SAOIRSE32

Times Online

‘I helped Goering escape hangman’

By James Bone
February 08, 2005

US guard claims he smuggled in the poison that Hitler’s henchman used to kill himself

A FORMER American guard at the Nuremberg Tribunal claimed yesterday that he had smuggled in the poison that allowed Hermann Goering, Hitler’s second-in-command, to escape the hangman’s noose.

Herbert Lee Stivers, 78, a retired sheet-metal worker from Hesperia, California, broke almost six decades of silence to appear to solve one of the great mysteries of the Second World War.

“I gave it to him,” Mr Stivers, a former US Army private, told the Los Angeles Times. He said he smuggled the cyanide capsule to Goering after befriending a beautiful, dark-haired German woman outside the court.

Goering committed suicide in his cell in a military prison on October 15, 1946, just hours before he was to be executed for war crimes. The commission that investigated his death found that he had taken his own life by swallowing potassium cyanide.

Rival theories have swirled for decades about how the Reichsmarshal got hold of the vial that killed him. It has been suggested that the poison was concealed under a gold dental crown or in a hollowed-out tooth, hidden under sagging skin in his navel or inserted into his rectum.

Speculation focused on the possible role played by a US Army officer who took a watch from Goering, on the German doctor who regularly examined him and on a Nazi SS officer who might have passed the poison to him in a bar of GI soap. In the popular imagination it was thought that Goering’s wife, Emmy, might have slipped him the vial in a “kiss of death” in her final prison visit. The inquiry concluded that Goering had the cyanide all the time he was in military custody.

Although impossible to verify, Mr Stivers’s confession upsets all of the theories and suggests that a war criminal cheated justice because a 19-year-old private was trying to impress a woman. Mr Stivers was one of the white-helmeted soldiers who guarded the 22 Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. The guards were free to talk to the prisoners and even collect their autographs.

“Goering was a very pleasant guy,” Mr Stivers said. “He spoke pretty good English. We’d talk about sports, ball games. He was a flier, and we talked about Lindbergh.”

One day a young, dark-haired beauty who called herself Mona approached Mr Stivers outside a hotel housing an officers’ club.

“She asked me what I did, and I told her I was a guard,” Mr Stivers said. She said, ‘Do you get to see all the prisoners?’ ‘Every day,’ I said. The next day I guarded Goering and got his autograph and handed that to her. She told me that she had a friend she wanted me to meet. The following day we went to his house.”

There, Mr Stivers was introduced to two men — “Erich” and “Mathias” — who told him that Goering was “a very sick man” who was not getting the medicine he needed in prison. Twice he took notes to Goering that Erich had hidden in a fountain pen. The third time, Erich put a capsule into the pen.

“He said it was medication, and that if it worked and Goering felt better, they’d send him some more,” Mr Stivers said. After delivering the “medicine” to the Nazi leader, he returned the pen to the woman.

“I never saw Mona again,” he said. “I guess she used me. I wasn’t thinking of suicide when I took it to Goering. He didn’t seem suicidal. I would have never knowingly taken something in that I thought was going to be used to help someone cheat the gallows.”

When Goering killed himself two weeks later, Mr Stivers decided to keep silent for fear of facing prosecution. He went public only at the urging of his daughter, Linda Dadey, who told him he owed it to history.

RISE AND FALL OF A WAR CRIMINAL

# The founder of the Gestapo, Goering was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria, in 1893

# The most senior figure in the Nazi hierarchy to authorise the “Final Solution” in writing

# Hitler named him as his successor in a 1941 decree, but retracted this in his will

# Captured by American troops in Austria after Hitler’s suicide

# Convicted of crimes against humanity at Nuremberg

# Found dead hours before he was due to be executed

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

“It’s probably the most plausible explanation to date. To say any more would be going too far”
Paul Weindling, author of Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials

“It doesn’t sound like something made up. It sounds even more believable than the story about the poison in the dental crown”
Cornelius Schnauber, University of Southern California

“[His story] is crazy enough to be true. But there’s no way it can be proven. Nobody really knows except the person who did it.”
Aaron Breitbart, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Los Angeles

Belfast Telegraph

‘Baghdad just like Belfast in Troubles’
Blair’s claim on tactics to quell Iraqi insurgents

By Brian Walker, London Editor
brian.walker@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
08 February 2005

Tony Blair has compared defeating insurgents in Iraq with dealing with the IRA at the height of the Troubles.

Facing a two-and-a-half hour grilling from senior MPs on the Commons Liaison Committee, he pledged that British and American troops would remain in Iraq “as long as is needed”.

He held out little hope of an early pull-out, despite the success of the recent Iraqi elections, when 59% of the adult population voted.

The new Iraqi government which will emerge in a couple of week’s time would be sovereign, he said.

“My own view is that there is a need for a multinational force to remain for as long as the new Iraqi forces are not capable, but their capability is building all the time.”

The US are preparing a phased withdrawal plan for troops that could be published soon.

Insurgents were not particularly numerous, Mr Blair said.

“But people are prepared to be suicide bombers. And as we know to our cost at the height of the Irish troubles - I don’t know how many people the IRA had - with everything we had, it was extremely difficult to deal with them.”

“We have to build on the election very quickly with the security forces, reaching out to the (minority) Sunni community with a reconciliation plan. Since the elections, the insurgents must realise they’ve got no public support.”

In a wide-ranging session the Prime Minister said he was “reasonably optimistic” about the prospects for UK economic growth.

Making the inevitable pre-election pledge that tax rates will not rise, he rejected predictions from think-tanks that a tax hike was inevitable after the election.

On climate change Mr Blair held out hopes that the US was ready to “enter into dialogue” over cutting its carbon emissions as the world’s greatest polluter, “but let’s be blunt, not about Kyoto, they’re not shifting on that.”

It wasn’t sensible yet to go into details about new negotiations with the Americans yet.

“But if you look at individual US states and senators, there is a changing debate to make use of, that would achieve greater consensus.”

RTE News

NI parties not to be invited to White House

08 February 2005 21:56

It is understood that the White House may not extend the traditional St Patrick’s Day invitation to Northern Ireland’s political parties.

Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, said that the US administration had already made its decision on the matter.

In the wake of the controversy over the Northern Bank robbery it is thought that no party from the North will be attending the White House celebrations.

Yesterday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is on a visit to the US, said that he would be urging that all parties be treated equally.

Throughout the peace process the North’s parties have been invited to Washington for discussions with the US President after the shamrock ceremonies.

They have also attended the annual speaker’s lunch on Capitol Hill.

However it is not clear whether this invitation has been issued this year.

Ahern meets Annan in New York

On his visit to the United States, Dermot Ahern met the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, in New York.

Yesterday evening the minister met with Irish emigrant groups and heard their concerns about the huge number of undocumented Irish people who are working in the US illegally.

Mr Ahern will discuss this issue with US Senators in Washington later this week.

He is also due to meet US President George W Bush’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss.

BreakingNews.ie

Ahern: No release for McCabe killers

08/02/2005 - 20:10:14

The Government said tonight it was no longer prepared to risk releasing the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe to secure a peace deal in the North.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made the comment while supporting an opposition motion in the Dáil calling on Republicans to abandon violence and embrace democracy.

Mr Ahern said: “It was a risk that the Government was prepared to take in the particular circumstances of closure.

“However I have now made it clear that the question of the early release of the killers of Det Gda McCabe is no longer on the table.”

Last December, Mr Ahern provoke outrage when he said that the four IRA men convicted of the 1996 killing could be freed early if a power-sharing deal was reached in Northern Ireland.

The controversial issue, which was a key Sinn Féin demand during negotiations, was a contentious part of tonight’s Fine Gael private member’s motion.

However, when opening the debate, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny confirmed that agreement had been reached with the Government on the issue after intensive dialogue.

He said: “I welcome Mr Ahern’s statement in which he confirmed that this matter is off the table and that he does not envisage it being out back on the table.”

Belfast Telegraph

Human rights project launched for Ulster schools

By Claire Regan
08 February 2005

A major resource on human rights education was launched today, providing support for teachers in exploring human rights issues as part of the curriculum in secondary schools here.

Human Rights Commissioner Professor Brice Dickson was joined by groups of schoolchildren at Stormont this morning to launch the ‘Bill of Rights in Schools: A Resource for Post Primary Schools’.

Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education, Gerry McGinn, and chief executive of the Belfast Education and Library Board, David Cargo, were also there to hear from teachers and pupils from the Boys Model School in Belfast and St Mary’s College in Newry who are currently using the materials to further their understanding of human rights and citizenship issues.

The materials were developed through a partnership of the Human Rights Commission, the Department of Education and all five education and library boards.

The new teaching resource was piloted by teachers in 30 schools and has been distributed to all post primary schools across Northern Ireland.

Professor Dickson hailed the event “a landmark day for the education service in Northern Ireland”.

“This dynamic resource will allow teachers and pupils to explore local and international human rights issues.

“It will certainly improve pupils’ understanding of human rights issues generally, and more particularly the issues associated with the proposed Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.”

Mr McGinn added: “All the international conventions on human rights lay great stress on the right to education.”

Belfast Telegraph

Verdict is awaited on law change
Juries may be told of past crimes during trials

By Chris Thornton
08 February 2005

The criminal records of burglars, joyriders and paedophiles will be told to juries if the Government adopts a law change proposed today.

The move - first revealed by the Belfast Telegraph last November - will bring Northern Ireland into line with rest of the UK.

Under the proposals, a judge can decide to reveal the previous convictions of thieves and child sex offenders if they are on trial for similar offences.

The previous legal principle in UK law was that defendants should be tried only on the basis of the offence with which they are accused. Previous convictions were not admissible in court unless the defence raised them.

Civil liberties groups have been uneasy about the planned change in Britain, but the NSPCC welcomed the move here, saying it would help protect children.

John Spellar, the NIO’s Criminal Justice Minister, said the change would “give courts the opportunity to hear a wider range of relevant evidence in criminal cases”.

The proposals are part of the Government’s “bad character provisions”, which allow prosecutions to use more information about “previous convictions and other misconduct, where such information is deemed as relevant by the judge and is likely to throw new light on a case without unduly prejudicing the fairness of the trial”.

Mr Spellar said that in child sex and theft cases there should be a “strong presumption” on the judge’s part that the information should be disclosed.

“For over a century the law has recognised that evidence of a defendant’s previous convictions and other misconduct may be admitted in some circumstances.

“However, the confusing nature of the current rules make them difficult to apply and may mean that evidence of previous misconduct that seems clearly relevant is excluded from court.

“Trials should be a search for the truth and therefore the court should have all the relevant information available to help it to reach fair and proper decisions”.

Consultation on the law change will take place until April 29.

Belfast Telegraph

North Belfast gets new PSNI unit

08 February 2005

A new police unit is being set up in north Belfast to tackle car crime, drugs and burglary, it was revealed today.

Forty police officers from across the District Command Unit will make up the new Operational Support Unit (OSU) which will support the DCU’s pro-active policing team.

It will be fully operational next month.

Using the National Intelligence Model, the PSNI says it will focus on the issues that are important to the local community.

The team will use the latest law enforcement technology in an attempt to cut crime in the area.

DCU Commander, Chief Superintendent Mike Little said: “Setting up this unit demonstrates our commitment to making sure that north Belfast is safer.

“I want to take this opportunity to reassure residents of north Belfast that my officers and I are dedicated to tackling crime and the fear of crime in this area.

“The community are telling us that they have had enough of criminality in the area.

“Crime is falling but I am pledging today that we will work to ensure it falls further. I want to make people feel safe living and working in north Belfast.”

The chief superintendent said he recognised that police could not work alone to tackle crime and appealed for support from local people.

He said: “I would encourage all those individuals or groups representing local communities in north Belfast to engage with police in making this area a safer place for all.”

Belfast Telegraph

Court hears 5 deny Real IRA charges

By Brian Hutton
08 February 2005

Four men and a woman appear before Ballymena Magistrates Court today charged with being members of the Real IRA.

All five were arrested following the discovery of three incendiary devices during a police swoop on a house in Fisherwick estate in Ballymena on Saturday.

Anthony Martin Lee, (29) of Fisherwick Crescent, an unemployed baker, Liam Lyness (20), of Fisherwick Crescent, a butcher and Christopher Daniel Smiley, (22), of Deramore Crescent, unemployed, all denied the charges.

The court heard that all three made no reply when charged with possession of explosives with intent to endanger life or damage property. On a second charge of being a member of a proscribed organisation, namely the Real IRA, all three replied that they have never been a member of an illegal organisation.

Simone Sloan (22), of Fisherwick Gardens, a dental nurse, also denied both charges. Pearse Fergus Thomas O’Neill, (22), of Deramore Crescent, unemployed, had to be forced to stand before the court by police and refused to confirm his identity.

The court heard that O’Neill made no reply to either charge.

A PSNI constable told the court that he believed he could connect all five accused with the charges.

Resident Magistrate Richard Wilsonbriefly adjourned the hearings after a large crowd in the gallery cheered and clapped the announcement of one of the defendants.

A large police presence moved in to eject the crowd from the courtroom before one family member of each defendant was allowed to re-enter

All five defendants are to be remanded in custody to appear before the court again by videolink on March 3.

BreakingNews.ie

Kenny: All IRA activity must end

08/02/2005 - 19:23:09

The Dáil was tonight urged to send a clear message to Sinn Féin that all IRA activity was unacceptable and must end.

As agreement was reached between Opposition parties and the Government on a motion calling for full IRA disarmament and an end to criminality, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said paramilitary activity could not continue.

The Mayo TD welcomed comments from the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today that his Government was not planning to release the IRA killers of a garda as part of any future peace process deal with Sinn Féin.

But following two IRA statements last week warning of problems in the peace process after the Provisionals were blamed for the £26.5m (€37.8m) Northern Bank raid in Belfast, Mr Kenny claimed Sinn Féin had enjoyed a disproportionate mandate because of its links to a gun.

“What I find disturbing is the republican movement’s version of democratic politics which appears to be one in which they hold sovereign governments to ransom and resort to threats and intimidation when they don’t get everything they want,” he said.

“They have yet to learn the true nature of their much vaunted electoral mandate. The Sinn Féin electoral mandate is for democratic politics and democratic politics requires negotiation and compromise, not threats and intimidation.

“The Fine Gael message to Sinn Féin and the IRA is a clear one. We want the republican movement to join the democratic process. We want them to end their criminality and criminal past.

“We want them to end punishment beatings and racketeering. We want them to back up their words of embracing democratic politics with actions to demonstrate that and not breaches of trust to undermine it.

“Only then will the Irish people have full confidence that all parties are pursuing their political objectives by the same means. Only then we will have confidence that our electoral process is not being corrupted by the proceeds of criminality.”

BBC

Man charged over Omagh bomb car

Twenty-nine men, women and children died in the attack

A 34-year-old man from County Louth has been charged by detectives investigating the Omagh bombing.

The man, who was arrested in Newry on Monday, is charged with supplying a car to terrorists between 11 August 1998 and 16 August 1998.

He is due to appear before Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

Twenty-nine men, women and children died and hundreds were injured in the car bomb attack in the County Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.

The bombing was later admitted by the dissident republican Real IRA.

Sinn Féin

Gerry Adams To Launch Sinn Fein Centenary Exhibition

Published: 8 February, 2005

Sinn Fein will tomorrow (Wednesday 9th February) launch an exhibition celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the foundation of Sinn Fein.

The exhibition will include historical artefacts, photographs and images depicting the history and development of Sinn Fein over the past 100 years. The exhibition will travel around Ireland over the next year.

The exhibition will be launched by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams in the Edinburgh Suite in the Europa Hotel, Belfast at 11am.

The media are invited to attend.

Irish Democrat

Good Friday deal pushed into the freezer

by David Granville

THE FAILURE in December to secure an agreement on reviving the Good Friday institutions and unsubstantiated police allegations of IRA involvement in the £26.5 million Northern Bank heist have combined to place the Irish peace process in the coldest corner of the political freezer it has occupied since Britain’s suspension of the Stormont assembly back in October 2002.

With little or no progress expected until at least the other side of a British general election in May, and with many commentators predicting an even lengthier time scale, serious questions begin to arise concerning the long-term future of the devolutionary, power-sharing Good Friday deal.

Such questions are bound to intensify if the British and Irish governments move to penalise or exclude Sinn Fein from the process on the basis of their relationship with the IRA or as a result of a now imminent report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) - a body set up outside of the terms of the Good Friday agreement, ostensibly to monitor paramilitary activity. To date, the IMC has shown itself as being far from independent or impartial.

As for the Northern Bank robbery, Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde let it be known that in his ‘opinion’, based on “investigative work done to date”, the Provisional IRA were responsible for the crime and that “all lines of inquiry… are in that direction”. The IRA has since denied any involvement.

Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness have made it clear that they believe the IRA’s denial and have reacted angrily to further unsubstantiated allegations that they themselves had prior knowledge of the raid.

Speaking on the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost programme on 13 January, Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness insisted that no one in the party’s leadership had any knowledge of the robbery. If they had, he said, it would have represented “a defining moment in Sinn Fein’s leadership’s work with the IRA” and been “totally and absolutely unacceptable” to him.

McGuinness said that he was unable to see how involvement in such a risky operation, with its the potential to undermine the republican contribution to the peace process could have been in the interests of the IRA.

The latter point has been raised by others, including veteran Irish communist Jimmy Stewart. Writing in a recent edition of the party’s northern area weekly journal Unity, Stewart asked the question “who benefits?”. He concluded that it was certainly not the republican movement, whose political reputation had been dented as a result of the robbery accusations.

However, Orde’s claim of IRA responsibility had arrived as “manna to Ian Paisley’s DUP”, Stewart suggested, letting the party “off the hook” as the main obstacle to reviving the Good Friday institutions.

No longer under pressure to participate in attempts to revive the Good Friday process, the party is now free to get on with its immediate political priority of consolidating its position as the dominant voice of Ulster unionism.

The DUP are not the only ones hoping to benefit from republicans’ difficulties. The current situation offers plenty of scope for political opportunism and the list of those concerned for their future employment and influence as a result of the growing electoral strength and popularity of Sinn Fein on both sides of the Irish border grows lengthier by the week.

Predictably, Sinn Fein sees the hands of what it calls the ’securocrats’ - security and military elements within the British state opposed to the Good Friday process - as being the main source of ‘intelligence’ pointing to IRA involvement in the robbery.

While the response of some will be “well they would say that, wouldn’t they”, experience suggests that it would be wrong to dismiss such claims out of hand.

Despite the size of the police operation no evidence has as yet been produced to back up the chief constable’s ‘opinion’, no money recovered, no arrests made and no charges laid. Although this could change, the situation should at least set alarm bells ringing concerning the quality and origin of the supposedly high-grade intelligence on which Orde claims to be basing his assessment.

In this respect, the key role of the six county’s notorious Special Branch will not inspire confidence outside of unionist quarters. Characterised by former deputy chief constable John Stalker as a ‘force within a force’ , Special Branch has been linked to some of the worst instances of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries and continues to include those hostile to police reform and disillusioned with what they see as the British government’s capitulation to republicans.

Significantly, Special Branch has played a central role in attempts to implicate republicans in connection with the Castlereagh break in and the allegations of a Stormont spy ring in 2002, both of which arose at critical junctures of the Irish peace process.

It was former RUC chief Ronnie Flanagan, a former head of Special Branch, who attempted to blame the IRA for a break in at the top security Castlereagh base, despite all the evidence pointing to an inside job. Three years later no one has been charged in relation to the break in. A similar pattern accompanied the high profile, and conveniently televised, raid on Sinn Fein’s offices at Stormont in October 2002. The pretext on this occasion concerned allegations of an IRA spy ring.

As with the Castlereagh incident, high profile, well publicised raids were carried out on the homes of known republicans. Of the four people who arrested, one was released without charge, while the remaining three, after being detained for several months, had the most serious charges of ’spying with possession of documents’ dropped. Two computer software disks, the only items removed from the Stormont office during the police ‘raid’ were returned within days.

It is this context that questions must be raised in connection the nature and intention of the high profile raids on republican homes in the wake of the recent bank robbery, the exact nature of the ‘intelligence’ on which the chief constable claims to be acting, and the extremely prejudicial nature of the allegations themselves.

At the very least, the nature or Orde’s announcement rides roughshod over such supposed ‘norms’ of British justice as the presumption of innocence until proved otherwise and the right to a fair trial.

None of which is to declare with absolute certainty that the IRA or republicans of whatever status or faction were categorically not involved in the Northern Bank raid. In the absence of any concrete evidence, how could any of us know for sure? However, it does suggest that there is good reason to treat the chief constable’s ‘opinion’ with extreme caution.

Even if it is eventually proved that republicans were involved, it is stretching credibility to implicate Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness given their long-term role in developing Sinn Fein’s political strategy and the party’s commitment to the Good Friday process.

In a recent interview, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams predicted that the truth about the robbery would evenually come and that when it did it would not be his party which would be embarrassed. There are plenty of reasons why supporters of the Good Friday deal should hope his assessment to be correct.

It was a former Irish government advisor, Fergus Finlay, who pointed out prior to the signing of the Good Friday agreement that any process which excluded Sinn Fein was “not worth a penny candle”. In this respect at least, nothing has changed and both governments know it.

The simple fact is that the Northern Bank robbery and the allegations of responsibility that have followed in its wake have added to the current crisis facing the Irish peace process but are not its cause.

This continues to rest firmly with the refusal of Ian Paisley’s DUP to sign up to power sharing in the six counties. That is the task that the government of Tony Blair and his ministers need to return with a degree of urgency.

The above article originally appeared in the Morning Star on 31 January 2005

Guardian

**further reading links on site

Dolly scientist to clone human embryos

Staff and agencies
Tuesday February 8, 2005

The creator of Dolly the sheep has been granted a licence to clone human embryos for medical research, it was announced today.

Professor Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and a team from King’s College, London, plan to clone embryos to study motor neurone disease (MND). Consent was granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

Professor Wilmut made history when Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born on July 5, 1996.

His application was a joint one with Christopher Shaw, of the department of neurology, Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, London.

Sufferers of motor neurone disease and Brian Dickie, director of research development at the Motor Neurone Disease Association, attended an event in Edinburgh to publicise the announcement.

In August last year, the HFEA gave scientists from the University of Newcastle the green light to clone human embryos. The research - which aims to treat a host of incurable diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and diabetes - has provoked fury from pro-life groups.

Earlier last year scientists in South Korea said they had produced the first definitive human cloned embryos. Professor Wilmut plans to apply the technique used to clone Dolly - cell nuclear replacement - to human embryos.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “It will be possible for the first time to be able to study cells from the very early stages of development that would have developed motor neurone disease had they been in a patient.

“This will create totally new opportunities to begin to understand the disease and to begin to test new drugs and to research the disease in totally new ways that can’t be done in any other way,” he added.

The pioneering scientist proposes to harvest human embryonic stem cells from surplus embryos or embryos created specifically for the purpose by IVF.

Dolly died in February 2003 after developing a progressive lung disease usually found in older sheep. Cloning to create copies of human babies is outlawed in Britain but therapeutic cloning has been legal since 2002.

Professor Shaw says the licence is potentially a big step forward for motor neurone disease research but they still had to raise the money to carry out the research.

“We have spent 20 years looking for genes that cause MND and to-date we have come up with just one gene. We believe that the use of cell nuclear replacement will greatly advance our understanding of why motor neurones degenerate in this disease, without having to first hunt down the gene defect,” he said.

Stem cells are the master cells of the body. They appear when embryos are just a few days old and go on to develop into every type of cell and tissue in the body.

Scientists hope to be able to extract the stem cells from embryos when they are in their blank state and direct them to form any desired cell type to treat a variety of diseases, ranging from Parkinson’s to diabetes.

Getting the cells from an embryo that is cloned from a sick patient could allow scientists to track how diseases develop and provide genetically matched cell transplants that do not cause the immune systems to reject the transplant.

The work, called therapeutic cloning because it does not result in a baby, is opposed by abortion foes and other biological conservatives because researchers must destroy human embryos to harvest the cells.

“What a sad and extraordinary volte face for the pioneer of animal cloning,” say the anti-cloning group Comment on Reproductive Ethics. “Wilmut has always been the loudest voice in recent years warning of the dangers of mammalian cloning. And we remember how in the years following the birth of Dolly the Sheep, he assured the world he would never go near human cloning.”

Professor Wilmut has repeatedly condemned the idea of human cloning to create babies, but not therapeutic cloning.

“We recognise that motor neuron disease is a serious congenital condition,” said Angela McNab, the chief of the embryo research agency. “Following careful review of the medical, scientific, legal and ethical aspects of this application, we felt it was appropriate to grant the Roslin Institute a one-year licence for this research into the disease.”

Professors Wilmut and Shaw plan to clone cells from patients with the disease, derive blank-slate stem cells from the cloned embryo, make them develop into nerve cells and compare their development with nerve cells derived from healthy embryos.

Jimmy Johnstone, the former Celtic player who has motor neurone disease, said: “I am delighted with this news - today’s decision will help hundreds of thousands of people around the world and the people who care for them. It’s about saving lives. Now I just hope that they can fast-track the research because time is the enemy for this illness.

“To those who oppose this research, I would just say this: If one of your loved ones had this terrible disease and you knew that using stem cells could lead to a cure - what would you do?”

Dr Dickie said: “Today’s announcement means we are a step closer to medical research that has the potential to revolutionise the future treatment of MND.

“All along, the association has recognised that the area of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning raises moral, ethical and religious issues, and it’s important that these are considered and debated.

“However, in principle, we endorse this research project, on the basis that it is legal, has a sound scientific rationale, and has the potential to bring us closer to treatments and ultimately a cure for MND.”

Motor neuron disease is an umbrella term for a collection of illnesses of varying severity that all lead to loss of muscle function because of nerve failure. About 10% of those affected live for a decade or more, like celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, who has a type of motor neuron disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

However, most die within five years of the onset of symptoms, which usually start in middle age.

An inherited defect in a single gene is responsible for about 2% of cases of the disease. Another 8% of cases are caused by some other, yet unidentified, inherited genetic abnormality.

“This is potentially a big step forward for [motor neuron disease] research,” said Professor Shaw. “We have spent 20 years looking for genes that cause [motor neuron disease] and to date we have come up with just one gene. We believe that the use of cell nuclear replacement will greatly advance our understanding of why motor neurons degenerate in this disease, without having to hunt down the gene defect.”

Genetics expert Peter Braude of King’s College, London, who is not involved with the work, said that studying how nerves go wrong in motor neuron disease and how it can be cured is particularly difficult and that cloning is the only way to produce the cells necessary to answer such questions.

Professor Richard Gardner, the chairman of the Royal Society working group on stem cell research and cloning, said: “The granting of a second licence in the UK to carry out valuable research into therapeutic cloning highlights the potential benefits that are being pursued through this new technology.

“However, we do need to ensure that mavericks do not attempt to use this to undertake reckless experiments in the reproductive cloning of humans.

“Next week, the United Nations is meeting to discuss the form of a political declaration on human cloning. As national science academies all over the world have stressed, we want to see the message made clear.

“Individual countries should be allowed to make up their own minds about therapeutic cloning but extending these techniques to attempt to produce a cloned baby is scientifically unsafe, ethically unsound and socially unacceptable.”

BBC

Irish PM says report ‘blames IRA’

More than £26m was stolen from the Northern Bank

A report on the Northern Bank raid will go further than the British and Irish governments in linking it to the IRA, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.

The Independent Monitoring Commission’s report on the £26.5m raid is expected to be published on Thursday.

Mr Ahern was speaking in the Dail on Tuesday after the Irish cabinet met to discuss the report.

He told the Dail that if anything, the report would go beyond anything he has ever said.

Last month, Mr Ahern said that he believed Garda intelligence which suggested the IRA was responsible for the raid.

The IMC - which monitors paramilitary activity - finished its investigation into the December raid last week.

Its report is expected to endorse the police assessment that the IRA carried out the robbery.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly has called on the Irish government to block any sanctions Sinn Fein may face following the bank robbery.

Mr Ahern met the IMC on 31 January.

PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde has blamed the IRA for the raid, a view also backed by the Garda.

However, the IRA denies the claims and, last week, it withdrew its offer of complete decommissioning.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he accepted the chief constable’s view that the IRA was behind the raid.

BreakingNews.ie

SF: Sanctions won’t work

08/02/2005 - 17:11:05

Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly has urged the Government to ensure the Independent Monitoring Commission does not impose sanctions on his party.

The Commission’s report, to be published on Thursday, is expected to recommend political and financial penalties for the IRA’s alleged involvement in the Northern Bank raid.

Mr Kelly has said that would be a mistake.

Mr Kelly said: “Sanctions are obviously the wrong route to go down. We have tried it before and it doesn’t work, exclusion has been tried before, criminalisation has been tried before, all these things have been tried before.”

“What I am saying is the Irish Government as an equal partner should block any idea of sanctions by the IMC because the IMC does have a representative of the Irish Government on it.”