Difference between revisions of "Ian Hurst"

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==Army==
 
==Army==
Hurst joined the army as a private soldier in 1980. He completed his [[Intelligence Corps]] training the following year and was promoted to lance corporal.  
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Hurst joined the army as a private soldier in 1980. He completed his [[Intelligence Corps]] training the following year and was promoted to lance corporal.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
  
He was posted to Northern Ireland in late 1981 and worked in the special collation team which was transferring intelligence material on to the then newly introduced computer database.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
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===3SCT===
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He was posted to Northern Ireland in late 1981 and worked in the special collation team which was transferring intelligence material on to the then newly introduced computer database.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref> According to the ''Sunday Times'' the unit was known as 3SCT and the database was [[Crucible]].<ref name="heart8899">Liam Clarke, The British spy at heart of IRA, ''Sunday Times'', 8 August 1999.</ref><ref name="Garda8899">Liam Clarke, MI5 'operated network of Garda agents', ''Sunday Times'', 8 August 1999.</ref>
  
After three months he moved to [[121 Intelligence Section]] at [[Head Quarters Northern Ireland]] (HQNI), where he worked as a collator.  
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===121 Intelligence Section===
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After three months he moved to [[121 Intelligence Section]] at [[Head Quarters Northern Ireland]] (HQNI), where he worked as a collator.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref> According to the ''Sunday Times'', he was involved in producing intelligence reports for Major-General [[James Glover]] in this role.  
  
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The ''Sunday Times'' also claimed that at both 3CST and 121 Section, Ingram/Hurst had access to [[RUC]], [[MI5]] and [[MI6]] intelligence as well as Military Intelligence Source Reports.<ref name="heart8899">Liam Clarke, The British spy at heart of IRA, ''Sunday Times'', 8 August 1999.</ref>
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===FRU Collator===
 
In autumn 1983 he was posted to the [[Force Research Unit]]. he was employed by the FRU for just under a year as a collator, during which time he was promoted to corporal.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
 
In autumn 1983 he was posted to the [[Force Research Unit]]. he was employed by the FRU for just under a year as a collator, during which time he was promoted to corporal.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
  
From 1984 to 1987, he was employed in Great Britain, including a six month tour abroad. He was promoted to sergeant in 1986. In late 1987, he was posted to the FRU in Northern Ireland as an agent handler. he served in this role for just under three years. His final posting was as a collator in the [[Defence Intelligence Staff]] in the [[Ministry of Defence]]. he left the Army in 1991.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
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===Return to Great Britain===
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From 1984 to 1987, he was employed in Great Britain, including a six month tour abroad. He was promoted to sergeant in 1986.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
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===FRU Fermanagh===
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In late 1987, he was posted to the FRU in Northern Ireland as an agent handler. he served in this role for just under three years.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
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===Defence Intelligence Staff===
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His final posting was as a collator in the [[Defence Intelligence Staff]] in the [[Ministry of Defence]]. he left the Army in 1991.<ref name="SavilleStatement">[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101103103930/http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/evidence/K/KI_0002.pdf "Martin Ingram" Witness statement], Bloody Sunday Inquiry.</ref>
  
 
=="Martin Ingram"==
 
=="Martin Ingram"==

Revision as of 16:46, 13 July 2013

Ian Hurst in Fermanagh, around 1988.

Ian Hurst is a former British Army soldier. He served in the Intelligence Corps and in the Force Research Unit. Under the pseudonym Martin Ingram he publicised claims that Freddie Scappaticci was an IRA informer codenamed Stakeknife.[1]

Army

Hurst joined the army as a private soldier in 1980. He completed his Intelligence Corps training the following year and was promoted to lance corporal.[2]

3SCT

He was posted to Northern Ireland in late 1981 and worked in the special collation team which was transferring intelligence material on to the then newly introduced computer database.[2] According to the Sunday Times the unit was known as 3SCT and the database was Crucible.[3][4]

121 Intelligence Section

After three months he moved to 121 Intelligence Section at Head Quarters Northern Ireland (HQNI), where he worked as a collator.[2] According to the Sunday Times, he was involved in producing intelligence reports for Major-General James Glover in this role.

The Sunday Times also claimed that at both 3CST and 121 Section, Ingram/Hurst had access to RUC, MI5 and MI6 intelligence as well as Military Intelligence Source Reports.[3]

FRU Collator

In autumn 1983 he was posted to the Force Research Unit. he was employed by the FRU for just under a year as a collator, during which time he was promoted to corporal.[2]

Return to Great Britain

From 1984 to 1987, he was employed in Great Britain, including a six month tour abroad. He was promoted to sergeant in 1986.[2]

FRU Fermanagh

In late 1987, he was posted to the FRU in Northern Ireland as an agent handler. he served in this role for just under three years.[2]

Defence Intelligence Staff

His final posting was as a collator in the Defence Intelligence Staff in the Ministry of Defence. he left the Army in 1991.[2]

"Martin Ingram"

According to Hurst, he decided to write a book in 1997, "to highlight aspects of my service which had a genuine public interest".[5] He subsequently surfaced in the media under the pseudonym Martin Ingram.[6]

Times Articles

The first Martin Ingram articles by journalist Liam Clarke appeared in the Sunday Times on 8 August 1999.[3] The paper stated that Ingram/Hurst "approached the Sunday Times because of his anger at what he believed were misleading television reports of FRU activity in the wake of the case of Brian Nelson, a former soldier who infiltrated the Ulster Defence Association.[4]

"Steak Knife" claim

Ingram/Hurst claimed to be aware of a high-ranking army agent in the IRA:

Martin Ingram was on night shift at the British military intelligence headquarters in Northern Ireland when one of the phones rang. It was the hotline - a number known only to and reserved for Britain's most cherished agent, a man known by the codename Steak Knife.
Steak Knife was and is the crown jewel of British intelligence in Ulster, a man at the heart of the IRA's war effort who had to be kept happy at all costs. His source reports were read by ministers. His output was, and remains, so prolific that two handlers and four collators work full-time on them.[3]

MI5 Gardai claims

The initial 8 August 1999 stories also claimed that MI5 had an agent network in the Gardai Siochana:

"MI5's best man was a senior member of the gardai who was codenamed 'Eamon'. He frequently met his handlers in Dublin airport," said the soldier, who asked to use the pseudonym Martin Ingram. "MI5's main targets appeared to be gardai and they weren't particularly hard targets to crack because they were basically law-and-order people opposed to the IRA."[4]

The Sunday Times stated that Ingram/Hurst "ruled out the possibility that meetings between MI5 officers and gardai could have been a legitimate exchange of intelligence".[4]

Sinn Fein claims

According to the Sunday Times, Ingram Hurst claimed that "a leading Sinn Fein figure was on the MI5 payroll, providing a steady stream of internal policy documents and reports on republican thinking on the move into politics after the 1981 hunger strike."[3]

Arrest

Following a series of articles in The Times in 1999, Hurst was arrested by Special Branch police officers in connection with alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act. He was not charged but was subject to an injunction.[5]

Hurst moved to France in 2004.[5]

Computer hacking

Hurst was allegedly hacked by private detective Philip Campbell Smith on behalf of the News of the World in the summer of 2006.[5] [7]

Hurst later stated:

I now cannot recall whether I opened an email from a bogus address in 2006. However, I can say that ~ would have been much more likely to have opened an email that had come from a trusted contact rather than an unfamiliar or unknown name. I do know that an email was sent to me by a trusted media contact within Times Newspapers Ltd around the time the Trojan became active and was collecting information from my computer. I have recently seen evidence that this individual was in email contact with X regarding my activities during these months, something which had previously been denied.[5]

The 'X' referred to was Philip Campbell Smith.[7]

The police first became aware that Hurst's computer had been compromised during an arrest in 2007.[5]

The police allegedly obtained further information about the hacking of Hurst's computer following the arrest of Philip Campbell Smith in 2009.[5] [7]

According to the The Guardian:

MI5 became aware that Smith had targeted Hurst's email in an attempt to find the location of Scappaticci. They made no approach to Hurst, apparently on the grounds that he was preparing to write an unauthorised book about his experience in Northern Ireland and could not be trusted. They may have taken steps to alert Scappaticci. They then asked the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) to investigate.[7]

In late December 2010, Hurst was approached by Stephen Scott of Panorama with evidence that his computer had been hacked.[5]

Hurst subsequently confronted the alleged hacker in a meeting that was secretly filmed by Panorama. he told the Leveson Inquiry:

During the course of our meeting, X stated that he had placed a computer Trojan on my hard drive (by sending me an email from a bogus address which t then opened) and had, over a three month period, obtained all email traffic which was sent and received by me.[5]

Hurst was not informed of the hacking by police until October 2011.[5]

External Resources

Notes

  1. Roy Greenslade, An overlooked Panorama scoop as a British soldier breaks cover, Greenslade Blog, guardian.co.uk, 16 March 2011.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Martin Ingram" Witness statement, Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Liam Clarke, The British spy at heart of IRA, Sunday Times, 8 August 1999.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Liam Clarke, MI5 'operated network of Garda agents', Sunday Times, 8 August 1999.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 [Witness Statement of Ian Hurst], Leveson Inquiry, 9 November 2011.
  6. Roy Greenslade, An overlooked Panorama scoop as a British soldier breaks cover, Greenslade Blog, guardian.co.uk, 16 March 2011.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Vikram Dodd and Nick Davies, Man convicted in conspiracy case also accused of hacking computer for NoW, The Guardian, 20 February 2012.