UK to probe role of high-ranking IRA informant in 24 murder cases

Authorities in Northern Ireland have launched an official investigation into the alleged involvement of a British government informant in dozens of murders perpetrated by Irish republican militants. The informant, codenamed STAKEKNIFE in British government documents, has been identified by some as Freddie Scappaticci, the grandson of an Italian immigrant to Northern Ireland, who in the early 1970s joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Eventually, Scappaticci was put in charge of the Provisional IRA Northern Command’s Internal Security Unit. The unit was tasked with counterintelligence operations, which involved detecting, capturing and eliminating suspected British government spies inside the IRA.

Unbeknownst to the IRA, however, Scappaticci was himself an informant for the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s Special Branch. He is believed to have been paid up to £80,000 a year to provide information to the British government about the IRA’s activities. STAKEKNIFE’s reputed work for the British government was first publicized in 2003 by another British government informant in the IRA, Kevin Fulton. But Scappaticci, who is known in republican circles as ‘Scap’, denies he was STAKEKNIFE, and the claims about him and his activities have been surrounded by an air of mystery.

Last year, however, families of those killed by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit took advantage of Fulton’s claims. They argued that, if STAKEKNIFE was indeed a British government informant, and if he was personally involved in the murder of alleged IRA informants, then the British authorities technically allowed him to get away with murder in order to protect his secret identity. The government, therefore, technically colluded in the murders and should be held responsible.

The Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland investigated these claims and communicated his findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The latter recently described the STAKEKNIFE investigation as “perhaps the most significant case” in his time as DPP. He has now ordered the Police Service of Northern Ireland to launch a formal inquiry into the matter and to start inviting witness testimonies. It is reputed that Northern Ireland First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who is said to have been close to Scappaticci during his tenure in the IRA, will be among the first witnesses called on to testify as part of the investigation.

http://intelnews.org/2015/10/22/01-1798/ 

Killer posed for photos before murdering two in Swedish school sword attack

A masked man wielding "knife-like weapons" posed with students for photographs, before walking from classroom to classroom to stab students as they opened the door, killing a teacher and a boy and wounding two others at a school in western Sweden before being shot dead by police.

Local media showed what it said was a picture of the assailant carrying a sword and dressed in a black trench coat and helmet.

"We thought it was a joke, a Halloween prank or something, but it wasn't," one witness student told TV4.

The incident occurred at the Kronan school in Trollhattan, an industrial town of about 50,000 inhabitants north of Gothenburg. The town has been plagued by high employment after the demise of car company Saab which was headquartered there.

"This is a black day for Sweden," Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said in a statement.

Photos by a local news agency showed several ambulances and police cars on the scene as emergency service staffers dealt with distraught adults and teenagers. A police cordon was marked out with white tape.

Police said they had responded to an emergency call saying a masked man with a sword was on the premises and that a person had been attacked at a cafeteria.

Attacks in schools are rare in Sweden, with the last similar attack taking place near Gothenburg in 1961.

The lower grades of the school were criticised this year by Sweden's education watchdog for failing to address problems in providing a safe and calm environment for students and staff, saying teachers struggled to conduct teaching in some classes.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/73308722/five-injured-after-sword-attack-at-swedish-school

Russia says to build military base on contested Kurile Islands

MOSCOW: Russia plans to build a military base on the Kurile islands, a group of Pacific islands it seized from Japan at the end of World War Two, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.

The move is likely to worsen already frayed relations with Tokyo which lays claim to the Southern Kuriles, known in Japan as the Northern Territories. The dispute is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have still not signed a formal peace treaty after the war.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/russia-says-to-build-mili/2210512.html

2 Chinese Diplomats Shot to Death in Philippines

A Chinese interpreter, center, sat with the Chinese couple detained in the shooting in Cebu: Li Qinglong, right, and his wife, Gou Jing


Two Chinese diplomats were killed Wednesday, and a third was wounded, in a shooting at a restaurant in the central Philippine city of Cebu, the authorities in Manila said.

The diplomats were having a birthday lunch at the Lighthouse Restaurant around 1:20 p.m. when a man, a citizen of China and a guest at the celebration, opened fire, the police said.

The two diplomats who were killed were aides to Song Ronghua, 53, the Chinese consul general in Cebu, who was wounded in the attack. Mr. Song was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remained Wednesday evening, in stable condition.

The victims were identified by the police as Shen Sun, 59, the deputy consul general, and Li Hui, who served as a finance officer at the consulate.

The assailant, who was identified by the police as Li Qinglong, was arrested. The police had also detained his wife, Gou Jing, a Chinese national, in connection with the shooting.

Initially, the police said the suspect was a woman married to a consular official. But late Wednesday, after reviewing security-camera footage of the shooting, the police determined it was Mr. Li who had fired the weapon, said Rey Lyndon Lawas, a police spokesman.

“The gunman just stood up and shot the two people to his right, and then he shot the person right across from him,” Mr. Lawas said. The police recovered a .45-caliber pistol from the restaurant.

Mr. Lawas said the police were still investigating the motive for the shooting. Officials from the Chinese Embassy in Manila were scheduled to arrive late Wednesday to help interpret, he said.

Mr. Song, 53, a career diplomat, recently took office as the consul general in Cebu, where he was on the front lines of China’s efforts to improve relations with the Philippines. The two countries have sparred over territorial claims in the South China Sea. At a conference last month, Mr. Song said China and the Philippines had “no excuses to quarrel,” according to local reports.

Calls to the office of the Chinese Consulate General in Cebu and the Chinese Embassy in Manila were not returned, and officials in Beijing did not respond to a request for comment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/world/asia/china-diplomats-shooting-cebu-philippines.html?_r=0 

 

Australian spy agency reviews gun policy after ‘drunken episode’ in Afghanistan

The use of firearms by Australian intelligence and security personnel stationed abroad is being reviewed following an incident in which an intoxicated special forces soldier pulled a gun on a spy in Afghanistan. According to reports in the Australian media, the review was conducted by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, a government-appointed office that monitors the conduct of Australian intelligence and security agencies.

It is believed that the Inspector General’s office began the investigation in 2014, shortly after it was made aware of the alleged incident in Afghanistan. According to unconfirmed reports, the incident involved two members of a “defence support team” who were stationed in Kabul. Defence support teams are highly secretive outfits that operate abroad and bring together members of Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) with officers of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) —the country’s primary external intelligence agency. Some reports suggest that a group of SAS soldiers had been drinking heavily at the embassy of Australia in the Afghan capital, and that one of them, who was heavily intoxicated, pointed a loaded handgun at a female ASIS officer, while verbally threatening her.

Cooler heads prevailed and the incident ended quickly. But it allegedly shook everybody who witnessed it, and it was quickly reported to the Inspector General. The watchdog promptly carried out an audit “to make sure guns were only being issued to foreign posts that really needed them”. Its written recommendations were circulated within ASIS earlier this week. However, the agency says it will not reveal the precise content of the Inspector General’s recommendations, because it could “prejudice [Australia’s] security relations with other counties” and place spies at risk.

http://intelnews.org/2015/10/21/01-1797/ 

UK terror threat: Four arrested on terrorism suspicion in London and West Yorkshire raids

Five suspected terrorists have this morning (21 October) been arrested in London and West Yorkshire by counter terrorist officers. Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command arrested a 23-year-old man under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism, an a home in east London.

Officers continue to search the address, the location of which a Met spokesman could not reveal for "operational reasons", and a second residential address in east London. The man is being detained under Schedule 8 of Terrorism Act 2000 legislation.

The arrest came as four more people were detained in connection with Syria-related terror offences on the same day in West Yorkshire. Counter-terror officers detained three men and one woman and are searching five properties in Sheffield, Batley and Dewsbury.

Two men from Sheffield, aged 40 and 36, were arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 5 of the Terrorism Act – preparation to commit an act of terrorism - while a 55-year-old woman and a 44-year-old man from Batley were arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 15 – terrorist fundraising.

Detective Chief Superintendent Clive Wain, Head of the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, said: "We understand that people may be concerned following today's arrests however we would like to reassure communities that today's activity is as a result of an ongoing investigation which is intelligence led. There is no evidence to suggest that communities are at risk."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-terror-threat-four-arrested-terrorism-suspicion-london-west-yorkshire-raids-1525002 

U.S. to Iraq: If Russia helps you fight ISIS, we can't

The U.S. has told Iraq's leaders they must choose between ongoing American support in the battle against militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and asking the Russians to intervene instead.

Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that the Iraqis had promised they would not request any Russian airstrikes or support for the fight against ISIS.

Shortly after leaving Baghdad, Dunford told reporters traveling with him that he had laid out a choice when he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi earlier Tuesday.

"I said it would make it very difficult for us to be able to provide the kind of support you need if the Russians were here conducting operations as well," Dunford said. "We can't conduct operations if the Russians were operating in Iraq right now."

He said there was "angst" in the U.S. when reports surfaced that al-Abadi had said he would welcome Russian airstrikes in Iraq. The U.S., Dunford said, "can't have a relationship right now with Russia in the context of Iraq."

The ultimatum to Iraq comes as the U.S. grapples with Russia's dramatically increased role in the war in Syria, just to the west of Iraq.

In Syria, President Vladimir Putin has essentially rescued his close ally, President Bashar Assad, from opposition forces that had been inching closer to his seat of power prior to the beginning of Russian airstrikes at the end of September.

Russia's intervention was not telegraphed beforehand to the U.S., and while Moscow first insisted its primary target was ISIS in Syria, it became apparent immediately that the Russian planes were targeting other opposition groups more in a clear effort to shore up Assad's beleaguered forces.

Assad visited Moscow Tuesday in his first known trip abroad since the war broke out in Syria in 2011 to meet Putin and personally thank him for intervening.

As CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports, the visit was a clear sign of who's now running the show on the government side of the Syrian conflict, and it was a lot more than a simply courtesy call paid by Assad as Putin's jets have effectively become the Syrian air force. Photos of the meeting show the Syrian leader smiling as he hasn't smiled in years.

The choice given to Abadi in Iraq by Dunford on Tuesday is a clear indication that the U.S. is not willing to compete with Russia for airspace over two neighboring countries deeply intertwined in the same convoluted war.

The U.S. and Russia put into practice new rules on Tuesday designed to minimize the risk of air collisions between military aircraft over Syria.

Reuters reports that the U.S. ultimatum to Iraq puts Abadi in a difficult position, as his own country's ruling political alliance and some powerful Shiite groups have been pushing him to request Russian air support.

The news agency said a proposal to request Russian strikes had been put to Abadi last week, but that he was yet to respond.

"Abadi told the meeting parties that it wasn't the right time to include the Russians in the fight because that would only complicate the situation with the Americans and could have undesired consequences even on long-term future relations with America," Reuters quoted a senior Shiite politician close to Abadi as saying.

Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador in London, who has a history of snarky jabs at U.S. policy on Twitter, took to the social media platform to suggest "terrorists must be rejoicing" at the news that Russia appeared unlikely to get a request for help from the Iraqis.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-iraq-chose-between-american-and-russian-airstrikes-in-isis-fight/