Sinn Fein/IRA Prevented from entering US

Counterterrorism blog reports that:

"Rita O’Hare... Sinn Fein’s senior lobbyist in the US since 1998, was denied her “special” visa to reenter the United States after a recent trip to Ireland. O’Hare, who is reported to be a fugitive from British authorities because she jumped bail in Northern Ireland there more than 30 years ago while awaiting trial for attempted murder of British soldiers."

This most certainly wouldn't have happened on Clinton's watch but it seems that the Bush administration is taking terrorism- of all brands- seriously. For years people like myself in Northern Ireland have been appalled by Sinn Fein/IRA's highly publicised money-raising trips to the US, where it seems the situation here is completely misunderstood. The IRA are not "freedom fighters"- Nationalists in Northern Ireland have the freedom to vote, freedom of religion, even the freedom to obtain a passport from the Republic of Ireland. They also have the freedom to campaign peacefully to obtain whatever political goals they so desire. Instead they chose to mount a campaign of terror against the people of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Targeting soldiers, police - just like Zarqawi and his bunch of murderers- and innocent civilians. Right now, the "peace process" here has come to a standstill because the IRA refuse to disarm (now what do they need AKs, RPGs and tons of explosives for?)- instead the threat of a return to violence hangs over the talks here, with all politicians knowing that Sinn Fein/IRA will resort to violence if their demands are not met. And so far, they've gotten everything they want- they've even been allowed to not take their oath of office as MPs, but still receive the pay and benefits of that office. A devolved government did run here for a short time, but that came to an end when it was determined that Sinn Fein/IRA were using it as a cover for spying on the other elected members.

The Sunday Times reported that the IRA is still recruiting youths to the organisation and training them in the use of guns, bombs and terror tactics. They are still an active terrorist organisation. Luckily for the voters of Britain, the report which identified this activity was not released until after the election- despite being completed in April. So here we have a situation in which, for example, an armed terrorist group is permitted to take part in "peace talks" despite their refusal to disarm (which was the original condition for talks to take place), despite their still carrying out surveillance on serving police officers and in which one of their members was appointed Minister for Education (self-admitted IRA member Martin McGuiness). No wonder the Ulster Unionist Party- the champions of the peace process for Unionists here- was thrashed in the elections just passed. They lost the majority of their seats and even their leader failed to be elected- instead the DUP, headed by the no-nonsense Ian Paisley, has rocketed forward to become the dominant party.