Allister warns of further IRA terrorism

11 September 2009

TUV Leader Jim Allister has warned that “Ulster has never been less prepared for a terrorist upsurge.” Speaking to Ballymena TUV branch Mr Allister warned the Patton police service was ill-equipped to face down the IRA, under whatever title it operated.

In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-

“Ulster has never been less prepared for a terrorist upsurge.

“The Patton Report, an integral part of the folly of the Belfast Agreement, has left us with a neutered police service, stripped of manpower, special Branch, experience and thorough anti-terrorist training. Fine for the sleepy by-ways of Devon, but inadequate for the still dangerous roads of South Armagh.

“On top of that, every anti-terrorist protection has been removed: from PPWs to police stations to lookout towers. The only lookouts now in South Armagh are the IRA lookouts scouting for soft police targets.

“All this done, remember, at the behest of IRA/Sinn Fein in order to win their supposed support for law and order, but all making it easier for terrorism to flourish, when the time comes. In consequence, alas, the security situation has never suited the terrorists better.

“Remember too, that IRA tactics have always been flexible and deniable cover organisations have played their part. At one time it may be the armalite, at another the armalite and the ballot box, or, for now, primacy to the ballot box, but all are mere tactics in their unchanging commitment to the destruction of Ulster. No one should be fooled by their transient phases of struggle.

“Be it Provisional, Continuity, Real, or some other title of convenience –because in large measure that is what they are – the IRA lives on. If and when it suits the Adams and McGuinness agenda their tactics will evolve to reap maximum advantage. When republicans have bled Stormont dry of all the advantage they judge it can give their cause, they will move on. Remember, violence and politics are not strange, but natural bedfellows for the Republican Movement. In the run-up to the Belfast Agreement we saw interchangeable reliance on both.

“Even when negotiating with the British Government in the 90s IRA/Sinn Fein tactically used terrorism to soften the government and reap them maximum leverage in seeking a deal. Time and again, when Sinn Fein needed muscle to drive home its demands, the IRA duly obliged. Canary Wharf, for example, served that purpose. Synchronised politics and violence is nothing new to the Republican Movement.

“I fear, over the coming months, not least as the unworkable arrangements at Stormont come unstuck, we will see intensified IRA terrorism and as terrorism increases so we will discover that Sinn Fein’s supposed support for the police is indeed restricted to “civic policing”. Necessary tough security measures will deliver Sinn Fein’s wrath, not support. Remember just before the murders at Massereene Sinn Fein was denouncing essential covert observations.

“Some in their folly and rush to get into government with Sinn Fein, most notably the outgoing MP for this constituency, North Antrim, spoke foolishly of IRA/Sinn Fein having “bought into the British state” – just as we saw in Rasharkin a few weeks ago, I suppose. How wrong he was then and how wrong further unfolding events will prove him to be.”

Terrorism