February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
This time, however, the threat is not coming from loyalists but apparently from former Provisional IRA members now aligned with dissident republican organizations.
Adams said in the interview conducted over the phone that “some disaffected volunteers and various micro groups” were viewing current political turbulence and in some cases armed attacks by dissidents “as fertile ground for exploitation.”
The dissidents are planning to murder Adams, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Kelly according to intelligence reports reaching the party.
The information has prompted extra security precautions at their homes and for travel arrangements.
The alert comes at a particularly difficult time for Sinn Fein as the leadership conducts an emotional and at times heated internal debate on whether to call a special ard fheis to discuss endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
“It’s been ratcheted up a wee bit as the popular debate around policing has progressed,” Adams, who attended the annual Friends of Sinn F