Those wacky MI5 guys...

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

...Stormontgate was made up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/18/nmole18.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/18/ixhome.html

Edit: I have seen a few other sources for this.

[Tribesman]

Oh well , at least this time MI5 were only blocking democracy , it makes a nice change from killing people I suppose .

[KukriKhan]

I'm still trying to un-tangle this knotty story...Tell me if I have it right:

3 years ago, Brit authorities thought (or said they thought) they'd uncovered someone (or several someones) leaking or stealing important Brit information to the IRA.

Now it turns out, it was the other way around - a high-ranking IRA guy was reporting to the Brits, secretly.

What is the outrage? That there was spying going on?

And has anyone characterized the kind of information being passed?

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

There's several reasons for outrage, here's a few I can think of:

1. The nationalists are obviously mad that they were so heavily infiltrated.
1a. The devolved power which included nationalists (rather than excluding them like in the old Stormont) was seen as a step towards a United Ireland, MI5 basically shut this down for years by creating the spying stink.
1b. The spying charges have been used to beat up on Sinn Fein ever since they came to light
2. The unionists are mad because the scandal destroyed the Ulster Unionist Party (basically).
2a. This is another betrayal of unionists by the British government (David Trimble, the most powerful northern Irish politician of the time, did not know about it, meaning that the top UK government and the security forces probably went behind his back). Trimble was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party which is now a shadow of its former self.
3. This probably makes both sides more paranoid

There's probably a bunch more.

I'm sure Tribesman can rattle them off better than I.

[Grey_Fox]

Well the PSNI still found confidential documents inside the Sinn Féin offices in Stormont. Both sides were spying on each other, it wasn't just on the one side.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

I'd love to know why all the charges were dropped against the Sinn Feiners

Edit: and another thing, an MI5 spy's involvement makes the whole thing look like a set-up even if the reports of classified documents turning up in Sinn Fein offices can be proven to be true (and I'm sure that the reports of this will be questioned along the lines of "was anything actually found?", "did any documents get there because they were planted by an MI5 agent" and so on).

[Tribesman]

Well the PSNI still found confidential documents inside the Sinn Féin offices in Stormont.
Ah the confidential documents , that it later emerged had been stolen from the Special Branch by a Special Branch officer , and the person whose office at Stormont was found to contain the files worked for ....Special Branch .

And has anyone characterized the kind of information being passed?
Lists of officers names and addresses mainly , which is worrying for the officers concerned as many have gone on record after the Finnucane and Nelson killings to say that they are in fear of their lives .
Apperently they are really worried that certain elements within the security services are trying to kill them .
It really comes to something when the police are worried about getting killed , by the police .
The "troubles" eh , don't ya just luv'em:shrug:

[BDC]

Is there actually anyone in these organisations who ISN'T a spy these days?

[Tribesman]

Is there actually anyone in these organisations who ISN'T a spy these days?
Well when you consider that the IRA is a small organisation , and Britain admits to having nearly 3000 operatives within it , it does make you wonder .

[English assassin]

Hmm, and the fact that is the troubles all went away they would be fewer jobs for spooks...

Spooks are like drug companies: they don't want to make you better, they want to help you manage the symptoms. More money in it that way...