"Decommissioned" semtex back on active service!
20 December 2008
STATEMENT BY TRADITIONAL UNIONIST LEADER JIM ALLISTER MEP
“After the IRA’s supposed final act of “decommissioning” the IMC decreed that it comprised "the totality of the IRA's arsenal", of which semtex was a key component. Then in August 2008 we had such semtex used in Lisnaskea and now (17 December 2008) 2.5 kilos of semtex and detonators were seized in a car search in Co. Meath, with an 18 year old Cavan man charged on Saturday (20 December) with its posession. Arising from the same incident another Cavan man is charged with possession of high velocity ammunition.
If decommissioning was total and complete, how could this be? Was this material being transported from an undisclosed arms dump in County Cavan? There appears no suggestion those charged are “dissident republicans”. Cavan is noted for its strong Sinn Fein allegiance. How could this material have been out there? If, as I suspect, those found with it are allied to “mainstream republicism”, then it raises fundamental issues again about the bona fides of Sinn Fein, who continue to sit at the heart of government. There was a time when those who foolishly let them in there would have been jumping up and down about these issues, but sadly they are now in the mode of compicit silence. Just as they continue to be over the Paul Quinn murder, despite the recent charging of Conor Murphy’s driver from that time with possession of an AK 47 rifle.
I greatly regret that too often, following the example of the IMC, these matters are swept under the carpet. In any other democracy they would be the object of saturation investigation and exposure, given the position of the semtex party in government, but alas, most politicians, and even journalists, just look the other way. That is what happens when you pervert democracy and erect a structure dependent on placating wrongdoers.”
