Republican Watch - April 2002

Since the sectarian Pat Finucane Centre hasn't published it's April
edition yet, you can have ours:

1st April
There is a security alert in north Belfast near the route of a planned
Apprentice Boys parade. A controlled explosion has been carried out on
an object found behind an advertising hoarding at the junction of the
Crumlin and Woodvale Roads. In the past Republicans have attempted to
murder Protestant men, women and children participating in the
celebration of their culture. There is no reason to suspect anyone
other than the IRA/SF for this latest sectarian incident.
Source (BBC) 01-01a.doc

1st April
Nationalist mobs have attacked Protestants in the Limestone Rd area of
north Belfast. The area has been the scene of recent sectarian
violence, with prominent members of IRA/SF at the forefront.
Source (AN) 01-02a.doc

2nd April
Army bomb experts have been called to an army base in County
Londonderry following a security alert. Officers are examining a
suspicious van at Shackleton Barracks in Ballykelly. Dukes Lane and
Main Street in the town have been cordoned off and a number of people
have been evacuated from their homes.
Source (BBC) 02-01a.doc

3rd April
Gerry Adams has hinted that he will decline an invitation by US
Congress to present Sinn Fein/IRA's version of events surrounding the
arrest of 3 members of IRA/SF in Colombia, on charges of training
Marxist narco-terrorist's FARC. Mr Adams had been asked to appear this
month before the House international relations committee's hearings on
"The IRA in Colombia - the global links of international terrorism".
Source (NT) 03-01a.doc

3rd April
Amid growing suspicion that the IRA broke into the Castlereagh police
complex in east Belfast and stole top secret security files, John
O`Hagan, 29, has been accused of possessing information likely to be
useful to terrorists planning an act of violence. He was one of six
people seized by police investigating the major breach during a series
of swoops. Although none of the documents were discovered at O'Hagans
home, police found computer disks containing a hit-list of British
politicians.
Source (UTV) 03-02a.doc

4th April
Detectives investigating the Castlereagh break-in have travelled to
New York to question a former worker at the police base. It is
understood the FBI has already interrogated the man. Security sources
in the North are insisting the Provisional IRA is linked to the
break-in, during which highly sensitive intelligence documents were
removed from Special Branch offices.
Source (IT) 04-01a.doc

4th April
A mother of a 12-week-old baby said on Wednesday she is fearful of
leaving her home after being savagely attacked by three men. Danielle
Mitchell, 17, was attacked on Tuesday morning in the Glandore Avenue
area of north Belfast.
She left her Shore Road home around 5.30am to buy cigarettes for her
mother at a nearby petrol station. She never made it.

"Three wee lads came out to me, maybe from a side street, and asked me
if I was a Protestant or a Catholic. I didn't answer them. The next
thing something was thrown at my head, I don't know what it was. They
trailed me by the hair and started kicking and punching me. They kept
jumping on my legs as if they were trying to break them. They kept
saying 'Who's the hard one now?' They also grabbed me by the throat."

Danielle said she has no idea why she was targeted. "I have never been
attacked before, neither have any of my friends nor family. I don't
know why this has happened. I'm in agony. I have grazes and bruises on
both legs, my arms are badly bruised and my head is very sore. I can't
even chew anything because it's so painful."  She said she will be
frightened to go walking alone again. "I'll be scared of leaving the
house now in case this happens again. I don't think much of the people
responsible for this."

North Belfast community worker Eddie McClean said Protestants need to
be vigilant. "There is a lot of cry about nationalists being attacked
in the Yorkgate area. This attack shows that Protestants are
vulnerable, too. This is a vulnerable victim, the mum of a 12-week-old
baby. The sectarianism in the area is getting worse. These idiots need
to be caught."
Source (BNL) 04-02a.doc

4th April
Detectives have made two arrests in connection with an ongoing
investigation into a security breach at Belfast's main police
headquarters. One person was arrested in Londonderry and one in
Belfast on Thursday. The man arrested in Derry is prominent republican
Raymond McCartney, a former IRA/SF leader in the Maze prison and close
associate of IRA/SF death squad commander Martin "Bogside Butcher"
McGuinness. The arrests followed a search of a house in Fernabbey
Close in the Shantallow area of Derry. A Special Branch officer was
assaulted and documents taken when three men entered an office inside
the Castlereagh complex, in Belfast, on St Patrick's Day.
Source (BBC) 04-03a.doc (II) 04-03b.doc

4th April
Sinn Fein has come under fire for showing disrespect to the Queen
Mother at the monthly meeting of Belfast City Council last night.
Ulster Unionist Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers proposed that the meeting be
postponed and that councillors observed a moment's silence to pay
respect to the "much loved member of the Royal family".
But none of Sinn Fein's 14 representatives entered the chamber to
observe the silence, although several were in the City Hall Speaking
after the meeting was adjourned the nationalist SDLP's Pat McCarthy
slammed Sinn Fein's behaviour as "immature". Party colleague Peter
O'Reilly added: "This was only a minute in which to pay respect. What
about the equality agenda and respect Sinn Fein talk about? It appears
they set the agenda just to suit their rights."
Source (BT) 04-04a.doc

5th April
Republican graffiti that cruelly mocked the Queen Mother's death has
been removed in east Belfast. Two large daubings on walls in the
nationalist Short Strand have been removed. On the wall of the Citybus
depot "Royal Family - where's your granny? Ha Ha", has now been
painted over by Translink. The transport group condemned the graffiti
"utterly" and said that they had taken prompt action to remove it, "as
we always do with all graffiti". Another reference to the Queen
Mother, which was written on a wall facing the Protestant Woodstock
Link and read, "1900-2002 - it's about time", also appears to have
gone. Sinn Fein/IRA are suspected of being responsible for the
provocative graffiti.
Source (BT) 05-01a.doc

6th April
Former leader of the Republic of Ireland political party, the
Progressive Democrats Des O'Malley yesterday launched a blistering
attack on Sinn Fein and said he was confident they would not be in
government after the general election. "And I'm very glad of that. I
don't want to see a situation where government decisions to appoint
senior judges or gardai have to be approved by the army council of the
IRA, sitting in some pub in south Armagh," he said.
Source (II) 06-01a.doc

6th April
In another IRA/SF gunrunning case, 59-year-old Belfast-native Bernard
Maserati Meli has been sentenced to 1-year imprisonment by a judge in
the United States of America. Meli, who was arrested by the FBI
anti-terrorism unit on Nov. 26 last year in Miami, was convicted of
illegally purchasing 2 handguns that were then sent to Northern
Ireland. Federal authorities contacted INTERPOL and the Police Service
of Northern Ireland in an attempt to unearth more about the
59-year-old Meli. But all they could find was charges against him in
connection with running a brothel in Belfast and forgery.
Source (Iec) 06-02a.doc

6th April
Up to 200 Special Branch officers have been urged to increase personal
security in the wake of a raid on a Northern Ireland police station.
As police continue to blame the IRA/SF for stealing intelligence files
during a daring break-in at the Castlereagh complex in east Belfast,
sources confirmed a fresh risk assessment has been carried out.
One confirmed: "They have been told to step up their security."
Highly sensitive documents, including details on informants and their
police handlers, were snatched from a Special Branch office during the
March 17 robbery. After a series of police swoops in Belfast and
Londonderry saw nine people arrested, including close associates of
both Gerry Adams and Martin "Bogside Butcher" McGuinness, the IRA/SF
was dramatically linked to the infiltration at the station.
Source (AN) 06-03a.doc (TS) 06-03b.doc (NT) 06-03c.doc

7th April
Scottish customs chiefs botched a crucial terrorist drugs operation
and allowed the Provisional IRA/SF to buy an ecstasy pill-making
machine, according to a former intelligence agent. The claims are made
by Kevin Fulton, a former British soldier who worked undercover within
the IRA/SF. Now turned whistleblower, Fulton claims the 'sting', in
1995, was bungled from the start and resulted in the machine, which
can produce over 7000 ecstasy tablets an hour, being smuggled through
Scotland to Ireland. Fulton was undercover in the IRA/SF and being
handled by a number of agencies, including Special Branch and MI5, at
the time. He said he and another IRA/SF man bought the machine in
Blackpool for £5000.
Source (SH) 07-01a.doc

7th April
A car bomb has killed 10 people in Colombia. In another visible case
of the results of IRA/Sinn Fein training of FARC narco-terrorists a
car bomb exploded in the entertainment district of a provincial
capital Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 60,
authorities said.
Source (AP) 07-02a.doc

8th April
The County Tyrone home of an assembly member for the nationalist SDLP
has been attacked with petrol bombs.
Two cars outside the house of Eugene McMenamin in Strabane were also
destroyed. Mr McMenamin said he was relieved his house had not caught
fire. "I view this as attempted murder. The two cars are practically
burnt to cinders. But they are relatively minor. This could have been
a major incident. "My home could have been burnt to the ground," he
said. It is the second time Mr McMenamin's home has been attacked by
republicans. Just over two years ago it was daubed with slogans. Mr
McMenamin said he believed his home had been attacked because he had
made recent comments in the local press in support of the province's
new policing arrangements.
Source (BBC) 08-01a.doc

9th April
Speaking at last week's joint Garda-PSNI conference, a senior PSNI
officer presented information that the IRA was still procuring arms
and military equipment. He also said it was targeting police,
government and political figures.
The conference was held at the Garda College in Templemore, Co
Tipperary. It heard that the IRA was said to be "very active" in areas
of training, recruiting, targeting and procurement.

More than one source said that the IRA acquired "probably hundreds" of
guns from its smuggling operation in Florida in 1997-1999. Last month,
Maserati Meli, a 59-year-old man from a well-known chip-shop owning
family in west Belfast, pleaded guilty in a Florida court to
attempting to acquire 20 handguns which were to be smuggled to
Northern Ireland.It is believed that Meli's arrest last November as he
left a gun shop where he had tried to buy 20 handguns may have been
the incident which the PSNI officer, speaking in Templemore, was
referring to as arms procurement.

Other police sources in the Republic indicate that the IRA has carried
out at least two armed robberies since the start of the year: that of
a security lorry in Kerry in February and of another lorry carrying
confectionery in north Dublin.
Also, punishment shootings, beatings and expulsions continue in
Northern Ireland.

As members of the IRA were directing Gen de Chastelain of the
decommissioning commission and his team to an arms bunker at an
unknown location in the Republic on Saturday night, other members of
the same organisation were abducting a 20-year-old man in the
Twinbrook area of west Belfast. The man was taken to an alleyway of
Glasvey Close, where he was shot in both hands and both feet. Senior
security sources said yesterday that the second act of decommissioning
was expected before the general election in the Republic to assist
Sinn Féin's chances of winning seats.

But there was also some urgency on the IRA's part to carry out an act
of disarmament prior to the April 24th opening of the US Congress
hearing into links between the IRA and the Colombian terrorist group
FARC.
The Republican congressman, Mr Henry J. Hyde, chairman of the House
International Relations Committee, has called the Sinn Féin leader, Mr
Gerry Adams, to give evidence to the inquiry which is examining links
between FARC, the IRA and the Basque terrorist group, ETA. It is
expected the hearing could hear embarrassing claims about the IRA
sending up to two dozen figures to Colombia in recent years to train
FARC guerrillas in the use of bombs and mortars. The heads of both the
military and the police in Colombia are expected to give evidence to
the inquiry about evidence they have of people being trained by the
IRA. It is suspected the IRA was supplying arms training with the
technically less sophisticated FARC organisation in return for
funding. US sources say FARC makes up to $600 million per annum from
the control of cocaine production.
Source (IT) 09-01a.doc

9th April
Sick graffiti mocking the memory of the Queen Mother have been daubed
over walls in north Belfast. The offensive slogans about her death,
which have also been painted on walls near the city's Royal Victoria
Hospital, have been blamed on republicans. People passing the Butler
Walk area of Ardoyne on Sunday saw crude references to the Queen
Mother written in huge letters on a wall.

The cruel taunts, including the jeering words "ha, ha, ha", were
quickly painted over. A statement from the Concerned Residents of
Upper Ardoyne condemned the graffiti as "sick and eye-opening".

Upper Ardoyne community worker Mark Coulter said: "This is the real
face of Ardoyne republicans and not the picture of victimhood they
played out so well on Ardoyne Road during last year's
anti-intimidation protests in Glenbryn.
"Republicans' hate for anything British knows no bounds, nor does the
depths to which they will go to hurt us," he said. Mr Coulter added:
"How much hatred would someone need to have to make them say things
like that about the Queen Mum?"

Similar graffiti has appeared at the Grosvenor Road entrance of the
Royal Victoria Hospital.An employee said he was horrified by the tone
of the vandalism which is linked to references to the recent success
of Celtic Football Club. "Sectarian graffiti wouldn't normally bother
me but this is terrible," he said, "especially at this point in time
and it's been done to cause offence."
Source (BNL) 09-02a.doc (CW)

9th April
Six republicans were charged with firearms and ammunition offences in
Dublin today. The six men were arrested after a swoop on a house in
Dundalk last January and were charged today at the Dublin Special
Criminal Court. They have already been charged with membership of an
illegal organisation after they were arrested at a house in Nicholas
St, Dundalk on January 5.

The six are: Dalton McKevitt (26) of St Auban`s Avenue Road, Dundalk;
Niall Farrell (25) of Cedarwood Park, Dundalk; Tony O`Hare (40) of
Marian Park, Dundalk; Vincent McKevitt (44) of Mountain Court, Point
Road, Dundalk; Alan Browne (35) of a separate address in Mountain
Court; and Eoin Quigley (29) of Oakland Park, Dundalk.

Today they were charged with the unlawful possession of a double
barrelled shotgun and a 9 millimetre semi automatic pistol at Nicholas
St, Dundalk on January 5th last. They were also charged with the
unlawful possession of 16 rounds of 9mm caliber ammunition and four
shotgun cartridges on the same date. All the men, except Vincent Mc
Kevitt, were remanded in custody until April 29th. Mc Kevitt was
remanded on continuing bail until the same date. They are already
charged that on Saturday, 5th January 2002 within the state, they were
members of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish
Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann.
Source (UTV) 09-03a.doc

9th April
Four of Armagh's Sinn Fein councillors, including the chairperson of
the council's public services liaison committee, stayed outside the
chamber last night while a standing tribute was paid to the Queen
Mother. When the meeting began the vice-chair, Councillor Heather
Black (DUP), presided and asked fellow councillors to stand to mark
the "sad passing of our beloved Queen Mother" and in sympathy with the
Queen. All members present - Ulster Unionist, DUP and SDLP - stood in
silence.
Source (BT) 09-04a.doc

10th April
A (so-called dissident) republican was today jailed for three years by
the Special Criminal Court in Dublin for membership of an illegal
organisation. Ruairai Convey, 25, of Newbrook Avenue, Donaghmede,
Dublin, had pleaded guilty to membership of an organisation styling
itself the IRA, otherwise known as Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the
Irish Republican Army on 6th June 2001. The court heard that during a
search of Convey's home, detectives found a hand-written note
containing the names of two members of the gardai's Emergency Response
Unit along with photographs of a masked man at a bonfire in Belfast.
Source (IT) 10-01a.doc

11th April
Three Irishmen are due to go on trial in London today for allegedly
trying to buy arms for the IRA in Slovakia. 35-year-old Fintan
O'Farrell, 41-year-old Declan Rafferty and 44-year-old Michael
McDonald, all from Co Louth, were arrested in the Slovakian town of
Piest'any on July 5th last year and were later extradited to Britain.
They are all facing five charges, including conspiring to buy weapons
"while having reasonable cause to suspect that they would or might be
used for the purpose of terrorism". The trial is expected to last
between six to eight weeks.
Source (II) 11-01a.doc

11th April
Two republicans caught red-handed with a grenade launcher, the first
to be found in Northern Ireland, were both given three-year prison
terms yesterday. The court heard in October 2000, police went to
search the Glenbawn Court, Poleglass, home of 42-year-old Anthony
Joseph Hilling. His co-defendant, 24-year-old Stephen McCormick from
Craiglee Way, Newtownards, was also in the house at the time. While
searching the house, police found a grenade launcher wrapped in
tinfoil and a black plastic bag along with four maroon flares under a
bed. However, the weapon had been adapted with a homemade shoulder
stock so that it could be fired "like a rifle".

As well as the launcher, police also found an electronic scanner, used
to detect 'bugs' such as tracking devices, on the coffee table in the
living room. During police interviews, McCormick told police he had
met Hilling in the Sinn Fein office on the Falls Road and a friendship
had developed between the pair. McCormick also told police that he had
been given the scanner by a man who worked at the Sinn Fein
headquarters and had been told, "to work out how it worked."

It was revealed to the court that in 1988, Hilling had received a
suspended sentence for causing a bomb hoax and for carrying an
imitation gun. Hilling walked free after receiving a three-year jail
term suspended for three years. McCormick was given a three-year jail
term.
Source (II) 11-02a.doc (BT) 11-02b.doc

12th April
A US congressional investigation has concluded that members of the
Irish Republican Army were training Colombian guerrillas in urban
terrorism, posing a direct threat to the US and the stability of the
region. The investigation by the House international relations
committee reflects a sharp reversal in congressional support for the
IRA, at a time when the US is attempting to extend its engagement in
Colombia from the war on drugs to the broader war on terror.

Cass Ballenger, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the House
western hemisphere subcommittee, identified the IRA's role in Colombia
as a key argument for the US to support the Colombian military's
renewed conflict with the Farc Marxist guerrillas. "The presence of
the IRA terrorists illustrates clearly the potential for a broader
international terrorist threat to the United States, financed by
illicit drugs in an Andean nation," he told a hearing on Thursday
Source (FT) 12-01a.doc (AN) 12-01b.doc (BT) 12-01c.doc

12th April
Police believe they may have foiled plans for a terrorist attack in
London it emerged today. The scare began at 8pm on Tuesday, the day of
the Queen Mother's funeral, when an officer stopped a car near London
Bridge. He spoke to the driver who then sped off. Later, the car -
which had Northern Ireland plates - was found abandoned in nearby
Mincing Lane, just north of the River Thames. The driver and passenger
had disappeared and the area around the blue-grey Ford Granada was
sealed off as police carried out a controlled explosion. They are
believed to have found empty fertilizer bags in the car.
Source (UTV) 12-02a.doc

13th April
Republican terrorists have launched blast-bomb attacks on two Police
Stations. The first attack was at 2250 BST on Friday in Downpatrick,
when two explosions were heard. A hole in the outer fence of the
police station was later found. About 20 minutes later after the first
blast, there was another explosion at Ardglass police station, a few
miles away. Chief Inspector Jeffrey Gamble said people living near
both stations were put at risk: "This was an attack intending to cause
death or injury but very reckless as innocent members of the public
were driving or walking past at the time."
Source (BBC) 13-01a.doc

13th April
The IRA is part of a global terrorist network and has provided Libyan
bombing technology that killed civilians in Spain and in Central
America, says the Pentagon. Three alleged IRA men captured in Bogota
last summer face charges of supplying mortars and explosives training
to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). The Pentagon
believes Farc mortars were developed from the IRA's "barrack buster"
mortar and that more than two dozen IRA members have been to Colombia
in recent years. Evidence of these links is due to be presented to a
House International Relations Committee hearing entitled "The IRA in
Colombia - the Global Links of International Terrorism" beginning on
April 24.
Source (II) 13-02a.doc

15th April
The Gaelic Athletic Association's (GAA) Annual Congress has voted by a
substantial margin to keep what it calls "foreign" games out of Croke
Park. Referring to the scandal of Paedophile Priests the
organisation's incoming president urged support for "our priests and
religious in their greatest hour of need" and to rapturous applause
told the assembled bigots he looked forward to the day when Ireland
would be "united and free" and "the fourth green field" returned to
the nation. Later, at a press conference, he was asked if declaring
his wish for a united Ireland was any business of the GAA, "It's one
of our aspirations." He replied.
Source (II) 15-01a.doc

15th April
Sinn Fein has a "yellow streak", the Republic of Ireland's Attorney
General Mr McDowell said last night. He was among those who criticised
Sinn Féin for eulogising its Republican dead in a dinner attended by
2,500 people in Dublin at the weekend. Ms Bríd Rodgers, deputy leader
of the SDLP, condemned the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, for
"repulsive revisionism" in his speech at the dinner in Citywest in
Dublin on Saturday night. The event, "Tírghrá" ("Love of Country"),
was organised to honour the IRA's dead. "They are willing on a quiet
basis to celebrate their paramilitary links," said Mr McDowell, "but
when they are asked by members of two democratic bodies which they
claim to respect - the US Congress and the Oireachtas - to come before
them to discuss their activities in Colombia, they point-blank
refuse." Mr McDowell, a Progressive Democrat election candidate in
Dublin South East, said people would draw their own inferences from
that.

Mr Adams had praised the "extraordinary calibre" of IRA volunteers but
Mrs Rodgers said the Sinn Fein president's "glorification" of IRA
violence would appall the vast majority of people. "What was glorious
about the murders of innocent civilians in Belfast, London or Claudy?
What was glorious about the murders of workmen on their way home from
work? Not only the loved ones of unionist victims but also those of
the large numbers of nationalist more of whom were murdered by the IRA
than by loyalists and security forces together will be appalled by
this attempt by Gerry Adams not merely to justify but to glorify the
horrendous deeds of the last 30 years."
Source (IT) 15-02a.doc (AN) 15-02b.doc

15th April
A Protestant man has been stabbed four (4) times after being attacked
in North Belfast. The father-of-three is believed to have stepped in
to save a young woman from being attacked, it was claimed on Monday.
The victim suffered a punctured lung and was rushed to the Royal
Victoria Hospital where his injuries were said to be non-life
threatening. On Monday, police issued an appeal for more information
regarding another four men believed to have been involved and a dark
coloured car seen in the area which that may have been used. The
attack took place in an alleyway between Mulderg Drive and the
Whitewell Road at around 10.45pm. A woman who witnessed the attack
said the assailant wore an "evil" expression and had shown no fear
even as more people had come into the alley and witnessed the beating.
"He just wouldn't stop beating him, no matter what. He didn't care how
many more people were coming up the entry to help him - the victim -
he just kept going."

A statement issued by residents in White City claimed a number of cars
entered the area on Sunday night from the nearby nationalist area of
Longlands and said that the man had intervened when a teenage girl was
threatened by one of several groups. They said golf clubs and a
baseball bat studded with nails were used. Detectives declined to
comment on the motives or cause of the attack except to confirm that
they were treating it as a sectarian incident. They also stated that
the victim was not already known to them. Condemning the incident, MP
for north Belfast Nigel Dodds said it represented an "escalation of
the difficulties already apparent in the area", and said it backed up
his earlier calls for tighter security and the installation of CCTV
cameras. "This incident took place near to where another young person
was killed recently and demonstrates the vulnerability of those living
in the area", he said. SDLP MLA Alban Maginness said it was a "vicious
attack", and that it was important for the situation not to escalate
into further violence.
Source (BBC) 15-03a.doc (BNL) 15-03b.doc (EW) (CW)

16th April
A 62-year-old Wexford man was yesterday found guilty of membership of
the IRA by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin. Convicting Thomas
(Tom) Redmond with addresses at The Grove, Clonard, Co Wexford, and
The Gate Post, Forth Commons, Co Wexford, the court accepted Garda
evidence that Mr Redmond "had associations" with firearms. This
corroborated the opinion of Chief Supt Michael Murphy that Redmond was
a member of an unlawful organisation. Redmond had pleaded not guilty
to membership of the IRA, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the
Irish Republican Army, on October 1st, 1999.
Source (IT) 16-01a.doc

16th April
The husband of a woman who died in the IRA's Shankill Road bomb,
yesterday (Monday) spoke of the hurt caused by a tribute to
republicans killed during the group's terror campaign. Alan McBride,
whose wife, Sharon, was among nine people killed in the bombing of a
fish shop in October, 1993, said the commemoration dinner at a Dublin
hotel at the weekend had been offensive because it was "unnecessarily
public and triumphalist". The event, which has sparked fury among both
unionists and nationalists, was organised by Sinn Fein for 450
families of dead republican activists and terrorists. Mr McBride said
everyone had the right to mourn and remember their loved ones but
questioned why Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein felt they had to turn the
gathering into such a public affair. "I don't see how it contributes
to the building of peace, because it offends me," said Mr McBride. One
of the people being commemorated was Thomas Begley, the IRA man who
died planting the Shankill bomb. "He murdered my wife in a very cruel
and very callous fashion on the Shankill Road in a fashion not unlike
the suicide bombers in Palestine," said Mr McBride.
Source (BNL) 16-02a.doc

16th April
There have been serious disturbances in the Limestone Road area of
north Belfast after nationalists attacked a Protestant woman on her
way to collect her young child from Currie Primary School. The school,
attended by Protestant schoolchildren has been the focal point of
anti-Protestant aggression for several years.
Source (BBC) 16-03a.doc

16th April
A 35-year-old Roman Catholic man has been remanded in custody after
the sectarian stabbing of a Protestant father of three in the White
City area of Belfast earlier in the week. Martin Joseph Finley is
accused of a knife attack on a Protestant man in White City on Sunday.
He was remanded in custody for a week at Laganside Magistrates Court
on a charge of "unlawfully and maliciously causing grievous bodily
harm" to his alleged victim, who remains stable in hospital.
Source (BT) 16-04a.doc

16th April
'Residents of a tiny loyalist housing estate in the heart of west
Belfast today spoke of their fear after a series of attacks they have
blamed on their nationalist neighbours. Suffolk estate on the
outskirts of west Belfast is surrounded by mainly nationalist areas
such as Lenadoon, Twinbrook, Poleglass and Andersonstown. And
residents from the estate today said they were in constant fear
following a number of recent attacks on several teenage boys. One
teenager, whose mother asked to keep his name anonymous, revealed how
he was beaten around the head with a brick and as a result underwent
an operation to remove bits of skull from his brain.

Other women living in Suffolk talked of being attacked by bricks,
stones and fireworks thrown by nationalists. The situation has become
so bad for one mother that she is now moving out of the area. And
Church of Ireland minister, Rev Clive Atkinson, said his congregation
are regularly verbally abused, spat on and intimidated going to and
leaving his church.

The mother of the 16-year-old boy who suffered head injuries after
being beaten with a brick, who also wished to remain nameless, said:
"He was going to the Co-Op (on the Stewartstown Road) which is used by
both religions, to get sweets a few weeks ago, when a number of
Catholics came at him and his mates. "One of them hit him with a brick
and fractured his skull. He's been told by the doctor that if he ever
gets hit on the head again he could end up in a wheelchair. "This area
is not safe for Protestants."

Thirty-three-year-old Karen Weir, whose son was beaten with an iron
bar last year, has decided to move from the area for the safety, she
says, of not just her son but also herself. She said: "The Co-Op is
the only shop in the area but there's no way I would walk there at
night. I'm sick of having to look over my shoulder, and I've had
enough."
Also speaking of her fear was Jacqueline Suttie, who said her son was
badly beaten on his birthday last year by a gang of three men on the
Stewartstown Road. She recalled: "His face was that badly swollen that
at first we didn't know whether anything was broken." '
Source (BT) 16-05a.doc (EW)

17th April
There has been an explosion outside a police training college in
Belfast. A police patrol was investigating reports of suspicious
activity outside Garnerville college when they discovered a suspect
parcel at about 2300BST on Tuesday. The army bomb squad was called in
and about 100 people within the college were evacuated, along with the
residents of several surrounding homes. The device exploded just after
midnight while it was being examined, a police spokesman said.
Source (??)

18th April
Several people are being questioned in connection with disturbances at
Army watchtowers in south Armagh last year. A number of people were
arrested in a security operation in south Armagh on Thursday morning.
Twenty-one police officers and three soldiers were injured when SF/IRA
gang members attacked the security forces near Crossmaglen on 9
December.
Source (BBC) 18-01a.doc

18th April
A Roman Catholic taxi driver has been brutally murdered in IRA/SF
controlled Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone. 51-year-old Barney McDonald was
blasted in the head in a shotgun attack last night outside a snooker
club in Donaghmore on the outskirts of Dungannon. Security sources
today said initial indications were that the killing was connected to
a localised feud, possibly involving republicans, and was not
sectarian. Local sources believed the killers deliberately used
shotguns because the weapons cannot easily be traced through ballistic
tests. Mr McDonald, a father of eight, was called to pick up a fare at
Arthur's snooker club in Annaghbeg Park in Donaghmore at 11 p.m. on
Wednesday. Two men, lying in wait, opened fire with the two shotguns.
The victim was hit in the head and died instantly.

In a most peculiar case which casts doubt on many murders supposedly
claimed by loyalist paramilitaries in recent years, the Police and
local sources initially pointed the finger of suspicion at the
Provisional IRA/SF, claiming Mr McDonald had been the victim of a feud
with local PIRA/SF elements. However shortly after IRA/SF spokesman
Francie Malloy denied IRA/SF involvement and blamed loyalists, an
anonymous caller rang a Belfast Newsroom claiming the
recently-disbanded loyalist paramilitary the Red Hand Defenders were
responsible. However, there was a further twist when the victims
family blamed the Provisional IRA for the killing. They claimed it was
linked to a fight between Barney McDonald and a local IRA commander.

Speaking to The Irish Times, the McDonalds last night accused Sinn
Féin of "lies and hypocrisy". The daughter of murder victim Barney
McDonald claimed that he had been in a disagreement with a republican
and had been threatened. The killing was linked to a fight six weeks
ago between her father and a local IRA commander, she claimed. "The
Provos have long held a grudge against my family. My brother Brian was
in a bar playing pool last month when he was followed outside by three
Provos who acted in an intimidating way. My father tackled them about
it. A fight developed and one of the Provos was hurt." The senior IRA
commander was in hospital for three days recovering from his injuries,
according to local people. They said the man and his unit were deeply
embarrassed by the incident and were set on revenge. "People knew
something would happen to Barney" one man said. Ms McDonald said the
Provisional IRA visited the home of her father's girlfriend
afterwards. "They told her to tell him they were the real IRA, they
would sort him out, and he would soon know about it." One local
resident rubbished the possibility of loyalist involvement. "This was
a small private snooker club in a residential area. Loyalists would
not even know where it was."

Mr McDonald's son, Paul, was badly injured in an IRA punishment attack
two years ago. He died in a car crash a month later. Another son,
Eugene, was killed in a car crash eight years ago and Mr McDonald's
wife died last year.
Source (BBC) 18-02a.doc (BNL) 18-02b.doc (UTV) 18-02c.doc
(BT)18-02d.doc (IT) 18-02e.doc

18th April
Trouble has flared in north Belfast after Republican gang members
fired live rounds into a Protestant housing estate. The gunman is
alleged to have opened fire on residents of the tiny Loyalist estate
of Glenbryn from the vast Republican Ardoyne area. Loyalists say the
security cameras should now be checked to see if live rounds were
fired. Billy Hutchinson of the PUP said: "The security people need to
be checking the cameras, the whole point of the cameras being there
was so as they could make arrests. If people were firing shots it
should be taken seriously
and I`m not sure that they are taking it seriously…they should be
looking for strike marks and take evidence to arrest the person with
the gun."
Source (UTV) 18-03a.doc

19th April
Yet again the IRA/SF ceasefire has been shown to be a farce. In the
most recent incident updated IRA intelligence files, which include a
list of senior members of the Conservative Party, have been found by
detectives in Northern Ireland. The files are also said to have
details on Army bases in Britain, and security sources say they
believe the IRA's intelligence gathering operation has been updated in
the past few weeks.

Conservative spokesman on Northern Ireland Quentin Davies claimed the
discovery cast major doubts on the IRA`s ceasefire and Prime Minister
Tony Blair`s assessment of it. Just days after he visited the
staunchly republican south Armagh area, Mr Davies said: ``It comes in
a week in which the IRA has been accused of procuring new weapons and
of involvement in the murder of a taxi driver in Co Tyrone." Ulster
Unionist Policing Board member Fred Cobain said: "If there is evidence
that the Provisional IRA is targeting people, especially high level
politicians in the Tory Party, then that has serious repercussions for
the whole process. We cannot go on pretending things are all right
when one of the parties to the peace process may be undermining it."

Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan claimed ongoing IRA activity was a
``cause of continuing concern`` to many in the peace process. Northern
Ireland`s Deputy First Minister said: "We have all known that the IRA
has continued to be active at a number of different levels since the
ceasefire. The only people who have been in denial of this at times
have been Sinn Fein spokespersons."

Politicians in the Irish Republic warned that the discovery of the
hit-list could undermine the peace process and block loyalist
decommissioning in the province. Irish Labour Party leader, Ruairi
Quinn, said: ``The republican movement cannot have an each way bet,
they are either committed to the peace process or they are not." Fine
Gael leader Michael Noonan added: "If the hit-list today is of recent
origin, this is a matter of serious concern which requires immediate
clarification."
Source (BBC) 19-01a.doc (UTV) 19-01b.doc (BT) 19-01c.doc

19th April
A FURIOUS SDLP councillor today clashed with Sinn Fein members outside
his Londonderry home as a bomb disposal team examined a suspect device
tied to his front gate. Pat Ramsey blamed republicans for sparking the
bomb alert which forced 150 people to be evacuated from their homes in
the Bogside shortly before 9am this morning. The device was later
declared an elaborate hoax. And Mr Ramsey, who said he believed the
attack was linked to an ongoing row between his party and Sinn Fein
over the involvement of PSNI officers at Derry City Council meetings,
angrily dismissed attempts by Sinn Fein members to offer support to
his family.

Today's attack was the third incident at the homes of SDLP councillors
in the North West in recent weeks.A fortnight ago two cars outside the
home of Strabane councillor Eugene McMenamin were completely destroyed
in a petrol bomb attack, and an elaborate hoax device was also found
outside the home of Derry councillor Helen Quigley.

Mr Ramsey today accused republicans of targeting his home because of
his party's stance on policing. Mr Ramsey said the bomb alert had
terrified his family and neighbours. "It was a very frightening
experience," he said. "I have a daughter who is not even
two-years-old. I have elderly neighbours who can't even leave their
house. "I am a democrat and for people within the republican community
to think they can terrorise me and my neighbours in this way is
despicable," he added.
Source (BT) 19-02a.doc

19th April
Several Public Houses in Protestant areas of Belfast have been put on
"terror alert" after the Police received threats from Republican
murder gangs. It is understood that police told bar staff that they
had received a coded warning that pubs could be attacked. Bar staff
were warned to lock their doors on Friday night.
Source (SL) 19-03a.doc

20th April
A leading republican has been arrested in connection with the murder
of Catholic taxi driver Barney McDonald. The funeral of the County
Tyrone man, murdered as he went to collect a fare, is due to take
place on Saturday. The leading IRA/SF gang member, Frankie Quinn (35),
was arrested in the Dungannon area on Saturday. Mr McDonald was shot
dead on Wednesday as he sat in his car in Donaghmore, where two gunmen
lay in wait. As he stopped outside the club on Annaghbeg Park, the
gunmen fired four shotgun blasts into his taxi. Mr McDonald died at
the scene. His family have blamed the Provisional IRA for the killing,
saying he had been involved in a row with a member of the organisation
a week before his death.
Source (BBC) 20-01a.doc (BT) 20-01b.doc (SL) 20-01c.doc

21st April
The IRA has been secretly rearming while pretending to be
decommissioning. In a flagrant breach of the Good Friday Agreement,
senior IRA commanders bought a consignment of powerful new Russian
special forces assault rifles in Moscow late last year. They bought at
least 20 AN-94s, which can fire 1,800 bullets a minute and pierce body
armour. The weapon can be used as a traditional machinegun or in
sniper mode as a high-velocity rifle for assassinations. The deal was
detected by the Russian security services, which passed details to
British military intelligence in London. Cabinet ministers were
briefed on it, along with senior Northern Ireland politicians.
Details remained secret, however, until being disclosed to the Sunday
Telegraph by military intelligence officers in London last week.

Quentin Davies, the Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman,
said: "The Good Friday Agreement is a sham if the IRA are handing in
weapons with one hand and buying them again with the other. This,
coupled with the list targeting politicians, the Colombia affair and
the killings that continue in Northern Ireland, means that Sinn
Fein/IRA must now be called to account."

Critics said it was further evidence of the IRA continuing to build up
a huge arsenal, despite twice handing over a small quantity of largely
antiquated arms to General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.
Last summer, three IRA men were held in Colombia after trying to
construct a new type of mortar bomb. Military intelligence officers
told the Sunday Telegraph that a senior IRA team was dispatched to
Moscow last autumn to buy the weapons from a renegade group of Russian
special forces officers. One said that the weapons have been bought so
that the IRA could "continue to be a well-oiled machine".

Siobhan Browne, who was jailed for buying guns for the IRA in Florida
in 1998, said last year that the terrorists were "gearing up for a
bloodbath, an ethnic cleansing". She described the Good Friday
Agreement as a "sham" and said that "the IRA will never give up their
guns".
Source (UTV) 21-01a.doc (SI) 21-01b.doc

21st April
Sinn Fein/IRA's connection with Colombian terrorists dates back to the
1980s when they were trained by paramilitary fighters linked to the
late drug baron Pablo Escobar. Three Irishmen accused of training
Colombian Marxist guerrillas in the use of explosives are currently
awaiting trial in Bogota after they were arrested in the Colombian
jungle last year. Recent IRA involvement in the South American state,
which has been rocked by a spate of car bombs and mortar attacks since
February, has been with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) which shares similar political ideals.

However, Scotland on Sunday has discovered that the IRA's first
contacts in Colombia were paramilitaries involved in crime and drugs,
who murdered hundreds of civilians. According to a former militiaman,
the IRA first visited Colombia in the 1980s to learn about urban
warfare. In return they offered to teach the drug gangs about
explosives.
Former militia fighter 'Jairo', who insists on keeping his identity
secret, said he first worked with Irish terrorists in the 1980s as
they sought to learn techniques in urban warfare. In the 1980s, as
today, Medellin was divided into different sectors, controlled by
various factions - left-wing militias, right-wing paramilitary gangs,
drugs traffickers and common criminals. Jairo said: "Our leader was
commandante Pablo Garcia, one of the most powerful militia leaders,
with 150 gunmen under his command."

Remembering the violent days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when
Medellin was dominated by the drug lord Pablo Escobar, Jairo added:
"You have to remember that in this period Medellin was experiencing an
urban conflict like no other, with ambushes and street operations
commonplace. That is what brought the foreigners. They wanted to learn
from our techniques of urban patrolling and ambushing. In turn they
taught explosives."

Among those foreigners were members of the Basque separatist group ETA
and Irishmen from the IRA. According to Jairo these men patrolled with
members of the urban militias, learning about ambushes, anti-ambush
drills and house clearing. The payoff was that the Spanish and Irish
offered their more advanced experience of explosives. These skills
were then put at the disposal of Escobar, who set off car bombs across
Medellin and Bogota forcing the Colombian government to suspend his
extradition to the United States in return for peace. Escobar was
finally killed in a shoot-out with government forces, but the IRA
training of Colombian fighters has continued, with FARC becoming the
benefactors.

The head of the Colombian armed forces, General Fernando Tapias, said
the latest wave of bombings launched by FARC revealed a new level of
explosives sophistication, imported from other "terrorist"
organisations. General Gary Speer of the US Southern Command was more
explicit when he answered questions posed by a Congressional Committee
in Washington earlier this month.

"The evidence suggests that the techniques used in the terrorist
campaign [of the FARC] were instructed by members of the IRA." The
connection between the IRA and FARC became clear when three IRA men
were arrested in Colombia last year, but they represent only the
latest of dozens of IRA visitors to the South American country. Niall
Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley have been awaiting trial
in Modelo prison in Bogota on charges of instructing the Marxist
rebels in explosives. The three were travelling on false passports,
but with the discovery of their true identities British intelligence
was able to provide the Colombian authorities with the men's colourful
histories. Both Monaghan and McCauley have served time in British
prisons for IRA attacks, and are known as explosives experts. Connolly
is Sinn Fein's representative to Cuba, and the only one who speaks
Spanish. He acted as the translator during the training.

In February, as the elite troops of the Rapid Deployment Force were
pressing an offensive against the FARC, they received an intelligence
tip-off that there was a guerrilla safe house in the town of El Dorado
in the southern province of Meta. An entire platoon of soldiers broke
in through the front door. It was boobytrapped, triggering an
explosion that killed 29. After the disaster, one of the guerrillas
responsible was captured. He said that the man who had planted the
bomb had been trained by foreigners, adding a description matching the
three Irishmen.

The second incident was last month in the city of Villavicencio, 45
miles south-east of the capital, Bogota. On a Saturday night two
explosions killed 12 and injured 67. "The use of a bomb as bait has
been done in Northern Ireland," said a military source, "but this was
something new to Colombia." The new techniques have also been seen in
mortar attacks. The firing devices and explosive charges have been
improved and accuracy is now significantly better. Intelligence
sources see the handiwork of the IRA behind the incidents.

While the FARC has been given state-of-the-art explosives training,
the Irishmen have been given money in return. 'Alexander', a FARC
witness, said he saw a contract signed between the guerrillas and the
Irishmen and that it was for money, although he did not see the
amount. According to intelligence sources, the IRA men were not alone
in Colombia. At the time of their arrest, another two managed to
escape across the Venezuelan border. Colombian military intelligence
believe at least 25 IRA members have been through Colombia.
Source (SoS) 21-02a.doc

21st April
Sinn Fein mobs have gone on the rampage through a Protestant area of
north Belfast. Police and soldiers came under blast and petrol bomb
attack during serious rioting. A police spokesman said they had come
under "sustained attack" from around 150 youths hurling petrol and
blast bombs, stones, fireworks and other missiles. At one point, some
of the rioters tried to drag a policewoman out of an armoured Land
Rover.

Protestants in nearby Twaddell Avenue said their homes had also come
under attack from "around 50 republicans" yesterday. It is understood
the mob threw bricks at houses and attempted to kick down the front
doors of a number of dwellings during the incident, which has been
captured on video camera.
One resident told how he had stood with his shoulder against his front
door as three attempts were made to "boot it in". "It was only the
metal bar across the door which saved it," he said. "I could see the
entire door frame moving each time they tried to smash it in."

Another Twaddell Avenue resident, Jacqueline Elliott, said rioters had
attacked her car which she uses to transport her disabled daughter.
She said her other daughter was "almost caught up" among rioters who
attacked her home. She added: "They ran in and kicked and kicked and
kicked the front door to try to get in. They smashed the front window
and front door window. There were so many of them it scared the living
daylights out of me."

Elderly residents were in tears after the incidents at Twaddell
Avenue. Community worker John MacVicar claimed the attack was
"entirely preventable" had "police provided a presence at the top of
Twaddell Avenue. Myself, Cllr Elaine McMillen and other residents had
all phoned the police to ask for protection for the area, once we
heard of the trouble on Ardoyne Road, yet none was provided, despite
Land Rovers being present in the general area," he said.
Source (BNL) 21-03a.doc

22nd April
A US Congressional Committee has compiled a dossier claiming that the
deadly effectiveness of the FARC guerrilla movement in Colombia was
strengthened as a result of IRA training, according to reliable
sources. The document reports that innocent people were killed
directly as a result of the alleged IRA training of FARC guerrillas,
the sources said last night. It adds that the IRA had a strong
relationship with the guerrilla organisation and that as many as 15
IRA members were involved in training in Colombia.
Three republicans - Mr James Monaghan, Mr Martin McCauley and Mr Niall
Connolly - are on remand in prison in Colombia since their arrest last
August as they tried to leave Bogota airport using false
passports.However, according to this information as many as 15
republicans have worked in the past with FARC. Moreover, it is also
claimed that the effectiveness of FARC was greatly enhanced as a
result of the alleged training by the IRA. It has already been claimed
that the training included improving expertise in bomb-making and
sophisticated mortar technology, with which the IRA was adept.

The document also states that innocent people were killed by FARC
because of the training and that US interests were badly damaged as a
result of this alleged relationship between FARC and the IRA, the
sources said.
On Wednesday, the US Congressional Committee on International
Relations will address the issue of the so-called Colombia Three and
their relationship with FARC. There has already been some briefing of
what the committee has elicited, which could be highly damaging to
Sinn Féin.
Source (IT) 22-01a.doc

24th April
THE IRA was linked to President Bush's "axis of evil" in Washington
last night when congressional investigators revealed that the Bogota
authorities believed Iranian terrorists had trained in the same part
of Colombia as the Provisionals. Placing the IRA within a global
network of terrorism, a report by the House International Relations
Committee concluded that Irish, Iranian, Cuban and possibly Spanish
groups had probably "been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism
skills, using illicit drug proceeds in payment". The report said
American lives were being put at risk by Provisional IRA activity in
Colombia, and that both Colombian democracy and US national security
is threatened. FARC and other terrorist groups in Colombia are thought
to be responsible for 90% of the cocaine and 70% of the heroin sold on
America's streets.
Source (NT) 24-01a.doc (BBC) 24-01b.doc

25th April
It's not only in Belfast and the United States where anti-Protestant
extremists have hi-jacked St. Patrick's day. According to a news
report it's been happening in England as well. ST Patrick's Day, 2002,
and Irish Republicans in berets and sunglasses march through the
streets of Liverpool. But today it was revealed that a former key
figure in the group that organised last month's march is linked to one
of Ireland's most radical extremist groups. Patrick McDonnell is the
former treasurer of ALIVE (A Liverpool Irish Voices Enterprise). But
he is also an ex-member of Republican Sinn Fein - the political wing
of the Continuity IRA. The RSF's military wing is the only Irish
paramilitary group not officially on ceasefire. McDonnell, 61, from
Toxteth, was convicted last year of harrassing a fellow activist in
Hemel Hempstead, after a campaign including a phone call in which a
man whispered: "I will bring death to your house". He was given a
conditional discharge and a restraining order banning him from
contacting former friend Michael Holden for a year. In court the
pair's involvement with the RSF was revealed, and both men were
described as "veteran Irish Republicans".
Source (LE) 25-01a.doc

25th April
AT least seven suspected IRA members have been detected in
FARC-controlled areas of Colombia in the last year, the head of the
Colombian armed forces told a US congressional hearing yesterday.
General Fernando Tapias told the committee that FARC's capabilities
had increased dramatically after the men arrived in Colombia and their
tactics had now switched to IRA-style urban terrorism. He added that
FARC now had mortars that could fire three miles and they had
introduced deadly IRA-type "secondary bombs". He told the Committee on
International Relations hearing that two of the seven had escaped
before the army could capture them. Another two, one man and one woman
were released because of lack of evidence. The seven also included the
three IRA men currently awaiting trial after they were captured last
August.

Under tight security, General Tapias claimed one of the Colombia
three, Neil Connolly, was a senior IRA figure who led at least four
other IRA members. General Tapias said his armed forces had built up a
detailed knowledge of the seven IRA members, and knew "their names,
their registration numbers and their activities". He said that four
IRA men had arrived from Paris, and included "James Edward Walker" who
entered on April 5, John Francis Johnston, who arrived two days later,
and Edward Campbell Joseph, later identified as James Monaghan, and
John Joseph Kelly - later identified as John Joseph McCauley. The
general told the committee that McCauley was second in command of the
IRA's "engineering department" and had managed elections for Sinn Fein
during 1996 elections in Upper Bann in Northern Ireland. He said the
boss of the group, "David Bracken", was later identified as Neil
Connolly, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba. The general also said
that on in August 22, 2001, the army also captured "Kawin Noel
Creenie" and on September 4 captured "Margret Osk Steindordottir", but
these two were released because of lack of evidence.
Source (BT) 25-02a.doc 25-02b.doc

25th April
The only Protestant area on Londonderry's West Bank has come under
sectarian attack again. The tiny Fountain estate on the city side of
Londonderry has seen almost daily targeting from nationalist gangs
over the past 30 years. Two petrol bombs were thrown into the Fountain
Estate from the nationalist Nailor's Row and Bishop Street Without
areas at 5.45pm yesterday. A third petrol bomb was thrown at police. A
short time later a further three petrol bombs were thrown at police
from Rossville Street.
Source (BT) 25-03a.doc

26th April
Army bomb disposal experts have carried out two controlled explosions
on a suspect van at the Grosvenor Road roundabout near the centre of
Belfast. A loud bang was heard as the police operation to intercept
the van caused traffic disruption in the busy Westlink area of Belfast
and on the M1 motorway. A number of people were seen abandoning the
vehicle shortly before midday and ran away from it. The Grosvenor Road
joins the IRA/SF controlled Falls district to Belfast City Centre. It
is believed republicans were planning to bomb the city. Saying he
believed republicans were behind the threat, Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers
praised the police for foiling what he said was an "attempt to bomb
Belfast city centre". He said: "It is quite clear peace has not
returned to our streets."

It has since emerged that two masked men, one armed with a shotgun,
hijacked a van on Grosvenor Road in west Belfast around 11.30am
yesterday and placed an incendiary device inside before ordering the
driver to drive to the city centre. But when the van reached a police
checkpoint at Grosvenor Road, the driver alerted police and the alarm
was raised. One of the gang did something to the device before
escaping the scene. British Army bomb disposal experts, who later made
the device safe, said it would have caused a huge fireball had it
exploded.

It would seem that in keeping with IRA traditions, this was another
attempted suicide bombing. Don't be mistaken though; IRA suicide
bombers are nothing like their Palestinian counterparts. IRA death
squad members aren't committed enough to follow through their suicide
bombings themselves, instead forcing civilians to do the work for
them. For more on this visit http://www.upmj.co.uk/humanbombs.htm
Source (BBC) 26-01a.doc (BT) 26-01b.doc (II) 26-01c.doc

26th April
Three members of a republican murder gang have been caught red-handed
by police. Kevin Barry Murphy (31), from Pomeroy, with an address at
Altowen Park, Coalisland, both in Co Tyrone, was arrested last
February after police in hiding apprehended three men in a field at
the rear of Loughview Gardens, Coalisland, and a fourth man in a car
nearby. He was subsequently remanded in custody on charges of
possessing an RPG 22 rocket launcher with intent to endanger life and
conspiring with David Mullen, Sean Dillon and Brendan O'Connor to
murder members of the security forces.

Yesterday Crown lawyer David Hopley said one of the trio carrying the
rocket launcher dropped it when police emerged. All three were wearing
surgical gloves and Murphy had a mobile phone and a walkie-talkie.
"It is believed the rocket launcher was to be used in an attack on a
police or army vehicle or building," said Mr Hopley. "This was to be
an attack by a terrorist organisation and clearly these individuals
were not out to carry out a burglary with a rocket launcher."
Source (BT) 26-02a.doc

27th April
A Sinn Fein general election candidate in Dublin Central, Cllr Nicky
Kehoe, has been suspended for eight weeks by the pro-IRA Gaelic
Athletic Association for "abusive behaviour" it has emerged. His
suspension by the Dublin GAA County Board followed an investigation
into an incident during an under-13s football match last November
between Cllr Kehoe's Cabra-based Naomh Fionnbarra club and Parnells.
Shortly after the match began, Cllr Kehoe, who manages the team,
abused one of the Parnell team's mentors, according to a letter to the
GAA from Parnells. The Parnells' mentor was lying on the ground by the
time the referee, who had been following the play, arrived at the
scene. The referee later filed a report on the match to the Dublin
County Board.

In its letter, Parnells told the county board that Cllr Kehoe's action
had brought the GAA "into disrepute" and had added to the difficulties
faced by all clubs in attracting adult supervisors. The Cabra-based
councillor, like so many other members of the anti-Protestant GAA has
been an active terrorist, having served jail sentences for involvement
in the foiled kidnapping of businessman Mr Galen Weston and for
explosives possession.
Source (IT) 27-01a.doc

28th April
The IRA has been teaching Palestinian terrorists to build booby-trap
bombs for use against Israeli soldiers, according to a British
explosives expert working in the Jenin refugee camp. Paul Collinson, a
former Royal Engineers bomb disposal officer working for the Red
Cross, said that the devices he had found were identical in every
detail to those he had encountered in Northern Ireland. He told The
Telegraph that he had discovered more than 200 explosive devices while
working in the camp in the West Bank after the recent Israeli
invasion. He said that he was convinced that the bombs were either
supplied by the IRA or made under their supervision. He said: "When I
saw the bombs it was like a flashback to Northern Ireland. The pipe
bombs I found in Jenin are exact replicas of those in Northern
Ireland. The size of bomb, the way they put the nail in, the way of
igniting it with a light-bulb filament, where they drilled the holes
through, the use of a command wire and the means of initiating the
bomb; these are all the same. They have all the hallmarks of
originating from Ireland. When you put two and two together then it
seems that they could well have been trained by the IRA."

Thirteen Israeli soldiers were killed in the street battle for Jenin,
which was thought to be a centre of activity for Palestinian suicide
bombers. Mr Collinson said that the booby-trap bombs used in Jenin and
Northern Ireland were made from the same ingredients - nitrogen-based
fertiliser, diesel and sugar. He also suggested that the tactics used
by Palestinian militants in the battle for Jenin mirrored those of IRA
attacks on British soldiers. He said: "The bombs were placed in
alleyways and in houses. The Palestinians attempted to lure the
soldiers into these alleyways which were booby-trapped, and then
explode the devices with a command wire. I have seen similar tactics
used by the IRA in Armagh, Londonderry and Belfast." Despite working
as an explosives expert in the Palestinian territories over the past
two years - as well as Egypt, Colombia, Afghanistan and other
countries since leaving Northern Ireland - Mr Collinson has not seen
seen replicas of the IRA bombs anywhere other than recently in Jenin.

The revelation will fuel international concerns about the role being
played by the IRA during its ceasefire. Israel has already raised
concerns about links between the Republicans and Palestinian groups.
It is known that the IRA had contacts with the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine in the 1970s. In the 1980s, IRA members
travelled to Libya to meet Palestinian representatives. As we
disclosed last month, the Israeli intelligence service Mossad asked
British security agencies to check on the movements of known IRA
killers to help identify a sniper who shot dead seven soldiers and
three civilians in 25 minutes - using 25 bullets from a bolt-action
rifle.
Source (NT) 28-01a.doc (IT) 28-01b.doc

28th April
Sinn Fein/IRA's director of elections for Galway West, James Pius
Clarke of Knocknacarra in Galway city, has been jailed for six months
for assaulting a member of the Irish police force, the Gardai
Siochana.
Source (SBP) 28-02a.doc

28th April
Two years later, the government's lead prosecutor in the notorious
Irish gun-smuggling case says he never had any doubts the men on trial
were soldiers of the Irish Republican Army dispatched by top brass to
ship weapons from South Florida to Belfast. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Richard Scruggs went to trial in spring 2000 claiming that the
defendants were on an official mission spawned at the highest levels
of the IRA. A jury convicted three men of smuggling at least 123
weapons but cleared them of more serious terrorism charges. Two of
them, Anthony Smyth and Martin Mullan, were released from prison last
month. Admitted leader Conor Claxton remains behind bars.
Another accomplice, Siobhan Browne, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge
and served a brief sentence.

Scruggs' words before, during and after the trial raised eyebrows
among skeptical South Floridians. In Great Britain, where the delicate
Good Friday peace accord hangs in the balance, they sparked
pandemonium.
The IRA publicly denied it had ordered the operation. The Clinton
administration issued a statement contradicting some of Scruggs'
remarks. The diplomatic waters got so hot at one point that Attorney
General Janet Reno telephoned Scruggs in September 2000 to reassure
him. Scruggs, who left the U.S. Attorney's office soon after the trial
and now works in the private sector, discussed the case with new
candor in a recent phone interview.

Federal investigators believe the 1999 gunrunning episode was either
an operation approved by IRA's governing Army Council or a clandestine
affair carried out by IRA higher-ups in case the peace accord should
fail.
''There are two theories. I can't tell you which one is true,''
Scruggs said. ``One is a sanctioned operation. The other is that it
was allowed to occur to appease some of the hard-core members.''
Scruggs won't name names. But other government sources told The Herald
the man who oversaw the Florida operation was Sean ''Spike'' Murray, a
member of the General Headquarters Staff that oversees the day-to-day
operations of the IRA. The people who retrieved some of the smuggled
weapons in Britain were tied directly to the quartermaster of the IRA,
who sits on the Army Council, sources said.

Scruggs contends that two IRA volunteers came to Florida to procure
the guns: Claxton, now 29, and Mullan, now 32. He believes IRA brass
put them in touch with a third man, Smyth, now 45. Smyth was a Weston
used-car salesman who had come to the United States from Northern
Ireland two decades earlier after a young adulthood spent with the
IRA's Belfast Brigade. ''Claxton came into the United States for the
preparation of the plan,'' Scruggs said. ``Claxton was told to contact
Smyth. . . . Then you have Mullan, who came over totally separate.''
Of the three, only Claxton acknowledged an IRA identity at trial. He
said he had come to Florida alone and had recruited the others without
telling them of his broader mission. Today, Claxton, Mullan and Smyth
are all listed on numerous Irish republican Internet sites as ''Irish
POWs'' -- the only such prisoners in the United States. That is a
tacit acknowledgment, experts say, that the three are considered IRA
soldiers.

Federal agents believe the South Florida incident was part of a larger
operation involving dozens of agents in multiple cities. That
investigation continues. Browne, who pleaded guilty in the gunrunning
scheme, said in a recent interview that an IRA official told her in
1999 the operation encompassed 50 volunteers, four years of work, and
millions of dollars. Federal investigators have indicated her account
sounds credible.
As for the tempest over Scruggs and his statements about the IRA? The
former prosecutor believes the dispute was mostly hairsplitting.
Scruggs' comments suggested the Irish gun operation went as high Gerry
Adams, president of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA
responsible for brokering the Good Friday peace accord. It was this
implication that so disturbed the British government that it prompted
a retraction from the Clinton administration.
Source (MH) 28-03a.doc 28-03b.doc

29th April
Republicans are being blamed for a bomb attack on a Northern Ireland's
prison. Prison staff were moved to safety following an explosion at
the main gate of Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim. A device was left
in the white vehicle which pulled up outside the perimeter gate to the
prison in County Antrim about 2230 BST on Sunday. Two prison officers
were in buildings nearby, but no-one was hurt. Meanwhile there is a
security alert on the railway line after a suspicious device was left
between Moira and Lurgan.
Source (BBC) 29-01a.doc

29th April
The Northern Ireland peace process was under fresh pressure yesterday
as unionists demanded explanations over claims that a top IRA man
close to Gerry Adams and credited with a key role in the peace process
was involved with Marxist Colombian guerrillas.  Republicans were in
the eye of the storm last week as a US congressional committee in
Washington heard allegations that three Irishmen arrested in the South
American country last August taught Farc rebels bomb-making
techniques. But security and political sources also contend that
Padraig Wilson, 44, a convicted bomber and the Provisionals' former
commander in the Maze prison, was one of up to 12 others who visited
narco-terrorists in Colombia over the past five years. The accusation
is particularly damaging to the Sinn Fein leadership as Wilson, jailed
for 24 years after being caught making a booby trap device in 1991 but
freed under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, is a trusted
confidant of Mr Adams.
Source (Gu) 29-02a.doc

30th April
North Belfast politicians today criticised the appearance of
Republican graffiti praising Palestinian suicide bombers and
threatening residents of the Protestant White City estate. North
Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said he had received many complaints from
locals in the Shore Road and Whitewell areas about slogans daubed on
nearby walls. "This graffiti is reprehensible and despicable," he
said. "Such racist and sectarian messages can raise tensions and stoke
up fears in the area. It shows that there is an agenda being played
out which aims to drive out Protestant residents from the White City
estate." Mr Dodds said he had notified the authorities to request the
removal of the slogans. He called on local nationalist representatives
to ensure the graffiti does not appear again.

Independent unionist councillor Fraser Agnew said aggrieved White City
residents had also contacted him.
Mr Agnew said the slogans in support of the Palestinians were tied in
with the recent proliferation of Palestinian flags in nationalist
areas of the city.
Source (BT) 30-01a.doc

Source Abbreviations

AN - Ananova
AP - Associated Press

BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation
BNL - Belfast News Letter (www.newsletter.co.uk)
BT - Belfast Telegraph

CW - Community Worker(s)
EW - Eye-Witness

FT - Financial Times

Gu - The Guardian
HZ - Ha'aretz (Middle-East newspaper)
Iec - Irish Echo

IEx - Irish Examiner
II - Irish Independent

IT - Irish Times
LE - Liverpool Echo
MH - Miami Herald
NT - news.telegraph.co.uk
TS - The Scotsman
Ob - Observer (www.observer.co.uk)
SBP - Sunday Business Post
SH - Sunday Herald

SI - Sunday Independent
SL - Sunday Life
SM - Shankill Mirror

SoS - Scotland on Sunday

STr -Sunday Tribune
UH - Ulster Herald
UTV - Ulster Television