Tuesday, May 24, 2005
IRA Still Active - IMC Report
The IRA remains heavily involved in criminal activty and is still training new members in how to use guns and handle bombs, according to the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission released today.
The report said the organisation has the ability to go back to a full-scale terror camapign if it wants to and that it is also heavily involved in criminal enterprises such as fuel and tobacco smuggling and money laundering.
The report said: "At the end of September 2004, the police discovered 10,000 rounds of PIRA ammunition suitable for use in assault rifles, of a type not previously found in Northern Ireland.
"This may have only been part of a larger consignment and it demonstrates PIRA’s continuing efforts to maintain its preparedness."
The IMC said intelligence it received had led them to believe:
- Provisional IRA members were involved in the murder of Robert McCartney. But it was not sanctioned by the leadership in advance and it appeared the killers were acting on the instructions of a local commander;
- The organisation was involved in robberies such as December’s Northern Bank heist which used violence or the threat of violence;
- PIRA members were behind an arson attack at a fuel depot in early September;
- While the Provisionals allowed some people they had banished to return to the republican Short Strand district in east Belfast after the murder of Mr McCartney, there was no indication that other exiled people could return to their homes in other parts of Northern Ireland;
- The organisation carried out five shootings and six assaults since August 2004.
This report rubbishes claims that the Provisional IRA have respected the Good Friday Agreement. They are still up to their knees in crimianlity and it is simply unacceptable.
The report said the organisation has the ability to go back to a full-scale terror camapign if it wants to and that it is also heavily involved in criminal enterprises such as fuel and tobacco smuggling and money laundering.
The report said: "At the end of September 2004, the police discovered 10,000 rounds of PIRA ammunition suitable for use in assault rifles, of a type not previously found in Northern Ireland.
"This may have only been part of a larger consignment and it demonstrates PIRA’s continuing efforts to maintain its preparedness."
The IMC said intelligence it received had led them to believe:
- Provisional IRA members were involved in the murder of Robert McCartney. But it was not sanctioned by the leadership in advance and it appeared the killers were acting on the instructions of a local commander;
- The organisation was involved in robberies such as December’s Northern Bank heist which used violence or the threat of violence;
- PIRA members were behind an arson attack at a fuel depot in early September;
- While the Provisionals allowed some people they had banished to return to the republican Short Strand district in east Belfast after the murder of Mr McCartney, there was no indication that other exiled people could return to their homes in other parts of Northern Ireland;
- The organisation carried out five shootings and six assaults since August 2004.
This report rubbishes claims that the Provisional IRA have respected the Good Friday Agreement. They are still up to their knees in crimianlity and it is simply unacceptable.
# posted by United Irelander @ 4:40 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
