Sunday, 25 September, 2005
Tuesday, 16 July, 2005
Friday-Monday, 22-25 July, 2005
Tuesday-Friday, 5-8 July, 2005
Basra attack echoes SAS actions in North
By Jarlath Kearney, Daily Ireland
Sinister covert operations by British forces in Iraq are "reminscent of the activities of the SAS" in the North, a leading human rights campaigner said last night.
Paul O'Connor, of the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre (PFC), demanded that the British government "break the cycle of abuse" imposed by its forces.
He also questioned the "sheepish" decision by large sections of the media to "report the MOD line as established fact".
Mr O'Connor was speaking to Daily Ireland after further details emerged about an incident in Basra on Monday afternoon involving undercover British operatives.
The incident drew parallels with the March 1988 attack on the funeral of IRA volunteer Caoimhghin Mac Bradaigh.
During that incident, two armed and undercover army intelligence operatives drove directly at the cortege in west Belfast. After firing a shot, both soldiers were subsequently captured, beaten and shot dead by the IRA.
In Monday's incident, both undercover soldiers are reported to have opened fire after being stopped and challenged by Iraqi police. An Iraqi policeman was shot dead, but the undercover soldiers were overpowered and held in an Iraqi jail.
However, a major British Army operation then commenced to break the men out of prison. The operation involved the perimeter wall of the jail being destroyed by a British tank. During the assault, British forces came under sustained attacks from local people using petrol bombs and rocks. Nevertheless, both British covert operatives were successfully recovered.
Many commentators have noted the similarity between the activities of British forces in Iraq in recent years with British actions in Ireland over the past three decades.
Speaking last September after the British government's controversial decision not to establish a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane, former secretary of state Paul Murphy alluded to the similar activities.
During a BBC interview, Mr Murphy commented: "Many of the operational techniques that would be discussed in the inquiry would be used currently in the war against terror."
Mr Murphy subsequently left the Northern Ireland Office in May and became chairperson of the British government's intelligence and security committee.
It has also been widely reported that Brigadier Gordon Kerr is now stationed with British forces in Iraq. Brigadier Kerr played a key role in the activities of covert British activities in the North as the commanding officer of the Force Research Unit/Joint Services Group.
Referring to the recent actions of British forces, Paul O'Connor said: "It is not at all suprising and is in fact for many people reminscent of the activities of the SAS here when they engaged in shoot-to-kill missions."
"Distressing as it is to see the human rights violations repeated in Iraq, it is equally distressing to see the media follow sheepishly behind the MOD line, so you have broadcasters like the BBC reporting a number of highly contested aspects of this affair as established fact," Mr O'Connor said. "We have the situation where all British soldiers in Iraq are keenly aware that in their ranks were convicted murderers - Fisher and Wright - one of whom had since been promoted," Mr O'Connor added.
A fortnight ago, the PFC organised a meeting in London addressed by lawyer Phil Shiner who is representing more than 50 families of Iraqi citizens killed by British forces. Mr Shiner outlined systematic abuse - up to and including murder - practised by British soldiers in Iraq, specifically mentioning the ordering of prisoners to cut off the fingers of other prisoners.
Mr O'Connor said: "We have to break this cycle of abuse."
Copyright © 2005 Daily Ireland
Petition for family of Jean Charles de Menezes
Relatives for Justice launch online petition in support of the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by the London Metropolitan police
This initiative has come from families who themselves lost loved ones to Britain's policy of shoot-to-kill who wish to show their solidarity and support for the de Menezes family.
"On Friday 22nd July 2005 members of the London Metropolitan police shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes in a shoot-to-kill operation.
Throughout the recent period of conflict in Ireland the British government operated a shoot-to-kill policy which claimed hundreds of lives. The British Government has not been held accountable for these killings.
At this dangerous time for human rights and civil liberties we offer our condolences and support to the family of Jean Charles de Menezes in the hope that justice is delivered and other such atrocities are avoided, and remember the families of the victims of British shoot-to-kill policy in Ireland."
Please pass this information on to others who may be interested.
Details on www.relativesforjustice.com/petition/
London shoot-to-kill draws Irish parallels
By Irish Republican News
Irish families have accused British authorities of hypocrisy after police apologised for shooting Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes dead on the London underground.
The 27-year-old electrician was shot in the head five times by police officers on Friday. British police admitted that Mr Menezes was an innocent man.
Witness Mark Whitby said that the Brazilian man had looked "like a cornered rabbit" and "absolutely petrified" before he was shot dead at point blank range.
London police chief Ian Blair apologised to the dead man's family and described the killing as a "tragedy".
"The Metropolitan Police accepts full responsibility for this. To the family I can only express my deep regrets," he said.
But the apology has prompted accusations of "inconsistency" from North Belfast woman Jean McBride, whose son Peter was murdered by British soldiers in 1992. She said that in 13 years since her 18-year-old son Peter was shot dead after being searched, no-one has ever said sorry.
In 1995 the two British soldiers were convicted of murdering the father-of-two and sentenced to life imprisonment. The pair were released in 1998 and were later allowed to continue their careers in the army.
Mrs McBride continues to campaign for justice and may take the case to the European Court.
"My heart goes out to this family because I know exactly what they are going through," she said.
"I back their efforts to get to the truth about this tragic episode because there are clearly many questions that need answered."
Mrs McBride said nobody ever offered an apology for Peter's killing. She described such a gesture as being "worthless" 13 years after the shooting.
"I would much prefer justice to an apology," she said.
The sister of murdered Tyrone man Aidan McAnespie also said Friday's shooting had brought back horrific memories of her brother's murder.
Aidan McAnespie was also shot while going about his everyday life. He was shot as he innocently walked through a Border checkpoint in Aughnacloy on February 21, 1988, on his way to the local football pitch.
Speaking about Friday's shooting and the subsequent police apology, Mrs McCabe added:
"I'm sure that the man's family will not be shown the full facts surrounding his death and the police won't be fully accountable.
"An apology is not much good for the family when that man had five shots fired into his body while he was lying on the ground.
"While that man's family got an apology straight after the event, we got no inquest into Aidan's death for five years.
"When the inquest did happen, the soldiers involved were absent on leave so that was very hard for us to take."
Parallels have also been drawn between Friday's shooting and the SAS execution of unarmed IRA Volunteers Mairead Farrell, Daniel McCann and Sean Savage in Gibraltar in March 1988.
Tuesday-Friday, 5-8 July, 2005
Analysis: All the Hallmarks
By Bill Delaney, Irish Republican News
An innocent man, brutally shot dead in cold blood. Lies, dissemination and spin by 'anti-terror' British police and the usual cabal of media and politicians.
Despite the deception, republicans will have spotted all the tell-tale signs of British state murder.
The immediate but unjustified claim to have saved lives. The 'big lie' -- a false accusation about the hidden device, the remote control, the gun-shaped object. Finally, a flurry of propogandised information about the victim -- in this case, claims that the "Asian terrorist" had been "under surveillance".
Several reworkings of the story later, and timed for the weekend lull, the victim is revealed as a Brazilian going to work in a padded jacket.
Of course, the police would have known the man's true identity within minutes of his shocking murder on a London subway.
But more indicative of the securocrat mindset than this sorry litany of lies, was the warning that more innocent people could die in similar circumstances.
It seems human rights do not apply in London -- not to people of colour, anyway, and of course, not for the Irish.
Last week's murder brings back to mind the oft-repeated observation that if Catholics in the North were black, they would all have been killed aeons ago.
It also brings back to mind other 'shoot-to-kills' -- that slightly misleading phrase used to describe deliberate state killings.
Often the Irish victims were completely innocent. "Tragedies" to be regretted, like the murder of Mr Mendezes.
The killing of IRA Volunteers in ambushes was considered a triumph by the make-believe force of British law in Ireland. But Peter McBride, Aiden McAnespie and the Bloody Sunday victims were among the scores of innocents who died without any such excuse.
With everyone from Tony Blair down to the Sky weather girl rushing to justify it, we now know that British policy on shoot-to-kill hasn't changed.
While the Provisional IRA is moving to end its armed struggle, and republicanism has been transformed beyond recognition, the hallmarks of British Imperialism remain.
Few in the British establishment have questioned why British troops are staking out the precious oil fields of Iraq.
Few have suggested the reversal of the absurd and unjustifiable national boundaries foisted on Palestine or Ireland.
Few in the British establishment have asked why young British Muslims now feel driven to commit suicidal acts of murder.
And still fewer have asked why every time the IRA seems to be defeated, the struggle continues.
For Irish nationalists, it is now abundantly clear that the Good Friday Agreement was little more than a carrot on a stick. It was never intended to be delivered to a people desperate to escape their sectarian nightmare.
Nevertheless, a decision has been made and it appears the Provisional IRA is heading for a well-earned retirement. The pike will soon be firmly fixed into the thatch. Sinn Fein, with the potential to enter government in both parts of Ireland, will enjoy significant power and can use it to advance the cause of a united Ireland.
Unionists have marched on in circles again this summer, stuck by partition in a 17th century time warp. The Ulster members of the Society for Creative Anachronism sport black bowler hats and Orange sashes instead of medieval woad. More seriously, nothing republicans can do will alter their mindset, which is to oppose change by any means necessary.
But economically and socially, the North moves on. House prices are rising faster than ever, driven by population growth and a growing immigrant population. This week sees the return of the West Belfast festival, once a determined expression of a ghettoised sub-culture, now a match for any other Irish Arts festival.
For years the British threw money into the North, wherever it would stick. A lot of it did. They were pursing the McDonalds theory of international conflict -- no country with a McDonald's outlet has ever gone to war with another. Or more succinctly, the more impoverished the peasants, the more likely they are to revolt.
And while there might not yet be a McDonalds in Basra, there are plenty in Belfast.
It may be true that IRA Volunteers mull events more thoughtfully now than they once might have, sitting in plush cafes, munching croissants and sipping cappuccinos, rather than hunched over tea and toast in their safe houses.
But it would be a serious misjudgement to conclude that republicanism has been bought off, or that the politics of compromise has supplanted the fundamental right of the Irish to expel our colonising neighbour.
The answer, and we must hope there is one, may rest in Ireland's social change.
It is well documented that a slow demographic decline in the Six Counties is eroding the built-in Protestant majority, while the Catholic population continues to grow.
But more significantly, Ireland's economic growth is inevitably giving rise to a wave of immigrants and a new block of unaligned voters -- neither unionist nor nationalist.
For example, the Muslim population of the Six Counties is small but growing, to the obvious displeasure of right-wing unionists.
For the sake of peace, we all should listen to what they have to say about Palestine, Iraq... and a united Ireland.
Tuesday-Friday, 5-8 July, 2005
This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers. It was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. Indiscriminate slaughter irrespective of any consideration for age, class, religion, whatever. That isn't an ideology. It isn't even a perverted faith. It is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder.
Ken Livingstone - Mayor of London
London attacks condemned
By Irish Republican News
The attacks in London on Thursday morning have been strongly condemned throughout Ireland.
Irish President Mary McAleese has expressed sympathy on behalf of the Irish people in a message to Queen Elizabeth.
Expressing her "shock and horror", she said the attacks served no cause "except the cause of evil".
"Today, which should have been a day of righteous celebration for Londoners, having successfully won the bid for the 2012 Olympics, has been turned into a day of cruel and vicious waste of innocent human life," Mrs McAleese said.
"In our world, the espousing of hatred will not resolve our problems but will exacerbate them. I offer my deepest sympathy and solidarity to the families of the bereaved and to all the injured."
Irish Prime Minister, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed "huge sorrow and sympathy" at the attacks .
"This is terrorism and violence perpetrated against ordinary people . . . It's just a black mark on society, a devastating blow against people," he said after a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
"This is all wanton violence. What does this all mean, killing innocent people who were probably on their holidays, going shopping around London for the day?"
At least one Irish citizen, architect William Walshe, was injured in the attacks. There are fears for another Irish person who may have been caught up in the attacks.
The Dublin government said gardai were monitoring al-Qaida sympathisers in Ireland as part of a massive international security operation.
The Taoiseach also said he did not believe allowing US troops to use Shannon International Airport had left the country exposed to a greater risk of attack.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams also condemned the bomb attacks in London and sent a message of sympathy and solidarity to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and to the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.
"On behalf of Sinn Fein I offer my sincere condolences to the victims and the families of those killed and injured and to the people of London," he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the attacks were a "direct challenge" to an emerging "unity of approach", and the attackers must not be allowed succeed.
"The people of London, where so many Irish people have made their home over the years, are in our thoughts and prayers as they meet this challenge in the days and weeks ahead," Mr Kenny said.