MEP on IMC report
07 November 2007
Commenting on the latest IMC report MEP, Jim Allister, said:-
“The fact that the IMC doesn’t trouble, again:
• to even mention the continuing existence of the apex of the IRA’s military structures, the Army Council;
• the murder of Dennis Donaldson;
• the threatening by the IRA of Crown witnesses in the Zaitschek and Canning cases
is indicative of its politically-compliant mindset.
Even when it comes to dealing with the blatantly continuing violence of the UDA it seeks to sanitise the leadership as best it can and create this phoney distinction between what paramilitaries actually do and the weasel words which their leaders deploy. Why? Because, just as with Sinn Fein, it is in the business of spinning matters as positively as possible.
The admission that IRA members continue to engage in crime is important and not something to be swept under the carpet, particularly in the context of the IRA murder of Paul Quinn. The Quinn issue, no matter how inconvenient to the political elite, requires a focus not just on the fact that IRA members killed him but on why, namely, their continuing involvement in fuel smuggling and other cross-border crime. On the basis of issue avoidance, which has come to hallmark recent IMC reports, I remain to be convinced that they will dig too deep lest they find uncomfortable truths. I’ve no doubt there is a mutual vested interest from both Sinn Fein and the DUP in the IMC and the police whitewashing the Quinn murder.”
Notably, once again the IMC says that they “were unable to determine” how the IRA is dealing with the proceeds of crime. This, surely, raises an issue as to the reliability and worth of the IMC’s sources. If the IRA has succeeding in concealing that from them, then, what else have they hidden from them?”
