Posted on 03/19/2002 6:30:49 PM PST by aculeus
GERRY ADAMS has been summoned to appear before a Congressional hearing into the IRAs involvement with the terrorist group Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Mr Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, has been told to attend a hearing on Capitol Hill next month and prepare to answer the question: What did you know and when did you know it? The hearing has been called after outrage in the United States over the discovery last year of three IRA suspects in the area of Colombia controlled by Farc.
Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly have been charged with teaching bomb-making skills to the Marxist guerrillas.
Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, asks Mr Adams to attend in a letter seen by The Times. In language that echoes the Watergate question, Mr Hyde writes: We are asking that you appear and help us determine what the Sinn Fein leadership knew about the IRA activities with the Farc narco-terrorists in Colombia, and when did Sinn Fein learn of them? We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will take this opportunity to clear the record on this serious matter involving not only US national interests but also the security of the entire hemisphere.
A spokesman for Sinn Fein denied that Mr Adams had received a copy of the letter. As far as we are concerned, we have been told that no decision has yet been made on this and that is what we are still led to believe. We would consider it extremely bad manners to say the least if The Times has a copy of this letter but Gerry Adams does not.
Last week Richard Haas, President Bushs special envoy on Northern Ireland, warned Mr Adams to end all contacts with Farc. After a meeting with Mr Adams in Washington, he said: We have zero tolerance for any support for the Farc from the IRA or anyone else and if we were to discover any ongoing support it would raise deep, significant questions for US foreign policy.
David Trimble, the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said yesterday: I very much hope that Mr Adams will be able to go and give an explanation as to why Sinn Feins representative in Cuba was in Farc held areas of Colombia along with, amongst others, the head of the IRAs engineering division. Its important that the truth comes out and we find out the current intentions of the Republican movement.
They must all face the same fate, or they will menace us forever. That means ALL of them, to anyone who romanticizes the IRA.
Natch. He's the body guard.
Brits have always over-estimated the depth of support among Irish-Americans for the IRA. Most of us don't give a damn.
A multi-millionaire named Chuck Feeney is an exception. He made a pile as co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers now part of a French conglomorate and has donated heavily to SF. He's a rather reclusive man and I don't know what his current views are.
And rest assured, they all know the bunch who replaced the KGB: al Queda. Less organized perhaps, but no less destructive, and certainly no less hateful of the West. Bottom line? We must be careful...not all of our current enemies wear turbans.
Very true. Because of the widespread reach of al Qaeda, and that although their goal is a pure Islamic state, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility that they'd find a commonality of interest with other terror groups.
Al Qaeda is organized, but not in the typical corporate/military sense. It's based more loosely on Communist cells or the Lone Wolf/leaderless resistance theory articulated by Louis Beam of the KKK.
All the Irish Americans that believe in the IRA-myth are just so naive, it would be funny, except that they're sympathizing with communist drug-thug murderers that it's actually disgusting.
It's even worse when people like that consider themselves conservatives when the only thing conservative about them is that they don't like to pay taxes.
"Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.
`There isn't any,' said the March Hare.
`Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily.
`It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited,' said the March Hare."
This ain't no tea party.
How very true. But terrorism is terrorism. It takes some people longer than others to *get it* and some never will.
Which explains why assorted FR supporters of IRA haven't shown up on this thread.
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