"This is utter nonsense. The IRA have no interest in meddling in conflicts in the Americas. They are an Irish liberation movement." Oh dear, oh dear. Where to begin. The "Irish Republican Army" is a name that, depending how loosely you want to describe it, covers the Sinn Fein (political party opposed to any British presence in any part of the island of Ireland) who finances the Official IRA, then there's the Provisional IRA, Real IRA, Irish National Liberation Army and various other groups of thugs. (Sorry about the semantically-loaded words, but "Thug" describes them perfectly. The Thugee, worshippers of Kali, felt it to be their holy duty to murder travellers.) Maybe the Official IRA could be described as a Liberation movement, but only if the Serbian Army could be described as Liberators of Kosovo. Many Serbian Kosovars welcomed them, after all, and many Northern Irish Catholics support the IRA. On the other hand, Albanian Kosavars who supported the Serbs, and Irish Protestants who support the IRA can be counted on the fingers of one foot. Still, the Official IRA hardly ever goes after non-military targets. They're a guerilla group fighting an unconventional war, and appear to try to minimise un-neccessary suffering. Usually. Well, sometimes. But the rest.... different matter. They're as bad as the Protestant groups that go out and shoot a few random Catholics whenever an IRA bomb goes off and kills a few random Protestants. They're enemies, not opposites. At various times, cells of one or more of the various IRA groups have trained and been trained in camps, alongside such luminaries as the Japanese Red Army, Bader-Meinhof, Red Brigades, Rot Armee Faktion, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Sonoro Luminoso and the latest to hit the charts, Al Quaida. The only thing uniting these Maoist/Stalinist/Trotskyite/Wahhabi/Sunni/Anarchist groups are the methods they use. Civilisation is for Wimps, it's the Strong that will rule by terrorising the masses into following the One True Way. Now maybe the three individuals caught so far training the FARC might be just mercenary war-junkies who train everyone and anyone if the price is right. But once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is Enemy Action. Who was training who, where the money was coming from and going, that's not entirely clear. But it appears that FARC has lots of drug money, and the IRA has lost a lot of financial support from the USA recently. Helping people who blow up Americans will do that. *Because The IRA are Terrorists* No matter what side you might be on, whether you think the Spanish should be in the Basque province or not, whether Texas should be a part of Mexico, whether Americans should or should not be in Saudi Arabia, whether Tamil Elam should separate from Sri Lanka, anyone who goes around using terrorist methods no matter what the cause is an Outlaw in the sight of the US now. Thank God. Even if 'tis for a United Ireland and the Wearing of the Green. OK, I'm prejudiced against the IRA. I used to go shopping in Holland while living in Germany, and it was only luck that 2 other Australians got killed by the IRA. (Hey, they had short hair, were white, spoke English, drove a German car.. good enough to be ID'd as English off-duty soldiers, right?)

I clearly remember the woman and infant shot to death in their car in the NAAFI parking lot in 'west' Germany in the early 80's. The car was marked (UK tags) as one owned by a British soldier - he was in the 'field' and his wife and baby had gone to the store. some ira punks shot them both, POINT BLANK in a well lit parking lot. These are the 'heros' I want to liberate MY homeland!! NOT!!! I said this before on another board - terrorist is a terrorist, no matter WHAT cause they hide behind. they deserve a QUICK trial followed immediately by a 9mm injection to the forehead.... (ok, I just added the bit about the trial - so they don't deserve trials since they give their victims no 'rights' or a trial.) E.

The FARCs and the IRA seem likea bunch of nasties who are using ideology as a shield to hide their criminal intent.

The link between the FARC and the IRA is real. Think of it as an alliance of interested parties. It is no coincidence that IRA terrorists were captured in the company of the FARC nor is it a coincidence that the FARC has begun using IRA tactics. The FARC has money to burn and the IRA has the technical expertise and training. Sounds like a match made in hell.