Police warn Adams he’s a target; new informer story is dismissed

Adams, who has lived for the past 25 years in a semi-detached house in a quiet part of West Belfast, said he won’t be intimidated from the peace process despite claims his life is in danger.
The Sinn Fein president was en route home from New York at the time the police called to deliver the warning, last Friday evening, and his wife, Colette, received the written note that he is being actively targeted.
He’s one of thousands of people who have been warned over the years that they are being targeted either by loyalists or republicans. Adams was shot and seriously injured in the 1980s and within the past ten years loyalists threw a bomb at his home.
He routinely travels around Northern Ireland in a bullet-proof car donated by a U.S. sympathizer and is surrounded by up to a half-a-dozen unarmed security men, some equipped with two-way radio sets.
“All I know is that I have a job of work to do, that I was elected to represent people, that I don’t intend to be diverted from representing those who support our party, and the wider group of people who support the peace process,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that this is part of life in this part of the island but we have to get on with our business. There’s no way that you can allow any of this to stop you from doing what you were elected to do.”
Adams said he had not taken any further steps to upgrade his security in the wake of the threat. “Republicans shouldn’t pay an awful lot of heed to this. We can take care of ourselves in terms of security,” he said.
A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman said the force did not discuss the personal security of any individual. Dissident republicans have stepped up their activities in the last year.
An alleged Real IRA spy ring was uncovered at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast last month when it was claimed the medical records of politicians, prison officers and police had been copied.
Recent attempted van bomb attacks were foiled in Derry and Belfast. Last week there was a series of hoax bomb alerts which gridlocked traffic in west and south Belfast, blamed on dissident republicans.
Commenting after the warning, West Belfast councilor Michael Ferguson said “If this threat is true, then I am sure that many republicans in West Belfast and further afield will be disappointed and indeed angry.”
“These republican micro organizations operate without either a mandate or a strategy to achieve change or deliver a united Ireland. Sinn F