[From OG: The Colombian incident raises some serious questions, especially now that the three men involved have been solidly identified as senior Provisional IRA officials and two of whom have terrorist records. We know that the Colombians have been involved in shootings in the US to take out domestic drug dealers--will they now use bombs and mortars to secure their lucrative territories? This situation really does bear watching. I really don't know what's going on here; all I know is it is NOT good.]

Electronic Telegraph

Adams set to anger US with visit to Cuba (Filed: 15/08/2001)

Until now, Sinn Fein's support for Castro's regime has been played down, says David Sharrock

GERRY ADAMS, the Sinn Fein president, plans to visit Cuba next month in a move that will further damage the special relationship between the republican movement and the White House.

Details of Mr Adams's visit to the communist Caribbean state, where he will meet President Castro, first emerged on Monday when it was announced that he was embarking on a tour of South America at the end of this month.

No details were given of the countries he would visit except that he would fly to Cuba. In the spring of this year he was expected to visit Castro, but the trip was cancelled.

Sinn Fein has long been a supporter of Castro's regime, although its enthusiasm for the Soviet-style country has been played down in recent years for fear of upsetting the party's friends in the White House under President Clinton.

The fact that Mr Adams has now decided to go ahead with the visit in the face of certain disapproval from President Bush suggests that this Irish-American relationship is beginning to cool.

President Bush will be furious that the military arm of a party which continues to receive not just political but extensive financial support from America is sharing terrorist tradecraft with a sworn enemy.

Castro spoke out in support of the IRA hunger strikers in 1981 and it is known that Mr Adams is keen to thank the Cuban president during the 20th anniversary of that event.

In September 1981, Castro caused a walkout by the British and American delegations to the 63rd conference of the Interparliamentary Union in Havana when he made a speech strongly supporting the hunger strikers.

Castro said: "We cannot ignore what is happening in Northern Ireland. I feel it is my duty to refer to this problem. In my opinion, Irish patriots are writing one of the most heroic chapters in human history."

An Phoblacht, the republican movement's official newspaper, has been an outspoken critic of "US imperialism" and Washington's decades-long trade embargo of Cuba.

When President Reagan used a St Patrick's Day speech to attack the Provisionals, Mr Adams said: "It is President Reagan whose administration finances international terrorism and destabilises democratically elected governments."

In January 1989, a US Defence Intelligence Agency document listed the Provisional IRA as one of the world's most notorious terrorist groups, naming Mr Adams and Martin McGuinness, the Mid Ulster MP and Stormont education minister, as its leaders.

A Pentagon offical said at the time: "As far as we're concerned there is no distinction between the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein."

During the 1991 Gulf War Mr Adams publicly attacked the first President Bush, the present White House incumbent's father, criticising the "hypocrisy of those who, while condemning the armed struggle of the IRA, support the use of wholesale violence against the Iraqi people".

While in Cuba Mr Adams may visit Calle O'Reilly in Havana's old Spanish colonial quarter, where a plaque on a wall reads, in Spanish, Gaelic and English: "Two island nations on the same sea of hope and struggle, Cuba and Ireland."

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Provisional IRA 'is on war footing' By David Sharrock, Ireland Correspondent (Filed: 15/08/2001)

THE Provisional IRA was on "an active war footing", highly-placed security sources said yesterday as more details emerged of a mission to Colombia which ended in the arrests of three of its members.

The men in Colombian police custody were said to be senior members of its "engineering unit" whose job is to develop bomb-making and detonation skills.

The sources said: "They were acquiring information and expertise in the firing of home-made and self-engineered rocket and mortar devices for use in rural and urban areas as well as offering their own talents in the same areas of activity."

Two of the suspects, all of whom are understood to have entered Colombia five weeks ago posing as journalists, have convictions for terrorist offences.

The third is believed to have no criminal record, but security officials on both sides of the Atlantic said he was a known IRA activist.

Details about the men surfaced as the IRA announced its withdrawal of last week's offer to Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body to put arms beyond use.

One source told The Telegraph: "The Colombian incident confirms what we have said all along .

"While we have a ceasefire, it simply means that, for a given time, they are not killing police officers and soldiers, but reserve the right to continue all other activities, including murder, punishment attacks, robberies, recruitment, targeting and training.

"They have not taken a day off since before the ceasefire. They are scouring the world to try to advance their technology and improve their devices." The source added: "At least the Prime Minister can say that the securocrats got it right."

This was a reference to the demands from Sinn Fein that Tony Blair face down his "securocrats" - the elite officer corps which is in the front line against terrorism - and begin dismantling the machinery on which the security forces depend.

One of the men, James Monaghan, was named in an intelligence document released by Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist deputy leader, using parliamentary privilege.

With Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, who were described as members of the ruling IRA army council, Monaghan was referred to as a member of the "headquarters staff".

James "Mortar" Monaghan, as he is known by police in the Irish republic, is believed to be from Newry and in his late forties or early fifties. "He is part of the Provos' management hierarchy," a source said.

In 1971 a Dublin court gave him a three-year sentence on conspiracy charges, three years for criminal damage and a further two for unlawful possession of explosives.

In 1989 he appeared on the same platform as Mr Adams at the Sinn Fein annual conference in Dublin.

Martin McAuley, the second man, is from Lurgan, Co Armagh. At 19, he was shot and seriously injured in 1982 by RUC officers who were watching a barn where IRA arms were stored.

The shooting, in which another youth was killed, contributed to the setting-up of the Stalker inquiry into alleged shoot-to-kill activities. The inquiry discovered that an informer had linked McAuley to the murder of three RUC officers.

McAuley, who has since been described as an expert at making mortar bombs, sued the RUC over his injuries and received a five-figure sum in compensation.

In 1984 he was given a two-year suspended sentence for possession of firearms, relating to the barn incident.

The third man, who was travelling under the name of David Bracken, was named locally and unofficially as Niall Connolly. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and, according to sources, had recently been living in Cuba.

As the only Spanish speaker, he is believed to have been the contact man with the Colombian Marxist terrorist group, FARC.

Colombian officials said that forensic tests on the men, who were detained after spending five weeks with the rebel army, had shown traces of explosives and cocaine. They had been travelling on false British and Irish passports.

The investigation could take several months to complete. Statements made by the three have been sent to the Royal Ulster Constabulary as part of the initial inquiries.

The men face jail sentences of up to 25 years for travelling on false passports and having contact with the rebels.

Belfast security sources said the trip had been authorised by Brian Keenan, who served a lengthy sentence for his role in bombing the British mainland in the 1970s.

Keenan is the Provisionals' representative in talks with Gen de Chastelain, who reported last week that the terrorists had initiated a process of putting their weapons beyond use.

The Provisionals' withdrawal of their offer to the decommissioning body had been expected. But its timing was seen as a ruse to try to draw media attention away from the arrests in Colombia.

In 1999 the Provisionals attempted, but failed, to distance themselves from a gun-running operation from Florida that exposed the republican leadership and embarrassed former President Clinton.

Unionists said that the latest news was bound to cast doubt on the ceasefire and Sinn Fein's commitment to the Good Friday Agreement.

David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, said the arrests had serious implications for the continuation of peace negotiations.

"We will expect a thorough investigation of this matter and expect conclusions to be drawn by the proper authorities."

A security source said: "The Provisionals' proposal to Gen de Chastelain will be withdrawn for a period, but we believe it will be reinstated. It is another bargaining chip for Adams and McGuinness.

"It is another means of saying, 'Look how sensitive it is on my side and if you want it reinstated again, you have to give me . . .' It is another gimme, gimme scenario."

John Reid, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said he was disappointed by the Provisionals' withdrawal of the decommissioning plan.

But he insisted that the British and Irish governments would not be deflected in their attempts to implement the agreement. He said: "Withdrawing from an agreement which took two years to arrive at, only five days after republicans declared it as historic, can only play into the hands of those sceptics who have always doubted their intentions.

"It will, I believe, together with today's news reports from Colombia, disappoint many people, not only here at home but in the international community.

"Decommissioning remains an indispensable part of the Good Friday Agreement and I will not be deflected and not deterred from proceeding with those parts of the agreement, like creating a new police service in Northern Ireland and the renewal of the criminal justice system, which are of benefit to all the people of Northern Ireland."

Mitchel McLaughlin, a Sinn Fein spokesman, said: "People should be patient. Information is scant. People have been arrested, but nobody has been charged. Nobody has signed confessions."

He added: "I think all of us are experienced enough to know that there is a propaganda dimension the way this information has been filtered out."

Asked if the three men were known to republicans, he said: "Yes, some of them certainly are and they would be known to the media.

"But I think the issue is whether this has anything to do with the Irish peace process. I think there is no basis for coming to that conclusion."

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The IRA and the Colombian connection By Jeremy McDermott in Bogota and Toby Harnden in Washington (Filed: 15/08/2001)

THE case of the "Bogota Three" is not the first time the Provisional IRA have been linked to Colombia or the lucrative drugs trade that Irish republicans vehemently condemn in public.

During last year's trial of three IRA members in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, details emerged of a huge arms cache in Colombia that the Provisional leadership wanted to transport to Ireland in 1999.

Although very few IRA members are directly involved in drug dealing in Northern Ireland, RUC and Army intelligence officers state that the organisation "licenses" drug dealers in nationalist areas and takes a portion of their profits.

In 1996, police traced telephone calls from the IRA members who bombed Manchester city centre to the Co Monaghan home of a man who was later convicted of manufacturing ecstasy tablets for a Dublin gang.

And in July 1999, as part of an international security operation following the discovery of a gun-running conspiracy centred in Florida, the Irish police arrested Robert Flint, a 55-year-old Californian, in Galway.

Flint was a convicted drug dealer who had flown cocaine out of Colombia before being imprisoned there. A contributor to Noraid, the IRA support group in America, he had linked up with Provisionals in US jails.

Flint, in a signed statement, said that Seamus Moley, a South Armagh Provisional whom he met in an Arizona jail, had asked him to meet Conor Claxton, the leader of the IRA cell in Florida, to discuss arms shipments.

Flint said Claxton had told him about "big weapons he needed shipping from Colombia and Venezuela". Although the details were never confirmed, the information convinced MI5 that the IRA had established a Colombian connection.

"The only thing I know about these weapons is that they were big weapons," said Flint. "He [Claxton] asked me about shipping stuff out of Buenta Ventura, Colombia.

"I told him Buenta Ventura is on the west coast of Colombia and he would have to come through the Panama Canal. I told him the best way out of Colombia was through the north coast of Colombia into the Caribbean.

"He asked me what about a trawler. Either he had a trawler or felt I had access to one. He asked me how would he load a trawler with arms and inquired about the rigging on the trawler . . . He said he had plenty of places to land a trawler in Ireland."

A pilot and former California police officer, Flint ran a sports memorabilia company that was closed down by drug investigators in 1990. He had previously helped the IRA run guns and, in an interview with The Telegraph, said that he viewed the Provisionals as "freedom fighters".

Flint told a grand jury in America that he had been involved with the IRA in a proposed arms and cocaine deal in the early 1990s.

He was going to transport some five tons of cocaine to Iran, where it was going to be paid for in weapons from Poland. The weapons would then be shipped to Ireland via Rotterdam and Flint would be paid by the IRA.

The deal, said Flint, was abandoned and he told the jury that the Provisionals would not have had direct contact with the drugs. "The IRA had nothing to do with the cocaine. If you know anything about the IRA, they want nothing to do with drugs whatsoever."

Security sources close to the case said last night that the three men arrested were senior members of the Provisional IRA. "Unequivocally, these are Provisionals," said one source close to the case.

One of the men, James Monaghan, was described in an intelligence document as a member of the "headquarters staff" of the ruling IRA Army Council. In 1989 he appeared on the same platform as Gerry Adams at Sinn Fein's conference in Dublin.

The second man, Martin McAuley, was linked during the Stalker inquiry to the murder of three RUC officers. The third man, who was unofficially named last night as Niall Connolly, was travelling under a false name, has no criminal convictions and is believed to have been living in Cuba.

As suspected members of the IRA's "engineering department", they probably possessed the kind of knowledge that could have changed the face of Colombia's 37-year civil conflict.

In particular, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would have been anxious to be trained in the design and construction of explosive devices and home-made mortars and rockets.

FARC is the country's most powerful rebel army with over 18,000 fighters divided into over 60 "Fronts", controlling almost 40 per cent of Colombia.

The Colombian attorney general's office stated that traces of four different types of explosive had been found on the Irishmen's clothing and in their luggage, suggesting that they had been involved in training activities.

General Jorge Enrique Mora said traces of "cocaine and amphetamines" had also been discovered. He said that the IRA was undoubtedly being paid for the services of its men.

"It is obvious they were here for some kind of payback. Whether that payback was drugs, cocaine, money or weapons, we don't know at this point."

There were strong indications that MI5 had alerted Colombian authorities about the identities of the three men when they arrived in the country five weeks ago.

MI5 officers were understood last night to be flying from Washington, where they are based ostensibly as diplomats, to Bogota.

The suggestion by John Reid, the Northern Ireland Secretary, that events in Colombia would soon provide much "food for thought" appeared to be the biggest understatement of yet another turbulent day in Ulster.

-- Anonymous, August 15, 2001

Answers

Times (London)

August 16 2001

Arrested IRA man 'is Sinn Fein Cuba link' BY RICHARD FORD AND MICHAEL EVANS

ONE of the three IRA men arrested in Colombia at the weekend was allegedly Sinn Fein’s link with Cuba. Niall Connolly is suspected of involvement in arranging Gerry Adams’s trip to the Caribbean island next month.

Connolly, a former teacher from Dublin who travelled under the name David Bracken, had been the republican movement’s contact in Cuba since 1996, according to security sources in Belfast. They said that the IRA “envoy” was believed to be part of a team helping to organise Mr Adams’s eight-day trip to the island as head of a Sinn Fein delegation.

Connolly, 36, and two other IRA men, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan, are being held by the military authorities in Bogotá where they face charges of training members of a guerrilla group and possessing false passports.

Last night Sinn Fein tried to distance itself from the incident, insisting that Connolly was never a member of the party and had had no part in preparing arrangements for Mr Adams’s visit to Cuba. A spokesman said: “Sinn Fein has no representative, nor has had a representative, in South America. Other than our international department in Dublin, nobody else has been involved in making arrangements for our delegation’s visit.

“None of the three men arrested in Colombia is a members of Sinn Fein. They were not there on Sinn Fein business.”

Security sources described Connolly as an “envoy” or “ambassador” for the IRA who worked behind the scenes developing contacts for the terrorist organisation. He had no previous convictions and is fluent in Spanish.

The arrest of the three men is highly embarrassing for Sinn Fein as the episode exposes what the Government and others have described as the inextricable link between the IRA and the party. It has thrown into doubt the wisdom of the Government’s policy of reducing security in Northern Ireland in response to a belief that the republican leadership has been acting in good faith throughout the IRA ceasefire.

Michael McGimpsey, an Ulster Unionist minister in the power-sharing Executive, said the arrests, together with the Florida gun-running trial, had proved that Unionists had been right to push republicans on the decommissioning issue. “This is more than a setback to political progress. It is an indicator, if one were even needed, that republicans are not genuine about making peace,” he said.

The arrested men were described by Pat Byrne, Garda Commissioner [Irish Republic police, southern Ireland], as known members of the Provisionals. But it is their links with Sinn Fein that have outraged both Governments, infuriated Ulster Unionists and dismayed moderate nationalists.

Monaghan was once a member of Sinn Fein’s ruling national executive and was pictured on a platform with Gerry Adams in 1989. McCauley was director of elections for Sinn Fein in the Upper Bann constituency in 1996.

Connolly is a highly educated former teacher. He has worked as a carpenter in El Salvador and travelled in Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua.

Monaghan was given a three-year jail sentence in the Irish Republic in 1971 after being found guilty at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin of unlawful damage, conspiracy and possession of firearms.

McCauley, an IRA explosives expert, survived the shooting in November 1982 that sparked the “shoot-to-kill” controversy. He was convicted of possessing three rifles and given a suspended prison sentence.

Copyright 2001

-- Anonymous, August 16, 2001