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Bomb making eizure 'shows SinnFein/IRA is still active'
A Sinn Fein/IRA arms find is proof the paramilitary group is still active. The police have said a large arms cache discovered in south Belfast at the weekend was under the control of the Gerry Adams and the Provisional IRA. Three men were arrested on Saturday night following the discovery.
The arms, found off the Lower Ormeau Road, included six handguns, an assault rifle, timer power units and a "very large" quantity of ammunition. Superintendent Ken Deane said the find was significant. "What we have is a mixture of firearms, ammunition and bomb-making equipment and components. He added: "At this stage, we have reason to believe that this is mainstream Provisional IRA equipment, and the find is being attributed to that organisation," he said. The DUP's Nigel Dodds said the find was evidence of continuing IRA activity. He said lives had been saved by the seizure. Mr Dodds, the MP for North Belfast, said it proved the IRA's ceasefire was "bogus".
Ulster Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the arms discovery raised questions. "If these guns and ammunition were in the hands of the Provisional IRA what were they doing with them and what were their intentions? "Clearly, when this is added to recent IRA activity and continued targeting, it indicates the republican movement remains inextricably wedded to terrorism and violence." Freedom, worth celebrating, not protesting about. Source = UPMJ Editorial
As Ulster men with the British and American troops were fighting for the strategic southern port city of Basra, Gerry Adams the Ultra Irish Sinn Fein/IRA terrorist tells us "war is totally unjustified, stop this war, we must uphold Irish neutrality" Yes Sinn Fein/IRA are once again the world class hypocrites who are at odds with the Ulster man and the British; only this time they also have the Americans in their sights.
War is totally unjustified, I simply cant believe that Adams muttered such a statement after all he spent the last 30 years calling his campaign of death and destruction a war. In his so called "war" he killed children as well and women. While Ulster Protestants go of to fight in the Gulf and those left behind offer support to the US such as the use of our main Airport "Aldergrove" for use by American planes to refuel, Adams stands in front of TV cameras and condemns the US and UK governments. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you !!!
I could think of a better job for him at this present moment in time, as there is a growing mood of anti-Americanism in Southern Ireland today perhaps Adams could give President George W. Bush a few tips about how to justify war the "collateral damage" that innocent civilians may suffer as a result of military action.
Sinn Fein/IRA leaders have decades of experience of spinning propagandist apologia for the "accidental" evisceration of kids, for example. This brutality was part of the armed campaign of the Irish Republican Army when a bomb slaughtered two young children in Warrington in the early 1990s. If there is one party in Ireland that owes American presidents and America's generous citizens a huge debt for its increased political power, then it is Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein is the richest party in Ireland thanks to a cash mountain culled from $500-a-plate dinners at posh hotels throughout America. Yet Sinn Fein is at the heart of the anti-war movement in Ireland, promotes Irish neutrality against the "militarism" of a European defense identity and also wants to prevent U.S. planes from using Ireland's Shannon airport.
But Ireland its self is also wedded to its neutrality. It stood aside from the global conflict in World War II although it effectively sided with the Allies. One particularly obnoxious symbol of Ireland's formal neutrality was when the then-prime minister, Eamon de Valera, visited the German Embassy to sign the condolence book after Adolf Hitler committed suicide in May 1945.
For some time Sinn Féin has been trying to run with the left wing hare and hunt with the right wing hounds. The party therefore found itself in an embarrassing position when opponents of the imminent war with Iraq called for a boycott of the Bush shamrockery stating "In view of the Bush Administration's expressed intention to start an unjustified, illegal and inhumane war against Iraq, we the undersigned call on the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, other Irish politicians and Government representatives, not to meet with President Bush in the United States over the coming St. Patrick's Day events." Now Adams applauded this statement and said the war was indeed "illegal and inhumane" but he still had the brass neck to head for Washington, thus offending both partys.
Also embarrassing for Sinn Fein/IRA are the PKK, with its new name Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) If you thought things were bad for them with the Columbia affair then things are about to get even worse. The PKK and the IRA are close allies, this is the terrorist movement Belfast "Lord Mayor" and Terrorist Alex Maskey and other IRA members visited last year. They are now going to use the war as cover for an offensive against the Turkish. They have threatened to take up arms again against Turkey, the terrorist organization brought 60 SA-7-alike air defense weapons, hand grenades, kalashnikovs and ammunition, 500-meters of explosive fuses and 500 detonators to the Sinath-Haftanin region thanks to smugglers in northern Iraq. The terrorist organization's member responsible for weapons and equipment was reported to have bought 420 Kalashnikovs, 250,000 bullets and 500 hand grenades from the smugglers and paid their money in U.S. dollars in advance. The PKK were in Dungiven Co.Londonderry last year, invited over by Sinn Fein/IRA, meetings were held and no doubt terrorism tactics were swapped. (photos at this address http://www.upmj.co.uk/a-terrorist-is-a-terrorist.htm )
How many Terrorist allies do we know about now? the PKK, ETA, FARC,PLO and Fidel Castro, surly the time has come to arrest Sinn Fein/IRA leaders as TRUE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS and TRAITORS. No other terrorist grouping can claim as many contacts, its totally unbelievable and outrageous that they are permitted into any government. Had this been the USA, Adams, McGuinness and Kelly could have faced death row, terrorist like Sean Kelly the Shankill bomber most certainly would be history today. Now is the time to call for the arrest for these criminals, the world will not object to law abiding people seeking justice, we must begin to stand up. If you are one of our Ulster readers I don't need to tell you what to do when it comes time to vote, but I will say that the GFA has taken democracy and justice from us, so supporters of it should be scorned, you may not like the DUP but that's not what this votes about, its about restoring basic human / civil rights and democracy such as is afforded to other law abiding peoples around the world. Its about making Adams and McGuinness pay for their crimes, this in not part of the UUPs agenda. NO MORE TERRORISTS IN POWER.
Sinn Fein/IRA and the people going to "peace" demonstrations make me sick. They seem to have the mistaken view that a lot of people support their twisted sense of reality; independent polls that show the majority people in Ulster the UK and America are behind the governments. A million people in Ulster and Briton marched against the war in February this year. That means that fifty seven million from the UK mainland and Ulster didn't. Anti war support is not high and I for one don't appreciate the vocal minority such as Sinn Fein/IRA telling me what the silent majority think.
What the protesters seem to forget is they have the right to protest at all. In some parts of the world their actions would earn them a bullet through the back of the head or a knock on the door at 2 am. Freedom is not a right - it has to be fought for it and some die in that fight. There will always be someone who wants to take your freedom off you as we the Protestants of Ulster know only to well. We would do well to remember the sacrifice of those who gave us the freedom we exercise today. I also find it odd that there have not been huge protests in Iraq against this war. Perhaps they want Saddam to go and are willing to fight and die for their freedom?
I also believe it to be grossly irresponsible of 'peace' organizations to encourage school children to truant from school in order to take part in protests. Children for the most part are too immature to understand the issues, and see it purely as 'permission' to revolt against authority. They don't understand the law and order issues involved and some may get seriously hurt. Iraq has a brutal dictator that murders, tortures and brutalizes his own people, and has now revealed as seen on the attacks on Kuwait that he does have hidden weapons (ie scud and other long-range missiles). The war, now morally justified, is a force of good, to liberate and to give freedom to Iraq. Now that is worth celebrating, not protesting about.
God Bless the combined military forces who put their lives at risk for our safety, may each and everyone return home. And for the good people of Iraq may the coming days pass quickly and with as little pain as possible so as you can return to the peaceful and happy life you so richly deserve. Tim Anderson. UPMJ
Ulster Scots troops mark 'final countdown'
As politicians at home warn of war within days the 650-strong first battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, which is part of 16 Air Assault Brigade, make the final preparations for combat. To Ulster Scots soldiers in the desert, it does indeed now seem that war is imminent. In the last few days proper front line ammunition has arrived as has syringes, or "combo pens", for protection against chemical attacks.
The brigade also contains around 80 Royal Irish Rangers (Territorial Army) volunteers from Northern Ireland. Both brigades come within 1 (United Kingdom) Armored Division. An unknown but substantial number of Ulster Scots folk are also serving with other branches of the armed forces, including the RAF, the Royal Navy, the Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines.
Protestant Ulster leader David Trimble has pledged his support for Tony Blair as the countdown to war continues. During Tuesday night's emergency debate in the House of Commons, the Ulster Unionist leader said the Prime Minister was left with no alternative. Speaking in the Commons, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said France was solely responsible for "destroying the credible threat of force". Although the consequences of war were "unknowable and unpredictable" Mr. Trimble said there was "not much of a choice" over what action should follow.
Meanwhile across the boarder in the Irish Republic Irish anti-war protests are planned. The Irish Anti-War Movement has revealed plans for a series of protests this week to highlight opposition to the imminent US/British military attack on Iraq. They have called on workers throughout Ireland to engage in a 10-minute stoppage at noon on the day the war begins. Ultra Irish Sinn Fein are encouraging people in Northern Ireland to do the same, but its expected that only those with Sinn Fein sympathy's will actually take part. Protests outside the US Embassy in Dublin and in towns and cities across Ireland have also been organized for 6pm on the day of the attack. Ultra Irish republican organized demonstrations in Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Derry and Belfast will also take place the following Saturday.
Take a bigger stand against Irish Republican Terrorism Two cheers for George W Bush's refusal to receive Gerry Adams for a photocall in the Oval Office during the forthcoming St Patrick's Day celebrations (report Mar 6th). One of many demeaning aspects of the Clinton presidency was the preposterous over-indulgence of Northern Ireland's provincial political elite, comprising not just the major local parties, but even such self-important low-graders as David Ervine of the PUP/UVF and Monica McWilliams of the Women's Coalition.
The Clintonian approach also conveniently overlooked the fact that the republican movement was one of the most anti-American forces in the Western world. Worse still, Sinn Fein/IRA were also busy spreading their murderous tradecraft to fellow "national liberation movements" such as the Colombian FARC. When combined with Sinn Fein/IRA's failure to disarm, a handshake with Mr Adams would obviously have detracted from the moral clarity of the war on terrorism.So far so good. But the problem is that all of Northern Ireland's parties, democrat and terrorist-linked alike, have been excluded from the Oval Office. A decision has been reached that, because President Bush was not going to meet Mr Adams, no one else could. It is especially hard on the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble. His forthright speech in the Commons debate on Iraq on February 26 again illustrated that he is one of the few genuinely pro-American Nobel Peace Prize winners, although the UUP has never exactly conveyed that message with great skill in Washington.
This episode does, however, raise a broader question for the Bush Administration: even if the republican movement does disarm, thus giving Sinn Fein a major shot in the arm electorally, how does that help America? After all, republicans have been at the forefront of the "anti-war" coalition, and Sinn Fein members of the Dail have introduced a Bill stipulating that neutrality be made part of the Irish constitution. All of this has reduced the Fianna Fail-led coalition's room for manoeuvre in supporting Washington. America does now have a strategic interest in the affairs of Ireland - in halting the forward march of Sinn Fein.
Ultra Irish terrorist and murderer Gerry Adams with supporters Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), right, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), at the Capitol in Washington Stewart Say's: The US government has got to take a bigger stand against Irish Republican Terrorism . They have quite rightly declared a war on worldwide terrorism and while this is to be applauded, the US cannot continue to allow Sinn Fein/IRA Terrorists to waltz all over the Sates, gaining propaganda and tens of thousands of Dollars, As if somehow they are "nice terrorists"...Sinn Fein have shown their contempt for the American people, the are openly anti American and their private army have been caught training terrorists in Columbia, the same Columbian terrorists that have killed and kidnapped US citizens recently, And it's about time the USA treated them as the enemy they are. Source: http://groups.msn.com/CaltonProtestantDefenders
Boston fury at Senator's St Patrick's Day charade
Mr Kerry has smiled graciously as fellow senators have made complimentary references to his Irish origins. His campaign workers are habitually decked out in emerald green. One year, thousands of green baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Up Kerry!" were handed out, a happy echo of the days when Ireland's first president, Eamon de Valera, campaigned to shouts of "Up de Valera". On St Patrick's Day in 1986, Mr Kerry's message to Boston declared: "For those of us who are fortunate enough to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans, from the time of the revolutionary war to the present, have made to building a strong and vibrant nation." Then there was the joke he made when lieutenant-governor of Massachusetts. "As you know," Bostonians heard, "I am part-English and part-Irish. And when my Kerry ancestors first came over to Massachusetts from the old country to find work in the New World, it was my English ancestors who refused to hire them!" After receiving a tip-off, however, that his Kerry ancestors weren't quite what they seemed, a local newspaper hired a genealogist to look into the senator's past. His mother, it was well known, came from blue-blooded New England stock. The Irish connection, supposedly, came via the senator's paternal grandfather, Frederick Kerry.
But Frederick Kerry, it was discovered, was in fact Fritz Kohn, an Austrian Jew who committed suicide in Boston in 1921. He had changed his name and converted to Catholicism on arrival in the United States, before succumbing to despair in a Boston hotel room. As Irish Boston seethes, Mr Kerry and his aides are insistent that the senator has never, explicitly, claimed to come from Ireland. Mr Kerry also says that his father, Richard, never told him the whole sad story of his grandfather. He claims he only discovered the truth when the genealogist finished his investigation. "I'm sure some people see the name and [say], 'Hey, I think it's this or that,' but I've been as clear as a bell," he said. "I've always been absolutely straight up front about it."
Kelley Benander, his spokesperson, said that the St Patrick's Day speech in 1986 was actually written by one of Mr Kerry's speechwriters, and delivered by the then mayor of Boston, Raymond Flynn. "These particular remarks were drafted by a staffer," said Ms Benander, "who made an understandable and common but erroneous assumption." As for the joke about his English and Irish forebears, which was being repeated last week in the pubs of the city, it is being presented as just that - a joke.
A consummate politician, Mr Kerry is now trying to turn a crisis into an opportunity. While America's powerful Jewish lobby already has a Democratic presidential candidate in Joe Lieberman, Mr Kerry told a prominent group of Jewish-Americans on the campaign trail: "I am so excited - excited about learning the truth of my background. I have embraced what I have learned. And a light has literally turned on within me, like an epiphany, and I am proud to share this special moment of connection with you." A senior Democrat official said: "The real race for the Democratic nomination has barely begun, and John is unlikely to lose it because he isn't Irish. But it's a little embarrassing. "Most candidates worry about secret affairs coming into the open, not their Austrian ancestry." Bush prepares for war summit with Britain, Spain WASHINGTON - President Bush turned his attention Saturday to assembling a coalition for war against Iraq as he prepared to fly to a summit with British and Spanish leaders. Bush, in his weekly radio address, said he saw "little reason to hope that Saddam Hussein will disarm." He then issued what amounted to a call for other nations to back a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "Crucial days lie ahead for the free nations of the world," Bush said. "Governments are now showing whether their stated commitments to liberty and security are words alone, or convictions they're prepared to act upon." Barring a highly unlikely change of heart, Bush will address the nation as early as Monday night to give the Iraqi president what one official called an "ultimatum to avoid war" -- a period of just a few days to give U.N. weapons inspectors, relief officials, journalists and other foreigners time to leave Iraq before an invasion.
An attack could begin any time after that short deadline, officials said.Vice President Dick Cheney will make the case for war in two appearances on network talk shows this morning, administration officials said. The developments on the diplomatic and military fronts came as hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets Saturday in the United States and around the world. In Iraq, Hussein placed his country on a war footing, issuing a decree dividing Iraq into four military regions under the command of his most trusted lieutenants. Hussein's son Qusai was placed in charge of the regime's heartland, Baghdad and the president's hometown, Tikrit. Hussein retained sole authority to use aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles against invaders, according to the presidential decree distributed by the Iraqi News Agency.
In Kuwait, U.S. Army soldiers who would be the first ground troops into Iraq were briefed for the first time on their battle plans. Members of the 3rd Infantry Division began marking the roofs of their vehicles with thermal tape so that American aircraft would not fire on them by mistake. Bush will meet for several hours today in the Portuguese-owned Azores islands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, his two partners in a failing campaign for a new U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. Although the White House said the meeting was a final attempt at diplomacy, no undecided Security Council members were invited, and administration officials saw little chance the impasse over Iraq would be broken. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell planned to remain in Washington.
Bush's aides said the president planned to tell Blair and Aznar that they must end the diplomacy that began with his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 12, in which he called on the world to confront Iraq over its banned weapons programs. Bush is likely to reject any major changes to the U.N. Security Council resolution backed by the three countries that gave Hussein a March 17 deadline to prove he is disarming, the aides said. Officials have said the three leaders could decide to withdraw the measure rather than subject it to certain defeat in the Security Council.
Administration officials said efforts continued to enlist other countries to what Bush has called a "coalition of the willing" to confront Hussein with force. "We lost diplomatic unity. We never lost resolve and prudent planning," a senior administration official said. "Prudent planning includes reaching out to other countries for a unified world behind the last resort of military action." Bush talked with Blair by telephone from Camp David on Saturday, discussing "continuing diplomatic efforts in capitals around the world and at the United Nations," a White House official said. Blair's support for Bush's Iraq policy has hurt him at home, where an overwhelming majority of the British public and a considerable part of the Labor Party oppose an early move to war.British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw gave his bleakest assessment yet of the chances for peace, telling the BBC on Saturday that war had become "much more probable" in recent weeks but was still not inevitable.
"What we know about Saddam Hussein from all his behavior is that he only responds to pressure -- namely, responds at the last minute," Straw said. "So there is still time for him to comply." As part of an escalating U.S. pressure campaign against Hussein and his government, the State Department issued a new warning to more than a dozen relatives and lieutenants of Hussein who have been listed by the United States for possible war crimes prosecution by a postwar Iraqi government or international tribunal. The list, disclosed by the administration in October, includes Hussein's two sons, military commanders and security agents. Meanwhile, efforts to avoid war continued on several fronts. France, Russia and Germany issued a joint declaration saying that "nothing justifies in the present circumstances putting a stop to the inspection process and resorting to the use of force." They called for a meeting of foreign ministers at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to discuss a timetable for Hussein to disarm.
Iraq on Saturday invited chief U.N. weapons inspectors Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei to Baghdad to discuss outstanding disarmament issues. At U.N. headquarters in New York, Blix said he would study the invitation and discuss it with the council. Asked whether the Iraqi invitation was a stunt, he told CNN: "I certainly wouldn't call it a stunt....We'll have to give serious thought to what the answer will be." A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said inspectors "would be wise to wait until after the summit before making any determination about going to Baghdad."
In Iraq, U.S. warplanes continued their stepped-up bombing of Iraqi radar systems, a strategy that military analysts have said could be a prelude to a full-blown war. Pilots launched two air strikes in southern Iraq, about 230 miles west of Baghdad, the third time in two days they used precision-guided weapons against radar sites near the Jordanian border. Commanders fear Iraq could use the stretch of desert to launch missiles at Israel, as happened in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. There have been 125 air strikes since November, compared with 110 in the previous 34 months, according to GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington nonprofit group that focuses on defense issues. Anti-war protests took place in about two dozen cities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. In Washington, tens of thousands of sun-drenched protesters massed at the Washington Monument before walking to Pennsylvania Avenue, where they encircled the White House. Exact crowd numbers were unavailable, because the Metropolitan Police Department and the National Park Service no longer provide crowd estimates. Event organizers said the protesters exceeded the range of loudspeakers that were set to handle a crowd of 100,000.
Toting signs with slogans such as "Health Care, Not Warfare," "Peace Is Patriotic" and "War Is Not the Way," the crowd chanted anti-war slogans. Dozens of speakers called on the United States to drop plans to invade Iraq.U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, was the only member of Congress to address the crowd. Conyers, who has called for President Bush's impeachment over his handling of the Iraq crisis, drew loud cheers by calling for a "regime change" in the White House as well as Iraq. Conyers said Hussein should be removed from office and face trial for war crimes but added: "We don't have to destroy a nation and millions of people in that cause." Meanwhile, U.S. officials expressed renewed fears about internal conflicts in Iraq after a U.S.-led invasion. Turkish parliamentary opposition to allowing U.S. troops to enter Iraq from Turkish territory raises the possibility that, without a U.S. military presence, Turkey might invade northern Iraq on its own to prevent the Kurdish population of the region from forming an independent state. The Turks fear that Kurds living in Turkey would seek to break away and join an independent Kurdish state. If Turkey invades Iraq, it could touch off power struggles among several ethnic groups in the region and even prompt a second invasion by Iranian-backed forces. To persuade Turkey to stay within its own borders, Washington has dispatched Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy to northern Iraq, to the Turkish capital of Ankara to meet with Turkish officials and senior Kurdish and Turkmen figures. Speaking to reporters in northern Kuwait, Lt. Gen. Earl B. Hailston, the top-ranking Marine in the region, said civil war is one of the military's top worries.
"We are very concerned about that," he said. "This is not instant gratification. You don't change a regime and pack up and go home. You can win the battle and lose the war." Ken Moritsugu, S. Thorne Harper, Fawn Vrazo, Tony Pugh, Tosin Sulaiman, Peter Smolowitz, Andrea Gerlin, Sudarsan Raghavan and Tim Johnson, all of Knight Ridder Newspapers, contributed to this report, as did The Associated Press. IRA death 'exposes hypocrisy' A SENIOR Ulster Unionist today put a question mark over his party's on-going talks with Sinn Fein after it emerged that a man shot dead in south Armagh was a Provisional IRA member. Assemblyman Danny Kennedy said his party was right to continue "exposing the hypocrisy between the armed and political wings" of republicanism. But he added: "One wonders at what point it will be utterly pointless continuing to try and encourage these particular organisations away from the violence which is so deeply ingrained." The south Armagh member's comments came as a formal statement from the IRA, signed as usual by P O'Neill, said the dead man, Keith Rodgers, was a member but had not been "on active service" at the time of his death in the border village of Cullaville on Tuesday. Mr Kennedy said: "There is a very thin dividing line between being on active service and being on IRA business, which would appear to have been the case."
But he admitted the details of the incident, when the 24-year-old was shot in the chest and two other men were injured, remain sketchy. "The equation is quite simple. They are not standing down, they are not engaging in acts of completion, they have not made any statement, and unless they do there is no prospect of a political settlement." As his party colleague Dermot Nesbitt confirmed the discussions with Sinn Fein are on-going, Mr Kennedy said he was not involved in those talks. "It is a matter of judgment. If it continues to be the case that the IRA are continuing to operate then it will appear on-going talks will be useless," he added.
The IRA statement added: "Keith was held in high esteem by his comrades and by his community. He was committed to the objectives of Oglaigh na hEireann. "His death is a loss to the entire republican family. The volunteers of Oglaigh na hEireann extend their deepest sympathy to Keith's family who have lost a loving son and brother." Mr Rodger's funeral was taking place today at the Sacred Heart Church in Sheelagh, near Crossmaglen. The media were asked to stay outside the church. Local Catholic clergy had no comment to make. IRA Killing turns up heat on Sinn Fein THERE was intense pressure on Sinn Fein yesterday over continuing IRA activities with the death of an IRA man in a shooting in South Armagh and the attempted bombing of a Belfast courthouse. Unionist MPs demanded a House of Commons statement on the death of the IRA man while Unionist party leader David Trimble suggested in Washington that the Provisional IRA may have been involved in the attempted bombing of the Laganside courthouse. Mr Trimble insisted: "It is now up to republicans to take the initiative and provide for a decommissioning process that is transparent and quantifiable. Our position is quite clear: We ain't going first this time."
The death of Provisional IRA member Keith Rogers, believed to have been part of an IRA unit sent to abduct two brothers in Cullaville on Wednesday morning, has been linked to an ongoing dispute over the purchase of land in the Republic. His death has sparked demands for a statement from the Northern Secretary Paul Murphy on continuing IRA activity in south Armagh and what appears to be the organisation's ongoing recruitment. The Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said it was imperative that Paul Murphy made a statement after he is briefed on the shooting by his security advisers when he returns from America.
The MP also wanted Mr Murphy to investigate comments made at Rogers' funeral by veteran IRA man and Army Council member Brian Keenan who said that it would not be appropriate at the present time for the organisation to seek revenge for the killing. "Does Mr Keenan mean it would be appropriate at some time in the future for the IRA to take revenge for this killing. Where does that leave any Sinn Fein pledge to pursue only exclusively peaceful and democratic means? "We also need to know what Mr Rogers and this IRA unit planned to do in Cullaville on Wednesday morning and when he was recruited into this terrorist organisation. It's most unlikely he was recruited before the 1994 ceasefire when he was only 13 or 14. The episode highlights continuing IRA activity and IRA recruitment."
At the funeral of the IRA man, Mr Keenan told mourners his killers were a "band of vermin" and the republican movement would no doubt make their position very clear. Rogers, 24, from Annavackey near Hackballscross in County Louth was given an IRA funeral on Friday underlining the difficulties facing Unionist negotiators who have been conducting talks with Martin McGuinness. Another Unionist MP David Burnside said yesterday his party shouldn't entertain the idea of returning to Government with Sinn Fein and said Rogers' death justified genuine concerns about continuing IRA activity.
"Perhaps it's because Sinn Fein-IRA see Saddam as not such a bad guy. Well, their jungle adventures, and support for Farc in Colombia, sent alarms ringing in Washington. Increasingly Americans see through their blarney and doublespeak." Getting even more down and dirty, Trimble pointed out that Sinn Fein's Farc friends were responsible for the drugs that "pollute the streets of the United States", and said Americans should treat Sinn Fein-IRA "as bullies who, just like Saddam, still possess weapons of destruction". Trimble's greatest American admirer, Richard Perle, boss of the Defence Policy Board, was paying close attention. As soon as Perle has seen off Saddam Hussein, he will turn his beady eye on Sinn Fein. Hence Sinn Fein's frantic signals that they will sign up for the Police Service. They'd better.
So far it's been a great week for Stephen King. And it began so badly when a computer crunched my column something wicked last week. A sentence that said "Stephen King sounded thin on a telephone line" became "Stephen King sounded for Sinn Fein". If Stephen ever sounds for Sinn Fein, it will be the Last Post. Eoghan Harris |
