articolo da irishvoice
Cop Says IRA Still Criminals
By Brendan Anderson
A MAJOR political dispute is set to break after the North’s most senior police detective claimed the IRA “is still involved in organized crime.”
The claim, which is disputed by Security Minister Shaun Woodward, will provide ammunition for anti-Agreement Unionists resisting attempts to restore power-sharing government to the North.
Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kincaid, the man in charge of the police investigation into the Northern Bank robbery staged in December of 2004, made his controversial remarks Tuesday evening during a briefing to the Policing Board, the body which oversees the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The briefing was confidential and neither the British government nor the Policing Board would comment on Kincaid’s claim.
It is understood, however, that the top cop admitted that the IRA, which stood down in July, had “made significant” progress” — taken to mean that Republicans had not been involved in punishment shootings or robberies since their stand-down statement last July.
The damage to political progress, however, came when Kincaid insisted that no group, “including the IRA,” had ceased its involvement in organized crime in the past year. This is being interpreted as a claim that Republicans are involved in fuel smuggling, money laundering and cigarette smuggling.
Kincaid’s remarks are at odds with his overall
boss, Security Minister Woodward. Last month Woodward acknowledged that his words would cause skepticism but insisted that the next report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), the body which oversees the paramilitary ceasefires, would give the IRA a clean bill of health.
Woodward said the report, due at the end of this month, would “demonstrate whether the IRA was true to its word.” He added that the last IMC report in October had described as encouraging, signs that the IRA had indeed ended its armed campaign.
In his December statement Woodward said, “We believe from the evidence we have seen, we believe from the reports, and critically the reports from the Independent Monitoring Commission, that the IRA is keeping to its word.”
Somewhat unfortunately for Woodward, and for the North, it is Kincaid’s views and those from other security and intelligence agencies that form the basis of IMC reports.
Kincaid’s briefing, the latest body blow to the peace process, will leave the people of the North more bewildered than ever – and pondering how a potentially damaging “confidential briefing” became public within minutes. His claims will cause jubilation in the anti-Agreement camp, but severe headaches for Republicans.
Following decades of dirty tricks, campaigns of misinformation, cleverly timed inspired leaks to the media and allegations of political roguery, there are few spokespersons, political, police or military, who have any credibility remaining.
It was only last weekend Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly told a gathering in Belfast that the party could take its place on the Policing Board, if further reforms were implemented.
“It is not an impossible task and republicans need to be acutely aware that if and when the Sinn Fein leadership achieves the objectives it set in this area then this is turn will present further challenges for all activists,” Kelly said.
“Nobody said it would be easy. Here is the challenge facing us. As political activists we must think strategically, debate strategically and decide what is best for our party, for the cause we represent and most importantly for the people we represent. We must do that in partnership and in dialogue with our community.”