Three LTTE Re: December Belfast Bank job

[struggle4progress]

UNSUBSTANTIATED claims by PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde that the IRA was responsible for the Belfast bank raid must be viewed with scepticism.

If it emerges that there was IRA involvement, then those responsible should be held accountable under the law. In the meantime innocence must be assumed in accordance with democratic principles. For the chief constable of one of the most discredited police forces in the world to make such serious allegations in the absence of any solid evidence is outrageous.

Already the political implications of Mr Orde’s allegations have impacted on the peace process in a very negative manner, much to the delight of Dr Paisley and his power-sharing rejectionists in the DUP.

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sgf-6jjD6CQTA.asp


<snip> Last week Hugh Orde said the IRA carried out the Belfast bank heist. But that was mere opinion. We have seen no evidence for this claim, yet the Taoiseach and the British prime minister have said how disappointed they are.

This saddens me as it shows that at the highest level of government hearsay and opinion have overridden the need for evidence, the burden of proof and innocence till proven guilty.

If the finger was pointed at a legitimate organisation or individual, without anything to back up these claims, Hugh Orde would already be gathering a legal team around him in defence of a slander suit. He is under enormous pressure to find the perpetrators of this robbery. Mr Orde also said that all branches of the investigation were now looking only at the IRA. Shouldn’t at least one branch be looking into other possibilities? <snip>

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sgNDbS-VqxafosgTbBP-2fa91M.asp


<snip> Claims emanating from the murky world of Northern politics and a Southern establishment running scared of the inexorable rise of Sinn Féin’s vote should be treated with a small bit more scepticism. One would have thought we had already learned that lesson.

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/opinion/Full_Story/did-sgfwEnYaZoElAsgTbBP-2fa91M.asp