Islamic terrorist suspects ‘come and go’ under gardaí surveillance

A SMALL number of people suspected of involvement in Islamic terrorism “come and go” from this country but are under close watch by gardaí, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern confirmed yesterday.

Mr Ahern commented after US documents claimed six units with Islamic terrorist links were in the Republic in 2003, delivering financial, logistic and operational support to cells abroad. The information came from contacts between the US embassy in Dublin and Washington-based groups like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Mr Ahern, while acknowledging the information was “gleaned mainly from garda sources”, stressed Islamic terrorist units here in general were not linked with the wider Muslim community.