[mburbank]

It's absoluetly the timing. By set deffinitions there are lots of terrorist grpoups out there. When one that's been around and active quite some time suddenly gets the offical US seal of terrorism, regardless of who's party is in the whitehouse, you'd certainly want to look closely at the reasons.

I think if the Britts wanted us to intrude into the already dangerously muddy waters of their peace process and declare the IRA a terrorist group, removing any credability as a negotiator we've had up to now, the administration would almost certainly oblige.