This source... might give us a clue here...
The UDA and UVF are both supposed to be observing cease-fires and disarming in support of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, just like the outlawed Irish Republican Army rooted in militant Catholic areas.
But while the IRA has built a major base of support through its Sinn Fein party and has grown central to ongoing negotiations on Northern Ireland's future, the Protestant paramilitary groups have dismally failed to win electoral support and barely register in political talks. Instead they wield power through criminal graft backed by occasional intimidating shows of force.
Apparently this is their method of being heard? Geeze, not all that long after the London bombings and on the anniversary of 9/11..
The IRA is not lily white, it has morphed into a highly successful criminal enterprise but it's not "PC" to say that it's still tied to good ol' peaceful Sinn Fein, cuddly Gerry et al.