Posted on 10/02/2001 2:04:25 AM PDT by Norn Iron
Storm over US official at Sinn Fein conference
A senior US government official's appearance at the Sinn Fein annual conference cannot be justified given President Bush's war on terrorism, it has been claimed.
Stormont Enterprise Minister Sir Reg Empey called into question the decision by American Ambassador to Dublin, Richard Egan to attend the weekend Ard Fheis.
He said: "It amazes me, to be perfectly honest, how the diplomat concerned is going to be able to square that with the President`s onslaught on international terrorism."
Mr Egan was among the Dublin audience for Sinn Fein President Gerry Adam`s keynote address on Saturday.
Representatives from the Basque separatist group ETA`s political wing, the Batasuna Party, the Palestinian authority`s representative in Ireland and an ANC MP also attended the two-day event.
During ministerial question time in the Assembly today, Sir Reg was probed on the economic impact on Northern Ireland of last month`s terrorist attacks on America.
Sammy Wilson, of the DUP claimed local paramilitary groupings as well as international terrorism has brought economic instability to Northern Ireland.
He said: "While the government of the United States has been declaring war on terrorists the US Ambassador to Dublin attended the annual conference of IRA terrorists at which there were specifically invited the political representatives of a number of international groups which his government supposedly has declared war on."
Sir Reg stressed there was no fundamental difference between an attack on the World Trade Centre, Canary Wharf in London, or Belfast`s Great Victoria Street.
"There now appears to be a sort of artificial differentiation between terrorism and international terrorism," he said.
The minister pointed out that a significant amount of the arsenal used by paramilitary groupings during the Troubles either came from the US or was financed by American fund-raising efforts.
He added: "I will be looking forward with interest as to how that particular circle is to be squared.
"When one of the resolutions passed at that conference specifically castigated the United States Government for its involvement in Colombia I found that one very hard to figure out."
There are 'terrorists' and then there are terrorists, I guess.
Sammy Wilson is also the same DUP councilor who proposed a resolution congratulating the UDA death squad who assassinated Sinn Féin Councilor Eddie Fullerton in 1991. He also described Sinn Féin voters as `sub human animals' and once declared `Taigs aren't ratepayers'. Hardly the best source of information on Dick Egans visit to the Sinn Fein conference.
London, Oct. 1, IRNA - Northern Ireland should learn from South Africa's example of a peaceful transition to democracy, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said, arriving in Johannesburg Monday.
"We have a duty to listen and try to replicate what you have done here, back home in Ireland," Adams was quoted saying by the UK Press Association. The formation of a democratic South Africa was "one of the greatest human achievements of the last century," he said.
Sinn Fein leader is due to brief former president Nelson Mandela on recent events in Northern Ireland during his visit. In his two previous visits, he has often compared the experience of the country's black population to Catholics in Northern Ireland.
Adams is also scheduled to visit Robben Island, where Mandela was incarcerated for three decades during the apartheid era, and unveil a plaque in memory of the IRA hunger-strikers in the 1980s.
Source: ISLAMIC REPUBLIC WIRE, Iran
http://www.irna.com/newshtm/eng/09185859.htm
As Mark Twain said, "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
There are a great many Irish who are opposed to the IRA and and it's terrorism and fear a Sinn Fein communist government. Yes, people in the Republic have enjoyed a little break from socialism for the past 10 years and discovered capitalism is good. Sinn Fein does not merely want to "Kick out the English occupiers". They want to take over the entire island and rule it like only a communist can. Not only would this spell disaster for the Irish economy but Irish Catholics would live in fear of the Sinn Fein/IRA tactics of maintaining civil obedience.
England has been America's most consistent ally. The IRA keeps company with the bin Ladens of the world.
Do I hear an echo?? :-)
Mitchel McLaughlin of SF/IRA was a guest at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party in Brighton this week.
Brighton was the very place where SF/IRA almost wiped out a previous UK government!!
Some bozo on this page suggested air strikes against Ireland! 'My enemy's enemy is my friend'. If you follow this logic through, then are we friends the loyalist terrorists who are so active right now? Sounds like it on this page.
Norn, this "War On Terrorism" is about as useful as the War On Drugs... more agencies, less liberty, one giant leap down the slippery slope!
further down the slippery slope!!
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