Posted on 02/27/2005 11:57:13 PM PST by Humblebum
Sinn Féin's US fundraising under threat By Jimmy Burns Published: February 28 2005 02:00 | Last updated: February 28 2005 02:00
Mounting allegations of IRA involvement in the £26.5m Belfast bank robbery and growing police suspicions of a much wider involvement of the Irish republican movement in money-laundering operations are threatening Sinn Féin's legitimate fundraising operations in the US, say diplomatic sources in Washington.
According to Irish officials, the fact that the onslaught on the alleged criminal activity of Irish republicans is being led by the Irish government is fuelling dissent among supporters of Sinn Féin, the IRA's political wing, across the Atlantic.
Neither London nor Dublin have ruled out the US government outlawing Sinn Féin fundraising if evidence emerges that members are implicated in crime.
Further sanctions the US government could use against Sinn Féin include denying visas to the party's leaders - some of whom plan to attend a White House reception marking St Patrick's day next month - although government officials on both sides of the Atlantic fear that over-tough action risks undermining the peace process and would end any hopes of the IRA decommissioning its weapons.
"The risk is we freeze them out completely; the grassroots might begin to engage in violence again, maybe begining with street protests," an Irish official said. The changing mood was reflected last week when the New York-based Irish Voice, a leading Irish-US newspaper, challenged the equivocal statements made on the Belfast robbery by the Sinn Féin leadership.
Niall O'Dowd, its publisher, wrote in an editorial: "Last week I wrote that the case against the IRA doing the Northern Bank was not proven. This week I have to say that based on all the available evidence, the case is closed. It was the IRA."
During the 1990s Mr O'Dowd maintained close contact with Sinn Féin and played a key role in securing backing among Irish Americans for the peace process. While there is no suggestion that funds raised on behalf of Sinn Féin in the US are linked to criminal activity, the amounts transferred to Northern Ireland provide important financial support for the IRA's political arm on both sides of the border.
According to Irish government officials, the future of this legitimate financial lifeline for the republican movement is already in doubt because of what is seen as a crisis of credibility affecting Sinn Féin and the IRA.
Audited accounts from Sinn Féin show that the party had an income of €2,035,960 in 2003, a 30 per cent increase on the previous year due to a sharp rise in donations - but the figures relate solely to money raised by the party's Dublin and Belfast offices. Separate filings with the US Department of Justice show that Friends of Sinn Féin - the party's international support network - raised $3.5m between 1997 and 2002.
Last month Des Mackin, Sinn Féin's director of finance, told the Irish Times that recent figures indicated 2004 was the party's biggest year for fundraising in the US, with an estimated €130,000-€144,000 collected from donors, traditional strongholds of support for the IRA and its political arm being New York, Chicago and San Francisco.
While part of the money raised by Friends of Sinn Féin is reinvested in the US, most is transferred to Northern Ireland as there is a ban on foreign donations in the republic. Separately, Irish and UK officials say law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are co-operating in a big investigation into suspected illicit financial operations involving the IRA.
Co-operation agreements have been signed by the Police Service Northern Ireland and the Garda, new tasks involving the pursuit of organised crime in Northern Ireland have been assigned to MI5, and there is an increasing exchange of information between the assets recovery agencies in Belfast and Dublin.
It is estimated that one third of organised criminal activity in Northern Ireland has a cross-border dimension, and investigators are pursuing civil and criminal actions armed with tough new money-laundering laws that extend offshore.
Investigators believe that, during its prolonged ceasefire, the IRA has moved on from the crude protection and extortion rackets of the 1970s and 1980s into a loosely structured but well co-ordinated network of companies supported by generous, loyal labour and efficient transport and distribution.
"We believe that the IRA has developed a sophisticated organisation 'washing' ill-gotten gains in areas like tax and fuel fraud and smuggling through legitimate businesses like pubs, fast-food shops, taxi companies and residential properties," one Belfast investigator said.
But police figures over the past two years put the IRA's estimated annual fundraising capacity at £5m to £8m compared with estimated running costs of £1.5m, now thought to cover items such as pensions for elderly "volunteers", former prisoners and training rather than big weapons purchases.
Its a terrorist group!!!!
Over-tough not to invite them to the White House??? Its a terrorist group!!!
I've lived for so long with the threat of bombs and bomb alerts in London. I've lived with reading the headlines about people being killed at the Baltic Exchange and other IRA bomb sites. This is justice - I hope Sinn Fein / IRA are strangled to death by the world's revulsion.
Regards, Ivan
but apparently we'll be too tough on them if they don't get an invitation to the White House.
When I was young and stupid, I believed that because I was Irish, Catholic, and from New England, I was obligated to support the IRA's goals (emotionally, not materially). I truly didn't understand who or what they were. All I knew was Britan was Bad, NI was good.
I now think that a rebellion is only functional if it works within a reasonable timeframe. Pot shots against innocent people, living within an entirely different century outside the source of the problem, is a stupid form of protest. No one is stopping these people from living thier lives in a nearly autonomous manner. The IRA must go away, forever.
I have to think about it in terms of the U.S. If we were invaded and occupied, I'm sure I would fight against the occupier. But after a few hundred years of it, I think I would hope my children would find some form of coexistence tollerable. At some point, you have to face defeat and work within the system you have.
Is there a place online to find out how the British media dealt with the US civil war??
Why is there no outrage at these other terror groups? They are all criminals.
Of course you are right, the loyalists are no better.
They however are not as organised, are not involved in large scale organised crime, do not export terror to other nations (Columbia) do not have extensive funding networks in the US and do not attack civilian targets away from Northen Ireland.
PS.
I PM'd you this reply in error, I clicked on the wrong link, please disregard this piece of finger trouble
As a proponent for law and order I can't support terrorism of any kind, anywhere. The RUC and other loyalist groups do get funding from Great Britain. (Don't we send GB foriegn aid?) I'll probably get flamed for this one, but here goes... The SAS, rather than acting as a military force, has long been used in the six counties as a terror organization in its own right. They are definitely funded by GB.
England most certainly does attack civilian targets away from NI. They have for centuries.
I believe the only solution is to get effective law enforcement operating fairly for both sides. Haven't the majority always voted for an end to the violence?
No, the US does not send aid to the US. Why would it ? Where is the famine ? It does participate in joint military activities, if thats aid then the UK sends aid to the US as well.
The loyalist groups do not attack civilian targets away from NI.
The UK does engage in warfare during which civilians get killed. So does the US, and pretty much every other country in the world. What is your point ?
The RUC doesn't get funding from the UK. It doesn't exist. The Police Service of Northern Ireland does receive funding. Its the police. How would it exist, without funding ?
The SAS is part of the army. They on occasion have killed terrorists. My only regret is that they didn't kill more of them. Problem ? Try not to cry over your terrorists graves too much.
If you think that the UK having an army and police force in the UK justifies the IRA training columbian nacro-terrorists you are dellusional.
The UK hasn't done anything in NI that any other country wouldn't have for the last 100 years. It isn't doing anything different to what the US and UK is currently doing in Iraq. The supporters of the terrorists in Iraq justify their actions with the same logic you have used here.
Hear Hear!
Bump!
What? Boston has to be on the top of anyone's list of US cities with numerous IRA supporters.
Thanks for posting that nice clear explanation, it saved me the trouble of untangling all those mixed up thoughts of his.
Alex Maskey totally lost it when a reporter asked him if he would advise witnesses to go to the police with information - "have you not listened to a bloody word I have said" he barked and refused to give an answer. In desperation, the shinner line now is to emphasise that McCartney was "a catholic murdered in a catholic area" but fail to add that it was they who murdered him. Only scumbag shinners are thick enough to swallow that line.
Oh please! Read up on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings and loyalist big-wig William Murphy whose gang hunted catholics and then tortured them with meat hooks and piano wire. You make them sound like Michael Moores minutemen.
I know that during The Revolutionary War, the British press was pretty scathing in its assessment of King George, and the succession of incompetent prime ministers shuffled through his war cabinet.
And of course, there was always the inimitable satirist/writer Horace Walpole to jab at what he perceived as the folly of alleged statesmen.
It would be interesting to find out what their take was on the Civil War.
BTW- I found something at the Gutenburg Porject website that answers my questions, apparently it was written about 1908 or such... let me see if I can find a link
The zipped plain text version is here
and the HTML version is here (1,800+KB)
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