Interesting Scary report from, of all places, the Guardian, today:
A huge manhunt was underway last night for an Irish republican bomb-maker who is believed to be training Palestinian terrorists in Israel.*
Israeli police and the internal security agency Shin Bet are searching for the South Armagh man who arrived at Ben Gurion Airport three weeks ago, travelling on a British passport.
The expert bomb-maker was once a member of the Provisional IRA in Newry, but switched his allegiance four years ago to the Real IRA. It is feared he has been sent to the Occupied Territories to sell his expertise to groups like Islamic Jihad.
Is this part of the 'Roadmap'? Uh, no. Part of the hudna? Uh, yes. See, under the 'Roadmap,' the palestinians aren't supposed to be making bombs any more. But that's what the hudna is for -- to give them some quiet time to, well, make more bombs.
Israeli sources said yesterday that the man travelled on his own passport posing as a tourist when he arrived at Tel Aviv. Shin Bet and the Israeli police are also aware of the man's identity.
They claim he slipped across the green line that divides Israel from the West Bank shortly after his arrival. The sources in Jerusalem said their intelligence indicates that he has linked up with rejectionist Palestinian groups determined to destroy President Bush's road map to peace. Israeli security forces are bracing themselves for a series of massive bomb attacks.
And that warning isn't coming from the Israelis alone.
Senior members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said they suspected that if the man was in the West Bank he was likely to be training Palestinians to build more effective bombs. IRA and Real IRA engineers are regarded as among the world's leading experts in both bomb- and mortar-making technology.
There's more.
* UPDATE: Looks like they got him!!! (link and update thanks to Trent at Winds of Change) Arrest confirmed here.
