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((short description|British Army intelligence unit))
((Use dmy dates|date=April 2022))
((more citations needed|date=March 2011))

((Infobox military unit
| unit_name = Force Research Unit
| image =
| caption =
| dates = 1982–2007
| country = ((flag|United Kingdom))
| allegiance =
| branch = ((army|UK))
| type = Military intelligence unit
| role = [[Agent handling]]<br>[[Black operation]]<br>[[Clandestine human intelligence]]<br>[[Clandestine operation]]<br>[[Close-quarters combat]]<br>[[Counterinsurgency]]<br>[[Counterintelligence]]<br>[[Countersurveillance]]<br>[[Counterterrorism]]<br>[[Covert operation]]<br>[[Direct action (military)|Direct action]]<br>[[Espionage]]<br>[[HUMINT]]<br>[[Intelligence assessment]]<br>[[ISTAR]]<br>[[Military intelligence]]<br>[[Raid (military)|Raiding]]<br>[[Special operations]]<br>[[Special reconnaissance]]<br>[[Surveillance]]
| size = 
| command_structure = [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]]
| garrison = 
| garrison_label = 
| nickname =
| patron =
| motto =
| colors =
| colors_label =
| march =
| mascot =
| equipment =
| equipment_label =
| battles = [[Operation Banner]] ([[The Troubles]])
| anniversaries =
| decorations =
| battle_honours =
| battle_honours_label =
| disbanded =
<!-- Commanders -->
| commander1 =
| commander1_label =
| commander2 =
| commander2_label =
| notable_commanders =
))

The '''Force Research Unit''' ('''FRU''') was a covert [[military intelligence]] unit of the [[British Army]]'s [[Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)|Intelligence Corps]]. It was established in 1982 during [[the Troubles]] to obtain intelligence from terrorist organisations in [[Northern Ireland]] by recruiting and running agents and informants.<ref name="Report2012">((cite web|title=Volume 1 Chapter 3: Intelligence structures Report of the Patrick Finucane Review|url=http://www.patfinucanereview.org:80/report/volume01/chapter003/|website=Pat Finucane Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216022903/http://www.patfinucanereview.org/report/volume01/chapter003/|archive-date=16 December 2012|url-status=dead))</ref> From 1987 to 1991, it was commanded by [[Gordon Kerr (British Army officer)|Gordon Kerr]].<ref name="stevenspeople" />

It worked alongside existing intelligence agencies including the [[RUC Special Branch|Special Branch]] of the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] and [[MI5]].<ref name="Report2012" /> In 1988, the All-Source Intelligence Cell was formed to improve the sharing of intelligence between the FRU, Special Branch and MI5.<ref name="Report2012" />

The FRU was renamed to the '''[[Joint Support Group]]''' '''(JSG)''' following the [[Stevens Inquiries]] into allegations of collusion between the security forces and Protestant paramilitary groups.<ref>((cite news|last1=Rayment|first1=Sean|title=Top secret army cell breaks terrorists|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1541542/Top-secret-army-cell-breaks-terrorists.html|access-date=1 July 2017|work=The Telegraph|date=4 February 2007))</ref><ref>((cite news|last1=Sharp|first1=Aaron|title=Secret army unit credited with saving THOUSANDS of civilian lives facing chop|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/joint-support-group-secret-army-3221756|access-date=1 July 2017|work=Mirror|date=9 March 2014))</ref>  The FRU was found to have [[Ulster loyalism#Collusion with the security forces|colluded]] with loyalist paramilitaries by the Stevens Inquiries.<ref name="stevenspeople">((cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2956161.stm |title=Stevens Inquiry: Key people |work=BBC News |date=17 April 2003 |access-date=27 September 2013))</ref> This has been confirmed by some former members of the unit.<ref>((cite news|last1=Mackay|first1=Neil|title=My unit conspired in the murder of civilians in Ireland|url=https://www.serve.com/pfc/fru/fru12022k1a.html|work=Sunday Herald|date=19 November 2000|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010827122005/https://www.serve.com/pfc/fru/fru12022k1a.html|archive-date=27 August 2001))</ref>

== Collusion with loyalist paramilitaries ==
[[File:UFF D Company mural.png|thumb|A mural of the [[Ulster Defence Association|UDA]]/[[Ulster Freedom Fighters|UFF]]]]
In the mid 1980s, the FRU recruited [[Brian Nelson (Northern Irish loyalist)|Brian Nelson]] as a double agent inside the [[Ulster Defence Association]] (UDA), and helped him to become the UDA's chief intelligence officer.<ref name="nelsonobituary">((cite news |date=17 April 2003 |title=Obituary: Brian Nelson |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/apr/17/guardianobituaries.northernireland |access-date=27 September 2013))</ref> Until it was proscribed in 1992, the UDA was a legal [[Ulster loyalist]] paramilitary group that had been involved in hundreds of attacks on Catholic and nationalist civilians as well as against republican paramilitaries.

In 1988, weapons were shipped to loyalists from [[Apartheid in South Africa|South Africa]] under Nelson's supervision.<ref name="nelsonobituary" />

Through Nelson, the FRU helped the UDA to target people for assassination. In 2003, the BBC reported that FRU commanders aimed to make the UDA "more professional" by helping it to target and kill republican activists and prevent it from killing uninvolved Catholic civilians.<ref name="stevenspeople" /> If someone was under threat, agents like Nelson were to inform the FRU who were then to alert the police.<ref name="stevenspeople" /> [[Gordon Kerr (British Army officer)|Gordon Kerr]], who ran the FRU from 1987 to 1991, claimed Nelson and the FRU saved over 200 lives in this way.<ref name="stevenspeople" /><ref name="guardianscandal">[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/17/northernireland.northernireland2 "Scandal of Ulster’s secret war"]. [[The Guardian]]. 17 April 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2013.</ref> However, the [[Stevens Inquiries]] found evidence that only two lives were saved and said many loyalist attacks could have been prevented but were allowed to go ahead.<ref name="guardianscandal" /> The Stevens team believes that Nelson was responsible for at least 30 murders and many other attacks, including most prominently solicitor [[Pat Finucane]], and that many of the victims were uninvolved civilians.<ref name="guardianscandal" /> Although Nelson was imprisoned in 1992, FRU intelligence continued to help the UDA and other loyalist groups.<ref name="birw">[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/violence/birw0299.htm “Deadly Intelligence: State Involvement in Loyalist Murder in Northern Ireland – Summary”]. British Irish Rights Watch, February 1999.</ref><ref>Human Rights in Northern Ireland: Hearing before the [[United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs|Committee on International Relations]] of the [[United States House of Representatives]], 24 June 1997. US Government Printing Office, 1997.</ref> From 1992 to 1994, loyalists were responsible for more deaths than republicans for the first time since the 1960s.<ref>((cite book |last=Clayton |first=Pamela |title=Enemies and Passing Friends: Settler ideologies in twentieth-century Ulster |year=1996 |publisher=Pluto Press |page=156 |quote=More recently, the resurgence in loyalist violence that led to their carrying out more killings than republicans from the beginning of 1992 until their ceasefire (a fact widely reported in Northern Ireland) was still described as following 'the IRA's well-tested tactic of trying to usurp the political process by violence'…))</ref>

Allegations exist that the FRU sought ''restriction orders'', a de-confliction agreement to restrict patrolling or surveillance in an area over a specified period, in advance of a number of loyalist paramilitary attacks in order to facilitate easy access to and escape from their target((Citation needed|date=May 2022)). This de-confliction activity was carried out at a weekly Tasking and Co-ordination Group which included representatives of the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]], [[MI5]] and the [[British Army]]. It is claimed the FRU asked for restriction orders to be placed on areas where they knew loyalist paramilitaries were going to attack.<ref>((cite book|title=Ten-Thirty-Three|first=Nicholas|last=Davies|author-link=Nicholas Davies (journalist)|year=2000|publisher=Mainstream |isbn=1-84018-343-8))</ref>

==Alleged infiltration of republican paramilitary groups==
FRU are also alleged to have handled agents within [[Irish republicanism|republican]] paramilitary groups. A number of agents are suspected to have been handled by the FRU including [[Provisional IRA|IRA]] units who planted bombs and assassinated. ((Citation needed|date=November 2007)) Attacks are said to have taken place involving FRU-controlled agents highly placed within the IRA.

It is suspected that the FRU sought to influence the IRA primarily through an agent codenamed "[[Stakeknife]]", thought to have been a member of the IRA's [[Internal Security Unit]] (a unit responsible for [[counter-intelligence]], interrogation and [[court martial]] of informers within the IRA). There is a debate as to whether this agent was IRA member [[Freddie Scappaticci]] or another, as of yet unidentified, IRA member.<ref>Scappaticci denies the allegations and in May 2003 began legal action to force the then NI Secretary of State, [[Jane Kennedy (politician)|Jane Kennedy]], to deny he is/was a British Agent. At this point (May 2006) Scappaticci has launched no libel actions against media making the allegations. There is also suspicion in Irish republican circles that the real "Stakeknife" and/or other British agents have yet to be unmasked, this suspicion was compounded by the revelation that [[Denis Donaldson]] was a mole within Sinn Féin/the Republican movement, and by interviews given by the man calling himself "[[Kevin Fulton]]" in March 2006.</ref> It is believed that "Stakeknife" was used by the FRU to influence the outcome of investigations conducted by the IRA's Internal Security Unit into the activities of IRA volunteers.

It is alleged that, in 1987, the UDA came into possession of details relating to the identity of the FRU-controlled IRA volunteer codenamed "Stakeknife" and that, unaware of this IRA volunteer's value to the FRU, they planned to assassinate him. Allegedly, after the FRU discovered "Stakeknife" was in danger from UDA assassination, they used [[Brian Nelson (double agent)|Brian Nelson]] to persuade the UDA to assassinate [[Francisco Notarantonio]] instead, a Belfast pensioner who had been [[interned]] as an Irish republican in the 1940s.<ref>According to the article title 'My unit conspired in the murder of civilians in Ireland' - by Neil Mackay, the officer in the FRU who passed Notarantonio's details to Nelson was "Captain M" assumed to be Cpt. Margaret Walshaw.</ref> The killing of Notarantonio was claimed by the UFF at the time.<ref>Details on the Death of Notarantonio available on CAIN Sutton [http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/sutton/chron/1987.html here].</ref>  Following the killing of Notarantonio, unaware of the involvement of the FRU, the IRA assassinated two UDA leaders in reprisal attacks. It has also been alleged that the FRU secretly passed details of the two UDA leaders to the IRA via "Stakeknife" in an effort to distract attention from him as a possible informer((Citation needed|date=May 2022)).

== FRU and the Stevens Inquiry ==
Former FRU operative [[Martin Ingram]] asserted that the arson attack which destroyed the offices of the [[Stevens Report|Stevens Inquiry]] was carried out by the FRU to destroy evidence on operational activities collected by Stevens' team.<ref>''Stakeknife: Britain's Secret Agents in Ireland'', [[Martin Ingram]], O'Brien Press, 2004</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Stakeknife]]

==References==
((reflist|33em))

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051028181011/http://www.relativesforjustice.com/publications/fru.htm Relatives For Justice]
*[http://www.madden-finucane.com Madden & Finucane]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2944007.stm Brian Nelson]



[[Category:Units of the Intelligence Corps (British Army)]]
[[Category:History of Ashford, Kent]]
[[Category:British Army in Operation Banner]]
[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1982]]
[[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 2007]]

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