The acknowledgment by the chairman of the US Congressional committee inquiry that Sinn Féin knew nothing about the activities there of three jailed Irishmen vindicated his decision not to attend, the president of Sinn Féin, Mr Gerry Adams, has said.
Speaking in Dublin last night, Mr Adams said Representative Henry Hyde's acknowledgement was gratifying.
"It vindicates the position that we took in relation to all of this," Mr Adams said.
Mr James Monaghan, Mr Martin McAuley and Mr Niall Connolly have been in custody since they were arrested last August trying to leave Bogota using false passports.
Both Mr Adams and Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, spoke separately over recent months with the investigating counsel of the House of Representatives' International Affairs Committee.
"The fact that the investigating counsel told me and Martin McGuinness separately that he had been pressed by British representatives did not come out is disappointing," said Mr Adams.
The allegations to the Capitol Hill inquiry that 15 IRA members have travelled to Colombia over the last three years vindicated the men's lawyers' fears that the hearing would prejudice their trial, Mr Adams said.
Questioned about the allegations presented by Colombian military officers, Mr Adams said: "They have not presented evidence of this. I think it is important that people are circumspect about all of this." The Colombian authorities will be making a pitch in Washington over the coming days for extra US aid to combat the FARC guerrillas, which, he said, is quite legitimate.
"But what they are doing today is to paint up a case whereby they could get that funding. We need to be sceptical about all of this," he said, speaking at Sinn Féin's Dublin headquarters.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Des O'Malley, has criticised Mr Adams's refusal to appear before the committee earlier this month.
In a letter to Mr Adams, Mr O'Malley expressed the committee's "unhappiness" at his "pre-emptive and contemptuous" refusal to answer questions about Sinn Féin's knowledge of the three men's activities.
