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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (96242)	2/21/2005 8:02:38 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Respond to of 108807

Again, accusations made without offering proof...

To: Grainne who wrote (96242)	2/21/2005 8:35:04 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Labour: If it’s true, put them on trial By Mary Dundon, Political Reporter SINN FÉIN president Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and Martin Ferris should be put on trial if the Government’s claims that they are members of the IRA’s Army Council are true, the Labour Party insisted last night. Justice Minister Michael McDowell yesterday accused the three men of being members of the IRA Army Council. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern supported this view and said that based on garda intelligence, the Government is “absolutely satisfied” that the leadership of Sinn Féin and the IRA are interlinked. Mr Ahern said it was now “inconceivable” for anyone to believe that there was no provisional IRA involvement in the robbery of £26.5 million (€38.5m) from the Northern Bank. Labour is demanding that Mr McDowell make a statement in the Dáil detailing the evidence he has linking the Sinn Féin leadership to the IRA Army Council. “If these claims are true, these men are guilty of membership of a subversive organisation which is punishable by a five-year jail term,” said Labour spokesman Joe Costello. “The minister’s statement has huge repercussions and people will want to know will these people be prosecuted. “A word of a garda superintendent who tells a court he believes someone is a member of proscribed organisation is now sufficient to convict that person. “Here we have a minister, one of the highest office holders in the land, stating categorically that these three men are members of the IRA Army Council - one of them a member of the Dáil,” Mr Costello added. Mr McDowell did not respond to Labour’s call that he clarify his allegations. But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern moved to distance himself from Mr McDowell’s comments yesterday and said he did not know who was on the army council. Meanwhile, Mr McGuinness said the Justice Minister’s remarks were politically motivated and an attempt to criminalise Sinn Féin. “I am not a member of the IRA - I was years ago - I am not a member of IRA Army Council,” Mr McGuinness told RTÉ. Mr Adams again insisted yesterday that republicans were not involved in the Northern Bank robbery or money laundering. “No republican worthy of the name can be involved in criminality of any kind. If any are, they should be expelled from our ranks,” Mr Adams told a memorial service in Strabane. Mr Adams said the “campaign of vilification” was going to continue, but there was no doubt that Sinn Féin would weather this storm. But the North’s chief constable Hugh Orde repeated his assertion yesterday that the IRA was behind the robbery. Mr Orde also said £50,000 sterling in new notes found at a country club in Belfast were planted by the Provisional IRA. Defence Minister Willie O’Dea told the RTÉ Week in Politics programme last night that all the information the Government was receiving said there was a definite link between money found in Cork and Northern Bank robbery. “We are no longer prepared to accept the farce that Sinn Féin and the IRA are separate - they are indivisible,” Mr O’Dea said. irishexaminer.com