Irish Independent 8th September
McCabe relative demands Adams' apology

A RELATIVE of slain Garda Police Officer Jerry McCabe has slammed Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams as a "fascist thug" after he refused to apologise to her at the weekend for the killing of the Limerick detective.

Una Heaton, who is a sister-in-law of the slain detective, held up the Sinn Fein European election convention in Limerick on Saturday for 20 minutes as she demanded the apology from the floor.

The Sinn Fein leader expressed his regret over Det Gda McCabe's death but refused to give a direct apology for the killing. Ms Heaton said yesterday she left the meeting in disgust.

She said that the Sinn Fein president promised to speak with her after the meeting but he later withdrew the offer. And now she says she still intends to meet him face-to-face as soon as possible in an effort to finally extract an apology.

"He told me from the top table he would meet me later and I refused but after leaving the room I changed my mind and sent word back in to him that I would be willing to wait and meet him. A short time later word was sent back out to me that he could not fit our meeting into his schedule, or words to that effect.

"I was appalled by this as apart from his obvious intent to side-step the issue of Jerry's killing, he couldn't even find it in himself to give me the courtesy of a meeting.

"I am not surprised because I consider him a fascist thug and he is not a man at all in my book. I felt I had to approach him and I am glad I did it and the McCabe family is glad and I still intend to meet him face to face."

Ms Heaton also explained that before she interrupted the meeting she was asked to leave by a number of "handlers" and was even threatened the gardai would remove her if she did not go voluntarily.

"I thought that was particularly ironic," she said.

Eugene Hogan
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1043516&issue_id=9774

---------------

In March 2000 a Sinn Fein Belfast city council candidate, Jim Clinton, was
convicted of possessing a Beretta pistol which had been posted to him from
Chicago. He was given a 2 year suspended sentence. He did not have to
serve any time in prison for receiving this gun in the post.

Sunday Independent
Dublin SF link to planned IRA raid

Four Sinn Fein workers arrested after foiled IRA robbery

FOUR Dublin Sinn Fein election workers are among the gang arrested in
what gardai believe was an attempted IRA abduction and robbery in Bray,
Co Wicklow.

The six-member gang were posing as gardai, using fake uniforms and a
stolen blue car made to look like a squad car.

It is believed they intended mounting a roadblock and were about to
abduct a Dublin publican and force him to hand over takings. Detectives
are now re-examining other crimes in the city over the past year in
which cash was robbed in late-night abductions or hold-ups.

The arrests come after the discovery of an alleged IRA spying operation
at Stormont has brought about the collapse of the power-sharing
Executive in Northern Ireland. Unionists have demanded that Sinn Fein be
expelled from the Executive until its links with the IRA are cut and the
IRA is disbanded. Sinn Fein, and its leader Gerry Adams, has
consistently denied that there is a link between Sinn Fein and the IRA.

Senior gardai believe the IRA, many of whose members are in Sinn Fein,
have been carrying out robberies and other crimes including murder and
vicious beatings in Dublin and the border. Gardai believe the
organisation is apparently short of cash as large amounts of funds which
formerly went to running the IRA have been diverted to election
campaigns in the Republic and Northern Ireland.

Up to last year the IRA was receiving funds from its association with
the FARC guerillas in Colombia which, in turn, raises its funds through
the trafficking of cocaine and heroin. However, that supply of funding
to the IRA has dried up. Gardai believe the IRA has maintained a number
of units whose function is specifically to raise funds through armed
robberies.

The five men who were arrested in Corke Park, Bray just after 1am on
Friday had balaclavas, three two-way radios, cable ties, masking tape, a
sledge hammer and jackets similar to the fluorescent garments worn by
gardai on night duty. A sixth man escaped from the scene. Gardai
arrested another man at a house in Crumlin later on Friday. Four of the
men are known to gardai as members of Sinn Fein and have worked in
election campaigns in Dublin. The arrests follow another Garda operation
just over a month ago in Dublin in which Garda-style jackets and a
handgun were found in a raid on a house in the Drimnagh area.

Detectives are now examining possible links between these events and
robberies in and around Dublin in recent months.
JIM CUSACK

Sunday Independent
Adams blames photos on anti-SF agenda


JOURNALISTS should take it on the chin when controversial copy provokes a negative reaction from readers. But what to make of the callers on Monday's Liveline who chose to criticise the Sunday Independent for publishing a photograph of four Sinn Fein TDs posing with the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe inside Castlerea prison?

According to one caller, the picture was "insensitive to Jerry McCabe's family".

Insensitive of gun-runner Martin Ferris and his three colleagues to pose with convicted killers? Insensitive of An Phoblacht to originally print the picture approvingly? No, silly, insensitive of the Sunday Independent to bring the story to a wider audience.

Well, excuse us for thinking that voters have a right to know that, when Sinn Fein TDs talk grandly of representing their constituencies, it's the constituencies of brutal post office van robbers and unrepentant police killers they really seem to have in mind.

Republicans may have a case when it comes to arguing for the release of the slayers of Jerry McCabe. Why, after all, should they be treated any differently from the murderers of RUC men and women in the North, all of whom are now walking smugly free?

But there's a huge difference between arguing for certain prisoners to be let out and having one's holiday snaps taken with them. Niall Andrews has naively called for an end to the trial of the Colombia Three, for example, but he has not joined these poor "tourists" in the prison photo booth for a souvenir of their trip to the kidnapping capital of the world.

Speaking on Monday's News at One, Ferris's only defence seemed to be that it didn't matter what appeared in An Phoblacht because it was read only by republicans. A similar argument could be made that it didn't matter what Tim Allen looked at on the internet because he was only visiting websites meant for the eyes of perverts.

One wonders if the North Kerry TD would be so understanding if loyalists were pictured in one of their own in-house rags enjoying the crack with the Shankill Butchers?

With that spooky uniformity whereby Shinners tend to comment on events using exactly the same words in the same order, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was also to be heard accusing the media of causing distress to the McCabe family for daring to mention the fact that the four TDs and the dead man's killers were, bless them, the bestest friends.

He even dubbed the criticism "opportunistic". And who was it, Gerry, who provided that opportunity by delivering another kick in the teeth to Jerry McCabe's widow, Anne?

Adams further declared that republicans had no case to answer, because criticism was coming from journalists with "their own agendas, and those agendas are anti-Sinn Fein".

And his point is . . . ?

What really bothers him is probably that some of us are open about defying IRA/Sinn Fein's attempts to corrupt Irish democracy, unlike cowardly pro-Provo journos who usually hide their light under a bushel of objectivity, pretending only to be "reporting the facts".

Like we're fooled.

Eilis O'Hanlon

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1049854&issue_id=9818

WEDNESDAY 06/11/2002

IRA protection money claim

A young man was left with two broken arms and a broken leg because he refused to pay protection money to the IRA, it was claimed today.

Kieran Toner, 22 was seriously ill in hospital after being viciously attacked by a mob as he set up his chip van in Camlough, south Armagh.

His brother Stephen claimed the IRA had carried out the attack on Tuesday.

``The past while, people came up to him and said they were from the IRA and they were looking money off him for being there.

``He wouldn`t give them anything and they said `we`ve been asking you long enough` and then they gave him the beating,`` he said.

Earlier today, the MP for the area Seamus Mallon, of the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party pointed the finger at the IRA.

``I have no doubt what happened yesterday was either carried out by those who were sanctioned by the IRA or by the IRA themselves,`` he said.

Sinn Fein Assembly member for the area Conor Murphy strenuously denied republicans had tried to extract protection money from Mr Rogan.

But he was unable to confirm that the IRA did not carry out the attack.

Mr Murphy said he believed the brutal assault was the consequence of ongoing anti-social behaviour in the village.

``I can`t state anything categorically because I don`t know. I do know that there are so many people angry at what has been happening in this area that it could virtually be anyone.

``What I do know is that what happened last night doesn`t resolve any of that and what we have to do is try to continue what we are doing and trying to provide the community with alternatives to anti-social behaviour and violent responses to anti-social behaviour.``

Mr Rogan`s ordeal began as he set up his mobile chip van outside a pub in the village last night.

It was rammed by another vehicle and he was then dragged around the side of the pub and beaten.

He suffered broken arms, a broken leg, broken ribs and puncture wounds. His van was then driven to his house and set on fire by his attackers.

Mr Mallon said it was the second such attack in south Armagh recently.

``Both have been recognisable by the degree of brutality that was used,`` he said.

``The damage that has been done to the victims has been quite serious indeed.

``I have no doubt that whoever carried out both of these have the intent to ensure that it is they who enforce law in the area they are operating and that is at the heart of both of these attacks,`` he added.

Telegraph
Beach body 'is mother killed by IRA 30 years ago'
By Thomas Harding in Shelling Hill
(Filed: 28/08/2003)

The body of a woman executed by the IRA was believed to have been found yesterday more than 30 years after she disappeared.

The remains of Jean McConville, a mother of 10, were thought to have been found by a walker less than 500 yards from a stretch of beach in the Irish Republic which was searched by the Garda four years ago following a tip-off from the IRA.

Mrs McConville was abducted and murdered in 1972 after she comforted a British soldier who had been shot and wounded outside her door in Belfast.

The Provisionals denied killing her, claiming she had fled the Roman Catholic working-class area to live with a soldier, abandoning her children.

But after a long campaign by her family, the Provisionals admitted in the late 1990s that they had murdered her and gave details about the unmarked graves of a number of the so-called Disappeared - the victims of IRA terror.

The Provisionals said they had buried Mrs McConville at the Templetown beach beauty spot in Carlingford, Co Louth, but a series of digs by the Irish police covering 4,500 square feet failed to unearth anything.

Yesterday a person out walking discovered the skeletal remains in a shallow grave in an area of scrub where dunes meet the sweeping beach at Shelling Hill on the Cooley peninsula. The remote spot is just 30 minutes' drive from the Northern Ireland border through winding country lanes.

Five sons and one daughter of Mrs McConville were taken to the place where the remains were found. They laid flowers and a local priest led prayers at the scene.

The remains were then removed by two undertakers and put in a hearse with the siblings walking slowly behind as it drove off.

While the McConville family will have to wait until DNA tests confirm that the body is that of their mother, Michael McConville, 41, one of five sons to visit the spot yesterday, said there were "too many coincidences for it not to be her". He added: "It's been 30 years of hell. We hope it's our mother so we can get this over and done with and give her a Christian burial."

"For 20 years I was very bitter to the people who did this but now I just want to get on with my life. This has run on for a long time."

Mrs McConville, a Protestant who married a Roman Catholic, was abducted by four women at gunpoint days after tending a wounded British soldier near her home in the Divis Flats, off the Falls Road, Belfast.

The family had lost their father, who had served in the Army until 1964, to cancer 10 months earlier. The eldest daughter Helen, 15, tried to hold her remaining family together, but they were split up and placed in homes.

Despite denying any knowledge of the McConville murder, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader and alleged IRA member, had some involvement according to Ed Moloney's book, The IRA: A Secret History.

Mr Adams allegedly formed a special unit within the IRA, called the "Unknowns", which was responsible for the murder and it was "inconceivable" that he was unaware of the order to kill her, the book claims.

Mr Adams has always distanced himself from the "disappearances".

In 1999 searches took place at locations in Louth, Monaghan, Meath and Wicklow that the IRA said were burial sites. The searches uncovered the remains of John McClory, 17, and Brian McKinney, 21, buried in a double grave at Colgagh bog, near Iniskeen, Co Monaghan.

The body of Eamonn Molloy was dug up by the IRA and left in a coffin placed in a cemetery near the Louth border with South Armagh.

There are still six families, including the McConvilles, who are waiting for graves to be found.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/28/nbody28.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/08/28/ixhome.html

Garda murder still haunts SF

(Editorial, Irish News)

Sinn Féin’s weekend ard fheis in Dublin reflected the party’s significant growth on both sides of the border over recent years.

In the north, Sinn Féin has edged in front of the SDLP in the contest within nationalism, while in the south the party’s presence in the Dail rose from one TD to five after the 2002 general election.

Another striking symbolic development, illustrating the party’s move to the political mainstream came on Saturday when, for the first time, Gerry Adams’s presidential address was televised live by RTE.

Mr Adams and his colleagues in the packed hall will not have forgotten that well into the 1990s their voices were still completely banned from the airwaves.

His contribution was as carefully measured as ever and his comments about envisaging a future for republicans without the IRA were a clear nod in the only direction which will allow wider progress to be achieved.

Mr Adams gave little away on the crucial issue of northern policing which, with key negotiations unfolding over the coming weeks, was only to be expected.

However, those who believe in the rule of law and order in all parts of Ireland can only have found the content of and reaction to the speech of Kerry TD Martin Ferris to be particularly chilling.

Mr Ferris loudly demanded the immediate release of the group of prisoners known as the Castlerea Five, who were convicted of the 1996 manslaughter of Garda Jerry McCabe in Co Limerick.

His words were greeted with roars of approval, the clapping of hands and the stamping of feet, without the slightest regard for the feelings of Garda McCabe’s wife and family.

There can be no room for doubt about the gravity and brutality of the crime carried out in cold blood by the Castlerea Five in the quiet village of Adare.

They shot Garda McCabe dead and seriously wounded his colleague, Garda Ben O’Sullivan, without hesitation, at a time when the officers posed not the slightest threat to them, during a sordid attempt to steal money being delivered to a post office.

The IRA, in a blatant lie, swiftly denied any part in the robbery despite firm and over-whelming evidence to the contrary.

A subsequent statement, issued after the perpetrators were arrested, eventually conc-eded a possible IRA link, but insisted that the raid had not been officially sanctioned.

After their conviction, all pretences were set aside and the Castlerea Five sought and were granted all the privileges, with one exception, extended to prisoners recognised by the IRA as authorised members.

That exception was freedom under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and the five men remain as inmates of Castlerea prison.

If the IRA had accepted its involvement in the Adare outrage from the start, we would now be dealing with a very different set of political circumstances.

After the series of cynical untruths which were put forward by that organisation, it can hardly complain in moral terms about the unsympathetic stance which had been followed by the Irish state.

Ironically, the fact that the British govern-ment has already released all those convicted in connection with the murder of RUC officers before the Good Friday Agreement may well ensure that the Castlerea Five do not serve their full terms.

Such an outcome would be much easier to contemplate if the IRA sent out an unequivocal declaration about its forthcoming intentions.

This means that, despite all the weekend rhetoric, republicans effectively have the keys to the gates of Castlerea prison within their own grasp.

April 2, 2003
http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2003/mar31_garda_killing__Editorial.php

Irish Independent 28th August
Family's torment that has endured for decades

THE failure of the intensive searches to locate the bodies of the IRA victims, who became known as "the disappeared", has been a constant thorn in the side of the Provisional political leadership as it seeks respectability on both sides of the Border in the wake of the Good Friday peace agreement.

The IRA agreed to provide information to help pinpoint the whereabouts of the nine bodies after the Irish and British governments introduced legislation preventing any evidence resulting from the discovery of the bodies from being used in attempts to prosecute the killers.

It seemed as if the families of the victims were about to have closure on the agony they had endured over the previous decades as the searches were finally authorised in the summer of 1999. And the terrorist godfathers must also have been reasonably optimistic - despite the confusion they subsequently caused by the paucity of information supplied on where they were buried - that the embarrassing issue could be removed from the spotlight. But, unfortunately for the families, progress has been painfully slow after an encouraging start. The first body was left by the IRA in a newly purchased coffin above ground at Old Faughart cemetery, outside Dundalk, on May 28, 1999, hours before the Gardai began their series of digs for the remains. An alleged informer, Eamon Molloy, from Ardilea Street, Belfast, had been abducted, interrogated and then shot in the back of the head by the Provisionals in 1975.

Gardai were satisfied that Mr Molloy was murdered on the far side of the Border and his body recently moved across to the cemetery for discovery.

The find raised hopes that the other eight bodies would be quickly found.

The following month gardai recovered the bodies of two more victims, Brian McKinney and John McClory in a shallow grave in drained bogland at Colgagh, Culloville, two miles from the Monaghan border with south Armagh after a 30-day search of the area.

The two men had gone missing from their homes in Belfast in 1978 and republican sources claimed they had been abducted by the IRA and interrogated about allegedly stealing weapons belonging to the organisation and subsequently used in robberies. But after those finds the trail ran cold and in May 2000 the gardai decided to call of the concentrated searches, in the absence of any progress.

The biggest search was at Templetown beach, Carlingford, Co Louth, where the IRA had indicated they had buried the body of Belfast mother of ten, Jean McConville.

The searches covered over 5,500 sq metres at Templetown and excavated more than 15,000 tonnes of sand which was later sifted by hand.

Several acres were examined at the other dig sites at Oristown bog, outside Kells, Co Meath; Coghalstown, Navan; Lacken, Co Wicklow; and Carrickroe, Emyvale, Co Monaghan.

But until now there has been no sign of the bodies of Mrs McConville or the five other disappeared, Brendan Megraw, Kevin McGee, Seamus Wright, Danny McIlhone and Columba McVeigh.

Most of the attention has been focused on the plight of the McConville family who have sustained their campaign to put pressure on the IRA to provide more detailed information and encourage the authorities to resume searching.

The McConville case also encapsulated, in the public imagination, the ordeals undergone by the victims before they were eventually killed and the suffering endured since by their relatives and loved ones.

An IRA gang of eight men and four women dragged Jean McConville from the bathroom of her maisonette in Belfast's Divis flats and, ignoring the screams of her children, bundled her into a car.

It was shortly before Christmas 1972 and it was last time that the children saw their mother, dead or alive.

Ten months earlier Jean's husband, Arthur had died from cancer and the orphan children were eventually put into care, coming together again in one room for the first time in 1999, apart from Anne, who died from a stroke seven years earlier.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=44&si=1036062&issue_id=9706

Sunday Independent
A three-year-old is no soldier, Gerry

THE claim that the IRA only killed or injured civilians by accident is part of the myth-making and rewriting of history that has become something of a republican industry in recent years.

The chief proponent of this revisionism is Gerry Adams who was an IRA leader during the time it carried out its bloodiest attacks on civilian targets.

And now he repeats it in a response to a reader's question in the London Independent.

From the outset in 1971 right up to its mid-Nineties ceasefires, the IRA carried out attacks on civilians.

It is difficult if not impossible to square Adams' claims of innocence or neglect on the part of the IRA in respect of incidents like the March 1993 bombing in Warrington.

The IRA placed a Semtex bomb in a rubbish bin which exploded in the town's shopping centre on a busy Saturday afternoon.

It killed two young boys, Jonathan Ball, 3, and Timothy Parry, 12. There was no warning.

The bomb was placed and detonated with the express purpose of causing civilian casualties in Britain.

It was part of the IRA's pressure-building activity to gain concessions from the British government during the negotiations leading to the 1994 ceasefire.

In response to a reader's question in the Independent which asked: "What is the difference between IRA terrorism and Al-Qaeda terrorism?", Adams replies that he does not think there is any similarity between Al-Qaeda and the IRA and that he would not describe the IRA asterrorists.

He goes on: "The September 11th attacks were probably closer to Dresden or Hiroshima in that a lot of planning and resources were put into deliberately killing civilians in large numbers.

"The IRA's killing of civilians is equally wrong, but the IRA would argue that it did so by accident. That is no succour to the victims' families but the IRA was one of the few guerrilla organisations that gave warnings."

Aside from comparing Al-Qaeda to the Allies in the Second World War, the skew on IRA terrorism belies the fact that the IRA is one of the world's most advanced terrorist organisations which has provided other groups around the world with ideas and, in the case of ETA, FARC and Hisbullah, actual training.

Adams' views in the Independent are at variance with remarks he made only last weekend on the Dunphy show .

He said in that interview that the IRA's Canary Wharf bombing in 1996, in which two news vendors were killed, was designed to force the British government's hand in negotiations.

"Nothing was happening, then things started to happen," he told Dunphy.

Some security analysts believe that the IRA bomb attacks on the City of London in 1992 and 1993 provided Al-Qaeda with the idea of attacking the Twin Towers.

The first Al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers in 1993 bore considerable resemblance to IRA attacks.

There was already a long history of IRA idea-sharing with Middle Eastern terrorist groups and Islamic extremists have long paid attention to IRA tactics.

A landmine attack that killed three Irish UN troops in south Lebanon in March 1989 was an almost exact replica of the IRA attack on the British army at Warrenpoint in August 1979, in which 18 soldiers were killed.

The falseness of the claim by Gerry Adams that the IRA gave warnings and tried to avoid civilian casualties is revealed in the other attack on the same day the 18 soldiers were killed.

A hundred miles away in Co Sligo the IRA detonated a bomb in the boat belonging to Lord Mountbatten killing him, the 79-year-old Lady Brabourne and two boys, Nicholas Knatchbull and Paul Maxwell. This was one of the IRA's many deliberate killings of civilians.

Almost from the outset the IRA was engaged in the deliberate killing of civilians for purely terrorist effect.

In 1971 in Belfast, there were a series of bomb attacks on Protestant pubs, killing at least seven people.

Times and places were chosen to create maximum Protestant civilian casualties.

At the end of that year the IRA detonated a bomb without warning outside the Balmoral Furniture Store on the Shankill Road.

This bomb killed an infant boy and girl and two men working for the Store.

In 1972, the IRA unleashed a series of bloody no-warning bomb attacks centring on civilian targets in Belfast. The attacks were directed by the IRA leader, Seamus Twomey, who Adams has identified as one of his guiding figures.

The worst atrocities of 1972 included the Abercorn Restaurant bombing in March. A bomb in a shopping bag exploded without any warning in the centre of the café which was packed with women shoppers.

Two young women, both Catholics, were blown apart and three other women had more than one limb amputated. One young Donegal woman shopping for her wedding dress lost both legs and an arm.

This was followed by a no-warning bomb attack which killed six people in Donegall Street and the Bloody Friday series of bomb attacks in July 1972 in which 22 bombs exploded in 45 minutes.

The IRA gave warnings in both these events but the information they gave was wrong and actually increased the numbers of casualties.

At the end of July 1972, the IRA responded to the British army's invasion of its "no go" areas by detonating a car bomb without warning in the village of Claudy, Co Derry, killing nine people including a nine-year-old girl.

The history of the Troubles is littered with examples of the IRA's murderousness.

Its early attacks in Britain were deliberately designed to create as much civilian death and injury as possible.

The Birmingham pub bombings in November 1974 killed 21 people when bombs exploded in packed bars. No-warning bombs exploded in London, Woolwhich and Guildford killing civilians. In January 1976, the IRA in south Armagh stopped a bus carrying Protestant workmen at Whitecross, lined them up against a ditch and shot 10 of them dead.

Again in January 1992 the IRA killed eight Protestant workmen in a landmine attack in Teebane, Co Tyrone.

This attack was designed to derail political talks in the North at the time.

One of the most hideous attacks in the history of the Trouble's was the IRA's killing of 12 people attending a kennel club dinner at the La Mon House Hotel in east Belfast in January 1978.

The IRA used a blast incendiary bomb - using plastic explosive and a canister of home-made napalm - which caused all the victims to suffer horrific burns. There was no warning.

There was also no warning for the Enniskillen bombing in November 1987 in which 12 people - again all Protestants - were blown up as they assembled for a Remembrance Day ceremony.

The IRA claimed at the time that the bomb had gone off prematurely but forensic examination of the bomb remains showed it was set off by a detonator. It was a deliberate attack.

The IRA man and woman who led the attack subsequently married and have a family.

There are also strong suspicions that the timer on the IRA bomb that killed 10 Protestants in Frizzell's fish shop on the Shankill Road was deliberately set to cause as many civilian injuries as possible.

The bombing sparked a series of retaliatory killings by the UDA which resulted in 28 deaths over a month that culminated with the gun attack on the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, Co Derry, in which seven Catholics were killed.

That Gerry Adams seems to have forgotten these and the many other atrocities his organisation perpetrated is remarkable given that he was at the very top of the IRA for most of the last 30 years.

Jim Cusack

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=36&si=1057414&issue_id=9878

Irish Independent 31st August
Adams link to 'war crimes': inquiry urged
Sunday August 31st 2003

JIM CUSACK

THE Irish and British Governments are facing growing demands for an independent inquiry into the IRA's 'war crime' murders and disappearances of victims following the discovery of what are believed to be the remains of Jean McConville.

Opposition politicians, leading Unionists and the family of Mrs McConville are demanding that the president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, who has been publicly linked to the murder and disappearance of Mrs McConville, should give evidence.

Mr Adams was on holiday last week when the mysteriously located remains were accidentally found and, so far, has not made any comment.

Mrs McConville's eldest daughter and son-in-law, who spearheaded the campaign that forced the IRA to give up the location of some of its secret graves, yesterday said there were still many unanswered questions.

Part of any independent inquiry would involve a reply from Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams to claims made last year that he actually set up the IRA squad that murdered Mrs McConville after she was taken from her children in December 1972.

The claims were made in Ed Moloney's book, Secret History of the IRA. When it was published a year ago, Gerry

THE DISAPPEARED

ED MOLONEY, P30;

JIM CUSACK, EILIS O'HANLON, P16 , 17

Adams said the claim was false and was a libel and he would consult his lawyers.

However, on Friday publishers Penguin confirmed its legal department had not yet received a communication from Mr Adams's lawyers.

In today's Sunday Independent Mr Moloney writes: "There can be no doubt at all that what happened to Jean McConville in 1972 and the other IRA victims who were shot and dumped in secret graves was a war crime every bit as despicable and worthy of condemnation as the disappearances orchestrated in Iraq by Saddam Hussein or in Chile by General Pinochet.

"Yet when the pathetic remnants of Jean McConville's body surfaced on an Irish beach, there was silence in this country about those responsible.

"Is this a matter of scale, that Saddam or Pinochet were greater war criminals because they 'disappeared' many more than did the IRA? Or is it because our peace process has certain needs and pre-eminent among those is the requirement to sustain its principal players, even if that means turning a blind eye to the foulest of deeds?"

Meanwhile, the family are waiting for DNA confirmation that the remains found at Shelling Hill beach in the Cooley Peninsula - almost half a mile from the original location given by the IRA - are those of Jean McConville.

It emerged yesterday that Mrs McConville's daughter, Helen McKendry, the eldest of the 10 McConville children, inspected clothing and footwear at Dundalk Garda Station on Thursday night and informed gardai that the clothes were not the same clothes her mother had been wearing on the night she was abducted.

Her mother had a very small wardrobe and she knew all of her clothes. One of the garments found at the beach was a beige "jumper-type garment" that she felt a younger person would have worn at the time. It is possible Mrs McConville's blood-soaked clothes were taken off her and she was given clean clothes before being driven to south Armagh and murdered.

Helen's husband Seamus, who has carried out extensive inquiries which forced the Governments to intervene and begin liaising with the IRA in 1999, told the Sunday Independent: "There are very distinctive landmarks beside this grave, an old famine wall and the gable of an ancient church. This was also a very shallow grave. You would think that dogs or kids digging in the sand would have uncovered this before now.

"It will be a relief to know we have actually located her but this is not outweighed by the fact it is all mirrors behind this. Helen can only say it is over when we know what happened. It is not over when we find a body. Life is short, the family needs to know what happened their mother."

The Sunday Independent approached the Taoiseach's office and a spokesman for the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, but there was no response to questions about the possibility of an inquiry into the circumstances of Mrs McConville's murder and that of the other disappeared.

The former Taoiseach, John Bruton, however, said there should be a public inquiry into the murder of Jean McConville and others in similar circumstances.

Any such inquiry should have the full support of Sinn Fein and the IRA so as to establish exactly who was responsible. "Here in the Republic, at Dublin Castle, we have inquiries to deal with events in the past. These events are less heinous in their content than the murder of Jean McConville and people like her. If there is to be accountability in one area of life, then there must be accountability in all comparable areas," Mr Bruton said.

Last night, Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes said he was sickened by "crocodile tears" shed by senior republicans responding to the discovery of the body on Wednesday. He called for a Hutton-style inquiry into the murder to be launched at once.

Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson also called for an inquiry. He said: "I have listened with disgust to the hypocrisy of some leading Sinn Fein members who have offered their condolences to the McConville family but have offered no explanation as to why Jean McConville was abducted and murdered in cold blood. The family is entitled to know the truth."

Ed Moloney, in his book, The Secret History of the IRA, states that Mr Adams was "very much at large at the time" as leader of the IRA in Belfast and it would have been "inconceivable" that the order to kill Jean McConville would have been issued without his knowledge. Adams had become the commander of the IRA in November 1972, a month before Mrs McConville disappeared from her home in the Divis Flats in Belfast, leaving her 10 children orphaned. During the autumn of that year, the policy of executing and secretly burying anyone suspected of informing was initiated at the highest level of the Belfast leadership, the book says.

According to the book, before he became Belfast commander Mr Adams got approval from the then commander, Seamus Twomey, "to set up two secret cells in the city to carry out special operations on behalf of the Belfast Brigade. These cells reported directly to Mr Adams and received their instructions only from him."

After the publication of the book, Adams said he had asked for legal advice because he believed some of the claims to be libellous. Asked what the most outrageous allegation was, he said: "The whole suggestion, for instance, that I was involved in the killing, or would have known about the killing of Jean McConville."

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1038739

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=327480

Publication Date: 25 August 2002

Real IRA muscles in on border drugs trade

By Ciaran McGuigan

THE Omagh bombers have turned to the multi-million pound drug dealing
industry to boost their earnings from smuggling rackets.

The Real IRA, which has a firm grip on tobacco and fuel smuggling, has now
muscled in on the lucrative drugs trade in Dublin.

According to security sources on both sides of the border, they are involved
in moving large shipments of cannabis from Dublin to be distributed
throughout Northern Ireland.

The dissident group, which has been rocked by a number of intelligence
stings that have resulted in its key members being locked behind bars, has
swayed from its public anti-drugs stance.

And it has now decided to mirror the INLA by getting involved in the
multi-million pound Dublin drugs empire.

Said one security source: "The INLA has always been involved in the Dublin
drugs scene, but now the Real IRA has got in on the act.

"They keep themselves separate from the other dissident groups, but they are
very much involved in moving drugs from Dublin around the country and into
the North."

And the Real IRA's drugs contacts cross the sectarian divide, with the
dissident republicans involved in deals with loyalist paramilitaries.

Added another source: "A lot of the cannabis that goes north is moved by the
Real IRA.

"Like most criminals, they sell it on to whoever is willing to pay them.

"They don't restrict themselves to republican areas, but are quite happy to
deal with the UFF, the LVF or whoever."

According to intelligence reports, the Republic is a major route for
cannabis entering the UK from Europe and north Africa.

And earlier this year a US Congressional hearing was told that there was
evidence linking the Real IRA to that drug trafficking.

Rand Beers, an assistant secretary for international narcotics affairs
testifying to the US Senate about links between the IRA and FARC terrorists
in Colombia, insisted the Real IRA had become involved in the drugs trade.

Irish Independent 16th Dec
Forged licence scam link to IRA

SENIOR Provisionals are believed to have benefited from a counterfeiting scam scuppered by gardai in Dundalk last week.

The seizure of dud driving licences, insurance certificates, tax discs, forged euros and sterling notes was the culmination of over a decade's work by gardai.

Garda sources say the forged documents have been sold to many unsuspecting motorists throughout Ireland.

One of the ringleaders had strong links to the Provisional IRA and is thought to have provided them with false driving licenses and possibly passports before the Good Friday Agreement.

Although no dud passports have been recovered, a large number of driving licenses were found.

A quantity of plastic material containing the harp emblem used as a protective cover for the licenses was found along with signed photographs from people wanting licenses.

Gardai suspect some people believed they were getting bona fide licenses and have subsequently been faced with prosecution before the courts for driving with a false licence. False insurance certificat es for both the Republic and the UK were also recovered.

Elaine Keogh

Irish Independent 28th March
Pressure on Ahern to clarify 'terror amnesty'

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was under garda pressure last night to clarify whether two men wanted for the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe will benefit from the proposed "amnesty" for terror suspects on-the-run.

The Taoiseach disclosed for the first time on Wednesday that the measures dealing with the on-the-run (OTR) republicans would apply in this jurisdiction as well as in Northern Ireland.

His comments caused surprise as senior garda officers were unaware of the move while Department of Justice officials were also unable to confirm that the OTR deal would be implemented here.

Garda leaders last night called on Mr Ahern to state clearly whether it was intended that those wanted for the McCabe murder would get away free although other members of the gang were in jail.

The Taoiseach's controversial comments were made on the eve of a High Court judgment in favour of the Government's decision not to apply the early release terms of the Good Friday Agreement to the McCabe killers.

An application for early release had been made by one of the convicted killers, Michael O'Neill, who was jailed for 11 years, and John Quinn, serving 6 years for conspiracy to commit a robbery in June 1996 in Adare, Co Limerick.

During their trial in the Special Criminal Court evidence was given that fingerprints traced to two suspects, who were missing, had been found on a car used by the gang to make their getaway.

The suspects left the jurisdiction after the shooting and were believed by the Gardai to have been hiding out in South America.

Last night the general secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, George Maybury said it defied logic if the Taoiseach was suggesting that men who had yet to be charged in connection with the McCabe murder could benefit from peace measures.

He condemned the move, especially when the courts had confirmed that those convicted of charges should not be released early from jail.

Tom Brady
Security Editor

Sunday Independent
IRA 'earned €30m' in FARC terror school

Intelligence reports link the IRA with cash-rich guerrillas and a newly resurgent ETA, writes Jim Cusack

THE IRA could have received between €20m and €30m from the massively wealthy FARC guerrilla group (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) for training programmes in mortars, armour-piercing and explosives manufacture.

European security agencies are also looking closely at intelligence reports from Spain that the same type of IRA mortar training was given to the Basque terrorist group, ETA.

The IRA training programme in Colombia, according to senior security sources, ran between 1997 and the summer of 2001.

At least 30 IRA members worked inside FARC-controlled areas of Colombia as part of the training programme. Massive amounts of cash US intelligence sources say as much as US $2m per training programme were involved and there could have been up to 14 programmes, suggesting a total payment of up to US$28m.

Senior sources believe the connection between FARC and the IRA was developed through the Basque terrorist group, ETA. The IRA has had close and continuing links with ETA for decades.

The sources say that the IRA has also been supplying mortar technology to ETA in recent times.

A photograph of an IRA 'Mark 10' mortar was recently discovered by Spanish police, suggesting that ETA has begun to manufacture the devices but has not yet used them.

ETA restarted its terrorist campaign last year after a period of ceasefire and has carried out several assassinations. There are concerns with the discovery of the mortar pictures that it intends stepping up its campaign.

FARC controls a large portion of the cocaine manufacturing trade in Colombia and is massively cash-wealthy.

Western intelligence agencies had begun noticing the FARC-IRA connection by 1999, when striking resemblances between mortars used in Colombia and the IRA's 'barrack-buster' bombs were remarked on in some intelligence and armaments publications.

One of the leading publications in the defence area, Jane's Intelligence Review, ran a detailed article about an apparent IRA-FARC technology exchange in May last year.

The IRA presence in Colombia appears to have been tolerated as it was taking place towards the end of a peace process in the country where the government was attempting a settlement with FARC and had ceded a large part of the interior to FARC control. It was in this area that the training took place.

However, the process began to collapse around 1999. FARC stepped up its war against the government with hundreds of attacks and kidnappings of many prominent figures.

The collapse of the process was triggered by a massive terror campaign against FARC's political wing, in which an estimated 4,000 of its elected local officials were assassinated by right-wing groups.

The process disintegrated at the start of last year and all-out conflict began again.

The IRA-designed mortars were used with greater frequency throughout last year, and this year they were used with devastating effect in a number of attacks.

Earlier this year, 115 people were killed in a FARC attack on a rural town using mortars identical to the IRA's Mark 18 device. The Mark 18 missile consists of two gas cylinders welded together and carrying a payload of home-made explosive.

The mortar is devastating in its effect and killed almost all the civilians who were seeking refuge in the church in Bellavista.

Last May, multiple-launch mortars, also originally devised by the IRA, were used to attack the presidential palace in Bogota during the inauguration of President Uribe. Twenty-one people were killed in this attack.

The supply of technical information and training to FARC was criticised during the summer by the US Congress House International Relations Committee, which issued a report saying that FARC had made a "quantum leap" in the proficiency of its terrorist tactics.

The report was issued by the chairman of a House committee investigating links between international terrorist groups, Henry J Hyde of Illinois, who said the IRA's suspected involvement with FARC had threatened democracy in that country and US personnel in Colombia.

Terrorism and Organised Crime

IRA £8 million
RIRA £5 million
LVF £2 million
UVF 1.5 million
UDA/UFF 1 million

MPs warn that there is not enough funds to combat corruption

ONLY 10 officers have been assigned to get to grips with racketeers who are capable of raising up to £18 million a year to fund Northern Ireland paramilitaries.
With republican and loyalist terror groups capable of raising multi-million fortunes a year, the Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said the resources available to the planned Assets Recovery Agency fell far short of what was needed.

It said that, without more staff, the ‘‘high expectations’’ surrounding the agency were unlikely to be met. ‘‘There can be no illusions about the worrying nature of the situation
Northern Ireland currently faces,’’ a committee report said.
‘‘Paramilitary-related and organised crime is penetrating and corrupting
society,” it said. “The establishment of the Asset Recovery Agency could be a significant step
forward in tackling the problem. ‘‘Yet, the work of the agency, locally as well as nationally, looks set to be frustrated by the lack of proper financial support and commitment from
the Government. ‘‘We believe that it is currently under-resourced for the task required and
we further believe that the establishment of its reputation as a threat to criminality in its first few years will be crucial to its success.’’

The committee said that the Criminal Assets Bureau in the Republic had a staff of 45 with plans to expand. The report highlighted the way the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland were
turning increasingly towards the formation of organised criminal gangs bent on big profits.
Police say that ‘‘vast sums’’ being raised by the terrorists meant they were able to afford ‘‘very extravagant personal lifestyles’’, with some now ‘‘entirely in this business to create a pension fund for themselves’’. The report said that black market trading by the paramilitaries was having a ‘‘considerable knock-on’’ effect on the economy. The scale of fuel smuggling was so widespread – with up to 250 of the Province’s 700 filling stations thought to sell only or largely illegal fuel – that 139 legitimate stations had been forced to close. Some groups – particularly the Real IRA – had found that their ability to exploit the economic market-place in the island had reached its limits, so they were turning to Great Britain. Police estimated that up to 80 per cent of the Real IRA’s activity in Great Britain was now linked to ‘‘ordinary crime’’ rather than terrorism.

The pursuit of criminal profits even led to some cases of loyalist and republican paramilitaries working together, with one loyalist group found to have bought £50,000 worth of illegal cigarettes from the IRA. Efforts to bring criminals to justice were being hampered by the low level of support available to witness support schemes, with insufficient funds to enable witnesses who face reprisals to establish new lives. ‘‘The level of personal sacrifice required of the individual is unreasonable; it makes the individual and, potentially, his or her family victims twice over,’’ the report said. ‘‘It is not surprising that so few are currently willing to make a stand.’’

The committee said that it all underlined the need for the Government to provide the resources necessary to ‘‘root out’’ organised crime both in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain. ‘‘It is imperative that the police and other agencies engaged in tackling paramilitary or criminal activity have the resources and support that they need,’’ the report said.
‘‘We urge HM Treasury to recognise that investing in action, not only against organised crime but against terrorism in Northern Ireland and Great Britain, would provide a strong financial return to the Exchequer and contribute to the establishment of a more honest and stable society.’’

Northern Ireland security minister Jane Kennedy has said that the Government
would not let the racketeers off the hook. Ms Kennedy, who chairs the Organised Crime Task Force set up to combat the gangs, said: ‘‘Our grip is tightening on organised crime and no effort will be spared in the fight against the tyranny of gangsterism.’’ Pledging Government resources, she added: ‘‘This year, we will add to our arsenal through proceeds of crime legislation and the creation of an Assets Recovery Agency which will have the power to confiscate the assets of criminals whose extravagant lifestyles are an affront to us all.’’

http://icnorthernireland.icnetwork.co.uk/news/local/page.cfm?objectid=13154427&method=full&siteid=91603&page=2
Call for Urgent Action on the Issue of Child Beatings Jul 8 2003

A TOTAL of 19 children were shot by terror groups in Ulster last year - averaging out at one every three weeks.

The News Letter can also reveal that while 2002 is the second worst recorded year in terms of shootings of children by paramilitary organisations - mainly the UDA, UVF and the IRA - this figure is only the tip of the iceberg.

Loyalists were responsible for 12 child shootings while republicans carried out seven.

The loyalist haul chillingly included the case of one child under 14 years of age.

From official statistics, 2001 has been recorded as the worst year, with loyalists shooting 14 children and republicans targeting nine.

These revelations are contained in the third and final report by Professor Liam Kennedy of Queen's University.

His paper - Child Victims of Paramilitary "Punishments" in Northern Ireland in 2002 - has been prepared for the Northern Ireland Committee against Terror.

Prof Kennedy told the News Letter this is his final report because he feels action, not words, must now be taken.

"It is time the governments faced up to the issue," he said. "Children are considered as 17 years and younger."

Prof Kennedy also reveals that paramilitary-style assaults on children in 2002 [nine by loyalists and 13 by republicans] were marginally down on the previous year [18 by loyalists and 18 by republicans] - but still remain at a frightening level.

"I am working from the official police statistics. They are probably only the tip of the iceberg," he said.

It has also emerged that children from a nationalist background remain at a greater risk of being shot or brutally assaulted by paramilitary groups compared to children from a unionist background.

"The system of 'punishment' shootings and assaults operated throughout the whole period of the recent political negotiations, culminating in the publication of the Joint Declaration by the London and Dublin governments," said Prof Kennedy.

"The period also saw the publication of an ambiguous IRA statement, unacceptable to the two governments on its attitude to violence and the Good Friday Agreement.

"It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that, in the absence of a public and explicit commitment by the IRA - in a new IRA statement - to stop "punishment attacks, these shootings and mutilations will continue."

In his report, Prof Kennedy said there is something "particularly repulsive" about the use of a gun in "punishing" a child: shooting him in the leg, the ankle, the elbow or the hand.

"Yet such is the force and duration of some of the beatings that, according to medical evidence, the incidents can result in longer term and more intractable physical and psychological pain," he pointed out.

"This points up the severity of some of these assaults.

Sometimes the two forms of ' punishment' are combined."

His landmark paper proposes that the appointment of a children's ombudsman for Northern Ireland should actively champion the rights of children in the face of paramilitary abuse.

Prof Kennedy also points to the "urgent need" for an anti-intimidation unit to tackle the multiple sources of intimidation in this society.

He also suggests any violations of children or adults by paramilitary organisations should be carefully monitored and should carry political penalties for political parties linked to paramilitary private "armies".

Irish Abroad
Celtic fans under fire for flying Palestinian colours
by Hugh Dougherty

FIRST it was flying the Irish Tricolour at matches - now Celtic fans are under fire for waving Palestinian colours at games. Glasgow's Jewish community has criticised Celtic and Rangers supporters for flying Middle Eastern flags at games.

Rangers fans have taken a leaf out of the North of Ireland by flying the Israeli flag - and some Celtic supporters are waving the Palestinian flag which they've adopted as their emblem. Now Jewish fans of both teams say it's time to blow the final whistle on an unwelcome development which has been noted by both of the Old Firm rival clubs officials.

Jewish Celtic supporter Kenny Livingstone said: "I have noticed greater numbers of Palestinian flags flying at games. It spoils the game for me. I don't see what politics has to do with football. This may be political, but it's bigotry. It's anti-Semitism and it
incites racial hatred. Does the west of Scotland not have enough problems?"

And Rangers fan Andrew Barnett said: "I don't just see the flags, I know what they think. Rangers supporters are in the main anti-Palestinian and pro-Israeli. They equate the situation to that of Ulster and the Protestants, whereas Celtic fans see the PLO as the IRA."

But the Jewish community is united in blasting both sets of supporters for knowing little about the realities of Middle East politics and for confusing the situation there with Ireland.

And some Jewish fans say they're thinking twice about going to Celtic matches because of Palestinian flag waving which they say is anti-Semitic. The Middle East colours seem to have been imported into Glasgow by fans of both clubs from the North of Ireland - where Israeli flags are a common site in Loyalist areas and Palestinian colours flutter in Nationalist enclaves.

A spokesperson for Celtic said that the club had taken note of the flags being flown. He said: "The waving of these flags has been noticed and if they are being used in a political context the appropriate warnings will be given."

A Rangers spokesman said: "We are happy for any flags to be flown as long as they are not paramilitary in nature or offensive. Our philosophy is one of bitter opposition to bigotry."

The row follows criticism of Celtic fans for flying the Irish Tricolour at matches - and a concerted attempt by both the bitter Glasgow rivals to stamp out sectarian chanting at matches.

Police in Glasgow have also come in for criticism for ordering some pubs to remove Celtic memorabilia from display in bars because they believe it could provoke sectarian trouble.

Irish Post

Combat 18

UDA's Neo-Nazi support flags
Jew-hating Combat 18's fury at support for Israel By Stephen Breen

A NEO-Nazi group last night hit out at the UDA's decision to hoist
Israeli flags in loyalist districts across Northern Ireland.

It is understood leading members of Combat 18 are "livid" with the
terror group's decision to support Ariel Sharon, in his brutal
conflict with the Palestinians.

The flags were placed on lampposts in loyalist strongholds, after
Palestinian flags were hoisted in nationalist areas to show
solidarity with Yasser Arafat and his people.

Although Palestinian extremists have always had close contacts with
the IRA over the years, this is believed to be the first time Israeli
flags have been flown in loyalist strongholds.

But Combat 18 - a violent right-wing fascist group which has close
links with both the UDA and LVF - slammed the decision to hoist the
flags because of its hatred for Jews.

And it is believed the neo-Nazi group, which extols its vehement anti-
Semitic sentiments on the Internet, is considering withdrawing its
support for loyalist paramilitaries.

A Combat 18 source said many members across the UK felt there was "no
need" for the Israeli flags to be flown in loyalist districts across
Northern Ireland.

Said the source: "Combat 18's feelings on the Jewish state and its
people have been well documented over the years.

"These people have tried to rule the white man by lies and deceit,
but this is something that Combat 18 will not tolerate.

"The organisation, which thrives on ruling by strength and honesty
for the white race, hates all things Jewish, and surely the loyalist
people of Ulster must realise this.

"Combat 18 has always supported the loyal people of Northern Ireland,
but this might be a hard thing to continue if Israeli flags continue
to pop up all over the place."

A spokesman for the UDA defended its decision to erect the Israeli
flags in loyalist districts across Northern Ireland.

He said: "The Protestant people of Ulster have a certain empathy with
the Israelis because it is also a nation under siege.

"The Israeli flags only went up to show our disgust at the republican
community, who held meetings with Palestinian fundamentalists before
they embarked on their suicide bombings.

"People should remember the Provos were the first group to adopt
the 'suicide' bomb tactic, with innocent people being strapped into
lorries with huge bombs."

http://icnorthernireland.icnetwork.co.uk/news/local/content_objectid=13060532_method=full_siteid=91603_headline=-Waging-War-Against-Ulster%27s-Underworld-name_page.html
IRA exposed over drug role

THE IRA is involved in drugs, Government intelligence has revealed.

As the Organised Crime Task Force Threat Assessment Report suggested, paramilitaries have all but abandoned armed struggle for organised crime.

A Government official said information indicated all the terror groups are involved in all areas of the criminal world.

Until now, Ulster's drugs cartels had been perceived to be loyalist or non-affiliated.

The IRA has publicly opposed drugs and killed many big-name dealers under the name of Direct Action Against Drugs.

Increasingly detailed intelligence has also revealed that loyalist and republican terror organisations account for around 65 per cent of the organised crime networks - either directly running gangs, providing muscle, or with other links.

Of these two-thirds, there is roughly a 50:50 split across the sectarian divide, with the IRA, dissident republicans, UDA, UVF and LVF all involved.

Security Minister Jane Kennedy said that the paramilitaries had turned to other criminal enterprises after abandoning their ideological struggles.

"It is completely unacceptable that those who were once seen as the defenders of their communities have increasingly turned to organised crime, selfishly maintaining an affluent lifestyle at the expense of those who work hard to earn their living," she said.

Setting targets to beat the gangsters

IMPROVED intelligence gathering and co-operation between the PSNI and other agencies has set a list of priority criminal targets for the next year.

Through the Organised Crime Task Force's assessment, extortion, narcotics, fuel smuggling, tobacco and alcohol duty evasion, money laundering, counterfeit goods and armed robbery are areas where the gangs can and must be hit hardest.

The targeting may also be helped by the work of the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), which also expects to flex its muscles soon.

ARA Northern Ireland boss Alan McQuillan, using new powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act to pursue illegal wealth, yesterday told the News Letter his team are well on the way to bringing people before the courts by the autumn.

A Government spokesman also said: "There's clear evidence that the setup of ARA has scared a lot of people."

But he conceded that anticipation of its work may have given criminals time to move assets out of the Province.

Waging War Against Ulster's Underworld

Jun 12 2003
ONE hundred mafia-style crime gangs are operating a billion pound illegal industry in Ulster.

The annual report from the Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) has shone new light into the dark corners of criminal activity which one senior police officer yesterday described as a "menace looming large" over the country, which has "the potential to increase its grip on the community".

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Albiston said the full-time criminals posed a "serious threat" to society if not tackled by law enforcement, Government and the community itself.

He was speaking at the opening of a major International Organised Crime Conference in Belfast, where delegates from around the globe heard of problems being tackled in Northern Ireland.

Opening the conference, Secretary of State Paul Murphy said: " Organised crime is one of the gravest problems facing Northern Ireland. Criminal gangs pose a very real threat."

In particular, more than 200 experts on organised crime were presented with the third annual Threat Assessment Report (2002-2003) from the Northern Ireland Office's OCTF.

Even though the authorities have scored big successes over the last 12 months in their war against smuggling, counterfeiting, drugdealing, robbery and extortion, it has emerged that the gangsters are increasingly branching out into other areas of crime.

"Every time we dismantle or disrupt one group or an activity, the criminals move into another area and start again,'' said a Government official.

"That means things are everchanging and we have to be adaptable across all law-enforcement agencies to shift as they shift."

To illustrate the point, the task force has been trailing the gangsters and improving intelligence to reveal many gangs which had previously been undiscovered.

Security Minister Jane Kennedy, who chairs the task force, claimed the new information had provided a clearer picture of the criminals.

However, she added: "In spite of the considerable successes of the last 12 months, the level of organised crime activity continues to remain a serious problem in Northern Ireland, with crime enterprises diversifying their activities."

A Government official added: "Organised crime is multinational and the people involved here may turn up anywhere from Taiwan to Turkey.

"The gangs are even linked to international networks like the Triads or the Russians."

First victories in unending struggle

ULSTER crime gangs have been put under increasing pressure but their empires are still bringing in hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Over the past 12 months, there has been a growing number of successes against the organised criminal network in the Province.

However, all of the groups which make up the Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) are at pains to reflect that their efforts to clamp down on the gangsters have only just begun and will be never-ending.

In the OCTF's third annual Threat Assessment Report, it was revealed that between April 2002 and March 2003:

64 organised crime networks had members arrested.
35 groups had members prosecuted for offences ranging from attempted murder and blackmail to fraud and drug offences.
75 outfits were disrupted or dismantled, although many members have switched to other networks and moved on to other illegal areas.
£7 million worth of counterfeit goods were seized in Northern Ireland - more than in England, Scotland and Wales put together.
Drugs to the value of £8.8 million were seized, resulting in 1,200 arrests. Northern Ireland's drugs market does not reflect national trends, however, with cannabis and Ecstasy accounting for nearly 90 per cent of all seizures. Heroin and cocaine have shown small signs of growth.
In the battle against excise fraud, the authorities have seized 88.5 million cigarettes, millions of litres of illicit fuel and broken up eight major fuel laundering plants.
However, the successes and increased information on organised crime have also revealed its huge scale:

Smuggling is described as "by far and away the most lucrative activity". Indeed, an astonishing two-thirds of petrol stations in Ulster are believed to be selling some illegal fuel.
The counterfeit-goods market is another huge earner, with an estimated value to the gangs of £136 million per year from products such as CDs, computer games and clothing.
Cases of reported extortion are rising steadily but law agencies believe it is a heavily underreported crime which is costing untold millions with knock-on price rises to consumers.
In other areas, "cash-intransit" robberies fell slightly last year due to increased cooperation between the security firms and the PSNI.

Incidents of counterfeit currency also dropped, although the face-value of notes seized was significantly higher.

UTV
http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=29999&pt=n
WEDNESDAY 12/03/2003 18:49:06
Sinn Fein chiefs linked to Castlereagh report

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have been incriminated in a secret Government report into the Castlereagh break-in, an Ulster Unionist MP claimed today.
By:Press Association

Top republican Bobby Storey was also named, according to David Burnside.

His claim in the House of Commons followed an interim report by Sir John Chilcott, who was called in by the Northern Ireland Office to investigate a breach of national security.

Police have blamed the IRA for the theft of dozens of Special Branch files on St Patrick`s Day a year ago but no-one has yet been charged.

The Director of Public Prosecutions is still considering a request to have Larry Zaitschek, a former chef at the canteen at Castlereagh police station, extradited from the US.

It is understood an interim report from Sir John was handed over to former Secretary of State John Reid.

Sources close to the investigation claim the report points the finger at the Provisionals.

Mr Burnside, the South Antrim MP, today used Parliamentary Privilege to allege the report showed senior Sinn Fein members were involved.

He said: ``It is my information that you have received the Chilcott report and it incriminates (Gerry) Adams, (Martin) McGuinness and Bobby Storey, the head of information and intelligence in the IRA in Belfast, and it appears to me there is a cover-up.``

However, Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said there would be no ``cover-up`` involving Sir John`s report into the break-in.

Mr Murphy said he would issue the document ``in due course``, and added: ``I will inform the house when the report is ready.``

Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy later said his party knew nothing about the contents of the report into the Castlereagh break-in.

``It is not surprising, however, that David Burnside made his remarks on the day that the various political leaderships from Ireland departed for the USA,`` he said.

``Burnside is a well-known conduit for bogus MI5 and Special Branch briefings including recent remarks he made around the unionist paramilitary murder of Ciaran Cummings in his constituency.

``History has told us to be very sceptical about any remarks made by David Burnside.``

August 24, 20C
Sunday World

CIRA blamed for bus attack


By JOHN KEANE

THE Continuity IRA is believed to have been behind an explosion at the Ulsterbus depot in Newry.

According to local reports, a car was driven into the depot in Edward Street shortly after 10pm on Friday night and set on fire.

As firemen from the nearby fire brigade station arrived to put out the blaze, the car exploded.

Several firemen at the scene escaped uninjured but were later treated for shock.

According to eyewitness reports, the bus nearest to the burning vehicle was peppered with shrapnel.

The area was sealed off and two British Army bomb squad units examined the area yesterday morning as military helicopters circled overhead.

The crude home-made bomb is said to have been packed into a container filled with ball bearings, nuts and bolts, as well as inflammable material.

A .second bus was damaged by fire and bus services in and out of Newry were cancelled until noon yesterday.

Recruited

Informed sources say the Continuity IRA has successfully recruited a number of members in Newry and was anxious to make its presence known by attacking a soft target in the town centre.

Sources say the bus depot bombing, which involved most of the 15 members of the CIRA unit, may have been deliberately low key.

"The worrying thing is that next time they may try to lure the security forces into a similar situation but with a bigger and more powerful bomb hidden nearby," added the source.




Billy Hutchinson
http://www.u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=35562&pt=n WEDNESDAY 06/08/2003 10:28:41 7 comments
Dissident republicans blamed for 'attempted abduction'

Dissident republicans were today blamed for the attempted abduction of a prominent loyalist politician in west Belfast.
By:Press Association
Progressive Unionist city councillor Billy Hutchinson was jogging in the Shankill area of the city at abut 6.15am when four men in a white Vauxhall Cavalier tried to bundle him into the car.

Mr Hutchinson, a former Assembly member for North Belfast, managed to flee when a security guard in the area spotted what was going on and intervened.

Police confirmed today that they were investigating an ``alleged incident`` in Cambria Street.

However, Progressive Unionist Party Leader David Ervine said they believed republicans were behind the attempted kidnapping.

``Billy was jogging at about 6.15am when a white Cavalier with four men stopped and made a bid to abduct him,`` the East Belfast councillor said.

``Billy said there appeared to be something at the back of the vehicle. He did not know if it was some sort of weapon or a gun.

``Fortunately a security guard on duty in the area ran out and Billy was able to make his escape.

``We believe that nationalists from the Ardoyne were behind this very sinister incident.``

Nationalist SDLP chairman Alex Attwood described the attempted abduction as ``a sinister and dangerous development``.

The West Belfast councillor said: ``Nationalism may have significant differences with loyalism and Billy Hutchinson but he has been a force for progress within loyalism.

``This type of incident is reminiscent of the worst days of the Troubles when public representatives were targeted and even murdered by those who did not agree with them.``

Some republicans in North Belfast were today initially sceptical about the PUP`s claims.

One source in Ardoyne said: ``People here are a bit staggered at the claims and that someone from this area tried to abduct Mr Hutchinson.

``It has been a quiet summer in this area. Why would anybody jeopardise that?``

Sunday Independent
Extortion racket led to IRA killings

JIM CUSACK

THE young IRA man shot dead during an attempted punishment beating in south Armagh earlier this year was involved in an attempt to extort money from local smugglers for Sinn Fein, according to Garda sources.

They believe that the "taxing" of smugglers in the south Armagh area is a major source of funding for the republican political movement.

According to local sources, there has been a clampdown by the IRA on former members who have been making large sums of money from smuggling cigarettes and diesel. Huge amounts of money are being made through illicit trade in the area and the local IRA is now said to devote most of its time to extorting money from the smugglers.

Keith Rogers, 24, was shot dead while he and seven other IRA members were in the process of attacking a man in his 40s at Cullaville on March 12 last. A man drew up in a car and opened fire on the gang with a handgun, killing Rogers and injuring two others.

Now gardai believe that both the man who was attacked and the man who shot Rogers had refused to hand over money to the republicans. They say that a number of smugglers who had previously been prepared to give money to the IRA were less happy to hand over money to Sinn Fein and this was causing problems.

The man who shot Rogers and the man who was beaten had been subject to repeated threats and the one had already been the subject of a "punishment" attack.

The man who shot Rogers fled south Armagh immediately afterwards but did return after local clergy tried to effect a reconciliation. However, on his return an IRA figure approached the man and said he was a "dead man walking". He left again and has not been seen since.

At the time of Roger's killing, Sinn Fein sources told some journalists that Rogers had been killed as a result of a local dispute over property. Gardai say this is not the case.

Meanwhile, the gardai believed that Gareth O'Connor, the 23-year-old Continuity IRA man who disappeared in April was murdered by the IRA and buried secretly.

According to local sources, O'Connor was involved in a dispute with members of the south Armagh IRA over a debt he claimed he was owed. He was last seen in the Whitecross area where it is believed he was abducted, taken to a secret location and shot dead.

Under Minister for Justice Michael McDowell's proposals, the publishing of this story could lead to the imprisonment and/or fining of gardai and the arrest of the author

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1043311&issue_id=9773

Irish Independent 26th July
Fags, booze and petrol - the new tenets of terror

It's the tinpot terrorist's spin on the patriot game. Law-abiding citizens would call it 'making a fast buck' or 'feathering the nest'. But not the hardmen. They call it the cause, never breaking their stride as they advance on the local bank, armed not with a Kalashnikov but with a lodgement slip.

The gospel of the post-Troubles generation of paramilitaries is: 'to truly love thy country, thou must love thyself first and foremost'. Should that motto militate against the welfare of your fellow countrymen in whose name you kill, maim, destroy and impoverish, so be it.

This week, the Criminal Assets Bureau secured a High Court judgment of €872,483 against Liam Campbell, a 41-year-old small farmer and a leader of the extreme gung-ho wing of the Real IRA. In the course of investigating his financial affairs, the CAB unearthed an investment policy owned by Campbell which was due to mature this year. They found that the equivalent sum of €635,000 had been lodged to a Dundalk bank in 1998 by a man using a false name.

Campbell, who is serving five years in Portlaoise Prison for membership of an illegal organisation, was granted free legal aid for that trial in the Special Criminal Court in October 2001.

Last Tuesday in the High Court, and throughout the CAB investigation into his wealth, the long-time IRA volunteer was represented by both a solicitor and senior counsel but, remarkably, he did not apply for the ad hoc free legal aid allowed under criminal assets law. He could, it seems, afford to pay those bills himself.

It will be interesting to see if he still has the resources to hire his own lawyers on his next visit to the Special Criminal Court on fresh charges of illegal membership arising from his arrest while on bail. In his spare time between signing on twice daily at Dundalk garda station, he found the time to attend a meeting of the Real IRA in Co Meath, where gardai found him.

The Campbell name is one of the steadfast family nomenclatures in republican annals. In Bandit Country, his book on the IRA in South Armagh, author Toby Harnden graphically encapsulated the area's parallel universe by noting the proximity to the border of Liam Campbell's house in Co Louth. As a wanted man in Northern Ireland, he had only to cross the road from his unimposing bungalow on five acres to be arrested.

It is believed that a Provo blind eye was informally turned to his self-enriching activities as the family had already sacrificed one son for the cause. In 1975, his older brother, Sean Campbell, was one of two IRA volunteers killed by their own bomb in Killeen, Northern Ireland.

Another brother, Michael, was arrested and charged in Holland with Revenue offences relating to contraband cigarettes. Liam Campbell's wife Bernie was arrested in Co Louth and released without charge, around the time when 5.5 million cigarettes worth €1.6 million retail were seized by Customs on a farm in Inniskean, Co Monaghan. They had been hidden in the shells of computer hard-drives. The loss in tax revenue to the Exchequer would have been €1.25 million.

Gardai smelled more than the spirit of patriotism when they raided Liam Campbell's house during early investigations and found 40 pairs of cotton gloves, a 150-foot length of plastic tubing, a stash of disposable body suits, a collection of walkie-talkies, and 96 magnums of champagne. The result is this week's High Court tax judgment which will rise to €1 million when costs and interest are added.

Organised gangsterism is endemic in the breakaway republican paramilitaries, with tax evasion and smuggled tobacco, alcohol and motor fuel generating great wealth, much of it ending up in the warlords' own pockets. Even the paramilitaries themselves are increasingly suspicious of their leaders' motives.

A statement issued by Real IRA prisoners in Portlaoise (including Michael McKevitt, allegedly its chief until he was arrested on charges currently being tried in the Special Criminal Court) accused those running the organisation on the outside of corruption.

The claim was in the same vein as the derogatory Loyal to the Half-Crown slogans daubed on the Shankill Road in Belfast at the height of this year's Johnny Adair-inspired internecine loyalist war.

"Some people are making a very good living from these activities, whatever their political motivation," confirms Alan McQuillan, director of Northern Ireland's version of the CAB, the Assets Recovery Agency. "Some have very lavish lifestyles and are very well known in their circles. They buy cars for cash. Others are much more restrained and anonymous.

"These are people who became very skilful at raising money before the ceasefires but there has been a cessation of violence for the best part of eight years now."

Between 70pc and 80pc of all organised crime in the North is connected to paramilitaries and McQuillan predicts that 80pc of the Agency's work will reflect that proportionality. Of the 11 case files it inherited when it became operational last April, six concern paramilitaries.

While loyalists account for more than 80pc of reported cases of extortion, republicans dominate smuggling operations. One-third of all road fuel in Northern Ireland is either smuggled or bootleg. Between one-third and a half of tobacco is illicit, with 88.5 million cigarettes being smuggled in between 2001 and 2002. Last year, 1.75 million litres of illicit fuels were seized in the North and eight major fuel operations were dismantled.

"Some important local criminals derive their status and influence from their current or historic paramilitary links," according to the Task Force Threat Assessment published by the security minister's office on June 11.

The statistics are even more startling on the south side of the border. Last year, Customs officers discovered eight oil laundries in remote border areas where red and green rebated diesel was being converted into auto fuel using such ingredients as sulphuric acid, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid and cat litter.

Four more were dismantled in the first six months of this year. One laundry in County Louth was producing 300,000 litres a week. Another was churning out more than 50,000 litres a day.

With every litre of auto diesel attracting 45 cent in excise and VAT, the potential loss to the Revenue Commissioners runs into millions of euro. The smugglers are opening new oil laundries as fast as Customs can shut them down.

In the last week of June, in seven counties stretching from the border through the Midlands and down to Wexford, 12 filling stations were found in possession of illegal oil product and 72,000 litres were confiscated.

The routine is similar for alcohol with illicit distilleries operating close to the border. Bogus Smirnoff vodka was discovered in 15 pubs in 2001, in four pubs last year and in three so far this year.

An illegal still was shut down in Co Monaghan, along with another on the Northern side of the border and three bottling plants in Dublin and Louth have been closed in the past 17 months. The money-making potential can be measured by the total €13.77 in taxes on the standard bottle of vodka. But there are also possible health hazards for the consumer.

"All we can know for sure is that some sort of ethyl alcohol goes into it but there are no guarantees about how safe it is to drink," said a source.

At present, there are more than a dozen cases involving illegal spirits either before the courts or in the final stages of investigation.

Tobacco smuggling is one of the most lucrative outlets for smugglers. About 30 million contraband cigarettes have been seized by the authorities this year, down on last year's tally. An entire shipment of 70 million was docked in Dundalk port in 2001 having originated in the United Arab Emirates.

Another came from Florida, via Rotterdam, to Dublin. There is a huge variation in cigarette taxes around the world. In Ireland, where the rate is the world's third highest (after Norway and Britain) with a 20-packet costing nearly €6, there is a killing to be made on cigarettes brought in from zero or low-tax countries like Lithuania (€1.21 for 20) and Croatia (€1.94). The situation will be exacerbated when the 10 new states join the frontier-free EU next year.

The tax applicable to one million cigarettes amounts to €220,000. A 40-foot container can hold 10 million cigarettes with a value of €2.2 million.

Vat and currency fraud are also considerable sources of funds. A loyalist counterfeiting operation in North Belfast succeeded in circulating forged euro notes in 26 countries before it was decommissioned. In December 2001, gardai broke up a money laundering racket by dissident republicans from Armagh, Louth and Monaghan operated through a bureau de change office.

It was estimated to have processed about €28 million in 20 months with large amounts of the cash funnelled into offshore accounts held by Real IRA and Continuity IRA members. The International Monetary Fund believes that money laundering accounts for between two and five per cent of the world's GDP.

Under the law that established the North's Assets Recovery Agency, victims of specifically identified crimes may join proceedings initiated by the Agency for the recovery of assets in order to achieve some compensation for their suffering. That facility does not exist in the law which established the Criminal Assets Bureau in Ireland. The CAB issues a writ on behalf of the State with the consequence that the Revenue Commissioners get priority in the queue.

Liam Campbell was one of five people who received a writ on behalf of the families of the Omagh bomb victims who are seeking stg£1.5 million in compensation. Michael McKevitt, who was benefiting from free legal aid at his ongoing trial until he sacked his lawyers this week, is another.

So, too, was Colm Murphy who did not qualify for legal aid at his trial which culminated in a 14-year jail sentence for conspiracy to cause the bombing in Omagh that killed 29 people, among them a woman seven-months' pregnant with twins.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=45&si=1018840&issue_id=9567

BBC
Priest's bid to halt attacks

A north Belfast priest has offered himself up as a mediator in order to stop paramilitary-style attacks on teenagers.
It follows an incident in which two teenagers were subjected to an attack in which they were chained to a lamp-post and covered in tar.

Father Aidan Troy - who called an ambulance for the boys - described the incident as "child abuse".

He has visited the boys - aged 14 and 15 - in their homes everyday since the incident.

The republican paramilitary group, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), say it carried out the attack.

'Spiralling down'

Father Troy said the teenagers were traumatised and one of them has not ventured out since the incident.

"It is wrong and awful that this has happened," said Fr Troy.

"It is wrong for any group to say it can unilaterally take children from their parents and punish them as they choose.

"The hospital said they can't get rid of all of this tar, and to me that is terrible."

He said the community was "spiralling down into something horrendous".

Fr Troy - who was involved in negotiations to try to end the dispute at the Holy Cross Catholic Girls' Primary School - said dialogue was needed.

He said he was prepared to act as a mediator between paramilitary groups and the community.

People could not continue waiting for politicians to act, said the priest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2968871.stm

Mid-Ulster Mail
14th Aug 2003
http://www.midulstermail.com
Memorial fears voiced
THE people of a Maghera housing estate fear it will be classified as "a republican den" if a memorial for INLA man Brendan Convery is allowed to remain.
As predicted in last week's MAIL republicans have gone ahead and erected the monument at Tamney Crescent despite a High Court injunction and protests from householders.
Convery was killed by the RUC on August 13, 1983, at Dungannon while attempting to carry-out an ambush. An unveiling ceremony is expected to take place in the near future to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.
But the majority of householders appear to be opposed to the monument.
One resident yesterday said that they feel "hugely let down" by the Housing Executive who own the land where the memorial is located.
"Many people have worked until retirement to get the lump sum to pur-chase their homes and now the Housing Executive who were their former landlords have failed miserably in
their duty of care to both their own tenants and the home owners who have bought into Tamney Crescent," he said.
The resident who asked not to be identified, said the people do not want the estate turned into "a republican den as nothing could be further from the truth."
He continued: "People are afraid to speak out against this monument for fear of reprisal.
"Some residents are considering what course of action to take as writing to the land owners has proved fruitless."
He claimed the value of property would fall if the monument remained.
The DUP's Rev William McCrea reiterated his demand for those who erected the monument to be prosecuted.
"It was put up in defiance of a court injunction and must be removed," he said.
"I have met with the Housing Executive and planners to discuss this matter and have made it clear that this development is not wanted."
Home owners appear opposed to monument in Maghera housing estate

Sunday Times
March 16, 2003

Comment: Liam Clarke: IRA men must face up to the past and end their hypocrisy



If Northern Ireland’s incitement to hatred legislation means anything, then Brian Keenan, the IRA leader and former go-between with General John de Chastelain, should be prosecuted under it for his comments at a republican funeral on Friday.

The death of Keith Rodgers, a 24-year-old IRA volunteer, was, like all violent deaths, tragic in its circumstances and its effects. Rodgers and a group of other republicans confronted a number of people, including some from the O’Callaghan family, one of whose members had earlier been the victim of a savage IRA punishment attack. The suspicion must be that another such attack was planned.

They fought back and, according to locals, Rodgers or one of the other IRA members was disarmed and, in the struggle, shot with an IRA pistol. It was a sordid and meaningless way for a young man to lose his life and his future.

The clearest moral is that the IRA should stop exploiting the dedication of the young in pursuit of its vendettas. It should face up to the implications of its ceasefire and it should let the police and courts settle the problems of crime and the disputes over money which fuelled the confrontation.

Local IRA leaders in south Armagh should stop recruiting people into this Goodfellas-type culture. The local warlord, a grouchy old bachelor who attended the funeral looking like Tony Soprano’s country cousin, should stop pretending that defending his smuggling empire is the patriotic duty of his neighbours’ sons. Too many young men have died or gone to jail while he has remained at liberty, growing rich and arrogant as he replaces his war on the British with blood feuds against his former henchmen.

These are the obvious conclusions to draw about the sick culture that has grown up in the post- ceasefire IRA of south Armagh. The organisation in that area, at least at leadership level, is degenerating in much the same way as the UDA has degenerated in parts of Belfast. The ruthlessness and disregard for human life built up over 30 years of violence have coarsened human sensibility. Life is now so cheap that those who get in the way of criminal enterprises can be skinned alive, maimed, exiled or even killed.

This is the local leadership which organised the IRA torture cells for suspected informants from all over Ireland. This is the leadership who, when they ran out of real informers, sent out a gang to batter Eamon Collins to death and drive a crowbar through his face days after he dared to criticise them on Newsnight.

This is the leadership which lied to justify the murder of the most able and articulate critic within their reach.

Collins, a former IRA intelligence officer from Newry, was killed near his home in 1999 as he attempted to paint out graffiti denouncing him as an informer. Like many other IRA members, he had once broken under interrogation and made a statement which he later withdrew — but that did not cost him his life. His fatal mistake was to have discovered a talent as a writer, which he used to devastating effect in his exposure of IRA corruption.

Killing him was a fascist stifling of dissent and Keenan, who likes to think of himself as a veteran socialist, sounded like a Nazi from central casting when he used Rodgers’s funeral to dehumanise the IRA’s enemies as “vermin” and traitors who could not remain in the community.

He said: “This was not a dispute between gangs. This was a case of IRA volunteers being fired on by criminals.” Speaking in front of hundreds of people, he branded those responsible for Rodgers’s death as “a band of vermin” who had dirtied and sullied the republican cause, and warned: “There is no place in this community, or any republican community, for degenerates who abuse and contaminate the struggle young Keith died on behalf of.”

Grace words morphed into a warning that the IRA would act, when he went on to say: “It is not the time now for any thoughts of revenge, the republican movement will no doubt make their position very clear.”

Most people drew the inevitable conclusion — that those who opposed the IRA and its punishment squads must get out or be killed. If local sources are to be believed, the threat became even more explicit in comments made to mourners afterwards, when individuals were named and all present were warned against “running slabbering to the press” when the IRA acted.

It is easy to write off Keenan as a bitter and twisted old man attempting to justify the senseless sacrifice of his own youth in bringing suffering to others through the bombing campaigns that he organised in the 1970s. However, he was speaking with the full authority of the IRA leadership, who he was representing at the funeral.

He is a member of its ruling army council and a figure who continues to exercise authority. He was, the security forces believe, the brain behind the IRA’s disastrous Colombian adventure, which has left three republicans languishing in a Latin American jail and fuelled a civil war that could cost tens of thousands of lives.

It is a seamy, cruel and unedifying life which does not leave him much room to refer to others as vermin.

His attempt to take the high moral ground is symptomatic of the IRA’s sanctimonious hypocrisy and its refusal to face its own past, even as it demands full disclosure from others.

Martin McGuinness, for instance, has a list of public inquiries as long as his arm, which he wants the British government to fund. But he has shown a marked reluctance to attend the one public inquiry so far organised, that into Bloody Sunday. He welcomed it when it was announced in 1998 by Tony Blair, but he has yet to give evidence and for years he refused to sign a statement, using one procedural device after another to duck his responsibility.

The latest estimate puts his evidence well into 2004, when he will have had a good chance to hear what everyone else has to say and to minimise the disclosure. In a recent interview, he made it clear that he would not talk about his general role in the IRA, only what he did on the day. This is less than open, less than honest and smacks of hypocrisy.

Similar double standards are displayed in Sinn Fein demands for an amnesty for the On the Runs (OTRs), the 30 or so IRA fugitives against whom there is evidence of involvement in specific crimes.

They include Rita O’Hare, the IRA’s director of publicity in the United States, who told the courts a sob story about her health after she was involved in a shootout with the British Army and, when she was granted bail, skipped the country. Another OTR is Charlie Caufield, wanted in connection with the no-warning 1987 Enniskillen bombing which claimed 11 lives.

These people are not included in Keenan’s definition of vermin. Instead, their position is being spun by Sinn Fein as a minor anomaly. It is a view I can sympathise with — we must move on. People change and times change, but it will be very hard for their victims and it must be matched by a similar spirit of moving on in the ranks of the IRA.

The organisation has exiled an estimated 600 people for offending its code of omerta or getting in the way of its interests.

The time has come to let these people come home, not to call for further expulsions as Keenan has done. As long as people like him speak as they do on behalf of the IRA, a heavy question mark will remain over the organisation’s integrity.

Irish Independent 20th September
PEACE OF MIND : Why is it all talks and no action in Gerry's book?

As an Irish product, Gerry Adams has name recognition rivalling Guinness or Waterford Glass. Even the Harvard Business School, the global leaders in their own field of academia, recognises the branding of the Sinn President as an international figure to be a phenomenon.

On the streets of New York, Paris or Sydney and in the parliaments of Iran, Argentina or South Africa a photograph of the distinctively bearded Belfastman would be among the most instantly recognisable of any living Irishman.

In nine days, Hope and History, Gerry Adams' latest book, will be published and his Irish publishers, Brandon, are still auctioning the serialisation rights to newspapers and negotiating with publishing houses on four continents for the international rights.

If it doesn't make him a millionaire author, the royalties from his latest book added to his take-home pay from his autobiography, Before the Dawn, should add a botanic gardens-size conservatory to both the Adams family's homes in Belfast and Donegal.

Adams, now 55, has won awards for his writing and his signed sales spiel for Hope and History which reads: "I'm telling the story of the Irish peace process. I can only tell my experience of it, my role in it. It is not my business to offer an objective account of events or see through someone else's eyes. Nor is it my responsibility to document these events. My intention is to tell a story. It is my story. My truth. My reality."

It reads like a courtroom oath to "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God." However, nowhere in Hope and History does Gerry Adams admit to being, or ever having been, a member of the IRA. Just as the exclusion of the fact that he was not only a member but among the most influential leaders of the IRA, was the glaring omission from the first part his autobiography published in September 1996.

This is not an inconsequential detail or an unwarranted invasion of his, or his family's privacy. Joining the IRA was a life-changing moment and his leadership of one of the world's most ruthless and successful guerrilla armies was presumably the most significant thing in the life of a west Belfastman, whose previous prospects were a career as a barman. It is as if Hillary Clinton had chosen to omit her marriage to Bill Clinton (whatever about Monica Lewinsky) from her autobiography, or Roy Keane had told the tale of his adventures in Manchester and left out the bit about playing football.

Presumably Eamon Dunphy will ask Gerry Adams to set the record straight when he appears on his TV3 chat show. If he continues to deny his real role as an IRA leader through some of the most atrocious events in the 30-year war in Northern Ireland, presumably Dunphy will ask if the line about "My truth. My reality" are just weasel words to encourage idiots to buy his book.

There is another point on which the author should be vigorously challenged. It is understood that when Gerry Adams is referring to crucial meetings of the IRA's ruling Army Council, he uses the word "apparently" to distance himself from its activities. Members of the government, and the intelligence services, in Dublin and London, have accepted for years that Gerry Adams is a pivotal and senior figure on the IRA's ultimate ruling body.

It is very ironic that a revolutionary leader who takes his authority and ultimately predicates his vision for the future on the history of his country has chosen to ignore his own. Perhaps what others see as patent dishonesty he would describe as being economic with the truth. Other Republicans say he has refused to acknowledge his involvement with the IRA to deny his enemies an opportunity of baiting him with his own words and deeds.

And his years as the leader of the Provos in west Belfast from the early 1970s saw some of the most horrific IRA atrocities: it is claimed that Gerry Adams was in charge when widowed mother of ten Jean McConville was murdered, her body dumped and forgotten. Nine people died and 130 were injured on Adams' watch as leader of the Belfast brigade of the IRA, when 20 no-warning bombs exploded in Belfast on Bloody Friday in July 1972.

While terrible things happened through those years, and no party to the troubles can claim the franchise on right or wrong, Gerry Adams did show great courage leading his people to the peace process after they realised in the 1970s there was no possibility of a military victory and the British government concluded the IRA could not be defeated.

He is launching his book in the wake of an opinion poll which found him to be the most popular leader of any political party in the Republic. With an approval rating of 45pc, the Sinn Fein President is eight points higher than the Taoiseach. Why?

Gerry Adams was not elected to the Dail, and while Sinn Fein's ratings increased by 2pc, they still only command 10pc support against, say, Fianna Fail's 34pc. Maybe it is because they never have to say 'no' to anyone in hard times and can oppose bin charges, while the whiff of cordite and the smack of a baseball bat on accused drug dealers appeal to those myopic voters who chose to forget the worst excesses of the Provos.

'It is not my responsibility to document these events. My intention is to tell a story. My story. My truth.'

Random House, his US publishers, have booked a coast-to-coast tour to promote Hope and History through November, but rising hopes for an election in the North may delay Mr Adams' American tour.

Yesterday, sources close to David Trimble were convinced that there is a new willingness on the Republican side to make historic moves that will allow elections to the Assembly in November, thus leading to the restoration of the Executive.

The traditional frosty atmosphere at meetings between Mr Adams and Mr Trimble has thawed, according to Unionist sources, in expectation of a significant gesture from the IRA. Decoded, this means, according to a Unionist source, "a bit of action and some good words": a declaration that the war is over with an implicit undertaking to stand down the IRA, and a deal on policing where a Unionist concession on local political control of the PSNI will satisfy Sinn Fein.

Gerry Adams has signalled that a trust,