KENOVA A Case In Point, Video

 

A Modern Day Image of Intelligence Services

When we think of British Intelligence, it’s often through a lens of fiction, tuxedos, martinis, and a licence to kill that seems almost glamourous. Yet history, as we know, isn't that often glamourous. It can be messy, it can be blood stained. It is complicated, and sometimes, it can be deeply unsettling, scary in fact.

Recent revelations in the UK reagrding Operation Kenova have pulled back the curtain on a very particular kind of spy craft/tradecraft. It’s not a work of fiction, it's a real world account of the harsh reality in Northern Ireland in the late 20th Century that echoes all the way back to the smoke-filled arena, dimly lit alleyways and backroom machinations of the 1940s. It was an era of civil unrest and communist infiltration at the highest levels of Govenment

The Kenova Revelations

Currently in the UK, Operation Kenova has been underway for some time, they have been investigating the activities of an undercover MI5 agent known as "Stakeknife", widely identified as Freddie Scappaticci, and the role of the British state in handling him.

The findings are stark. What is on display is a situation where the intelligence services, specifically MI5 and the Force Research Unit (FRU), were involved in running agents who were themselves active participants in kidnapping, torture, and murder.

The Core Finding was horrendous, the security services of the UK were aware of crimes committed by their agents but allowed them to continue, effectively prioritizing the flow of intelligence over the lives of innocent civilians and even their own foot soldiers.

This was not a 'rogue' operation; the only inference we can draw is that this was systemic. It suggests a culture where the "greater good" was calculated in the cold ledger cost in lives lost versus secrets kept. It had little to do with truth and what was the morally right thing to do.

A Wilderness of Mirrors

I don't want to paint this as a simple story of "bad spies" and "good victims." The tragedy of the unrest in Northern Irelnd was that the ruthlessness ran in both directions.It was a two way street,.

James Jesus Angleton, who some will remember as the Cold War spy chief of the CIA, famously described the world of counter-intelligence as a "wilderness of mirrors." It is a place where deceptions are so complex, so layered that reality becomes distorted, and confusion reigns. In fact in one interview, he compared it to an orchid, a plant that he devoted that he devoted much of his spare time to.  Theye can be so beautiful yet so deceptive, they're stunning flowers lure unsuspecting bees and wasps with sophisticated illusions. 

In this wilderness, the IRA operated its own "Internal Security Unit", grimly known as the 'Nutting Squad', tasked with hunting down and executing informers. Ironically revealed by Operation Kenova, this unit was, for a long time, commanded by the under cover British MI5 agent 'Stakeknife' himself.

The IRA leadership sanctioned the execution of their own volunteers to "purify" their ranks, unaware that the man pulling the trigger was reporting to MI5. Both sides, the revolutionaries and the state,seem to have agreed on the same terrifying principle, Individual lives are cheap currency when buying secrets. Bear that thought in mind when thinking of the Somerton Man case.

The Expendable Pawns: A Specific Case

Let's understand a little more how this relates to the Somerton Man, we need look no further than the tragic case of Caroline Moreland.

Caroline, a mother of three, abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1994. The Kenova investigation found that the state had intelligence that could have saved her. Yet, she was allowed to die.

Why? To protect the identity of a high-value agent.

She was, in the cold calculus of intelligence, an 'expendable pawn'. Her life was traded to keep a "bigger secret" safe.

The question now is, if this was the operating procedure in the 1990s, are we to believe the moral compass was any better in 1948? The diaries of Guy Liddell, MI5’s wartime counter-espionage director, tell us otherwise. He recorded a meeting where the "licence to kill" was discussed not as a fantasy, but as a practical administrative option. That culture of "the ends justify the means" has deep roots.

The Australian Connection: 1948

Now, let's look to our side of the world, to a beach in South Australia in 1948.

The late 1940s in Australia were a "Wild West" of espionage. The Venona intercepts revealed Soviet Intelligence penetrations; in response new agencies like ASIO were being birthed; and British/American agencies were deeply embedded in Australian affairs. At stake were the secrets of Woomera and and the Long Rang Range Weapons establshment North of Adelaide.

Here's a difficult question, if MI5 could run agents like Stakeknife, allowing a mother like Caroline Moreland to die to protect a source, what were they capable of in 1948?

Was a deal struck? A Soviet defector traded, or silenced, to protect a higher value asset? this is a qustion not a statement of fact.

Was the Somerton Man in 1948 equivalent of Caroline Moreland? Not a master spy, but an expendable piece on the board, sacrificed or ignored to protect the King and Queen? In Defence of the Realm?

A Neutral Observer

My job here is not to act as judge and jury. I am presenting some facts based on the evidence, I read the diaries, and I watch the inquiries.

What Kenova teaches us all is that the "official version" is rarely the whole truth. Whether it is a body on Somerton Beach or a tragic death in Belfast, there is almost always a second story running somewhere underneath, a story written in codes, redactions, anomalies and silence.That is a theme that is continued in the Somerton Secrets book.

The lessons of Kenova are very much in mind as the book and its chapters is being assembled.  The state is capable of keeping dark secrets for a very, very long time.

SOURCES:

1. Operation Kenova & Stakeknife Findings

• Source: Operation Kenova Interim Report (March 2024) and Final Report (December 2025).

• Key Fact: Confirmation that the agent "Stakeknife" (Freddie Scappaticci) was responsible for more lives lost than saved, and that MI5/FRU had prior knowledge of his crimes.

• Citation: Boutcher, J. (2024/2025). Operation Kenova: Interim and Final Reports. Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

• News Reference: "Operation Kenova: 'Stakeknife' spy inside IRA committed 'worst possible' crimes." Sky News, December 9, 2025.

2. Caroline Moreland & The 'Nutting Squad'

• Source: The Guardian / KRW Law (Solicitors).

• Key Fact: Caroline Moreland was abducted and murdered by the IRA Internal Security Unit (ISU) in July 1994. The Kenova investigation confirmed that state agencies had intelligence that could have prevented her death but failed to act to protect an agent (Scappaticci

• Citation: "Inquiry into IRA murders supported by victim's daughter." The Guardian, March 8, 2024.

3. The 'Wilderness of Mirrors'

• Source: Literary & Historical Origin.

• Key Fact: The phrase originates from T.S. Eliot's poem Gerontion (1920) but was popularized in the intelligence community by James Jesus Angleton (CIA Counter-Intelligence Chief 1954–1974) to describe the confusion caused by double agents and defectors.

• Citation: Winks, R. W. (1987). Cloak and Gown: Scholars in the Secret War, 1939–1961. New York: William Morrow. (Detailed discussion of Angleton's use of the phrase).

4. Guy Liddell Diaries (1940s Context)

• Source: The Guy Liddell Diaries.

• Key Fact: Discussions on the legality and practicality of "liquidation" and "special operations" during WWII.

• Citation: West, N. (Ed.). (2005). The Guy Liddell Diaries, Vol. 1: 1939-1942. Routledge.

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... Stakeknife spy inside IRA committed 'worst possible' crimes ...

This video report from Sky News summarizes the recent Kenova findings, specifically detailing how the British state allowed the IRA's internal security unit to commit crimes to protect their agent.