IRA 'at heart of world terror'

The Northern Ireland peace process has been dealt a serious blow today with disturbing official revelations that the IRA has formed part of a global terror network based in Colombia.

According to a damning report by the US Congress, republican hardliners are training Marxist rebels alongside Iranian and Cuban and possibly Spanish terrorists from the Basque separatist movement Eta.

The linking of the IRA to what President Bush has called an "axis of evil" comes only days after the alarming discovery of highly sensitive personal details on senior Tories during a security sweep of Ulster addresses connected to the Provisionals.

The hard-hitting report, compiled by the House International Relations Committee after a nine-month investigation, calls Colombia "a potential breeding ground for international terror equalled perhaps only by Afghanistan". American lawmakers said: "The IRA findings are among the strongest of these global links.''

Their findings are a major blow to the political credibility in Washington of Sinn Fein and its leader, Gerry Adams.

In a letter to committee chairman Congressman Henry Hyde, Mr Adams said he could not take the stand in the investigation because he was " concerned" it could prejudice the Colombia trial of the three Irish terror suspects.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Quentin Davies said: "It is quite clear this is the reason why Gerry Adams refused to testify before the Hyde committee this week. He evidently has no defence against these devastating charges. There is a network of mafia and terrorist organisations around the word and the IRA is at the centre of it.

"I am afraid that we all have to come to terms with the fact that the organisation which is now a part of the Stormont executive in Belfast, and members of which have been given a special status in the House of Commons by this Government, is a terrorist organisation with the most sordid links with international drug dealers and criminals across the globe."

By helping the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) - which raises money to buy weapons through the international drug trade - the IRA has threatened both Colombian democracy and US national interests, the US report claims.

"Colombia is a potential breeding ground for international terror equalled perhaps only by Afghanistan, and the IRA findings are the strongest among these global links because of the arrests of the three Irish nationals and the accompanying evidence," it says.

The committee launched the probe after three Irish nationals were arrested in Colombia on 11 August last year on suspicion of training Farc rebels. Colombian officials are expected to decide this year whether the three suspected Republicans, James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley, will face trial. The three were caught trying to leave Farccontrolled territory in Colombia.

Its findings were released ahead of today's hearing aimed at investigating the alleged links between the IRA and Colombian rebels, which will be held in the absence of Mr Adams.

The report says Colombian authorities assert that Iranians, Cubans and possibly Basques have operated in Farc territories. It adds: "It is likely that in the former Farc safe haven these terrorist groups had been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism skills, using illicit drug proceeds in payment and collectively helping to challenge the rule of law in Colombia."

Mr Adams announced yesterday he would not be flying to Washington to face questions on the arrests of three Republicans and added he was worried at the way "anti-peace-process elements in Britain and Ireland have seized upon the hearings to damage the peace process itself ".

He said the arrest of the three Irish citizens in Colombia constituted "a possible miscarriage of justice", and were being used to undermine Sinn Fein's contribution to the peace process.

But Congressman Hyde insisted it was in the "US national interest" that Mr Adams should give evidence.

He said Mr Adams had been offered an opportunity to explain "why two IRA explosives experts and a Sinn Fein political officer stationed in Cuba were arrested last August following a visit to a safe haven" controlled by Farc. Ulster Unionists also accused Mr Adams of "running scared" of the US committee.

Sinn Fein minister Martin McGuinness accused the veteran US politician of issuing a "shocking statement" which would "seriously prejudice any possibility that these people will receive a fair trial".