Madam, - Trina Vargo (Opinion, January 13th) makes some absurd accusations against me which are unbecoming the president of a supposedly non-partisan charitable organisation, the US-Ireland Alliance.
The suggestion that I am seeking "to push Sinn Féin out of the peace process" does not bear any scrutiny. On the contrary, it has been my consistent objective to achieve the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement, a key objective of which is to bring about an entirely peaceful situation.
It is not me that beats people up, periodically kills people, operates a spy ring and gives aid and assistance to international terrorism; it is Ms Vargo's dupers in Sinn Féin and their military wing, the IRA. It is not me who seeks "to destroy the peace process". Rather I seek a real peace process.
I am sorry to have to re-acquaint Ms Vargo with the Belfast Agreement but her notion that Republican involvement in international terror is somehow tolerable or not a breach of the Agreement does not stand up to scrutiny either. Rather, page 1 of the Agreement speaks of "opposition to any use or threat of force by other for any political purpose, whether in regard to this agreement or otherwise" (my italics).
The gist of Ms Vargo's article was that no-one in the US administration cares about Sinn Féin's hostile attitude towards the United States.
Interestingly, she does not deny any of the substance of my recent Washington Post article, namely that Sinn Féin is unremittingly opposed to the Western alliance. For Sinn Féin the foe is still the Saxon. It is unfortunate that too many other nationalists take the same knee-jerk anti-American positions without paying attention to the alternatives that face us in the modern world.
Perhaps Ms Vargo does not mind turning a blind eye to some of the Republican movement's activities but it would appear that the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, takes a different view. As he said recently to an Illinois newspaper: "After 9/11, as we looked at terrorist activities around the world - and maybe the [factions fighting in Colombia\] do not have global reach in the sense that al-Qaeda has global reach - but when you start to see members of the IRA in Colombia sharing experiences, sharing knowledge, doing heaven only knows what, it suggests that these kinds of organisations are committed to destroying democracy in our hemisphere. Should that not be a concern of ours?"
It is time it was a concern of Ms Vargo's. - Yours, etc.,
The Rt. Hon. DAVID TRIMBLE,
Parliament Buildings,
Belfast 4.