Intelligencer

Can Adams Fundraise?

Will Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams get the fundraising visa he is seeking to come to America next month for the November 10 Friends of Sinn Fein dinner?

The answer to date is that nobody knows. It seems the administration is still playing its cards very close to its chest on this issue.

Special Envoy Mitchell Reiss apparently believes that the lack of a fundraising visa may be one of the of the few cards this administration still has to hold over Sinn Fein’s head as they consider whether to be part of policing or not.

However, pressure is bound to mount, especially with a positive report likely on a complete cessation of IRA activity from the International Monitoring Commission. The guess here is that Adams will be allowed to fundraise, though it may be a last minute decision.

Reid’s Hate Speech Charge

Amazing isn’t it that the PSNI, the Northern Irish police force are pursuing a complaint that Father Alex Reid has breached the law by referring to Unionists as Nazi like in their historic treatment of Catholics.

Those who know Reid will vouch for the fact that there is no more gentle character, slow to anger, than the Tipperary-born Redemptorist who has played such a huge role in the peace process.

Indeed, it could be argued that the peace process began in Father Reid’s head. He was the one who first brought John Hume and Gerry Adams together and commenced the entire process.

Reid was provoked into his statement during an angry exchange at a cross community event, which was discussing decommissioning. He apologized right after, which he should have, but it is incredible to believe that the PSNI think this complaint worthy of follow up when so much has been said by Unionist bigots over the years that has gone unchallenged.

Paisley’s True Opinions

We need look no further than the current political kingpin, the Reverend Ian Paisley who, in his earlier career, savaged Catholicism and those who practiced it.

Paisley has a deep sense that his people are the chosen ones and that Catholics as a result are the scum of the earth. Some of his most inflammatory speeches would likely qualify as hate speech in most democracies in the world.

Amazing, then, that this is the man who finds himself on the threshold of power, while a true peacemaker like Father Reid finds himself under such pressure Yet, Paisley has easily got away with it, another example of how there is a deep double standard in Northern Ireland.

This week we learned that the British government had given a grant to the Progressive Unionist Party despite the fact that they had refused to distance themselves from the murderous UVF. Imagine the brouhaha if Sinn Fein had got a similar grant when the IRA was still active.

Freeh’s Ireland Free

We eagerly awaited the newly released memoirs by the former FBI chief, Louis Freeh, which lambastes President Clinton as immoral and conniving.

Of particular interest to the Irish was the now infamous clash between Freeh and Clinton over the handling of a Florida gunrunning case involving IRA members.

It came at an enormously delicate time in the peace process and, according to a retired Florida FBI chief interviewed by the Irish Voice, led to a furious argument between Clinton and Freeh.

Clinton wanted the case dropped, arguing that the Irish Troubles were essentially over and that any clampdown would ruin negotiations on the run up to the Good Friday Agreement.

Freeh argued otherwise, saying that the IRA were preparing to rearm and had to be taught a lesson.

The pair also clashed on whether to give travel visas to Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein leaders. Clinton was proved right, eventually, as an ease up on Irish Republicans allowed them to sell the peace deal to Irish supporters.

So what does Freeh have to say about these momentous times? Go to the index and what do you find? No reference to Irish, IRA, Ireland or Adams. Wonder why.

Secret Service Seeks Extradition

News this week that the Secret Service may be seeking the extradition of five more people involved in smuggling up to $29 million in north Korean manufactured $100 bills into Ireland has come to a complete shock to the Irish political system.

While last week began with strong denouncements of the American policy in the Dail (Parliament), condemnation went very quiet last week when the extent of surveillance of Sean Garland, the head of the Irish Workers Party began apparent, including fax and telephone call interception, and secret agents recording chats in bars with some of his associates. The U.S. government says that the Marxist Official IRA were running the show, along with the North Korean government.

According to the Secret Service, they will be seeking Garland’s extradition along with six other people and are investigating another five.

Whether or not this will prove the continued existence of the Official IRA, which split from the Provisionals in the early 1970s, remains to be seen.