Agent Cobalt: Oireachtas Spy Scandal of MI5 Dirty Tricks

Weeks before a likely November election The Sunday Times Irish edition has again hit upon journalistic gold. 

A potential honeypot operation at the beating heart of power in Leinster House implicating an as-of-yet anonymous Irish parliamentarian, a Russian embassy apparatchik pulling strings to influence Brexit-era decision-makers, and the potential of a blackmail campaign to influence Irish foreign policy. 

Things have gotten very John le Carré all of a sudden on Kildare Street but is it all that it seems?

News of “Agent Cobalt” the anon Oireachtas member allegedly working at the behest of Russian foreign services is still being digested by the political garrison class in Dublin 48 hours after being splashed across headlines courtesy of Time security correspondent John Mooney.

Fleshed out by unknown Irish and British security sources, the piece outlines the work of Russian embassy official Sergey Prokopiev in recruiting one “useful idiot” to the Kremlin cause with a key focus on securing audiences with northern paramilitaries.

Raising but never confirming the possibility of kompromat being collected against Agent Cobalt, Mooney surprisingly or unsurprisingly never mounts the courage to name the politician despite the evidence against them.

Not the first espionage plot he is alleged to have rumbled this year alone Mooney earned kudos for linking ex-MEP Clare Daly to a Russian agent through dissident republicans in the weeks before June’s European election in a piece that potentially cost the Dublin anti-war politician her seat.

While no one would regard Ms Daly’s liaising as a conduit between paramilitaries including the Omagh bomber and Russian anti-corruption activists as espionage, are Cobalt’s alleged misdeeds simply a case of mundane covert networking being given the more sexy title of ‘spy’ in order to achieve a certain political reaction? 

Playing on the relative black hole that is Irish counterintelligence, the story has had its desired effect from The Sunday Times London-focused perspective forcing the question of Russian espionage onto the political agenda a month before a potential election.

Rathgar’s Russian embassy has been a major bugbear for both J2 – Defence Forces Intelligence Wing – and British Intelligence for some time in part for its outlandish size as well as an open secret in its role organising the Kremlin’s spy game not just in Ireland but in the the U.K as well.

While it is perfectly fair to say that Russia represents a legitimate threat to Irish sovereignty and that the Irish State should trust a Muscovite spook about as much as their British counterparts, it is also prudent to question the timing and sincerity of this security dump in the dying weeks of the 33rd Dáil.

Perfected in the era of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings British intelligence is accustomed to playing the Irish press like a banjo with the Agent Cobalt story perfectly playing into London rather than Dublin’s security interests.

Yes, Russia is a Eurasianist behemoth with interests contrary to our own but let’s not forget the elephant in the room when it comes to our actual security focus. Loyalist paramilitaries get a fraction of the journalistic look relative to the current scare over our ability to fend off Russian espionage attacks and for good reason.

The Murdoch press sounds the alarm on holes in our national security but would likely throw tantrums against a serious appraisal of our intelligence infrastructure and where our actual interests lie.

A revamp of flimsy Irish security services is not just needed but is coming and the likes of Mooney and other British-backed journos have one idea on the matter while nationalists have another.

In all probability, Cobalt is a gormless anti-Atlanticist socialist who has walked into a rake courtesy of an Irish naivety of all things foreign policy outside of our island. Or an inoffensive gombeen politician who, according to the report, saw the whole spy saga as an ego trip. As shown by the Palestine issue, views considered normal in Ireland are verboten in most of the Western world.

Regardless of the specter of Russian spooks running around Orwell Road, let’s not forget where the genuine influence operations against Irish democracy come from and its not Moscow or Beijing.