"As long as the security forces have to fight the IRA without the aid of internment [on both sides of the border] they are going to bend the law. There is no such thing as a dirty war on one side only."

"It is no longer about massive street confrontations between the mobs and the security forces, or between the two communities, or large-scale gun battles in the ghettos of Belfast. The was is now won or lost in the 'game' which involves the use of agents and double agents, the placing of high-definition surveillance equipment, the bugging of weapons and explosives in terrorist dumps and the effectiveness of propaganda." p. 479

"The tendency of both sides [is] to pretend that it does not exist, as if they are players in a game which they prefer to keep secret even to its spectators." p. 376

PIRA member: "This is a war that has to be played in the shadows because of its nature and the need for double-think and deception." p. 376.

"In the murky world of espionage and counter-terrorism the edges of public morality become frayed and blurred." p. 94.

"This aspect of the war [the planting of false information by double agents] is like a room of mirrors, not just for us [PIRA] but also for the Army." p. 74.

"The IRA indulges in moral indignation when a rioter is struck with a plastic bullet. It constantly alleged that its members are 'roughed up' during interrogation. It cites the techniques of torture used on selected people at the outset of internment which caused the British government to be censured by the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. How can it make such condemnations when it treats human beings so cruelly, when it expresses such disdain for the sanctity of human life and sadistically prepares victims for the summary extinction of life?" p. 362.

Conor Cruise O'Brien on the Irish Government and General Order Number 8 from the IRA's Green Book: "As long as the security forces have to fight the IRA without the aid of internment [on both sides of the border they are going to bend the law. There is no such thing as a dirty war on one side only."

"The terrorist doesn't fight under the Queensbury rules. Why should we ?"

"One cannot say ‘the cat sat on the mat’, if the cat has not been convicted of this offence. Often I have had to say ‘It was believed by many people that the cat sat on the mat’, but even this is no sure protection, and so sometimes the cautious writer has to say ‘The mat was sat upon by some small animal’ or ‘Something sat on the mat’."