After nearly a decade and more than £47 million of public money, Operation Kenova – the criminal investigation into the British state agent known as Stakeknife – has delivered its final report.
Yet for all this time and expense, the inquiry has now concluded without officially naming, charging, or holding anyone to account. The cat is out of the bag – but unlike a Scooby-Doo mystery, there is no unmasking and no reckoning.
Despite overwhelming public knowledge that the agent was Freddie Scappaticci – a senior figure in the IRA’s internal security unit, aka the ‘nutting squad’, at the height of the Troubles – the British state continues to hide behind its cynical policy of “neither confirm nor deny”.
Nevertheless, Kenova’s final report exposes the grotesque reality of Britain’s dirty war in Ireland.
For decades, MI5 handled Stakeknife – even setting a dedicated office for him – as he operated deep inside the IRA’s internal security apparatus. He was allowed to evade arrest, flown out of the North when police sought to question him, ferried on holidays, and rewarded with a comfortable life after delivering more than 3,500 intelligence reports. The army even seemed to have organised a farewell dinner for him when he ‘retired’!
All the while, the intelligence he provided from the very heart of the IRA was used by a state directly responsible for hundreds of deaths, and indirectly responsible for many more through systematic collusion with loyalist paramilitaries. Stakeknife himself is linked to more than a dozen murders, no doubt including those of innocent civilians and republicans at the direction of the British state.
Even more damning is the revelation that MI5 actively obstructed the Kenova investigation itself. Investigators reported that key informant records were destroyed before Kenova even began, while crucial intelligence was disclosed late, if at all. MI5 even broke into a safe that was being used by Kenova!
For workers and youth in the North of Ireland, none of this comes as a shock. For all the talk of ‘legacy’, ‘truth’ and ‘reconciliation’ since the Good Friday Agreement, the reality remains unchanged: the British state will trample over any rule or principle in order to protect itself and its interests.
From Bloody Sunday and the protection of Soldier F, to the endless scandals engulfing the RUC and PSNI, British rule has always gone together with cover-ups and hand-cleaning. Even today, while millions are spent on anti-paramilitary advertising, the same state quietly cosies up to loyalist paramilitaries when it suits its needs.
The entire nationalist community was treated as terrorists by the British security forces – yet it is those forces themselves that have acted as terrorists for decades in the North. We have no trust in British-led inquiries. The task before us is organisation: building a revolutionary communist party capable of leading the struggle against imperialism and capitalism through to the very end.
