He's not done yet

Things are getting odder in the Freddie affair. A minor point of confusion concerns the spelling of his alleged British intelligence codename: Stakeknife or Steakknife? But there's also the larger the question of where he is. Those unnamed sources we posted about yesterday had him at a secure location in England -- perhaps keeping an eye on those weapons of mass destruction that Iraq used to have. But today Freddie has confounded these stories by popping up in his solicitor's office in Belfast, although the reports we've seen so far are a little ambiguous about how much he said and how much was a statement read by his solicitor. Nevertheless, the BBC story has a picture of him, looking somewhat older than the other pictures that had been circulating. It does seem clear that the extent of media spin surrounding this case would put even the Bush White House to shame. The media line yesterday was very dismissive of the Sinn Fein version of events, viewing it as a panicked response by the IRA, trying to downplay a devastating blow to their morale. But now, unlike Osama and Saddam, the mystery man has decided to speak for himself. By the end of this affair, a favourite Sinn Fein word, securocrats [where administrators and shady domestic law enforcement meet], could have made its way to popular usage.

Update: Ed Moloney, who knows a lot about the IRA, writes in the Daily Telegraph (reg. req.) that the correct spelling is Steak Knife.