Monday, December 13, 2010

"We have reasons to believe Julian Paul Assange is a Brit Securocrat"

No doubt the Sinn Fein sheep will be spluttering out that line today with the release (surely with deliberate timing to blacken The Chief Shepherd's election bid in Louth?) of the most recent WikiLeaks. In truth though, there's not a great deal for the average punter to get too excited about in the fine print:

1. "He said that the GOI does have "rock solid evidence" that Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are members of the IRA military command and for that reason, the Taoiseach is certain they would have known in advance of the robbery"

Yes, I know, what a shocker. Yet for some reason (*whistle*, politicial expediency, *whistle*)that "rock solid evidence" isn't ever going to come to light is it?

2. "McDowell believed that the out-ing of Denis Donaldson as an informant was a clear message from the British Government that it had another, more valuable, source of information within the republican leadership."

Again, that opinion is not an isolated one, held only by McDowell. But as quite clearly it's still in both the British government's and the provo in question's interest to keep that information secret, then it's not really that important a detail in the bigger picture.

3. "The Taoiseach raised the Finucane case, as did every other GOI official with whom Reiss met. Reiss briefed him on his talks in London, including with the head of MI5, who committed to turning over all evidence her agency has to the inquiry, but she was adamant that the inquiry will proceed using the new legislation."

Without getting too conspiracy theorist about this, it's pointing out the obvious that MI5 don't generally carry out such actions out of the goodness of their heart. If it's in the wider UK's, or more likely MI5's narrower interest, then that information will find its way, by hook or by crook, into the public domain. The fact that this cable is dated nearly 6 years ago and the reality that the release of that information hasn't yet occurred is surely the more relevant detail in this "revelation".

4. "GOI officials uniformly expressed concern that the UK's political interest in showing progress might lead the UK to be too soft on Sinn Fein."

I liked this one the best. Can't be "too soft" on Sinn Fein- don't you really mean: "don't be too soft on Sinn Fein as it may just bring that "United" Ireland closer and that would be highly inconvenient for the vast majority living in the Republic"?

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