MI5 targets dissidents as Irish terror threat grows

[CHIMO]

Source: The Guardian

The security services are picking up more suspicious activity from Northern Ireland's dissident republicans than from any other radical group in the UK, the Guardian has learned.

Up to 60% of all the security services' electronic intercepts - phonetaps and other covert technical operations - have come from dissidents, despite the threat posed by hundreds of suspected Islamist extremists on the mainland.

MI5 is directing its attention to a hardcore of republicans, fearing they are determined to destabilise the peace process.

Sir Hugh Orde, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has separately confirmed that the dissident threat is the highest since he took office.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/28/northernireland.uksecurity

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Maybe others can make sense out of this. I can't.

[seemslikeadream]

1. I read something a week or so ago that the IRA was going to take the place of Al Qaeda

off to look for it

This isn't it but...

Dissident Northern Ireland republican threat 'higher than from Islamic extremists'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2464018/Dissident-Northern-Ireland-republican-threat-higher-than-from-Islamic-extremists.html

[two gun sid]

2. Sounds like purely political bullshit to me...

I've been reading about some suspected punishment shootings and tar and feathering by small dissident groups like CIRA, RIRA and INLA but, nothing seems substantial.

The article qouted Hugh Orde and DUP MP Donaldson and MI5 so I don't know how much you can actually believe. These groups they are talking about are pretty small and only supported in small republican enclaves that have suffered the most throughout the Troubles.

Thanks for this info, though. I'm gonna have to check out Slugger O'Toole's Blog and Saoirse32 to see what info I can get about this.

[Dover]

3. Is this the result of Ireland's unwillingness to join the EU?

Ireland Rejects EU Reform Treaty
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7453560.stm


Ireland Punishes EU For Constitution Trick
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,559741,00.html

[cigsandcoffee]

5. Uh... no.

It hasn't anything at all to do with the EU, of which Ireland is very much a member.

[11cents]

6. Right.

And suggesting that Britain would "punish" the Republic of Ireland by going after small *Northern Irish* paramilitary groups that don't support an agreement that the Republic very much *does* support ... implies a dollop of confusion on Dover's part.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

7. There would have been no Celtic Tiger w/o the EU membership.

[DCKit]

4. It's simple - They haven't caught any Islamic terrorists lately...

so they're banging the "Terra! Terra! Terra!" drum to remind everyone they (MI5) are still relevant and worth continued funding.

I hope whichever groups they're accusing call their bluff and cause a public relations migraine for them. The fascists have no place in any polite, modern society.