U.S. Spy Concludes Testimony Against Alleged IRA Dissident

An American spy who is the key witness against an alleged dissident Irish Republican Army commander completed 15 days of unprecedented testimony Thursday in which he said the defendant wanted to attack Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government.

David Rupert, a 6-foot-6 trucker who was recruited by the FBI in 1994 to infiltrate extremist Irish circles by posing as a smuggler, is the first American spy featured in an Irish terrorism trial.

The defendant, Michael McKevitt, 53, the alleged founder of the group Real IRA, is being tried for “directing terrorism” and could receive a life sentence if convicted.

So far, the trial has focused on the 51-year-old Rupert, the central accuser. At the end of 11 days of cross-examination, McKevitt’s attorney, Hugh Hartnett, accused Rupert of being a fantasist who never met McKevitt. The accused sat yards behind him, flanked by two prison guards in Dublin’s no-jury Special Criminal Court.

“That’s foolishness,” Rupert replied.

Over the past two weeks, Hartnett repeatedly has accused Rupert of being a serial liar and a crook. The attorney noted that Rupert, a native of Upstate New York, has declared bankruptcy at least three times.

But Rupert, who acknowledged leading a life full of professional and marital failures, generally batted away Hartnett’s criticisms and frequently provoked sympathetic laughter.

Justice Richard Johnson, the senior judge on the three-member panel, thanked Rupert for his patience as his lengthy stint in the witness dock concluded Thursday.

Rupert and his wife, Maureen, have been in an FBI witness protection program since 2001, when he provided a statement to Ireland’s police force about his contacts with McKevitt and other alleged IRA dissidents.

He acknowledges receiving $1.25 million from the FBI for his work and his hope of receiving $2 million more to safeguard his future on the run from possible Real IRA retaliation.

The Real IRA -- founded in 1997 to oppose the IRA cease-fire that year and the Good Friday peace accord that followed -- killed 29 people and wounded more than 200 in an Aug. 15, 1998, car-bomb attack on the Northern Ireland town of Omagh. It was the deadliest blast in the 35-year conflict over the British territory.

Rupert said he decided to testify against McKevitt after seeing a TV documentary about Omagh’s maimed survivors.