Sinn F�in crisis over police raids

This really is big news and I can't understand why I've not seen more of it on the BBC: all of a sudden Sinn Fein are looking like a political party fronting for a mafia-like organisation. Now as I write that I realise that this is what Ulster Loyalists have been saying for ages. I felt that they were just rhetorically hyping things for their own political ends but, really the IRA and Sinn Fein don't come out of this at all well. The IRA is supposed to be calling off 'the war' -so what do they need the money for? And more to the point why be involved in crimes at all? There are a lot of us on the 'mainland' who were sympathetic who may find ourselves largely repelled by this development. I had assumed that the accusatiosn that that bank robbery was an IRA job was posturing by the Loyalists and loyalist elements in the NIPS, but now ... major political gaffe boys, major ... did you really think that you could get away with it and still leave the peace process untouched? I am sad that this could have blown apart the main hope for peace in Ireland and sad too that our hopes that the Republican side had matured into real politics seems to have been betrayed. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Sinn F�in crisis over police raids