The IRA leadership is attempting to reassert control as dismay spreadsin republican ranks over 'Stakeknife'. Suzanne Breen reports.
Privately, the senior Provisional IRA figure in west Belfast admits the seriousness of the situation.
"The outing of Freddie Scappaticci as an informer is the gravest crisis for the IRA in modern history," he says. "It has the potential to destroy the army. Certainly, it's ripping the heart out of it."
Publicly, he and other IRA leaders are playing down the disclosure that Scappaticci, or "Scap" as he was known, was a top-level informer. "We need volunteers to remain calm. We need anger and emotion not to take over. We need to maintain control at this critical juncture," he says.
The damage-limitation exercise involves the importance of Scappaticci within the IRA being played down. He is now presented as a "bit player", not the key figure he was. The IRA is saying he wasn't in good health and had taken a "back seat" recently. That's proving difficult to sell. A grassroots activist says: "I saw him regularly in the company of senior Sinn Féin and army \ members." A relative of Scappaticci has worked as a bodyguard for Mr Gerry Adams. Many local republicans report seeing Scappaticci himself in the company of the Sinn Féin president and the leading west Belfast republican, Mr Bobby Storey.
Grassroots activists have also been briefed that Scappaticci is the "victim of black propaganda" and is not in British protective custody but is with the IRA "sorting out this mess".
Provisional leaders are also trying to blame the situation on the British. They are attempting to shirk their responsibility for allowing a top-level informer to infiltrate and remain in their ranks.
Another element to the leadership's strategy involves distancing Scappaticci from Sinn Féin. "The message must go out that this man had no involvement with the peace process, decision-making or Sinn Féin," said a senior figure.
But many grassroots members suspect he was a valuable weapon for the British in terms of the peace process. "The political and military aspects of the republican struggle were interlinked," said an Andersonstown activist. "If the British were getting top-level information on virtually every aspect of IRA life, they had a huge advantage at the negotiating table.
"Through their agent, they have been able to shape the IRA for over two decades. They have been able to eliminate hardline volunteers - either through death or prison - and ensure no harm came to those who suited the British agenda." Another activist said: "I've always been loyal to the leadership but my faith has been shaken to the core. The fact 'Scap' was a tout means from the moment anyone joined the IRA, they were compromised.
"It didn't matter what personal security precautions they took. Everything must now be re-examined. We have to look at who was shot as an informer and who wasn't; who was jailed and who remained free; who rose through the ranks without a hiccup." A north Belfast IRA member said: "We have known for years loyalist paramilitaries were heavily infiltrated and were effectively puppets of the British.
"Now it appears that, at a leadership level, the same was true of the IRA. There is a great danger that, unknown to its volunteers who risked life and liberty, the IRA was largely the plaything of British intelligence.
"They decided who lived and died, who went to jail and who remained on the streets, which operations went ahead and which were thwarted. There seems to have been, at best, terrible negligence at a leadership level."
The leadership is desperately attempting to challenge that impression and reassure members. "We need to keep people on board and, yes, buy time," said a source.
Some activists are claiming the leadership must have suspected Stakeknife's identity several years ago, when stories began circulating in the media, but took no action.
The leadership is anxious to stamp out grassroots rumours that "Scap" wasn't the only high-level informer. "If the Brits have infiltrated the republican movement militarily, they're sure to have done so politically as well. You don't know who to trust. 'Scap' was above suspicion but nobody is above suspicion anymore," says a veteran activist.