The Next Terror Nexus?

Colombia fears that the I.R.A. and ETA may be using the country as a base for weapons testing and training.

IRA, ETA members wanted in connection with bombing.

Colombian authorities are looking for six members of the Basque separatist group ETA and the Irish Republican Army wanted in connection with the bombing of Bogota nightclub two weeks ago. Thirty-six people died in the blast. According to a security report, four ETA and two IRA members entered Colombia along its border with Venezuela. The attack, which also wounded 160 people is believed to be the work of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group.

The El Nogal blast was the most devastating attack of the rebels' new urban terror campaign and the first to hit the capital's élite. Londoño and Colombian authorities hope the attack will prompt the world to change tactics too, and regard Colombia's guerrillas as terrorists. Reason: police say the guerrillas are aided by terror groups like the I.R.A. and Spain's Basque separatists, ETA, who could turn Colombia into a South American Afghanistan. "At least now other countries will know this for what it is, not guerrilla warfare but international terrorism," Londoño said as recovery workers retrieved the last two corpses from the ruins. That's the warning that President Alvaro Uribe is frantically trumpeting. "Democratic nations shouldn't ask Colombia to tolerate terrorism while the U.N. is deciding the matter of Iraq," he insisted last week.

His ministers, meanwhile, barnstormed Washington for more aid, including help in freezing foreign bank accounts connected to the guerrillas. Their efforts got considerably more attention late last week when a U.S. government reconnaissance plane carrying four Americans contracted by the military and a Colombian soldier crash-landed in the southern province of Caquetá, in a zone controlled by the FARC. U.S. officials say the guerrillas executed the Colombian and one American, then presumably kidnapped the other three. (None of the Americans was identified.) The murdered American was the first working for the U.S. government to be killed in Colombia's civil war.

R.I. subpoenas band members in fire probe.

Stage manager of club says he warned of perils

By , By Stephanie Ebbert and Michael Rosenwald, 2/25/2003 EST WARWICK, R.I. -

State investigators have issued grand jury subpoenas to the members of the band whose pyrotechnics sparked the nightclub blaze that killed 97 people. A lawyer for the band, Edwin McPherson, confirmed last night that each of the surviving members of the band Great White received a subpoena. Guitarist Ty Longley died in the fire. McPherson said he is asking the attorney general's office to postpone the band members' testimony.

Meanwhile, the stage manager of The Station said last night that he had warned the co-owners of the nightclub three months ago that pyrotechnics used in a dozen shows there were too dangerous and should be stopped immediately. The investigation now involves four states where club owners say Great White used pyrotechnics without warning, according to the Associated Press. A New Jersey state police spokesman said troopers interviewed employees of the Stone Pony nightclub in Asbury Park, N.J., on request of Rhode Island State Police.

McPherson, the band's lawyer, said, ''We're trying to cooperate in any way that we can, but these guys are pretty distraught still, and it's going to be difficult for them to travel real soon.''

Dublin MPs accuse Sinn Fein of hypocrisy on neutrality

By Thomas Harding, Ireland Correspondent (Filed: 21/02/2003)

Senior politicians in the Irish Republic's parliament have launched a stinging attack on Sinn Fein accusing the party of hypocrisy during a debate on neutrality. During a Private Member's Bill to preserve Irish military neutrality,members asked how could Sinn Fein talk about neutrality when it was linked to the IRA which still held Semtex, had purchased tons of arms from the Libyans and collaborated with the Nazis? Sinn Fein, which has four members in the Dail, is strongly in favour of military neutrality for Ireland. But the Progressive Democrat Liz O'Donnell, a former foreign affairs minister, accused the republicans of hypocrisy after it had tried "with great ferocity" to subvert the constitution. "They worked actively against the policy of neutrality by collaborating with the Nazi regime against the State and the Government of Ireland, as well as against the democratic Allied forces," she said.

"Latterly they pursued their alleged commitment to international peace by arms deals in the Libyan desert and in fostering Eta terrorists in a fellow EU member-state (Spain). "Their claimed commitment to the demilitarisation of Europe apparently excludes the tons of Semtex in Republican hands." She added that Sinn Fein's apparent commitment to the rule of law did not extend to co-operating with police on the Omagh bombing atrocity. "We all know that their alleged belief in neutrality allowed republicans to shoot members of our legitimate defence forces and garda."she added. Tim O'Malley, the health minister, said when Irish politicians spoke about "our army" they referred to the "national defence force, the Irish Army". "But the same is not true in the case of Sinn Fein," he said. "When delegates speak of "the army" the body they were referring to was the Provisional IRA, a group to which it was "inextricably linked". He said: "I, for one, have no way of knowing where one organisation begins end where the other ends."

Martin Ferris, of Sinn Fein and a convicted IRA gunrunner, accused the Government of "terrible blunders" over Irish neutrality following Saturday's mass peace demonstrations against war. The Irish fear their neutrality could be compromised by the Nice Treaty, ratified last year, and by American use of Shannon airport as a stopover for troops heading to the Gulf. With the government voting against it, the Bill was defeated by 100 votes to 35.

Snow spreads across winter-weary Tennessee again

February 25, 2003

Snow spread across winter weary West and Middle Tennessee Tuesday morning and headed eastward, leaving accumulations of up to 3 inches. It forced schools to close and made the morning commute tricky for motorists in Memphis and Nashville _ Tennessee's two biggest cities _ and points in between.

"Mix water with Nashville and you have instant traffic problems," said Carla Gaster, with the Boy Scouts of America Service Center in Nashville. Interstate 65 some 10 miles north of Nashville was shut down briefly in both directions Tuesday morning while road crews put down salt. Some communities in Tennessee have seen five snowfalls this season, higher than in recent years. Heavy rain caused flooding in several parts of the state for the past two weekends. "I'm sick of winter. I'm going to go kill the groundhog," said Gaster. Tuesday night's forecast was for cloudy with flurries in West and Middle Tennessee and a chance of snow or rain in East Tennessee with all snow in far eastern counties. Lows were predicted for 20 to 30.

Highs were expected to struggle to get to freezing Tuesday and likely remain below in many locations.

The snow came from an upper level disturbance across northern Louisiana that tracked eastward across north Mississippi. A winter storm advisory was posted Tuesday for Middle and East Tennessee and for northeast Tennessee Tuesday night. A winter storm warning for West Tennessee was canceled Tuesday morning as snow tapered off. There's a chance of rain or snow statewide again Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service extended forecast, snow could menace Tennessee through Saturday.

Fear and Duct Tape in Los Angeles

Wendy J. Madnick, Feb 25, 2003

When the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory System was raised to Code Orange on Feb. 7, indicating a high risk of a terrorist attack, the anxiety level of the Jewish community in Los Angeles rose with it. “Our office staff was a lot more anxious that day, to say the least,” said Rabbi Daniel Bouskila of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Westwood.

He said parents also expressed apprehension about sending their children to the temple’s various school programs. In response, Tifereth Israel has increased its security. In the San Fernando Valley, synagogues and schools from Valley Beth Shalom in Encino to Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills are also beefing up security and altering procedures to prepare for possible terrorist attacks. Many Valley institutions already have staffed trained in emergency procedures, stemming from the shooting at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in 1999 and further underscored by Sept. 11.

New York hotels owned by Jews were also rumored to be targets, although ADL National Director Abraham Foxman told Jewish Week that the FBI has provided no specific information about Jewish institutions or businesses. Rep. Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, who was recently appointed the top Democrat on the new House International Terrorism Subcommittee, said he is more concerned with the threat from across the Pacific than the impending war with Iraq.

“My fear is of North Korea selling weapons or plutonium to terrorist organizations,” Sherman said. “It’s not that North Korea is ambitious for power, it is simply desperate for survival. They will keep the first few weapons [of mass destruction] for themselves, but bomb No. 6 will be on eBay.”

Anti-American demos ANTI-British demonstrations have been a familiar feature of our political landscape for many years. But an anti-American demonstration in Ireland?

There were protests of course during the Vietnam War; I took part in some of them myself. But those who demonstrated then, including me, always made clear that we were friends of America, not enemies. And we refrained from personal attacks on American elected officials, including the President.Last weekend's demonstrations were not entirely different from the Vietnam demonstrations, but they were significantly different. Insults to the present President were a regular feature of the recent demonstrations.'Bush is a moronic warmonger' was a typical slogan and the marchers showed no signs of finding such slogans unacceptable.

Would there have been a protest march against Clinton if he had, while resident, favoured a war against Iraq? I don't think there would. Clinton was seen as 'a friend of Ireland', always meaning a friend of nationalist Ireland. Irish nationalists might have been surprised, and a bit pained, if Clinton had favoured war against Iraq, but they would not have taken to the streets to protest against the American government, under the Clinton Presidency.Partly, this is due to the Irish public's asymmetrical relationship to the two great American parties. I once heard two small boys on a New York street discussing American political alignments. The younger boy wanted to know what was the difference between the two great American parties? The elder boy had his answer pat 'the Republicans', he said 'are up for the British.

The Democrats are up for the Irish.' No prizes are offered for guessing the ethnicity of the two boys. Another factor working on some of the demonstrators was no doubt the fact that the British are at present the strongest allies of the Americans as regards policy towards Iraq.When the French and Germans engage together in an exercise in Brit-bashing, many Irish nationalists feel an atavistic urge to join the Brit-bashing.For reasons of their own, Sinn Fein-IRA support and encourage this tendency. Their basic anti-Americanism, usually discreetly camouflaged, can find a safe and popular outlet in 'Hands off Iraq'. It is probable that, had it not been for the American factor, Ireland would still be part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as it was when I was born, in 1917. The turning point, where the British departure from the Catholic parts of Ireland began to become probable, occurred in the mid 1880's.On 24 December 1885, Sir William Harcourt explained why it would be impossible to suppress the Land League, which had then become the effective government in large parts of Ireland. Harcourt, with behind him his years of experience as Home Secretary told his colleague Lord Hartington:"In former rebellions the Irish were in Ireland.

We could reach their forces, cut off their resources in men and money, and then subjugation was comparatively easy. Now there is an Irish nation in the United States, equally hostile, with plenty of money, absolutely beyond our reach and yet within ten days of our shores." Those were the basic factors that undermined the old United Kingdom. And the factors remorsely increased in weight in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 'ten days' shrank to five and then to three. The First World War saw the impoverishment and weakening of Britain, and the emergence of the United States as the greatest power on earth, which it still remains.Irish rebels henceforward always knew that they could count on significant American support whenever the British tried to repress them. After the Rising of 1916 and the executions of the leaders, American pressure induced the British to release the surviving republican prisoners who then - after great electoral success in Catholic Ireland - started and sustained a more formidable insurrection.American pressure prevented the British from ruthlessly mounting a no holds-barred repression.

The only alternative was to concede the rebels' demands within the area they controlled: the area of the present Irish State.After the Second World War, the IRA in launching a powerful offensive in Northern Ireland knew that international factors - and especially the pattern of Irish-American-British relationship - would favour the IRA by tying the hands of those who tried to repress it. Internment without trial was tried, but quickly abandoned under American pressure.Rebel atrocities were virtually ignored internationally, while British atrocities in the course of the attempted repression always produced a frightful hullabaloo which then could be indefinitely sustained, as in the present case of the new set of investigations into events in Derry of more than a quarter-century ago. The IRA showed that they could strike with impunity at targets in mainland Britain, and then extort further concessions through the threat of further attacks.Things seemed to be going all the IRA's way up to the murderous attacks by Arab terrorists on targets in the eastern United States on September 11. An Phoblacht: Republican News originally chortled over the attacks finding them justified by American imperialism. The IRA leadership, fearing American reprisals, immediately repudiated An Phoblacht's line, and made more seemly noises. But then there were the arrests of the three republicans, using faked passports, and charged with complicity in FARC terrorism. American officials have already indicated that they believe the charges to be well-founded.

The trials drag on and are not likely to be completed until the Iraq crisis is over, probably with the defeat of the Iraq forces by America, with British aid. Until the Iraq crisis is out of the way, the Americans will not wish to embarrass their British ally, which is still busy appeasing the IRA through further concessions to Sinn Fein.But once the Iraq crisis is over, and provided no further international crises arise, making further British support desirable, it seems probable that the Americans will bring pressure to bear on the British concerning their relation to Sinn Fein. They will point out, gently enough at first, that the IRA are now known to have been engaged in activities hostile to the United States.Now that that is known, the United States will expect the British to break off relations with Sinn Fein.

The Americans know that if that is done, the IRA may resume hostilities against Britain. In that case, the British can expect massive American support: political, economic and if necessary military.Once those things happen Sinn Fein-IRA will soon cease to be a significant factor in the life of these islands. And anti-American demonstrations are unlikely to be sustained on our streets, under the new conditions. Conor Cruise O'Brien

IRA moles 'still digging for Ulster secrets' By Thomas Harding, Ireland Correspondent (Filed: 22/02/2003)

The IRA continues to use moles within sensitive political and security positions in Northern Ireland to gather intelligence. Up to four individuals are suspected to be working as IRA moles in different departments from which secret information has allegedly been passed to the head of IRA intelligence, according to security sources. At least one has access to highly sensitive documentation. Another has access to Prison Service files where the personal details of more than 1,400 prison officers were found on a laptop computer apparently belonging to the IRA. Two are either working in a Northern Ireland government department or possibly within the police service.

None has been arrested because police do not have enough evidence to make arrests, according to sources. Anti-terrorist officers raided six homes in a hardline republican area of Belfast on Thursday night although it is unclear if these were linked to the suspected spy ring. Several computers and discs were taken away for examination. Police said the searches were carried out under "terrorist legislation". The suspected moles "went to ground" as soon as allegations about an IRA espionage ring in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) surfaced last October, leading to the collapse of power sharing government at Stormont. "The moles have either gone dormant or stopped doing what they were doing," a security source said. "There was clearly one who has access to very sensitive documents. The authorities might have tightened up the system or quietly moved on people who were suspect but we believe that some information is still being gathered by the IRA. "We don't believe there is a lack of political will to make arrests.

If police had evidence they would make arrests. CID is getting all the co-operation it needs." When detectives unearthed the huge pile of security documents during raids on republican homes they suspected that leaks in the NIO were coming from more than one source.Four people, including an NIO messenger and Sinn Fein's head of administration, have been charged with having information that could be useful to terrorists. Despite an announcement by police four months ago that the IRA's alleged spy ring had been "broken up" and that more arrests were imminent, nothing has happened. Police have admitted that the IRA had attempted to recruit a number of civil servants and they were "actively investigating" a number of employees working in government offices. According to government sources there are still "one or two lines of inquiry that might be converted into arrests". But it is not known exactly how many moles remain in sensitive positions.A special squad of 40 detectives was set up to wade through evidence, including 79 computers and 1,000 disks seized during the raids.

"The IRA's head of intelligence is very good at putting people into places," a security source said. "The moles would probably have been told to keep a low profile." Documents recovered showed that the IRA has access to secret communications between the Prime Minister, the American president and the Irish premier. Personal details of forensic scientists, judges, police officers, prison officers, military personnel and loyalist terrorists were found among 19,000 pages of documents. Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, denies it was involved in any spying and claims the police have mounted a witch hunt against Roman Catholic civil servants.

Seat Belt Passions Flare

Try as she might, Rolayne Fairclough cannot understand how requiring children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance is more important than keeping them safe in cars and pickup trucks. Lawmakers whisked the pledge bill, which requires middle and high school students to hail the flag weekly, through the House. They torpedoed four safety proposals on seat belt use, booster seats and banning kids from riding in pickup truck beds; a fifth bill remains in a rules committee. "It's not that I'm against the Pledge of Allegiance," said Fairclough, AAA Utah spokeswoman. "But how can you vote for this and not for [those proposals]?"

Easy, say some Utah lawmakers, who have turned seat belts, booster seats and pickup beds into ideological gauges of when government is tromping on individual and parental rights. "At some point, we have to balance the desire for government to do what is best for us and our freedom to do what is best for ourselves, even if it's not in our best interest," said Sen. James Evans, R-Salt Lake City. "If grown-ups want to be idiots, that's for them to decide," said Evans, who helped kill a proposal that would have made it a primary offense for an adult to not buckle up but supported the pickup truck ban. Saving Lives and Money: The National Highway administration estimated in 2001 that if Utah made seat belt use a primary offense, it would result in a cost savings of $42 million -- including $6.2 million annually in state and federal funds. More than 30 lives would be saved and 672 injuries prevented.

Local child safety advocates estimate that only 6.1 percent of Utah children ages 5 to 8 ride in booster seats, leaving about 180,000 children at risk of death or injury in an accident. Passengers -- most often teens -- riding in the cargo space of a truck are 12 times more likely to die in a crash. "We are supposed to be a state that loves our children, that speaks out for them and makes them our number one priority," said Janet Brooks, who works at Primary Children's Medical Center and is co-leader of the Utah Safe Kids Coalition. "The education that has gone out has been marvelous on child safety and adult safety, but the Legislature is not listening to the public." A Salt Lake Tribune analysis found that 61 percent of the 334 Utahns who died in fatal accidents last year were not using seat belts.

Safety advocates and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say tougher laws, along with continued emphasis on education and enforcement, would save even more lives. "The LDS Church, the Boy Scouts of America -- but the state of Utah can't mandate that every child be in a seat belt no matter how many children you have?" said Rep. Carol S. Moss, D-Holladay and sponsor of several safety bills. "I don't know. I struggle with those things." And what is the role of government, if not providing for public safety, asks Fairclough. "It just seems like safety issues for this very, very right-wing element [of the Legislature] have been a target and they've blasted every one of them," she said. For good reason, the lawmakers say. "There comes a time when the role of government [is such] it can control everything we do," said Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan.

The Times February 23, 2003

Police investigate IRA links to US deportations

Liam Clarke TWO former IRA prisoners have been deported from the United States for allegedly travelling on false passports, while a third man was detained in San Francisco. Police in Britain and America are investigating whether there is any terrorist link. In follow-up searches on Thursday evening, the PSNI seized computers and tapes at premises in west Belfast. Police said the searches had been conducted under anti-terrorist legislation and that the equipment seized was being "analysed in relation to any possible republican terrorist activity" and "we can confirm that four computers and some disks were seized and four homes were searched: three in Andersonstown and one in Lenadoon".

Great sensitivity surrounds the investigation, which has the capacity to damage the peace process in the final days before Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern reveal their peace package to the northern parties. The timing of the deportations and searches has embarrassed Sinn Fein. Bairbre de Brun, the party's former health minister, expressed concern that the "raids were crafted to influence the news agenda to deflect attention from the return to violence of unionist paramilitaries and to put pressure on republicans at a crucial time in the peace process ahead of the assembly election on May 1". In a party press release de Brun claimed that one of the people whose home was raided was recently advised that his details were in the hands of loyalist paramilitaries. This is thought to be a reference to Gerry McConville, who received a 10-year sentence for firing on a police Land Rover in 1977 and who is now a drugs-awareness worker with the Falls community council. McConville, who recently claimed that loyalist drug dealers had sent him a bullet in the post, was deported from San Francisco airport about 10 days ago when he allegedly tried to enter the country with false papers.

Two brothers who were there to meet him were also arrested. Brendan Lynch, who was convicted of the same 1977 IRA offence as McConville, was also allegedly using false papers. His brother Damien, who has no terrorist record and had a passport in his own name, was detained in San Francisco. A third member of the Lynch family, Martin, is a close associate of Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams. An IRA intelligence officer and adjutant-general, Lynch drove the Sinn Fein leaders to and from meetings with the IRA during the peace talks. A £20,000 British intelligence satellite monitoring and tracking device was found hidden inside the vehicle, a Ford Mondeo belonging to Lynch's wife Jacqui. Yesterday the Ulster Defence Association, the largest loyalist paramilitary group, announced a 12-month "cessation of military activity" and said it would resume contact with General John de Chastelain's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. The statement met a mixed reaction because the UDA had previously insisted that it was already on ceasefire, although the British government has not recognised its cessation since October 2001.

Paul Murphy, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, said the statement was "a positive move in the right direction but one that must result in a permanent end to paramilitary activity in all its aspects". David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, said the announcement was "a welcome and positive development". Last Wednesday the organisation abandoned 18 pipe bombs, left over from its recent internal feud which claimed four lives, to the security forces. It is attempting to shake off its reputation for terrorism and criminality and to re-enter the political arena. The Ulster Political Research Group, the political wing of the UDA, is to get involved in the assembly elections on May 1. The party plans to support Frank McCoubrey, an independent councillor, for west Belfast and hopes to persuade other unionist parties to stand aside in his favour. Hugh Orde, the PSNI chief constable, has said the abandoned UDA pipe bombs were being examined with a view to bringing prosecutions.