Feud Between Gangs Worsens in Belfast

[Drift3r]

Feud Between Gangs Worsens in Belfast

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Outlawed Protestant gangs set off bombs at rivals' homes, and police warned on Tuesday that the deadly feud could spiral out of control.


Police backed by British troops patrolled Protestant east Belfast as part of an effort to suppress mounting attacks between the Ulster Volunteer Force and the breakaway Loyalist Volunteer Force.

Tensions between the two shadowy groups have been building for months and exploded last week when the UVF killed Brian Stewart, 34, the LVF's senior figure in east Belfast.

Since then, the two groups have combined to mount six attacks ? including five bombings ? on each others' properties. The attacks, which have caused no injuries, escalated immediately after Stewart's funeral Monday.

The UVF detonated a pipe bomb outside the home of an LVF activist Monday night, damaging several neighboring homes, then left a nail-packed bomb outside another home of an LVF supporter. British army experts safely defused it.

The LVF retaliated Tuesday by using a homemade bomb to blast the front door of a UVF activist's home in Holywood, east of Belfast.

"I have concerns this could spiral out of control," said Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. He called on civilians to telephone the police with tipoffs on UVF and LVF movements.

Detectives also stopped commuters Tuesday morning near the spot where a UVF gunman ambushed Stewart on May 18. They asked passers-by if they could remember seeing anything unusual, particularly involving a stolen luxury car that the attackers used.

"This is a massive investigation," said Detective Chief Inspector George Hamilton, who is leading the hunt for Stewart's killers. "Whatever the disagreements were leading up to this, Mr. Stewart had a number of bullets pumped into him at close range. That can't be right."

The Ulster Volunteer Force, Northern Ireland's oldest illegal group, has several hundred members involved in a range of criminal rackets, including counterfeiting and extortion.

It called a cease-fire in 1994 in support of wider peacemaking efforts. While the group largely ended its traditional practice of attacking Roman Catholics, it remains an armed and dangerous organization within Protestant areas.

The LVF was founded in 1996 by disgruntled UVF members and is based in Portadown, a hard-line Protestant town southwest of Belfast.

A larger Protestant paramilitary group, the Ulster Defense Association, continues to be heavily involved in criminal rackets and attacks on Catholics. Its members at times also have backed the LVF's efforts to encroach on UVF areas, particularly in terms of drug trafficking, police say.

Unlike the Irish Republican Army (news - web sites), which remains active in hard-line Catholic areas despite adhering to a 1997 cease-fire, outlawed Protestant groups attract little public support.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040525/ap_on_re_eu/nireland_deadly_feud_5

 

[Strk]

Good thing they seem to follow the teachings of Jesus so closely......

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Strk
Good thing they seem to follow the teachings of Jesus so closely......

Same as Al Qaeda follows the teaching of Islam so closely...hmmm...

Oh, George? More terruh over in the U.K.!!

 

[Zephyr106]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Strk
Good thing they seem to follow the teachings of Jesus so closely......

Same as Al Qaeda follows the teaching of Islam so closely...hmmm...

Oh, George? More terruh over in the U.K.!!

Now now, we all know that Islam espouses violence, rape, and pillaging. And before anyone brings it up, those references to violence in the Bible's Old Testament are taken out of context.

Zephyr

 

[Genesys]

Originally posted by: Zephyr106

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Strk
Good thing they seem to follow the teachings of Jesus so closely......

Same as Al Qaeda follows the teaching of Islam so closely...hmmm...

Oh, George? More terruh over in the U.K.!!

Now now, we all know that Islam espouses violence, rape, and pillaging. And before anyone brings it up, those references to violence in the Bible's Old Testament are taken out of context.

Zephyr

what references to violence in the OT?

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Genesys

Originally posted by: Zephyr106

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Strk
Good thing they seem to follow the teachings of Jesus so closely......

Same as Al Qaeda follows the teaching of Islam so closely...hmmm...

Oh, George? More terruh over in the U.K.!!

Now now, we all know that Islam espouses violence, rape, and pillaging. And before anyone brings it up, those references to violence in the Bible's Old Testament are taken out of context.

Zephyr

what references to violence in the OT?

For starters:

Leviticus 10:1-2 (God kills Aaron's sons for making the victimless crime of making "unauthorized fire").

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.
Leviticus 10:6 (If the priests commit the victimless crime of tearing their clothes or letting their hair become "unkempt", God will kill them. Note that this is Moses speaking rather than God, but if you read it in context, you will see that Moses and God are speaking in turns, laying out the covenant that God has already given to Moses. Obviously, if Moses contradicted God's covenant at some point, it seems likely that something bad would have happened. Therefore, Moses' statements in the Book of Leviticus are presumably an accurate testimony of God's instructions to him on the mountain)

Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community.
Leviticus 20:9 (And people wonder why parents were such harsh disciplinarians back in the puritan "Good Old Days" of strong religion).

If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:10 (Kill all adulterers. It's bad to cheat on your spouse, but is it really so bad that it deserves the death penalty?)

If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:11 (Note that the Bible differentiates "mother" from "father's wife", because polygamy was acceptable in those days)

If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:12 (A particular form of adultery is specifically mentioned as a death penalty offense, even though all forms of adultery were already marked for death in Leviticus 20:10. Maybe this type of adultery is supposed to be punished with a particularly nasty death)

If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:13 (Kill all homosexuals; that's Biblical tolerance for you)

If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:14 (Polygamy is acceptable, but not if you marry both a woman and her mother. If you commit that strange but victimless act, then you must die)

If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire.
Leviticus 20:15-16 (Repetition of Exodus 22:19. Kill those who commit bestiality rather than counselling them, and then kill the poor animal too)

If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal.
Leviticus 20:21 (Forced sterilization if you marry your brother's wife. Note that God killed Onan for not fathering a child with his brother's wife, back in Exodus 38:10)

If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.
Leviticus 20:27 (I'm not a big fan of those tarot-card readers and psychic hot-lines myself, but the death penalty is a bit severe, don't you think?)

A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.
Leviticus 21:9 (if a priest's daughter commits the victimless crime of prostitution, she must be burned to death).

If a priest's daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.
Leviticus 23:27 (If you commit the victimless crime of working on the Day of Atonement, you must die)

The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day.
Leviticus 24:13-14 (Those who commit the victimless crime of blasphemy are to be stoned to death)

Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him."

Want more?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Zephyr106
Now now, we all know that Islam espouses violence, rape, and pillaging. And before anyone brings it up, those references to violence in the Bible's Old Testament are taken out of context.

Zephyr

That's right, all organized religion is evil and must be destroyed. I believe this has been reiterated a number of times by a number of people

NOW CAN WE PLEASE HAVE ANOTHER TOPIC???

I swear half of you just have a little program that runs in the background and posts the same thing over and over again in different threads.
And every single time the same points get rehashed, and both parties eventually retreat and start making snide comments to each other when it becomes clear that no one is going to win. Wow. I remember back in the day when debates actually decided things, and changed peoples' stances on issues.

 

[Genesys]

those references to violence in the OT sound ok to me. they are definately a FAR CRY from the references to violence found in the Koran.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Genesys
those references to violence in the OT sound ok to me. they are definately a FAR CRY from the references to violence found in the Koran.

Oh, it's ok to only have a little murder. It's ok to espouse violence in the fairy tale you believe in, not the other peoples' fairy tale. Gotcha.

 

[Genesys]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Genesys
those references to violence in the OT sound ok to me. they are definately a FAR CRY from the references to violence found in the Koran.

Oh, it's ok to only have a little murder. It's ok to espouse violence in the fairy tale you believe in, not the other peoples' fairy tale. Gotcha.

dont break the rules, you dont get killed. plain and simple. the koran on the other hand golrifies killing ifidels in the name of allah! the Bible doesnt condone absent minded killing of those who dont share your faith.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Genesys

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Genesys
those references to violence in the OT sound ok to me. they are definately a FAR CRY from the references to violence found in the Koran.

Oh, it's ok to only have a little murder. It's ok to espouse violence in the fairy tale you believe in, not the other peoples' fairy tale. Gotcha.

dont break the rules, you dont get killed. plain and simple. the koran on the other hand golrifies killing ifidels in the name of allah! the Bible doesnt condone absent minded killing of those who dont share your faith.

Oh? Really???

If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; ... Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.
-- Deuteronomy, Chapter 17:2-3,5