IRA-FARC
NEVER MIND

First off let me say I don’t think it would be the end of the world if the Provos had actually met with Colombia’s leftist guerrillas-FARC. Big deal. Let’s not forget the US helps to train and finance those associated with right wing terrorist paramilitaries in Colombia (Where is the Congressional investigation?). For despite the denials of Gen. Fernando Tapias, commander of the Colombian armed forces who once said, "I totally reject this attempt by Human Rights Watch to link the armed forces with outlaw groups. This is simply an attempt to block anti-narcotics aid," numerous human rights groups have indeed produced evidence that military units and police detachments continue to promote, work with, support, profit from, and tolerate paramilitary groups, treating them as a force allied to and compatible with their own. So lets skip the feigned outrage, guys.

That said, the IRA has denied there is any connection anyway. The IRA said that its leadership had sent no one to Colombia to train or to engage in any military co-operation with any group. The IRA said the arrest of three Irishmen in Colombia last August on suspicion of training FARC rebels had been "used again in an intense way by opponents of the peace process in Ireland and Britain".

However, with apparently little to do, the House International Relations Committee decided to delve into the "facts" of the alleged IRA/FARC connection. The hearing Wednesday and Thursday was called after Colombian authorities last year detained and accused three Irish nationals -- allegedly IRA members -- of training leftist rebels in the use of explosives and of carrying false passports to cover their true identities. Prior to the hearing, the Committee was presented with a report prepared by its staff titled, "International Global Terrorism: Its Links With Illicit Drugs as Illustrated by the IRA and Other Groups in Colombia." The title certainly indicated a conclusion had already been reached. Indeed, the report asserted there was strong evidence of ties between the Colombian guerrillas, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and perhaps Iran and Cuba. The staff inquiry was led by John P. Mackey, committee investigative counsel, who has long supported U.S. military assistance to Colombia. Tuesday, Mackey said that the U.S. government was convinced of organized IRA involvement in Colombia and that the explosives techniques favored by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had clear roots in IRA training. But it turns out that neither the report nor the testimony of committee witnesses, including Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson and the deputy director of the State Department's counter-terrorism office, supported Mackey's conclusions. At the hearing, asked by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) whether he was privy to any intelligence information indicating IRA involvement, Hutchinson replied, "I don't have any information on this." ''I haven't seen any concrete evidence to make these linkages,'' agreed the State Department's acting coordinator for counterterrorism, Mark Wong. Another witness, Colombian Joint Chiefs of Staff head Gen. Fernando Tapias, said he had no information about organizational links between the IRA and Colombian terrorists. Nor had the Colombian government detected any terrorist assistance or training in his country by Iran or Cuba, he said. Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.) said he had asked Colombia, Britain and the U.S. intelligence community "if there is even one scintilla of evidence of connection between the IRA or Sinn Fein," the IRA's political arm, with the FARC, "and the answer is no." Rep. Smith did point out there was "volumes of credible evidence" showing members of the British security forces in Northern Ireland engaging in collusion with loyalists and committing criminal acts.

One of the more amusing exchanges occurred when Gen. Tapias testified despite an admitted lack of real evidence that he believed there was collusion between the IRA and FARC. At that point, Congressman Peter King inquired as to why Colombian Intelligence had used, in their submission to today's hearing, the deputy leader of the loyalist Democratic Unionist Party, Mr. Peter Robinson, to provide background on one of the three men in Colombia, General Tapias said that this was through their work with British Intelligence. In the Colombian Intelligence's submission for today's hearing, it stated that Mr. Robinson considered James Monaghan (one of the men arrested last August) "as the most important man in the IRA." Mr. King asked General Tapias if he was aware that Mr. Robinson was a political adversary of Sinn Fein, was avowedly anti-Good Friday Agreement, and had an arrest record in Northern Ireland. The General responded that he was unfamiliar with the name but would 'research' it and provide an answer at a later date.

Many of the committee’s members were irate and labeled the report as "irresponsible." ''There is no evidence whatsoever that the IRA sanctioned'' the actions of the Irish nationals in Colombia, King said. He criticized the report as ''biased'' and ``misleading.'' Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., agreed. ''We have been presented with a report short on facts and replete with surmise and opinion,'' he said. Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., insisted there was ''nothing'' in the testimony ``that can point a finger at anything other than three rogue men who happen to be Irish.'' ''I'm very disturbed and annoyed. . .,'' he added. More than one member wondered aloud whether the hearings were more aimed at further funding US military intervention in Colombia rather than establishing the facts as to why three Irishmen were arrested in Colombia in August of last year.

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams who declined an invitation to appear at the hearing commented, ``Today's hearing in Washington has vindicated Sinn Féin's position that we have no case to answer in respect of the allegations leveled against our party…I welcome Chairman Hyde's acknowledgment of Sinn Féin's contribution to the long struggle for peace and justice and that he also accepts my statement that neither I nor the Sinn Féin leadership were aware that the three men were traveling to Colombia. While my political instinct was to go to today's hearing a primary reason for my decision not to go was the concern of the lawyers of the Colombia 3 that the hearings could be prejudicial to a fair trial. This concern has been fully justified. These three men should be sent home.''
Sources: Belfast Telegraph, Sinn Fein, Washington Post, Irish American Information Service, Miami Herald, Human Rights Watch, Los Angeles Times

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