The IRA has revealed that it .offered to shoot the men blamed for murdering the Belfast man Robert McCartneyAnybody else you need gone, ma'am?
The provisionals also gave details of their own investigation into the killing - admitting some of their members were involved after a five-and-a-half hour meeting with his family.
All questioning in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, of course.
But the McCartneys made it abundantly clear that they did not want any physical action taken. It remains to be seen how the statement will be received in a community almost universally revulsed by the killing.
I doubt the church bells will be ringing.
For a republican movement struggling for respectability,
You've got to be kidding!
it is the most extraorindary tactic, an open statement from the IRA threatening to shoot those involved in the murder of Robert McCartney.
We'll kill anybody for respectability. That's why we wear bowlers and carry umbrellas.
Robert McCartney was stabbed at a bar in central Belfast in January. Eyewitnesses claim IRA members carried out the murder -with a ruthless cover-up and intimidation of witnesses.
Now that's a surprising MO
It is a case that has spawned an unprecedented grassroots rebellion in a Belfast republican heartland. The family of the dead man have led the campaign, all the time calling for Mr McCartney's killers to be tried in court. They will have reacted with horror when IRA chiefs visited them last month and offered to shoot those involved. The IRA statement issued today says: "The IRA representative detailed the outcome of the internal discplinary proceedings thus far and stated in clear terms that the IRA was prepared to shoot people directly involved in the killing of Robert McCartney."
The bereaved were no doubt deeply touched by the sentiment. One wonders why they consented to the meeting, or if they were given a choice.
"The family made it clear that they did not want physical action taken against those involved. They stated that they wanted those individuals to give full account of their actions in court." One of Robert McCartney's relations described the IRA offer of summary justice as "highly insensitive".
Doncha love that British understatement?