from IAIS: ADAMS TARGETED FOR ASSASINATION Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ADAMS TARGETED FOR ASSASINATION 10/26/97 01:11 EST SINN Fein president Gerry Adams narrowly escaped a loyalist assasination bid ten days ago, a senior Sinn Fein source has said. According to the source, known loyalists were seen in a car outside the Sinn Fein bookshop on the Falls Road where Mr Adams was inside signing copies of his new book. The Sinn Fein source said he had no doubt that the loyalist gang was armed and was preparing to strike when they were spotted by one of Mr Adams's minders. The gang realised they had been spotted and drove off down the Falls Road, pursued by Mr Adams's minder, who followed them as far as the Shankill Road before turning back, the source said. Although the Sinn Fein source would not identify who he thought was behind the planned attack on Mr Adams, he said the emergence of the fringe Loyalist Volunteer Force was causing the party some concern. Security surrounding Mr Adams is usually tight and he is accompanied by minders where ever he goes. When he is in a building his personal security team will post people throughout the area to be on the alert for potential attacks. According to the Sinn Fein source these minders are well briefed on the identities of potential attackers, and the minder who saw the gang in the car had no doubt they were loyalist hit men. Loyalists came close to assassinating Gerry Adams in 1984 when he and four other people travelling in a car close to Belfast's city hall came under a hail of gun fire. Mr Adams was shot five times. Warning nationalists to be vigilant, Sinn Fein chairperson Mitchell McLaughlin said he had been made aware of the latest incident and described it as just one in a litany of recent targetings by loyalists. He continued: "The collapse of the CLMC, the body responsible for calling the loyalist ceasefires is very disturbing. I am also concerned at the casual manner in which politicians and the media have responded to this serious development. This news comes at a time when there is a clear increase in the number of incidents involving known loyalists targetting republicans and nationalists. The most recent that we have had confirmed is the targetting of Gerry Adams at his book launch at the Sinn Fein book shop on the Falls Road on October 15." __________________________________________________________ The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit orginization provding up-to-the-minute objective coverage of news as it happens in Ireland and the North. Please visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.iais.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.28.97-13:13:01-7538