IRA are not al-Qaeda says Blair

BBC News:

Al-Qaeda terrorism is not on the same par as the IRA, Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested.

He said IRA political demands or their previous atrocities could not be directly compared to fundamentalists who carried out the 9/11 US attacks.

It was invidious to make comparisons because "terrorism is wrong", he said.

"I don't think you can compare the political demands of republicanism with the political demands of this terrorist ideology we're facing now," he said.

He was speaking at his weekly news conference on Tuesday

No serious person could ever negotiate on the demands of terrorists who have been using suicide bombers to kill people, said the prime minister.

"I don't think the IRA would ever have set about trying to kill 3,000 people," he said.

Finally, Blair is talking some sense. Pity he can't accept the fact that "terrorism" against the British is caused by Britain's colonial activities in places such as Iraq and the north of Ireland.