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CAPITOL
HILL. April 2, 2004 ---- Was the extraordinary flip-flop
by the State Department on Northern Ireland really
all about offsetting the awful revelations of the
Cory report, Irish-Americans are beginning to ask.
"Many
of us have been trying to find a rational, logical
explanation as to why Dr. Reiss would suddenly reverse
the U.S. position of balance and evenhandedness --
by his recent partisan outburst against Sinn Fein
and his siding with the security forces, spy agencies
and police of Northern Ireland. And it simply made
no sense," said Father Sean Mc Manus, president
of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus.
"Now,"
he continued, "we are wondering if it was not
all about damage control -- about preparing the ground
to offset the terrible revelations which the State
Department surely knew the Cory report would contain,
and which would vindicate Sinn Fein's position on
the police, security services, British intelligence
and British government -- while at the same time exposing
the State Department's naivete about the police of
Northern Ireland."
"What
better way to dilute the Cory report and to defend
the police than to launch a frontal attack on the
credibility of the main critic of the police, Sinn
Fein?" asked Fr. Mc Manus. "I hope to God,
I'm wrong but Cory has shown the world -- what informed
Irish people already knew -- that governments and
police can do very bad things. Look at how the FBI
tried to destroy the U.S. Civil Rights Movement."
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