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It's come to my attention that the Republican Sinn Fein party is classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department , whereas the UK government doesn't classify it as such .
Why is this so ? I mean the CIRA ( which is it's armed wing ) has never committed any terrorist attacks in the US , while it has in the UK . Is the same usual tactic of attempting to appease physical force Irish Republicans at work ? Or does the US government take a harder stance on terrorism in general than its UK counterpart ?
I don't mean to insult the UK in any way for the record . In fact I think that the US authorities are quite nuts with their bleating on about terrorism and such and I say that as a true blue Yank .
It's come to my attention that the Republican Sinn Fein party is classified as a terrorist organization by the US State Department , whereas the UK government doesn't classify it as such .
Why is this so ? I mean the CIRA ( which is it's armed wing ) has never committed any terrorist attacks in the US , while it has in the UK . Is the same usual tactic of attempting to appease physical force Irish Republicans at work ? Or does the US government take a harder stance on terrorism in general than its UK counterpart ?
I don't mean to insult the UK in any way for the record . In fact I think that the US authorities are quite nuts with their bleating on about terrorism and such and I say that as a true blue Yank .
Sinn Fein as far as I know are recognized as a political party separate from the IRA but in reality they are one and the same. They are the political wing of the IRA and of course are voted for come election time. This despite the fact that Republicans killed 2,100 of the 3,700 killed in the Troubles.
They were in joint government at Stormont when it was running.
Why aren't the Ulster loyalists classified as a terrorist group?
Ulster loyalists are not a terrorist group and Irish republicans are not a terrorist group. I'm fairly sure there are loyalists and republicans who are not in a terrorist group ie loyalists and republicans who don't believe in using terror tactics.
If you commit terror you are a terrorist. Or are there double standards. Muslims committing terror acts in UK are named as terrorists and the IRA did a lot of that in the past.
Sinn Fein as far as I know are recognized as a political party separate from the IRA but in reality they are one and the same. They are the political wing of the IRA and of course are voted for come election time. This despite the fact that Republicans killed 2,100 of the 3,700 killed in the Troubles.
They were in joint government at Stormont when it was running.
Yes I know that Sinn Fein is the political wing of the no longer active Provisional IRA , but the party I'm referring to is this one : https://republicansinnfein.org/
Yet the UK government doesn't consider them as such , which is strange to me since they ( unlike Sinn Fein ) reject the Good Friday Agreement and the CIRA has carried out terrorist attacks in the UK in the not so distant past . Why is this so ?
Yes I know that Sinn Fein is the political wing of the no longer active Provisional IRA , but the party I'm referring to is this one : https://republicansinnfein.org/
Yet the UK government doesn't consider them as such , which is strange to me since they ( unlike Sinn Fein ) reject the Good Friday Agreement and the CIRA has carried out terrorist attacks in the UK in the not so distant past . Why is this so ?
So...
Here's the problem with the label terrorist, who are terrorists? Back when there was a Provisional IRA the US didn't consider them a terrorist organization for a really long time, in fact more or less just before they sold out and went mainstream . al-Quaeda wasn't a terrorist organization until they flew planes into the WTC, the US even financed their operations against the Russians and Soviets (yes there is a difference), the El Salvadorian Contras weren't considered a terrorist organization by the US (although about every other country in the world considered them such).
So what is a terrorist is largely contextual, and different countries have different contexts. A terror organization in the US means something specific, that the US can (under provocation) prosecute a campaign against them, with little regard to the common laws of war (like firing missiles at wedding processions in third party countries). However in the UK that's pretty irrelevant, because any group the UK government determines is worthy can have such a campaign waged, the UK government is less tied up in it's latitude than the US government, so where the US government may need that title to enable it to respond in a timely manner should it need to, the UK government has no such requirement, so there's no legislative need for that label.
If you commit terror you are a terrorist. Or are there double standards. Muslims committing terror acts in UK are named as terrorists and the IRA did a lot of that in the past.
But the Irish are different matter judging how Downing St act..or should I say don't act. They are frightened of the IRA. Tony Blair more or less admitted this when he was questioned about the OTR letters. His answer was something like 'what was I to do if I had not given them OTR letters there was going to be more bombing and people killed '. So he was admitting that the IRA had the whip-hand.
The Irish are brilliant at playing the 'poor downtrodden' card and most people with no understanding of the situation will support them as the underdog. So maybe that's why Downing St don't act.
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. al-Quaeda wasn't a terrorist organization until they flew planes into the WTC, the US even financed their operations against the Russians and Soviets (yes there is a difference), the El Salvadorian Contras weren't considered a terrorist organization by the US (although about every other country in the world considered them such).
