ianstone
08-10-2010, 03:16 PM
Tony Blair's 'naivete' risked Northern Ireland peace deal
New book on peace process claims Bush administration thought ex-PM 'insane' for backing Sinn Féin parallel police plan
, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Tuesday 10 August 2010 16.54 BST
Article history (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/10/tony-blair-northern-ireland-policing#history-link-box)
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/11/24/1259102795474/George-Bush-and-Tony-Blai-001.jpg White House staff thought Tony Blair's willingness to consider allowing Sinn Féin to run parallel community restorative justice programmes was 'absolutely insane'. Photograph: Luke Frazza/EPA George Bush's administration, alongside the Irish government, viewed Tony Blair (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tonyblair) as guilty of "complete naivete" in considering handing over the policing of Northern Ireland (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ireland)'s Catholic streets to Sinn Féin (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/sinn-fein) rather than the police (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police).
White House staff and Irish officials were exasperated that Blair and his Downing Street chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell, were prepared to allow Sinn Féin to run community restorative justice programmes and effectively establish a parallel justice system, according to a new book on Bush and the Irish peace process.
Blair and Powell's willingness to hand over policing powers almost scuppered the historic deal at St Andrews in 2006 that led to the establishment of the current power-sharing government, senior White House staff told the author.
The cornerstone of that deal was that Sinn Féin had to sign up to fully support the police and judicial system in Northern Ireland before Democratic Unionists would join it in government.
The Bush administration regarded the Blair government's attitude to ongoing IRA crimes and violence as "absolutely insane", historian Mary-Alice Clancy's book claims.
One senior, unnamed member of the Bush administration describes the alternative justice system originally proposed by Sinn Féin in the run up to St Andrews as "autonomous thugocracies" and a "scandal". Leading Sinn Féin members had been arguing that its justice programme was a "viable alternative" to conventional policing and justice systems.
To the Americans, the programmes run in republican areas, in which people could report crime to paramilitaries rather than police, were "antithetical to the larger strategy of removing excuses from the DUP to share power by getting republicans to recognise the rule of law in both word and deed".
The Americans "never understood" how Powell in particular believed he could get a deal without Sinn Féin's formal endorsement of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Bush administration officials told the author.
In her book Peace Without Consensus – Power Sharing Politics in Northern Ireland (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peace-Without-Consensus-Mary-Alice-Clancy/dp/0754678318/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281447663&sr=1-2), Clancy also cites an Irish government official's similarly damning assessment of Blair and Powell's attitude to Sinn Féin's demands on policing and justice.
"I'm generally very supportive of Powell and Blair but that was one issue on which I was astonished because I think it showed complete naivete," the official says.
The book reveals that Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, never believed claims by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness that they were under massive internal pressure within the IRA and Sinn Féin from hardliners in the two years before the St Andrews agreement.
Reiss regarded these claims as "ploy and bluff" to extract more concessions from the British. However, both Powell and Blair seemed throughout to believe Adams and McGuinness's line even when British security services were telling Reiss that no such threat existed.
The Americans claim in the book that eventually Powell conceded that Reiss had been correct in his assessment.
Responding to the claims made in Clancy's book at the weekend, Powell told the Guardian he did not recall the specific discussion with Reiss. "I have no recollection of such a conversation," Powell said.
The book says that Reiss' ban on Sinn Féin fundraising in the US following the murder by IRA members of Robert McCartney had the support of the British security services even though the Northern Ireland Office opposed the ban.
Senior figures in the DUP have claimed that without Reiss and the Bush administration's insistence that the republicans fully back the police service there would never have been a power-sharing settlement.
New book on peace process claims Bush administration thought ex-PM 'insane' for backing Sinn Féin parallel police plan
, Ireland correspondent
guardian.co.uk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/), Tuesday 10 August 2010 16.54 BST
Article history (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/10/tony-blair-northern-ireland-policing#history-link-box)
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/11/24/1259102795474/George-Bush-and-Tony-Blai-001.jpg White House staff thought Tony Blair's willingness to consider allowing Sinn Féin to run parallel community restorative justice programmes was 'absolutely insane'. Photograph: Luke Frazza/EPA George Bush's administration, alongside the Irish government, viewed Tony Blair (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/tonyblair) as guilty of "complete naivete" in considering handing over the policing of Northern Ireland (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ireland)'s Catholic streets to Sinn Féin (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/sinn-fein) rather than the police (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/police).
White House staff and Irish officials were exasperated that Blair and his Downing Street chief-of-staff, Jonathan Powell, were prepared to allow Sinn Féin to run community restorative justice programmes and effectively establish a parallel justice system, according to a new book on Bush and the Irish peace process.
Blair and Powell's willingness to hand over policing powers almost scuppered the historic deal at St Andrews in 2006 that led to the establishment of the current power-sharing government, senior White House staff told the author.
The cornerstone of that deal was that Sinn Féin had to sign up to fully support the police and judicial system in Northern Ireland before Democratic Unionists would join it in government.
The Bush administration regarded the Blair government's attitude to ongoing IRA crimes and violence as "absolutely insane", historian Mary-Alice Clancy's book claims.
One senior, unnamed member of the Bush administration describes the alternative justice system originally proposed by Sinn Féin in the run up to St Andrews as "autonomous thugocracies" and a "scandal". Leading Sinn Féin members had been arguing that its justice programme was a "viable alternative" to conventional policing and justice systems.
To the Americans, the programmes run in republican areas, in which people could report crime to paramilitaries rather than police, were "antithetical to the larger strategy of removing excuses from the DUP to share power by getting republicans to recognise the rule of law in both word and deed".
The Americans "never understood" how Powell in particular believed he could get a deal without Sinn Féin's formal endorsement of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Bush administration officials told the author.
In her book Peace Without Consensus – Power Sharing Politics in Northern Ireland (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peace-Without-Consensus-Mary-Alice-Clancy/dp/0754678318/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281447663&sr=1-2), Clancy also cites an Irish government official's similarly damning assessment of Blair and Powell's attitude to Sinn Féin's demands on policing and justice.
"I'm generally very supportive of Powell and Blair but that was one issue on which I was astonished because I think it showed complete naivete," the official says.
The book reveals that Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, never believed claims by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness that they were under massive internal pressure within the IRA and Sinn Féin from hardliners in the two years before the St Andrews agreement.
Reiss regarded these claims as "ploy and bluff" to extract more concessions from the British. However, both Powell and Blair seemed throughout to believe Adams and McGuinness's line even when British security services were telling Reiss that no such threat existed.
The Americans claim in the book that eventually Powell conceded that Reiss had been correct in his assessment.
Responding to the claims made in Clancy's book at the weekend, Powell told the Guardian he did not recall the specific discussion with Reiss. "I have no recollection of such a conversation," Powell said.
The book says that Reiss' ban on Sinn Féin fundraising in the US following the murder by IRA members of Robert McCartney had the support of the British security services even though the Northern Ireland Office opposed the ban.
Senior figures in the DUP have claimed that without Reiss and the Bush administration's insistence that the republicans fully back the police service there would never have been a power-sharing settlement.