It's as if the commander of the Provisional IRA were living in Virginia
You are obviously too young to remember when it was not just the case, but when IRA ran fundraisers and young aspiring billioners (nowdays presidential candidates) with severe hair organization deficiencies were guests of honour - introduced by Gerry Adams himself.
Not particularly different from Chechen terrorists who had direct involvement with the Rostov-na-Don hijackings, Nord-Ost theatre incident and the Moscow metro bombings walking freely the streets of London by the way.