JimmyC

Following from the Observer:

Sinn Fein's big blunder

When IRA bombmakers went to train Colombia's drug-running guerrillas, they earned millions of dollars - and the enmity of old friends in the US Northern Ireland - Observer special

Sandra Jordan, Henry McDonald and Ed Vulliamy Sunday April 28, 2002 The Observer

In the city of Villavicencio 12 teenagers lay dead in the street. They had been killed in a classic terrorist attack: the secondary device. Terrorists from the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) had detonated a small bomb earlier this month hoping to draw troops into a deadly trap. When they arrived, a second, larger bomb exploded, killing the youths instead of the security forces.

That bomb and other similar ones in Colombian cities was to have reverberations not only in South America but also in Washington, Dublin, London and Belfast.

The secondary device was part of a pattern Farc has developed in urban areas over the past year. The organisation rooted in rural Colombia has brought the war into the cities in a reign of terror designed to destabilise and overthrow the American-backed government in Bogotá of Andres Pastrana.

For Farc, the past year has seen notable successes . It has killed 400 police and military officers and caused $500 million (£345m) in damage. But the terror group that taught the Marxist rebels how to stage attacks like that in Villavicencio has scored a major own goal.

Colombian and American officials are convinced that the Provisional IRA - whose political wing is welcome in the White House - trained the narco-terrorists of Farc in bomb-making technology.

The revelations about IRA involvement have placed the republican movement, especially its political wing Sinn Fein, in a precarious position with the Bush administration as well as undermining Unionist support for Northern Ireland's power-sharing coalition. It has shone a spotlight on the party's ambitions in the Republic of Ireland.

Unionists point to the presence of three IRA suspects awaiting trial in Bogotá over allegations that they trained Farc guerrillas. The trio includes James Monaghan, a convicted IRA man and weapons innovator. It was Monaghan back in 1973 who invented the IRA mortar.

Alongside Monaghan is Martin McCauley, a leading figure in the IRA's engineering department who has perfected home-made mortar-like missiles. The Colombian military says McCauley's imprint has been evident in recent Farc attacks.

Even before last week's hearings of the House International Affair's Committee on Capitol Hill, US intelligence had for months been working with their Colombian counterparts to map a web connecting Farc rebels to an international terror network that included the IRA.

Officials briefing The Observer said that while intelligence agencies had gathered 'no conclusive evidence of formal structural links' between Farc and the IRA, there was 'too much apparent traffic from Ireland to the Colombian guerrilla group to be a freelance coincidence'.

One source in the US Drug Enforcement Administration said that IRA links with Farc had been 'in our sights' for six months, while a State Department official added that 'ties had been made, and we expect to intensify them'.

The committee in Washington was hearing evidence after publication of a report saying the IRA had dispatched 15 men to Colombia between 1999 and last autumn, when Monaghan, McCauley and a third man, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba, Niall Connolly, were arrested.

A fourth man now in the frame could lead the investigation closer to Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams (who refused to testify before the committee). This is allegedly Brian Keenan, who is believed to have come to Colombia a year ago under a false name. Keenan, a hardline Marxist, is a member of the IRA's ruling army council.

The allegations in Washington come, conveniently critics charge, as the White House presses for congressional support to change the 'Plan Colombia' package, allowing US military aid to be used to combat terrorism as well as counter-narcotics operations.

Bush wants to send an extra $98m to train the Colombian army to defend a controversial oil pipeline. Last Thursday, the Committee came under fire by its own members. Democratic Congressman William Delahunt claimed it was sitting 'not to determine facts, but to rubber stamp' conclusions already drawn.

Gerry Adams's allies, meanwhile, kept pressing those giving evidence, including the DEA's director Asa Hutchinson, to say if they were privy to intelligence that the IRA had sanctioned any involvement with Farc operations. 'I don't have any information on that,' Hutchinson replied.

Irish-American friends of Sinn Fein took heart from these remarks. Sinn Fein and the IRA, they believed, were off the hook. Back in Dublin Adams even claimed the Committee's chairman, Henry Hyde, had agreed with the Irish-American representatives that there was no evidence the IRA leadership had sent anyone to Colombia.

However, a Hyde aide told The Observer that the committee's staff had been aware of the testimony of Colombian General Fernando Tapías, who said the IRA had supplied expertise in bombing, mortars and missiles. 'We already knew that the IRA was involved,' Hyde's aide said.

According to intelligence officials, the introductions between Farc and the IRA were made via ETA, the Basque terror group. ETA had a cell in Cuba and has longstanding links with the IRA.

The implications of the Colombian connection are enormous. In Washington, Bush administration officials talk about 'exasperation' over the case. In Northern Ireland the looming trial of the trio held in Bogotá casts a shadow over the peace process.

Irish government figures, too, are exasperated and puzzled. The Clinton administration and the Bush White House have promoted Adams and his colleagues as statesmen who want to make peace. Moreover, up until the Colombian débcle Sinn Fein earned millions of dollars from corporate America.

Privately, Sinn Fein's political opponents are delighted the republican movement has been caught in a trap of its own making. With an Irish general election just weeks away, Sinn Fein's hopes of winning a handful of seats to make a breakthrough appear doomed. The Colombian debacle has added to the evidence that the party has failed to shake off its terrorist links.

The answer to the puzzle is simple: money. Farc is awash with cash thanks to its control of cocaine and heroin exports from Colombia into North America. Senior figures in the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Irish police believe Farc paid millions of dollars to the IRA for their expertise.

'There is no suggestion the Provos were in Colombia to rearm or prepare to go back to war themselves. This adventure was purely a financial transaction aimed at boosting their war chest,' one Irish police source said.

Nor was the money destined to buy new arms, the sources said. The vast sums of cash channelled by Farc to Ireland via front companies and secret bank accounts was to fund Sinn Fein.

The irony of a terrorist group made rich on the proceeds of cocaine and heroin sending money to the republican movement is not lost on Sinn Fein's opponents. Sinn Fein hopes to make gains in the Irish election, particularly in Dublin where it spearheads the anti-drugs movement.

Across the border, the Farc connection alongside revelations of IRA hit-lists on top Tories, allegations of IRA involvement in the Castlreagh police station break-in and claims that the Provos killed a man in Co. Tyrone last week simply for beating up a senior republican have pulverised unionist faith in Sinn Fein's claims to be a party of peace. The power-sharing coalition is under strain.

Back in Bogotá at rush hour, soldiers stand along main streets in a line that seems to stretch for miles. It is strangely reminiscent of Belfast in 1972 when life ground to a halt due to the bombing campaign of the organisation that has helped Farc besiege Colombia's capital - the IRA.

I had read paddymac's posting before joining in.

By the by - Can anybody offer any reasonable explanation as to why the three men currently being held in Colombia were travelling on false passports?