These were the chilling words said to have been sent to Tony Blair in 1999 in a damning note bluntly summarising one of the consequences of Britain\u2019s decades-long intelligence war in Northern Ireland. State forces had crossed a line, guided by a secret review from 1980 that quietly rewired Britain\u2019s war, placing intelligence gathering above the law.<\/p>\n
What followed was the creation of a vast, covert agent-running machine that penetrated loyalist and republican organisations to unprecedented depths. Supporters claim the policy saved lives, helping pave the way for the Good Friday Agreement. Critics argue it also licensed murder, subverted justice and corrupted policing beyond repair.<\/p>\n
Full of new and important revelations, this meticulously researched book is the inside story of the decades-long struggle to expose that truth \u2013 an attritional battle between detectives and lawyers on one side, and a powerful \u2018securocracy\u2019 on the other that was determined to protect its secrets. Focusing on two of the most notorious agents, Brian Nelson and Freddie Scappaticci, it reveals how the State has doggedly fought to control the narrative, silence scrutiny and preserve its legacy.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These were the chilling words said to have been sent to Tony Blair in 1999 in a damning note bluntly summarising one of the consequences of Britain\u2019s decades-long intelligence war in Northern Ireland. State forces had crossed a line, guided by a secret review from 1980 that quietly rewired Britain\u2019s war, placing intelligence gathering above…<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":45518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"0","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"WooCommerce Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude"},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[251],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45380","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-history-politics","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"taxable","11":"shipping-taxable","12":"purchasable","13":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n