Peter and the Army Council
With the IMC about to tell us that IRA Army Council poses no threat, Peter Robinson made it clear outside Police Headquarters this morning that such an assessment was not sufficient. Expect the British and Irish governments to accentuate the positive when the IMC report is published tomorrow. However the DUP leader is still looking for the removal of the Army Council, not its effective retirement.
It's a strange bit of choreography. Given that the British and Irish governments control the sources of intelligence one must assume they know the status of the IRA Army Council before asking the IMC to report on it. So they would have had a good idea that the assessment would fall short of the DUP's bottom line. Perhaps they hope it will inch things forward, but, barring some surprising finding, I can't see tomorrow's report making much difference to the current deadlock.
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