"All the years and all the bloodshed have the promise of being over today."

In response, the Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North America issued a statement saying:

"The IRSCNA recommend to the President that he focus on the bloodshed caused by the police surpression of demonstrators' constitutional rights to assembly and free speech in Seattle and keep out of Irish matters entirely.

"The United States has a long history as among the closest allies of Britain in the world, making impossible the ability of a US head of state to act as an impartial participant in, or observer of, the circumstances presently confronting the people of Ireland.

"Beyond this, the US is the dominant force in NATO. As such, it cannot but be suspect in contributing to the recent abandoning of Ireland's traditional neutrality by the partitionist regime in Dublin.

"Finally, the US today is the premier imperialist power in the world and therefore cannot be expected to do otherwise than defend and uphold the imperialist exploitation of Ireland that has long been ensured by the continuation of Britain's occupation of six Irish counties.

"It comes as no surprise," the statement continued, "that the United States has lent its weight and influence to achieving an end to the war of national liberation in Ireland. Certainly the US would like to see all struggles against imperialism come to an end; but the war in Ireland over the last three decades was not waged for peace. It was fought for national liberation -- the ending of partition -- and for social justice. These have not been won through the entry of two Irish Nationalist parties into an executive dominated by Unionists, nor will they be.

"If the US government would like to contribute to healing the wounds of these decades of war, it can begin by stopping the present legal proceedings against John McNicholl, as well as all Irish republicans and republican socialists battling extradition and deportation proceedings by the US government."

In conclusion, the statement said:

"The future of Ireland is a matter to be resolved by the people of Ireland. It is not a matter for England to have a say in. The English people live on the ajoining island, where they must resolve for themselves whether they should undertake the construction of a republican form of government, just as the Irish people must do in their own nation. The government of the United States has even less to contribute to that discussion, offering little beyond the opportunity for exploitation by US-based multinational corporations to the working people of Ireland."

ENDS