AN IRISH Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) newssheet has accused the murdered journalist, Veronica Guerin, of "provoking crime" and issued a threat to journalists that they "must take the consequences" of trying to "set up" the organisation.
The IRSP is the political wing of the illegal republican paramilitary organisation, the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), which was responsible for a number of atrocities in Northern Ireland during the 1980s before it dissolved into bloody internal feuding. Gardai insist INLA members have links with the gang which shot Ms Guerin dead.
In the last month the IRSP, which is believed to consist of about a dozen people, has issued two newssheets called BUA. Both included threats to journalists. The newssheet accused journalists, including Ms Guerin, of drawing attention to criminals and having created a climate where their murder was more acceptable and hence more certain.
Referring to Ms Guerin, BUA stated: "When she died her professional integrity was already long spent. This is the time to say it: journalists are not as well-regarded as they like to think themselves... and as such cannot expect anything but a bad reaction from those they target.
"For the last six months or so a few journalists have made it their special care to smear the IRSP, making more likely attacks on and arrests of its members. We are not afraid of the truth or fair comment, but anybody who tries to set us up for foul play must take the consequences.