Rogue one A Star Wars story, a review of sorts

 

Well it is Christmas time and time for the big studios to reel out their offerings for the period. They used to be released during the summer but the Lord of the Rings changed all that. I went to see “Rogue one  a star wars story ” last saturday night and was suprised to find the film not a flop like “Star wars The force Awakens ” or in a similar vein but don’t think its a trilogy either. The special effects abound and so do the number of new worlds to explore. Our heroine is set as a prisoner in imperial labour camp who is rescued by the rebel alliance who have a “job” for her to do, contact her father who is a military scientist for the imperials on the weapon they have just built a “Death star” and so the adventure rolls out. The cast preform their tasks well and the story tries to weave itself into the original star wars epic. Worth a look when it comes out on dvd. Rate it 4 out of 5.

Stakeknife

Here is a name we heard of before Freddie Scappaticci aka Stakeknife. (though he denies it), if you haven’t you sure to hear of it due to a new investigation being underway headed by English police Bedfordshire chief constable Jon Boutcher.

A international team has been drawn up to investigate the up to fifty killings performed by stakeknife. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have seemingly passed the matter on. Scappaticci is alleged to have been a  “walk in ”  he volunteered to work for the British’s army intelligence section -Force Research unit/ FRU-in the late seventies and received payments of up to £80,000 st/year. He was regarded as quite a catch for British intelligence as he headed up the IRA’s internal security unit or “nutting squad” consequently the IRA had no internal security and the material he passed to his handlers was of high grade.

The book “stakeknife” makes for grisly reading as it details the “running” of agents their recruitment (recruitment rate usually one in twenty approaches was rated as a success , normally recruited for small sums of money i.e £200/month ) the decision to kill people being made by  intelligence handlers, people who had been set up, petty touts being killed to protect bigger touts or sacrificed in a matter of fact . The book details very high levels of infiltration of PIRA and that of loyalist paras but the FRU/ british army wholly campaigns against the IRA with little or no smokescreen present with loyalist paramilitary. The idea was to place the “security forces ” as a honest broker or disinterested third party despite the level of penetration estimated to be at over 70% of its (IRA) operations.

The exact toll of “stakeknife” were logged with the PSNI and the stevens inquiry and the british police are the ones providing stakeknife with refuge. It will be interesting to see if the legality of FRU’s operations stand up or will they get a murder rap for them most unlikely to happen. Only time will tell if another cover up happens.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/stakeknife-investigator-uncovers-significant-new-evidence-1.2829929