There are reasons why the public want to have the Freddie Scappatici story revealed in full, and many reasons why the British government want many aspects of it to remain under wraps. But the most anxious to hear the full truth are the families of those killed by Scapattici’s ‘nutting squad’.
The period of the Troubles was indeed a dirty war, and the role of informers was particularly grubby.
The birth of an informer would often begin with the authorities letting their tout-to-be know that they held information on him which, if revealed, would shatter his life. It might be misuse of money not his own; or maybe an extra-marital affair which, if revealed, would ruin his reputation and family life. “OK” the British authorities would say. “We’ll guard your guilty secret; but in return you must give us a little bit of information.” Over time the level and depth of the information would increase as the authorities blackmailed their tout/informant/agent into giving more and more. The betrayal went deeper and deeper.
Touts naturally enough were despised. When touts were exposed, the authorities did all they could to change public perception of them. They were frequently presented as people who, initially dazzled by republican propaganda, had been sickened by the violence and killing they were engaged in. When interviewed, touts would talk about their desire to save lives, to do something unselfish and even heroic for the wider community. The security world manipulating them even tried to scrub out the term ‘informer’ and replace it with the less damaging (they hoped) ‘informant’.
What makes the case of Scappaticci unique is that he headed up the squad whose job it was to locate and root out any informers within the ranks of the IRA, while at the same time passing valuable information about the IRA to the authorities.
Claims that Scapattici’s information saved hundreds of lives have been exposed as nonsense. In fact, we now learn that Scappaticci was responsible for taking more lives than he ever saved.
Will the relatives of those killed by Scappaticci and his nutting squad get to the full truth about their loved one’s death? Highly unlikely. Britain has come as close to truth as it cares to come, in revealing the depths of dirt it used in its dirty war on the Irish people.
I feel the families need to have him named in the report for closure. I am sure they already know, it needed to be addressed in a government report.
I also think that he was not named was to save embarrassment to government for allowing him to kill at will and to the republican movement who didn’t court marshal and execute him!
Were there no loyalist informers? Did the UDA and UVF turn a blind eye to loose talk? Informers were detested during the conflict, Black, Gilmore, their names live on as Benedict Arnold’s does in America. Hated figures who in many cases betrayed their own family members, leaving bewildered relatives in their wake, pitiful wives and parents giving a press conference. The British used the same tactic they had used in other colonial conflicts, getting people to turn. God knows how people like Scappaticci survived. Personally I am not even sure he is dead, why should we take the Brits word for it?
When Steven’s investigated collusion, he said that of 210 loyalists paramilitary his team arrested, 207 of them were agents or informants for the state.
This is all deflection and misdirection. All…. All the evil that happened in this country is directly attributable to the actions of the British state and their festering influences here. From their genocide, their starvation and their various colonial experiments to their presence in the here and now, they are the root of all our evils and will continue to plague us until they leave.
And all still kiss the royal asses…. the world needs to expose their tactics…