| Subject: Usual Suspects |
Author:
Niall O'Dowd
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Date Posted: 08:03:47 08/13/02 Tue
>Round up the usual suspects
>
>By Niall O'Dowd WHAT do you get when you take a
>half-baked confection of speculation, downright lies
>and hype in Northern Ireland? The latest political
>crisis, is what.
>
>For the past two weeks a steady stream of stories have
>been hand fed to the compliant Northern Irish media
>alleging that the IRA is back and set to create more
>problems for the peace process. The evidence of all
>this? None whatsoever that would stand up in any court
>of law, yet the fevered nature of the coverage has
>meant that the power sharing arrangement itself is now
>under pressure. It began with the break in at
>Castlereagh Police Station, home of the most secret
>files on the Troubles on March 17. Initially the
>finger of suspicion was squarely pointed at rogue
>elements in British intelligence who had reason to
>believe that many of the files contained incriminating
>information on them. Then in a classic bait and
>switch, the security forces in Northern Ireland began
>insisting it was the IRA who carried out the whole
>thing - a charge the IRA has denied. This was highly
>unlikely on a number of levels - the uncanny knowledge
>that the perpetrators had of what exact files they
>were looking for, for one thing, and the way they
>gained such easy access. But wait! The British
>produced a mysterious chef that they hinted darkly was
>working with the IRA from the inside. Amidst a blaze
>of publicity the man, an American, was questioned -
>but then nothing. To likely cover up the theft the
>Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) - yes, the
>new police unit sworn to upkeep a neutral stance in
>the North - smashed down the doors of numerous leading
>Republicans and arrested them. Again, nothing. They
>were all released, and one man was charged with a
>minor offense not relating to the break in. So what do
>we have so far? Most likely a corrupt and secret
>institution covering up for itself by aiming suspicion
>and innuendo at the IRA to cover up the extent of the
>robbery. Then the PSNI acting chief constable
>announced that among the files they found when they
>made their arrests was a list with the names of
>leading Tory Party grandees. Shock, horror! Was it a
>hit list? The obliging media speculated it was. Alas,
>it looks like now it has turned out to be information
>that was utterly available in the public domain.
>There's more. The English Sunday newspapers trumpeted
>a new charge last weekend that IRA is buying arms from
>Russia - super rifles no less. They must be because
>the British Secret Service said so even though, once
>again, not a whit of evidence was revealed. It seems
>remarkable that a passive media could accept such
>obvious manipulation without asking the kind of
>pointed questions that would be immediately asked here
>- such as, where is the evidence of any of this? There
>is a clear effort to undermine Sinn Fein at a critical
>time, with elections in the Irish Republic due and
>next year's Assembly elections in the North which will
>determine the future of the power sharing government.
>What is disturbing is the role of PSNI in all of this.
>The supposedly neutral police force finds time to
>break down doors of leading Republicans, but
>mysteriously never seems to arrest any Loyalist in
>North Belfast where there is rioting almost every
>night. British Northern Secretary John Reid was in New
>York recently talking about the opportunities for all
>in the new post-Troubles era. Perhaps he should look
>to putting his own house in order to help achieve
>that. His intelligence services are out of control.
>Irish Voice
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