Irish Republican News · March 24, 2004

British spy seeks asylum in U.S.

A British Army agent threatened with jail for his allegations of Crown force collusion is seeking political asylum in the United States.

Sam Rosenfeld fled to America in a bid to escape imprisonment after writing to the Queen about alleged British collusion with unionist paramilitary killers.

The builder has confessed he spied on the IRA for the British Army's murderous `Force Research Unit', appears set to escape British efforts to silence him.

Mr Rosenfeld has waged a bitter legal battle with British Ministry of Defence chiefs after he was abandoned by intelligence officers.

Mr Rosenfeld provided his FRU handlers with information on republican activity in the border areas of Tyrone and Fermanagh during the early 1990s.

The MoD has threatened him with court injunctions in a bid to stop him going public.

He was even warned the authorities could jail him for writing to the Queen about his case.

But in a surprise new twist, he has lodged an asylum application with the US Department of Justice.

Although it could take more than a year for his bid to be processed, the former spy left London today, bound for the U.S. and its constitutional protection of free speech.

British military officials had sought a life-time injunction to stop him disclosing details about his time with the covert Force Research Unit.

Meanwhile, an anti-republican lobby group has claimed that Irish Garda police are to travel to England to question a former spy about the IRA campaign along the Irish border.

The man is said to have spied on the IRA for both RUC Special Branch and British military intelligence before leaving the North some years ago.

William Frazer, spokesman for the Armagh-based `FAIR' group, said: ``Hopefully his statement will give them enough information to open up an investigation into the allegations we have made.''

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