SAOIRSE32

ukwatch.net
July 9th, 2008
By David Morrison
From: Spinwatch

On 11 June 2008, 6 people, who had occupied the offices of Raytheon in Derry and destroyed computers, were acquitted of criminal damage by a Belfast jury. Raytheon is a huge US arms manufacturer, with sales of $20 billion in 2006 and over 70,000 employees worldwide. It makes Patriot, Tomahawk, Cruise and Sidewinder missiles, and much more besides.

The action which gave rise to the criminal charges took place on 9 August 2006 during Israel’s war on Lebanon, in which well over 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed by Israeli bombing and shelling. On 30 July 2006, an Israeli aircraft targeted a residential building in Qana in southern Lebanon with a Raytheon-supplied “bunker buster” bomb. As a result, 28 civilians, from two extended families, the Hashems and the Shaloubs, were killed. The dead included 14 children.

This event led to 9 members of the Derry Anti War Coalition occupying Raytheon’s offices in Derry ten days later. They remained there until forcibly removed by police in riot gear about 8 hours later.

Substantial damage was done to Raytheon property:

“Documents found on the premises were thrown from the windows to supporters outside. After our supporters were moved away by the police, computers, already damaged, were hurled out. Our main target was the mainframe: we knew that putting this out of action would disrupt Raytheon’s ordering system and thus hamper production, including production of missiles. The mainframe was decommissioned with a fire-extinguisher.”

This account is taken from The Raytheon 9: Resisting war crimes is not a crime, an excellent pamphlet about the affair by Eamonn McCann, who took part in the occupation.

The action eventually led to 6 of the participants appearing before a judge and jury in Belfast in May 2008, charged with criminal damage and affray. On 4 June 2008, after the prosecution had put its case, the judge expressed the opinion that there was no case to answer on either charge. However, the prosecution appealed to a higher court and won with respect to the criminal damage charge, which then had to be put the jury. A few days later, the jury found all the accused not guilty on the criminal damage charge. The charge of affray was dismissed by the judge without it being put to the jury.

The trial went largely unreported in the local Northern Ireland media, and in the Dublin and London media. The same is true of the verdict, even though it has sensational implications. The defence argued that the accused had undertaken their action in order to prevent war crimes being perpetrated in Lebanon by Israel using Raytheon-supplied weapons. In the words of Eamonn McCann in a statement afterwards, by finding the accused not guilty:

“The jury has accepted that we were reasonable in our belief that: the Israel Defence Forces were guilty of war crimes in Lebanon in the summer of 2006; that the Raytheon company, including its facility in Derry, was aiding and abetting the commission of these crimes; and that the action we took was intended to have, and did have, the effect of hampering or delaying the commission of war crimes.” [1]

In other words, in the opinion of the jury, having heard the evidence, it was reasonable of the defendants to believe that Raytheon was engaged in criminal activity by supplying Israel with armaments and that they were justified in perpetrating criminal damage on Raytheon property in order to hamper this criminal activity. In his statement, Eamonn McCann called

“on the office of the Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service, in light of this verdict, to institute an investigation into the activities of Raytheon at its various plants across the UK, with a view to determining whether Raytheon is, as we say it is, a criminal enterprise.”

Gagging order

The Raytheon trial would normally have taken place in Derry, where the offences alleged were committed. However, on 14 September 2007, the prosecution requested a change of venue, on the grounds that protests outside the court might intimidate jurors, and coverage in the local media might prejudice them.

At this time, the presiding judge, the Derry recorder, Corinne Philpott, banned publicity about the case, but in such general terms that journalists present didn’t know what they were allowed to report and what was banned. There was no reporting of the application for a change of venue. On 10 December 2007, Judge Philpott imposed a blanket ban on reporting in Northern Ireland of any matter relating to the trial, including anything at all relating to Raytheon. The objective seems to have been to prevent publicity in Northern Ireland about Raytheon’s arms business, which might make a jury incline to the view that damaging its computers was a good idea.

There was no attempt by mainstream media organisations in Northern Ireland or elsewhere to have this extraordinary gagging order lifted or modified, despite the fact that their work was being hampered by the ban. For example, the Village magazine reported on 29 February 2008:

“Suzanne Breen (formerly of Village, now writing for the Sunday Tribune) has been referred to the Attorney General for possible contempt in an article published on 18 November in the Sunday Tribune. She had mentioned possible witnesses from the USA and Lebanon, and that, if convicted, defendants could face lengthy jail sentences.

“Also RTE has ordered Belfast independent production company Below the Radar to delete sections on Raytheon from a film about Ireland and the arms trade transmitted on 14 January. The effect of the ban is that all discussion of Raytheon’s presence in Derry has been shut down.” [2]

However, a legal challenge to the order was launched by Shane O’Curry of the Foyle Ethical Investment Campaign. As a result, the Belfast recorder, Judge Burgess, modified the order in late February 2008 to limit the ban to the usual one on pre-trial reporting of material directly relevant to the trial. It could then be reported for the first time that the Derry recorder had acceded to the prosecution’s request to move the trial from Derry to Belfast.

Notes

[1] www.ukwatch.net/article/raytheon9_acquitted
[2] www.village.ie/Ireland/Northern_Ireland/Media_gag_over_Derry_arms_factory_occupation/

Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday 9, July 2008

Plans to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days are neither practical or principled, the former head of MI5 warned yesterday.

Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, who stood down as the director general of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency last year, took the highly unusual step of using her maiden speech in the House of Lords to denounce the plans. It was the first time she had spoken on the subject.

“I don’t see on a practical basis, as well as a principled one, that these proposals are in any way workable,” she told peers.

The comments by Lady Manningham-Buller, an anti-terrorism specialist who led MI5 during the London Tube bombings three years ago, represent a serious blow to Gordon Brown’s anti-terror laws, which were forced through the Commons on the votes of Democratic Unionists (DUP) last month after a major rebellion by Labour MPs.

She told peers: “I have weighed up the balance between the right to life – the most important civil liberty – the fact that there is no such thing as complete security, and the importance of our hard-won civil liberties. Therefore, on a matter of principle, I cannot support 42 days’ pre-charge detention. I do understand different views and that there are judgements honestly reached by others, and I respect these views.”

Peers are expected to vote overwhelmingly to defeat plans to extend detention without trial when the anti-terror Bill faces detailed scrutiny in the autumn, and will trigger a damaging new round of trench warfare for Mr Brown in the Commons.

Yesterday, a string of eminent figures in the Lords vented their anger at the proposals, attacking them as an affront to civil liberties and a recruiting sergeant for extremists.

Lord Falconer, the former lord chancellor and one of Tony Blair’s closest allies, said: “I’m absolutely clear that there is no advantage to fighting terrorism that will be gained by extending pre-charge detention to 42 days.”

He criticised the Government for relying on the DUP to get the Bill through the Commons, adding: “We in this country determine whether people should be detained on the basis of a judge’s view. I find it worrying that someone could be detained in prison on the basis of a deal done with another political party.”

Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, also condemned the proposals, telling peers that “you cannot keep somebody for as long as it takes.” He added: “I dealt with the plots which we believed were being uncovered in the summer of 2006.

“I flew back from my holiday. I stayed with the prosecutors and got detailed briefings through that period. I was anxiously considering and wanting to know whether a longer time was necessary. It wasn’t. “I asked the prosecutors, ‘If you had had longer than 28 days, would you have used it?’ ‘No’, they said.

“I cannot support this. I believe that detention without charge for a long period would undermine fundamental freedoms on which this country is based, of which this country should be proud, of which I will say my party ought to be proud. I will not undermine them in this way.”

But Lord West of Spithead, the Security minister, insisted the new powers were needed. He said: “The question we all have to face is whether there is a potential need for more than 28 days. I have looked at this in depth and I believe there is. It is better for us to legislate on a precautionary basis than find ourselves scrambling for emergency legislation in the heat of a serious operation.”

By Claire McNeilly
Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday 9, July 2008

Major retailers across Northern Ireland are leading the way for shops to open their doors for the first time during the Twelfth celebrations.

RETAIL giants Asda and Tesco have added their names to the growing number of stores that will open their doors for the first time on the Twelfth this year.

And Marks & Spencer will also be open for business in several of its Belfast premises — another first.

Shopping centres across the province — including Junction One and The Outlet — and many high street stores such as Xtravision, will be operating as usual on the 318th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne this Saturday.

And although Belfast’s new £400m Victoria Square shopping complex — which initially vowed to trade on July 12 when it opened four months ago — will stay closed, retailers have said they plan to open for business next year.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, city centre manager Andrew Irvine confirmed the changing face of Northern Ireland towards the traditional July 12 holiday.

“Belfast city centre will hopefully be closed for the last time this year,” he said.

“In March, positive talks took place between Victoria Square, Castle Court and Orangefest to discuss the possibility of opening on the Twelfth and the retailers themselves decided they would like to open on July 12.

“But they also felt that certain logistical issues had to be dealt with before it was feasible and said they would prefer to wait until 2009, so there was time to iron out the nitty gritty details.”

He added: “We are keen and we are looking into the possibility of putting some entertainment into the city centre next year to turn the Twelfth into a festival.”

Victoria Square centre manager Hugh Black said that, although public holidays are generally very profitable for retailers, there were still issues to resolve.

“We decided we weren’t ready to open this year, but we are working towards it next year and we are optimistic that the city centre will be open, ” he said.

Mark Pollard, regional operations manager for ASDA NI, said: “Feedback showed that many families across Northern Ireland wanted supermarkets to stay open over the Twelfth holiday for convenience, driving our decision to trade as usual.”

Although M&S have traded in other parts of Northern Ireland on the Twelfth, this is the first time they will have done so in the Belfast area, with the Upper Newtownards Road, Lisburn Road and Newtownabbey branches open.

Asda’s decision — which follows in the pioneering footsteps of Antrim-based Junction One and the Outlet in Banbridge — has also encouraged other supermarkets like Tesco and Marks & Spencer to trade across Northern Ireland.

Junction One centre manager Leona Barr said the complex would be open on Saturday for the fourth year in a row.

“Junction One has always opened on the July 12 and found it to be a very successful trading day,” she said.

The decision by major retailers to open on the Twelfth comes amid new plans to revitalise Belfast at weekends after visitors complained there was nothing to do in the city.

Orangefest deputy chairman, DUP councillor William Humphrey — who steps out on the Twelfth himself — said the Order was willing to work with traders, provided the rights of their members were respected.

“The Twelfth is increasingly being seen as a very important tourist attraction for Northern Ireland and we want to see that tourism product developed to a maximum,” he said. “Employers need to be flexible and we will take a very dim view of anyone who forces an employee to work.”

Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday 9, July 2008

Two senior police chiefs today backed the decision not to suspend PSNI officers accused by a judge of deliberate deception in the Omagh trial – and confirmed the prospect of a new prosecution in the mass-murder case is unlikely.

The former police inspectors also queried controversial comments in the judgement of Mr Justice Reg Weir in the high-profile trial late last year which, they concluded, amounted to speculation.

In acquitting Co Armagh man Sean Hoey – the first person to face a murder charge in connection with the Real IRA blast in 1998 in which left 29 people died — the judge was severely critical of the PSNI citing highly unreliable DNA evidence, chaotic police record-keeping and allegations of had falsified evidence.

The judge accused a detective sergeant and a PSNI scenes of crimes officer of a “deliberate and calculated deception” and referred their evidence to the Police Ombudsman, whose report is still pending.

The pre-Christmas judgement described the evidence given by Detective Sergeant Fiona Cooper and Detective Sergeant Philip Marshall as “false and misleading” and “reprehensible” and they were both shifted to other positions within the PSNI.

But in the aftermath of the judgement, the Northern Ireland Policing Board instigated its own investigation headed by ex-chief constables Sir Dan Crompton and David Blakey.

Their report, accepted by a majority of Policing Bord members, today reinforced the view of PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde that, in the absence of a confession or reliable witnesses, or good scientific evidence, it is unlikely a new prosecution could be launched at present.

They also noted, however, that a visit to the incident room at Omagh revealed that 70 “actions” are still not complete, some of them with the Garda for some time.

These relate to the interviewing of people who are of interest to the inquiry team or obtaining DNA samples and the inspectors said the ” actions” should be pressed.

“Realistically,” they said, “we accept this is a remote possibility but, perhaps, remoteness ought to be given a chance.”

Commenting today, Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea said it accepted the finding of the review that there is no prospect of securing a prosecution.

The former inspectors said their provisional conclusion was that the PSNI officers criticised should have been suspended. “We have seldom seen more caustic criticism of police evidence since the officers were, in effect, branded as liars and their evidence declared totally unreliable.

“For a senior judge to ‘throw out’ all charges, partly on what he saw as discreditable police scientific evidence, is a matter of profound concern.

“The public have a right to expect certain standards in public life, particularly from the police, and the result of this case will have shaken public confidence.”

Their more ‘reflective view’, however, was that not all arguments were ” stacked on one side of the fence” and the Ombudsman’s report, expected later this year, will take into account all the attendant circumstances surrounding the officers’ evidence.

“There may or may not be criminal or disciplinary proceedings to be faced by the officers eventually, but if the latter is the end scenario, officers suspended would be recalled to duty having suffered the ignominy of suspension for months, and a possible infringement of their Human Rights.

“There may well be some issues arising from the evidence given by the two officers but it seems to us (our speculation again) that this is more likely to be of a disciplinary, or advice, nature. Our final judgement is that the arguments for the police officers not being suspended are as compelling as those ‘for’. On balance, we believe the decision to re-position…was appropriate, even if the decision between the one and the other was marginal.”

The former chief constables also commented: “This was a very difficult long running trial for Mr Justice Weir.

BBC
9 July 2008

**Onsite video
Other links onsite also

A report for the Policing Board has accused the Omagh trial judge of indulging in speculation in criticisms of some of the prosecution case.

Twenty-nine people were killed in the Omagh bomb

Mr Justice Weir was critical of police evidence and said they were guilty of a “deliberate and calculated deception”.

The Policing Board commissioned the review by two ex-chief constables after last December’s damning verdict.

The judge said in a statement he merely raised concerns, and it was up to law enforcement agencies to investigate.

Sir Dan Crompton and David Blakey, both former chief constables and ex-HM Inspectors of Constabulary, were appointed to examine issues arising from the judgement after south Armagh man Sean Hoey was cleared of 58 charges, including the murders of 29 people in the 1998 Real IRA attack.

>>Judgement in full [.pdf]

They said it had been a very difficult and long running trial for Mr Justice Weir with a requirement to handle huge volumes of information - some of it highly contentious.

‘Rigorously examined’

However, they took issue with the part of the judgement which said others involved in the investigation and preparation of the case may have been involved in the deliberate and calculated deception.

“We were left wondering why this passage was included in the judgement. In such a high-profile case every single word, finding, or suggestion is likely to be rigorously examined by interested parties.

“We conclude that the judgement in this respect amounted to speculation by Mr Justice Weir, but we (and others) are left uninformed as to what triggered that speculation.”

The two police officers were accused in the trial by defence lawyers of having “beefed up” statements - a term taken up later by the judge which the report said could have more than one interpretation.

“At its worst, the term can describe an attempt to wrongfully bolster a statement to the point of including untruths, or manufacturing, manipulating and embellishing evidence to cover gaps in the prosecution case,” they said.

But, they said, there could be a far different meaning where a review of evidence could reveal gaps in evidence and omissions.

Mr Justice Weir was critical of some police evidence

“It is neither bad practice nor professional ’slight of hand’ to rectify such omissions, provided additions to statements represent fact, with honesty being an underlying feature,” they said.

The review also backed a decision by a PSNI deputy chief constable not to suspend the two officers from duty after the judge’s criticism of them and referral of the case to the Police Ombudsman.

It emerged that the Police Ombudsman’s report into the actions of the two police officers will be completed before the end of the month.

A statement issued through the office of the Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr said that Mr Justice Weir “considered that the nature of the evidence given by the two individuals he identified in the judgement raised the possibility of the involvement of others”.

Sir Desmond Rea, Policing Board Chairman, speaking about the report

Sir Brian said the trial judge “did not speculate that others were involved, much less who such others might be.

“He registered his concern that others may have been involved and he has left it to other agencies to investigated and determine whether that is the case.”

Sinn Féin Policing Board member Martina Anderson said the report “lacked substance in a number of key areas, had been published without reference to other outstanding reports and left unanswered many questions raised by the trial judge”.

“The manner in which this report has been completed and published undermines public confidence in the role of the Policing Board to effectively hold the PSNI to account,” she added.

Belfast Telegraph
8 July 2008

“What about the loyalists?” The churchman, who was speaking to me, says it is a question often asked of him — a question about how they fit into the peace process, and a question about their guns.

Details about Peter Robinson’s planned engagement with the loyalist community are sketchy, but any discussion is sure to include the questions above.

Past experience tells us that decommissioning has to be ordered. That is how it worked inside the IRA. The Army Council made it happen by issuing leadership orders. On the other side of the lines, can the loyalist leaderships do the same? This is by no means certain — part of why it has not happened so far.

There is a question about how much authority those leaderships have within and over their organisations. It is not certain that they could impose their will with leadership orders directing a decommissioning process. There is also the fear factor — not that loyalists continue to fear the old threat of the IRA, but that they fear each other.

The leader of the Progressive Unionist Party Dawn Purvis was not prepared to discuss any possible meeting between Peter Robinson and the paramilitary leadership. She was, however, willing to discuss her own plans for talks with the DUP leader and First Minister.

“Peter Robinson as leader of the DUP has asked to meet with the Progressive Unionist Party to discuss amongst other things the unresolved issues that hang over the Assembly,” she said.

“He (Mr Robinson) also made very significant remarks a number of weeks ago at the unveiling of the CS Lewis mural where, probably for the first time, he said he understood why some loyalists chose a paramilitary route and he offered to help in their conflict transformation.”

Ms Purvis said a “multitude of issues affecting the loyalist working-class areas” needed to be addressed. She also expects that in her meeting with the DUP leader he will raise the issue of decommissioning.

Asked was it achievable, the east Belfast MLA responded: “I don’t have that foresight. So, I can’t give timescales or dates. That is a matter for the UVF in its discussions with the IICD. But what I would say is that when decommissioning has been achieved then we are looking at confident, transformed loyalist communities.”

Part of that transformation has to be about what the loyalist paramilitaries themselves are prepared to do — about a real going away, removing their presence and their authority and domination from the areas they controlled and taking their guns out of the estates and out of the picture.

Those guns now pose a bigger threat to loyalists and the loyalist community than to anyone else.

It is also important who loyalists choose to do their talking.

People have not forgotten the farce of Johnny Adair, Andre Shoukri, Jim Gray and John White — the criminal loyalists — being sent to talk to the then Secretary of State John Reid in the East Belfast Mission a few years ago.

It is right that there is a political engagement with all elements of loyalism. Peter Robinson is doing the right thing, and these talks might just begin to answer that question: “What about the loyalists?”

Irish Times
9 July 2008

Claims that the senior judge who acquitted the man accused of the Omagh bombing had indulged in speculation in his judgment were rejected today by Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice.

The judge did not speculate, was the blunt message from the Lord Chief Justice’s office.

Mr Justice Weir came in for unprecedented criticism in a report published today by two of the UK’s former top policemen.

They said in a report commissioned by the Northern Ireland Policing Board in the wake of the acquittal that part of the judgment clearing Seán Hoey of all charges amounted to speculation.

The judge was highly critical of the police handling of the case, and accused a detective sergeant and a PSNI scenes of crime officer of a “deliberate and calculated deception”.

Mr Justice Weir referred the actions of the officers to the Policing Ombudsman for investigation - his report is expected later in the month.

In a statement, the Lord Chief Justice’s office said: “The judge did not speculate that others were involved, much less who such others might be.”

“He registered his concern that other may have been involved and he has left it to other agencies to investigate and determine whether that is the case,” it said.

Derry Journal
08 July 2008

Derry supergrass Raymond Gilmour believes “nothing has changed” in the North despite the new power-sharing arrangements between Sinn Féin and the DUP.

In a phonecall to the ‘Derry Journal,’ the former British agent - who infiltrated the IRA and INLA in Derry - says he “can’t understand” the new relationship between republicans and the PSNI.

Gilmour left Derry in August 1982 when he thought his role as an informer had been discovered by the organisation after his information led to the seizure of a heavy duty machine gun. After he was taken into protective custody by his handlers, around 100 IRA and INLA suspects were arrested, 35 of whom were later charged with various paramilitary offences.

The IRA later kidnapped his father, holding him at a location in Donegal for almost a year in an unsuccessful bid to force Gilmour to withdraw his evidence. In 1983 he gave evidence against his former “comrades” but the following year the presiding judge at the trial ruled he was not a credible witness, describing him as “entirely unworthy of belief…a selfish and self-regarding man, to whose lips a lie comes more naturally than the truth.”

Speaking from a secret location in England, the 47 year-old, who is still believed to be under a death threat from both the IRA and INLA, said: “I still follow the politics over there and keep an eye on what is going on. Sinn Féin and the PSNI have got together now. I will never understand it. I think it’s a good thing; I love peace and everything that comes with it but I don’t understand it. Being who I am, there is something inside of me that tells me that it is not right. I can’t see how Ian Paisley agreed to it.”

Gilmour - who told his story in a best-selling book - also questioned the “genuineness” of calls from republican leaders such as Martin McGuinness for nationalists to come forward and give information to the police.

What’s the difference?

“There is not a lot of difference between what I was doing all those years ago and what people are now being asked to do by people like Martin McGuinness. Despite what is being said, people are still not coming forward because they are still afraid of being shot or targeted if they give information to the police. Nothing has changed and I think that is really sad,” he said.

Mr. Gilmour claimed he cried when he learned about the recent murder of 22 year-old Emmett Shiels who was shot dead in Derry two weeks ago.

“I was very upset when I heard about it; I actually cried. I thought about it and realised that it could easily have been someone from my family who was shot and I wouldn’t know a thing about it. My heart breaks for his family and everyone connected to him. I can’t understand what is happening in Derry now. It is sad.

Could get worse

“Similar things are happening in England but I thought people in Northern Ireland had more respect. I think it is going to get worse in Northern Ireland. It is bad in England but it could get worse in Northern Ireland because people have access to guns and still have an animosity towards the police. I think people need to wake up to this reality.”

By Michael McMonagle

08 July 2008

Derry supergrass Raymond Gilmour contacted the ‘Derry Journal’ last night and pleaded: “I need to know how my family is. I still love them but no-one can tell me if they’re OK or not.”

The 47 year-old said he’s been forced to contact the newspaper as no-one else - including his former paymasters in the RUC and MI5 - will return his calls.

The supergrass, who infiltrated both the IRA and the INLA in Derry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said he doesn’t know if his relatives are alive or dead.

Speaking from a secret location, the man who has been under a death threat for more than 25 years, said: “All I am trying to do is get in touch with my family. I have spoken to MI5 and to my contacts from the RUC but I haven’t heard back from them. I’m almost 50 years-old and I want to know if members of my family are alive or dead.”

The former agent said he feels “abandoned” by his former handlers and acknowledged that it is “ridiculous” that he should have to approach a newspaper to find out about his family.

“They have all let me down,” he said of his former handlers. “I called my contacts and asked them to find out how my family are and they haven’t even got back to me. I’m the youngest of 12 children and I’m not getting any younger. I still love my family and all I want to know is how they are.

“I would like to get in contact with them but I know they might not want to get in touch with me and I understand that. I just would like to be told if something happened to any of them.”

Mr Gilmour admits that his family could be in danger if they were to contact him. “I know they would not be safe. I know how the Irish people think - they have memories like elephants,” he said.

In 1984, a trial based on the evidence of Raymond Gilmour collapsed after judge, Lord Lowry, described his testimony as “entirely unworthy of belief”. Since then he has been in hiding in a secret location.

Newshound
(by Suzanne Breen, Sunday Tribune)

A dissident republican organisation has come out of the shadows and spoken about how it has twice tried to kill the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde.

The group, which was formed three years ago, admitted responsibility for several bomb and gun attacks. A representative of its leadership said it had wanted to keep its existence secret until it was “in a position of strength”.

It was disclosed last week that police officers in west and north Belfast have been warned to vary their routes to and from work because of the risk of ambush.

The group’s spokesman claimed it was preparing to wage a low intensity campaign against specific police and economic targets. He said it had been responsible for 46 bomb alerts during a major US investment conference in Belfast in May.

The group’s spokesman told the Sunday Tribune it was behind seven shootings and beatings of alleged drug dealers and paedophiles in west Belfast in recent months and that it ordered one alleged drug dealer out of the North last week. The group is understood to be strongest in Belfast.

Its spokesman said it had recently recruited former high-ranking Provisional IRA figures for whom “Sinn Féin signing up to policing was the final nail in the coffin”. The paramilitary group, which calls itself ‘Oglaigh na hEireann’ (ONH) or ‘the IRA’ is linked with figures who left the Real IRA in acrimonious circumstances.

In a statement from Portlaoise prison in 2002, a group of Real IRA inmates – including Mickey McKevitt – denounced their external leadership and said political conditions weren’t right for an armed campaign. However, three years later ONH became active.

Its spokesman said the organisation had hidden a remote control device in undergrowth at Gideon’s Green in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, in May 2005. “It was to be detonated as Hugh Orde ran past as part of relay team in the Belfast marathon. However, volunteers present decided not to detonate the bomb because of the risk to civilians.”

The spokesman said ONH had planted a device in hedges at the PSNI’s social club in Newforge Lane Belfast where, it had heard, Orde was due to arrive. The bomb failed to detonate.

He said it had also planted an elaborate hoax device in a marquee at Down Royal race-course where Orde was due to be present. “We could have made it a real one (device) but there were 200 people in the marquee. We haven’t got to the al-Qaeda stage yet,” the spokesman said. The group was responsible for firing mortars at Craigavon PSNI station in 2006, he said.

The spokesman claimed the PSNI wasn’t dealing with ordinary crime in nationalist areas and that ONH was behind a spate of punishment attacks in west Belfast over recent months including: ordering an Andersonstown man, found guilty in court of downloading pornographic images of children, to leave the country; shooting a Springfield Road man whom it claimed was involved in burglary, drug-dealing and joyriding; shooting an alleged Turf Lodge drug dealer; smashing up the house of an alleged Lenadoon heroin dealer and of an alleged child abuser from New Barnsley; breaking the legs of an alleged Twinbrook paedophile; and ordering two alleged drug dealers to leave the country.

July 8, 2008
________________

This article appeared in the July 6, 2008 edition of the Sunday Tribune.

News Letter
05 July 2008

Cross-community groups promoting reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Republic’s border counties have received a £12.4 million boost.

Organisations to benefit from the IFI funding include an interdenominational faith project that works with children living on unstable interfaces in north Belfast and a centre for peace in Co Wicklow.

The IFI, which draws donations from across Europe, America and Australia was set up by the British and Irish Governments more than 20 years ago to foster better relations.

The e15.5 million announced is part of the fund’s e48 million (£33 million) budget for 2008.

Denis Rooney, Chairman, the International Fund for Ireland, said the funding would go some way towards building on the progress already made by the IFI in achieving real levels of cross community integration and reconciliation.

He said: “On behalf of the International Fund for Ireland, may I say how excited we are at some of the initiatives to be implemented over the coming months and years. We look forward to witnessing the fruits of these worthy endeavours and thank our donor countries for their valued contributions.”

A total of £2.8 million (e3.5 million) will go to the Fund’s ‘Leaving a Legacy’ programme. Notable beneficiaries will include The 174 Trust, an interdenominational and non-sectarian Christian Community Development organisation which will receive £1.4 million (e1.7 million) towards the refurbishment and transformation of the former Duncairn Presbyterian Church on Belfast’s Antrim Road into a Community Resource, Arts and Culture Centre.

Additional funding is also being provided to the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Wicklow towards its extensive rebuilding and modernisation programme.

The fund has also announced £2.5 million (e3.8 million) of support for a number of projects under its Building Bridges Programme. This includes £250,000 (e308,000) for Inishowen Women’s Information Network towards the cost of mentoring support for women to work within their own communities to create hubs of reconciliation throughout community projects in the West and North West of Ireland and Mid-Ulster.

Both Forth Spring Inter-Community Group and North Belfast Interface Network will receive £225,935 (e278,932) and £248,000 (e306,172) respectively towards the cost of extensive cross-interface initiatives in their respective areas.

Through its Community Based Economic and Social Regeneration Programme, the fund has approved £6.5 million (e8 million) focusing on community-based economic and social development and improving community leadership.

Youth Action Northern Ireland will receive a total of £980,605 (e794,290) towards a two-year project building on the success of the current programme.

Carlingford Community Development Ltd will receive £182,250 (e225,000) to support the Carlingford Lough Youth Peace Project.

The fund has also approved its support for the Cross Border Maximising Community Space and Good Relations Project, a major three-year £3.4 million (e4.2million) project designed to improve community relations.

news.uk.msn.com
7 July 2008

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Nazi hunters arrived in Chile on Monday on the trail of Aribert Heim, nicknamed Dr. Death for killing hundreds of inmates at an Austrian concentration camp during World War Two, who they believe may be lurking in picturesque Patagonia.

Heim, who kept the skull of a man he decapitated as a paperweight, is the most wanted Nazi war criminal still thought to be alive. He would be 94 and his family says he died in 1993.

“We are not here thinking that his capture is imminent, but we have to bolster a campaign that we launched a few months ago,” Sergio Widder, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Buenos Aires, told Reuters on his arrival in Santiago.

Widder was accompanying Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff, who head’s the Wiesenthal Centre’s Jerusalem office. The centre is offering a bounty of around $450,000 (228,000 pounds) for Heim as part of a new drive to catch aged Nazi fugitives before they die unpunished.

Heim, an Austrian who killed hundreds of inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp by injecting gasoline or poison in their hearts, has been on the run for 46 years since evading police in Germany in 1962 prior to a planned prosecution.

A doctor with Adolf Hitler’s SS, Heim removed organs from victims without anaesthetic.

Holocaust survivors remember him relishing the fear of death in his victims’ eyes. After administering lethal injections, he timed death with a stopwatch.

The centre believes Heim is likely in Chilean or Argentine Patagonia, the region between the Andes and south Atlantic. Heim’s daughter lives in the scenic southern Chilean town of Puerto Montt 657 miles (1,058 km) south of the capital Santiago.

Hundreds of Nazis sought refuge in Latin America after World War Two, many lured to Argentina thanks to the open-door policies of Gen. Juan Domingo Peron, as well as to Chile and Brazil.

Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” at Auschwitz, escaped to Argentina and also lived in Paraguay before he died in Brazil in 1979.

(Reporting by Simon Gardner; Editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Rescuing Knowledge, Freeing Information

www.thememoryhole.org

Purpose: The Memory Hole exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known. This includes:

• Government files

• Corporate memos

• Court documents (incl. lawsuits and transcripts)

• Police reports and eyewitness statements

• Congressional testimony

• Reports (governmental and non-governmental)

• Maps, patents, Web pages

• Photographs, video, and sound recordings

• News articles

• Books (and portions of books)

The emphasis is on material that exposes things that we’re not supposed to know (or that we’re supposed to forget).

From cryptome