“MI5 may go along with the lie for political expediency..”
The Independent Monitoring Commission is reported to have handed its latest report, on the status of the Provisional IRA army council, to both governments today.. and the anonymous briefings have already begun. The public will have to wait until Wednesday to see the actual report.. The DUP had met the IMC on Friday and repeated their position afterwards. Meanwhile The Scotsman has this quote from Ed Moloney
“No. The IRA is not going to go away,” said Ed Moloney, the author of The Secret History of the IRA, who believes that Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein derive too much political power from the threat of renewed IRA violence to give it up completely. “The security forces, MI5 may go along with the lie for political expediency but ordinary people in Northern Ireland will know they will not go away.”
Adds The BBC report seems more realistic than the Belfast Telegraph’s anonymous briefing.
[BBC NI] Home Affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said the report was expected to say the IRA Army Council had not disbanded – but would also say that it no longer serves any military purpose. “That may satisfy the two governments – but the key question is, will it be good enough for the DUP?” he said.
Sorry but I find this report hard to believe
It stinks of a report saying the right things at the right time. all very suspect in my eyes, and many others I would say
“That may satisfy the two governments – but the key question is, will it be good enough for the DUP?” he said.
Who cares about the DUP – or Sinn Féin? Neither party is going to go to beyond the brink and risk losing their expenses/salaries/revenue stream over a form of words. It’s about time the IMC, a government quango which speaks with its masters’ voice if ever there was one, was disbanded and the money being wasted on it spent on something useful….
Hard to disagree with your reasoning Concubhar mo chara.
Is there any need for this theatre in 2008?
Clearly the PRM/SF are a constituional party that wants to be in emocratic power.
Like Fianna fail they have come out of an armed movement that was defeated in an insurgency.
Such people can become, clearly, democratic polticians.
Jonathan Powell’s children have graduated from college.
The Provos are no more.
Some morning in the near future we shall awaken to Wendy or Seamus interviewing wee Jeffrey who will tell us all that the unionist people have the confidence to devolve policing and justice and how good a victory it has been as it was one of the DUP’s key demands. They will then interview Mr Maskey who will welcome the acheivement of the devolution of policing and justice and how good a victory it has been as it was one of SF’s key demands.
Is ceart, Concubhar
The whole thing is just a scam/move now and a lot of people are making a lot of money and have positions they would never otherwise have with very little achievement nor expecpectation thereof. People were bought off with money and position and sometimes not even that, just flattered egos. It’s Wonderland and these must be dream jobs. No one can really do anything and therefore cannot be accountable for any results. Whoever thought it up was brilliant! To even pay lip service to this embarrassing quango/mouthpiece whether it was damning them or praising them was to delegitimise anything they ever stood for.
It will not come as a surprise to find politicians acting as politicians and talking up, or down, whatever line that suits them.
What may be more worrying is the realisation that the Government (British) painted itself into a corner in how it dealt with Gerry Adams and the power it allowed him from an implied threat of going back to violence.
A threat that essentially he still has in his negotiating position.
No surprise to people on the Irish side of the water but news to the GB side.
Made all the more worrying if the report in todays Guardian is correct and ex-Provisionals are openly moving to join with Republican dissidents.
The real test for the bone fides of Republicans as lawmakers will come when ex-Comrades continue to act outside the law and end up murdering a Policeman or others and they actually cross the Rubicon and put them in jail.
De Valera had to do it in the South and we wait to see if the ‘we’re in place for ever’ ageing leadership actually measures up to the hard test and is willing to make hard decisions.
I for one will not be holding my breath.
Of course all of this renewed activity is against the backdrop of the old belief that ‘England’s difficulty is Ireland’s opportunity’.
If trouble was to break out again, even in a very limited sense, the British Government does not have ANY spare soldiers to deal with much more than very minor recreational rioting.
Dissidents are well aware of this and no doubt feel that they are in a win win situation for themselves. After all none of their friends will tell, will they?
latcheeco
Very good comment on the NI Assembly.
Of course this will be enough for the DUPs or least enough for the DUPs to keep the lights on at Stormont. It would take principle to do anything different and as has always been the case with DUP principles – if you don’t like the current ones they have currently, don’t worry there’s a lot more stored where they came from.
P&J;down the line when the DUPs believe the people have forgotten about it, think Christmas
“The security forces, MI5 may go along with the lie for political expediency but ordinary people in Northern Ireland will know they will not go away.”
says it all
Pete,
I will try again with the question I put to you a couple of times last week – do you think that the timing of the publication of the IMC report is either
a) Coincidental with the current political situation.
b) To exert pressure on the DUP to move on Police and Justice.
c) Published now for some other reason.
No need to phone a friend on this one
(b)
Don’t stop there, Phil [and Sammy Mc].
It’s only a first small baby-step after the ‘kerfuffle’.
Next question is why the
securocratsEnglezesUK government are trying to help the Sinn Féin leadership out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves?Well, they did deliver their party over that policing rubicon – by whatever means necessary.
And that sort of usefulness takes years to develop.
Up until recently I was of the view that the Provisional IRA should fully disband. Now I take a more nuanced stance – Let them keep their Army Council, as long as it remains supportive of the GFA and the current arrangements. If it completely and utterly disbands, it leaves the field clear for the dissidents to recruit the disaffected nationalist youth. If PIRA remains (inactively) in existence, some of these disaffected youth will join it and be directed to political work with Sinn Féin – which is better than being sent out to try to kill Protestants which is what the Dissidents are about.
The dissidents are trying to kill Catholics too, Dublin Voter; those that have joined the PSNI.
“[i]The whole thing is just a scam/move now and a lot of people are making a lot of money and have positions they would never otherwise have with very little achievement nor expecpectation thereof. People were bought off with money and position and sometimes not even that, just flattered egos. It’s Wonderland and these must be dream jobs. No one can really do anything and therefore cannot be accountable for any results. Whoever thought it up was brilliant! To even pay lip service to this embarrassing quango/mouthpiece whether it was damning them or praising them was to delegitimise anything they ever stood for.”[/i]
Explain that post latcheeco?
UMH, Apologies if that was incomprehensible, you know how Americans are;) So just for you. The first half relates to Stormont; making poachers into gamekeepers or if you will the old trick of promoting the effective union organiser up to management by giving him a fancy title with little serious responsibility and neutering him in the process.
Second half relates to anyone with self respect who ever thought of themselves as revolutionary (and I know that’s contentious ) being answerable to that transparant hoop jumping farce.
“UMH, Apologies if that was incomprehensible”
Too be deadly serious, I thought the entire post was a scathing attack on the IMC.
b-JR
“I thought the entire post was a scathing attack on the IMC.”
I’m sure it won’t be the last time you mis-read one of my posts.
Pete,
I love to be in illustrious company
BJ
Apologies for being opaque but yes it does stand as a(unintended) double-entendre for Aldernice and Co. Show as well; but then again it could be the whole North.
The dissidents are trying to kill Catholics too, Dublin Voter; those that have joined the PSNI.
Posted by joeCanuck on Sep 01, 2008 @ 06:06 PM
Of course you are correct Joe.
Would any unionists on Slugger have any sympathy with my main point though – that the continued existence of the PIRA Army Council may be the lesser of two evils? I know it would be a very hard pill to swallow but it might save lives….?
Sounds a perfectly sensible point to me, Dub Voter.