SAOIRSE32

Teach Dáithí Ó Conaill, 223 Parnell Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
Phone: +353-1-872 9747; FAX: +353-1-872 9757; e-mail: saoirse@iol.ie
Date: 11 Meán Fómhair / September2008

Internet resources maintained by SAOIRSE-Irish Freedom

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In this issue:

1. RUC seize two brothers in Newry and Armagh
2. RSF supports Maura Harrington and her community
3. Sovereignty and neutrality factors in rejection of Lisbon Treaty
4. Batu members occupy office
5. Six go on trial for Antrim boy’s murder
6. Provo intelligence ‘passed to MI5’
7. Long Kesh escapee Brennan faces US residency hearing
8. Obama’s VP choice names Wolfe Tone as his hero
9. Obama urged to act on arms’ firm
10. Boots pull Union Jack t-shirts after complaint
11. RUC/PSNI told Fr Troy to flee across the border
12. New book claims British Army colluded with loyalists
13. Employers’ resistance to pay increase for low-income workers ‘exploitative’.
14. Taxpayers foot €14m bill in Garda compensation cases

1. RUC SEIZE TWO BROTHERS IN NEWRY AND ARMAGH

ON September 5 the British colonial police took two brothers from their homes in Newry and Meigh. A large party forced entry into their homes at approximately 6pm. The head of one of the households described the raiders as “behaving like madmen”.

“They rushed in and pushed my wife out of the way. Then they ran over to my son and handcuffed him. After taking my other son from his home, they returned to raid it,” he said.

Both of the men are being held at the so-called “Serious Crime Suite” in the maximum-security Antrim RUC Barracks. Despite all the rush and commotion last night, the RUC/PSNI have yet to bring them in for interrogation.

A spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin said that the homes of both men had previously been raided in February of this year. “One of the men was taken to Antrim, and subsequently released without charge,” Richard Walsh, RSF National Publicity officer, added.

“The two men are members of Republican Sinn Féin. One of them is Cathaoirleach (Chair) of Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive).

“At the time of the previous raids, we asked whether this was the result of the ‘critical engagement’ threatened by Conor Murphy. Indeed, the father of the two enquired of the RUC/PSNI whether they were Gerry Adams’ new men.”

Two others were also arrested. All four who were held captive in Antrim RUC Barracks were released late on September 6.

One of the men revealed that he had been interrogated during four different sessions over nearly 30 hours of captivity. The first session focused on his work, and the second focused on how he knew the other detainees. The RUC claimed that the operation was “intelligence-led” and that the raids were pre-planned.

Richard Walsh, said:

“The people of Newry and South Armagh will realise, however, that the actions of the RUC are merely the continuation of a long tradition of oppression and intimidation of Republicans. Those who seek to control the RUC/PSNI from Stormont wish to prove their bona fides when it comes to dealing with Republicans, and have regularly called upon people to inform upon them and set them up.

“There is an onus on nationally-minded people to reject the RUC/PSNI and those who seek to promote them. These are enemies of Irish Republicanism.”

(more…)

BBC
13 Sept 2008

A bomb has been defused by the Army in north Belfast.

A security alert began in the Silverstream Road area at about 0830 BST on Saturday after a suspicious object was found outside a house.

Police and army were called to the scene, and the road was closed while the device was examined.

The “viable device” has been taken away for further examination by forensic scientists.

News Letter
13 Sept 2008

PROTESTANT residents at an east Belfast interface have been forced to install protective shutters over their windows after a spate of sectarian attacks.

Homes at the bottom of the Newtownards Road and Duke Street have become the targets of youths from the nationalist Short Strand area.

Community workers in the area say in recent months there have been regular incidents, with attacks mounted at least twice a week.

The focus of the thugs is a memorial to local men who were killed by the IRA but when they are confronted the youths turn on the houses.

The homes on Duke Street are sheltered accommodation for people with disabilities and the elderly, and have had paint, bricks and a variety of other missiles thrown at the rear of the properties over a 15ft fence separating it from Bryson Street.

Residents on the Lower Newtownards Road, facing the Short Strand, are now so fed up with damage to their homes that they have re-erected metal shutters that the Housing Executive had removed some five years ago.

Some had kept them in their gardens and over the last couple of weeks have put them back up again to protect their windows during the night-time attacks.

One resident, who asked that their name not be published for fear her home would be further targeted, said various objects had been thrown at her property, some narrowly missing her two young children.

She said her house has been pelted with bricks, stones, golf balls, nuts and bolts during the past four weekends.

“On one occasion the golf ball nearly hit my son, and I’m concerned that in the current situation a child is going to be hurt,” she said.

“I feel like I can’t go out in my front garden and play with my kids. It’s got to the point where I have thought about moving home, because I’m concerned about my children being hurt.

“I have lived in this area all my life. I have seen it bad and I thought those days had stopped. It’s not a normal way for children to grow up and live.”

She said “tensions are high” and residents were calling for a public meeting to deal with the issue.

“My concern is it’s going to escalate and get worse before it gets better,” she said.

The young mother and a community worker in the area, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said a CCTV camera which was installed to identify any interface trouble is not doing the job.

The camera’s default position was not pointed towards the interface, she said, and on other occasions it was found not to be operating.

“It defeats the purpose, given there was that many meetings to erect the thing. It could be used as a deterrent, but it’s never on,” said the mother-of-two.

A police spokesman said the PSNI was “aware of the impact these incidents have on the local community and work tirelessly to tackle the problem”.

He said they take a “pro-active approach, working in partnership with local community groups and the local council”.

By Allison Morris

Irish News
**Via Newshound
11/09/08

Members of a notorious loyalist gang have been accused of carrying out a vicious assault in which a young mother was held down by four men and bitten on the face.

Laura McComb believes she was attacked by the north Belfast UVF gang simply because she is from an area associated with the UDA.

In 2006 a scathing police ombudsman investigation into the activities of the Mount Vernon UVF found that members who were in the pay of Special Branch had been protected from prosecution.

A witness to the latest assault claimed that one officer who attended the attack on Ms McComb on Saturday said police were powerless to act – needing permission from the “men not in uniform” before they could make arrests in Mount Vernon.

The same gang has also been accused of protecting the killers of 15-year-old Thomas Devlin who was stabbed to death on the Somerton Road in August 2005.

Ms McComb had been on a night out with a female friend in the Tavern Bar on the Shore Road when she was attacked by a drunken mob who had earlier attended a loyalist band

parade. Since then the mother-of-one, who lives alone with her young daughter in the Tiger’s Bay area, has been informed by police that her life is under threat.

Her family have also been subjected to intimidation by men affiliated to the renegade loyalist gang.

Speaking yesterday Ms McComb, who works as an administrator, said she has been unable to sleep since the attack, terrified those responsible will return.

“I work all week and just wanted to go out with my friend for a drink,” she said.

“At the end of the night we were waiting outside on a taxi when this older woman came up to me and was being aggressive trying to start a fight with me.

“If that had been the end of it I would have just put it down to experience but then this gang of men, all older in their forties, surrounded me.

“Four of them held me down on the ground. They held my head so I couldn’t see their faces and then one bent over and bit me in the face.

“I just felt the teeth going into my cheek and then there was blood everywhere.

“They were jumping on me and dragging me across the ground. I’ve never been so terrified,” she said.

“They were like wild animals. They were screaming ‘just kill the UDA bitch. Just do her in’.

“I’ve no interest in any organisation but just because I live in Tiger’s Bay they singled me out,” she said.

Following a 999 call police arrived at the scene and the young mother was taken to hospital.

“I haven’t slept since this happened. I’m just so scared they will come back for me when I’m alone with my wee girl,” she said.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said: “Police attended a disturbance at around 1am on September 7 in the Skegoniel Avenue area.”

News Letter
13 Sept 2008

Judges were urged today to open a sealed document setting out confidential reasons why former top republican Danny Morrison’s conviction for kidnapping an alleged British agent has been classed as unsafe.

In an unprecedented development the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided not to stand over guilty verdicts in eight linked cases based on new evidence hidden from defence teams.

Crown counsel Gerald Simpson QC told the Court of Appeal a statement of reasons supplied by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates suspected miscarriages of justice, remains unopened.

He said: “It’s the application of the prosecution that your Lordships should receive and read the annex so the court can be in a position to conclude whether or not the decision of the Director not to maintain the safety of the conviction is an appropriate decision.”

Morrison, 55, the former Sinn Fein director of publicity who famously coined the republican twin-track strategy slogan ‘the Armalite and the ballot box’, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment over the false imprisonment of Sandy Lynch by the IRA in Belfast in 1990.

His barrister Charles Adair QC claimed it was unique for the Commission to act as it had done without telling the defence why.

Mr Adair said: “We know nothing of the reasons for the case being referred back, and on the other hand the prosecution do know the reasons and have seen the confidential annex.”

Arguing that the court should see the unopened document, he said a written judgment had detailed why his client was convicted.

“It peaks for itself that if that conviction was unsafe there should also be a written judgment setting out the reasons why the conviction was unsafe,” Mr Adair insisted.

After Lord Justice Girvan suggested it may be relevant to any issue of compensation, the barrister replied: “Of course - whether it’s a technical matter or something that was just an appalling miscarriage.”

Mr Simpson, who told the court the Lord Chief Justice had directed that the document be sealed, suggested the judges should study its contents before deciding now to proceed.

A new hearing was listed for next month, when the convictions may formally be quashed.

Lord Justice Higgins told the lawyers: “The court will endeavour to deal with the issue which Mr Simpson has requested it to consider on that date. I’m not sure whether it will be possible to do that.”

Morrison, who attended the hearing, said afterwards that he was pleased that the Prosecution Service had declared it would not opposed the conviction being set aside.

But he claimed it was unfair to rely on information hidden from the defence.

“We are all entitled to see what these documents say, provided it isn’t endangering anyone,” he said.

“We appeared in a trial which lasted for weeks in front of the media and all sorts of things were said.

“We were convicted in public, given reasons in public and given the new dispensation we have to be given reasons for the original convictions being overturned. The court owes us that.”

Breaking News.ie
12/09/2008

The Prison Service has confirmed that a blocking system on prisoners’ phones will be operational in the Midlands Prison next month and in Portlaoise in four months time.

Tighter screening of prison visitors will also be introduced to prevent drugs being brought in for inmates.

However, Fine Gael has criticised the delay in implementing the tighter security measures.

Fine Gael’s justice spokesperson Charlie Flanagan has said 2,000 mobile phones were confiscated last year and 40,000 prisoners tested positive for drugs in the past three years.

He further claimed that successive Justice Ministers have allowed a prison regime to exist where security was well down the agenda