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27 August 2010

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SDLP leader gets it wrong on intelligence

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on policing, Alex Maskey

SINN FEIN’S spokesperson on policing, Alex Maskey, has rejected the ludicrous suggestions by SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie that Sinn Féin is in any way responsible for the recent actions by so-called ‘dissidents’.
The South Belfast MLA was responding after the SDLP leader accused intelligence operations in the North of “getting nowhere” after a device planted in a wheelie bin exploded in Lurgan.
An apparently false warning by those responsible for planting the device resulted in three children narrowly escaping injury when it exploded just yards away from where they were playing. The incident was attributed to anti-Agreement elements dubbed by the media as ‘dissidents’.
The SDLP leader suggested that failure to thwart recent attacks indicated a gap in intelligence. Ritchie went on to imply that Sinn Féin was responsible for that gap.
But Alex Maskey countered that this is an attempt by the SDLP to use a serious issue for political point scoring.
“The attempt by Margaret Ritchie to heighten public safety fears in an ill-advised attempt at political point scoring is deplorable.”
The SDLP leader had praised recent arrests by the Garda in the South as a platform to question intelligence-gathering in the North.
But, according to the PSNI, recent actions undertaken by the Garda had been underpinned by intelligence from the North, something the SDLP, as well as all other political parties with members sitting on the Policing Board, have been well aware of.
“It seems that Margaret Ritchie hasn’t been briefed by her Policing Board colleagues on the detail of any of this,” Alex Maskey said. “Otherwise it is difficult to account for this confusion within the SDLP.”

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