Most Wanted
Today's newspapers are full of the pictures of eight men who the police want to assist them with their inquiries about burglary and car crime. Which made me think again about what was missing from this week's IMC report - namely pictures of the seven people who sit on the IRA's Army Council. As Gerry Adams pointed out, it's pretty hard to get a picture of the seven not meeting, but still it would have been nice to see them in retirement, sunning themselves in Malaga, or wherever. Since the police don't want to talk to them about anything (assuming the Northern Bank investigation is now regarded as a closed book) I presume issuing photos would be considered a waste of valuable resources, as would any up to date pictures of the UDA and UVF leadership.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the PSNI get results. Presumably they won't want to be on the trail as long as their counterparts in the F.B.I. who have spent decades pursuing the senior citizen wanted for his part in 19 murders, including one connected to the IRA's "Valhalla" arms shipment. They have just doubled the reward to $2million.
On the devolution of justice stand off, there have been a couple of developments today. Jim Allister has published a pamphlet arguing against the transfer of powers which, he says, would give Martin McGuinness a say in appointing judges. He went on to make a personal appeal to Nigel Dodds, Jim Wells, David Simpson, Willie McCrea and Maurice Morrow not to let others in the DUP accede to the devolution of justice.
(UPDATE: On Talkback Nigel Dodds was at pains to deny that the OFMDFM would have powers over judges, instead insisting that all relevant powers would be concentrated in a new Justice Department, which would not be headed by a Sinn Fein minister.)
Meanwhile has released extracts of an interview with Bertie Ahern which the Irish Times' London correspondent Frank Millar has conducted for his new book, "Northern Ireland - A Triumph Of Politics". Bertie is fairly definite that, at St. Andrews, the DUP was party to a deal that policing would be devolved in May this year.
Here are the key quotes: (Ahern) "Sinn Fein had a cast iron guarantee that 1st May (2008) was the deadline' for achieving it".....
(Millar) Cast iron?
(Ahern) 'It was absolutely crystal clear from the British Government and from everybody else.'
But from the DUP?
'Everybody that would move... I mean there's no doubt May was the date.'
Yet the DUP has consistently said it never signed up for May 2008?
'Yeah, well, I mean listen,' says Mr Ahern, clearly unimpressed with any protestations to the contrary now: 'The devolution of policing from May was part of the deal in my view. OK, you can say that the governments didn't extract that from everyone in writing but it was what the two governments agreed and everybody else agreed."
The DUP is sure to point out that the publicly available document only referred to May as a "target date", but, coming after the IMC report, Mr Ahern's comments will no doubt be used to ramp up the pressure on Peter Robinson.
I'm 
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