Posted on 10/16/2001 5:29:49 PM PDT by Pokey78
REAL IRA suspects arrested in Slovakia earlier this year were linked to the al-Qaeda network and received cash from Osama bin Laden’s European financial chief, it was alleged yesterday. If the report in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo is accurate, it links extreme Irish nationalism with the events of September 11 for the first time. The paper said that it had learnt from American secret service agents that three Irishmen arrested under international warrant in the west Slovak town of Piestany in July had alleged links with the al-Qaeda network and laundered cash for it. The men were reported to have met an Algerian, Hamid Aich, who was bin Laden’s chief financial organiser in Europe. The Spanish newspaper reported that the trio said that they were given a large sum of money from Aich, to be deposited in banks in Spain, laundered through a fake Islamic charity in Dublin. The newspaper’s lengthy report concentrates mostly on the links between the IRA and Eta, the Basque terror group. The paper alleged that Aich, 34, a “social worker” according to his passport, was in fact the treasurer of bin Laden in Europe. He had operated from a flat in Dublín, although the Irish police, who briefly arrested him in 1999, later regarded him as a master bomber. “The residence was registered as an Islamic charity centre. The charity was a cover which Aich and bin Laden used to provide financial aid to a total of 22 terrorist organisations,” the paper said. There is speculation over why the three Irish men were in Slovakia but the odourless and portable Semtex explosive is manufactured in the neighbouring Czech Republic, and El Mundo said that on their “shopping list” when arrested was 5,000kg of explosives, along with detonators, ammunition and hand grenades. Intelligence sources believe that the Real IRA is close to exhausting its bomb-making materials and is desperate to replenish them. If it had formed an alliance with al-Qaeda, the Real IRA would have been in a position to provide the fanatics with details such as the home addresses of British ministers and politicians, sensitive military sites, potential targets and possibly the use of IRA safe houses in mainland Britain. The three men, all from Co Louth in the Irish Republic, were flown to London and charged with offences under the Terrorist Act 2000. The claim that the Real IRA trio met Hamid Aich will embarrass Irish police. Only after they freed him in December 1999 did they suspect that he was one of al-Qaeda’s master bombers. Detectives discovered bomb-making designs and other paraphernalia at the Dublin flat used by Aich. The bomb timers he perfected were allegedly found in the car boot of another bin Laden suspect who was stopped as he crossed into America from Canada with tonnes of explosive hidden in the vehicle. The driver, Ahmed Ressam, was on his way to deliver the so-called “Millennium Bomb” at Los Angeles airport.
The IRA had its thugs in Colombia teaching its murderous ways to the South American guerillas.
The only scar on John Paul II's otherwise sterling papacy is his unwillingness to publicly and repeatedly excommunicate members of the real IRA, declaring them outside the Catholic Church and outside of civilized humanity. They are Catholic in name only, to be sure, but Irish Catholics who support them should be shamed by the Pope, himself.
The murderous Protestants in Northern Ireland can be dealt with by responsible members of their own "faith."
Which reminds me of a joke:
A fellow walks into a pub with a big sack under his arm. The bartender says, "Paddy, what ye got in the bag?" Fellow says, "Ten pounds of Semtax." Bartender says, "Oh good, I thought it was bagpipes!"
I'm a Catholic who is sick and tired of outfits like the IRA and the ETA being allowed to hide under the mantle of "Catholic" while they murder and terrorize their fellow citizens and citizens of other countries.
The Pope is a very holy man, but he could defang the IRA and ETA overnight by throwing them, formally, out of the Church.
No there lad, you dinna unnerstan.....these chaps likes a good scrrraap.
For goodness sakes, why are you demanding that the Pope settle every grievance that annoys you?
There are fewer hard-core terrorists in the world, who would die for their cause, then were innocent persons who were killed in the WTC-Pentagon bombings on 9/11.
We would be facilitating their goal of dying for their casue.
Make sure each & EVERY terrorist is buried in Pig FAT.
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