Irish Examiner FBI agent wanted two million to testify  15/07/2003 - 12:30:05 pm  FBI agent David Rupert told the Special Criminal Court today that he wanted $2m (€1.76m) after tax from the FBI for agreeing to testify against the alleged Real IRA leader Michael Mc Kevitt. Mr Rupert said that initially he was not interested in testifying and wanted to "walk away" after taking what was in his contract as an intelligence operative. But when he watched a programme on the Omagh bombing "I decided differently." "Since then we have had 9/11 and I'm happy I did," he added. Mr Rupert said that "the money had always been in the picture" but he added that after what he had been through over the past two-and-a-half years, including death threats to his daughter and brother, "there wasn't enough money". Mr Rupert told defence counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC that he agreed to testify in the latter part of 2000 "for a large sum of money and in the right circumstances". He said :"The right circumstances were the prosecution would do something to stop the bloodshed brought about by the Real IRA." Mr Rupert said that he asked the FBI for $2m (€1.76m) after tax to cover his security for the rest of his life an to replace lost wages. "That was what we were going to need to see us through the rest of our lives," he added. He also told the court that he looked for cash up front but the FBI did not work that way.  It was the eighteenth day of the trial of Michael Mc Kevitt (53) , of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth who denies membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann between August 29, 1999 and March 28, 2001. He also denies directing the activities of the same organisation. Mr Rupert (51), a former trucking company boss and bar owner , has told the court that he infiltrated dissident republican groups for the FBI and the British Security Service(MI5). The court has heard that Mr Rupert was paid $1.25m (€1.1m) for his work.  Mr Rupert has claimed that Mc Kevitt told him he wanted to set up a new dissident republican terrorist group that would carry out attacks in Britain and that he was seeking outside help, including from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, for the group. The trial is continuing.