“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.

Pete Baker