Sinn Feins McGuinness tells US State Dept to get out of Ireland.

McGuinness made his comments after a meeting at the US State Department in Washington with the US envoy to Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haass. Sinn Fein is opposing military action; can we conclude from this that Sinn Fein are opposed to the use of force? not likely since they still control Europes largest terrorist organization. Last week, the ultra Irish republican party voiced criticism at the deployment of troops to protect Shannon airport in the west of Ireland, being used as a refueling stop for American servicemen on their way to the Persian Gulf.

The Irish government faced Sinn Fein calls to vigorously oppose a US war with Iraq. The party`s chairman Mitchell McLaughlin called on Bertie Ahern`s government to refuse the refueling of US jets. He warned Mr Ahern he ``would have blood on his hands`` if US jets continued to refuel at Shannon Airport. This has got to be the most hypocritical statement Sinn Fein have ever dribbled, they certainly cant talk of Blood on anyone's hands. Sinn Fein also called on the Irish Government to immediately cease the practice of giving permission to foreign states to refuel, resupply and land military aircraft in Irish airports and airspace and to use sea ports for their naval vessels. Sinn Fein then delivered letters to the US and British Embassies in Dublin demanding that both countries do not declare war on Iraq.

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said Ireland had provided landing facilities for American military aircraft for 40 years, and he had no intention of withdrawing the privilege as long as the United States observed United Nations mandates.

Woman Charged With IRA Gunrunning

A FLORIDA woman accused of gunrunning to the ultra Irish IRA almost walked free from court his week because of lack of legal cooperation from the Irish government. Customs agent Jim Miley said that prosecutors in Orlando had repeatedly tried to get three pistols seized at a Dublin sorting office returned to the U.S. They eventually had to get the Justice Department in Washington to make a formal request before Irish authorities complied.

The accused, Dr. Margaret Bannon, was arrested last week, only four days before the statute of limitations would have run out on six-year old gun running offense. The attempt to ship the guns allegedly happened before the IRA ceasefire, and before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Miley traveled to Dublin last month to pick up the guns and visit the mail sorting office where they were seized, allowing prosecutors to proceed with a case against Bannon after years of delays.

Miley told the Orlando Federal Court last Wednesday that an assistant prosecutor, Ana Escobar, had made several attempts to get the guns returned but was unsuccessful because there was no mutual legal assistance treaty between the two countries. The Republic’s authorities became involved after bullets spilled from the bottom of a hold-all bag bound for Derry. Irish Gardai (police) later found three pistols inside the bag, as well as a special metal sheet designed to hide the guns from x-ray detection at airports.The court heard that Bannon admitted buying three pistols from gun shops in Winter Park, Orlando, and allegedly told one gun shop owner that she supported the IRA.

She denies removing the guns’ serial numbers or putting the weapons and more than 500 bullets in a package with cookbooks she mailed to her Derry home.

Administration Gives Advice on Preparing for Terrorist Attack

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — The Bush administration issued detailed advice today on how the public should prepare for a possible terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, insisting that it was motivated by a sense of caution, not any specific intelligence that such an attack was imminent. The mostly common-sense guidelines urged families to prepare a "disaster supply kit" that included a three-day supply of water, one gallon per person per day; food; a battery-powered radio; a change of clothes; an extra set of car keys; and cash.

Other advice was not so obvious, including the recommendation that people keep a supply of duct tape and plastic sheeting in their homes to seal off windows in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

"There is no specific, credible intelligence that says an attack using chemical or biological weapons is imminent," said Gordon Johndroe, the chief spokesman for Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security.

"However, this is prudent planning," Mr. Johndroe said. "We know of Al Qaeda's interest in obtaining these weapons, and we want people to be prepared so they can help themselves and their families should there be an incident."

The Department of Homeland Security, which outlined the guidelines at a meeting with reporters today, said that most of its advice was not new or novel and was based on disaster-preparedness programs run by the American Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The guidelines mirror recommendations that were made last year by terrorist specialists at the Red Cross, and much of the advice applies as easily to natural disasters as to a terrorist attack: store water, food and a first-aid kit; seek shelter, listen to the radio for official instructions.

Still, the news conference at the three-week-old Homeland Security Department amounted to the Bush administration's highest-profile and most detailed effort since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to educate the public about the need to prepare for the possibility that Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups might use weapons of mass destruction on American soil.

And the timing of the news conference, three days after the administration raised the national terrorism alert to "high," prompted reporters to question whether the government had intelligence information suggesting a more serious threat than it had divulged.

In a television interview today, Mr. Ridge said that the terrorism alert issued last week was "the most significant" since the 2001 attacks. "The threat is real," Mr. Ridge told CBS, offering few details. "We believe the threat has substantially increased in the last couple of weeks."

When the administration announced that it was raising the color-coded terrorism alert level from yellow, for "elevated," to orange for "high," officials said they were increasingly concerned about the threat of a biological or chemical attack, and that law enforcement agencies were using national security warrants to monitor people in the United States who were thought to have an interest in biochemical weapons.

Mr. Johndroe said in a telephone interview that the administration had long been planning to organize a public education campaign about disaster preparedness, and that today's news conference was not meant to signal an imminent threat.

"There's information that's out there, and we want to let people know what they need to be informed," he said. "A lot of people ask, What should we do? Well, here's the answer. This is not a message that people should be afraid to hear. It's a message that people should want to hear." The American Red Cross said it welcomed the Homeland Security Department's decision to step up public education about preparedness.

"It's a different world that we live in now," said Carol Hall, a Red Cross program manager on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. "I think after Sept. 11 that this is something that is prudent."

The preparedness guidelines outlined by the Homeland Security Department are available on the Web site of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, www.fema.gov, one of the agencies being consolidated into the new department.

The department offered several guidelines for the public in preparing for a terrorist attack, including the preparation of the disaster kit, with the supplies separated in a backpack or other container so they could be evacuated quickly.

Sinn Fein Tattoo Linked to Al-Qaeda?

IS ultra Irish Sinn Fein somehow linked to al-Qaeda? The U.S. Coast Guard allegedly thinks so, according to an Irish American who was recently discharged from service because he sports a large Sinn Fein tattoo on his left forearm.

Justin Walter, 26, originally from Astoria, Queens but now resident in Arizona, received his discharge order from the Coast Guard last month. Coast Guard officers at a Cape May, New Jersey base allegedly told Walter that the tattoo was unacceptable because Sinn Fein, Northern Ireland’s largest Nationalist party, is involved with al-Qaeda and is also dedicated to overthrowing the British government. “I was basically called a terrorist in front of other recruits,”

McPherson said that there are no blanket bans against tattoos in the Coast Guard, but there are provisions about the size and number of tattoos a recruit can have. “And that’s what the problem was here,” he said. “It was a judgment call that was made at headquarters in Washington, D.C.”

In addition to the flag and Sinn Fein tattoos, Walter also has a tattoo of the word “Saighdiur,” the Gaelic word for soldier, which he got in 2001, on his right forearm. Around that time he also received small tattoos of an Irish harp on his left hand and a shamrock on his right. Shortly after this first encounter, Walter claims he was informed that research had been done about Sinn Fein on the Internet, with Coast Guard officials claiming the party was linked to the IRA, which in turn had connections to al-Qaeda and other terrorist activity.

Chicago Businessman New Ambassador?

EDWARD Brennan, 68, former chairman and CEO of Sears Roebuck in Chicago, is believed to the frontrunner to replace Richard Egan as U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

Cop Killer Freed to Marry

THERE has been angry reaction to the decision to allow cop killer Pearse McCauley out of jail to marry his fiancée, ultra Irish Sinn Fein councilor Pauline Tully. McCauley, who is serving a 14-year sentence for the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe, was released at the weekend for the ceremony, which took place in a Cavan church. The couple met when Tully, 32, a teacher at Cavan Vocational School, began visiting the prisoners as a member of a Sinn Fein delegation to Castlerea.

The marriage was presided over by the retired parish priest of Kilnaleck, Monsignor Patrick McManus. The reception for more than 100 guests was held at the Percy French Hotel in Ballyjamesduff. Senior members of Sinn Fein are believed to have attended the celebrations, and pictures of the couple celebrating have angered the Gardai (police). It is understood that the IRA man applied for compassionate leave and the authorities were not aware until after the leave was granted that he planned to get married. He also held a stag party during his four days of freedom.

The government has always insisted that it will not grant early release to the IRA men convicted of McCabe’s killing, despite the fact that supporters say they should be released under the Good Friday Agreement. Friends of Ann McCabe, the widow of Garda McCabe, said she was “devastated” by the events of the weekend. “They are absolutely furious. The government obviously thinks that these men have the right to marry. But Jerry had the right to a life and Ann had a right to her husband – something these men didn’t care anything about,” one said.

McCauley is one of Ireland’s best known ultra Irish IRA figures. He escaped from Britain’s notorious Brixton prison, alongside Nessan Quinlivan, in 1991 and returned to Ireland. Jerry McCabe was gunned down during an attempted robbery at a post office in Adare, Co. Limerick in 1996. The 52-year-old garda had five children. His partner was seriously injured in the incident. Four IRA men, including McCauley, were convicted of the killing but their continued detention at Castlerea, and the conditions under which they are being kept, continues to create controversy.

Irish Dance Teacher Guilty of Lewd Conduct

ONE of America’s most successful Irish dance teachers has been convicted of lewd conduct with a 15-year-old boy. Sean Gavan, 41, was convicted Monday after two days of deliberation by a Californian jury. He faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced March 7. Gavan, originally from Scotland, ran Glasgow’s largest Irish dance school before moving to California, where he held classes in eight different cities. He had sent dozens of his students to international competitions and several world Irish dancing titles. About 30 supporters sat behind Gavan during the week-long trial, including parents who had helped to post $50,000 bail for him. The jury found him guilty of inappropriately touching the boy, a former student, who was staying at Gavan’s home in Corona, California in December 2000.

Ultra Irish SINN Fein today admitted the 'disappearance' of more than 100,000 voters from the electoral register would hit it hardest. The complaint came as Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams met the province's chief electoral officer Denis Stanley to discuss the figures. Mr Adams said the onus was on the Electoral Office to ensure that everyone entitled to vote is registered, if necessary by people going 'door to door', Adams has a Bloody Cheek making these demands now when you consider that the IRA murdered election worker Joanne Mathers (23) as she was collecting election forms "door to door" !

Irishman Arrested for Terrorism in Denver

AN Irishman was arrested and detained in Denver, Colorado, last week on

charges of IRA terrorist activity. Belfast native, Ciaran Ferry, 30, a former prisoner in Long Kesh, was arrested January 30 2003 in Denver and detained in a federal penitentiary

(FCI Englewood) in Littleton, Colorado, expecting deportation.

A PROTESTANT victims' group in Northern Ireland is preparing to send a delegation to the trial in Colombia of three Irish republicans accused of training FARC narco-terrorists. Willie Frazer - head of the south Armagh-based Families Acting For Innocent Relatives (FAIR) - says the group want to give evidence about IRA terrorism in Ulster. Said Mr Frazer: "We believe we have evidence which is relevant to the on-going trial." Last week, Mr Frazer and members of FAIR visited the Colombian embassy, in London.

They handed over evidence which they claim links the ultra Irish IRA to revolutionary South American terror group, FARC. FAIR believe a booby-trap device recovered by Colombian authorities from FARC terrorists, was identical to ones used in IRA attacks in Ulster. A replica of the device, which consisted of a flash unit and explosives, plus written evidence, was handed over to Colombian officials in London. An Army undercover agent operating inside the republican movement during the early 1990s, developed the booby-trap device for the IRA.

Mr Frazer said FAIR was preparing to send a delegation to the Colombian capital, Bogota, and hope they will be able to give evidence at the trial of republicans Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan. The Irishmen are accused of training FARC rebels in explosive and terrorist techniques. Security forces have blamed this training for the recent wave of car-bombings and mortar attacks, in the cities.

If convicted, the three men - all allegedly linked to the IRA - could face 20 years in a Colombian prison. The authorities have moved the Irishmen out of Bogota to the country's toughest prison, in the mountain province of Boyaca.

'IRA-inspired' car bomb kills 25 at exclusive Bogota club

A car bomb that ripped through an exclusive club in Colombia's capital on Friday night, killing at least 25 people and injuring over 150, has raised fears that left-wing rebels are making good on their threats to attack the country's ruling class. Although no one claimed responsibility, security sources blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, and said it reflected training the group had received from the IRA. The third phase of the trial of three Irishmen accused of training Farc in urban warfare ended in Bogota on Friday, with the case being adjourned until 25 March.

Speaking by mobile phone from inside the building yesterday, a senior police officer said he could see human remains in the still smoking rubble. The bomb stripped the walls from part of the building and buckled several concrete floors. "It's nightmarish here," said the officer. The élite El Nogal Club was packed when the 440lb bomb, planted on the third level of the 12-storey building's car park, exploded shortly after 8pm local time. Survivors ran out on to Seventh Avenue, Bogota's main street, where scores of ambulances took the injured to hospitals around the city.

"I heard a loud explosion, and when I arrived minutes later I heard screaming and saw people running for their lives," said Desiderio Barracaldo, an employee of Caja Social Bank, across the street from the club. His white shirt was bloodstained from helping injured survivors to makeshift dressing stations. "I carried some children away from the building,"' he added. Well-dressed club members and uniformed waiters, many bleeding and with their faces blackened from soot, waited for medical attention. The El Nogal Club building is opposite the Spanish embassy and only four blocks from the British embassy.

'This is undoubtedly the work of the Farc'', Germán Camacho, director of the anti-terrorism unit of the state prosecutor's office, said at the scene. ''They had a perfect target - this is one of the country's most exclusive clubs, where ex-presidents, ministers and the upper class gather." In Washington the US State Department echoed his claim, but other Colombian officials were more cautious. The bombing was the worst terrorist attack in Colombia since Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel waged war on the government in the 1980s and early 1990s. Yesterday a senior official said the authorities were not ruling out the possibility that the attack was the work of drugs traffickers, who have reacted angrily to the government's tough line on extradition of suspects to the US. After visiting the scene just before midnight, a grim-faced President Alvaro Uribe, whose father was killed resisting a Farc kidnapping attempt 20 years ago, made a statement pledging to defeat "all terrorist groups". He added: "This is a sharp reminder to the international community. Some of them have been too accommodating with Colombian terrorists." The Farc has carried out several urban attacks since he took office last August.

Hours earlier, police officers and agents from the state prosecutor's office found five home-made mortars in a building close to the US embassy.

It is thought that the missiles were to be used for a terrorist attack in the city. The suggestion that the IRA has coached Farc guerrillas in terrorist techniques has been made not just by the government in Bogota but in Washington as well. While Irish republicans repeatedly issue blanket denials of serious involvement with Farc, the Colombian government insists that IRA technology and methods are playing an increasing part in rebel attacks. Away from the court case, the authorities and Irish republicans have been waging an intensive propaganda battle concerning the guilt or innocence of the three Irishmen on trial. Bogota points to the hand of the IRA in mortar attacks and other bombings. Against such a background the truth is often obscure, though it is significant that the US supports the Colombian claims.

US tourists walked out of a Londonderry bar when ultra Irish drinkers started to applaub the space shuttle disaster. A Londonderry man who was showing the visitors around the city said that up until then they had described the area as 'wonderful'. All that changed when they went into a city centre bar for a Guinness. One of the visitors said yesterday 'We were having a quiet drink and the television was on. Suddenly, we saw these images of the shuttle breaking up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. We asked for the television to be turned up so we could hear what happened. All of a sudden, a group of ultra Irish sitting quite close to us started whooping and hollering. " "They were shouting things like 'fuck them, they deserve it' and 'go to Osama'. We were stunned. We just couldn't sit there and listen to what these people were saying. How can people be so hurtful in the face of such tragedy (years of practice against Protestants) Seven people lost their lives. Don't they care?

Paul Hill denied Colombian visa

Paul Hill, one of the Guildford Four, has been denied a visa to travel to Colombia to observe the trial of three Irishmen accused of training anti-government rebels. Mr Hill was due to travel to Bogotá yesterday, but Colombian authorities refused him permission to enter the country. Catriona Ruane from the Bring Them Home campaign said Mr Hill was warmly welcomed by the Colombian people during a previous visit, but the local media accused him of being a terrorist and he was allegedly harassed by Colombian airport officials.

Irish remain a puzzle in times of conflict

(Irish News)

Is the Republic of Ireland part of Donald Rumsfeld's old Europe or new Europe? It's an interesting question when studied from this side of the Atlantic. Ireland - forgetting the border for a minute - has always been a bit of a puzzle to Americans in times of conflict. Britain, by contrast, is a simpler study - an old enemy now a staunch ally. The Irish and the Americans have never fought a war. Indeed, the cause of both was virtually identical when the colonies struck for freedom in 1776. The colonial power was the same too of course. And it was that same colonial power that would complicate the Irish view of the world and its military affairs for generations after Lexington and Concord set the United States on course for its independence.

De Valera's Second World War neutrality brought southern Irish neutrality into stark relief. The American-born De Valera objected to American troops using the Six Counties as a jumping off point for the invasion of Europe. That sort of blunt assertiveness could be understood at another level. There was a war going on and the Free State risked being attacked if it openly sided with either the allies or axis. The Republic won't be invaded on land or bombed from the air if it takes sides in the matter of Saddam Hussein. But the absence of any adverse military consequence is not making 'traditional' Irish neutrality any wider a tightrope to walk.

Given its geographic location, the Republic would appear to be a natural for membership of Nato or any European defence pact. Yet, it wobbles back and forth between habitual antipathy and reluctant participation in secondary structures such as the Nato-inspired Partnership for Peace. The fact that the Republic is not formally tied at the hip in military terms to Britain is still quite easily understood by most Americans, certainly Irish-Americans. Ireland's difficulties in dealing with Uncle Sam as a separate military entity, one that stands - indeed towers - above Britain and all the rest, is a little more difficult for Americans and again Irish-Americans in particular, to properly digest. The public questioning in Ireland of American motives in the current build up to likely war against Iraq is not surprising in itself. After all, many Americans are voicing similar concerns. Many are opposed outright to the idea of war, if not against al-Qaida and the Taliban, then at least against Baghdad. What puzzles those Americans who take an interest in Ireland is the evident degree of anti-Americanism that is manifesting itself in protests and debate over the present US build-up, an operation that has embraced Shannon airport and the less tangible arena that is 'neutral' Irish airspace.

Nobody really minds an anti-war protest. They are as American as apple pie and the M-16 rifle. But there are moments when it would appear that a significant number of Irish people seem to regard America as the cause of all ills, a latter day imperial power whose soldiers might just as well be wearing redcoats. Irish hostility towards American intent in Iraq and elsewhere has been evident enough to get unionists excited. David Trimble for one has lost little opportunity in having a go at Sinn Féin over that party's seemingly faithful adherence to a De Valera-level Irish neutrality. He did so in a recent Washington Post opinion article and again in a recent letter to the Irish Times in response to an op-ed by Trina Vargo, president of the US-Ireland Alliance, the group that presents the annual Mitchell Scholarships. Trimble's line of attack was relatively narrow. He accused Sinn Féin of being hostile to the western alliance. But it's not too much of a leap to the idea that the Republic of Ireland, in its totality, is not as friendly as it should be to the alliance, even though it is about as west as you can get before hitting Boston. The reality is of course that the official Irish position vis-a-vis neutrality is going through a shift of potentially historical proportions.

The De Valera version of neutrality had the 26-county state in the role of an Atlantic Yugoslavia or Albania - ideologically at one with its neighbours but militarily distanced from them. But with Shannon looking at times like a Vietnam-era Da Nang, the Albania comparison has gone the way of the Berlin Wall. Still, the Republic's evident discomfort with its role as jumping-off point for the invasion of Iraq gives unionists like Trimble something to talk up when they visit Capitol Hill in search of tea and sympathy. The same might not be said for Bertie Ahern. The presentation of the bowl of Shamrock to George W Bush might be a bit of a bust this St Patrick's Day if the war goes ahead without United Nations sanction, thus forcing the Dublin government into a showdown with the Americans over Shannon. It's a fair bet that both Ahern and foreign minister Brian Cowen would be quite happy if the entire neutrality/Shannon issue was engulfed by bigger headlines elsewhere. But with peace camps, street marches and opposition TDs up in arms in the Dail over the warmongering Yanks, that isn't going to happen. Either way, there's a sense that 'traditional' Irish neutrality economy is heading for a demarche in the face of new realities, not least the ever-growing economic ties between the Republic and the US. But regardless of what Ireland's official policy ends up as, it is certain that an intrinsic Irish mistrust of great military power and ambition - and its accompanying inclination towards backing the underdog - will survive any official policy change.

Back in 1838 Daniel O'Connell took aim with his impressive moral and intellectual arsenal against America's annexation of Texas. It wasn't that O'Connell was anti-American. He was, however, being true to his belief in the evils of forced political union stemming from military supremacy. Irish-Americans were mightily upset with 'the Liberator' over the Texas issue. Should Shannon be closed to US military flights, Irish-Americans will vent their frustrations with their transatlantic kindred once again. Few will take much heed of the fact that the descendants of O'Connell are simply marching in step with a rambunctious Irish neutrality that was taking shape long before anyone ever heard of a western alliance.

L.I. Diocese Tricked Victims of Sexual Abuse

Suffolk County grand jury accused Roman Catholic Church officials on Long Island yesterday of protecting scores of pedophile priests for decades by using sham policies and a bogus "intervention team" to trick and silence victims, cover up crimes, avoid scandals and hold down financial consequences. The panel said the Diocese of Rockville Centre — the nation's sixth largest, with 1.3 million Catholics in 134 parishes in Nassau and Suffolk Counties — had protected at least 58 abusive priests with aggressive tactics that purported to help victims and their families but that actually used intimidation, claims of confidentiality, hush payments and other means to avoid lawsuits and publicity.

Since 1990, the diocese has maintained a special "uninsured perils fund" to cover sexual abuse claims, asbestos exposure and trampoline accidents, the grand jury found. It said the fund, raised from parish collections, had paid $1.7 million in claims — none for asbestos exposure or trampoline accidents — but still had $11 million in its account last October.

As for dangerous priests, it said they were shuffled from parish to parish and often allowed to minister to children, while recommendations for psychiatric treatments were ignored and a "legal affairs" team, ostensibly set up to help sexual abuse victims, worked to suppress legal claims and husband the money.

"The grand jury concludes that the history of the Diocese of Rockville Centre demonstrates that as an institution they are incapable of properly handling issues relating to the sexual abuse of children by priests," the special grand jury said in a 180-page report based on a nine-month inquiry.

It said the failures, documented in testimony by priests and victims and in church records including secret archives on 43 priests, could not be attributed to incompetence. "The evidence before the grand jury clearly demonstrates that diocesan officials agreed to engage in conduct that resulted in the prevention, hindrance and delay in the discovery of criminal conduct by priests," it said.

The report did not name any diocesan leaders or abusive priests, and the grand jury said it was unable to file indictments against the diocese because of a five-year statute of limitations. But the panel called for new laws to eliminate time limitations on prosecuting child sex-abuse cases and to require that members of the clergy report child abuse directly to the authorities.

The report was one of the most comprehensive accountings of abuse by priests in a diocese since the pedophile scandal engulfed the Roman Catholic Church 13 months ago with disclosures that a Boston priest had attacked 130 boys over 30 years. Since then, hundreds of civil suits have been filed with claims totaling more than $100 million, and prosecutors across the nation have taken their investigations of clerical sexual abuse before dozens of grand juries.

A survey by The New York Times last month found that the crisis had spread to nearly every American diocese and had involved more than 1,200 priests and more than 4,200 victims in the last six decades. Those accused represent less than 2 percent of the priests in America, but research suggests that the extent of the problem remains hidden because many cases have gone unreported.

Yesterday's report was unveiled by the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas J. Spota, at a news conference in Hauppauge. "This document tells all of us what was really happening in the Diocese of Rockville Centre for years and years and years," he said. "High-ranking prelates protected 58 colleagues from disgrace rather than protecting children from these predator priests."

Mr. Spota added: "Time after time, and despite overwhelming evidence that priests were committing crimes against children, they were willingly sacrificing the truth for fear of scandal and for monetary considerations."

Joanne C. Novarro, a spokeswoman for the Rockville Centre Diocese, called the grand jury report unfair and insisted that the diocese had taken all cases of sexual abuse by priests seriously and had improved its methods of handling such cases under Bishop William Murphy, who took over the diocese last year.