Reiss Under Fire

[Seabird]

REISS UNDER FIRE AS ST. PATS EVENTS END IN DC 03/17/06 13:48 EST
http://www.iais.org


Irish premier Bertie Ahern has presented the President Bush
with a bowl of shamrock at the traditional St Patrick's Day
ceremony in the White House.


In their brief remarks at the shamrock ceremony, both Mr
Bush and Mr Ahern referred to the historic links between
Ireland and the United States, to the potential for progress
in the peace process in Northern Ireland and to the
controversial issue of immigration reform.


In his speech, Mr Ahern said he hoped a path may be found to
allow undocumented Irish immigrants to regularise their
status in the US.


Mr Bush did not respond directly on what is a contentious
subject in Washington at present, but he did pointedly note
that recent economic growth was now attracting immigration
to Ireland.


Following the ceremony, the two men had a half-hour private
meeting before attending the annual St Patrick's Day
reception, to which the leaders of Northern Ireland's
political parties were invited.


During his speech last night, Mr Ahern said that the Irish
and British governments would make difficult decisions, if
needed, to move the peace process forward in Northern Ireland.


He further called on all Northern parties to participate in
policing, and said there needed to be a 'new beginning' for
working class loyalist communities.


Mr Ahern told his audience that while there has been real
progress, particularly with the end of the IRA campaign,
more work was now needed.


Meanwhile, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has tried to move
the political spotlight away from his outspoken attack on US
President George Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland.


He also revealed that his party had been forced to refund
all donations that were to be made at a Friends of Sinn Fein
gala breakfast in Washington yesterday, because he attended it.


US State Department restrictions on his visa ban him from
taking part in fundraising for his party.


Yesterday, Mr Adams lashed out at Mitchell Reiss, saying he
was giving the President bad advice. Reiss is credited with
having made the decision not to allow Sinn Fein to fundraise
because of its continued refusal to join the Policing Board.


Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said such "spats" had
to stop because they got in the way of progress.


At a fundraising dinner in Washington last night, Mr Adams
reiterated his complaint against Mr Reiss, but insisted that
his protest was not the most important message.


"I find that I`m not impressed by what Mitchell Reiss has
been inputting into the peace process," Mr Adams said.


"But that`s not the main story - the main story is to get
the British Government to put institutions back into place
and with all speed."


Speaking at the breakfast yesterday morning, Mr Adams said:
“Well, I don’t have any high regard for Mitchell Reiss’s
input into this process."


"I’ve talked to Mitchell Reiss recently. I said that if it
is he who is advising the president, then it is very, very
bad advice."


"We are not a party that will ever exclude ourselves. We
believe in standing up for ourselves and more, importantly
for the people who support us. So, if anybody thinks that
in some way they’re going to bounce us, or arm-wrestle us
into a position that we don’t want to be in, well they’re
dealing with the wrong party."


"I’m not attacking the administration," Mr Adams said.


"What I’m doing is putting it to Irish- America and to the
administration that they should support our call for the
British government to put the assembly back in place."


He said that politicians he has spoken to in Washington were
"absolutely flabbergasted” that the assembly remains suspended.


"I mean, all these congress members fight elections all the
time. They just don’t understand how you can fight an
election and then have no assembly to go to," he said.


Addressing the FOSF gathering, Mr Adams said that he
resented the fact that the Bush administration was now
treating Sinn Féin differently than other parties from the
North.


He said that the fundraising prohibition would also give yet
another excuse to Ian Paisley and the DUP to try and veto
progress.


Mr Adams said that, when the IRA called an end to its armed
campaign and completed decommissioning last year, “the IRA
did the right thing. And it was a mighty thing”.


He said the fact that the DUP has been allowed to continue
to block the restoration of the assembly and executive, even
after the IRA’s moves, sent a bad message to republican
heartlands.


“Imagine you are a young republican back home in Crossmaglen
or south Tyrone or west Belfast. And that republican
freedom-fighters take these big, generous initiatives, and
they’re opponents are looking for other excuses, looking for
other reasons not to engage properly."


On a more positive note, Mr Adams added, Irish-Americans
who’d stood by republicans for decades, particularly when it
was an unpopular thing to do, “can sit back and feel a sense
of pride” at progress made so far.

Mr Adams said that if the DUP refuses to participate in the
assembly, the British and Irish governments should now “set
the assembly aside. It can be returned to at some other
point in the future. But we don’t have a Bill of Rights. We
don’t have an equality agenda. We still haven’t cracked the
issue of policing”.


He said that, regardless of what the DUP does, the
governments must tackle long-standing economic and social
issues that are the “residue of discrimination” in many
nationalist areas.


The Sinn Féin leader added that, despite recent peace
process ro******************************************s, “it is a process. We have to keep
reminding ourselves of this. For the rest of our lives, and
as long as we have the energy, this is what we are going to
be about. There is not going to be a moment short of a
United Ireland where you’re going to be able to say ‘Well,
that’s that done and dusted’. Because there are powerful
elements who want to go back to the old ways.”


Mr Adams reminded the audience that Sinn Féin is the
“largest pro-agreement party in the North. We’re the third
largest party on the island of Ireland. And that’s all been
accomplished in a short ten years. So if you want to know
why our opponents are messing about, there’s the reason,
they fear the growth of Sinn Féin.”


Earlier in the week, Mr Adams said he was concerned by the
"partisan behaviour" of the American administration`s
handling of the peace process in recent months.
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[jerryp]

Adams being delayed by security in airport for domestic usa flight has a certain irony to it.When hangover kicks in I'll elaborate.