10 April 2005
"Peter Luff" has converted the secret taping of an interview of Freddie (Stakeknife) Scappaticci to Real Audio:
http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.ra (3.8MB)
If there is difficulty playing the Real Audio online due to Cryptome overload, download the file and play locally.
March 5, 2004
Cryptome is aware that many persons only get part of the Scappaticci audio file, probably due to its large size as well as disconnects by service providers balking at the lengthy connection. To counter disconnects, download one of two zipped files of the recording less likely to be disconnected, then unzip and play offline.
A zipped file of the WMA format:
http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.zip (15.5MB)
The entire recording runs just over 31 minutes. Supposedly there is another recording of a second interview of Scappaticci but nobody has been kind enough to send it.
March 3, 2004
From: "Concerned Citizen Citizen" <concernedcitizenuk@hotmail.com>
To: kyla.mullins@granadamedia.com, callen@granada.co.uk
Cc: dutyoffice@carltontv.co.uk, contact@ofcom.org.uk, enquiries@lawsociety.org.uk,
jya@pipeline.com, c.entwistle@zen.co.uk
Subject: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN AT CRYPTOME
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 14:30:23 +0000
Dear Sir,
Re: http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.htm
I read with some interest and indeed shock at your claims of being the owner
of a recording which clearly indicates the concealment of criminality
(murder) and that you participated in a conspiracy to pervert the course of
justice - I also see that you hold a law degree — which in its self makes
absolutely clear that you are aware of the ramifications of your illegal
actions.
Can you explain why you and Central Television failed to notify the
appropriate authorities or take action over the allegations of murder?
You withheld evidence that was of such importance to the investigating
authorities — it is also noted that a Police officer was present and aware
of the circumstances in respect of what was being said by Mr Scappaticci,
and you colluded with the officer to cover up murder.
You further claim that the recording was unauthorised and illegally obtained
— before you even attempt to make such outrageous allegations — you should
look at the legality of you own actions and that of Central Television.
Clearly your motives were solely for financial gain — it is disgusting to
think that Central Television and it employees were involved in a cover of
murder.
I will be making a formal complaint to Central Television and the
Independent Television Commission and other relevant authorities.
Regards
Concerned Citizen
March 2, 2004. Clive Entwistle is a TV producer cited in the
news article below.
From: Clive Entwistle <c.entwistle@zen.co.uk>
To: jya@pipeline.com
Subject:
Date: Mar 2, 2004 4:16 AM TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN AT CRYTOME Having listened to the Freddie Scappaticci secret interview on the Cryptome web site I have no doubt that the copyright belongs to me and that you are breaching this copyright with an unauthorised and illegally obtained version. It is patently obvious that the tape was NOT recorded by military intelligence, that it is a "bootleg" copy and I can prove that the recording and its contents belong to me. I insist that you cease making the contents available on your web-site immediately. Clive Entwistle LLB (Hons)
Updated 29 February 2004. Thanks to A, add July 2003 news report on Scappaticci interview.
If there is difficulty accessing the Scappaticci file on Cryptome try this Zipped file:
http://cryptome2.org/scappaticci.mp3 (37.5 MB)
A couple of the big UK file-cacheing sites are hitting the Cryptome files repeatedly, getting only partial downloads then breaking connection, and preventing full access through caches and/or shutting out others. Many partial hits indicate that the 30-minute files are more than some ISP servers will sustain for that period. Download this Zipped file to play offline (note the cryptome2):
http://cryptome2.org/scappaticci-mp3.zip (35 MB)
Or grab it by anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.cryptome.org/pub/scappaticci-mp3.zip (35 MB)
To be sure, there may be villains messing with Cryptome to prevent easy access, hiding behind cacheing services or other cloaks.
cache2-blfs.server.ntli.net (This in Belfast? has been cycling partial hits for a day.)
27 February 2004. Thanks to A.
This is a 30-minute recording of interviews of Freddie Scappaticci, alleged to be "Stakeknife," a secret agent of British Army intelligence in Northern Ireland. The source of the recording claims it was secretly recorded by British military intelligence, in particular the Force Research Unit (FRU) which handled Stakeknife and other secret agents.
http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.wma (15.2 MB)http://cryptome.org/scappaticci.mp3 (37.5 MB)
The vile DRM-protected WMA file requires a licensed Windows Media Player. The WMA was ripped to make the unfettered MP3, using this converter/ripper: http://www.wma-mp3.com/
Netscape does not play the file but returns only code. Internet Explorer will play the file if Windows Media Player is on the local machine with a valid license. Download Windows Media Player:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/player.aspx
If unable to access or download, send a request to jy@cryptome.org, and other arrangements will be made for file transfer.
Seemingly identical interviews took place in the mid-1990s and were conducted by ITV's "The Cook Report." An account of such interviews is given in "Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland," by Martin Ingram and Greg Harkin, recently published by O'Brien Press. Parts of the interviews are published in the book, pages 67-80.
A Note on the Original Microsoft WMA file
It appears that the original WMA file was converted from audio tape to digital format, probably by a commerical service. The converter -- in software or hardware -- concealed Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) in the converted file that limited the number of licensed players to 10.
The first 10 players -- of which Cryptome was perhaps the first -- were directed to Microsoft's licensing site upon attempting to play. At the Microsoft site a window appeared which offered a choice to cancel the play or to "migrate" a license to play, without cost. Cryptome migrated the license and the file played. Not knowing about the limitation of 10 players, Cryptome assumed anybody could migrate the license to play the file, and so it was offered.
Thus did Microsoft covertly record the first 10 players of the file, so beware the giant's capability of gathering, and likely sharing with authorities -- as it did with the notorious "NSA key" -- data on its product's unwary users.
Worse, Microsoft logs every failed attempt to migrate the license, thus gathering data even on those who could not play the vile snooping file. Ponder Microsoft's ability to track attempts by officials and persons listed below to play the file, not to say that of users of all its products, bought new or upgraded (see MS pop-ups regularly demanding after upgrades to upgrade again).
Several readers soon thereafter complained that the file could not be played. Cryptome attempted to convert it to other formats using SoundForge audio program. SoundForge itself could not play the WMA file, and attempted conversion to a dozen other formats produced only static.
D. reported the limitation to 10 players and suggested ripping the WMA and coverting to another format. D2. pointed to several WMA converters on the Web. One could not crack the DRM, but another could and converted the file to MP3, which was then offered.
The original source of the file surely did not know of the concealed DRM restriction, for the WMA file was sent to the officials and organizations listed below. And it is likely that the commercial service did not know either, that it merely used the latest conversion software which just happened to include content restrictions, thanks to the worldwide copyright hegemon.
This negative outcome was widely debated a couple of years ago when content control was being advanced by copyright holders such as RIAA and MPAA, and hardware and software manufacturers jumped at the opportunity to provide content protection schemes.
Freedom of information advocates argued then and now that content restrictions would eventually limit the spread of information in general, and not only for copyrighted material but also information which needed freedom to spread beyond authoritarian control, especially as hardware and software producers embedded unavoidable rights management protection in their products.
Even so, the Scappaticci file is an example of how content control slowed but did not prevent its dissemination, and reminds that most of us cannot keep up with what is happening in secrecy -- of government, business and academia -- and must depend on joint efforts to overcome censorship by officials and co-conspirators.
Shame on Microsoft for not providing a means to by-pass its DRM when the need is greater than market supremacy.
Praise to those who write cracking programs for those who have secrets needing to be aired.
The recording has been sent by the source to the following:
United Nations Kofi Annan Department of the Taoiseach (Dublin) Bertie Ahern The President of the United States of America President George W Bush (A Formal Complaint Made) Members of Parliament (UK) in receipt of the recording. McNamara, Mr Kevin (Lab) North Hull Donaldson, Mr Jeffrey M. (DU) Lagan Valley Mallon, Mr Seamus (SDLP) Newry & Armagh Timms, Mr Stephen (Lab) East Ham Hoon, Rt Hon Geoff (Lab) Ashfield Hume, Mr John (SDLP) Foyle Jones, Helen (Lab) Warrington North Helen Southworth (Lab) Warrington South Dalyell, Mr Tam (Lab) Linlithgow The Reverend Martin Smyth (UU) Belfast South Mr Peter Robinson (DU) Belfast East Mr Nigel Dodds (DU) Belfast North Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP Rt Hon Michael Howard QC MP Rt Hon Tony Blair Prime Minister Political Parties Robert McCartney QC MLA (UK Unionist Party) Progressive Unionist Party The Green Party Women's Coalition Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Conservatives Labour Liberal Democrats Members of the Royal Household: Her Majesty the Queen (A Formal Complaint Made) Prince Charles Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Mr Hugh Orde The Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens Police Ombudsman Northern Ireland Mrs Nuala O'Loan (A Formal Complaint Made) Director of Public Prosecutions - Northern Ireland Attorney General for Northern Ireland (A Formal Complaint Made) Attorney General England & Wales Lord Goldsmith (A Formal Complaint Made) Secretary of state Northern Ireland Paul Murphy Ministry of Defence & Security Establishment Mr H Kernohan Head Designate, Home Special Forces Secretariat (MoD) Brigadier Peter Everson (Defence Intelligence and Security Centre) Eliza Manningham-Buller, Directer General (Security Service MI5) European Commission & Human Rights Divisions National Press Sky News BBC World Service ITV C4 BBC Radio Ulster China Radio International Voice of America CBC (Canada) Newspapers Foreign Diplomatic Missions London UK HE Mr William S Farish American Embassy HE Mr Daithi O'Ceallaigh IRELAND HE Archbishop Pablo Puente Apostolic Nunciature HE Mr Mel Cappe Canadian High Commission HE Mr Michael L'Estrange AUSTRALIA HE The Hon Russell Marshall NEW ZEALAND HE Herr Thomas Matussek GERMANY HE Monsieur Gerard Errera FRANCE HE Dr Alfonso Lopez-Caballero COLOMBIA British Irish Rights Watch Jane Winters
To: jya@pipeline.com Subject: Scappaticci told me IRA secrets before cop told me he was an agent called Stakek Date: Sun, 29 Feb 2004 19:16:37 +0000 Scappaticci told me IRA secrets before cop told me he was an agent called Stakeknife (Sylvia Jones, The People) Last week The People revealed that Stakeknife Freddie Scappaticci was a source for a damning 1993 TV documentary about Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness. Mr McGuinness strenuously denied allegations made in The Cook Report programme at the time - and he repeated those denials this week. Amazingly Freddie Scappaticci has also denied being a source for the programme. But today in The People for the first time, a journalist who met Scappaticci ten years ago when making the programme gives her full account of what happened based on tapes of her interview. Sylvia Jones is a former crime correspondent of The Daily Mirror. This is her story. Light was fading on the warm, wet August evening when the security services' most important IRA agent pulled into the hotel car park for a secret meeting. Freddie Scappaticci - alias Stakeknife - was used to the danger - he thrived on it. But this time things were different. He wasn't going to meet his Army handlers, he was there to meet journalists from a high profile television programme. And he wanted to dish the dirt on the most feared man inside the IRA - Martin McGuinness, the man the programmed dubbed a terrorist godfather. That meeting took place on Thursday, August 26, 1993, and for the last ten years those journalists - myself, TV director and producer Clive Entwistle and award-winning ex-Daily Mirror reporter Frank Thorne - kept a promise to police not to reveal his true identity. Top brass in Army intelligence and Special Branch were furious that Stakeknife had compromised his position in what they considered a foolish way. A senior officer in the then RUC warned us in the strongest terms that everything possible should be done to protect Scappaticci because even the slightest slip could put his life in danger and threaten their most important source of intelligence. But now that his cover has been blown, we are free for the first time to tell the full truth about the extraordinary meetings we had with Stakeknife and the lengths we went to in order to conceal his identity and protect the job he did for British intelligence. Two nights before our first meeting, the popular investigative ITV programme The Cook Report, had broadcast a hard hitting expose on McGuinness - who would later become Northern Ireland's Education Minister - in which he was accused of being one of the most senior leaders of Provisional IRA and involved in ordering executions. But Stakeknife thought the programme did not go far enough and was prepared to put his life on the line to give us more detailed information about McGuinness and other top terrorists. In an amazing breach of security, Scappaticci rang The Cook Report main office at Central Television in Birmingham calling himself 'Jack' and claiming he was an IRA insider. There had been many calls in the wake of the shockwave caused by the McGuinness programme, but there was something about Scappaticci's voice that made production manager Pat Harris take careful note. She rang us at the Culloden Hotel just outside Belfast and Frank took down a contact telephone number and rang it. Scappaticci answered and made arrangements for a meeting in the hotel carpark. We had no idea then who Jack was and made plans for Clive to be on hand as a security measure. For all we knew 'Jack' could have turned out to be a McGuinness supporter wanting revenge. Clive and Frank were in place early, sitting in separate cars parked facing each other, noting the registration number of each vehicle that arrived. I was in the hotel having a meeting with a senior officer passing on information for the police investigation launched into the serious allegations made in The Cook Report. I was waiting for details of the meeting to check out the potential new informant. The policeman wanted to know whether the mystery man would end up being a crucial witness for his inquiry. 'Jack' arrived on time, driving his own car. He parked and got out to join Frank. Before he got into front the passenger seat, Frank and Clive both noted that he had a stocky build, about 5ft 9ins tall, with shortish black straight hair that was receding, and was aged mid to late forties with swarthy skin and hairy arms. As he got in, there was a discussion about Clive sitting in a nearby car. 'Jack' accepted this security precaution and agreed for Clive to join them after being reassured that no photos were being taken. "Basically, I felt, see, the programme itself, it didn't go deeply enough," he told us in his strong Belfast accent. "If you want to take in Martin McGuinness, you have to take in a couple of other people." For the next 50 minutes, Stakeknife launched into an astonishing who-did-what expose of the workings inside the IRA. He named names, telling us about the Army Council, how the IRA was organised and those responsible for operations, including atrocities in England. Scappaticci admitted he had served on the IRA Northern Command alongside McGuinness and had known him for 20 years. He also claimed that McGuinness had lured Frank Hegarty, a man the IRA suspected of being an Army informant back to Derry from a safe house in England. Hegarty had betrayed the locations of secret Libyan arms. McGuinness, determined to get Hegarty back, had befriended Hegarty's family. and promised his mother that her son would be safe with him if he returned. Hegarty did return and eventually agreed to meet IRA leaders in Donegal to 'clear things up'. He was driven to the meeting by his sisters. They never saw him alive again. According to Scappaticci, Hegarty was interrogated by McGuinness and others and then shot in the back of the head. No-one has ever been convicted of his murder. Our first meeting with Scappaticci ended at 7.50 pm and a second meeting was arranged for the next day, in Belfast city centre. By this time, I and the senior RUC officer had checked the registration of his car. When the number was fed into the police computer, alarm bells rang in every security intelligence office in Northern Ireland. When the officer was called back with the information, his normally ruddy complexion faded with disbelief as he realised just who we were meeting in the carpark. There was a stunned silence as he worked out what to tell us - and more importantly how much to tell us. But when he knew the kind of details Stakeknife had divulged, he then told us his name was Freddie Scappaticci and that he was indeed the IRA man he claimed to be and was in a position to know a lot of information about McGuinness. In an extraordinary co-incidence, the hotel carpark was at the time of meeting being scanned by security police in preparation for a dinner appointment at the hotel that night for the then chief constable Hugh Annesley. Whether they spotted the senior IRA man having a covert meeting is not recorded. The officer asked for a further meeting after we had transcribed the tape and shorthand notes and urged us not to discuss this with anyone until we had talked again. By the next day, the officer had taken advice and told us that Scappaticci was a 'very, very important' informant and that it was vital for his safety and the continuation of his work as a top agent that we protect his identity at all costs. The security services knew they could not stop us using the material, so they took a calculated gamble to trust us. But they warned: "One slip could cost him his life." We were urged not only to use an actor to speak his words, but that it was even necessary to change Stakeknife's distinctive phraseology to prevent him being identified by the fellow IRA comrades he was betraying. We gave our word. By this time, we were due to have our second meeting with Scappaticci, but he was not answering his phone to fix the final details. Unbeknown to us at that time, Stakeknife's handlers were giving him a ferocious rollicking for his freelance activity at the Culloden Hotel. They wanted him to stop all contact with us. But Scappaticci seemed to be a man who liked to live on the edge, and he eventually arranged to see us again. We met at 10 am the following day, Saturday August 28 at a carpark, this time on the rural outskirts of east Belfast. Scappaticci was there when we arrived, me driving, Clive beside me and Frank in the back wearing his tape recorder in the right hand pocket of his shirt, covered by his jacket. Scappaticci was distinctly nervous as we drove off. We didn't blame him. Now we knew who he was and what he did, we were anxious, too. We were in a strong, Protestant area and here we were with a top IRA terrorist in our car. His conversation this time was more difficult and he gave us little new information. But we went over all his earlier details. But his handlers had done their job and he wasn't going to open up. By this time, the car was heading towards Newtownards, another Protestant stronghold, but we were all concentrating on Scappaticci's words instead of taking much notice of where we were going and what was ahead. It was Scappaticci himself who saw it first and shouted "Christ, turn left. Quick, quick." It was the marching season in Northern Ireland, and we were heading straight into an Orange March, complete with banners, pipes and drums. I turned left and sped away with the noise of the march ringing in our ears. The realisation of what might have happened if we had been caught with Scappaticci in the back made us all panic - but Stakeknife most of all. The sweat poured off him as he slumped back in the seat. July 20, 2003 ________________ This article appeared first in The People on July 20, 2003.