SAOIRSE32

Daily Ireland

“It is a terrible insult to the memories of the victims of Bloody Sunday, their families and all those who suffered under this man’s decision to send paratroopers into Derry and shoot our people. Make no mistake, it all came from this man” - John Kelly

Eamonn Houston

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Relatives of the Bloody Sunday victims last night condemned a decision to yesterday fly flags at half-mast outside civil service buildings in honour of former British Prime Minister Ted Heath.
The flags were lowered to coincide with a memorial service in London for Mr Heath, who was Prime Minister when 13 people were shot dead by British soldiers in Derry on January 30, 1972.
John Kelly, whose brother Michael (17) was among the Bloody Sunday victims, described the civil service tribute as “astounding - an insult”.

click to view - two of a kind

In a statement, the Department of Education said: “The Flags Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 (Regulation 6) provides that, following the death of a former Prime Minister, the Union flag shall be flown at half mast at the government buildings specified in the regulations.”
Heath was yesterday venerated at a memorial service in Westminster Abbey.
Former British Foreign Secretary Lord Hurd said: “His integrity in looking for truth, then his determination to turn that truth into action, these are the qualities we remember today and having remembered that we are glad.”
Mr Kelly and public representatives in Derry last night rounded on the civil service, claiming that government departments had displayed gross insensitivity.
“This is scandalous,” Mr Kelly said.
“It is a terrible insult to the memories of the victims of Bloody Sunday, their families and all those who suffered under this man’s decision to send paratroopers into Derry and shoot our people. Make no mistake, it all came from this man.
“There is no way that a government building should ever commemorate this man in this way, in this city. It is an act of gross insensitivity to the people of Derry. Anywhere, but not in this city. He was responsible for Bloody Sunday and the following cover up and to hear him talked about as a man of the truth is quite simply a joke.”
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney also said that the flying of the Union flag at half mast from government buildings in Derry was an insult.
“The flying of the Union flag at half mast in tribute to Ted Heath is an insult to the nationalist people of Derry given he was the British Prime Minister at the time of Bloody Sunday and ultimately responsible for the massacre of Derry citizens.
“Not only was he British Prime Minister at the time but he also reminded Widgery to remember that ‘we are fighting a propaganda war as well as a military one’ before he started his inquiry. The fact that his inquiry has been proven to have been a whitewash was obviously in no small measure a consequence of Heath’s reminder to the British Chief Justice.”
“He refused point blank to answer questions about his role on Bloody Sunday. To fly a flag in his memory particularly in the City of Derry is a total insult.”

Daily Ireland

Arthurs family tell of children terrorised in early morning raids they say had nothing to do with the Northern Bank investigation, but are simply targeting republicans

Jarlath Kearney

Tyrone Republican Brian Arthurs at his home

Eight year-old Declan Arthurs wanted to be a policeman when he grew up.
His parents didn’t attempt to change his mind. His family didn’t try to sway his opinion. His friends didn’t work at putting him off.
He even went on Ulster Television’s School Around the Corner programme last year and told presenter Frank Mitchell the profession he hoped to follow.
Events of the past seven days have robbed Declan of his desire to join the police.
Last Thursday morning Declan was - in the words of his mother Paula - left “hysterical and screaming” when a heavy contingent of PSNI members raided the family home in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
Declan’s ground-floor bedroom windows were hammered by PSNI members at ten-to-seven in the morning. There was sustained shouting and roaring. Local people estimated that at least 20 PSNI vehicles were involved in the raid.
Declan awakened bewildered and petrified: his bedroom windows and the front door being repeatedly kicked and battered.
Upstairs, Declan’s parents recognised the familiar thuds and distinctive engines of an early morning raid. Yet even Brian and Paula Arthurs admitted their subsequent surprise about the aggression and intensity of the raiding party.
Seven years after the Good Friday Agreement, the incident marked the first time Declan had ever been subjected to a house raid.
After his release as a republican prisoner from Long Kesh in 2000, Brian was only arrested on one occasion from the family home. However, Declan slept through that brief search, which culminated in his father’s release without charge after a short period of interrogation.
Last Thursday - while under house arrest with his mother and two elder sisters - Declan witnessed Brian taken away in handcuffs to Antrim PSNI barracks. The PSNI publicly linked the five hour raid and arrest operation with an investigation into last December’s Northern Bank robbery.
“Among the 39 bags of household material seized were three telephone books, mobile phones and a computer which contained school coursework belonging to our daughters - both of whom are doing exams, one A-levels and one O-levels,” Paula Arthurs told Daily Ireland yesterday.
“Clothes belonging to various members of the family were taken, including trainers belonging to one of the girls. Every document in the house was removed. All our money was seized. They took a courtesy car that Brian was using while his own car was under repair.
“They took Declan’s birthday money from his wardrobe in the bedroom. They even lifted a one pound coin which was sitting on the kitchen table, and placed it into an evidence bag. An entire drawer of receipts and notes in the hallway dresser was dumped into an evidence bag - without any pretence at analysing or examining what was being taken,” Paula said.
After Brian’s release from Long Kesh in 2000, the Arthurs family successfully established a couple of small local businesses. Literally all of the material and petty cash relating to these businesses was also removed from the family home by the PSNI.
Brian and Paula are particularly angry about “direct attempts by the PSNI and by sections of the media to imply the raid was connected with the alleged seizure of cigarettes”.
“They deliberately made it look like that they took cigarettes and contraband from this house. That’s a total lie.
“There were bank-books and cash taken from here which belonged to our businesses, but the allegation that cigarettes were taken is completely malicious and absolutely untrue,” Paula said.
“If three or four of them (PSNI members) had come here quietly and asked through my solicitor for me to be available, I would have done so, because I have absolutely nothing to hide,” Brian said.
“But the fact that this was a political raid designed to target me as a republican through the media and involving a dragnet seizure of everything in this house, demonstrates that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the Northern Bank.
“The line of questioning in Antrim interrogation centre also demonstrates that fact. Not once was a solitary piece of evidence put before me alleging that I was linked with the Northerrn Bank incident.
“Instead, the line of questioning was about the current state of the IRA since the summer: what was the mode, what was the structure, the membership, the lines of authority, what are republicans doing and thinking. They were just trawling for information about republicans.
“Now why would they go to all this trouble, tip off the media about my arrest, just to spend almost two days of interrogations asking me about the current state of republicanism and producing no evidence about their Northern Bank allegations?
“It’s about political expediency and political policing of a kind this community has witnessed over the course of the conflict. They came to this house with a political agenda, claiming it was on the basis of Special Branch intelligence.
“Is this now the new thing for the IMC report in January? Are they now going to use these types of incidents to continually target the political development and support of Sinn Féin?” Brian asked.
Brian was acting as a Sinn Féin election official in Dungannon and became the subject of repeated attention from local PSNI members. At that time, Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew raised public concerns through the media about the intimidation.
Since then, repeated allegations - which Brian dismissed as “nonsense” - have appeared in national media suggesting that he holds a senior position in the IRA. He logged concerns about this media trend with Mid-Ulster MP Martin McGuinness, but was unable to take legal action because of his previous conviction.
The Arthurs family were “not totally surprised” last week that the increased PSNI attention and orchestrated media campaign culminated in a major raid. Three weeks ago, Brian had actually lodged a complaint with the Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan over the sustained PSNI harrassment.
It was the manner of last Thursday morning’s raid, particularly the traumatising effect on her family, that deeply annoyed Paula.
“When they came into the house, I kept asking them to calm down and told them I had three children who were very upset. They were just f-ing and blinding and then they refused my brother entry into the house and physically threw him across the garden.
“I have been raided since I was eight, but this is totally unacceptable in this day and age. My biggest disappointment is that because of the political agenda of some people in the PSNI, my children have been subjected to this totally unwarranted ordeal.
“I decided I am not going to let this go, because it was too disturbing for the children and myself. Declan was threatened that he would end up shot dead like his uncle, and I had to tell them to stop questioning him. My children were terrorised by state terrorists,” Paula said.
Brian was particularly scathing of the role played by sections of the media in relation to last week’s events.
“I was arrested at seven o’clock and by nine o’clock in the morning - two hours later - my name was being broadcast on the news. Throughout the period of my interrogation, it turns out that my name and family history were being used to link the so-called ‘Northern Bank arrests’ with republicans.
“I am especially angry that one paper plastered my photograph and details about my family background across its front page last Friday morning, in a way that, in my opinion, clearly played into the agenda of felon-setting which the RUC/PSNI were engaged in.”
Brian also criticised a simultaneous raid on his elderly parents’ home in the Co Tyrone village of Galbally. At exactly seven o’clock on Thursday morning, 17 PSNI landrovers arrived at the isolated home of pensioners Amelia and Paddy Arthurs and surrounded the house. They seized all of the couple’s life savings - despite being in possession of an improper warrant. Most of the money had come from a court case against the British government in relation to the killing of Declan Arthurs, Brian’s brother, during the Loughgall massacre in 1987.
In 2001, the British government was ordered to pay a modest sum of compensation to the Arthurs family, among others, after being found to have violated Declan Arthurs’ right to life. Brian said that is the money seized.
“The tactics used against my family were the same tactics I experienced when I was first arrested aged 17 in 1982. There is clearly a very serious problem with political policing in the RUC/PSNI, with a lot of the same personalities and tactics.
“The fact that human rights abusers are still in the force and are not answerable or accountable to anyone shows that these people are not genuine or sincere about a new beginning. If this is meant to be the new dispensation then why are they continuing to lift and target innocent republicans with impunity?”
Recalling that the British government relied on false intelligence to support an invasion of Iraq allegedly searching for weapons of mass distruction, Brian added: “Any so-called intelligence against me by Special Branch is just as false and untrue as their dodgy dossier. The events of last Thursday should be seen in that context. It was a politically-motivated action, a raid of mass distraction.”

- TIMELINE OF EVENTS
December 19/20, 2004:
Northern Bank is robbed of £26.5 (€39.2) million, after two employees are coerced to assist thieves. Despite a traffic warden reporting suspicious activity around the bank, the PSNI fails to act. A large white van is used by thieves to make two trips away from the bank. They escape with virtually all the contents of the bank’s vault.

December 24, 2004:
Homes belonging to prominent republicans in Belfast are raided by the PSNI. At the home of North Belfast republican Eddie Copeland, Christmas presents are ripped open and a large array of personal items are taken. No evidence is found in relation to the Northern Bank robbery.

December 26, 2004
- January 6, 2005:
Dozens of homes, community organisations and business presmises in west Belfast are raided by the PSNI. No evidence is found in relation to the Northern Bank robbery.

January 7, 2005:
PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde convenes a press conference to announce his “opinion” that the IRA was responsible for the bank robbery. “What I can say is… in my opinion the Provisional IRA were responsible,” Mr Orde said.

January 17, 2005:
The IRA issues a statement denying responsibility for the Northern Bank raid.

February 9, 2005:
The PSNI commence a two-day search of a farm in Beragh, Co Tyrone using diggers and divers to take apart a local duck pond business, allegedly searching for the white van and proceeds of the robbery. No evidence is found in relation to the Northern bank robbery.

February 10, 2005:
The Indpendent Monitoring Commission claims Sinn Féin leaders were “involved in sanctioning” the Northern Bank robbery before it happened. Republicans bring the North to a standstill with co-ordinated road protests.

February 17, 2005:
Garda arrest seven people in the South allegedly in connection with the Northern Bank robbery. No evidence is found in relation to the Northern Bank robbery. Garda subseuqently claim they have broken an IRA money-laundering ring. One person is subsequently charged. A number of PSNI raids take place in Derry. No evidence is found in relation to the Northern Bank robbery

February 18, 2005:
£50,000 (€74,000) of money stolen from the Northern Bank robbery is recovered in the RUC sports and social club at New Forge Lane, Belfast - premises used by serving and former RUC/PSNI members. PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde blames IRA dirty tricks for planting the cash.

June, 2005:
Det Supt Andy Sproule, head of PSNI ‘C1’ organised crime branch and senior investigationg officer of the Northern Bank robbery takes early retirement.

October/November 2005:
Senior Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party members - Peter Robinson and Sylvia Hermon - ask a series of questions in the House of Commons about the status of the Northern bank robbery investigation.

November 1, 2005:
PSNI members arrest two men from Kilcoo, Co Down, allegedly in connection with the Northern Bank robbery. Both men are named by the media. One of the men is subsequently charged with the Northern Bank robbery on the alleged basis that his DNA was recovered on a hat - which held at least one other person’s DNA - near the home of Northern Bank worker.

November 3, 2005:
Co Tyrone republican Brian Arthurs is arrested amid a blaze of publicity at his Dungannon home, allegedly in connection with the Northern Bank robbery. PSNI assistant chief constable Sam Kinkaid claims that “police do not name or confirm the names of individuals who have been arrested or whose property has been searched”.

November 7, 2005:
Following a large number of other raids and further arrests, one person from Coalisland, Co Tyrone is charged with allegedly obstructing the Northern Bank robbery team.

Daily Ireland

Jarlath Kearney

Relatives of people killed by state forces in the North last night called for new British government legislation on on-the-runs to be linked to a wider “truth process”.
Mark Thompson of Relatives for Justice said: “Any foregoing of prosecutions should be linked with a more formal truth process.”
He was speaking to Daily Ireland after it had emerged last night that new legislation would provide for de facto amnesty in cases where people have been “on the run”.
The move would mean that people who are sought in relation to specific offences could return to the North.
However, reports suggested that the legislation would also permit state forces to apply for similar amnesty in relation to past conduct.
“What we’re saying is that amnesty shouldn’t mean amnesia about the past,” Mr Thompson said.
“We don’t just need a piece of legislation which affects state forces as well as other combatants, or the appointment of a victims commissioner as a sop to the DUP.
“We need a much more cohesive and constructive approach to dealing with all the victims of the conflict in an inclusive way, and that means more generosity and less politicking.
“The other important fact to remember is that, for 35 years, we were told there was clear water and a distinction between the actions of the security forces and the actions of illegal organisations, yet it now appears that they will both be treated equally under the same legislation.”
Mr Thompson insisted that “truth and accountability need to be addressed”. He said there was a need for a truth recovery process that would deal with “all of the outstanding issues as an integral part of a conflict-resolution process, and that should apply across the board”.

Irish Independent

A MAN shot dead in south Armagh has been identified as the former firearms training officer for the breakaway terror group, the Real IRA.

Police were last night trying to establish if Martin Conlon (35) was murdered by former associates in the renegade republican organisation.

Conlon was freed from Portlaoise jail last year after serving a four-year sentence for training Real IRA members in new weaponry.

Six men and a teenager were caught red-handed by the Garda Special Branch at the training camp in Herbertstown, Stamullen, Co Meath, in October 1999.

Conlon, from Railway Street, Armagh, was sentenced by the Special Criminal Court in March 2001 along with three other senior Real IRA activists, Seamus McGrane, Seamus McGreevy and Damien Lawless.

The court heard that gardai found a number of weapons in a hide beside a disused wine cellar including a Russian-made RPG 18 rocket launcher with an explosive warhead capable of piercing armour.

This weapon had not been seen here before and is believed to have been part of a consignment of arms purchased by the Real IRA and Continuity IRA in a joint operation in the Balkans.

Gardai also found an assault rifle, a sub machine gun, semi-automatic pistol, bombs, detonators and ammunition between searches at Stamullen and on a farm in county Louth.

Since his release from prison, according to gardai last night, Conlon had not been active on this side of the Border. He was known in the past to have associated with a gang aligned with the Real IRA and also involved in non-paramilitary criminal activities.

The ruthless leader of this gang, which had members in Dundalk and south Armagh, was also recently released from prison where he had served a sentence for firearms offences.

Conlon, who had previously been a member of the Provisional IRA, was abducted from his home in Armagh on Monday night and taken away in his car, a silver Volkswagen Passat.

He was shot in the head and was found unconscious on a roadside near the village of Keady. He died before he reached hospital.

The Passat was later found burnt out. PSNI forensic experts have also examined a second car as part of their inquiries. Last night detectives were examining a number of theories in a bid to establish a motive for the shooting.

They were trying to find out if he had fallen foul of his Real IRA associates who have been badly split in the area as a result of the jail feud between the organisation’s chief of staff, Michael McKevitt and director of operations, Liam Campbell.

Tom Brady
Security Editor

Irish American Information Service

11/09/05 10:59 EST

The British government has published new legislation to allow the so-called “on the run” (OTR) paramilitary suspects sought for crimes committed before the Belfast Agreement return to the North.

The Northern Ireland Offences Bill applies to 60 suspects including former Sinn Fein MP Owen Carron and Liam Averill - who escaped from the Maze Prison dressed as a woman in December 1997.

British prime minister Mr Blair is expected to face serious opposition to the Bill in the House of Commons and the House of Lords from unionists and Conservative Party MPs who accuse the British government of planning an amnesty for IRA members.

In the House of Commons today, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said there the Bill amounted to “collusion on the past between the state and Sinn Fein”.

He asked Mr Blair if he accepted “that victims, including victims of state collusion, will not only be deprived of justice, they will be denied even truth”.

But Mr Blair said: “The proposals are part of the continuing process to bring an end to terrorism in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement that you were part of and I was part of provided in respect of prisoners, this deals with the question of the so-called on-the-runs but I have to say I think it is a different situation where the measures we are introducing are actually designed to end terrorism, not further it.”

Earlier Democratic Unionist victims spokesperson Arlene Foster said the legislation was deeply offensive to victims of terrorism.

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone Assembly member also claimed the legislation could be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights and undermine PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde’s cold case review of unsolved murders.

Mr Durkan was meeting Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain today to voice his concerns.

Ulster Unionists were in Dublin today for talks with the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The Ulster Unionist Party attacked the moves by the governments to deal with “on-the-runs” (OTRs). Party leader Sir Reg Empey said today after talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin: “We believe it is a major mistake. The people released under the Good Friday Agreement were at least through a legal process of a court and jury.”

“That is not the case with the on-the-runs. What we’re actually doing is making our judicial system stand on its head.”

Sir Reg claimed that thousands of people in the UK and Ireland who were victims of OTRs would now never see justice done. “What provisions are being made for them?” he asked.

“This whole issue is skewed towards people who have broken the law and caused enormous damage.”

Meanwhile, paramilitary suspects sought for crimes committed in the Republic before the Belfast Agreement are to be granted an “executive pardon” by the State under new proposals announced by the Irish Government today.

Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Michael McDowell confirmed that a special “eligibility body” would be established to consider the cases of people wanted in this State for offences in connection with the Troubles.

But Mr McDowell warned the arrangements in the Republic would not apply to persons convicted of killing of Garda Jerry McCabe or to two other men involved in the 1996 Adare raid who have never been brought to trial.

He said it was the “stated position of the Government that those already convicted of offences relating to the cowardly killing of Garda McCabe and wounding of Garda Ben O’Sullivan will not benefit from early release”.

“Equally, arrangements being proposed in this jurisdiction for dealing with what have become known as ‘On the Runs’ will not apply to persons in respect of these offences.”

Mr McDowell said the term “On the Runs” related to persons wanted in connection with offences committed prior to the Belfast Agreement “who, if they had been serving sentences for these offences at the time of the Agreement, would have been released early under that Agreement.”

He said it was the intention of the Irish Government to deal with these cases under Article 13.6 of the Constitution which allows the President to pardon or commute a punishment imposed by any court in the State.

Mr McDowell said the “eligibility body” will determine whether a person is a “qualifying person” and shall notify the Minister for Justice who in turn would submit cases to Government with a view to recommending that the President use her powers to pardon or commute.

The approach taken in the two jurisdictions reflected the differing constitutional and legal frameworks, he said, but net effect would be same in that “persons benefiting from the arrangements would not be imprisoned”.

The Minister said that only a handful of cases are likely to arise in this jurisdiction.

But he said: “It did not mitigate in any way the distress which the operation of this scheme was likely to cause people, particularly those who had been the victims of outrages perpetrated by paramilitary organisations.”

Mr McDowell said the proposals were a logical follow through of the early release provisions of the Belfast Agreement and that it would be operated in tandem with the provisions in the UK.

Indymedia.ie

by John Carmody
Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN)
Wednesday, Nov 9 2005, 11:15am
arancampaigns@eircom.net
Po Box 722, Kildare, Ireland
phone: 087-6275579

ADI investigations reveal extent of suffering for the first time

A new hard-hitting campaign to stop the use of animals in circuses is being launched in Ireland today by Animal Defenders International (ADI) and Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN). The campaign report on Ireland’s circuses is based on undercover investigations by ADI Field Officers into seven circuses touring Ireland in 2000 and 2003. ADI Field Officers obtained employment with two Irish circuses, and observed many more.

This is the fifth ADI ‘Stop Circus Suffering’ campaign following launches in UK, Chile, Norway and Portugal, and reveals that around 150 animals are touring Ireland with travelling circuses. These animals endure severe confinement in deprived and unnatural environments, inadequate diets and physical abuse.

Tim Phillips, campaigns director for ADI, announced: “ADI and ARAN hope that this will be the biggest ever push to end the use of animals in circuses in Ireland and we will be distributing DVDs, leaflets and a report that features the extent of circus suffering in Ireland for the first time.”

Examples of the violence used to control the animals were captured in the Irish launch video:
• a camel slapped in the face and then hit in the face with a broom and finally jabbed with a broom handle
• an elephant kicked in the leg and then punched in the face
• a hippo whipped to hurry it along when it was already walking in the desired direction
• a keeper whipping an elephant in order to get her to move
• a baby camel being roughly handled to force him to move
• a pregnant camel performing just days before giving birth.

John Carmody, campaigns coordinator for the Irish group ARAN said: “This investigation has revealed animal suffering in Irish circuses on a large scale, which the circus industry has been desperate to hide. If children only knew how these poor animals are treated, they would be totally shocked. Local councils need to know this and we will be lobbying them to ban the use of animal act circuses.”

The long haul

When the Irish circuses moved town, the report reveals, animals were kept in their trailers for unnecessarily long periods – up to almost 10 times longer than a journey had actually taken. When Italy’s Il Florilegio Circus (Darix Togni) toured Ireland, elephants were kept in their transporter during one journey for 59 hours.

At Courtney’s Mexican Circus, animals were observed left in their transporters for up to 43 hours without free access to water, and with no exercise. This was also true for the six tigers with Tom Duffy’s Circus, whose cramped enclosure was just 3.7 metres by 7.3 metres.

Micki, the elephant with Fossetts Circus (who the circus boasts is the largest African elephant in Europe), was filmed and photographed in a tent chained by both front and hind leg and barely able to move.

Public safety

Poor standards of public safety (and indeed animal safety) were evident especially when a hippo at the Il Florilegio Circus (Darix Togni) started to wander towards a main road because an electric fence had not been erected. Luckily an ADI Field Officer alerted staff before the animal reached the road. In the past 20 months, Ireland’s media have highlighted several instances of animals getting loose or attacking people. The new report is also critical of circuses that allow people to come into close contact with potentially dangerous wild animals like elephants. Circus Vegas, The American 3-Ring Circus and Daredevil Circus all used their elephants during the show interval for photographs with the audience and Daredevil allowed very small children to sit on the Asian elephants.

Confined to quarters

The ADI / ARAN report and video highlight how the needs of animals cannot be met when travelling from one temporary encampment to another, and setting up on what limited space is available. The campaigners found a wide range of animals including horses, ponies, elephants, a rhino, a hippo, camels, and tigers living in confined and deprived environments, in small cages or tethered on short ropes. Some animals did not even have free access to water. For example, during observations of Circus Vegas in Galway, a donkey and a pony spent the day tied at the edge of the circus grounds without any shelter or water.

Disturbed, repetitive behaviour

Living in such bleak, unnatural conditions, it is little wonder that many of these animals go out of their minds. Frustrated, repetitive, stereotypic behaviour takes over. These pointless movements, with the animal no longer aware of its surroundings, are not witnessed in the wild, and are regarded by animal behaviourists as clear signs of distress. We call it ‘circus madness’.

During this study, a number of animals were seen exhibiting disturbed behaviour. At Daredevil circus, elephants exhibited head bobbing and weaving stereotypic behaviour, a classic sign of circus animal stress – it was here that a presenter was caught on film kicking and punching one of the elephants. In Fossetts Circus, the solitary elephant performed stereotypic head weaving and bobbing for a significant part of the day. At Circus Vegas, the three African elephants were observed weaving whilst chained in tents. In Il Florilegio Circus (Darix Togni), all three elephants spent a significant amount of time exhibiting stereotypic behaviour, swaying from side to side and head bobbing. Disturbed behaviour was even filmed in camels and horses.

DVDs, leaflets, posters and reports available

Over the next few weeks and months, ARAN and ADI will be distributing campaign materials throughout Ireland. The groups are calling for local and national government action as well as Europe-wide action. All of Ireland’s MPs and MEPs will be sent the ‘Stop Circus Suffering’ DVD. If you would like a copy of the DVD and/or report for use in your town, please email ARAN today on arancampaigns@eircom.net

______________________

For further information, film footage/ photographs, please contact:
In the UK, the ADI Press Office:
Allison Tuffrey Jones/ Abigail Girling
Tel: 020 8563 0250 / 020 8846 9777
Mob: 07785 552548 Email: pr@ad-international.org

Or in Ireland, ARAN:
John Carmody,
National Events Organiser, Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN),
PO Box 722, Kildare, Ireland
Tel: +353 87 62 75579
Email: arancampaigns@eircom.net

NOTES TO EDITORS

Animal Defenders International (ADI) with offices in London and San Francisco, is a major international campaigning group, lobbying to protect animals on issues such as animals in entertainment and their use in experiments, worldwide traffic in endangered species, vegetarianism, factory farming, pollution and conservation. ADI involves itself in international animal rescues as well as educational work on animals, conservation and environment. In just over a decade, ADI has become a major force for animal protection and has succeeded through its undercover investigations in securing legal protection for animals. ADI’s evidence of the torment to animals has led to campaigns and legislative action all over the world to protect them. http://www.ad-international.org

Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) is a grassroots voice that is speaking out against all forms of cruelty to animals. We work with many national and international animal protection groups and actively support international campaigns for animal rights along with working to encourage activisim among the public and volunteers alike. ARAN will be promoting the new ‘Stop Circus Suffering’ video throughout Ireland.

BBC

Army bomb disposal experts have carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect vehicle parked outside a police station in Londonderry.

The van, which was parked outside Strand Road station at about 1230 GMT on Wednesday, had been hijacked at gunpoint earlier.

An object was placed in the van and the driver was forced to take it to the station.

Police have described the alert as an elaborate hoax.

BBC

Victim was found near Keady in south Armagh

Three children under the age of 10 witnessed the abduction of a man murdered in south Armagh on Monday.

Martin Conlon, 35, from Railway Street in Armagh city, was found with gunshot wounds at Farnaloy Road close to the Madden estate outside Keady.

Two men used a stun gun to subdue Mr Conlon and take him from a friend’s house at Green Park Crest on Monaghan Road outside Armagh, police said.

He was bundled into his own car and driven to the spot where he was killed.

Police are appealing for anyone with any information about the movements of the car, a silver Volkswagen Passat, to contact them.

They have said it is too early to speculate who was responsible for the murder.

Mr Conlon was found at about 1830 GMT on Monday and was pronounced dead in hospital a short time later.

It has been speculated that he was killed by dissident republicans with whom he was linked.

He was released recently from prison in the Republic of Ireland where he had served a four year sentence after being arrested at a Real IRA training camp.

After the killing, police recovered two cars for examination, one of them the victim’s.

It was found about a mile and a half from where he was found, the other in Armagh city.

A number of people are understood to have stopped to help the dying man and police would like to speak to them.

BBC

Legislation allowing fugitives from Northern Ireland to return home has been published.

The proposals cover up to 150 people wanted for crimes committed before the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

They would have their cases heard by a special tribunal, and if found guilty would be freed on licence without having to go to jail.

Unionists and terrorist victims have already expressed their outrage at this law, calling it an effective amnesty.

The DUP brought relatives of terrorism victims to Westminster to lobby against the scheme.

Between 40 and 150 fugitives could benefit from the scheme, including the former Sinn Fein publicity director Rita O’Hare and the IRA Maze escapee Pol Brennan.

The government and Sinn Fein argue that it clears up “an anomaly” left by the release of those already in jail after the Good Friday Agreement.

The law sets up a two stage process. First someone who will be known as the certification officer will decide if someone is eligible for the scheme.

‘Repugnant’ say victims

This could be a paramilitary on-the-run, someone living in Northern Ireland who is charged with an offence before 1998 or a member of the security forces accused of an offence committed when they were combating terrorism.

The case would then go to a special tribunal, consisting of a retired judge sitting without a jury. The tribunal would have all the normal powers of the Crown court but accused would not have to appear for their trial.

If found guilty they would get a criminal record but would be freed on licence. They would have to provide fingerprints and DNA samples to be granted their licence.

The scheme will be temporary but a precise cut off period is not specified in the bill - instead its expiry is linked to the lifetime of the chief constable’s historic cases review team, which is looking at unsolved murders during the Troubles.

The measures are contained in the Northern Ireland Offences Bill which is expected to get a rough ride as it makes its way through parliament.

In a statement, NIO minister David Hanson said: “Sometimes it is necessary to make difficult decisions in the interests of entrenching the benefits of peace. This is one such occasion.

“We want to close the door on Northern Ireland’s past of violence and paramilitarism, and this legislation is one step in that effort.”

Aileen Quinton, who lost her mother Alberta in the 1987 Enniskillen bombing, said the families wanted justice.

She is in London with other victims’ relatives to lobby against the legislation.

“Some things are so important that you just have to do them,” she said.

“We are not looking for vengeance, we are not looking for sympathy, we are looking for justice and justice has to be the bedrock of any kind of peaceful or decent society.”

SDLP leader Mark Durkan told the Commons the proposals represented “collusion on the past” by Sinn Fein and the state.

He asked the prime minister if he accepted “that victims, including victims of state collusion, will not only be deprived of justice, they will be denied the truth”.

UUP leader Sir Reg Empey said the on-the-run proposal was “ill thought-out, completely unnecessary and an insult to the victims of terrorism”.

“The prime minister is guilty of sending out completely mixed messages,” he said.

“On the one hand he is proposing an effective amnesty for some of the most barbaric terrorists in this part of the UK, on the other he proposes tough new laws for terrorists and terrorist related activity on the mainland.”

‘Grotesque legislation’

DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said it was “almost impossible” to find the words to describe the “disgust and revulsion that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland of all political persuasion will have” at the proposals.

“This abuse of the British justice system is an affront to all innocent victims of terrorist violence,” he said.

Alliance leader David Ford accused the government of “coming down against the rule of law” in Northern Ireland.

“In drawing up this grotesque legislation, the government has completely failed to listen to the law-abiding citizens of Northern Ireland on this issue.

“This is a direct follow-on from a side deal struck between the prime minister and Sinn Fein four years ago, completely ignoring the other interested parties, not least the victims.”

However, Sinn Fein MP Martin McGuinness said many people had been on-the-run since internment more than 30 years ago.

He said while many people had suffered pain, the legislation was “a sensible measure”.

“What is the sense of people being pursued whenever everybody knows that as a result of the releases under the Good Friday Agreement they are not going to spend one day in prison.”

On Tuesday, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said security force members should receive equal treatment.

He said those in the services who found themselves charged with crimes committed before 1998 should not be discriminated against compared to paramilitaries.

BBC

A Newry man arrested as part of the investigation into last year’s £26.5m Northern Bank raid has been in court.

Peter Kelly, 30, of Drumboniff Road, denied two charges of making and having documents or records containing information useful to terrorists.

A police officer said that a list of civil servants was found at the accused’s home and workplace at the Department of Finance and Personnel.

He said the list included 3,000 police officers and 70 prison staff.

He said Mr Kelly’s employers had indicated he was not authorised to hold such information.

When he was arrested Mr Kelly replied: “I refute and deny absolutely these hysterical and paranoid charges.”

He added: “I would not be charged with these charges if I was a unionist.”

The court was told that the list contained the names of 36,000 civil servants.

The charges relate to the period between January 2000 and 2 November 2005.

The accused, described as a skilled computer technician who was working at Rosepark House in Belfast, was remanded in custody.

Three men are still being questioned in connection with the Northern robbery. In the last week police investigating the raid have arrested eight people.

Two of the eight have been released without charge and two others have already appeared in court.

The robbery happened at the bank’s Northern Ireland headquarters at Donegall Square West just before Christmas last year.

Some money seized in County Cork last February was linked to the robbery, but virtually all of the missing millions remain unrecovered.

Daily Ireland

Speculation north Belfast ‘brigadier’ is to be stood down by leadership as woman is taken into witness protection programme in wake of raids and arrests

Ciarán Barnes

Click to view - Shoukri brothers (Andre on right)

The Ulster Defence Association is preparing to “stand down” Andre Shoukri as its boss in north Belfast following his arrest yesterday.
Detectives from the PSNI’s organised crime squad arrested the 27-year-old, his elder brother Ihab Shoukri, a female relative, and two other men in a series of early morning raids.
The arrests came after a woman approached the PSNI with information on illegal money making rackets being run by the north Belfast UDA.
She is now living in England under the police’s witness protection programme.
Ye Olde Strathmore Inn on the city’s Cavehill Road, which was formerly known as Bonaparte’s bar, was also visited by detectives.
Last June a PSNI inspector said the premises were “under the control of a paramilitary organisation”. The comments were made during a Belfast city council entertainments license application hearing by its then owner, Mandy Hillman.
Loyalist sources told Daily Ireland yesterday that Andre Shoukri’s arrest signalled the end of his spell in charge of the north Belfast UDA.
The UDA is planning to replace him with a well-spoken loyalist who is heavily involved with interface work.
“Andre is finished, there will be no coming back after this,” said one well-placed source.
“Having the PSNI take him off the streets saves us from doing it ourselves.”
In recent months the UDA has been trying to clean up its gangster image and portray itself as a more political organisation. In April, the UDA stood down its flamboyant east Belfast boss Jim Gray, before murdering him .
Andre Shoukri is viewed by many within the UDA as being in the same mould as Gray. He has powerful enemies within the organisation including its south Belfast leader Jackie McDonald.
McDonald and Shoukri’s UDA factions clashed during the summer when a number of bars that their supporters drink in were paint-bombed.
Last week Andre Shoukri ordered convicted UDA blackmailer Thomas Potts to begin a poison pen campaign against McDonald.
Potts sent anonymous letters to newspapers and senior loyalists in Belfast accusing McDonald of shaming the UDA. McDonald supporters hit back, initiating a smear campaign against Shoukri.
Since joining the UDA in the mid-1990s, Shoukri has been in regular trouble with the law. In 1996 he was jailed for his involvement in the death of Dubliner Gareth Parker who was run over by a car after being punched by Shoukri. The loyalist was back in court in 1998, when he was jailed for attempting to smuggle cigarettes. Two years later he was jailed again for his part in a blackmail plot against a Catholic businessman.
During the 2002 UDA feud, Shoukri was arrested with a gun in his car.
He was initially jailed for six years but the conviction was overturned on appeal.

Daily Ireland

click to view

Former British army officer Tim Spicer who continues to defend two soldiers under his command convicted of the murder of north Belfast teenager Peter McBride has failed to turn up to a conference after Peter’s mother Jean said she would confront him

Connla Young

A former British Army officer pulled out of a conference in England after the mother of a Belfast teenager shot dead by British soldiers threatened to confront him about her son’s death.
Former Scots Guards officer Tim Spicer pulled out of a London conference organised by the Royal United Services Institute just days before he was due to speak to a gathering of former military officers and security specialists at the organisation’s Whitehall headquarters.
Mr Spicer was a lieutenant colonel in the Scots Guards when Guardsmen James Fisher and Mark Wright gunned down Peter McBride in September 1992.
The 18-year-old was murdered just metres from the door of his New Lodge home minutes after being stopped and searched by members of the Scots Guard patrol.
Since his murder, Mr Spicer has continued to peddle a discredited version of events relating to the incident.
In recent years, the Belfast teenager’s mother Jean has tried to confront Mr Spicer on several occasions without success. Mr Spicer has pulled out of previous speaking events after Mrs McBride signalled her intention to attend.
Mrs McBride had planned to attend yesterday’s military conference. She said she was pleased to learn that Mr Spicer had pulled out of appearing at the conference, which was partly sponsored by his company Aegis Specialist Risk Management.
“He didn’t have the courage of his convictions. He has slandered Peter and the people of New Lodge by suggesting they spirited away a phantom explosive device and I am going to remain a thorn in his side,” she said.
Paul O’Connor, of the Pat Finucane Centre in Derry, along with a number of colleagues, held a short protest at the conference venue yesterday.
“It’s interesting that Spicer does not feel able to attend a conference that his own company co-sponsored,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Royal United Services Institute said Mr Spicer had withdrawn from the conference because of “business commitments”.
Mr Spicer was not available for comment yesterday.
Both Mark Wright and James Fisher were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1998, both men were released from prison early and readmitted to the British Army amid a storm of public protest.

Belfast Telegraph

Fraud cops act in contract inquiry

By David Gordon
09 November 2005

The PSNI has suspended two of its civilian employees as part of a probe into alleged corruption, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

Fraud Squad detectives were called in three weeks ago to probe the circumstances that led to a firm being stripped of an important police service contract.

The PSNI had initially resisted calls for immediate suspensions to be imposed, pending the outcome of the inquiries.

But a police spokesman today said: “Two members of staff have been suspended as part of this investigation.”

No further details of the move were disclosed.

The Fraud Squad probe was ordered after a High Court judge called for a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2001 contract saga.

The judge, Sir Liam McCollum, made his comments last month at the conclusion of a long-running legal battle between the PSNI and Belfast firm Northern Ireland Sheet Metal Works.

The company received a £400,000 settlement for the cancellation of a 2001 contract to supply armour plating for police vehicles.

Sir Liam said there was evidence “some person or persons” within the PSNI had “deliberately undermined” the company and “wrongfully discredited” it.

He also stated that it was “difficult to attribute an innocent motive” to anyone involved in the police service’s decision making process.

Detectives investigating the case carried out searches a fortnight ago at a small number of PSNI offices and homes.

Police service premises in Carrickfergus and south Belfast were among those searched.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board has set up an advisory sub-committee to monitor the investigation.

A separate review of PSNI procurement processes is also being carried out by independent audit consultants.

Sir Liam McCollum estimated that the armour plating affair had cost the public purse around £1m, taking into account the court case settlement, legal costs and the higher prices charged by the firm that took over the contract.

Belfast Telegraph

By Marie Foy
09 November 2005

A consultant psychiatrist did not flag up post-traumatic stress disorder among police officers as a matter of concern in the early 1980s, the High Court has heard.

Nicholas Hanna QC, representing the Chief Constable, said a meeting was held at police headquarters in early 1982 to consider the existing police medical services.

The psychiatrist, who had experience dealing with police officers, identified alcoholism, domestic issues and psychiatric illnesses which could affect any member of the population as reasons why officers were referred to him, the lawyer said.

Some problems were linked to affluence, particularly among young officers, and to alcohol, but the psychiatrist did not flag up any question of post-traumatic mental ill-health.

“The issues identified were very much personal type problems,” said Mr Hanna, who contended that the psychiatrist was the obvious person and in a position to have noted any problems of this kind.

He said that, looking back to 1981, there was a chronology of surfacing concerns about the levels of stress in the RUC, although they weren’t linked by anyone to trauma.

“Knowledge of trauma and its consequences began in the early 1980s in the United States and spread to Europe through the 1980s,” he said.

More than 5,000 serving and former police officers are suing the PSNI over alleged negligence in the wake of post-traumatic stress injuries suffered while they dealt with terrorist outrages stretching back 30 years.

The plaintiffs claim the authorities failed to deal properly with the predictable psychiatric and psychological consequences of the traumatic incidents they encountered.

The claim covers the period from the start of the Troubles at the beginning of the 1970s but focuses mainly on the latter part of the decade.

The RUC set up an Occupational Health Unit in 1986 but the plaintiffs are arguing that it operated under capacity for years.

Mr Hanna contended, however, that the force had not been negligent but in fact led the field in treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Meanwhile, speaking on Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show earlier yesterday Chief Constable Hugh Orde questioned if financial compensation was the answer.

“Money may not be the solution. The solution is to make sure these people are properly treated,” he said.

He added that the PSNI’s “occupational health system, is without doubt the best in the United Kingdom, because we still have officers we ask to face extreme dangers”.

He said the action was being taken against an organisation which has “moved on”.

Belfast Telegraph

By Ann O’Loughlin
09 November 2005

David Rupert - photo detail from cryptome.org

The credibility of FBI agent and supergrass David Rupert was central to the prosecution case against convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt.

McKevitt(54), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Co Louth was jailed for 20 years by the Special Criminal Court in August 2003 after he was convicted of directing the activities of a terrorist organisation.

He was the first person to be convicted in the State for the offence which was introduced after the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh.

McKevitt also received a six years concurrent prison sentence for membership of an illegal organisation which the court said was the Real IRA.

PAID AGENT

Yesterday three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal began hearing legal submissions by McKevitt’s lawyers.

The appeal hearing is expected to last four days.

McKevitt was in court for the appeal which was also attended by his wife Bernadette Sands McKevitt.

McKevitt’s counsel Hugh Hartnett SC said there were 42 grounds of appeal. He said that the case against McKevitt had relied exclusively on the evidence of David Rupert, an American who was a paid agent of two security services, the British Security Service and the FBI.

Mr Hartnett said that Mr Rupert’s background, credibility and veracity were central to the prosecution case against McKevitt.

Mr Hartnett said that David Rupert’s evidence was that he had been in Ireland throughout the 1990’s, had fallen in with people with republican sympathies, that he had become acquainted with McKevitt and had become a member of the Army Council of an unlawful organisation of which McKevitt was the director.

Mr Hartnett said that at every stage questions arose in relation to Mr Rupert’s credibility, background and veracity and these were clearly of concern to the defence.

Counsel submitted that significant areas of disclosure about Mr Rupert’s past, including his tax affairs, his criminality and payments made to him by the FBI had been sought by the defence but had not been provided.

Mr Hartnett said that a statement by a New York State trooper had described Mr Rupert as a lifelong criminal, drugs smuggler and a smuggler of arms and explosives.

He said that the defence was interested in why on two occasions, in 1974 and 1994, Mr Rupert was under investigation for various offences and on both occasions he had been recruited by the FBI as an agent.

He said that Assistant Garda Commissioner Dermot Jennings had indicated that Mr Rupert had told lies and that he had a particular view of him, which also concerned the defence in the trial.

He said that Mr Rupert had settled a three quarters of a million dollars tax bill with the US Internal Revenue Service for $25,000 and it would appear that there was some involvement by the security services with that. He also said that documents provided by the British Security Service referred to Rupert’s “trickiness” and the defence wanted to know what this referred to.

Mr Hartnett said there had been a significant failure of disclosure which tainted the whole trial.

He submitted that the trial court had failed to put Mr Rupert into a special category, although issues of credibility had arisen during his 12 days of cross examination. Mr Hartnett said that the issues of disclosure were symptomatic of the failure of fair procedures in the trial and he submitted that there was unfairness in relation to the whole disclosure system that operated in the trial.

He said that a lack of fair procedure led everyone into confusion.

He said that if the failure of disclosure had occurred in the Central Criminal Court before a jury, the jury would have been discharged.

From a public point of view, justice could not be seen to have been done.

SIDELINED

He said the trial court had erred in law by not requiring the prosecution to make a schedule of the documents over which privilege was claimed.

The defence had been pushed to the side and effectively insulated from the court process and deprived of the court process by the court’s decision not to seek disclosure of documents which were outside the State.

The three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal were given access to the unedited documents from the FBI which had been seen by the judges at the Special Criminal Court during the trial.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan handed the seven documents in to the judges and after they read them in their chambers they were then returned to his custody.