Northern Ireland Murders
March 10th, 2009Elements of the Republican movement have been playing a larger role in the government than at any point since the establishment of British rule in Northern Ireland. I could be wrong here, but it seems like someone doesn’t want that to continue.
In addition to the two British Army soldiers that were killed, a police officer has just been shot.
If Adams and McGuinness have any idea who is behind these murders, the thing to do would be to hand the intel off to the police so that it can be dealt with, BY THE POLICE and not the military. If the suspects turn up dead in some paddock, Adams and McGuinness lose again, as nobody believes that they are fully disconnected from extremist groups, and it would look like another one of the judge-jury-executioner situations from the old days. On the flipside, we now know about Britain’s role in fomenting atrocities on both sides of this situation. Is it a Coincidence that this pot is being stirred up as the question of whether or not to deploy British special forces/intelligence units was weighing heavy over the region lately? I don’t know. If this seems like sarcasm, it isn’t. In all seriousness, I don’t know. But I guess the matter is decided now.
The usual questions, “Who benefits?” and “Why now?” are good ones to be asking.
Don’t look to me for answers, though, because I haven’t a clue.
Cryptogon has some readers in Northern Ireland who may (or may not) be willing to provide us with insights. My thoughts are with you guys. I can’t begin to imagine the sinking, sickening feeling that must be going around there at the moment.
Update: Email from Trusted Cryptogon Reader in Northern Ireland
My closest friend is an ex RUC officer who receives regular intel briefings both through formal channels (i.e. his local police station) and through his ex RUC colleagues now working in the new PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). That said, the info he gets is only scratching the surface.
According to my friend, dissident Republicans have been preparing for a resumption of violence for quite some time. However, the British security services have been well aware of that fact also, with the SAS operating in so-called “bandit country” of south Armagh where they recently discreetly apprehended an operative in his own home using a coffee grinder to render fertiliser granules in readiness for mixing with diesel to form a low explosive device (i.e. a car bomb). They also observed members of an ASU (active service unit) lying low on “hard routine” for 3 days waiting to launch an attack only for them to abort for reasons unknown. According to my friend, there are several ASUs operating in that area now, generally training for something as yet unknown. The new PSNI, being largely composed of novices with no experience of the Troubles, cannot properly police there at all, for which reason they have quietly drafted in some old hands from the defunct RUC to man the stations there. And of course, for politically sensitive reasons the army cannot be seen to be openly patrolling the area. Hence military support is limited to invisible special forces operations. None of this has been reported in the media, by the way, and one of my mate’s friends told him that his superiors had deliberately destroyed a report he had filed on the local ASUs zeroing their weapons in the countryside.
However, everything suddenly changed on Friday with the BBC revealing
that there was a request made by the chief of police in NI for special forces support due to an increased dissident threat. As soon as I saw that, I suspected that this was the government’s way of ensuring they couldn’t be accused of yet another intelligence failure in the wake of an imminent atrocity, an accusation they’ve had to deal with often in the past. See link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7927178.stm
In light of that, I was very twitchy when I went into town on Saturday afternoon with my wife. It felt like the bad old days when you’d check out every parked car in case one was weighed down too much at the rear (i.e. with bomb in the boot / trunk). Not that checking it out would do much good if it went off without warning, as per Omagh.
My view is that the dissidents want not merely to embarrass the PIRA leadership (aka the head honchos at Sinn Fein), but a return of the army to the streets, with random roadblocks, helicopter patrols, and all the concomitant alienation of the young working class RC population that that would entail. The only thing is, we’ve had peace for too long, and most RCs are now comfortable. They don’t have the same grievances as before. However, if this economic downturn escalates – and I believe it will – and we see rioting on the streets of many western nations, as many are now predicting, perhaps then there might be the ground conditions necessary to ignite another lengthy round of civil strife here. With the British military strained in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with outbreaks of trouble in the UK mainland, the British army would struggle to keep NI stable. Maybe these dissidents are laying the groundwork for that possibility this summer.
All in all, though, I do feel very uneasy about it, as do many others I know. My neighbour, an ex Royal Air Force survival instructor from southern England, is now worried about his security. I was stunned when he told me he doesn’t even have a crossbow, much less a shotgun or handgun (NI being the only part of the UK where handguns are still legal to own). And my ex RUC friend is regretting he didn’t sell his house and get out when the property boom was at its peak. The best thing that can happen now is for the SAS to go in and discreetly take the players out and hopefully nip this thing in the bud right now.
“Who benefits?” and “Why now?” are indeed THE questions and that sinking, sickening feeling must indeed be terrible for all who live there.
But, I’m afraid your friend’s friend in the supposed “Know” is clearly reading from his MI5 or is it 6 manual.
I mean – “The best thing that can happen now is for the SAS to go in and discreetly take the players out and hopefully nip this thing in the bud right now.” – !!!!!!! WTF!
Yeah, wouldn’t they just love that! All that and the “Summer of Rage” too – SAS Wet Dreams!
I wonder who really does benefit. The IRA? Sinn Fein? – Get real!
But everyone, except those in the Security Services, in the whole of Northern Ireland loses.