Posted on 09/29/2001 5:36:53 PM PDT by Pokey78
GERRY ADAMS, the president of Sinn Fein, yesterday described terrorism as "ethically indefensible" and said the attacks on America had set back the cause of other struggles.
Mr Adams told his party's annual conference in Dublin that the September 11 outrages were inexcusable and that those who carried them out must be brought to justice.
He said: "Progressive struggles throughout the world have been set back by the attacks in the USA. There is no excuse, no justification for those type of actions, but neither should anyone who is truly concerned with world peace be deflected from the task.
"Terrorism is ethically indefensible. Those responsible for the atrocities in America must be brought to justice. What happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania was . . . a crime against humanity."
Critics of Mr Adams are certain to accuse the West Belfast MP of hypocrisy. Mr Adams has never condemned any Provisional IRA act of terror. Even after the Canary Wharf bombing in London in 1996, in which two people died and 40 were seriously injured, Mr Adams said he was "saddened", but blamed the British Government.
Mr Adams went further yesterday than he did within days of the US attacks when he said it was difficult to absorb their enormity. "I unequivocably condemn these attacks," he said.
His comments came as police investigated the murder of Martin O'Hagan, the journalist shot dead in the street near his home in Lurgan, Co Armagh on Friday night. O'Hagan, a father of three, was walking with his wife when he was shot by a gunman who pulled up in a car.
The Red Hand Defenders, a Loyalist splinter group, yesterday claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is a cover name used in the past by the Loyalist Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.
O'Hagan, a Sunday World journalist known for his exposes of loyalist drug dealing and racketeering in the Portadown area in Co Armagh, nicknamed Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright "King Rat".
The men who took over Wright's mantle after he was murdered in the Maze prison in December 1997 never forgot. When O'Hagan's supposed killers boasted of his murder in an anonymous call to a Belfast newsroom, they said he had been killed for "crimes against the loyalist people".
About a year after Wright's murder, a prominent member of the LVF in mid-Ulster spoke of his hatred for O'Hagan, a Roman Catholic, which stemmed from the journalist calling Wright "King Rat".
Senior politicians yesterday condemned the shooting. John Reid, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said it was "a barbaric killing". "It shows contempt for human life, contempt for freedom of the press and contempt for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.
Dr Reid spoke about the murder yesterday with Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC chief constable. "I share his absolute determination to track down the cowards responsible for this act of savagery," said the Northern Ireland Secretary. Bertie Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister, condemned the "senseless and brutal murder".
Sir Reg Empey, the acting First Minister, and Seamus Mallon, the acting Deputy First Minister, in a joint statement described it as "an attack on democracy". David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, called the killing "cowardly".
And, after Adams stopped laughing, he called on the IRA, once again, to turn in their weapons.
Even the fifth columnists here at home, like CAIR, condemn the attacks carried out by Muslim terrorists, they just refuse to condemn the terrorists themselves. Sinn Fein is lower than CAIR.
This shows the reason the Irish do not want to give us their guns. The Irish feel about gun control the same as Americans do. It will be like unilateral disarnament.
Ex-snook. Honest, peaceful, hard working people in Ireland are disarmed by their governments (Ulster and Republic) and have been since the Irish civil war. In the Republic, only the special forces of the Guarda (police) have guns.
Now, as for the criminal gangs like the IRA and UDF/UDA, they SHOULD be disarmed. The situation in the north is the embodiment of the saying: "If guns are illegal, only criminals will have guns".
If the tables were turned, and the honest and peaceful folks of the North, both Catholic and Protestant, were the ones in possession of firearms, we would have a quick end to "The Troubles".
Norn Iron and Bold Fenian, I figured both you gentlemen would be interested in Mr. Adams' latest statements.
Gerry Adams differs from Osama bin Laden only in efficiency. I'm 1/8 Irish, but I tell it like it is. Adams is a terrorist too.....
Hopefully, this current purge of terrorists will kill this corksucker! ...FRegards
Why was Egan there at a time when the Bush administration has declared war on terrorism?
Adams next photo-opportunity will be with Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Presumably the one with Fidel Castro has been put on hold!!
Look, Dickie, don't you think its time you Americans got your butts out of places like Colombia and Puerto Rico? State terrorism is indefensible
Tony Blair's mother is from Donegal and John Humes's great-grandfather(?) came from Scotland to Donegal.
One of my great uncles had Thompson as a middle name. You might automatically assume that this name came from Scotland or England. A little bit of research shows that the name had been McCavish in the 1700s and my father heard the Thompson's being called by this name 50 years ago. McCavish comes from the anglicisation of a Scottish Gaelic name which simply means 'son of Thomas'. Thompson was just another stage in the anglicisation process.
A few years ago most of the political parties in NI had a McGuinness or a variant on the name as an elected politician.
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/sarcasm
He could also assist by curbing the flow of US funds and guns to terrorists.
Perhaps Ahern would welcome some technology to help locate the Gadhaffi Semtex and guns held in bunkers on his territory.
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