Gerry Adams responds
From Brian Todd
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The McCartney sisters are reluctant celebrities. They'd just as soon not be at the White House, but the brutal murder of their brother has brought them there.
On January 30, outside a pub in Belfast, Irish Catholic forklift operator Robert McCartney took his last breath.
His sisters say a gang of Irish Republican Army members beat him over the head with pipes, and repeatedly stabbed him.
Nearly two months later, no one has been brought to justice.
So McCartney's five sisters took justice into their own hands -- and took on the IRA in the process. They've accused the IRA and Gerry Adams, the leader of its political wing, Sinn Fein, of not handing over the killers.
Asked if he knew who the killers are, Adams said, "Yes. Well, I know who they are alleged to be ... And I have asked questions just this week as to why these people whose names are, rightly or wrongly, in common currency, why they aren't being questioned and why they aren't being charged."
Adams says he got the names of the alleged killers from the McCartney family, and passed them on to police. He says witnesses, and even suspects, have presented themselves to police -- and police have declined to question them.
Robert McCartney's sisters tell a different story.
"We thought this case was pure intimidation; the only thing stopping us from getting the murderer brought to justice is secrecy," Catherine McCartney said.
But Adams said, "There is no evidence to back that up. And, on the contrary, the IRA, in a number of high-profile statements, have made it very, very clear that people should not be intimidated."
CNN asked Adams what signal he takes from being shunned at the White House, in favor of Robert McCartney's sisters.
"Well, first of all, we shouldn't run the two issues together," Adams said. "I support the McCartney family. I support their demand for justice. I think that there is an onus upon everyone who can help, to help. So, good luck to them. And when I go back home I will continue to work on their behalf. In terms of this invitation, all the Irish political parties were disinvited from the White House, not just Sinn Fein. And if I was to read that as a disengagement by this administration from the peace process, I would be concerned. But it isn't."
But Adams has also been snubbed by one of his greatest U.S. supporters, Sen. Ted Kennedy.
"It's time that Gerry Adams free himself from the IRA. We cannot in Western countries have a political party that has its own private army, particularly one that's been associated with criminality and violence," Kennedy said Wednesday.
"I disagree with Teddy Kennedy," Adams said. "He was the only person to actually cancel an engagement. I think that was ill-advised. I think we will work again, because he has played a pivotal role in all of this process."
Adams said despite the current tension he's as committed to the peace process as ever.
When asked about disbanding the IRA, Adams had this to say:
"Well, even if it should, and I certainly want to see an end to the IRA and an end to all of the armed groups, simply saying it and demanding it isn't going to achieve it. You have to look at what has worked. What hasn't worked is marginalizing people, demonizing people, criminalizing people, repressing people, fighting with people," Adams said.
Adams admits the peace process has been too slow, even for him, since the 1998 Good Friday Accords. But he said he's going to keep working strategically to move it along.
Adams also said his group and the British and Irish governments have a lot to work to do to strengthen political institutions in Northern Ireland, establish a bill of rights, and reduce the number of British troops there.
