The ECHR compromises British agents

How should the state fight terrorism? That is the question addressed by Jon Boutcher’s report ‘Operation Kenova: Northern Ireland Stakeknife Legacy Investigation’. The report was precipitated by the claims that the British Army had an agent at the heart of the IRA. ‘Stakeknife’ was head of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit and was responsible for questioning, torturing and executing people the IRA suspected of being British agents. Stakeknife was himself a British agent, passing on information about the IRA – its plans, strategy and tactics – to his controllers in the British Army.

What was the British state doing employing such a person? Jon Boutcher spent nearly a decade and more than £38 million investigating the answer but what he calls his ‘interim report’ is deeply disappointing. It provides almost no details about what Stakeknife did or how his information was used. Instead, the report focuses on ‘the victims and their loved ones’, and castigates the security forces for not providing them with more information.

But the reason the British state employed Stakeknife, rather than prosecuting him as a terrorist involved in murder and torture, is very straightforward.