Gerry Adams attacks police & Army unit after Ulster killings

Gerry Adams today condemned the "huge mistake" of deploying an undercover British army surveillance unit to Northern Ireland to watch dissident Republicans, as the fallout continued from the shooting dead of two soldiers outside their barracks in County Antrim. The Sinn Fein leader stopped short of saying that sending in the covert army unit was to blame for triggering the paramilitary-style attack outside Massereene army barracks on Saturday night, in which two further soldiers and two pizza delivery drivers were seriously injured.

"The Chief Constable made a huge mistake bringing in undercover British army units," said Mr Adams. "I’m sorry, but you don’t understand the history if you don’t appreciate that the involvement of these units in the past, totally unaccountable, has led to the same kind of suffering that unfortunately is being endured at this time by the families of the two British soldiers.

" The killers opened fire on a small group of soldiers who had emerged from the gates of the barracks to take delivery of some pizzas, hours before their brigade was due to fly to Afghanistan.

Mr Adams retorted that the statement was "totally and absolutely unprecedented".

1.)"The history – and it is a very unsettled history – is that the British Army in Ireland is not wanted by republicans, by patriots, by democrats,".

2.)“I stress again that this is not to justify what occurred. Many people have suffered at the hands of the British Army and again I stress that we are in a totally peaceful and democratic phase".

3.)“We have been very successful in how we have brought the broad republican community to where we are at this moment. I have to be the best judge of how I address this community.”

4.)"Part of the rationale is that we can hold our police officers to an account," he continued. "But we can’t hold shady, undercover British army units to account."

The statement that the party did finally put out, which described the killings as wrong and counter-productive and as an attack on the peace process, has been described by some analysts as cold and grudging.