the early
1990s, after which he was relocated and given a new identity by the British
government, his sister Carole Creighton said at the time the British Army
had "tried their best to get him out" and "lobbied to the
very top".
Meanwhile, according to the Sunday Times, Gordon Kerr, the British Army
Brigadier and former head of the FRU, also led a 'rogue' spying mission
against Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The whistle was blown
by another former British intelligence officer in Germany, Squadron Leader
Geoff Currums, after Kerr had asked him to process illegally taken pictures
of Russian troops.
But far from being rewarded, after informing his superiors of Kerr's
activities, the squadron leader found his career blighted and after unsubstantiated
allegations of mental ill health, Currums was forced to resign.
Brice Dickson, the head of the Human Rights Commission, has urged Stevens
to publish his full report. Of 3,000 pages, only 15 pages were presented
for public scrutiny. In a letter, the commissioner reminded the Met chief
that he had received guarantees from the Stevens' team that all aspects
of the report that did not threaten British security would be published.
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