A report by the staff of the US House Committee on International Relations concludes that the "IRA has well-established links with the FARC narco-terrorists in Colombia". It adds that the IRA was engaged in training FARC members in the use of explosives.
The report, which was submitted to the committee by staffers for the majority leader, was immediately criticised by a number of members who insist that, in the words of Mr Bill Delahunt (Democrat, Massachusetts) it "is short on facts and replete with surmise and opinions". He said the report was not to be taken as representing the views of the committee.
He was joined by Mr Peter King and Mr Ben Gilman, New York Republicans, in opening comments to the committee hearing repudiating what he saw as an attempt to steer the meeting to a "predetermined outcome".
Mr King said the investigation had "fallen woefully short" and failed either to bring forward any evidence not known last August or to establish any link between the IRA and drug smuggling.
The committee's report records that three Irish nationals were detained on false passports last August and had claimed they were in Colombia to monitor the peace process.
"In addition to having positive forensic trace evidence of explosives on their belongings, the three Irish nationals were identified by a FARC defector . . . as the same individuals from whom he received explosives training in the FARC safe haven," the report says.
It says that the initial case was developed in a collaboration between the Colombian military and British and US intelligence.
"The claim of the three Irish nationals that their activities in the DMZ [demilitarised zone\] were related to the peace process does not appear to be supported by the facts."
The report says that British sources suggest that although there is no hard evidence, the IRA may have received $2 million for explosives training they provided to FARC.
And the Colombian authorities are said to believe that at least five and up to 15 IRA-related people have been travelling in and out of Colombia since 1998. A number of these have been identified as senior IRA explosives experts.
The report suggests it is implausible to suggest that the IRA leadership, with its history of strict discipline, would not have known about the links with FARC. "The only real question remaining in the committee's inquiry concerns what the Sinn Féin leadership knew about these activities?"
The report concludes that the links between the IRA and FARC are well established "and it appears they have been training in the FARC safe haven in explosives management, including mortar and possibly car bomb urban terrorist techniques and possibly using the rural jungles of the safe haven as a location to test and improve the IRA's own terrorist weapons and techniques". The IRA contribution has markedly enhanced the technique of the FARC, particularly in conducting urban bombings where the use of secondary explosions to catch rescue workers appears to be proving particularly effective, the report alleges.
Some 10 per cent of the Colombian army's bomb technicians have been killed in the last year. The report is said to be based on nine-months of inquiries ranging from Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, the US, UK and Ireland.
Suzanne Breen, Senior Northern Correspondent, adds:
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, has called on the US administration to accept that the IRA is a terrorist organisation that trains groups which kill American citizens.
Mr Robinson said he welcomed the US Congressional hearing into links between the IRA and FARC.
"Killing people in Northern Ireland might not have much effect in the US but training people who kill American citizens will influence American public opinion," he said.
Earlier, the IRA denied any involvement with FARC. In a statement, it said its leadership had not sent anyone to Colombia "to train or to engage in any military co-operation with any group."
