IRA possible link to Colombian terrorists

[Crazy_dog no.3]

Here it is, copy and pasted from BT Openworld News:

 

By Michael Roddy

 

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has rejected the findings of U.S. House investigators that his party`s military arm, the IRA, is part of an international terror network.

 

There is "nothing to back up these assertions," Adams said on Wednesday, after a U.S. House of Representatives committee said it had uncovered links between the IRA and Marxist rebels in Colombia.

 

In a preview of its findings, the House Committee on International Relations said on Tuesday the IRA had operated as part of an international terror network that trained Marxist FARC guerrillas in southern Colombia.

 

Adams announced on Tuesday he would not travel to Washington to testify to the committee`s investigation into the arrest of three alleged IRA members in Colombia last August. On Wednesday, he said the preview of the report showed he had made the right decision.

 

"One of the things that was very central to me deciding not to go was that the lawyers for the three men said they thought that this hearing would be prejudicial to the possibility of them getting a fair trial," Adams said.

 

"I think that report vindicates the view that this is just a whole raft of allegations which haven`t been stood up," he said.

 

The House committee launched its nine-month investigation after three suspected IRA members were arrested in Bogota on August 11 and charged with training rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

 

IRA DENIAL

 

In its preview, the committee said the IRA, along with Iranians, Cubans and possibly members of the Basque separatist group ETA, had been training the rebels, who it said were deeply involved in the international drugs trade.

 

"It is likely that in the former FARC safe haven, these terrorist groups had been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism skills, using illicit drug proceeds in payment and collectively helping to challenge the rule of law in Colombia," it said.

 

In a statement on Wednesday, the IRA said it "sent no one to Colombia to train or engage in any military operation with any group.

 

"The IRA has not interfered in the internal affairs of Colombia and will not do so."

 

Adams sent a letter to the congressional panel on Tuesday saying he had received legal advice that the hearing and his attendance could prejudice the Colombian trial.

 

"You`re damned if you do and you`re damned if you don`t," Adams told reporters in Dublin.

 

He said he and Sinn Fein chief negotiator Martin McGuinness had cooperated with the congressional report, and that a hearing in Washington on Wednesday was politically motivated.

 

"The investigating counsel, the man who had put together that report, advised both myself and Martin McGuinness with witnesses that he was asked to do these hearings by representatives of the British government."

 

Adams said he had been on holiday when the alleged IRA members were arrested and "didn`t even receive the news about their arrests for three or four days afterwards".

 

Sinn Fein receives bigger contributions from the United States than any other Irish political party, but Adams said he did not think there would be a drop in its U.S. support base.