Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History (36 page)

A:
If we had wanted to attack Protestants per se the civilian casualties would have been much higher. “Ulsterization” was Britain’s effort to push the local people to the front line and make the public in Britain less aware of casualties across the sea.

We have to take our targets as they present themselves and the brutality of the RUC and UDR is well known. It is the loyalists who have killed Catholics at random by the hundreds. We do not consider religion, only whether someone is a collaborator.

Loyalists began this conflict without IRA provocation and they intensified their sectarian killings when the IRA was observing truces. If we stopped the war of national liberation tomorrow they would not be any less anti-Irish or anti-Catholic.

The argument that our freedom struggle is “counter-productive” is heard from the same elements who opposed the 1916 Rising and the IRA in the 1920s — the media, some clergy and so-called constitutional nationalists who give mere lip service to reunification. Their position ignores the history of British colonialism and reforms have come about as a result of the armed struggle to try to appease nationalists.

Q:
There have been well-publicized arms seizures over the years. Is the IRA experiencing supply problems?

A:
We are getting what we need and our technology and techniques are more sophisticated than ever.

Q:
The news often reports the inability of the IRA to effectively use the RPG rocket grenade. Why does it fail?

A:
This was due to assembly problems and mislabeling of live and practice ammunition. The RPG has a tendency to deflect, which could endanger civilians. We have designed our own launcher which is more effective and safer.

Q:
Are there ties between the IRA and groups like the PLO, Red Army Faction, etc.?

A:
There are none and the James Adams book you cited points this out. The right wing tried to link us to what it fantasized was an “international terrorism network.” The once secret British military Glover Report acknowledged that we are independent.

We do, however, support the rights of the Palestinians, Basques, and others. To put things in perspective, the PLO has killed about 300 Israeli civilians since 1969 while the Israeli Army killed 10,000 to 20,000 civilians during its invasion of Lebanon alone. Colonel Khaddafy of Libya is alleged to be responsible for 50 assassinations over the years. We accept no responsibility for what others have done. It should be noted that the British are the ones who armed and trained Khaddafy.

Q:
But hasn’t the IRA accepted donations from him?

A:
We have no links with organizations and none with any country or government. We never answer specific questions as to sources of funding. Why should we help the British and bother those sources? We take money wherever we can get it without strings attached.

Q:
The British and Irish governments have claimed that the IRA wants to establish a “Marxist dictatorship.”

A:
They know perfectly well this is false and use this as propaganda to alienate supporters. First of all, the IRA allows a diversity of political opinion. There are a few Marxists but the tendency for those leaning that way is to join the Irish National Liberation Army or other doctrinaire Marxist groups.

The “democratic socialism” espoused by Sinn Fein has been constantly redefined over the years and is adapted to the situation in Ireland where we feel tremendous poverty requires some nationalization and cooperation. Anyone labeling this Marxism is either uninformed or trying to manipulate public opinion.

In any event, we do not have the power to impose our view and have repeatedly stated our support for the right of the Irish people as a whole to decide what political system they want. We can only educate on the issues and the British and Irish governments fear that and resort to censorship. The British have repeatedly rejected the will of the Irish people expressed at the ballot box.

Q:
The Sinn Fein decision to end the policy of abstention and to take seats to which elected at the Dail caused a split in the Republican Movement. Those who left Sinn Fein said it was a sell-out that would result in a running down of the war.

A:
This is nonsense. The IRA supported that decision when we held the first General Army convention since 1969 a few weeks prior to the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis. Incidentally, the media report that we used the cover of an Irish language conference in Meath in August was completely wrong — which shows how good our security is.

Representatives from all ASUs and command structures attended and recognized that the Republican Movement was being isolated by Dublin and must adapt to survive. We must be involved with the people and relevant to their daily lives, avoiding the elitism advocated by our critics, who are oblivious to political reality.

Abstentionism failed and while our analysis of the 26 county Free State remains unchanged the vast majority of its residents consider the institutions of the state legitimate and theirs — with that support they will not disappear.

Those who walked away from the Movement walked away from the armed struggle and they have spent most of their energy denigrating their former comrades rather than fighting Britain. The struggle has intensified and we have lost more Volunteers this year than anytime since 1976. Loughgall was the single largest loss since the 1920s.

Our loyal supporters in the U.S. are the real Republicans and do not place political conditions on those doing the fighting. They know that we will never drive the British out of Ireland from an armchair and if we remain aloof from the people.

Q:
At the Army convention a new Council was elected. How many does it consist of?

A:
Seven, each with specific tasks — the Chief of Staff carries out our policies, another is in charge of intelligence, another procurement, I speak for the Council, and so forth.

Q:
The constitutional nationalists say reunification can only be achieved peacefully.

A:
This is at best wishful thinking and often merely an exploitation of the understandable war-weariness of our people, for political gain. We cannot wait for some miraculous change of heart by loyalists a century from now. Anyone who thinks there will be peace in Ireland while British soldiers remain does not know the history of Irish Republicanism. Britain invented the loyalist veto and can repeal it in the interests of everyone. Loyalists need to be pushed into the 20th century and only when Britain withdraws will they be forced to accept their Irishness and the vision of the Protestant founder of Republicanism, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the only way to peace, prosperity, justice and freedom.

The Anarchist Cookbook
by William Powell has been called “a manual of terror” by Max Geltman, writing in the
National Review
(July 22, 1971). I find this phrase aptly descriptive, but not in the same sense that Mr. Geltman would have us believe.

This “cookbook” consists of three basic parts: an introduction by Professor Bergman entitled “Anarchism Today”; and two much longer sections by William Powell on drug and explosive manufacturing.

If ever there were an example of Orwellian doublespeak, this is it! “Anarchism Today” is basically an interpretation of the philosophic roots of anarchism, awkwardly coupled with sketchy references to current events. Almost all of the intellectuals discussed are from the nineteenth century; and there is virtually no mention of writings from 1930 to present. This may be expected from someone who appears to have briefly studied the topic while at college during the 1920s, and thereafter relied only on superficial newspaper accounts. Bergman should have been aware of Albert Jay Nock for example, and anarchists today are certainly aware of Murray Rothbard, Karl Hess, etc.

Bergman considers Nihilism to be a form of Anarchism, and Anarchism a form of radical revolutionism. He interprets Marxism in an anarchistic light, and correctly suggests that Communist governments today are feudal/reactionary. However, his emphasis on the Marxist element in anarchist intellectual tradition is clearly one-sided. A more thorough and fair analysis can be found in
Native American Anarchism
(1932) by Eunice Minette Schuster.

Bergman’s emphasis on the Nihilistic and destructive aspects of Anarchism I find disturbing. This emphasis seems to arrive from the axiom that the State is all, so to oppose the State is to oppose everything. Anarchists do not have to propose a concrete alternative because that would be authoritarian.

The rest of this book consists mainly of drug and explosive recipes relayed to us by William Powell. His motivation for doing so is supposedly to allow the “silent majority” access to information which he claims only the radical groups now possess. The idea of a “silent majority” comes from classical Greek literature and in that context referred to the dead who are the real majority. If you follow the steps outlined in these recipes, you may soon join them!
The Library Journal
(March 15, 1971) puts it this way:

“Much of it is so sketchy as to be harmless, but there are a number of booby traps still for the nitwit who wishes to try them. There are drug making recipes… that may make one very ill… There are also a number of stunts which could backfire on the idiot who tries them.”

Let’s get down to specifics:

Ed Rosenthal told me that he had spent a lot of time trying to track down rumors of pot growing in New York sewers. Well, I just may have stumbled on the origin of the “New York White” rumors. Despite what Powell may think, plants are not as adaptable as alligators and need light to grow. Another choice quote: “…strangely enough, insects ignore marijuana and do no harm.” Strange indeed.

The DEA has a Precursor Control Program watch list. This means that if you buy large quantities of the common precursors to illegal chemicals, the Federal government may take an interest in your activities. Several of the chemicals on this list are used in Mr. Powell’s LSD recipe, such as Acetonitrile, Trifluoroacetic Anhydride, Dimethylformamide, and Diethylamine. Benzene is also on the list, and may also arouse the interest of the EPA because it is known cancer causing agent.

Much the same can be said of many of his other recipes, and in some cases the precursors are as hard to get as the final product. For instance, his recipe for DMT starts out with indole, which is quite hard to get. Much better methods using L. Tryptophane (available in health food stores) are covered in
Synthesis
(1973 — present).