As the Queen of England prepares to visit Ireland tomorrow morning, the country is in its highest state of alert in over 10 years. This in light of last year's IRA bombing of a courthouse and ongoing threats to banks and courthouses throughout the region.
Train stations and airports in London were on high alert today after authorities received a coded bomb message from dissidents, suspected members of the IRA. This is the first coded message received in 10 years.
What is behind these recent events and resurgence of the IRA?
Let's go back to February 17, 2010,. when a 250 pound bomb exploded in front of a court house in Newry, Northern Ireland in February. Police received a message from the bombers and were able to clear the area just minutes before the device went off.
Takeaways from this bombing:
- Officials in Ireland knew that due to the sophistication of the bomb and other data not released to the public that the CIRA (Continuity IRA) and RIRA (Real IRA) are now sharing tactics and have "crossfertilized".
- Police were told the bomb was set to go off in 30 minutes, the actual explosion was 17 minutes after the call. Whether this was an attempt to also target first responders is unknown, but worthy of noting.
- This is the first large car bomb attack since the deadly Omagh attack in 1998 and the bombing of a police station in 2000.
- Other smaller attacks are taking place across Northern Ireland, including a live mortar left outside of a police station, and a car bomb that killed a police officer. The attacks are widespread and persistent.
Many attacks were foiled in Ireland in the last year, included a second bomb in Newry, set to go off in a major shopping district in last spring.
Last September, the RIRA. publicly blamed banks in the UK for their financial crisis and threatened to target bankers. They are specifically targeting Barclays' Banks in the UK.
A resurgence of the IRA is a concern. The UK is a major thoroughfare for aircraft and cargo headed in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq and home to several U.S. military bases with thousands of personnel and family members. It is a major tourist area for American citizens and a stopover for U.S. cruise lines
The IRA and FARC have a relationship that dates back to the late 1990s when they shared bomb building techniques. The relationship was brokered by Spain's ethno-separatist group, ETA. 3 IRA members were arrest in Colombia, traveling on falsified passports and with traces of explosives on their clothing. The IRA has also been linked to HAMAS and Hezbollah. Al Qaeda is active in England, the groups are operating in the same "space"
Unfortunately, with countries hyperfocusing on al Qaeda and its splinter groups, some terrorist factions like the IRA have regrouped, recruited and grown in strength under the radar. We are resource constrained in terms of law enforcement and intelligence, therefore must strike a balance when countering threats from the 47 groups on the Foreign Terror list, domestic terror groups and radicalized Americans. Hyper-focusing in any one direction could cause a dangerous blindspot.
4 comments:
In addition to the excellent reasons that you have mentioned, we cannot forget the
Real IRA threaten to kill police, tell Queen to stay away They Killed a Catholic Constable by setting a bomb under his vehicle and on the 10th, 2 school boys threw a grenade at a Police patrol in Dublin.
There were two bombs discovered in Dublin (one diffused by the police and one a hoax) ahead of teh Queen's arrival. I believe that the Provisional IRA splinter group the Real IRA is really a small hard line group who have continued to use the kind of terror tactics demonstrated by the bombings and tactics of revenge bombings recently (killing of a police officer using a car bomb)> that said the IRA does have significant ties with the FARC as they did with the PLO in the 70's and 80's in the Bekaa Valley. The breadth of the violence will increase, but I believe that the IRA will move to control the PIRA but who knows with what success. As I recall the Omagh bombing was unique and equally as vicious as they called to warn the people but detonated the car bomb to kill and maim those who exited the buildings for safety.
A broader range including monitoring of such groups need to be included in a global initiative.While Al Qaeda is a threat ,watch for groups like the IRA or FARC to try to slip in under the radar.
As far as North America is concerned, watch ,learn and be aware.We must play the long game.
These groups are problematic although no one wants to go back to what once was. They are made up of a small number of people. They are frustrated with Sinn Fein/Provos for walking the political walk. But this isn't surprising given the history of republicanism which is full of splits. This just gives Loyalists a reason to carry on. It is sad. The population will suffer and it will not help to heal any of the lost festering sectarian wounds in Northern Ireland. Recent polls in NI indicate UK is the way, not a United Ireland.
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