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Irish fugitive found at U.S. checkpoint[South Texas]
The Monitor ^ | January 30, 2008 | Sean Gaffney

Posted on 01/31/2008 11:29:27 AM PST by SwinneySwitch

SARITA — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man Monday at the Sarita checkpoint who fled a Northern Irish prison in an infamous escape 24 years ago, the agency said.

The man, whose name Border Patrol refused to release late Wednesday night, is expected to soon be transferred to British custody. Reportedly a member of the Irish Republican Army, the man is accused of making a violent escape from the Maze prison in Northern Ireland in September 1983 along with 38 other IRA members.

He was arrested at the Sarita checkpoint outside of Brownsville on Monday after he was unable to provide valid immigration documents. Agents did a background check through an international fingerprint system, which identified the man as having escaped from the prison.

The Maze, the maximum-security prison from which he reportedly escaped, was home to some of the most notorious killers and bombers of the more than three-decades-long armed struggle against Britain to unite Northern Ireland with the Irish Republic.

On Sept. 25, 1983, one prison guard was killed and another injured when 38 IRA inmates used smuggled guns and knives to overpower prison security personnel, according to news reports of the incident.

Numerous terrorist attacks, and occasionally street warfare, killed more than 3,500 people during the more than 30 years of fighting between pro-Irish independence groups, such as the IRA, and British nationalist sympathizers. But since 1998, significant steps have been taken toward peace and the violence has all but ceased.

Britain retains control of Northern Ireland in an elaborate power-sharing scheme with Irish separatist groups.

Some former members of the groups have moved into national politics, including Gerry Adams, a former inmate at Maze who is now the president of the Sinn Fein party — the former political wing of the IRA. Adams was imprisoned at Maze in the early 1970s for his activities with the IRA. He is now a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. ____

Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4434.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; US: Texas; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: aliens; immigrantlist; ira
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To: Parmenio

I doubt it. There are far worse scum than him who have been released following a pathetically short term of imprisonment as per the amnesty in the good friday agreement...


21 posted on 01/31/2008 12:31:59 PM PST by thundrey
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To: SwinneySwitch

"They're always after me Lucky Charms."

22 posted on 01/31/2008 12:33:55 PM PST by dfwgator (11+7+15=3 Heismans)
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To: JPJones

Chinese, Macedonians, Iranians, now the Irish, it’s an international speedway, JP!


23 posted on 01/31/2008 12:34:45 PM PST by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu

First Irish fugitiveI’ve heard about, Pikachu.


24 posted on 01/31/2008 12:37:01 PM PST by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Is this the lad?


25 posted on 01/31/2008 12:38:54 PM PST by FishTale
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To: cspackler; ECM; STOCKHRSE; LET LOOSE THE DOGS OF WAR; King_Corey; BeckB; Brucifer; Media Cat; ...

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.


26 posted on 01/31/2008 12:44:15 PM PST by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: SwinneySwitch

“...along with 38 other IRA members.”

And been living in Mexico all this time? No blarney?


27 posted on 01/31/2008 12:49:08 PM PST by Froufrou
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To: Tax-chick

Is he an O’Bama supporter?


28 posted on 01/31/2008 12:55:56 PM PST by aculeus
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To: aculeus

LOL! Since he probably won’t be deported in our lifetimes, I think we can expecting him to vote Democrat in November (and maybe in 2010, 2012, etc.)


29 posted on 01/31/2008 12:59:18 PM PST by Tax-chick ("Gently alluding to the indisputably obvious is not gloating." ~Richard John Neuhaus)
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To: SwinneySwitch
50 miles of nasty hot dry thorny brush and cactus. I’ve often wondered why the Sarita checkpoint is where it is. Might be the Feds figure if you walk 50 miles thru that stuff your are about ready to get on a road....any road
30 posted on 01/31/2008 1:08:04 PM PST by nomorelurker (keep flogging them till morale improves)
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To: JPJones

The IRA has long worked with Islamic and other terrorist groups,Probably here just training MS13, yah know,McCains short list for citizenship. MS13 ,Just killing folks Americans won’t.


31 posted on 01/31/2008 1:08:30 PM PST by redstateconfidential (If you are the smartest person in the room,you are hanging out with the wrong people.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

How many guys did he knee cap with an iron bar and shatter the elbows and wrists of? That was a favorite IRA punishment. To leave the crippled live as a warning.

Vicious scum fighting for nothing except drunken delusions running ‘round in their mind


32 posted on 01/31/2008 1:09:02 PM PST by dennisw
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To: JPJones
Millions of illegal mexicans running the border, and they catch one Irish fugitive.....

Well, his red hair and green eyes did kind of stand out in that crowd.

33 posted on 01/31/2008 1:17:00 PM PST by VRWCmember (Romney 2008 - The most palatable RINO left in the race)
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To: JPJones
"We'll take the Blacks, Chinese and Mexicans....but we don't want the Irish!"

I don't think that's exactly how it was phrased, but it's a lot less likely to get you in hot water...

34 posted on 01/31/2008 1:20:16 PM PST by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: VRWCmember
Well, his red hair and green eyes did kind of stand out in that crowd.

Only about as much as a Que ball in a cup of caviar. :-)

35 posted on 01/31/2008 1:25:35 PM PST by rvoitier (Remember, she's just Mrs. Bill Clinton)
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To: Jedi Master Pikachu
Prediction: this thread will not get nearly as many comments as the thread would have if the arrested were a Mexican.

Here's a factoid for you.

The number of Mexican nationals illegally residing in the United States exceeds the entire population of Ireland.

Population of Ireland: 4,109,086 (July 2007 est.)

Mexican illegal-aliens: 4,800,000 (February 2003 INS est.)

36 posted on 01/31/2008 1:42:54 PM PST by primeval patriot
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To: SwinneySwitch

They found Notre Dame’s offense?!!


37 posted on 01/31/2008 1:44:04 PM PST by JZelle
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To: Army Air Corps
OMG! The IRA has Mexican members? Who'da thunk it? Only Mexicans are illegal aliens! Was he classified as Irish-Mexican or Mexican-Irish? /so
38 posted on 01/31/2008 1:51:55 PM PST by Jaded ("I have a mustard- seed; and I am not afraid to use it."- Joseph Ratzinger)
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To: FishTale

Ian? Ian Howe?


39 posted on 01/31/2008 1:54:57 PM PST by Jaded ("I have a mustard- seed; and I am not afraid to use it."- Joseph Ratzinger)
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To: Jaded
The IRA has Mexican members?

Outsourcing on a whole new level. ;-)
40 posted on 01/31/2008 2:50:57 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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