No more photo ops.
Posted on 03/12/2005 4:17:33 PM PST by Pokey78
President Bush personally ordered that Gerry Adams be frozen out of official engagements during his visit to America, furious that the Sinn Fein leader had betrayed his efforts to help to re-start the Northern Ireland peace process.
Mr Bush now views Mr Adams in the same unfavourable light as he did Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader, a senior presidential adviser said last night. "At the White House, Adams is now regarded with the same sort of disdain as Arafat," the adviser told The Telegraph. "The President no longer considers Mr Adams a reliable partner for peace. He doesn't want to meet him."
Mr Bush was enraged to learn that at the same time as he was pressing Mr Adams late last year to relaunch the power-sharing deal, Sinn Fein's armed wing, the IRA, was planning the £26 million Northern Bank raid in Belfast. He had telephoned both Mr Adams and Ian Paisley, the leader of the Democratic Unionists, in an attempt to persuade Northern Ireland's two biggest parties to resume the stalled peace negotiations.
Mr Bush's displeasure has forced Mr Adams to abandon plans to raise money while in America. The United States government made it clear that it would not grant him a visa that permits fund-raising, this newspaper has learnt. Sinn Fein had claimed that Mr Adams had chosen not to raise money "to avoid it being made into a contentious issue''. In reality, he was told not even to bother applying for the appropriate paperwork for the week-long visit, which began in Ohio yesterday. American officials are also demanding major concessions from Sinn Fein, most significantly that the IRA be disbanded.
"It's hard to understand how a European country in the year 2005 can have a private army associated with a political party," said Mitchell Reiss, the US envoy for Northern Ireland.
Mr Adams was invited to a St Patrick's Day reception at the White House by President Clinton in 1995 and given permission to start raising funds three years later. While he and other Irish political leaders are not on Mr Bush's guest list for St Patrick's Day celebrations this Thursday, significantly the President will welcome the sisters and fiancée of Robert McCartney, the Catholic man murdered by a gang of IRA thugs in January.
When he visited Northern Ireland in 2003, Mr Bush welcomed the efforts being made by Mr Adams and fellow political leaders. "They've signed on to a process that will yield peace," the President said.
Mr Bush's snub by will be a financial blow to Sinn Fein, as Mr Adams is the party's star turn in America and had been expected to raise large sums on his tour.
For decades, Irish republicanism has been a source of strain in Anglo-American relations as successive British governments have tried to persuade Washington to clamp down on IRA fundraising in the US. As prime minister, John Major was so angry when President Clinton first granted Mr Adams a visa in 1994 that he refused to take his telephone calls.
Another Clinton favorite getting the Texan boot.
There really is a world leader in the fight against terror...GW Bush....
President Bush shunning yet another terrorist.
Ugh, not a club to which one should aspire to belong.
No more photo ops.
I thought Clinton fixed it.
Guess not.
not the Texan boot......the American boot.....Bush speaks for us all, not just Texas
Once you get on George W Bush's sh*t list...
It is so refreshing to see a leader hold people accountable for their promises and their actions!
This reminds me of the way we want Hezbollah to be considered by Europe a terrorist organization and Europe doesn't. The IRA was in a similar situation between England and the US.
This reminds me of the way we want Hezbollah to be considered by Europe a terrorist organization and Europe doesn't. The IRA was in a similar situation between England and the US.
Brian Lamb needs a swift kick in his rear end.
Yes - long may he roam.
Abu Mahzen?
Oh wait, he's a "peace partner."
>>>For decades, Irish republicanism has been a source of strain in Anglo-American relations as successive British governments have tried to persuade Washington to clamp down on IRA fundraising in the US. As prime minister, John Major was so angry when President Clinton first granted Mr Adams a visa in 1994 that he refused to take his telephone calls.<<<
This is the crux. Mountains of cash have been sent by traitorous Irish immigrants and sympathizers from the US to these terrorist bastards. Clinton facilitated it. Bush is signaling Adams' illigitimacy in an umistakeable manner. I hope there is a plan to intercept illicit funding from US residents to the IRA.
Pokey beat you to this article, which tells us that McArtney's sisters andfiancee will be visiting the President. I do believe they wrote him a letter.
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