This Daily Telegraph op-ed addresses the long overdue disdain that is being heaped upon Gerry Adams, who is the leader of Sinn Fein, which is the Irish Republican Army‘s “political” wing, as the MSM tepidly refers to the group.
One of the more incongruous developments in the post-September 11 world has been the way in which Mr. Adams has been able to avoid scrutiny for his and his followers’ support of terroristic activities over the past 30 years. Despite this dubious background, this week is the first time since the mid-’90s that American political leaders will not welcome Mr. Adams with open arms in connection with traditional St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Rather, President Bush will host the family members of the late Robert McCartney, the 33-year-old Northern Irish Catholic who was brutally killed outside a Belfast bar in January. Given the IRA’s mob-like control of certain local communities in Northern Ireland, none of the numerous witnesses to the McCartney murder — which include two Sinn Fein political candidates — have been willing to step up and identify the murderers.
Meanwhile, the IRA remains the prime suspect in the $50 million bank robbery that occurred in Belfast this past December just as British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a last ditch offer to restart the deadlocked Northern Ireland Assembly. That deadlock grows out of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement under which Mr. Blair agreed that the Assembly rules would require that operations be approved by parties such as Sinn Fein that represent only a small minority of the vote. After September 11, the Assembly increasingly appears to be a symbol of the failed policy of appeasement toward terroristic tactics.
As a result, the U.S., British and Irish governments are all finally on the verge of blowing off this failed policy toward dealing with the IRA and Sinn Fein. Inasmuch as Northern Ireland citizens — unlike the oppressed citizens of most Islamic countries — have always been fully represented in a democratic British government, one can only wonder why it has taken the governments this long to recognize the folly of appeasing the IRA and Sinn Fein.
The bottom line is that IRA is not a freedom movement of oppressed Catholics. Rather, it has evolved into a criminal enterprise that embraces a radical political agenda and cooperates with virtually every radical terrorist group, including radical Palestinian and Libyan factions. Over the past 35 years, the IRA has killed about 3,000 people, and has undertaken several assassination attempts on various British prime ministers.
Meanwhile, the IRA and Sinn Fein have for years secretly raised millions of dollars in contributions in the United States, and the groups have been allowed to raise contributions openly in the U.S. since President Clinton lifted the ban on the group in the mid-90’s. Politicians such as Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (Democrat) and New York Congressman Peter King (Republican) have been among the IRA and Sinn Fein’s biggest American fundraisers.
In one of the more refreshing moves of the year, the Bush Administration has finally revoked the IRA and Sinn Fein’s license to raise funds openly in the U.S. this year, and even Messrs. Kennedy and King are shunning Mr. Adams during his visit to the States this year. However, keep watching this process carefully. Appeasement is almost always a more comfortable policy than confrontation for politicians to embrace, and organizations such as the IRA and Sinn Fein are masters at pushing the edge of the violence envelope under an appeasement policy. It does not make much sense for America to be fighting terroism that seeks to sustain radical Islamic fascism in the Middle East if it is unwilling to confront terrorism that seeks to undermine democratic government in our closest ally.