White House Denies Leak of Secrets to IRA

The White House said there was no reason to believe allegations that U.S. government officials leaked British intelligence secrets to the Irish Republican Army. White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry also told reporters that the charges would not be investigated. Claims in excerpts from the memoirs of Raymond Seitz, a former U.S. ambassador to London, that the White House leaked British intelligence secrets to the IRA have been denounced on both sides of the Atlantic. Jean Kennedy Smith, the present U.S. envoy to Ireland, whom Seitz branded an IRA sympathizer, said in Dublin that the accusations were “outrageous and defamatory.” Seitz was London ambassador in 1994 during a dispute over the granting of a U.S. visa to IRA ally Gerry Adams. He was against the visa; Kennedy Smith backed it. President Clinton sided with Kennedy Smith, and his granting of the visa was credited with helping to secure an IRA cease-fire.