NORTHERN IRELAND NEWS UPADATE

The Oread Daily reported recently on the “stand down” by the paramilitary thug group knows as the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).

What I didn’t report at the time was the terror group, described by some as drug dealers with guns and badges, is not likely to be giving up their lucrative drug trade.

"Whether or not they step down, as they have said in the past week is one thing. But drug dealing is what these people do for a living and have been for years, and it's unlikely that they are going to give that up now," warned a senior security source quoted in the Belfast Telegraph. "They have come out with their statement because they have been under intense pressure from the Ulster Volunteer Forces (UVF), and for no other reason. If they are serious about standing down they will have to give up their guns and stop dealing drugs and I don't see that happening.”

Meanwhile, the larger Loyalist group, the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), is looking like its going to have to let its North Belfast boss go. Andre Shoukri was arrested yesterday along with his brother Ihab Shoukri, a female relative, and two other men in a series of early morning raids. The arrests came after a woman approached the Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI) with information on illegal money making rackets being run by the north Belfast UDA. Since joining the UDA in the mid-1990s, Shoukri has been in regular trouble with the law. In 1996 he was jailed for his involvement in the death of Dubliner Gareth Parker who was run over by a car after being punched by Shoukri. The loyalist was back in court in 1998, when he was jailed for attempting to smuggle cigarettes. Two years later he was jailed again for his part in a blackmail plot against a Catholic businessman. During the 2002 UDA feud, Shoukri was arrested with a gun in his car. He was initially jailed for six years but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Shoukri is viewed by many within the UDA as being in the same mould as former east Belfast boss Jim Gray who was “stood down” and then murdered. Shoukri has powerful enemies within the organization including its south Belfast leader Jackie McDonald. McDonald and Shoukri’s UDA factions clashed during the summer when a number of bars that their supporters drink in were paint-bombed.

And while this is going on the US Administration of G.W. Bush has gone ahead and denied Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams a fundraising visa to visit the U.S. The Friends of Sinn Féin funding event in New York City that Adams was due to attend will go ahead as planned. Sinn Fein News says, “The decision appears to be an effort by elements within the US Administration to get Sinn Féin to change its' position on policing, something which can only be done by Sinn Féin and their electorate.”

Adams said, "Our position on policing is very clear. The British government has agreed to honor certain commitments made on the policing issue. When they do this I will honor commitments I have made including going to a special party Ard Fheis to deal with this matter.”

"The visa position is absurd,” he added. “I am expected to go to New York and not attend the most important Friends of Sinn Féin funding event of the year, an event incidentally that will go ahead as planned. The decision robs me of the opportunity to speak in person to over 1000 US citizens who have consistently supported the peace process. They want to hear how we can make best use of the recent historic republican initiatives to move the peace process forward.”

U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y, said the State Department's decision was ``misguided and wrong and lacks any sense of historical perspective. After Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein have demonstrated enormous courage and leadership in doing so much to take the gun out of Irish politics this decision sends exactly the wrong message.''

Adams who announced yesterday he has cancelled his entire trip to the US (but not a scheduled visit to Canada) was due to receive a peace award Tuesday from the National Committee on American Foreign Policy at a dinner hosted by Bill Flynn, a leading Irish-American businessman. Sources: Irish Aires News, Belfast Telegraph, Sinn Fein News