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TE$TIMONY OF A PAID AGENT - News updates from McKevitt Trial HERE
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Please call your Senators TODAY - Session ends for recess tomorrow! Date: Thursday July 31, 2003 ===IFC ACTION REQUEST=== Special Attn: Residents of CALIFORNIA, CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE, FLORIDA, INDIANA, KANSAS, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MINNESOTA, NEBRASKA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW JERSEY, OHIO, RHODE ISLAND, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, WISCONSIN, or WYOMING ======================================================== ***Please foreword this message widely!**** As the one-month summer recess for the US Senate fast approaches at the end of this week, it is of vital importance that each and every Irish American activist, no matter on which side of the 1998 Agreement you stand, to contact your elected Senators to loudly protest the underhanded and secretive British Extradition Treaty currently set to be considered by the US Senate for ratification. This Treaty will affect anyone who has ever spoken out against British military rule in Ireland or against human rights abuses in occupied Ireland – the wording of the Treaty specifically removes any statute of limitations for “extraditable offenses”. Before this Treaty reaches the individual Senate members for consideration, it will be received by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; who will either pass it or reject it. If the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejects it, it will in all likelihood go no further. Please look over the names of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members listed below. We strongly encourage all of our Members and supporters to contact the Washington DC offices of these Senators as soon as possible, either by letter or by phone, to register your opposition to this outrageous decimation of the United States Constitution at the behest of a foreign government. If you are a resident of CALIFORNIA, CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE, FLORIDA, INDIANA, KANSAS, MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS, MINNESOTA, NEBRASKA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, NEW JERSEY, OHIO, RHODE ISLAND, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA, WISCONSIN, or WYOMING, -- the states whose Senators make up the Foreign Relations Committee-- your help is especially needed. See the additional link for more local addresses to contact if you live in these states. Senators will place more value upon the issues that come from their own constituents, and will have a greater interest in your concerns if you are potentially someone who will vote for them. For more information about the US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY AND ASSETS SHARING AGREEMENT go HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty_ACTION.htm Please act today before it’s too late! The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ "Be proud that this is a nation of immigrants, but be even prouder to say, 'We are all Americans.'" — Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; as quoted on his website intro =========================================== The SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE Democrat and Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Click HERE for complete list and contact info
Find your Senators HERE: http://www.senate.gov/index.htm |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Republican POW paroled eight hours to visit ill parents Date: Tuesday July 30, 2003 Ciaran McLaughlin has suffered numerous heartbreaks since being unjustly sentenced to fourteen years at Maghaberry, including the tragic death of his two-year-old grandson last year. Ciaran was also viciously assaulted in his cell, suffering serious head wounds, in an unprovoked attack with an electric iron by loyalist reverend Clifford Peeples in April 2002. Both of Ciaran’s parents are very ill and we send our prayers to the McLaughlin family. Please send cards to Ciaran McLaughlin: Ciaran McLaughlin Republican Prisoner Maghaberry Prison Upper Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT 28, North of Ireland Cards to the McLaughlin family can be forwarded here: McLaughlin Family c/o IFC P.O. Box 11417 Chicago IL 60611 USA The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Derry Journal Jul 29 2003 Protesting Derry Prisoner Out on Parole DERRY REPUBLICAN prisoner Ciaran McLaughlin was yesterday granted eight hours accompanied parole in order to visit his parents who are ill. Mr. McLaughlin is currently on a dirty protest in Maghaberry Prison as part of the campaign to secure segregation from loyalists. As part of Mr. McLaughlin's parole conditions he was not allowed to talk to the press but his wife Bernie said she was glad he had been released even temporarily for his parents' sake. She added: "Ciaran is anxious to see his parents and while eight hours accompanied by a local councillor is not much at least it is better than nothing." Mrs. McLaughlin revealed that the prisoners on protest in Maghaberry were being taken periodically to the punishment block where they ended their protest as they were segregated there. She added: "But when their punishment is over they move them back to the houses and they start protesting again. While we had a visit on Sunday we did not have a visit last week because Ciaran refused to wash. "All of the prisoners who are protesting are adamant that they will continue to secure segregation." She continued: "Speaking as a wife, this whole thing is extremely distressing as it is bad enough being separated from your loved one without having the added worry if they are going to get injured or worse while inside. "Ciaran already has been attacked and every time there is an incident in the prison you are waiting to hear bad news." Mrs. McLaughlin added: "It makes sense to segregate the prisoners purely from a humanitarian point of view. Prisoners should be allowed to get on with doing their time and they and their families should not have to worry about their safety while they are in prison. "Communities cannot live together on the outside so why should they be expected to live together on the inside.' SDLP Councillor Pat Ramsey, who accompanied Mr. McLaughlin on his parole, said he had raised the issue of segregation when he was in the prison to collect Ciaran McLaughlin. He said: "On previous occasions I have made representations about parole for Ciaran McLaughlin and I was approached by the Northern Ireland Office to see if I would be prepared to accompany Ciaran. "When I was in the prison I met with two governors and I raised the segregation issue, I will continue to work on this.' He added: "I have no problems accompanying Ciaran and after talking to him I am sure that he will adhere to all the conditions of his parole." ************************************************ IFC NewsList: - 04 13 02 - UDA Death Warnings Issued to Republican POWs at Maghaberry - 04 09 02 - Derry Journal: "Derry Man assaulted in jail by loyalist" - 04 08 02 - POW Ciaran McLaughlin Attacked at Maghaberry IFC NewsList - 08 20 02 - Prisoner released for grandson’s funeral ************************************************ IFC Action Request – MAGHABERRY PRISON Please send an email to the NIO and NIPS – Demand SEGREGATION for Irish republican political prisoners. Short SAMPLE LETTER and contact info HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#action_request_maghaberry ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: URGENT – Please ACT TODAY – Oppose UK/US Extradition Treaty! Date: Tuesday July 29, 2003 *****Please copy and paste/FORWARD this e-mail widely ******************* The Senate Summer Recess is due to start at the end of THIS WEEK. Please CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY. Find your Senator and contact info HERE: http://www.senate.gov/index.htm Senators’ aides acknowledge that a last minute phone “blitz” MAKES AN IMPACT on Senate policymaking. --------------------------- SIGN THE ANTI-EXTRADITION PETITION HERE; http://www.petitiononline.com/ia_ax/petition.html ----------------------------- Please CALL, WRITE, or VISIT your US Senator as soon as possible to ask them to oppose the draconian and un-American UK/US Extradition Treaty which is now before the Senate for ratification. The document, signed on March 31st by US Attorney General John Ashcroft and Britain’s Home Secretary David Blunkett; permanently erases America’s symbolic image as a land where the oppressed of the world can escape to as a haven of freedom from foreign oppression. This treaty will make possible the extradition and imprisonment of any American deemed to be “anti-Britain” or opposed to British military rule in Ireland, without proof of guilt and without judicial review. There is no statute of limitations to these offenses, which can be lodged on the word of a sole witness. The document at first glance upholds, but then proceeds to decimate, the political exemption clause; a cornerstone of America’s diplomatic relations since Thomas Jefferson refused the extradition of an opponent of the French Revolution. This document is by far the most extreme US Treaty yet and will have drastic effect on any person who speaks out against British human rights abuses or in fact has ever spoken out at any time in their lives. The fact that Ashcroft and Blunkett signed this treaty as opposed to Colin Powell and Jack Straw indicates that this is being considered as a matter for law enforcement as opposed to diplomacy. Please DON’T DELAY. According to the Senate calendar the Summer Break is scheduled to start on August 4th, which makes the end of July the end of the current sessions. Please CONTACT YOUR SENATORS and ask them to BLOCK this dangerous and un-American Treaty, written purely at the behest of the interests of a foreign government. The Treaty needs only a TWO-THIRDS majority to pass, and according to the Senate’s own website the Senate has rejected relatively few of the hundreds of treaties it has considered in its history. Find your Senators HERE: http://www.senate.gov/index.htm PHONE and WRITE their Washington and local offices, and visit their offices personally if you can. For more information on what you can do e-mail us here . Further documentation is linked below. PLEASE DON’T DELAY!!! Your voice WILL make a difference. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Read/print full text of UK/US Extradition Treaty HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty.htm Irish America: Where's the beef? By
Mike Morley, Irish American News |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: The Diary of a Prisoner Date: Monday July 28, 2003 Andersonstown News PRISON DIARYOn Friday I returned from a legal visit to find myself put in the same cell as a heroin dealer. I met two Senior Officers (SOs) and told them I wasn't willing to share a cell with him and was told this was "tough shit". At the moment eight republican POWs in the sentenced block are on the protest. I was refused my legal visit, as I wouldn't have a shower. The reason for this is that I did not feel sale alone with the loyalists. Tensions are high, and the loyalists have been taunting and jibing, spitting at the doors and calling us "Fenian scumbag bastards:. We are washing and changing our clothes in our cells. Morale remains good and spirits high. They are refusing to take our outgoing mail, tuck shop forms and the food is poor, with very little hot water. This protest is about segregation - plain and simple. No yards (outside exercise) from Friday, 4 July. The food has been rationed; there is very little hot water. Staff are refusing to take outgoing mail. The cells were cleaned but no harm was done to the POWs. Tell my wife that I am in good spirits. Day 1 - Saturday, 5 July. Locked in cell, got hot water. No association or yard. Was ordered by SO to clean the cell, I refused. Got dinner at 12.40. This was disregarded. Got no hot water. Supper at 4.35. Got two letters, they had both been posted over a week ago. Day 2 - Sunday, 6 July. Received hot water, served with two charge sheets at 11am. Did not get to Mass. Got dinner at 12:30. Got a shower and received a visit. Returned from visit and was locked in cell. Received no hot water from 12:30. Day 3 - Monday, 7 July. Received no hot water. No requests taken and no outgoing mail. Eight prisoners are now on the protest Got hot water at 11:15. Received dinner at 12:30. Received newspapers minus Andytown News. Have not had exercise from Thursday. Got supper at 4:30. Day 4 - Tuesday, 8 July. Received no hot water. Screws refused to take outgoing mail and tuck shop form. They lifted I and then threw it back into the cell again. Have had no association or bread from last Thursday. Food is rationed. I've had no breakfast from Thursday. Cell cleaned by hired help. Got supper at 4:30. Was served with further charge sheets at 5:45 roughly. SO served these. Day 5 - Wednesday, 9 July. Was asked to take a shower as I was required for adjudication, this was refused. Received hot water and bread at 9:05. Got dinner at 12:30 also hot water. Supper at 4:30. Day 6 - Thursday, 10 July. Hot water received at about 10am. No requests taken and again no outgoing mail. Still no word about laundry. One prisoners was taken to punishment unit last night. Got dinner but no hot water. Took shower for legal visit Received supper at 4:30. Still no yards or association. Had doctor in today. Day 7 - Friday, 11 July. Denied hot water again. Full lock down in house. Screws took S… paints yesterday. Dinner at 12:40. No hot water. Cell cleaned today, did not receive legal. Got supper at 4:35. I'm now of the belief that we are moving to Foyle House. Got to Foyle House, we're completely split up. Three days cellular confinement done in my absence. Day 8 - Saturday, 12 July. Nothing new, bad grub, haven't eaten anything at all. Still on cellular confinement. Saw no-one. Board of Visitors (BOV) was in, not sure which one. Day 9 - Sunday, 13 July. Saw BOV today, told them the issue is still not resolved. Will probably get 28 days on Rule 32. Got shower for visit. Haven't slopped out. Received visit at 3pm. Rule 32 for ten days. Day 10 - Monday, 14 July. Requested BOV and medic Have chosen to slop out, as CC does not achieve aim. Got hot water. Very bad food rations, one scoop of potatoes. I requested medic at 8:30 this morning, it's now 3:20 and I still haven't seen anyone. Pressed cell alarm at 3:10 and got no response until 3:40. It is now 6:35. I had to hit cell alarm yet again to ask about medic - still nothing. Got medication at 7:10. Day 11 - Tuesday, 15 July. No requests, had shower and got hot water at 8:30. I still haven't received all my gear from move. Got dinner at 11:50. Food rations are ridiculous one sausage and two potatoes . . . being denied medication today again. Day 12 - Wednesday, 16 July. Asked for BOV and doctors, requested the rest of my things. Saw doctor, no BOV. Had governor to door, asked again about my stuff. Received another charge sheet. Expecting three days. Sent three letters out this morning, received two. Day 13 - Thursday, 17 July. Asked yet again about my belongings, was told that may be later. I'm still waiting on BOV.
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Contact US SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE Date: Monday July 28, 2003 IFC ACTION REQUEST As the summer recess for the US Senate fast approaches at the end of this week, it is of vital importance that each and every Irish American activist, no matter on which side of the 1998 Agreement you stand, to contact your elected Senators to loudly protest the underhanded and secretive British Extradition Treaty currently set to be considered by the US Senate for ratification. This Treaty will affect anyone who has ever spoken out against British military rule in Ireland or against human rights abuses in occupied Ireland – the wording of the Treaty specifically removes any statute of limitations for “extraditable offenses”. Before this Treaty reaches the individual Senate members for consideration, it will be received by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; who will either pass it or reject it. If the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rejects it, it will in all likelihood go no further. Please look over the names of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members listed below. We strongly encourage all of our Members and supporters to contact the Washington DC offices of these Senators as soon as possible, either by letter or by phone, to register your opposition to this outrageous decimation of the United States Constitution at the behest of a foreign government. If you are a resident of INDIANA, NEBRASKA, RHODE ISLAND, VIRGINIA, KANSAS, WYOMING, OHIO, TENNESSEE, MINNESOTA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, CONNECTICUT, MASSACHUSETTS, WISCONSIN, CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, WEST VIRGINIA, or NEW JERSEY -- the states whose Senators make up the Foreign Relations Committee-- your help is especially needed. See the additional link for more local addresses to contact if you live in these states. Senators will place more value upon the issues that come from their own constituents, and will have a greater interest in your concerns if you are potentially someone who will vote for them. For more information about the US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY AND ASSETS SHARING AGREEMENT go HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty_ACTION.htm Please act today before it’s too late!
The Irish Freedom Committee®
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Portlaoise republican prisoners to fast for 72 hours Date: Saturday July 26, 2003 Please see the ACTION REQUEST below the news story. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Irish Times July 26, 2003 Portlaoise prisoners to fast for 72 hours by Suzanne Breen A group of republican prisoners in Portlaoise prison say they will start a 72-hour fast tomorrow in support of demands for segregation by prisoners in Maghaberry jail, Co Antrim. In a statement to The Irish Times, 21 prisoners on E4 landing said they planned to "show solidarity with their comrades in Maghaberry" who are currently on a dirty protest. The Northern prisoners are smearing their cells with excrement as part of their campaign to be segregated from loyalists. There have been clashes between the two groups, including one incident in which boiling water was thrown at a dissident republican prisoner. The group on E4 landing includes 13 "Real IRA" prisoners and Continuity IRA, INLA and several non-aligned republicans. The prisoners said they would refuse food from 8.30a.m. tomorrow for 72 hours. After that, they said, they planned to stage a weekly 48- hour fast. In their statement, they expressed "grave concern" about the situation in Maghaberry and accused the British government of withdrawing the "political status" secured by the 1981 H-Block hunger-strike. Ms Marion Price, of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, last night said she was "100% behind" the protest and was "very worried" about the situation in Maghaberry. Loyalist prisoners are also calling for segregation. ************************************************ IFC Action Request – MAGHABERRY PRISON Please let the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office know that YOU ARE WATCHING as this crisis unfolds at Maghaberry Prison. The repressive policies of forced integration and brutality by prison staff cannot be hidden from the world’s eye any longer. Please SEND AN E-MAIL to the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office stating your awareness of the situation and your demands for immediate SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners. Short SAMPLE LETTER and contact info HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#action_request_maghaberry ************************************************ IFC ACTION REQUEST #2 - CRISIS AT MAGHABERRY Please make your voice heard!! More information HERE regarding numerous physical attacks on prisoners at Maghaberry – http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/crisis_at_maghaberry.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Irish America: Where’s the beef? Date: Friday July 25, 2003 See the links at the bottom of the page to CALL YOUR SENATORS and to SIGN THE ON-LINE PETITION. For further reference, Senate contact info and a short sample letter please see UK/US EXTRADITION TREATY - PLEASE TAKE ACTION TODAY http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty_ACTION.htm The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Irish American News August 2003 Irish America: Where’s the beef? By Mike Morley By the time you read this, we may have a new extradition law. The question is: will anybody know, or really care? The press blackout on this one has been almost complete, but if you read on, whether or not you care, at least you will know about what’s up. According to U. of I. law professor Francis Boyle, the new treaty is meant to target and silence Irish Americans. The treaty was signed very quietly March 31 by Attorney General John Ashcroft and his British counterpart, Home Secretary David Blunkett, UPI news service carried the story on its wires, but few papers chose to publish it. Boyle points out that the treaty completely eliminates the “political exception” as well as judicial review, and allows U.S. citizens to be extradited to the U.K. on “totally unfounded allegations”. “This treaty is really aimed at shutting down Irish-American organizations and individuals”, he said He warned also that the measure transfers jurisdiction from the courts to the executive branch (read that as Attorney General John Ashcroft,). It would permit extradition even if no U.S. law is violated. There would be no statute of limitations, and it would allow for seizure of goods by Britain. This last provision was hailed in British press reports as akin to finally getting a piece of the pie. The Brits and the U.S. Justice Dept. are now to calculate how much “work” each contributed to an extradition, and the defendant’s goods and assets will be divided proportionately between them. Attorney Frank Durkan said in New York that the treaty was so broad, the Justice Dept. “would have no problem in getting an indictment”, and that it was aimed at “people over here who have been active in campaigning for change in Northern Ireland”. LOOK OUT, MAGGIE’S BACK IN TOWN! You may recall that in 1985, Margaret Thatcher, angry that a Republican like Joe Doherty had escaped Long Kesh jail and was living in the U.S., evading the tender mercies of the Crown, proposed to the Reagan administration sweeping changes to longstanding extradition law – in particular the political offense exception. That exception distinguished between political and criminal offenses. Thatcher knew well it was an important distinction. It’s the principle that Bobby Sands and nine other Republican hunger strikers had died for four years earlier in the face of her intransigence. In 1984 and 1985 two U.S. courts ruled that Doherty’s acts were political, not personal. But on June 25, 1985, Britain and the U.S. signed a new extradition treaty, sweeping away many American legal protections in place since the dawn of the Republic. Attorney Gerard Boyle (brother to Francis), noted that in 1986 Irish-American opponents of the treaty were able to force an amendment so that judges could determine whether the accused would likely get a fair trial. Britain was not keen on making too public the workings of its Diplock courts or rules of evidence which accepted the uncorroborated testimony of police officials and unnamed witnesses as fact. It is because of this amendment that Britain has not asked for many extraditions. Doherty, as a non-citizen, was deported, not extradited. (The judge ordered he be sent to the Republic, but that decision was overruled by the Attorney General, and he was remanded to British territory -Northern Ireland.) Contrast Doherty’s treatment with that of Orlando Bosch, who was accused of blowing up a commercial airliner Oct. 6 1976 killing all 73 people aboard. He is also tied to bombings and shootings in many other countries, including the assassination of the Chilean ambassador in Washington, D.C., and a rocket attack on a Polish ship off Miami. BIG BUT But the airliner was Cuban. And back then, the ambassador and the Polish ship represented “communist” countries. The Justice Department under George Bush Sr. did decide to deport Bosch but could not get a government (other than Cuba) to take him. Bosch, on parole in the U.S. for the Miami attack, violated parole and left the country. He was arrested in Venezuela, which offered to send him back, but the Department of Justice refused. He was also arrested in Costa Rica on charges of participating in a bomb plot against Secretary of State Kissinger during the Secretary's visit to that country. The N.Y. Times quoted Costa Rica's Foreign Minister saying, 'We offered to send him back, but the reply was that they were not interested.' There was speculation in Costa Rica that the United States refusal might have been politically motivated as it came just before the Presidential primary in Florida. Bosch returned to Miami in 1988 and was jailed for violating parole. Lobbying by Cuban-American groups led to his release in 1990. “WHERE’S THE BEEF?” Compared to the 40 million or so Americans of Irish heritage, the Cuban-American community is miniscule, centered round the Miami area, where an estimated one-half million Cubans live. Their political contributions are also small by comparison, estimated at $1.8 million between 1999 and 2002. The Dallas Morning News reports: “The Fanjul brothers; their corporation, Flo-Sun Sugar; and Bacardi contributed $1.34 million, or 71 percent of the total. The Fanjul brothers …and their corporation together control about 40 percent of Florida's sugar crop. “ You may be reading this in Milwaukee at this year’s Irish Fest. As I mentioned in an earlier column, I’m fond of telling people viewing the huge statue of Gulliver lying there clad in green that it’s a monument to Irish-American public opinion. Guess what Clara Peller said when I told her that? CRICKET VS. HURLING It’s been said that British domination of the Irish is reflected in their respective national sports, Britain being practiced at the long game, in contrast to the speed and flash of the Irish game. The present treaty was signed June 25 1985, and with opposition from Irish groups, was debated in the Senate for over a year. Thatcher used the time well. Her interest in the extradition treaty is one reason she signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in November 1985. Then on April 14, 1986 the U.S. launched an air attack on Libya. To facilitate the attack, American bombers were allowed to use British airfields. As treaty debate continued in the Senate, a London Times editorial asked: “Is it not time for the government of the United States to pay a debt?” The paper chided the Senators: “You owe us one”. (They weren’t so particular about their airfields in 1939, were they?) Reagan made another speech (let’s win one for “the Gipper”) saying to allow “terrorists” to remain in the United States would be offensive to Thatcher. Ratification by the Senate came December 23, 1986, on the eve of the Christmas recess. Britain had won at the long game and written enduring American law; and plans to repeat the performance this year. Professor Boyle sees Britain using the same tactic now, pushing for Senate approval just before the August 4 Summer Recess. The number of Irish activists here is nowhere near what it was in 1986. Nor, I wager, will there be the amount of Congressional support for the Irish community seen then. (In the Doherty case, British interests won the day despite 132 members of Congress who filed briefs as friends of the court.) The Libyan attack is a distant memory, and the Anglo-Irish Agreement is on the scrap heap, followed by the “Good Friday Agreement”, which now appears to be the “Good-bye Day Agreement”. In fact, the breakdown of that agreement in the face of British Unionist resistance is the reason Britain wants a new treaty now. IMPRESSING THE CHIEF Reagan was knighted by the Queen June 14 of 1989, followed in November of ’93 by his Vice President, George H.W. Bush. They were the first Americans since the end of WWII to be knighted. Both made their kowtows discreetly as former American presidents. The sight of American presidents kneeling before a foreign head of state, offering their necks to the sword of the monarch of a country that had invaded the United States and burned the Capitol and White House to the ground, must have prompted many chuckles in Whitehall. The ceremonies were apparently not considered photo ops. The compliant American press made little fanfare about the knightings, so no one took much notice here. Nor was the earth reported to have moved on Andy Jackson’s grave. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Jackson, though of Scotch-Irish (Carrickfergus) descent, a Presbyterian and a Mason to boot, had his own ideas of kneeling under a British sword. Having joined an American regiment at 13, Jackson and his brother were captured by the British. Jackson was ordered to polish a British officer’s boots, and refused. The enraged officer nearly killed him with a slash from his sword, cutting his hand to the bone as he attempted to fend the blow. Back in 1793, George Washington established a precedent when he refused to extradite a fiery French diplomat, Edouard Genet, back to Paris where he most likely would have faced the guillotine. (As it turned out, things later went well here for Citizen Genet. He ended up married to the daughter of New York’s Governor Clinton.) Just a year later, Britain took care to prevent this happening again when it signed the Jay Treaty (remember this stuff from high school?). That treaty was seen by many as an almost complete capitulation to British interests. It provided for extradition, and offered no protection against impressment of American citizens into the British Navy. Chief Justice John Jay was burned in effigy across the land, while Hamilton, who was behind the treaty and had yet to grace a sawbuck, was stoned (that is, U.S. citizens threw stones, not tomatoes, at their Treasury Secretary) while speaking in its support. Britain later wanted the U.S. to extradite an American seaman for his part in a mutiny on the British ship Hermione. The seaman, Jonathan Robbins, protested that he was a citizen, had been impressed into British service, and therefore had a right and obligation to escape. But President Adams instructed the presiding judge to turn Robbins over to the British, who promptly had him hanged and publicly gibbeted. Jefferson used that case later to snatch the White House from Adams, and the Jay Treaty was never again used for extradition. When Spain asked Adams’ son, President John Quincy, to turn over African slaves who had mutinied on the Amistad, he wisely declined, refusing to interfere with the courts. I thought a bit of background on the two principal lawmen fronting for this treaty might be in order here. ASCHCROFT’S AESTH-ASC-ETICS John Ashcroft, is an avowed Pentacostalist, a Holy Roller if you will, and objected to being photographed at press conferences with the “Spirit of Justice” towering over him. The statue, with one bronze breast bared, was a press favorite, with photographers twisting into contortions to get T&A into the dailies. ABC NEWS reported he ordered the statue covered. Draperies were purchased and installed. As a religious man, perhaps he was taking a cue from the 16th century Counter Reformation zealots who ordered Biblical BVD’s for the heroes and heavenly hosts displayed in Michelangelo’s newly painted Sistine Chapel. But a fig leaf might have been cheaper than the $8000 drapes. Had he instead stolen a march from the Taliban, his press conference would have been far more dramatic, and garnered him big-time points for ecumenism too. Imagine the excitement as he shouldered his RPG launcher and splattered the offending boob all over the Great Hall of Justice. With one bold stroke he’d have been rid of his straitlaced, colorless image. BLUNKETT’S BLUNDER OR “HOW ARE THINGS IN BORA-BORA?” Ashcroft’s British twin, Home Secretary David Blunkett came a cropper last June with his plan to allow just about any government official in the land to tap into private citizens’ e-mail and web browsing habits.Britain already allows Police, Customs and Revenue people access to snoop into anyone’s computer sessions under its wonderful new Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act. In what was called “a humiliating climbdown”, Blunkett sent an unprecedented apology to British Muslims for large scale MI5 and Special Branch spying and early morning raids saying: “I have no intention that we should be Big Brother”. =========================================== Attorney Durkan said the language of the new extradition treaty is such that “you could even go after a lawyer or someone who wrote a column”. Hopefully, I’ll continue filling this space from this side of the Atlantic. Are we all ready for RIP? HAVE AN OPINION? Chicago attorney Jerome Boyle (brother of Francis) emphasizes the treaty is a threat to Americans of Irish descent, exposing them to extradition on the flimsiest of pretexts. He urges the importance of sharing your thoughts with our two Senators: Richard J Durbin - (202) 224-2152 / Chicago office: (312) 353-4952 Peter Fitzgerald - (202) 224-2854 / Chicago office: (312) 886-3506 Sign PETITION at "IRISH AMERICANS AGAINST EXTRADITION" http://www.petitiononline.com/ia_ax/petition.html =========================================================== Watch Irish TV Journal. Call your local cable TV operator for channels and air times. Copyright 2003, M. P. Morley e-mail Mike Morley ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: URGENT ACTION REQUEST - Contact your Senators today Date: Wednesday July 23, 2003 The Senate summer recess is due to start on Monday August 4th. That means that the last days for Senate business for the season are closing fast. Please contact your US Senators TODAY and ask that the draconian and un-American UK/US Extradition Treaty be halted. Phone OFTEN – these phone calls have a proven effect. Also please send a letter to your Senators – a short sample is attached for your reference. Please don’t send e-mails as they are generally not registered by the Senators. For more information on the US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY AND ASSETS SHARING AGREEMENT signed on March 31, 2003 by David Blunkett and john Ashcroft see the links below. Please ACT TODAY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!! The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ SAMPLE LETTER to US SENATORS re UK/US EXTRADITION TREATY Find your US Senators names and addresses HERE: http://www.senate.gov/ 1. Copy and paste the letter below to a Word or other document. 2. Copy and paste your Senator's name and street address in the areas indicated below and within the letter body. 3. Add your name and address to the bottom of the letter. 4. Include optional attachments section - copy and print referenced documents at links below and attach to your letter if desired. 5. Please MAIL or HAND DELIVER your letters ASAP - don't E-mail, emails are not read often enough in this case. 6. Follow up with a PHONE CALL regarding your letter and ask what the Senator has decided. BE PERSISTENT!!! The phone calls and letters DO MATTER -- they are taken very seriously by elected officials. - - - - Sample Letter (copy and paste)- - - - YOUR US SENATOR Washington, DC address here ---------- YOUR US SENATOR Local (your city) address here (TODAY’s DATE) Dear Senator _____________; I am writing to you today as an active voter and as an American citizen who is deeply concerned that the rights that I and so many other Americans hold so dear are in danger of being permanently and irretrievably eroded at the behest of a foreign government. I am referring to the proposed US/Britain Extradition Treaty – an astounding and horrifying piece of work that is attached here in full. Under the terms of this Treaty, should the Senate ratify it within the next few days, Britain shall be able to: · Extradite and imprison any American citizen WITHOUT proof of guilt and without judicial review · Build a case for extradition and imprisonment against an American citizen on the word of a single witness · Detain in custody and “provisionally arrest” any American citizen for up to 60 days · Build a case for extradition and imprisonment even if no US law has been broken · Detain, deport and arrest any American citizen for activities taking place many years ago · Detain, deport and arrest any American citizen without “prima fasciae” physical evidence; unsupported allegations will be sufficient · Seize assets and property of American citizens after they are deported · Rubbish the “political exemption” clause cherished as an American liberty and held since Founding Father Thomas Jefferson refused to extradite an opponent of the French Revolution Senator ___________ I am appealing to you to stand fast and to uphold the ideals of the United States of America as a land where the oppressed of the world have come, perhaps your own forebears included, to escape the political or military oppression of a tyrannical foreign government. Please do not sign your name to this horrific and anti-American document. Please at the very least allow time for a proper and in-depth examination of the ramifications of this draconian British Extradition Treaty. To sign this Treaty into law would be the death knell of freedom in America, and the ushering in of British rule in the United States once again. Yours very sincerely; YOUR NAME YOUR STREET ADDRESS ((BELOW IS OPTIONAL:)---------------------------------------------------------- Attachments: 1. UK/US Extradition Treaty – full text (12 pp) 2. Letter from Chicago attorney Jerry Boyle re “A Threat to Irish Americans” 3. “Proposed extradition treaty causing concern’ – Irish Echo 4. US Senate guidelines on treaty ratification ************************************************ UK/US Extradition Treaty (HTML version) http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty.htm UK/US Extradition Treaty (PDF version with British seal) http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/CM%205821%2002.03.pdf A THREAT TO IRISH AMERICANS By Jerry Boyle http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#threat_irish_americans Proposed extradition treaty causing concern By Ray O’Hanlon, Irish Echo http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#extradition_treaty_action_request US Senate guidelines on treaty ratification http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Treaties.htm British Consulate Press Release: NEW EXTRADITION TREATY AND ASSETS SHARING AGREEMENT SIGNED IN USA BY UK HOME SECRETARY DAVID BLUNKETT Press Release, British Home Office, 31 March 2003 http://www.britain-info.org/law/xq/asp/SarticleType.1/Article_ID.3461/qx/articles_show.htm ************************************************ IFC Action Request – Block UK/US Extradition Treaty!! http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty_ACTION.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: URGENT – Please contact your Senators – Oppose UK/US Extradition Treaty! Date: Monday July 21, 2003 *****Please copy and paste/FORWARD this e-mail widely to all of your associates as a
matter of urgency******************* |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss - The Blanket Date: Monday July 21, 2003 Please see link below Anthony McIntyre’s article for the NUJ statement regarding raids on The Blanket. The Blanket is currently being published remotely on borrowed computer equipment. To make a donation to the publishers of The Blanket to recoup costs for new publishing equipment to replace cameras, a laptop, and other items stolen by police, please see the IFC appeal at http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#blanket_pleaseread The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Blanket July 20, 2003 Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss Anthony McIntyre --------- When decorum is repression, the only dignity free people have is to speak out.- Abbie Hoffman --------- Politically motivated raids by the RUC on the homes of those in nationalist communities are nothing new. Even with its face lift white jeeps and new PSNI name the RUC still invades working class areas and occupies houses. At one time, even if for pure harassment, such forays were ostensibly aimed at seizing weapons and explosives. Today there has been a marked shift in emphasis towards depriving people of the ability to provide alternative media services. Not only are computers seized with depressing regularity, but all the means essential to sustaining a forum for alternative voices not approved by officialdom are subject to confiscation. These include mobile phones, computer discs, electronic organisers, notebooks, letters and cameras. My family home was first raided in February 1972. Since then all the homes in which I have lived have been subjected to a similar experience. The promises by many nationalist politicians that the Good Friday Agreement would herald an end to this have remained unfulfilled. Quite often republicans’ assessment of the shortcomings of the GFA takes on an abstract character. Critique is frequently expressed in quasi-theological terms - the Agreement has transgressed some sacred and inviolable principle. For most people this means nothing. Concerned primarily with getting on with their lives, they are turned off by the obscurantist and anachronistic purism that that motivates only the holier than thou - in other words very few. But when squads of heavily armed RUC men are in your home - no matter how business-like, civil and courteous they may be on the day - rifling through your possessions, confiscating your property, there is no escaping the awesome fact - they have come out of this conflict with their power intact and our rights against them amounts to whistling in the wind. All that the GFA has achieved is to make them more accountable. But backed up by a panoply of laws and repressive legislation, such accountability is a mere irritant for them. The effort expended over the course of all those years spent seeking to transform the context in which the rampant exercise of British state power occurs suddenly vaporises. It all comes home with a sickening emotional thud that it was all for nothing. The RUC are still the raiders and we are still the raided. By way of adding insult to injury many nationalists are tripping over themselves to treat cop boss Hugh Orde as a fresh broom eager to clean up the policing question. Give them a Hughie rather than a Ronnie and the means to slip comfortably into overdrive self-denial become self-evident. Yet it is Orde who has become associated with ever increasing erosions of civil liberties. While still part of the Stevens investigation team, he was waging a campaign against the journalist Ed Moloney who had been making life uncomfortable for the cops handling the investigation into the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane. Despite knowing the identity of his killers from the minute the murder took place, Orde felt it better to target not the killers but the journalist who was asking the awkward questions. Since becoming Top Cop little in the way of intent has changed. Orde has made it his business to give journalists a hard time. The incident that most vividly highlighted his anti-press zeal came with the midnight knock on the door of Liam Clarke and Kathy Johnston, both of who were hauled off to police cells for interrogation. As part of this drive my home has been the latest for PSNI attention. It was not hit because I am a republican. Like most others who have any inkling of what goes on in Northern Irish politics, nobody in our home is either involved with or gives succour to the physical force tradition. In fact, without having given up on our republican beliefs both I and those I associate with have gone further than most in rejecting the use of physical force as a means of addressing the conflict. We have seriously questioned the wisdom of ever having waged an armed campaign to begin with. My home was hit because Orde is determined that unless he ordains otherwise, the business of the public shall not be made public. He has sought to punish and deter those writers and commentators who infuse into the public arena inter alia information that sheds light on discussions between our politicians or the nature of the prison regime in Maghaberry. Orde has tried to promote an image of himself as the non-political cop who will act impartially when it comes to policing. This is a nonsense. He can send a large force - in one account 33 landrovers - to a passive nationalist estate to search the homes of people not remotely associated with the use of armed force a mere two days after they had reported on a protest at Dundonald House. Yet a year after the loyalist murder of Gerard Lawlor, despite the RUC openly admitting that it is aware of the identity of the perpetrators there has not been one home searched, one arrest made or one person charged. Hugh Orde’s impartiality balance sheet does not add up. It does not take a genius to see that he is as determined to cook the books as his predecessors. His harassment of writers and commentators makes a mockery of any claims that we have a new dispensation. Truly a case that things only changed here in order to remain the same. ************************************************ National Union of Journalists Statement re. Raids at “The Blanket” http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/nuj_statement_theblanket.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Dirty protest development – UTV News Date: Monday July 21, 2003 UTV News SATURDAY 19/07/2003 16:01:21 Dirty protest development ------------- The dirty protest by republican inmates at Maghaberry Prison in County Antrim could be called off if the prison authorities continued to segregate them from loyalists, it was claimed today. By:Press Association ---------------- Marian Price, spokeswoman for the Real IRA-linked Irish Republican Welfare Association, said the prisoners were currently being held in a special unit at the jail`s Foyle House as punishment for the protest, which began more than two weeks ago over sharing a wing with loyalists. She said: ``In effect they have been segregated by the authorities. We have been told that this is because they have been put on punishment but we certainly see that as a moral victory. She continued: ``If the authorities can segregate them for punishment then surely they can segregate them to live together and get on with serving their sentences.`` Ms Price, a former Provisional IRA activist, who was jailed for her part in the 1973 IRA bomb attacks in London, was speaking at a special protest rally on the Falls Road in west Belfast. There has been speculation that if the prisoners do not get what they want they could begin a new hunger strike. Ms Price said there would be no announcement of a hunger strike today but added if the prisoners were prepared to intensify their protest to force the authorities to agree to their demands. She added: ``These men are not going to be forced into anything, neither are they going to shirk away from anything. They will do things at their own pace, we are not pre-empting anything, we are getting all instructions from them and it is very much prison driven.`` The protest at Dunville Park on the Falls Road included families of the prisoners involved in the protest. The campaign centres around republican demands to be separated from the high security complex near Lisburn. Fears have been raised that supporters could attack a prison officer as the crisis deepens. Ms Price yesterday warned: ``If one of these young men dies in prison there are going to be consequences and it doesn`t bear thinking about. Lives will not be lost on just one side.`` So far the Northern Ireland prison service has insisted it would maintain its policy of integration between republican and loyalist prisoners but Ms Price described this policy as a nonsense. ``I have experience of prisons and I fail to see how anyone with any knowledge of how a prison works would see that as a way forward. ``There has always been segregation within prisons in the north. When there hasn`t there is always trouble.`` She added: ``People on the outside don`t live together and I don`t see how you can expect republicans and loyalists to live together on a wing - it`s a very confined space.`` She said the republicans wanted an undertaking that the punishment would stop and that they will be held on their own wing so that they could serve out their sentences in safety. ************************************************ IFC Action Request – MAGHABERRY PRISON Please send an email to the NIO and NIPS – Demand SEGREGATION for Irish republican political prisoners. Let the British Government know that YOU ARE WATCHING. Short SAMPLE LETTER and contact info HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#action_request_maghaberry ************************************************ The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Supporters, families rally outside Maghaberry prison Date: Saturday July 19, 2003 For ongoing news of the crisis at Maghaberry Prison check the Prison News Updates on the IFC website. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ BBC News Saturday, 19 July, 2003, 17:20 GMT 18:20 UK Rally over (sic) dissident jail protest ----------- "If the authorities can segregate them for punishment then surely they can segregate them to live together" Marion Price Protestors' spokesperson ----------- Up to 10 prisoners are on a dirty protest ----------- More than 100 supporters of dissident republican prisoners have held a rally in west Belfast, calling for the segregation of republican and loyalist inmates at a County Antrim prison. Over the last two weeks about 20 prisoners have been involved in a so-called dirty protest at Maghaberry jail. Some have been transferred to a special supervision unit. The men, most of whom are linked to the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, have been smearing excrement on their cell walls. Protestors' spokesperson Marion Price said the inmates had been moved to a special supervision unit within the jail compound. "In effect they have been segregated by the authorities," said Ms Price. "We have been told that this is because they have been put on punishment but we certainly see that as a moral victory. "If the authorities can segregate them for punishment then surely they can segregate them to live together and get on with serving their sentences." Loyalists too are concerned about conditions at the high security complex and recently staged a roof top protest. Ulster Political Research Group spokesman Tommy Kirkham said the prison authorities should reconsider their approach before the situation got out of hand. "At this stage, before camps mount in both the republican and loyalist sides, the prison authorities should adopt a common sense approach and segregate them now," he said. However the prison service says the current integrated system provides the safest regime for both inmates and staff. A spokesman for the service confirmed that a number of dissident republicans who have been taking part in the protest were being housed at the special supervision unit along with other prisoners. However, he denied they were being segregated as there were about 12 ordinary prisoners in the unit. "This isn't about segregation, it is about handing over control and power to the dissident republicans," he said. High-powered hoses were brought in to clean cells last week. Claims that prisoners were beaten and hosed down during the incident were dismissed as "absolute rubbish" by the Prison Service, who said the inmates were moved out during the operation. The protest at Dunville Park on the Falls Road included families of the prisoners involved in the protest. ************************************************ IFC Action Request – MAGHABERRY PRISON Please send an email to the NIO and NIPS – Demand SEGREGATION for Irish republican political prisoners. Short SAMPLE LETTER and contact info HERE: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#action_request_maghaberry ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: US moves to aid PSNI in training Date: Thursday July 17, 2003 ----------------------- Belfast Telegraph Publication Date: 17 July 2003 US moves to aid PSNI in training By Staff Reporter THE House of Representatives has voted in favour of US government funding for training both the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. It is the first time either of the two houses of Congress has voted in favour of such funding for a Northern Ireland police force. Once passed into law, the measure will authorise the US government aid agency USAID to fund training of both police forces and encourage inter-force co-operation. Congress has long resisted funding Northern Ireland police because of humans rights concerns. However, yesterday's amendment, introduced by New York congressman, Joe Crowley, was not debated and was passed without controversy. The Bill will allow USAID to provide "computer-based, human rights and other professional training" to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and also to provide training to the Garda "for the purposes of fostering greater co-operation and communication" between the two forces. The Bill is written as an adjustment to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and is likely to go before the Senate within the next few days. Greg Sheiowitz, a legislative official for Congressman Crowley, said he would be "absolutely astonished" if the Senate had any objections to the police training amendment. "There are some points of dispute in the State Department Bill, but this isn't one of them, I don't think it will be a contentious point," he said. The Bill will go to the Senate floor before a House of Representatives/Senate conference debates the final points. The amendment introduced by Congressman Crowley also includes a measure, which would authorise $$1m funding for the George Mitchell Scholarship for the next two years. The scholarship, now in its fourth year, funds US students who wish to study in Ireland. Congressman Crowley welcomed yesterday's vote and said adequate co-operation between the two police forces was crucial for the Northern Ireland peace process. ************************************************ CONTACT YOUR US SENATOR HERE: http://www.senate.gov/ ************************************************ The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Block US/UK Extradition treaty – CONTACT YOUR SENATOR TODAY Date: Thursday July 17, 2003 Please use the links below to CONTACT YOUR SENATORS. Urge that he or she OPPOSE this draconian Extradition Treaty which has far-reaching implications against any American who speaks out in any aspect against continued British military rule in Ireland. An effort will be made over the next few days to push Treaty this through the Senate, under the auspices of a climate of fear post-9/11. However the verbiage of this frightening Treaty is aimed directly at Irish-American activists, no matter where they stand on the GFA. Please see links below to CONTACT YOUR SENATORS. See additional links below for more information and the full text of the US/UK Extradition Treaty. PLEASE DON’T DELAY. CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY. Ask them to BLOCK this un-American Extradition Treaty! The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Irish Echo July 16-22, 2003 Proposed extradition treaty causing concern By Ray O'Hanlon A new extradition treaty drawn up by the U.S. and British governments is causing alarm among lawyers concerned that it will be directed at Irish-American political activists. The treaty, dated March 31 of this year, is yet to be ratified and must be approved by the Senate. But attorneys familiar with the sometimes heated debate over extradition and deportation proceedings involving Irish citizens in the U.S. said they are fearful that an attempt will be made to win such approval just as the Senate is breaking up for the summer vacation. They also claim that the treaty will have a potentially chilling effect on activities linked to the political situation in Northern Ireland on the part of U.S. citizens. Francis Boyle, a professor of law at the University of Illinois, said that both governments were "pursuing the same strategy" adopted when a supplemental treaty was presented to the Senate back in 1986. "At that time a State Department judge showed up before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee just before the summer break," Boyle said. Boyle said that the move was aimed at securing approval of the measure by stealth and that he feared a similar tactic in the coming days. The treaty was signed in March by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and British Home Secretary David Blunkett. According to Boyle, the proposed treaty not only does away with the concept of a political exception clause, it also removes the possibility of judicial review in extradition cases while exposing individuals, including U.S. citizens, to the threat of extradition to the United Kingdom based on "totally unfounded allegations." "People could be prosecuted for simply helping people involved in the situation in Northern Ireland," Boyle said. "The U.K. government does not need this treaty to get Real or Continuity IRA people. They already can under the current treaty as supplemented in the 1980s. This treaty is really aimed at shutting down Irish-American organizations and individuals." Boyle said he is fearful that the British government is using the new treaty to position itself in the event of the Good Friday agreement breaking down. "I hope it does not, but if it does, God forbid, any Irish American who gives any support can be immediately shut down, even by totally unfounded allegations," he said. Asked if the revised treaty might not be linked more to the post 9/11 situation, Boyle said he did not think this was the case. "I think the real target is Irish America," he said. But Boyle added that he did believe that the U.S. Justice Department would seek "to ram this through the Senate" while using "prevailing public opinion" that has been heavily influenced by 9/11 and its aftermath. Based on his reading of the treaty, which runs to 15 pages, Boyle said he believed it would, among other things: · eliminate the political offense exception for any offense allegedly involving violence or weapons; · transfer responsibility for determining whether the extradition request is politically motivated from the courts to the executive branch; · allow for extradition even if no U.S. federal law is violated; · eliminate any statute of limitations; · allow for provisional arrest and detention for 60 days upon request by the UK; · allow for seizure of assets by the UK. The treaty, Boyle said, would apply retroactively for offenses allegedly committed even before the ratification of the treaty. In New York, attorney Frank Durkan said that the language of the treaty was "so encompassing" and open to such wide interpretation that the Department of Justice "would have no problem in getting an indictment just on the language alone." Durkan said that the language used could mean that simply buying a ticket for a dinner could be interpreted as giving support to terrorism. "This is not being directed at fugitives but people over here who have been active in campaigning for change in Northern Ireland," he said. "It's so full of catchall phrases that you could even go after a lawyer or someone who wrote a column. "The whole idea is to stifle dissent." Durkan said. A State Department spokesman said he was aware of the treaty "bubbling out there" but was not aware of a specific date for presentation on Capitol Hill. ************************************************ CONTACT YOUR US SENATOR HERE: http://www.senate.gov/ A THREAT TO IRISH-AMERICANS: THE NEW U.S./U.K EXTRADITION TREATY by Jerry Boyle http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#threat_irish_americans US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY – Full text http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/extradition_treaty.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: UPDATE on Situation In Maghaberry Date: Tuesday July 15, 2003 Please E-MAIL, FAX, or WRITE to the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office TODAY– Demand SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners as an immediate concern – contact info and links to a short sample letter follow the item below. ------------------------- In statements released to the media today Martin Mulholland and Marian Price reported that "The Northern Ireland Prison Service have resorted to even more draconian practises in an effort to contain the escalating prison protests in Maghaberry gaol. "All sentenced prisoners on protest are currently being held in isolation in the punishment blocks. They are in stripped cells, on 24-hour lock up and have had all contact with each other and their family, friends and legal teams suspended. "14 prisoners on remand have now also joined in the no-wash dirty protest. In an ominous development the prison has put these men on what is known as 'Restraint'. The remand prisoners have also been put in isolation as the prison service feels they are "A threat to the other prisoners and to the smooth running of the prison", this policy is obviously intended to stem the flow of information coming from inside the gaol and allow the administration to continue with their lies and their denials of the human rights abuses inside their institution. Indeed a recently released prisoner who was on the protest confirmed to Radio Ulster that last week the men were beaten and hosed down in their cells, a fact that was denied by the British minister Jane Kennedy." " The British Government believe that if the can keep the prisoners out of sight then they can keep them out of mind too. "It is incumbent on ALL republicans to make sure that this is not the case and to keep the prison issue to the fore until it is resolved in a suitable and humane way." The Irish Freedom Committee urges all of
our Members and supporters to contact the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office
to demand SEGREGATION for republican prisoners as a matter of
urgency. Please see the links below for contact info and a short
sample letter. Please E-MAIL, FAX, or WRITE to the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office – Demand SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners as an immediate concern. |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Israeli army holding peace activist Date: 07 14 03 News is now breaking that the subject of a British and Israeli manhunt in Ramalla is a known Irish peace activist and Irish language campaigner from the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Movement. Click on RTÉ audio/video links below for more: ------------------- RTÉ News July 14, 2003 'Real IRA' suspect is peace activist: claim (13:54) The Belfast office of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Movement has claimed that an Irishman being questioned by Israeli police has been a victim of mistaken identity. The movement said the man being held is Seán Ó Morgáin, a peace activist who had no terrorist connections whatsoever. He travelled to Israel on a British passport. Israeli security services are still questioning what they claim is a suspected member of the Real IRA who was arrested in the West Bank. The 40-year-old South Armagh man, claimed to be an explosives expert, is suspected by them of training Palestinian militants. Sources say he entered Israel on a British passport three weeks ago posing as a tourist and from there crossed to the West Bank. The Gardaí and PSNI confirmed that they have known the supposed Real IRA activist for more than 10 years. -------------------- 
RTE News Audio/Video links (copy and paste code to browser)Morning Ireland: Thomas O'Dwyer, of the International Herald Tribune, reports on the circumstances surrounding the arrest by Israeli security forces 56k http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0714/morningireland/morningireland56_1a.smil News At One: Kathleen Connell, friend and colleague, on the situation 28k http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0714/newsatone/news1pm1a.smil 1.00 News: Charlie Bird, chief news correspondent, speaks live in studio with the latest on the alleged-Real IRA member arrested in the West Bank by the Israelis 56k http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0714/1news/1news56_2b.smil ************************************************ The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Maghaberry Stares into the Abyss - Derry Journal Date: Friday July 11, 2003 Please ACT TODAY and take a few minutes to make your voice heard – write/e-mail the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office stating your awareness of the situation and your demands for immediate SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners. Click on the link below the Derry Journal item for a short sample letter and contact information. Please don’t delay – EVERY VOICE COUNTS. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Derry Journal Jul 11 2003 Maghaberry Stares into the Abyss By Eamonn Houston THE NORTH'S largest prison is now staring at a situation that many see as strikingly similar to the conditions that led to the 1981 hunger strike. Back then, 10 republican prisoners, demanding political status starved themselves to death. The period was one of the most fraught of three decades of the North's Troubles. In 2003, another group of prisoners are staring into the abyss. The issue this time is segregation. Loyalist and republican inmates, under the Maghaberry regime, are forced to share cells. Both sides want the regime changed and a wing system put into place. But the authorities are wary of separate wings, fearing the foundation of powerbases within the walls of the prison. Currently 10 republican prisoners are involved in a dirty protest, reigniting memories of disputes in the infamous Long Kesh prison. And their commitment is unwavering, according to their families and friends. Two Derry men, Tony Friel a remand prisoner and Ciaran McLaughlin are among their number. The wife of Tony Friel this week appealed for anyone with influence to intervene in the dispute. Janet Friel said that she fears the protest will escalate if nothing is done. Last weekend on a visit to the prison, Janet, her 18-year-old daughter and 16-month granddaughter were detained in the visitors area because of a republican protest outside the gates. The republican prisoners were immediately returned to their cells, leaving high profile loyalists, UDA brigadier Andre Shoukri and William 'Mo' Courtney "laughing". "The republican prisoners were taken back to their cells. The usual visit is half-an-hour. We were kept their for an houranda-half and Shoukri was sitting laughing with a female visitor. We just wanted to leave, but they wouldn't let us. The loyalists were allowed to sit on." According to the Derry woman the commitment of her husband and the other inmates is solid. "They will do what they have to do. People are going to have to sit up and take note of what's happening. You can sense the tension, the second you walk into the prison. I just feel that people should know what is going on here. My husband and the others are determined to do what it takes." Mrs. Friel said that the prospect of the current protest escalating to the point of hungerstrike frightens her. "They (loyalists and republicans) can't live together outside the prison so they're hardly going to be able to inside. "I would appeal to anyone with influence to take their hands away from their eyes. We don't want to see a situation where this gets nastier and uglier." According to Janet Friel, Maghaberry is "practically run" by its largely UDA inmates. ************************************************ IFC Action Request – MAGHABERRY PRISON Please send an email to the NIO and NIPS http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#action_request_maghaberry ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST ----------------------------- Subject: Maghaberry prisoners prepared “to do what it takes” - Derry Journal Date: Friday July 11, 2003 Stories below: 1. ‘Derryman moved in with Mo Courtney ‘ (Mark Mullan, Derry Journal) 2. ‘Screws getting rich on dirty protest’ (Mark Mullan, Derry Journal) Please ACT TODAY and take a few minutes to make your voice heard – write/e-mail the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office stating your awareness of the situation and your demands for immediate SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners. Click on the link below the Derry Journal items for a short sample letter and contact information. Please don’t delay – EVERY VOICE COUNTS. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ (Thank you to STORMONT WATCH for the transcripts of the following two Derry Journal items) ------------ Derry Journal Thursday July 10, 2003 Derryman moved in with Mo Courtney report by Mark Mullan “They’re prepared to die’ THE WIFE of a Derry republican who began a ‘dirty protest’ in Maghaberry jail on Monday has spoken of her fear that the prisoners may resort to a hunger strike if their demands aren’t met. Bernie McLaughlin – whose husband Ciaran is serving an 18-year sentence for arms possession – said the men were determined to see their protest through for “as long as it takes”. She also revealed that some had already discussed escalating it. “I am terrified that they might go on hunger strike”, she told the Derry News. “But some of them in there are prepared to do that and Ciaran would be one of them.” Mrs. McLaughlin’s husband was one of eight sentenced prisoners who joined a number of remand prisoners who have been refusing to wash since last week. All of those involved are republicans and include a number of other Derrymen. They are protesting against the Prison Service’s policy of integrating them with loyalist and criminal inmates. It’s understood the already tense situation inside Maghaberry escalated last week when Seamus Doherty, a remand prisoner from Derry, was told he was being moved into a cell with Mo Courtney – the Belfast loyalist who took over from Johnny Adair as head of the UDA’s notorious “C” Company. “I’m just sad that it had to come to this”, said Mrs. McLaughlin. “We have been protesting on the streets to avoid this, Sinn Fein, the SDLP and the Bishop have all called for segregation, but they won’t listen/ “We don’t want this situation but the prisoners’ backs are against the wall and they have no choice. I support Ciaran and all the other prisoners in the action they have taken. They shouldn’t be thrown in together like animals.” When contacted by the Derry News, a spokesman for the Prison service confirmed “at least” ten republicans “are smearing excrement on their cell walls”. Health Risks He added, “We are going in to clean the cells as often as we can but clearly there are health risks. The responsibility for that lies with the prisoners involved”. He also described claims that prisoners were beaten and hosed down during the cleaning operation as “absolute rubbish”. The spokesman admitted that there had been no official contact between the authorities and prisoners but they were aware that segregation was the key demand. However, he insisted that the existing policy would not be reversed. “You only have to look at the history of the last 30 years to realise that segregated jails where the paramilitaries have control of prison wings leads to murder and mass break-outs”. However, this was rejected by Mrs. McLaughlin who said loyalists and republicans “can’t even live together outside the prison”. She continued: “Everybody knows that Ciaran has been attacked in there before but he doesn’t even tell me everything that goes on. He said if he did, I wouldn’t stop worrying. Lots of other men have been attacked and most goes unreported”. No Visit Yesterday, Ciaran McLaughlin’s children were refused a visit with their father and Mrs. McLaughlin fears her family may be denied from seeing her husband as long as the protest lasts. “We’re not even sure if we will be allowed to visit him – they’ll all be under lockdown and lose all their privileges"” she said. "It just shows you how bad things have got to force people to this kind of action”. Meanwhile prisoners’ relatives are due to meet later this week with senior politicians, Civil Rights veterans and Brice Dickson, Chief Commissioner of the Human rights Commission to discuss the crisis. ************************************************ |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: The Blanket – PLEASE READ Date: Thursday July 10, 2003 The Blanket – PLEASE READ If you have ever read the Blanket, or if you frequently do; or if you’ve ever had your work published in this groundbreaking on-line magazine; please read this important message. As has been previously covered in this space, reporters from the Blanket had their laptop computer, tape recorders, digital camera, and phone equipment forcibly removed from their home last week by police after covering a protest for prisoners’ rights at Prison Service Headquarters in Belfast. The fact that the Northern Ireland Police Services brief can now embrace the blatant censorship of accredited journalists and the theft of their publishing equipment has yet to be addressed, and should be denounced by all freedom-loving persons on both sides of the Atlantic. However in the interim, the more urgent matter of getting this vitally needed publication back on-line is the subject of our appeal to you today. At the time of this writing, up to ten republican prisoners at Maghaberry are enduring conditions most of us couldn’t imagine. These men have previously endured death threats, beatings, scaldings, and threats to their families in the months and years before this current emergency; and have met with total indifference by the Prisons Service time and time again. Even still, their courage and morale is undaunted. These men know that their demands are just, and right, and have the support of human rights treaties around the world. These men are asking only for an end to the senseless and inhumane policy of housing loyalist paramilitaries alongside republicans in a powder keg environment, designed seemingly only with the violent death of a republican prisoner in mind. Yet due to the utter unresponsiveness of the Prisons Service to their simple demands, these men no longer have a choice. Their efforts to negotiate a settlement to a dirty protest last week by remand prisoners were met with no response. Their efforts to bring matters to the attention of Secretary of State Paul Murphy in a face-to-face meeting at Maghaberry Prison brought no change. The prison has remained utterly intransigent, denying at this latest stage that beatings and hosing down of protesting prisoners have not taken place. And meanwhile, the mainstream media are virtually ignoring the issue, with most of the press opting as a matter of routine to cover Prison Service staff demands or trumped-up security forces allegations over the numerous human rights violations against the men inside. In the absence of The Blanket, there is a palpable void. In its last issue before being shut down by security forces, The Blanket reported on a large protest at Prisons Service Headquarters which was extensively photographed and documented by its journalists. Had there been no resultant accusations made by the security forces in the embarrassment it suffered over the protests; this would have been amongst the only media coverage the protest would have received. Certainly it would have been virtually the only fair media coverage of the human rights violations that prompted the protest in the first place. In its pages The Blanket has always made prisoner issues a critical concern. Writer Anthony McIntyre spent sixteen years of his life forcibly incarcerated by the British government for his political beliefs. Its pages have frequently been filled with the words and writings of respected human rights activists whose voices are all too often silenced by the mainstream press; voices like Marian Price, whose home was also raided and whose computer was also seized last week following the protest. In its last issue, the personal appeals of prisoners and their loved ones were given prominent space. Please help get The Blanket back in publication. For every article you’ve ever saved from its archives, or for every contribution you’ve had published in its pages, please consider making a small donation. Send checks or International Money Orders (payable to “the Blanket” or “The Blanket Discussion Group”) to: "The Blanket Drive" c/o IFC P.O. Box 11417 Chicago IL 60611 USA All donations will be receipted and acknowledged by The Blanket. Information regarding the equipment needing replacement is available upon request from the email address below. Please make a small effort to preserve FREE SPEECH today!! Please consider what The Blanket means to you as a reader, and what it means to the families whose loved ones are enduring their toughest challenges yet at Maghaberry, whose voices MUST continue to be heard and read as widely as possible. Respectfully; D. Fennessy (email) The Irish Freedom Committee www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ For more information on this story go to: IFC NewsList (07 08 03): “Political Repression and State-Sponsored Theft of Property” http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#political_repression_theft IFC NewsList (07 07 03) “Police raids on The Blanket – more news” http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/july_2003.htm#blanket_news Indymedia (07 06 03): “Police raids on The Blanket and activists in Belfast” http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=60291&PHPSESSID=d059bda65d3d60d36838843af9692287 ************************************************ The Blanket A journal of protest and dissent http://lark.phoblacht.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: ACTION REQUEST – MAGHABERRY PRISON Date: Wednesday July 9, 2003 Please let the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office know that YOU ARE WATCHING as this crisis unfolds at Maghaberry Prison. The repressive policies of forced integration and brutality by prison staff cannot be hidden from the world’s eye any longer. Please SEND AN E-MAIL to the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office stating your awareness of the situation and your demands for immediate SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners. A short sample letter and contact info are below. PLEASE FORWARD THIS REQUEST – EVERY VOICE COUNTS. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ - CLICK ON EMAIL ADDRESS, 1. Send to: info@niprisonservice.gov.uk NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE Room 321 Prison Service Headquarters Dundonald House Upper Newtownards Road BELFAST BT4 3SU To whom it may concern; I urge you to immediately grant segregation to Irish Republican Political Prisoners at Maghaberry jail. Clearly the prison's policy of "rewarding the individual" by integrating sworn enemies alongside one another has failed in this explosive environment. I urge you to take action now before a terrible repeat of history is the result. The eyes of the world are once again turned to British prisons in the North of Ireland; please do the sensible and humane thing before it's too late. Sincerely; (YOUR NAME/CITY AND COUNTRY HERE) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2. Send to: press.nio@nics.gov.uk NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE Mr. Paul Murphy - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Block B Castle Buildings Belfast BT4 3STGTN To whom it may concern; I urge you to immediately grant segregation to Irish Republican Political Prisoners at Maghaberry jail. Clearly the prison's policy of "rewarding the individual" by integrating sworn enemies alongside one another has failed in this explosive environment. I urge you to take action now before a terrible repeat of history is the result. The eyes of the world are once again turned to British prisons in the North of Ireland; please do the sensible and humane thing before it's too late. Sincerely; (YOUR NAME/CITY AND COUNTRY HERE) ************************************************ SUPPORT THE REPUBLICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS’ FOUR DEMANDS!! - SEGREGATION - A WING OF THEIR OWN - THE RIGHT TO APPOINT A SPOKESMAN - REPRESENTATION AS A GROUP ************************************************ WRITE TO REPUBLICAN POLITICAL PRISONERS www.irishfreedomcommittee.net - click on POWs ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Maghaberry Dirty Protest - UPDATES Date: Wednesday July 9, 2003 At latest word, there are now between seven to ten sentenced republican prisoners on a dirty protest at Maghaberry prison. The men are being prevented from any outside contact whatsoever. However another prisoner has sent out word on the worsening conditions inside Bann House. Although authorities are totally denying it, last night the protesting prisoners were power-hosed and beaten viciously, as stated in the Press Releases below. Many of the prisoners on protest are also housed individually on heavily loyalist wings. All visits, phone calls, and contact with supporters have been cut off. Mail is also being held up. However word is that the morale of the men has never been higher, they are very spirited and feel strongly that they are making a change. The republican prisoners are demanding SEGREGATION and A WING OF THEIR OWN, as well as THE RIGHT TO APPOINT A SPOKESPERSON and GROUP REPRESENTATION. --------------------------- In statements today human rights supporters in England said; "News has reached us from sources within Maghaberry that Republican prisoners currently on a 'no wash' protest against the refusal of prison authorities to segregate them from Loyalists, were today subjected to having their cells blasted by Prison Officers with high pressure hoses. The power of these hoses was such that the prisoners were forced from their cells- undoubtedly intentionally. When on the landings, they were then set upon by Prison Officers and beaten, all of them brutally and at least three of them being left with serious injuries. We, supporters of the prisoners' welfare totally condemn such inhuman acts by so called 'British' prison officers and the so-called 'authorities' that authorise this in the face of a legitimate peaceful protest by prisoners exercising their right to protest."
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Political Repression and State-Sponsored Theft of Property Date: Tuesday July 8, 2003 --------------------------- Political Repression and State-Sponsored Theft of Property By D. Fennessy Tuesday July 8, 2003 Friday’s raid on the McIntyre home in West Belfast was an exercise in “political repression”, according to journalist and frequent media commentator Anthony McIntyre. McIntyre, who shares his home with his wife and fellow journalist Carrie Twomey and their two-year-old daughter, has consistently and eloquently spoken out against both the 1998 “Good Friday” Treaty and armed resistance. Carrie Twomey told us that the raid was a “massive operation”, involving 33 jeeps with between 5 and 6 police officers in each jeep; well over one hundred police officers. All were armed with semi-automatic weapons. The cul de sac outside McIntyre home was filled with over a dozen jeeps, and the surrounding streets were choked with dozens more. Police spent nearly three hours in their home, and left with numerous
items of value including their sole laptop computer, discs, research materials, a digital camera, many notes and documents, a tape recorder,
an electronic personal organizer, mobile phones (including a broken one in their child’s toy box), and a personal journal that was over two
years old. Police went through hundreds of books “page by page”, opened
tins of food, went through personal clothing, and searched their child’s
toys. |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: PRISONERS ON DIRTY PROTEST Date: Tuesday July 8, 2003 BREAKING NEWS The Irish Freedom Committee has just learned that there are between ten and thirty republican political prisoners on a dirty protest at Maghaberry, and that the prison has said it will begin hosing them down tonight in their cells. Republican prisoners have been completely cut off from the outside and news is being relayed by ODC's. More news shortly. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ URGENT REQUEST!!! Please CONTACT Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office -- Demand SEGREGATION for Irish Political Prisoners! This is an urgent request as things are quickly going into critical stages in the prison. For contact info for Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office please go to: CRISIS at MAGHABERRY http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/crisis_at_maghaberry.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Police raids on The Blanket – more news Date: 07 07 03 Below are some news articles regarding Friday’s raids at the offices of the Blanket in West Belfast. · Sunday World story on the raids · Statement from National Union of Journalists · Observer story on the raids Also see Indymedia article “Police raids on The Blanket and activists in Belfast” for previous news. We will have more shortly. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Sunday World July 6th 2003 Police Raid Hack's Home Police have raided the West Belfast home of former IRA prisoner turned journalist Anthony McIntyre, seizing computers and documents. It is understood Friday night's search of his home is linked to a dissident republican protest at the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Service the day before. Mr McIntyre, a member of the NUJ, had been invited along by the protestors to cover the story for his website, known as The Blanket. Pictures of the protestors appeared on The Blanket along with a story. As well as his computers and documents, police also seized a tape recorder and tapes, and a digital camera used to take pictures of the protest. No arrests were made but Mr McIntyre has asked his lawyers to have his material returned immediately. Thursday's (sic) protest was a major embarrassment for the NI Prison Service. Dissidents stormed into Dundonald House in east Belfast and got to the sixth floor which houses the Prison Service. Protestors claimed to have rifled files and stolen confidential papers, a claim denied by the Prison Service. ************************************************ Sunday Tribune July 6th 2003 NUJ Expresses Concern Over PSNI Raid The NUJ has expressed its concern over Friday evening’s PSNI raid on the west Belfast home of journalist and political commentator Anthony McIntyre. A large contingent of police removed computers, mobile phones and a digital camera from the house, of foot of a warrant issued under the Protection of Terrorism Act. The raid occurred following a republican protest at the Northern Ireland Prison Services at Stormont on Wednesday, during which protesters obtained access to an office and witnessed internal documents relating to pay negotiations. McIntyre, who was covering the protest in a journalistic capacity, slammed the raid on his home. ************************************************ The Observer July 6th 2003 McGuinness Pours Scorn on Real IRA By Henry McDonald Ireland Editor Martin McGuinness launched a blistering attack on dissident republicans yesterday, branding them an ineffective military force. Sinn Fein s chief negotiator said the Real and Continuity IRA's project to derail the Irish peace process was doomed to failure. The Mid Ulster MP's outspoken assault on the anti-Agreement republican organisations came as republican dissidents came under further pressure from Whitehall this weekend. McGuinness was responding to revelations that the Real IRA was running an intelligence-gathering operation at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster yesterday, McGuinness said some dissidents "harbour the notion that involvement in this type of activities can bring about a collapse in the peace process. And bring about a situation where the IRA will go back to war. I believe that their strategy will fail and will fail miserably." Meanwhile Anthony McIntyre, a republican critic of the Good Friday Agreement but an outspoken opponent of Real and Continuity IRA violence, was the latest target of a police clampdown on those opposing Sinn Fein strategy. Officers from the PSNI raided McIntyre's west Belfast home on Friday evening as part of their investigation into the protest at the Northern Ireland Prison Service's headquarters in East Belfast last week. During the search operation at his home, computers, disks, a mobile phone, an electronic organiser, a digital camera and paperwork belonging to the former IRA prisoner were seized. McIntyre, a writer and frequent contributor to The Observer, condemned the raid, which he said was designed to "close down the space for debate" within republicanism. He said he went to Dundonald House, the Prison Service Headquarters, to report on the protest by supporters of Real IRA prisoners for his website, The Blanket. "I am totally opposed to the use of physical force and have been for some time," he said. "I may support the prisoners' demand for segregation from loyalists, but I do not support the violent activities that led to jail in the first place. So why am I being targeted?" He said he even agreed to leave the offices occupied by the Real IRA prisoners' support group. "A civil servant asked me to leave the office and I did what he said. If I had been working for UTV or the BBC at this protest I don't think our home would have been raided and our computers and other items taken away," he said. No one was arrested during the PSNI's raids. ************************************************ The Blanket A journal of protest and dissent http://lark.phoblacht.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: A THREAT TO IRISH-AMERICANS - Please act now! Date: Monday July 6, 2003 Please contact your Senators to block this treaty! Find addresses and contact information here: http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/us_government.htm or go to the IFC website and click on “TAKE ACTION”. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM: Francis A. Boyle Law Building 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave. Champaign, IL 61820 USA 217-333-7954(voice) 217-244-1478 (fax) e-mail (personal comments only) ------------------ A THREAT TO IRISH-AMERICANS: THE NEW U.S./U.K EXTRADITION TREATY by Jerry Boyle
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| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Carl Reilly remanded, charged Date: 07 06 03 As part of an ongoing swoop against republican activists in Belfast, Carl Reilly has been charged with Membership and several other charges attempting to link him to an incident in November of last year. Last week the security forces petitioned the courts to have Ciaran Cunningham, the 27-year-old hospital employee charged in a supposed “spy ring”, held in questioning an additional three days in order to attempt to link him to the same November incident. Recently British security forces leveled death threats against Carl Reilly, who has long been a well-known and outspoken critic against British military rule in Ireland. For more reading please see links below story. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ BBC Last Updated: Sunday, 6 July, 2003, 14:05 GMT 15:05 UK Man remanded on dissident charges A man has appeared in court charged with membership of an illegal organisation. Carl Reilly, 27, from Albert Street, Belfast, was charged with possession of explosives, intent to endanger life, conspiracy to commit an explosion, and membership of the Real IRA. The charges are understood to relate to an incident at Upper Queen Street in Belfast in November last year. A large incendiary device was found in a car parked near the motor tax office. A detective sergeant told the court she believed she could link the accused with the charges. Mr Reilly was remanded in custody until 1 August. ************************************************ IFC NewsList 07/02/03 Allegations mount against hospital employee IFC NewsList 05/12/03 Carl Reilly issued Death Threats by RUC/PSNI IFC Action Request – Protest RUC/PSNI Death Threats against Carl Reilly ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Hunger strike threat by republican prisoners Date: 07 06 03 As previously reported here a number of republican remand prisoners at Maghaberry are now on ‘dirty protest’ following riots at Maghaberry last week. A remand (unsentenced) republican prisoner had been told he was to be moved into a cell with loyalist Mo Courtney, and when he refused he was badly beaten by prison officers and moved onto the punishment blocks. An effort to broker this situation was made from another prison building by republican prisoners Officer Commanding John James Connolly, but the prison rebuffed this. Connolly then stated, “all negotiations are now off”. The demand for SEGREGATION for republican political prisoners has never been more critical. Marian Price has told us that the republican prisoners at Maghaberry are “very determined” and “very united” on this matter. The consequences are extremely serious and we are appealing to all of our friends and supporters to please take the time this weekend to contact the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office (contact info below) to make an appeal that segregation be granted the republican prisoners before a terrible repeat of history happens again. Please DON”T ALLOW MORE BODY BAGS to come out of the prisons. Please make your voice heard. Let the British Government know that IRISH AMERICA IS WATCHING. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Observer Sunday July 6, 2003 Hunger strike threat by Real IRA Henry McDonald, Ireland editor The threat of a republican hunger strike looms once more over Northern Ireland's prison system. Twenty-two years after the last hunger strike, which led to the deaths of 10 IRA and INLA prisoners and pushed the Province to the brink of civil war, republican inmates at Maghaberry jail warn that they will follow the path of Bobby Sands in a fight to be segregated from loyalists. In a message to The Observer from the Real IRA's commanding officer in the Co Antrim jail, the republicans said they 'are prepared to do whatever it takes' to end the policy of integrating them with their loyalist enemies. John Connolly, commander of more than 20 Real IRA inmates, said several of his fellow prisoners have begun an H-Block-style 'dirty protest' - cells have been smeared with excrement and furniture smashed to pieces and prisoners have refused to wash or shave. Connolly, a 26-year-old Fermanagh man serving a 14-year sentence for possessing a so-called 'barrack buster' mortar, transmitted his threat this weekend via Marion Price, a former Provisional IRA hunger striker and Old Bailey bomber. Speaking after her visit to the Real IRA inmates on Thursday night, Price said she feared a repetition of the 1981 death fast. 'After my visit I have no doubt that these men are absolutely serious about taking this all the way to a hunger strike... This is the last thing I want to see happening, to watch any more coffins being taken out of a prison in the north of Ireland. We all lived through that horror in 1981. 'But I was on hunger strike myself in the 1970s and know that, once you make the decision to go on it, to have the belief to carry it through, then the rest is relatively easy,' Price said. The Real IRA and small group of Continuity IRA prisoners in the integrated jail want to have their own wing away from loyalists and non-paramilitary prisoners. The Northern Ireland Prison Service is determined not to allow a repeat of the scenario in the now closed Maze prison, where terror groups effectively controlled their own H-Blocks like PoW camps until they were given early release under the Good Friday Agreement. Price, who took part in a takeover of the Northern Ireland Prison Service's headquarters in East Belfast last Wednesday, appealed to the wider nationalist community and the Roman Catholic Church to apply pressure on the British Government to end the policy of integration. 'Integration is illogical because on the outside the communities from where these prisoners live are separated by so-called peace walls. Sinn Fein, by signing up to the Good Friday Agreement, agreed to the pretence that there are no longer any political prisoners in the north of Ireland. But they and the Church must realise the dangerous situation the prisoners are now in. Do they really want to see 1981 repeated all over again?' Price asked. Prison officers agree with Price and the Real IRA support group, the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, that the inmates are serious about escalating the dispute to a death fast. 'Maghaberry jail is a powder keg and anything could happen there, even a hunger strike,' Finlay Spratt, the chairman of the Prison Officers Association in Northern Ireland, said last night. Maghaberry has been the focal point of protests and clashes over the last seven days. Last Sunday inmates ended a three-day rooftop protest at the jail over integration. Then Real IRA prisoners went on 'dirty protest' while their supporters took over the Prison Service HQ in Dundonald last Wednesday. The Prison Service insists that integration is the safest environment for both prisoner and staff. 'You only have to look at the history of the last 30 years to realise that segregated jails where the paramilitaries have control of prison wings leads to murder and mass breakouts,' a Prison Service spokesman said. Segregation exists in de facto form at Maghaberry. Ousted UDA commander Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair is segregated from former comrades for fear that the loyalist feud will erupt inside the jail. ************************************************ For more information please go to www.irishfreedomcommittee.net For contact info for Northern Ireland Prisons Service and the Northern Ireland Office please go to: CRISIS at MAGHABERRY http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/crisis_at_maghaberry.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Mass raids across Belfast – The Blanket, Marian Price targeted Date: 07 04 03 At 9:00 PM tonight Belfast time, homes across Belfast were raided for the second time in two weeks. Phones, protest posters, cameras and computer equipment was taken from the homes of prisoner’s rights activists and also from the home of two journalists at the Blanket. Police came to Marian Price’s home for the second time this week, this time to seize mobile phones and telephone books. Three days before, her computer equipment was removed from her home. Seventy-one professionally printed posters for a protest set for this weekend outside Maghaberry Prison were also seized from her car. At the same time, police raided the home of Blanket journalists Anthony McIntyre and Carrie Twomey and removed all of their computer equipment, cameras, and cell phones from their home. Marian Price told us that it appears there are “no computers anymore in Belfast”. Price said that effectively “all lines of communication are down” in Belfast and the timing of these raids is clearly no accident. There appears to be a concerted effort at work to silence the support network that has been actively drawing attention to the crisis situation at Maghaberry prison, as the situation inside has taken what many feel may quickly become a deadly turn. Many inaccuracies have been reported in the media, including that recent protests at Maghaberry have been held in response to “overcrowding”, and that loyalists and republicans protested together on last week’s overnight rooftop protest. According to Marian Price “there were no republicans on the rooftop protest” and in fact all were loyalist. However two republican remand prisoners are now on a dirty protest at Maghaberry Prison in response to the prison’s increasingly repressive and inhumane policies, a number of which are in direct violation of European laws on Human Rights. An effort was made last week by the prison to house a remand republican prisoner doubled up in the same cell with known loyalist Mo Courtney. The republican prisoner refused out of concern for the safety of his life and was then viciously beaten by prison guards and put onto the punishment blocks, where he remains yet. Riots followed in the remand prisoners quarters, and wash-hand stations and toilets wrecked in the riots were not replaced. Two remand prisoners have subsequently gone onto dirty protest. The prison next put all sentenced republican prisoners on lockdown and fed them through slots in the doors. When the republican prisoners refused to be fed this way like animals a protest ensued, and a number of prisoners, including Republican OC James Connolly, refused food for the duration of the lockdown from Friday to Sunday. Connolly made an application to the prison governor to be allowed in to the remand house to speak with the republican prisoners there to negotiate a settlement to help bring the situation inside to a peaceful close. All efforts by Connolly to do this were rebuffed by the prison and Connolly has now said that “all negotiations are now off”. The demand for a separate wing for republican prisoners is paramount and Marian Price has told us that the men are “very determined, and very united” on this. The terrible possibility looms large that events may soon take a deadly turn with several of the men having firmly said that hunger strike has not been ruled out. This situation can be very easily resolved by the prison granting republican prisoners a WING OF THEIR OWN. Safety concerns have never been higher with the prison no longer just housing lone republican prisoners on loyalist paramilitary landings, but now housing them together IN THE SAME CELLS. The prison has shown it is not concerned in the slightest for the safety of republican prisoners, as had it any concern whatsoever it would never attempt to make such deliberately life-threatening housing arrangements. The republican prisoners demands must be met immediately. Please write, phone, email or fax the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Northern Ireland Office and let them know Irish America will not stand idly by as another unnecessary tragedy befalls Irish Republican Political Prisoners in British jails. Demand that the prison immediately grant the republican prisoners their FOUR DEMANDS: 1. Immediate segregation 2. Group representation 3. The right to elect a spokesperson for each republican group 4. The provision of a separate wing Please don’t delay – every voice counts!!! Links to a suggested letter and addresses follows below. We will post further updates on the situation in Belfast as we get them. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE Mr. Paul Murphy - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Block B Castle Buildings Belfast BT4 3STGTN Phone: 440 02890 520 700 (24 hours) Fax: 02890 528473/528478/528482 Email: press.nio@nics.gov.uk ----------------- NORTHERN IRELAND PRISON SERVICE Room 321 Prison Service Headquarters Dundonald House Upper Newtownards Road BELFAST BT4 3SU E-Mail: info@niprisonservice.gov.uk Phone: 028 9052 5065 - (General Enquiry Line) ************************************************ Irish Freedom Committee www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: US reporters to hand over tapes in McKevitt case Date: 07 04 03 ---------------------------------- US reporters to hand over tapes in McKevitt case 04/07/2003 - 11:45:33 am Three Chicago newspaper reporters have agreed to hand over taped recordings of interviews with a key witness in the trial of alleged Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt. Judge Ronald Guzman had rejected their claim they were covered by an Illinois law that protects journalists and their sources. Lawyers of alleged IRA mastermind Michael McKevitt, who is on trial in Dublin accused of terrorism, want the tapes in a bid to show FBI mole David Rupert is not a credible witness. Rupert reportedly infiltrated the Chicago area fund-raising network of the Real IRA and is testifying at McKevitt’s trial. McKevitt has been described as a leader of the Real IRA. Reporters Abdon Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times and Flynn McRoberts of the Chicago Tribune had signed a contract under which they would interview Rupert and then write a book about his experiences. McRoberts later dropped out of the plan and Robert Herguth of the Sun-Times took his place. Rupert says the FBI recruited him in 1994 to befriend and collect intelligence on alleged extremists in Ireland and the United States. McKevitt, who was arrested in March 2001, could receive a life sentence if convicted of “directing terrorism”. ************************************************ TE$TIMONY OF A PAID AGENTTE$TIMONY OF A PAID AGENT http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/mckevitt_trial.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: MAGHABERRY NEWS – The Blanket Date: 07 05 03 Excerpts below link to full stories in The Blanket magazine at http://lark.phoblacht.net. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ The Blanket A journal of protest and dissent http://lark.phoblacht.net July 3rd, 2003 -------------- THIS WEEK'S ISSUE * LATEST NEWS & VIEWS: Protest at Dundonald House * Dundonald House Protest (Photos) * Conditions at Maghaberry Worsen * Letters from Republican Prisoners Protest at Dundonald House http://lark.phoblacht.net/dundonaldprotest.html Anthony McIntyre In the past few days the issue of segregation in the North’s jails has made prime time viewing. For as long as I remember the separation of prisoners has featured in the discourse associated with prisons. Throughout the 1980s in particular it was a regular news item. The British state seems to think that if it builds a new penal establishment or change the name of an existing one that, hey presto, the nature of the problem shall have disappeared. Do they ever learn? Dundonald House Protest (Photos) http://lark.phoblacht.net/photos.html Carrie Twomey Conditions at Maghaberry Worsen http://lark.phoblacht.net/maghaberry.html Lorraine Corr, relative; and statements from the IRPWA The situation in Maghaberry Gaol has now escalated drastically and we, as relatives of republican prisoners, would ask that segregation is immediately introduced in an effort to resolve this situation before it gets even worse. We have been trying to draw attention for months to the serious abuse of human rights that is taking place in Maghaberry as a result of the conditions our loved ones and all prisoners are being held in. Letters from Republican Prisoners http://lark.phoblacht.net/lettersfromrps.html Rory O'More and Martin Brogan This week in the Gaol saw a lock-down from Sunday 4pm to Thursday 9am, all because the screws on Roe 2 landing decided that a tub of Flora looked ‘very suspicious.’ So the Bomb Squad was called in to examine the offending object. Finally the ‘all clear’ was given and you would think that would be that. Not on your nelly, the Security team decided to take this opportunity or excuse to keep the four landings in Roe House on lock-down so they could search the whole area and every one in it. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Allegations mount against hospital employee Date: 07 03 03 Police today at a court hearing against Ciaran Cunningham referred to “new evidence” and applied to have him held for three more days of questioning. Ciaran has already had five separate interviews since being arrested two days ago and this “new evidence” has not been referred to in any previous interviews. Ciaran is due back in court again tomorrow. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ Irish News BREAKING NEWS · 03/07/2003 17:29:52 Bomb attack document 'found at clerk's home' A debriefing document from a foiled Real IRA bomb attack on Belfast’s main road tax office was found at a house in the city, a court heard today. A detective sergeant claimed the paper was discovered at the home of a hospital clerk charged with collecting information which is likely to be of use to terrorists. Ciaran Cunningham, 27, turned his back on a magistrate when he appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court, which heard details of of the seized document. Cunningham, of Grainne House in the New Lodge area of north Belfast, worked as a transit clerk at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital where he was responsible for transporting patients’ files from ward to ward. He also had access to the hospital’s computer system. A detective sergeant told the court that the defendant made no reply when charged with collecting information about police, soldiers, prison officers and others for use by terrorists. He said he believed he could connect Cunningham with the charges. Ignoring the magistrate, Cunningham refused to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him, when they were put to him in court. A police inspector applied to have Cunningham remanded back into police custody for no more than three days to be questioned about the debriefing document, a matter separate from the four existing charges. But this was opposed by Mr Cunningham’s defence solicitor Joe McVeigh. He said police had not questioned Mr Cunningham about the debriefing document, which was allegedly in his handwriting, despite interviewing him five times. The lawyer claimed police failed to apply to a county court Judge to get an extension to the time they could question Mr Cunningham and were abusing the court process to get around this. The hearing was told the debriefing document from the foiled Real IRA bomb attack on a road tax office in Belfast’s Upper Queen Street was found at Cunningham’s home, but police had not yet had time to question him about it. The detective sergeant told the court police also wished to question four other people who are in custody about this document. The officer refused to comment when asked by Mr McVeigh, whether his client would be charged with membership of the Real IRA. Resident Magistrate Mark Hamill granted the police application and remanded Cunningham back into police custody for not more than three days. He ordered that the accused should appear in court again tomorrow in order to see what progress had been made in the case. Cunningham stood with his back to the court throughout the entire hearing, which was attended by a number of supporters including his pregnant partner. ************************************************ Belfast Telegraph News Publication Date: 03 July 2003 RVH security: man in court By Mary Fitzgerald A 27-YEAR-OLD clerk at the RVH today appeared in court charged in connection with an alleged dissident republican spy-ring at the hospital. Ciaran James Cunningham of Grainne House in the New Lodge area of north Belfast faced four charges of collecting information concerning members of the PSNI, members of the forces, a full-time employee of the Prison Service and others of a nature likely to be of use to persons committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Cunningham stood with his arms folded and his back turned to the magistrate during the proceedings. A detective sergeant told the court the defendant made no reply when charged. He said he believed he could connect the defendant to the charges. The charges relate to an investigation at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital where it is alleged medical records were accessed to gain information on an estimated 300 people. The people involved, who have been informed their details were accessed, include senior police officers, prison officers, members of the forces, politicians, members of the District Policing Partnerships, loyalists and republicans. Cunningham is a transit clerk at the Royal where his duties involve the collection and delivery of medical records between hospital wards. The court heard that his house was raided by police on Tuesday and a number of hand-written notes and floppy discs were seized. The defendant smiled at the public gallery. Deirdre McAliskey, daughter of former MP and civil rights activist Bernadette McAliskey, was in court for the hearing. The PSNI made an application to remand the defendant in police custody for a further week to question him about other matters. Cunningham's solicitor challenged the application and proceedings were adjourned. Meanwhile, Belfast DPP chairman, Jim Rodgers, today held an hour-long meeting with PSNI Acting Assistant Chief Constable, Maggie Hunter, to discuss the alleged leaks. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Report says Mountjoy, Portlaoise prisons ‘unacceptable’ and ‘should be demolished’ Date: 07 03 03 Many republican prisoners are housed at Portlaoise Prison, and one republican prisoner Mick Kenny is housed at Mountjoy Prison’s Training Unit. Please see the Irish Freedom Committee website for addresses to send cards and letters to political prisoners. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ UTV News THURSDAY 03/07/2003 08:52:20 Mountjoy and Portlaoise 'unacceptable' A report on Irish prisons has deemed the condition of Mountjoy and Portlaoise jails unacceptable and says they should be demolished. Dermot Kinlen, a former High Court judge, was appointed the State`s first Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention in April of last year. His first report says the closure of Shanganagh Castle was a retrograde step. He was also concerned that the prison service is top-heavy and overstaffed, and that little of the budget reaches the prisoners` needs. Mr Kinlen is also forthright in his comments on his dealings with the Prison Service and the Department of Justice. His report says that they were slow to provide information to him and that they advised him to take six months to read himself into the job. The Inspector says he took this to mean that he was not to do any real work. A spokesperson for the Prison Service said it was too early to comment on the report, other than they were studying its contents, and awaiting the comments of individual governors. ************************************************ RTE News Mountjoy and Portlaoise reported unacceptable July 3, 2003 (14:34) A report on Irish prisons has stated that the condition of Mountjoy and Portlaoise jails is unacceptable and that they should be demolished. Dermot Kinlen, a former High Court judge, was appointed the State's first Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention in April of last year. This is his first report. The Inspector says the closure of Shanganagh Castle was a retrograde step. He was also concerned that the prison service is top-heavy and overstaffed, and that little of the budget reaches the prisoners' needs. Mr Kinlen is also forthright in his comments on his dealings with the Prison Service and the Department of Justice. His report says that they were slow to provide information to him and that they advised him to take six months to read himself into the job. The Inspector says he took this to mean that he was not to do any real work. A spokesperson for the Prison Service said it was too early to comment other than to say they were studying the contents of the report, and awaiting the comments of individual governors. AUDIO-VIDEO LINKS Morning Ireland: Kathleen McMahon reports on Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen's first report as Inspector of Prisons (28k ) http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0703/morningireland/morningireland5a.smil News At One: John Lonergan, Governor of Mountjoy Prison, discusses the report (28k) http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0703/newsatone/news1pm1a.smil 1.00 News: Bernard McMullan reports on the study's findings56k http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0703/1news/1news56_1a.smil ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Reporters ordered to give up ‘Rupert tapes’ Date: 07 03 03 ---------------------------------- Chicago Sun-Times July 3, 2003 Reporters ordered to give up tapes of IRA witness Three Chicago newspaper reporters were ordered Wednesday to turn over to a federal court tapes of interviews with the key witness in the trial of an alleged terrorist now in progress in Ireland. U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman rejected a claim that the reporters could refuse to turn over the tapes because they are privileged under an Illinois shield law that protects reporters and their sources. Guzman said that the importance of fairly investigating terrorism cases and providing the defendants with fair trials can often override such protections. ''It is clear ... that the reporter's privilege cannot override the need for effective and fair criminal investigations and trials in such situations,'' Guzman said. Attorneys for alleged terrorist leader Michael McKevitt, now on trial in Dublin, want the tapes in hopes they can be used to cast doubt on the testimony of prosecution witness David Rupert. McKevitt has been described as the leader of the Real IRA, a splinter group at odds with the Provisional Irish Republican Army. Rupert, who became involved in the IRA's fund-raising network in the Chicago area, is currently on the witness stand at the trial. Reporters Abdon M. Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times and Flynn McRoberts of the Chicago Tribune had signed a contract under which they would interview Rupert and then write a book about his life. McRoberts later dropped out of the plan and Robert C. Herguth of the Sun-Times took his place. Guzman ordered the three reporters to produce the tapes before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ian H. Levin at a hearing today. Pallasch's attorney, Kathleen Roach, reacted glumly to the order. ''We'll be filing a notice of appeal [today],'' she said Wednesday. AP ************************************************ For continuing daily updates go to http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/mckevitt_trial.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Hospital worker charged Date: 07 03 03 ----------------------- Irish Independent July 3, 2003 Belfast hospital worker charged with 'terror offences' 13:26 Thursday July 3rd 2003 A 27-year-old Belfast hospital clerk has appeared in court in the North charged with collecting information which could be of use to paramilitaries. Ciaran Cunningham, from the New Lodge area of Belfast, was charged with collecting information about police officers, British soldiers, prison officers and others. Mr Cunningham, who works in the Royal Victoria Hospital on the Falls Road in Belfast, stood with his back to the judge during the hearing and refused to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him. ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Belfast arrests, raids Date: 07 02 03 Over the past two days a dozen homes in Belfast have been raided apparently with the sole purpose of confiscating computer equipment. The raids appear to have been carried out in response to what the security forces are claiming was an “intelligence operation” which has resulted in five arrests. However the timing of the raids and arrests follows several days of what can only be called emergency developments at Maghaberry prison, with several republican prisoners on “dirty protest” and all of them on lockdown and virtually cut off from the outside. Also within the past two days protests by supporters and family members have taken place both outside Maghaberry prison and at Dundonald House at the offices of the Prison Service Headquarters, with the latter protest getting widespread media attention. Links to photographs from the protest and further news to follow shortly. The Irish Freedom Committee® |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: 'Dirty protest' as row worsens Date: 07 02 03 ------------------------- Irish News |
| IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ----------------------------- Subject: Emergency situation at Maghaberry Date: 07 02 03 The situation at Maghaberry prison has become extremely serious with several republican prisoners now on no-wash protest. All prisoners have been confined to their cells and all access to the outside has been prevented. This latest development follows a rooftop protest last week after a move by the prison to house loyalist and republican prisoners together in the same cells. As this crisis situation emerges, offices and homes of support groups in Belfast have been raided and a number of arrests made. Under the pretense of having unearthed an ‘intelligence gathering operation’ police now have five republican activists in custody after having their homes ransacked. As a result this has further cut the prisoners off from the outside as this situation escalates with even their lawyers being denied contact with them. More updates soon. The Irish Freedom Committee® www.irishfreedomcommittee.net ************************************************ CRISIS AT MAGHABERRY – Please make your voice heard!! Go HERE for suggested letters/emails to the Northern Ireland Prisons Service and Northern Ireland Office. http://members.freespeech.org/irishpows/bb3/crisis_at_maghaberry.htm ************************************************ © The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates |