Sinn Féin has accused the British intelligence service of malicious leaking and of briefing journalists about the naming of "Stakeknife", a double agent who operated at the highest levels in the IRA, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor.
At a press conference at the Sinn Féin Falls Road headquarters yesterday, Mr Gerry Kelly, the party's spokesman on policing, said relatives of the man named in Sunday's papers had contacted his party seeking legal advice.
Naming the man at the centre of the story, Mr Kelly said: "There has been a mass of allegations in the papers over the weekend, and indeed followed today, on the issue of a west Belfast man, Freddie Scappaticci, being named.
"Let me say that his family were in touch with a member of Sinn Féin looking for advice."
Mr Kelly denied the reports concerning Mr Scappaticci and claimed his family knew where he was. "They said that the man is not in custody and has not left Belfast and we advise the family to go to a solicitor and indeed Freddie Scappaticci to go to a solicitor and to make a public statement on the volume of allegations over the weekend.
"We have not been in direct contact with Freddie Scappaticci."
West Belfast sources told The Irish Times that the revelations sent shockwaves through the republican movement.
Mr Kelly suggested repeatedly that the affair was the product of British spin-doctoring. "I have never seen it as big as this and what I am saying clearly is that British intelligence appear to be behind the speculation in the papers and the allegations. I have no comment and I am not going to join that speculation."
He linked the story to other examples of collusion between British agencies and paramilitaries. "But if you put it alongside a number of stories which actually appeared today as well as at the weekend - for instance, the allegations by Michael Stone about collusion with the military and police over the last 30 years - and ... a very large story about the UVF and their collusions in particular centred around Girdwood Barracks ... and ally that to the Stevens inquiry, I think that the common denominator in all of that is that British forces intelligence has been involved in all of this and has been involved in killing citizens over the last 30 years."
Despite Sinn Féin's claims, a senior and reliable source confirmed to The Irish Times yesterday that Stakeknife was taken from Northern Ireland on Sunday and is in hiding. It has been suggested that republicans are desperate to deflect damaging attention from the affair by turning the focus onto British involvement in other collusion controversies.
The SDLP said yesterday that only a wide-ranging public inquiry could answer all the questions posed by the Stakeknife affair. Mr Alban Maginness said: "A police inquiry will not do."
However, unionists reacted with hostility. Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said it was necessary for the British army to use intelligence measures to counter the IRA threat.
For the DUP, Mr Sammy Wilson said: "The war against the IRA was never easy and the measures used were never going to be clearcut. However, the one thing we do know is that the result of using informers and agents was that nine out of 10 terrorist attacks were thwarted.
"For this we all ought to be thankful instead of placating the demands of whingeing republicans to rake over the coals of the intelligence-gathering during the last 30 years. It is time to bring to an end these inquiries and stop giving the real perpetrators of murder propaganda which they will use to deflect attention from their own bloody deeds."