More than 100 people have received security warnings from the PSNI following the discovery of a hit-list on a computer taken in police raids following the Castlereagh break-in in March.
The list of 200 names includes police officers, members of the British army and the judiciary, forensic scientists and politicians. Public representatives include loyalists and senior Conservatives. The discovery is considered part of republican intelligence files and was found following a search of a republican suspect's home in Belfast. Sources consider the find significant.
A well-placed security source said the list had been updated last year, possibly more recently, and other names had been annotated "Target". It was clear the intelligence had been built up and added to.
Those thought to be at risk have been told of the development over the past two weeks. It is not known why details of the list are being made known now, more than three months after the robbery at Special Branch offices and the raids and arrests which followed. Sinn Féin regards this issue with suspicion.
One indication was that the list was uncovered after a subsequent search of the computer's memory following an early examination.
A police spokesman said: "It is not our policy to discuss the personal security of any individual but we can confirm that as part of the ongoing investigation into the aggravated burglary in Castlereagh, a number of searches were carried out. Material seized continues to be examined. Where it has been identified someone might have been at risk or under any form of threat, steps have been taken to inform them."
The discovery will pose awkward questions for some of the parties and the two governments in advance of next week's meeting at Hillsborough on the Belfast Agreement. The Northern Secretary is under unionist pressure to act against republicans following allegations of breaches of the IRA ceasefire.
The arrest of three Irishmen in Colombia for alleged terrorist-related activity, the Castlereagh robbery and street violence in Belfast have already strained the process.
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, last night said :"The source of this story and of similar stories we have seen in recent months are the same people who planned and plotted and conspired with loyalist death squads to kill political opponents."