Sinn Fein Leader to Get U.S. Visa

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Thursday approved a request by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to visit the United States for the first time in more than a year and a half. U.S. officials gave no details about the timing and length of his stay.

“He has been granted visa waivers in the past, based on a cease-fire,” State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said. “And so there is a cease-fire in place, and she granted that waiver this morning.”

British citizens do not normally need a visa to visit the United States. But because Adams is classified as a former terrorist because of his association with the Irish Republican Army, he must obtain a waiver of his ineligibility and a visa.

Rubin said there would be no restrictions on fund-raising by Adams while he is in the country, but added that such activities by Adams would be watched and monitored “very carefully.”

Adams was allowed into the United States for the first time in March 1995, a few months after the IRA declared a cease-fire in its war to unite Northern Ireland with Ireland despite the desire of most of its inhabitants to remain part of Britain.