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SINN FÉIN HAS played down a photo of its new member, former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, with the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad which was taken and distributed on constituency leaflets four years ago.
The former Dublin South-East deputy joined Sinn Féin on Saturday after the party’s Ard Comhairle accepted his application.
It is now likely that the grandson of one of the Fianna Fáil founders, Todd Andrews, will run as a Sinn Féin candidate in next year’s local and European elections or at the next general election.
Andrews is a vocal pro-Palestinian activist who forged a working relationship with the Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh on the controversial ‘freedom flotillas’ that sailed to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade in 2008 and 2011.
The photo with al-Assad, who the US and Europe believe was behind a deadly chemical weapons attack on his own people last month, appeared on constituency leaflets distributed in Dublin South-East in 2009 and has reappeared online in recent days. The photo was taken when Andrews visited Syria that year.
Picture used with permission of John Connolly/Cranky Notions
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said in response to the picture: “It’s not a new photo and has been doing the rounds again over the last couple of days.
“The photo was taken when Chris was in Syria lobbying on behalf of the many Palestinian refugees based there.”
Al-Assad and his army have been engaged in a brutal civil war with opposition to his regime for over two years with over 100,000 people thought to have died in the conflict and two million Syrian refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries, including one million in the last six months.
Andrews has previously said that the Labour “are pro-Israeli” and that Fine Gael’s foreign affairs policy on Israel is determined by “Israel’s puppet in Ireland Alan Shatter”:
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin said it would not be commenting on remarks Andrews made on a now deleted Twitter account – @brianformerff - last year in which he was heavily critical of Sinn Féin and party president Gerry Adams over his alleged IRA past.
The 49-year-old set up the account anonymously to criticise Fianna Fáil and its leader Micheál Martin.
Andrews's identity was revealed after the husband of a senior Fianna Fáil party figure - whom Andrews was accused of bullying - used surveillance to catch him sending the tweets from a Rathmines internet cafe.
"We will not be going into the detail of any discussions we had with Chris Andrews," the Sinn Féin spokesperson added.
Fianna Fáil declined to comment. A party source said Andrews and Sinn Féin are "well matched".
Andrews did not return calls.
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How has it become acceptable in such a short time that a US President conducts business over social media?
It’s bizarre
@Mel Fitzpatrick: What can you say Mel, the Man is a legend! Make america great again!
@LibertyForIreland: A bit of advice when trolling lad, try not to make it soooooo obvious that you’re talking sh!te.
@Mel Fitzpatrick: triggered…. For what reason?
@Mel Fitzpatrick: I think it’s fantastic, You wouldn’t get that kind of insight from any other president
@Mel Fitzpatrick: I thought these two had reached a agreement some weeks ago?
@Mel Fitzpatrick: would you prefer everything is done behind closed doors?
I’m not saying either method is right or wrong, but the public seems to desire transparency, and when it is somewhat provided, people like yourself have an issue with it?
@Mushy Peas: do you think the tweets represent the reality of the situation?
I have to say this is one of the things I strongly agree with Mr. Trump on.
The entire US is essentially getting IP frauded by China and a strong message needed to be sent. The nicey nice approach that began with Nixon needed to change.
@LibertyForIreland: he’s doing what he said he would do, making America great again. Booming economy and following up with his promises, whether you like them or not. Trump 2020
What Trump said:
@LibertyForIreland: Might want to check out the inversion of the bond indices over the past Quarter, recession is imminent, Trump has undone Obama’s recovery in less than 2 years, tariffs being a major player in speeding up the pace of the recession that is due 2020/2021.
@Graham Wilson: Obama injected a trillion dollar surplus into the economy. When money is expanded in an economy the economy will grow for X period of time, and will eventually stop growing and revert to an equilibrium point, and the duration of the recession will depend on how far we strayed from that equilibrium point.
See: interest rates dropped to 1% in 2000 and then 7/8 years later we had the financial crash.
Trumps measures are trying, and relatively succeeding, in prolonging the boom. All booms bust however.
@Graham Wilson: Facks like this are way above the CD status of most of these numpties.
I am happy someone is finally challenging China for years they have been getting away with murder especially with this silk road and there association with poorly run African countries creating massive debt for these nations yet China will claim there building roads and putting infrastructure in place for these nations but it only benefits China
@Marty: Does America do anything for Africa? It gets them into debt too. America just wants to control to control the world. The Russians and the Chinese too where the Americans and British not liked. It’s been going on for years, just like Germany and France control the other EU members when the Brits leave. It’s called economic control
@Marty: the Saudi’s literally getting away with murder trump doesn’t mind
@Marty: how does it only benefit China? They’re not building massive infrastructure projects in these countries for the craic. They want to see the countries thrive so they can profit from the investment in future. It’s a lot better than the traditional US/European approach of just invading the country or slyly overthrowing the Government. As for the debt, have you ever heard of the IMF or the World Bank? Do they just give out loans for free?
China overtake the american tech industry give me a break they are years ahead of you already
@Karl Charlie: no, they aren’t actually.
@Karl Charlie: they are still years behind Japan , probably the most technically advanced country in the world. China might be big and advanced a lot since 1990 and it creates a big splash in the world. However it’s lost centuries before that still matters , Japan has been developing for centuries, it’s technology is far deeper and superior.
Down with the scamming chinese commies
And then China stop US products made in china ( iPhone ?).. and then what ?
@Dominic Leleu: trump can’t tweet maybe?
Yeakh, because the last ones worked so well
Little Dick swinging contest
have your say