US targets Northern Ireland dissidents

BBC News ^ | Tuesday, 1 January, 2002, 09:10 GMT | BBC News

[Norn Iron]

No, it has a devolved government currently within the UK but with an option to leave the UK if a majority of its citizens wish it. Some functions are not devolved and some of these such as policing are under the direction of a Secretariat of London and Dublin civil servants.

[constitutiongirl]

Go on and post the rest of the bloody CAIN report and show us how many the other side has killed. They're nearly even in carnage.

[constitutiongirl]

Which IRA are you talking about? The Provisional IRA (attached to Sinn Fein) has been on cease fire. The NI terrorist groups now listed by the US gov't have only one Republican arm (the Continuity IRA). The other groups, the LVF, the RHD and the UDA are UNIONIST/PRO-BRIT PROTESTANT groups who have a death list of innocents as long as the PIRA, CIRA and RIRA. Go to the CAIN report on-line and view the death indices and see for yourself. I have no problem with people condemning Republican atrocities, just as long as they're not hypocritical about what the other side has been doing for the past 30+ years.

[damnlimey]

I merely posted the people killed on one night in my home town when I was young,this event naturally had an effect on me
I'm not posting hate or disinformation and anyone with any sense knows that murders
have been committed by terrorists from both sides.
For anyone interested,here is the link for the cain site,the carnage over the years is indeed horrendous.

[Norn Iron]

The Agreement needs more than a ceasefire; it requires the removal of all illegal weapons and the disbandment of all illegal organisations. How can you say these organisations are on ceasefire when they continue to import weapons and use them to mutilate young people? Justice is the business of governments, not the role of self-appointed mafia-style gangsters.

[Norn Iron]

Republican terrorists have probably been responsible for most of the killings but this disguises the changing ratio over the years. In the 90s republicans and loyalists matched each other for violence but in the past few years loyalists have been mainly responsible.

The growth in loyalist violence since the Agreement was signed in 1998 may be partly due to the way Clinton and Ahern put special emphasis on the development of the Irish dimension. Anyone with a titter of wit would have seen the folly of paying more attention to one aspiration than to the other. There is no merit in reversing the roles of the extremists.

[B Knotts]

No, it has a devolved government currently within the UK but with an option to leave the UK if a majority of its citizens wish it. Some functions are not devolved and some of these such as policing are under the direction of a Secretariat of London and Dublin civil servants.

Yes, I kind of oversimplified. I actually knew that it was still within the U.K., but I did recall that there was some relationship to the Irish Republic as well. Hopefully, they can make a go of it, and put an end to the mindless bloodshed. There can be no excuse for terrorist actions. Anyone who calls himself a Christian, and commits terrorist acts, is deluding himself.

[SteamshipTime]

Logically then, the US government has a duty to protect its citizens from bandits in Jamaica, dysentery in Costa Rica, and price gouging in Mexico. In other words, those who decide not to travel to Northern Ireland must subsidize those who do.

When you travel abroad, you take the other country as you find it. I couldn't care less about Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics killing each other. Hell, I'll donate $500 to both sides. Maybe they'll kill each other off and we won't have to pay George Mitchell to go over there and talk.

[B Knotts]

We've gone close enough to the disaster of Yugoslavia thank you very much!

No kidding. I can't believe he was serious, suggesting the Serbian example as a template for others.

You have instead chosen the proper and peaceful path, and I pray that it will work eventually.

[Norn Iron]

There seems to be a misunderstanding. Peoples lives in Northern Ireland have been put at risk through funds raised in the USA to support terrorism in Northern Ireland. I'd like to see this support reduced.

[Benson_Carter]

well, this degenerated into a truly tasteless thread, didn't it?

[constitutiongirl]

Many in America (even on this forum where many are more enlightened than most)see terrorism in NI as one-sided (only the IRA and other pro-Irish dissidents). They either ignore or have no idea of the atrocities commited from the other side (including police and Brit Army collusion). I assume we're about the same age and I had the misfortune of living here in Belfast as a child in the 70's. It does shape perceptions and they're hard to overcome. Sorry if I came across b-tchy. I've had to apologise to Norn Iron for the same thing occasionally. Happy New Year.

[Dan from Michigan]

And this one has a shotgun.

[constitutiongirl]

Well, ya know, I have no excuse (except stress? alignment of the stars? lol). I'll be back Stateside this weekend (Thank God).Hopefully I'll finally be able to get a decent night's sleep. Please pray a safe trip home for me (int'l travel is a bit mentally intense these days). :)-CG

[UnBlinkingEye]

...target civilians? If they do, they employ terrorist tactics.

We (the U.S.A.) target civilians to break the will of the villified people. Thousands of innocent Afghan people have died along with thousands of Serbs, we targeted market places, civilian trains and convoys, television stations, power and water supplies.

I wish we would listen to the admonishments of George Washington and avoid foreign entanglements. If we had done so I doubt the events of September 11 would have occurred.

[xclusiv1]

When is the last time the IRA bombed American buildings or ships?

[Francohio]

It saddens me to say this, for I would like to see nothing better than the union of the six counties with the Irish Republic.

However, you should open your mind to one alarming possibility: that is, if the British Govenment were to pull out of Northern Ireland right now, there might very well be a series of massacres in which the Catholic citizens could be on the losing end. British presence prevents that.

You see, in addition to suppressing the IRA, the British government also rides herd on those UDF factions who are ready, willing and all too able to get into massive "ethnic cleansing."

It's a mess, for sure. And American intervention might well have the same results as our meddling NATO intervention in Kosovo. Think "KLA," when you think "IRA."

No, this will be settled by plebiscite, and either by eventual and peaceful union with the Republic, or autonomy, when the Catholic vote is big enough and unified enough.

[triumph69]

I do think the army in the south would come to the aid of the Catholics in the north, that's if Britain pulled out. Frankly, I also think the Unionists would be better off if they were part of the Republic. My logic is that they would have more political clout than they do now in Britain e.g. more mp's in the Irish parliament than their very small relative numbers in Britain. I do have a little understanding of the place as my grandparents are buried in Lurgen(Ulster) and I lived their for a short time.

[damnlimey]

No problem,I'm sorry if my post caused any offense,
my limited encounters with terrorism kind of pale by
comparison to living in Belfast in the 70's.
Happy new year to you and yours.