Peter Keeley

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(spook)

Peter Keeley is, according to journalist Henry McDonald, the real name of the man often referred to by the pseudonym 'Kevin Fulton', an agent who infiltrated the IRA in the 1970s for the Force Research Unit (FRU).[1]

Background

"Fulton"'s real name is alleged by Irish republican sources to be Peter Keeley, a Roman Catholic from Newry, County Down, who joined the Royal Irish Rangers at the age of 18. He was selected and trained by British Military Intelligence and returned to civilian life to infiltrate the Provisional IRA. "Fulton" claims he became one of the organization's bomb-development technical specialists. This has been disputed by the Phoenix magazine who claimed Fulton was originally a small time thief [2]

Republican Gerard Bradley said in June 2004 that he had known Keeley in the early 1990s:

“I was first introduced to Keeley in the middle of 1993 by Joe Haughey. Keeley made himself out to be someone who could help the republican movement with cars, money, phones – a real wheeler-dealer, a Del Boy. He also tried to play up his connections and claimed he could get us anything we wanted.[3]

Fulton has claimed that he was interrogated by another FRU informer in the IRA, Freddie Scappaticci, after exposing an operation to his handlers:

Yesterday, Mr Fulton claimed he foiled the IRA's attempt to murder a senior policeman, Derek Martindale, in 1994 by reporting the terrorists' plans to his handlers so that they were arrested on their way to shoot the officer in east Belfast.
Mr Scappaticci was then deputy head of the Provisionals' feared internal security unit, the infamous Nutting Squad, charged with sniffing out and executing informers.[4]

Fulton has suggested that his handlers were prepared to sacrifice him to protect Scappaticci's cover.

"He let us go but when they told me to come back a third time, I knew that if I went I would never come back alive. I didn't know he was Stakeknife but I am sure my handlers knew. They said 'Go, you'll be all right. We have the inside track.' But I went awol. I knew if I went I would never have returned alive.[5]

Gerard Bradley challenged Fulton's account of the Martindale operation:

“He had no involvement in that operation whatsoever. He’s running around saying he saved Martindale, yet his own published statement on the incident actually calls that into question.
“I thought of him as a bit of a strange bloke – but someone who could be used a bit. About three weeks before the attack – which none of the team involved in even knew about until the actual day – I had asked Keeley to get me a mobile phone.
“That was the phone I had in my possession in the house in the New Lodge when we were arrested after the team over in Belmont were scooped.”[6]

In August 2003, Fulton accused the editor of the North Belfast News, Seán Mag Uidhir, of being a British agent. In response Sinn Féin vice-president Pat Doherty accused Fulton of being part of a "British securocrat strategy of misinformation aimed at damaging the republican constituency and undermining the peace process."[7]

Fulton was detained in November 2006 and questioned about the murders of Eoin Morley and Ranger Cyril Smith, before being released without charge.[8]

Omagh Bomb

Fulton has claimed that the RUC and Garda Special Branch failed to act on a tip-off that could have prevented the Omagh Bomb.[9]

Affiliations

External Resources

See also pseudominous entry Peter Keeley

"Kevin Fulton" is the pseudonym of Peter Keeley [10], a British agent from Newry, Northern Ireland who allegedly spied on the Provisional IRA for British Military Intelligence.

"Fulton" is believed to be in London, where he is suing the Crown, claiming his British military handlers cut off their connections and financial aid to him. In 2004 he was reportedly suing the Andersonstown News, an Irish republican news outlet in Belfast for revealing his purported true name as well as his photograph. The status of that suit is not clear.[11]

Terror activities

In the published book,Unsung Hero, 'Fulton' claims that he which claimed Mr Fulton worked undercover as a British Army agent within the PIRA at the height of its campaign. He was believed to have operated predominantly inside the IRA's, "South Down Brigade" as well as concentrating on IRA activity in South Armagh.[12] "Fulton" supposedly pioneered the use of flash guns to detonate bombs.[13]

In one incident, "Fulton" was questioned on responsibility for designing firing mechanisms used in a horizontal mortar attack on an RUC armoured patrol car on Merchants Quay, Newry, County Down, on 27 March 1992. A 34-year-old RUC officer (Colleen McMurray) died and another RUC officer was seriously injured [14] "Kevin Fulton" claims he tipped off his MI5 handler that an attack was likely.[15]

Arrest

On 5 November 2006, he was released without charge after being arrested in London, and transferred to Belfast to be questioned about his knowledge or involvement in the deaths of Eoin Morley, Colleen McMurray and Ranger Cyril Smith. "I personally did not kill people", said "Fulton" [15] The British military has not disclosed whether he was released in Belfast or transferred back to London. The reasons cited as evidence for the interrogation were from the book, Unsung Hero.

Lawyers acting for "Fulton", a Force Research Unit (FRU) agent and RUC Special Branch informer asked the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) to provide him and his family with new identities, relocation and immediate implementation of the complete financial package, including his army pension and other discharge benefits, which "Fulton" was allegedly promised by the MoD during his covert tour of duty.

See also


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References

  1. ↑ Henry McDonald, Revealed: five British spies inside IRA, The Observer, 18 May 2003.
  2. ↑ http://www.thephoenix.ie/phoenix/subscriber/library/volume-28/issue-11/page-12-13.pdf ,
  3. ↑ Fulton Exposed, Andersonstown News, 3 June 2004, via Saoirse32 blog.
  4. ↑ Rosie Cowan, Ex-agent reports Stakeknife to police, The Guardian, 16 May 2003.
  5. ↑ Rosie Cowan, Ex-agent reports Stakeknife to police, The Guardian, 16 May 2003.
  6. ↑ Fulton Exposed, Andersonstown News, 3 June 2004, via Saoirse32 blog.
  7. ↑ Laura Friel, Belfast journalist rejects 'spy' claim, An Phoblacht, 7 August 2003.
  8. ↑ Former spy released without charge, RTE News, 6 November 2006.
  9. ↑ Henry McDonald, Revealed: five British spies inside IRA, The Observer, 18 May 2003.
  10. ↑ http://saoirse32.blogsome.com/2004/12/27/kevin-fultons-photo/
  11. ↑ Saoirse32 website with "Fulton"'s photograph
  12. ↑ http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1106/fultonk.html RTÉ News
  13. ↑ Unsung Hero, Kevin Fulton, Jay Nally, Ian Gallagher, John Blake Publishing Ltd., London 2006, ISBN 9 781844 540341 pg. 146.
  14. ↑ BBC's Hard Talk interview, 4 October 2006
  15. ↑ a b Unsung Hero, Kevin Fulton, Jay Nally, Ian Gallagher, John Blake Publishing Ltd., London 2006, ISBN 9 781844 540341 pg. 147.

External links

Warning: Default sort key "Fulton, Kevin" overrides earlier default sort key "Keeley, Peter".

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