Adams in America: Haass adds to pressure…

AS expected, already pressure is being put on Adams in America. Stating his disappointment at the White House snub, Adams acknowledged that the only way the McCartney family would get justice was through the courts. Still no statements with the Police Ombudsman yet.UTV Internet reports former US Envoy Richard Haass saying:

“The risk is that over time they will suffer the fate of people such as Yasser Arafat of being ostracised,” he said. “Gerry Adams does not want to become Yasser Arafat, and decide between the olive branch and the gun.”

Mr Haass said that time was running out, and that the snub from the White House was a clear message that the US had zero tolerance for groups using force for political ends.

The BBC reported that Gerry Adams told the invited audience at a New York event attended by Richard Haass that the Sinn Fein leadership was determined to see the political process succeed.

“I haven’t heard anyone saying we want to go back to conflict – that’s the key,” he said.

He said that despite any political “jockeying” or “nervousness”, the “strength of the process is in the popular will of the people back home and the Sinn Fein leadership is totally wedded to making it a success”.

But when? Haass seems prepared to wait:

“No-one as yet is ruling out dealing with Sinn Fein, but with the passage of months or even years, that could very well happen,” he said.

“Gerry Adams does not want to become Yasser Arafat. He does not want to become someone who’s unwilling to choose, (like) in Mr Arafat’s case, between the olive branch and the gun.

“Mr Adams and, more broadly, the republican movement, has to make the choice 100% to play by democratic rules, to play a political game only.”

While Haass will be accused of hypocrisy by many local Irish republicans, how will the message – likely to repeated over and over – be received in America, and more specifically, Irish America?

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