In-flight mojitos

We've already let too much time pass without some commentary on the case of the Colombia Three -- the three Irish fugitives from convictions for assisting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and travelling on false passports. One thing is clear -- Bertie Ahern's constructive ambiguity about the Republic's role in the GWOT/GSAVE is now strained to breaking point.

In terms of the future of the three men, it seems fairly clear that being sent back to Colombia is out of the question -- even the law-and-order oriented Freedom Institute acknowledges the problem with that course of action. We await the Dublin Institute of Culture and Knowledge position paper on the dilemma. Colombia is about a dodgy a place as one could imagine to have the taint of involvement with the FARC, given the lax attitude to right-wing death squads, epitomised in the free ride its government has given to the United Self Defense Forces. And just last week, Dubya indicated that the justice system in Colombia is an issue, simply by falling short of his usual boosterish standards in discussing it:

And we [Dubya and President Uribe] talked about specific cases. And I listened intently and believe that he is interested in following through on these cases, so that the world will hear loud and clear that Colombia is a nation of law and human rights and human dignity.

This from a man whose idea of checks and balances is indicated by the next question that he forced from the overheated hacks in Crawford:

Q What's on the menu? What's on the menu?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Carne.

But back to the three men. First, they've committed the unpardonable sin of interrupting Bertie's holliers so soon after his previous holliers were interrupted for the IRA cessation announcement:

Mr Ahern broke off his holiday to return to Dublin yesterday morning, where he met senior officials within his department to review the situation.

He then instructed officials to brief both US ambassador James Kenny and British charge d'affaires Ted Hallett yesterday on the Government's position.

Second, there are the basic logistics of the period between their disappearance in Colombia and their return to Ireland, during a period when they were presumably on more than one watch list. The generally accepted destination following the initial disappearance was Cuba, and on that basis one thinks of James Bond's world travels as a disgraced MI5 agent in Die Another Day: from Hong Kong to Cuba on a false passport kindly provided by the Chinese secret service, and from there back to London. And once you're there, it's not that difficult to leave, as both the would-be Attack 2 bomber and the loony Sheikh used to their advantage:

THE extremist cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed has fled Britain amid fears that he could be arrested for his support of the London suicide bombers ... Last night, a close aide of Sheikh Bakri Mohammed told The Times that the cleric, who had managed to fly out without being noticed, would never return to Britain.

Also of interest is the echoes of Irish scandals past, specifically the event of a fugitive or fugitives popping up in very awkward places. Such as, in 1982, in the Attorney-General's house -- the famous GUBU affair, for which one particular Irish blog is named. These three fugitives are wise to stay at undisclosed locations, though. After all, the Colombian government does use bounty hunters.