17.10.04
Sunday Life
Army montages used to target border provos
17 October 2004
SECURITY spooks used an IRA mole to post Army montages to top Provos with the warning "you are next" scrawled beside their picture, it has been claimed.
And the ex-Provo spy involved in the dirty tricks operation is now a Real IRA prisoner.
A former republican has claimed the montages were sent to top Provos in Newry, only days after UFF gunmen murdered Rathfriland man, Loughlin Maginn, in August 1989.
Mr Maginn was not an IRA member, but his photo was included on papers leaked to the UDA.
Following his murder, the UFF revealed security force photographs of alleged IRA suspects to the media - a move which led to Sir John Stevens' first collusion inquiry.
The ex-republican told Sunday Life said that around the same time, IRA suspects in Newry began receiving intelligence montages, featuring themselves, through the post.
"What the IRA didn't know was a top Dundalk Provo, who was also a Brit agent, had organised the whole thing," he said.
"His security service handlers gave him montages, and told him to send them to specific individuals. The montages were later posted in Portadown by two IRA volunteers, a man and a woman.
"The idea was that the Provos would think they were being targeted by loyalists. If they were killed, loyalists would be blamed."
The former republican, who now lives in Co Wicklow, claimed the Dundalk Provo - now a Real IRA prisoner in the Republic - had been passing intelligence on the IRA to the security services for years.
Army montages used to target border provos
17 October 2004
SECURITY spooks used an IRA mole to post Army montages to top Provos with the warning "you are next" scrawled beside their picture, it has been claimed.
And the ex-Provo spy involved in the dirty tricks operation is now a Real IRA prisoner.
A former republican has claimed the montages were sent to top Provos in Newry, only days after UFF gunmen murdered Rathfriland man, Loughlin Maginn, in August 1989.
Mr Maginn was not an IRA member, but his photo was included on papers leaked to the UDA.
Following his murder, the UFF revealed security force photographs of alleged IRA suspects to the media - a move which led to Sir John Stevens' first collusion inquiry.
The ex-republican told Sunday Life said that around the same time, IRA suspects in Newry began receiving intelligence montages, featuring themselves, through the post.
"What the IRA didn't know was a top Dundalk Provo, who was also a Brit agent, had organised the whole thing," he said.
"His security service handlers gave him montages, and told him to send them to specific individuals. The montages were later posted in Portadown by two IRA volunteers, a man and a woman.
"The idea was that the Provos would think they were being targeted by loyalists. If they were killed, loyalists would be blamed."
The former republican, who now lives in Co Wicklow, claimed the Dundalk Provo - now a Real IRA prisoner in the Republic - had been passing intelligence on the IRA to the security services for years.
