ESB Price Hike

Energy Regulator to discuss electricity price hike and disconnection of customers with Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs




August 31 2010



Energy regulator Michael Tutty will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs tomorrow, Wednesday 1 September to discuss concerns over a planned increase in electricity prices and the record numbers of electricity and gas customers being disconnected due to their inability to pay their bills.



Michael Moynihan, TD, Chair of the Committee on Economic and Regulatory Affairs said: “The planned 5 per cent increase in electricity prices the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy from next October will hit many households and families very hard and at a time when many are already struggling with other utility bills, price increases, falling incomes and unemployment.



It also comes at a time when reports show that the ESB are already cutting off power to 900 houses a month – or 30 households a day – because people cannot afford to pay their bills. In the past three months, Bord Gais has disconnected an average of 230 people a month.



The Committee’s emergency meeting will provide committee members with an opportunity to question the energy regulator on the proposed increases in electricity supply charges which it has authorised for hundreds of thousands of domestic customers from next October through the PSO.



Concerns about the impact of the price rise on households, the record numbers of electricity and gas customers being disconnected due to inability to pay, the disconnection and reconnection fees being levied on these customers and the protocols in place to protect vulnerable people in dealing with the energy suppliers will also be raised with the regulator.”



This meeting will take place in Committee Room 1, Leinster House at 12.30pm tomorrow, Wednesday, 1 September.

Obama to end war in Iraq

Good evening,




Tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. EDT, I will address the nation from the Oval Office about the end of the war in Iraq.



We are at a truly historic moment in our nation’s history. After more than seven years, our combat mission in Iraq will end tomorrow.



As both a candidate and President, I promised to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end. Now, we are taking an important step forward in delivering on that promise. Since I took office, we’ve brought nearly 100,000 U.S. troops home from Iraq, millions of pieces of equipment have been removed, and hundreds of bases have been closed or transferred to Iraqi Security Forces.



Our combat mission in Iraq is ending, but our commitment to an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant continues. As our mission in Iraq changes, 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to advise and assist the Iraqi Security Forces as they assume full responsibility for the security of their country on September 1. We will forge a strong partnership with an Iraq that still faces enduring challenges.



For nearly a decade, we have been a nation at war. The war in Iraq has at times divided us. But one thing I think all Americans can agree on is that our brave men and women in uniform are truly America’s finest. They have put their lives on the line and endured long separations from their family and loved ones.



All Americans owe our troops, veterans and military families a debt of gratitude for their outstanding service to our nation. Over the past few days, thousands of Americans have taken part in our Saluting Service in Iraq effort on WhiteHouse.gov, sending their messages of thanks and support to our troops.



Take a minute right now to see what your fellow Americans have to say and add a message of your own:





Supporting our troops and military families is the responsibility of all Americans. My Administration is doing everything in its power to ensure that our troops, veterans and their families have the support they need as they serve, and the care and opportunities they need to realize their dreams when they return home.



I hope you will join me in welcoming our troops home and showing your gratitude for their heroic service.



Sincerely,



President Barack Obama

Agents and Informers - Delta 7

Delta 7




At the height of the terrorist campaign in Northern Ireland during the late 1970s and early 1980s there was no formal arrangement between the Irish and British Governments in relation to the sharing of Intelligence about terrorists on an all Ireland basis. This intelligence deficit created a vacuum in which the terrorists could operate with relative ease. For example, if the Gardai in Dundalk had some indicators or even good intelligence that a PIRA Active Service Unit was preparing an attack in the north, that information could not simply be passed directly to the security services in Northern Ireland. Alongside this official deficit there was the usual failure of different groupings within the security services to share intelligence.



In order to side step this official deficit, a Specialist Intelligence Unit was established and was known internally as Delta 7. Delta 7 was controlled by senior Intelligence officers from the Irish security services and M15 who were also working hand in hand with the Force Research Unit. Delta 7 ran its own intelligence agents within both loyalist and republican terrorist organisations. Intelligence gained from these Intelligence agents was equally shared between both senior members of An Garda Siochana and M15. Delta 7 ensured that if there was intelligence that PIRA terrorists were known to be preparing an attack, that a cross border plan was put in place to ensure that the PIRA activists could be followed on both sides of the border and then intercepted where and when possible.



On a number of occasions information gained by Delta 7 ended in a number of what would be described as ‘Shoot-to Kill’ actions by the security services. The ‘Shoot to Kill’ policy by the British security services caused serious problems for the Irish Government as that type of high profile activity was never part of the arrangements that had been put in place. Following the 1998 signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Delta 7 was disbanded as it was believed that if it had been discovered it would have caused political embarrassment. There are now formal structures in place for the exchange of information between the British and Irish security services, and those arrangements are accepted as the norm within the new political dispensation. Many of the Agents previously handled by Delta 7 continue to operate in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland; some remain within the main-stream provisional republican movement while a significant number have infiltrated the ‘dissident’ groupings.



There have been suggestions that Martin Mc Guinness was a paid British Agent, this is totally without foundation, there is no doubt that Mc Guinness was naive in relation to his dealings with M16 Agent Michael Oakley ‘The Mountain Climber’, however, at all times Martin Mc Guinness was reporting directly to the PIRA Army Council which up until November 1997 included Kevin Mc Kenna and Michael Mc Kevitt. Agent Oakley was advised at all times, during his negotiations with Mc Guinness by one of Delta 7’s most successful Agents, Sean O’ Callaghan.



Other high profile Delta 7 agents would be exposed over the years including Dennis Donaldson, Freddie Scappaticci and Peter Keely who was known as agent ‘Kevin Fulton’. These three men had access to information that spanned the length and breath of Ireland, and while much of this information was not operational it was essential to mapping the PIRA leadership’s forward planning. Other less known Delta 7 agents were George Poyntz who had been a long time member of the PIRA in the south Armagh and Castleblaney area of County Monaghan. George Poyntz was eventually exposed when he played his part in a Delta 7 operation that was aimed at having INLA leader Dominic Mc Clinchy tracked and shot dead in the north. However, on the night in question Mc Clinchy did not travel north in the car in which he was supposed to travel and two other republicans Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll were shot dead by the security services in the north. This incident with others would be known as a ‘Shoot to Kill’ policy by the security services in the north.



It is known that M15 recruited a number of agents in the north for Delta 7 and then relocated those agents into the Republic particularly in Donegal, Monaghan and Louth. It is known that agents were recruited while still in their teens, while at the same time more seasoned players such as George Poyntz were also recruited. The work of Delta 7 has never been exposed as it was always assumed that its agents were simply part of the FRU, however, its work was essential to ensuring collateral damage to some of the PIRA’s most lethal and prolific killers. Delta 7 agents continue to work within the ranks of the provisional republican movement, while their main focus is the dissident groupings. Agents are now on a more formal basis as there is a more transparent relationship between the British and Irish security services.

Dissidents

Over the past number of months the Real IRA’s engineering department in south Armagh have been refining their mortar bomb. At present a number of former, senior PIRA members are working tirelessly to develop the mortar for a spectacular attack on a PSNI station in south Armagh. It is believed that the RIRA will carry out a mortar attack in south Armagh in the coming weeks, having perfected their engineering of both the tooling of the mortar tubes and the timing mechanism needed to set off the mortars in a co-ordinated fashion. The PIRA carried out many such attacks over the years but the RIRA have only recently recruited two major PIRA engineers in south Armagh and they are determined to show that they still know their trade.

Mortars - http://wn.com/IRA_Mortar_Bomb

Maddie Mc Cann Fraud

A private detective whose firm was paid up to £500,000 from publicly donated funds to find Madeleine McCann is to get tens of thousands of pounds in legal aid to fight extradition to the US for fraud charges.

Kevin Halligen, 50, told Kate and Gerry McCann he could find their daughter but allegedly spent the cash on a lifestyle of first-class flights, chauffeured cars, nightclubs and luxury hotels and goods.

In a separate alleged scam he was arrested last November at the £700-a-night Old Bank Hotel in Oxford.

US authorities issued an extradition warrant accusing Halligen of defrauding a law firm of £1.3 million by ­claiming he could help free two men jailed in war-torn Africa. It is claimed he instead spent the money on a mansion.

Gerry Adams - IRA Leader

Gerry Adams an IRA leader - irishrepublicanarmy-ira.blogspot.com

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: http://northernirelandhumanrightscommision.blogspot.com/


Some will know the name Gerry Adams some will not. In Ireland Gerry Adams is widely viewed as the face of the republican movement. Gerry Adams is the President of Sinn Fein which is the political wing of the republican movement. The IRA is the now ‘decommissioned’ military wing of the republican movement. Gerry Adams has for some strange reason always publicly stated that he was never a member of the IRA. For those of us who were members of the republican movement it is well known that Gerry Adams was a senior member of the IRA in Belfast and that he had a seat at the table of the IRA Army Council. Indeed I can put my hand on my heart and say that in 1984 I was present when Gerry Adams arrived at a venue for a meeting of some of the most senior members of the IRA. I was not a senior member of the IRA but was simply present before the meeting started. Gerry Adams and Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes did not leave when the meeting started. I will set out here the reality of Gerry Adams janus-face position in the republican movement.



So it was that the British Army were brought into the north as ‘peace-keepers’. The British army were initially feed and given tea by many grateful Catholics who had suffered so much at the hands of loyalist mobs. Indeed the IRA leadership had initially put in place a no shoot policy in relation to the British Army, this policy was put in place as the British Army were so welcomed initially, however, the IRA had no such policy in relation to Protestants and they continued to murder Protestants at will. Yet as the British army were used to break up no-go areas and were the main body tasked with the Internment of Irish Catholics their role as ‘peace-keeper’ would wear thin quickly. There is no doubt that Internment, the breaking up of no-go areas and the IRA’s own mishaps were insuring that the IRA could not operate at full capacity. It was inability to operate at full capacity that foolishly lead the British and Irish Governments to believe that the IRA could be defeated as the ordinary people turned away from the men of violence. The ordinary people could be bought off with reforms in Stormont and the IRA defeated by isolation and imprisonment, thought the Governments.



The Irish Government under Jack Lynch who had just recovered from the controversy surrounding the supplying of guns to the IRA appeared ready and willing to take on rather than tolerate the IRA. Lynch had been backed into a corner as loyalist terrorists had already moved into the Irish Republic in 1972 and fire bombed hotels in Dublin and the loyalists said they would carry out further attacks if the Irish Government did not stand up to the IRA. The loyalists did return and murder dozens of innocent civilians in Monaghan and Dublin.




At the Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in 1972, the PIRA Chief of Staff, Mac Stiofain was not offering Lynch any hope of compromise when he said there would be no compromise with the British; it was all or nothing, “Brits Out”. Lynch decided it was time to put the Provisionals out of business and he had Mac Stiofain arrested and imprisoned.




In 1973, when Seamus Twomey was arrested Gerry Adams took over as commanding officer of the IRA in Belfast. The Adams leadership was well able to match the body count which occurred under Twomey in 1972 which read, 81 innocent Catholics and 41 innocent Protestants mainly murdered in no warning IRA bomb attacks. In his new book Ed Moloney gives a clear insight into the role played by Adams when Moloney reproduces an interview that he carried out with Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes before Brendan died in 2009. Brendan Hughes who was a close friend and comrade of Gerry Adams alleges that Adams was the person who ordered the murder of innocent Mother of ten, Jean Mc Conville, amazon.co.uk/Voices-grave-two-mens-ireland. The sectarian bloodbath was overflowing and the British and Irish Governments were at a loss as to what the next step should be. The sectarian drive of the PIRA and indeed Gerry Adams is best captured by Adams himself in his book A Pathway to Peace http://www.brandonbooks.com/authors.php?authors_id=1




Of all the differences between the Ireland of Tone’s time and the Ireland of today, unquestionably one of the most noticeable – although far from being the most significant – is the changed political attitudes of the mass of Protestants, especially in the North. Instead of forming a cordial union with their fellow Irishmen to run their own country for themselves in their own interests, they find themselves the prisoners of a fossilised, politico-religious sectarianism which is entrenched and institutionalised as an integral part of the imperial administrative system in the six counties[1]




Adams fails to see in his own words the very sectarianism of his own politics in the fact that the deaths of over three thousand mainly innocent people in forty years of republican death and destruction have driven an insurmountable wedge between Protestants and Catholics. Few families in the north’s population of 1.5 million have been left unscathed by both loyalist and republican violence, the deaths of over three thousand, the maiming of tens of thousands, the imprisonment of tens of thousands have left the Protestant community more fundamentally opposed to Irish Unity than the British State could have achieved in another eight hundred years of Imperial rule. Interesting though is that fact that Adams himself would eventually become part of what he described as:




An integral part of the imperial administrative system in the six counties.




While Adams and other members of the republican movement continue to try and attach their brand of republicanism with that of Wolfe Tone there is no link, there is no attachment. Wolfe Tone represented the aspirations of a united Irish people both Protestant and Catholic fighting for a French style Republic free of British Imperialism, modern day militant republicanism does not fall within the shadow of Wolfe Tone’s republic. Adams continues to refer to Wolfe Tone and others as the starters of the unfinished business, as if the work of Wolfe Tone is to be found in the sectarian politics of 20th/21st century Sinn Fein/IRA. In the Sinn Fein document The Evolution of Sinn Fein (1995) this desired linkage to Wolfe Tone and others is made six times, this would not be so noticeable if this were not a one page document.




This attempt by the Adams to claim linage to the old IRA is clearly seen in the re-write of the IRA’s Green Book in 1977. In the 1956 edition of the IRA’s Green Book the authors do not engage in any legitimisation of the armed struggle beyond its historical context of resistance to occupation. The 1977 edition which was written by Gerry Adams and other leading republicans claims direct legitimacy from the members of the second Dail, who transferred their authority to the IRA in 1938 after the takeover of the IRA Army Council by Sean Russell. Antony Mc Antyre a former republican prisoner, now an academic and scholar says that:




The modern republican movement has persistently been the product of BritishState strategies rather than a body which has existed for the sole purpose of completing the unfinished business of uniting Ireland.[2]




Contrary to what Imperialist type motives republicans attribute to the BritishState, it remains in Ireland in response to the Protestant/Unionist demands to remain British. This is a correct analysis and one that was supported in my own research as republicans admit to having recognised that Protestants were the real obstacle to a united Ireland as early as the 1970s. Tugwell states that;




That campaign (IRA violence) would use the international, domestic and economic side effects of armed struggle on the British Government and ‘Public’ to cause the necessary shift from the British state viewing the North of Ireland as an asset to a liability.




Following forty years of sectarian violence resulting in over three thousand deaths, the majority of whom were Northern Irish, the public can now be more clearly defined as being physically and psychologically the British Protestant people of Northern Ireland and psychologically and economically the British people of England, Scotland and Wales. All of whom would eventually see the benefits of a united Ireland unless the sectarian bankruptcy of the republican movement was first realised.




Up until September 1973 an IRA bombing campaign had lasted several months with death and mutilation becoming part of the daily routine for the people of Belfast and Derry. Lynch’s Government had taken a tough line against the men of violence and had initiated a sustained program of anti-terrorist legislation as extreme and as tough as the British response to the men of violence. 1974 began with the Provisionals planting bombs all over the north and in Birmingham (England). The PIRA’s New Year message was;




We look forward with confidence to 1974 as a year which the British rule in Ireland shall be destroyed and the curse of alien power banished from our land for all time.




On the 28th of June the new Northern Ireland elections had returned Twenty-three Official Unionist candidates, twenty-seven loyalist candidates, nineteen SDLP (Catholic), eight Alliance (cross-community) and DUP (loyalist). On Tuesday the 14th of May 1974 at six o’clock in the evening, the Assembly voted forty-four to twenty-eight in favour of Faulkner’s amendment supporting the Sunningdale agreement for reform. The Ulster Workers Council (Protestant/loyalist) announced a province wide strike. The north came to a stand still as Protestants held key positions in all of the utility control centres in the north including electricity and water. Loyalists sent death squads back into the Republic of Ireland once again and on the 17th of May 1974 they exploded bombs in Dublin and Monaghan killing dozens of innocent civilians and injuring hundreds more.



The British Government under Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson were not prepared to break the loyalist strike. Intimidation, food shortages, water shortages and electrical shortages continued, Wilson’s inaction had simply made matters worse. Wilson defending the new Northern Ireland Assembly called the loyalists, “Spongers on the British public”. The strength of the loyalist strike proved too much for the constitutional politicians and when Faulkner asked Secretary of State, Rees to talk with the UWC and Rees refused Faulkner and his loyalist colleagues resigned and Sunningdale fell.



Meanwhile the republican movement was again at war within its own ranks. In 1974 the Official IRA lead by Goulding called the PIRA “Fascists” as more splits began to unfold. Republican uncertainty manifested itself into yet another split; on the 8th of December 1974 Seamus Costello and other uncompromising Official IRA members created the IRSP (INLA) yet another republican splinter group. In 1975 members of the INLA killed a number of their former Official IRA comrades. The INLA while small in number would prove to be a ruthless sectarian killing machine, only out done in number and deed by the PIRA.



In 1974 the Official IRA dropped abstentionism to Westminster and the Northern Ireland convention and were now out of the business of violence, at least on any political level. From the 22nd of December 1974 until the 2nd of January 1975 the PIRA called a cease-fire as they were told that if they showed good will talks with the British could take place. Merlyn Rees, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland said on the 20th of December, no specific undertakings had been given. The IRA extended the cease-fire for two weeks, this writer remembers that cease-fire well, but that hope was not to last. Rees refused to talk directly to the IRA and on the 16th of January the IRA returned to violence, having used the cease-fire to get organised and rearmed.



On the 9th of February 1975 the IRA Army Council announced an indefinite cease-fire following discussions with British officials. Loyalists however continued to kill innocent Catholics and the INLA and Official IRA continued to kill each other. The British Government would not or could not give a declaration of intent to withdraw from Northern Ireland and the PIRA continued to use the threat of violence. The loyalists believed that the IRA cease-fire was simply a ploy by the PIRA to get regrouped and rearmed and that a return to full scale violence was only a matter of time. The PIRA wanted the British Government to become persuaders of the Protestant people of Northern Ireland of the benefits of a united Ireland; this was not going to happen in the short term.







The first four chapters of this book have focused on the regression of the republican movement who were constantly falling back into a politico-sectarian blindness coupled by internal feud and disagreement. Their central focus to this point has been the physical and psychological brutality of the Protestant people of Northern Ireland in order to coerce them into a united Ireland. Loyalists are not faultless; however, a clear distinction must be made between ordinary decent hard working Protestants and the small number of criminals who made up the loyalist murder squads.







Chapter 4 Ends











Coming next: A Fairly Secret Army - Chapter 5 – Political Development - Prisons and Hunger Strikes



















[1] Page 44 Adams,1988







[2] Page 98 Irish Political Studies, 1995



















IRA







IRA. Coming Next



As a footnote to this chapter it is worth noting that Gerry Adams has recently been forced to admit that he knew that his Brother Liam had sexually abused his (Liam's) own daughter Aine from she was a toddler, Gerry has also been forced to admit that his own Father Gerry Adams Snr was a child molester. Yet with this knowledge Gerry Adams continued to allow his brother Liam to remain as a senior member of the republican movement and indeed he gave his father Gerry Snr a full style IRA funeral when he died. When Gerry Adams was asked why he had not mentioned any of this in his auto-biography and why he had painted a cosy profile of his father and brother Liam he said:















"In respect of references to him in my book ‘Before the Dawn’ which deals with my life growing up in west Belfast , I included references to other siblings also. My account of my childhood memories is exactly that. It would have been highly irresponsible and wrong of me to make any reference to the allegations against Liam

Denis Donaldson

Without the use of ‘Agents’ and ‘Informers’ the security services on both sides of the Irish Border would have had minimal success in the fight against terrorism. Some of the highest ranking members of Sinn Fein/IRA were and remain ‘Agents’ and ‘Informers’. People such as Sean O’Callaghan operated shoulder to shoulder with Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy and Kevin Mc Kenna, both of whom served as Chief of Staff of the PIRA, while at the same time Sean O’Callaghan was an ‘Agent’ working for the security services.

The work of Sean O’Callaghan as an active agent within the PIRA and his work as an advisor to M16 while the PIRA leadership were in ‘talks’ with Martin Mc Guinness and the PIRA leadership, has saved hundreds of lives.



Denis Donaldson who was murdered by cowards and criminals in Donegal, worked as an agent within the leadership of Sinn Fein/IRA and was an invaluable sourse of information for the security services, Donaldson was not the only senior member of Sinn Fein working for the security services.



The work of Donaldson and O’Callaghan was exceptional and remains of significant importance to this very day and beyond. Unlike informers like Martin Mc Gartland who was paid shillings by his RUC handlers to sell out his comrades, O’Callaghan and Donaldson were at the heart of the leadership of Sinn Fein/IRA and were determined ‘Agents’ who risked death on a daily basis to help bring about an end to terrorist violence.



Neither Donaldson nor O’Callaghan done this work for simple monetary gain, it is clear that both men were determined to play a central role in bringing about an end to the sectarian criminality that was being played out on the streets of Northern Ireland every day.



Personally, I have never been able to stomach informers, those horrible little people who sell their soul to the devil just to get drinking money to drown out their sad existence. They would sell out their mother just to get a few shillings to supplement their social welfare payments. They meet their handlers in the backs of vans and cars while parked in the dark alley ways of Belfast or hotel car parks in County Tyrone.



However, I have always had admiration for those men and women who decide that they really want to make a difference by acting as ‘Agents’ within the ranks of the terrorist organizations, these people have courage that their tormentors have not.



This week we have seen the fifth adjournment of the inquest into the cowardly murder of Denis Donaldson in Donegal. The Gardai are making progress in that murder investigation and we wish them well in that.



It has long been believed that a senior member of the East Tyrone Brigade of the Provisional IRA murdered Denis Donaldson, that murderer should hang his head in shame. What a coward. Denis Donaldson was a soft target; he was a broken man, a man unable to defend himself against the brute that blasted him with a shot gun at close range. If there is justice in this world we can only hope and pray that the coward who murdered Denis will be brought to justice.

Sex Offender Could Be In Ireland

A sex offender from Scotland who broke his bail conditions could be in Ireland, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has said.




Fraser Benjamin McLaughlin was last seen on a ferry on route here three months ago.



The 57-year old from Hamilton in Scotland has strong links to Northern Ireland.



He has broken Sexual Offenders Register conditions and failed to answer bail over charges linked to child abuse images.

Top 10 FBI Stories w/e 27th August 2010

FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending August 27, 2010




Los Angeles: Forty-One Members and Associates of Pueblo Bishops Charged in Federal Racketeering Indictment



More than 1,000 FBI agents and LAPD officers executed arrest warrants and search warrants Wednesday after a two-year investigation into the Pueblo Bishops Bloods, a street gang that controls the Pueblo del Rio housing project in South Los Angeles. Authorities arrested 19 defendants who are named in a sweeping racketeering indictment that was returned last week by a federal grand jury. Additionally, 10 people were taken into custody on various state offenses. Several defendants named in the indictment were already in custody on unrelated charges. The investigation into the Pueblo Bishops was called Operation “Family Ties” because many of the targets, in addition to residing at Pueblo del Rio, are united by family ties. Full Story

Phoenix: Canadian Man Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison for Selling Counterfeit Cancer Drugs Using the Internet



Canadian Hazim Gaber was sentenced Wednesday in Phoenix to 33 months in prison for selling counterfeit cancer drugs using the Internet. Gaber was indicted by a federal grand jury in Phoenix on June 30, 2009, on five counts of wire fraud for selling counterfeit cancer drugs through the website DCAdvice.com. Gaber was arrested on July 25, 2009, in Frankfurt, Germany, and was extradited to the United States on Dec. 18, 2009. At his plea hearing in May 2010, Gaber admitted selling what he falsely claimed was the experimental cancer drug sodium dichloroacetate, also known as DCA, to at least 65 victims in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands between October and November 2007. Full Story

Philadelphia: Former Camden Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Deprive Others of Civil Rights



Dan E. Morris, a former Camden, New Jersey police sergeant, pled guilty Thursday to conspiring with other Camden police officers to deprive others of their civil rights, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Morris admitted that he engaged in a conspiracy with at least four other Camden police officers to deprive individuals of their due process rights while on duty as a uniformed police officer with the Camden Police Department. Morris admitted that between May 2007 and September 2008, he conducted illegal searches without a search warrant or consent; obtained coerced consents to search residences based on threats and undue pressure; stole money during illegal searches and arrests; and allowed officers he supervised to include facts in police reports that were false. Full Story

New York: Twelve Members of the Bloods Street Gang Indicted on Racketeering, Murder, Drug Distribution and Firearms Charges



An indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn Wednesday charging members of the “Nine-Trey Gangsters,” also known as the “Bugout Boyz,” a set of the Bloods street gang, with racketeering, murder, drug distribution, and firearms offenses. Two defendants, including Laron Spicer, were charged with the July 18, 2008, murder of a drug rival; eight defendants were charged with racketeering; nine defendants were charged with illegally possessing guns in connection with drug trafficking; three defendants were charged with armed robbery; and all defendants were charged with conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine. Full Story

Washington Field: Former Airline Executives Indicted in Conspiracy to Fix Fares on Flights Between the United States and the Republic of Korea



A Brooklyn, New York grand jury returned an indictment Thursday against two former executives of Asiana Airlines Inc., for participating in a conspiracy to fix economy class airfares paid by passengers for travel from the United States to the Republic of Korea, the Department of Justice announced. The one-count indictment charges Joo Ahn Kang and Chung Sik Kwak, each a former vice president of the Americas of Asiana, with conspiring with others to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing passenger fares for passenger transportation services from certain airports in the United States to Korea from in or about and between January 2000 and February 2006. Kang served as President of Asiana from December 2005 to November 2008. Full Story

Cincinnati: Fairfield Man Sentenced to Prison for Role in $9 Million Investment Scam



Kevin Miller was sentenced Thursday to 15 months’ imprisonment for his role in a real estate investment fraud scheme between 2005 and 2008 that defrauded more than 90 victims out of more than $9 million. In addition to the prison time, Miller’s sentence includes two years of supervised release and an order to pay restitution of $184,354 to the three victims directly affected by his actions. Miller is also prohibited from engaging in any further investment solicitation activity. Full Story

Anchorage: Alaska Man Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Making False Statements in Domestic Terrorism Investigation



Paul Gene Rockwood Jr. was sentenced to eight years in prison for making false statements to the FBI in a domestic terrorism investigation. Rockwood’s spouse, Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, was also sentenced for making false statements to the FBI in connection with the investigation of her husband. Chief United States District Court Judge Ralph R. Beistline imposed the eight-year sentence, pursuant to a plea agreement, entered into by the parties on July 21, 2010. Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood was sentenced for her felony conviction for willfully making false statements to the FBI. She agreed to a sentence of five years of probation which was imposed by the court at sentencing. Full Story

Charlotte: Former Chief Accounting Officer for Beazer Homes USA, Inc. Indicted on 11 Criminal Counts



Michael T. Rand, the former chief accounting officer for Beazer Homes USA, Inc. was charged in an 11-count federal bill of indictment with conspiracy, securities fraud, obstruction, witness tampering, false statements to a financial institution, misleading conduct and destruction of records. Rand appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in U.S. District Court in Asheville Tuesday and was ordered detained pending a detention hearing. The charges arise from an ongoing government investigation involving Beazer and its employees. In July 2009, a federal bill of information was filed in U.S. District Court charging Beazer with, among other things, participation in the conspiracy and securities fraud with Rand. Beazer accepted responsibility for those charges and, in a deferred prosecution agreement, agreed to pay restitution over time up to $50 million. Full Story

Miami: Roberto Settineri Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Charge



Roberto Settineri pled guilty Wednesday to a one-count superseding information charging him with conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to the information and statements made during the plea hearing, Settineri admitted to conspiring with others to launder $10 million in funds and concealing assets represented to be the proceeds of a large scale fraudulent scheme. The initial investigation was part of a joint U.S. and Italian law enforcement action. Full Story

Pittsburgh: Three Pennsylvania Men Indicted for Cross Burning



Michael Bealonis and Kenneth Stiffey, Jr., of Robinson, Pennsylvania, and Michael Bracken, of Bolivar, Pennsylvania, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from a cross burning in the yard of an African-American juvenile in November 2009. In the three-count indictment, Bealonis, Stiffey, and Bracken were charged with one count of conspiracy to interfere with the housing rights of another, one count of interfering with the housing rights of another, and one count of using fire in the commission of a felony. If convicted, Bealonis, Stiffey and Bracken face a maximum punishment of 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine. Full Story

Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission

The resignation of Monica Mc Williams as Chief Human Rights Commissioner in Northern Ireland, is no loss to those of us who value the rights of all people. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is funded and directed by the British State, it has no value in the real fight for Human Rights in Northern Ireland.




The majority of the Human Rights industry in the north has become the anti-thesis of the Human Rights genre. People in the pay of the British State can never represent the demand for Human Rights by those who are marginalised in society. Those on inflated salaries and expense accounts can never represent the victims of Human Rights violations. Children are being denied basic care due to cut backs in our education and health care system while these middle-class, non-elected and non-representitive quangos drain our much needed revenue.



Its time that we called a stop to this 'Human Rights' gravy train and put our hard earned money into education and health care. The silence of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in relation to the rape and mutilation of children at the hands of Sinn Fein/IRA criminals shows clearly that it has been unable to treat all Human Rights violations with equal contempt.



The Human Rights of the Irish and British peoples in Northern Ireland would be better represented by those people who work on a voluntary basis and are not in the pay of the British State.

Dissidents

Mortar Attack




Over the past number of months the Real IRA’s engineering department in south Armagh have been refining their mortar bomb. At present a number of former, senior PIRA members are working tirelessly to develop the mortar for a spectacular attack on a PSNI station in south Armagh. It is believed that the RIRA will carry out a mortar attack in south Armagh in the coming weeks, having perfected their engineering of both the tooling of the mortar tubes and the timing mechanism needed to set off the mortars in a co-ordinated fashion. The PIRA carried out many such attacks over the years but the RIRA have only recently recruited two major PIRA engineers in south Armagh and they are determined to show that they still know their trade.

Mortars - http://wn.com/IRA_Mortar_Bomb

Crime, Counterfeiting and Terrorism

Crime, Counterfeiting and Terrorism




Terrorist groups in Northern Ireland are running a sophisticated, multi-million pound counterfeiting and smuggling operation whose tentacles reach across the globe, The Irish Observer can reveal.

Forsaking politics for profit, loyalist and republican terror gangs have linked up with the likes of the Russian and Italian mafia and the Chinese triads to reap huge rewards from a wide variety of criminal activities.

Up to 100 criminal gangs are operating in Northern Ireland and at least two-thirds are linked to the Provisional IRA, the Ulster Defense Association and other paramilitary organizations.

The province has become a major UK hub for the sale and distribution of counterfeit goods, which is believed to have earned the gangs more than £150m in a single year.

In 2003 for example, Law enforcement agencies in Northern Ireland seize more counterfeit goods than all other UK police forces combined, but still believe they stop only 5 per cent of the total market.

According to a report published in 2003 on organized crime in Northern Ireland: 'Pubs, clubs and taxi firms who operate in districts influenced by terrorist groups are known to facilitate a lucrative trade in counterfeit goods. Door-to-door sales are also undertaken. The most popular goods include clothes, computer games, DVDs, CDs and videos.' Smuggled cigarettes are a major sourse of cash-in-hand crime for all the criminals involved including ‘dissidents’.

Much of the counterfeit clothing is believed to originate from factories in the Leicester area, while a raid on a fair in Ballycastle in 2002 was tracked back to an operation in Glasgow. A man was stopped at Belfast International Airport in 2003 having flown in from Singapore with £300,000-worth of counterfeit DVDs.

Counterfeit currency printed in Northern Ireland has been discovered all over the world. In addition to copies of sterling - complete with watermarks and foil strips that only experts can tell from the real thing - the gangs are also producing dollars and Euros, the PIRA have currency counterfeiting expertise dating back to the early 1980s.

Customs officers have uncovered a trade in counterfeit cigarettes - made in factories in the Far East with only a minimal amount of tobacco and harmful fillers. Fake vodka made from watered-down industrial alcohol has also been found.

The sale of illicit fuel, either smuggled across the border or 'laundered' from tax-free agricultural stocks, is another big earner for the terrorists. Customs officials estimate two-thirds of filling stations in the province sell some illicit fuel.

Even this trade makes use of counterfeiting skills. One gang made an exact copy of a fuel tanker, taking the company logo, number plate and livery of an existing vehicle. The bogus vehicle, used to smuggle illicit fuel, was only discovered when suspicious Customs officers following it along a motorway called the driver on his mobile and discovered he and the real vehicle were 100 miles away.

The gangs have become involved in prostitution, with hundreds of women being brought in from Eastern Europe on the promise of jobs and then being forced to work in the sex industry. A number of such women and children have been rescued by the PSNI in Northern Ireland.

Belfast in 2003 hosted Britain's first conference on organized crime. Launching a 'threat assessment' which outlined the scale of the problem, Security Minister Jane Kennedy said: 'Paramilitary groups are involved in about two-thirds of the crime groups that have been identified. It is completely unacceptable that those who were once seen as defenders of their communities have increasingly turned to organized crime, selfishly maintaining an affluent lifestyle at the expense of those who work hard to earn their living.'

Money which previously went towards the purchase of weapons is now being spent on fancy houses and flashy cars for the gang leaders. This has led to tensions in the community and resulted in turf wars as rival gangs battle for supremacy. The ‘dissidents’ are still in the business of purchasing weapons and will do business with anyone to get guns and explosives, so far they have been unable to get their hands on significant amounts of commercial explosives and are almost wholly dependant on homemade devices. Criminality in the border areas is dependent on keeping the security services off the back roads where much of the crime is carried out.

According to Professor Ronald Goldstock, a former head of the New York Organized Crime Task Force and later government adviser on crime in Northern Ireland, the paramilitary gangs are able to take advantage of a pre-existing financial and organizational structure.

'The groups start off with a bad reputation and there's enormous value in that. They are known and feared. In some ways communities have been made to believe they have to rely on them for protection. Witness protection proved effective against the mafia in New York, but doesn't work so well here. Bosses of the gangs often live on the same estates that they prey on, so many victims feel there is no escape.'

Extortion remains the cornerstone of fundraising, with 65 per cent of victims asking the police to take no action.

Sinn Fein the Road to No Where

Sinn Fein (political party in Ireland) begins to fall apart as it tries to reach middle class votes. theirishobserver.blogspot.com




Yet another high profile member of Sinn Fein in Dublin has resigned from the party. Killian Forde said that he was leaving Sinn Fein because it was "Staid and unresponsive" which is an interesting description of Sinn Fein by someone who is joining Labour. So Killian suggests that Sinn Fein is "sedate, serious and rather dull" that must mean that Labour is "alive, happy go lucky and rather bright", while I am no fan of Sinn Fein surely such fanciful descriptions by an auld comrade in arms is window dressing for what appears to be a career move. Killian Forde joins three other high profile members of Sinn Fein who have left the party over the past year including Sinn Fein's bed rock in Dublin, Christy Burke. Chirsty Burke, Louise Minihan, John Dwyer and now Killian Forde have all decided to leave Sinn Fein at a time when the party should be enjoying the fruits of its role in the peace process. Why then have the RA supporters club become the "RA -Ts" abandoning a sinking ship.



It is not enough for Sinn Fein to issue mealy mouthed statements attacking each individual on a personal level every time one of them jumps ship. The Green Book tactic of "the best form of defence is attack" holds little water in a modern day democracy, Sinn Fein simply show themselves to be even more isolationist and insular when they attack individuals who feel the party has lost its way. Sinn Fein to survive in a modern day democracy must ask serious questions of themselves, why are so many dedicated activists jumping ship when they should be riding high on the wave of all that has been achived in the north. What is it that has left a once vibrant and vocal opposition party in such a shambles. In my day as a Sinn Fein activist I worked long and hard for many election campaigns, I never once took as much as one cent for my many years of committed work for Sinn Fein. When I needed lads to put up posters for Sinn Fein I could call upon an army of volunteers, when I needed lads to go round the pubs on a Saturday night to sell An Phoblacht I could pick and choose who I wanted, today however Sinn Fein is a party of paid activists and semi-professional spin doctors.



People like Christy have been side stepped so that educated woolly jumpers like Mary Who can woe the middle class vote, this is where Sinn Fein went wrong. Outsiders may say but surely other leading members of Sinn Fein are woolly jumpers who were parachuted into position, surely the Sinn Fein leader in the Dail is a woolly jumper, well actually no, the difference between COC and Mary Who is that COC earned his stripes, he left his job in the bank in 1980 and became a full time Sinn Fein activist, he lived on little or no income for many years, he walked and talked the length and breadth of Ireland in order to organise Sinn Fein, from one day to the next he did not know if he would have petrol for his car. Eventually he was elected to Monaghan County Council and from there worked himself into the ground until eventually being elected to the Dail. However, from my own observations I see few in the ranks of Sinn Fein now prepared to make that committment and effort, the hard working activist has been set aside. Now in Sinn Fein the activist expects to get paid, they want to know whats in it for them, of course there will always be the fools that do it all for the 'cause' but they are getting fewer by the day.



Sinn Fein if it is to survive and I doubt that it will, particularly in the south, needs to get back to basics, it needs to ask why are the men who were once so ready and willing to volunteer their services no longer doing so, why are people like Christy walking away ashamed of what Sinn Fein has become. Its not enough that Sinn Fein know they will get votes in the north because there is no credible alternative in communities long since forgotten by the State and its cheer leaders, its not enough to pay spin doctors to present a virtual reality when their own supporters are living in the real world.



Sinn Fein must decide if they can offer a Real Alternative (RA) and opposition or is the Sinn Fein ship to be allowed to sink with its members being left with no alternative than to Run And Translate (RAT).

Death of Bob Geldof

Bob Geldof's father, Bob snr, has died in Dublin.




Mr Geldof,who was in his late 90s, was predeceased by his wife Eve. The couple had three children - Bob, Cléo and Lynn.



His father Zenon Geldof was born in Ypres, Belgium and worked in some of London's top hotels before moving to Ireland to work in the Bray Head Hotel.

Gormless

Minister for the Enviroment, John Gormally, cannot understand what all the fuss is about as a member of the public asks the Dail to investigate Mr Gormally's claim of 200,000 Tax Free expenses claims in the years before he became Minister.

Fine Gael

Provisional IRA, Dissidents and Drug Dealers

Dissidents, Provisional IRA and Drug Dealers team up to profit from criminality.




Read the full history of militant republicanism: irishrepublicanarmy-ira.blogspot.com









During the embryonic years of the ‘peace-process’ when Provisional IRA murders and other criminality were viewed as ‘internal-housekeeping’ by the British and Irish Governments entrepreneurial terrorists made fortunes. While the terrorists continue to make vast sums of money from open criminality, the Gardai can now pursue that criminality in a way that they could not as the Government tried and succeeded in corralling Sinn Fein into the democratic process. However, people who would continue to be viewed as PIRA members are continuing to make vast sums of money from criminality. These PIRA members who have not joined any ‘dissident’ group have now teamed up with ‘dissidents’ and other criminal gangs to maximize their profits. Dublin’s north inner city is now home to an alliance of some of Ireland’s most seasoned and ruthless terrorists and drug dealing criminals. On an almost daily basis these terrorists distribute drugs, illegal cigarettes, fuel, counterfeit CDs/DVDs while at the same time planning and carrying out armed robberies where and when possible.







While the Celtic Tiger roared around the country in October 2006 few even blinked at what was a significant Garda raid in the leafy suburb of Rathfarnham in Dublin. The Gardai raided a very fine house that was nestled among the manicured lawns and polished BMWs of the up market Rathfarnham suburb. The house with a market value of at least two million Euro at that time was not the home of a property speculator or banking executive, but was one of the many properties owned by the Officer Commanding the Provisional IRA in Dublin. The OC of the PIRA in Dublin was a close working associate of one of Dublin’s most notorious or now infamous criminals, Christy Griffin. In 2006 a feud had broken out in the north inner city of Dublin, after it emerged that Christy Griffin had been accused of raping his girlfriend’s daughter since she was a toddler.







When the Gardai searched this fine house they were looking for a stash of hand grenades that had been sent from the PIRA in Belfast to a PIRA member in Dublin who was heavily involved in the bloody feud surrounding Griffin. There had been two hand grenade attacks before the Gardai raid on the house, the grenades were traced back to similar devices that had been used in Belfast. During this period and for many years before, the IRA’s commanding officer in Dublin had been involved in large scale high-jackings from the lucrative Dublin Port. The PIRA leader had inside men at Dublin Port and these men would identify large shipments of high value goods that would be easy to dispose of on the black market; cigarettes were a particular favorite as they could be sold in the markets and pubs around Dublin. The IRA Commander and his drug dealing associates were making lots of money, and as early as 2001 the IRA Commander who had no visible means of income bought the house in Rathfarnham for 900,000 Euro. The IRA Commander also bought himself a holiday home in Wexford and this house was close to another house that had just been bought by his sister-in-law. His sister-in-law was living in Wexford with a former PIRA prisoner, all of the members of this closely net group where heavily involved with Sinn Fein.







While this criminal empire headed up by the PIRA Commander in Dublin and the Christy Griffin gang were allowed to operate without constraint as the peace process was finding its feet, their multi-million Euro robberies were starting to cause problems for both the Sinn Fein leadership and the Fianna Fail Government who had lead them into democratic politics. The Gallahers cigarette company had informed the Irish Government that it could no longer transport its cigarettes through south Armagh or Dublin Port due to the high number of PIRA high-jackings. The security services on both sides of the border felt that their hands were tied as any significant move against the IRA could not go ahead without political sanction. However, Michael Mc Dowell who was then Minister for Justice began to make public pronouncements that warned the Sinn Fein leadership that the honey-moon period was over and the State was going to take direct action against PIRA criminality. The Sinn Fein/IRA leadership was forced to close down its Dublin operation, the Provisional IRA Commander continued to maintain his business links with the drug dealers, but he was told that his association with the IRA would be denied if he ever appeared before a court for his criminal activity.







The Dublin PIRA was now able to get even more involved in the drugs trade as they had been disowned by the Sinn Fein/IRA leadership. By now Christy Griffin was charged, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of his girlfriend’s daughter. Christy had always been someone the PIRA could deny and deny they did, but for those of us who know the truth Christy Griffin was one of the PIRA’s best earners in Dublin. Christy Griffin had been paid hundreds of thousands of Euro by the PIRA in Dublin for his good works on their behalf. The PIRA Commanding officer in Dublin continued and continues to pay money into the Professional IRA/Sinn Fein organization, this money is laundered through a myriad of front businesses. As long as the PIRA in Dublin, along the border and in the north did not stretch their criminal activity to ‘political terrorism’ they could be certain that they could get away with murder and there would be no political sanction against Sinn Fein. The recent murder of 22 year old Paul Quinn in County Monaghan by members of the PIRA shows that their assessment is correct. By association people like drug dealer Christy Griffin enjoyed the fact that the Government were turning a blind eye to organized crime that was associated with the PIRA. Griffin and the IRA Commander in Dublin were career criminals, both had graduated from youthful theft to violent crime, they both enjoyed the terrorizing of innocent people or anyone who got in their way.







Christy Griffin involved many members of his extended family in his crimes. His nephew Colm Griffin was a member of his gang. Colm was an ad hoc intelligence officer who would be supplied with the details of Lorries carrying valuable goods and their movements, he would also received information on banks and post offices that could be easily robbed and the PIRA would supply him with the guns to carry out those robberies. However, in May 2005 Colm Griffin and his associate Eric Hopkins were shot dead as they carried out an armed robbery of a post office in Lusk in north Dublin.







As the feud surrounding Christy Griffin intensified several people were murdered. Thomas ‘tomo’ Byrne was well known within the north inner city, a female relative had been assaulted by the PIRA Commanding Officer, Byrne retaliated by beating the PIRA Commanding Officer and was later shot dead for his act of defiance. The PIRA Commander believed that he had a license to murder and mutilate at will.







This feud had all started with the decision of a then 19 year old women to go to the Gardai and tell them that she had been raped by Christy Griffin from she was eight years old. This decision caused a split in the PIRA that had up until this point protected Christy Griffin and his associates. Those who supported Christy Griffin were simply trying to protect their sourse of income; those who opposed Christy Griffin were simply embarrassed because of their close association with Sinn Fein. The IRA Commander continues to enjoy the life of a wealthy businessman and uses legitimate businesses to launder money for his former PIRA comrades who continue to engage in full-time/front-line criminality including drug dealing. The PIRA Commander has been forced to pay The Criminal Assets Bureau 500,000 Euro but it has made little impact on his criminal earnings, some of which still makes its way to Sinn Fein.







At its height the Christy Griffin feud claimed several lives including Stephen Ledden who was an innocent by-stander in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Gardai have managed to maintain a presence in the hot spots that have been central to the Griffin feud and this has reduced the feud to a smoldering cheek by jowl fist fight. The north inner city remains a dangerous place, yet it also remains a place where a great deal of money can still be made from drug dealing, cigarette smuggling and so forth. Now in 2010 the entrepreneurs among the criminal gangs including the PIRA, dissidents and the traditional drug dealers have joined forces to maximize profits. The PIRA members still manage to siphon off some money to Sinn Fein but keep the bulk for their own luxury; the dissidents are pure criminals who can satisfy their leadership by occasionally getting access to semi-automatic weapons that come in with drug shipments. The drug dealers continue to enjoy licensed protection from the various terrorist groupings. This pattern is being repeated in Limerick, Cork and many other urban centers around the country, however, Dublin remains the real money maker for all concerned.

Larry Murphy - Up Date

Larry Murphy - Up Date: http://hubpages.com/hub/Why-Suspected-Serial-Killer-Will-Roam-Free-In-Ireland

Mountjoy

Mountjoy




Six weeks ago Ned Whelan took over the toughest job in the Irish Prison system, that job is Governor of Mountjoy which houses 700 inmates. Ned Whelan is not new to the prison system but has a proven track record in dealing firmly but fairly with those in his care.



Ned Whelan while Governor of Wheatfield Prison introduced a pragmatic regime in relation to drug use and abuse. As Governor Whelan reduced the supply of drugs to prisoners in Wheatfield he also turned 10% of the prisons accommodation into drug free areas. These two landings provided for both drug users and non-drug users to live in an area that did not have the daily routine of drug abuse every time they stepped out of their cell. These prisoners were not treated with kid gloves, nor did they live in luxury, they were simply able to stay drug free by being in a drug free environment in which they could have daily access to Prison Officers and other professionals who wanted to develop the drug free environment.



Many prisoners who would normally have returned to drug use and abuse, robbery, burglaries, violence and so forth walked away from Wheatfield as new men and entered employment, training and education. Governor Whelan could simply have punched in his time in Wheatfield and not bothered himself about Community Safety, however, Governor Whelan is a man of vision and he has now taken that vision to Mountjoy.



Yesterday 24th of August 2010 prison staff in Mountjoy reacted badly to the transfer of a violent prisoner to Mountjoy, that prisoner having previously led a riot in Mountjoy and been involved in a serious assault on a prison officer. While the actions of prison staff is understood, it is important that prison staff are not allowed to dictate who is and who is not housed in our prisons. Those of us who know the prison system know that there are good officers and there are bad officers. Some officers have turned a blind eye when certain prisoners were assaulted, some prison officers have supplied confidential information to the tabloids about certain high profile prisoners, and some prison officers have been charged and convicted of supplying drugs, mobile phones and so forth to certain prisoners.



Ned Whelan needs the full support of our politicians and the community in order that he can continue to do his job to the high standards for which he is known. It is important that the POA is not allowed to dictate prison policy, if that were allowed to happen our system would go into free fall. When the Court makes an Order, Ned Whelan must abide by that Order, Ned Whelan will use his experience and judgement to determine what is in the best interest of his staff and those in his care. Political knee jerk reaction must not be part of prisons policy and one hopes that Dermot Ahern continues to work in a progressive and professional manner with professionals like Ned Whelan, who from my experience puts the safety of his staff first and foremost, the protection and safety of those in his care and Community safety run parallel with his firm yet fair implementation of policy and procedure.



By theirishobserver.blogspot.com

Sinn Fein/IRA

As a former member of Sinn Fein/IRA (the republican movement) for twelve years, I am often asked for my insight into how the republican movement works and where the republican movement is going. So with these constant requests in mind I have decided to write what may turn out to be a book on the republican movement. These writings will first appear exclusively on Hubpages.com as it is Hubpages.com who has provided the opportunity and forum for the writings of non-mainstream writers. I will complement my own knowledge and experience by drawing on the writings of some of Ireland’s foremost experts on Irish Republicanism.

What might have been is an abstraction,



Remaining a perpetual possibility,



Only in a world of speculation









T.S. Elliot









This book will unravel the tapestry of 20th/21st Century Irish Republicanism that has been held together by such mythological threads as socialist republicanism and Irish national liberation. It will uncover the true identity of Irish Republicanism as embodied in Sinn Fein/IRA as a sectarian movement whose objective was and remains to coerce the Protestant people of Northern Ireland into a United Ireland, through a campaign of physical and psychological brutality. This book will further show that whatever the republican movement was intended to be in its embryonic stages, it emerged as a sectarian/criminal empire. This book will give a brief history of Irish Republicanism from 1916 to 1960, including the IRA’s close relationship with the Nazis. It will look at the establishment of the Irish Free State and how many tens of thousands of Protestants were driven from that State by way of murder, intimidation and discrimination at the hands of militant republicans. It will then cover events that led in the late 1960s to a Civil Rights campaign, launched by the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (the north) against what were seen as institutional sectarian discriminations imposed on the Catholic community by the Unionist (Protestant) dominated Stormont Government in Northern Ireland.









This book will then look at the re-emergence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the late 1960s and the ideological conflicts that eventually lead to the split within the IRA in 1970, from that split emerged the Provisional IRA. The role played by the democratically elected Irish Government in Dublin at this time will be analysed. It will be shown that as early as 1970 the republican leadership realised that the real obstacle to their desired United Ireland was the Protestant people of Northern Ireland. However, it will be shown that a specific strategy for directly and intentionally targeting Protestants was not adopted by Sinn Fein/IRA until the mid 1980s.









This book will then examine the development of the Provisional IRA and its Political wing Sinn Fein. I will analysis the roles played by republican prisoners and the hunger strikes in which ten young Irish men lost their lives. I will then look at the political status and political momentum that these hunger strikes generated for the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein.









I will look at key sign posts that lead to another split in the IRA in 1986 from which was established Republican Sinn Fein/Continuity IRA. The Provisional Sinn Fein/IRA strategy of that of the Ballot box in one hand the Armalite in the other will be examined as will the Anglo-Irish-Agreement signed by British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister, Garret Fitzgerald.









The split that occurred in Sinn Fein/IRA in 1986 will be explored in detail, emphasising the importance of such a split for the future direction of the republican movement. It will be shown that the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein leadership believed that a twin track approach of political and physical coercion could be used against the Protestant people of Northern Ireland to physically and psychologically force them into a united Ireland. The same twin track approach would be used to both economically and psychologically force the British Government and public to become persuaders of the Protestant people of the benefits of a United Ireland.









I will show how the IRA’s numbers were reduced as The Northern Command of the Republican Movement under the leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin Mc Guinness took control of both Sinn Fein and the IRA by placing loyal followers into key positions. I will evaluate Sinn Fein’s electoral performance and investigate why the republican movement became involved in secret talks with the British Government, The Irish Government and the SDLP (Catholic/Nationalist Party in the north). These secret talks would eventually bring about the Hume/Adams initiative. I will examine the influence of the American administration on what had become known as the peace process. And why the President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams had bought into the idea of political coercion to further the aims of the republican movement.









This book will critically examine the road on which the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein has continued to travel after 1986. This examination will include: the 1992 Sinn Fein policy document ‘Towards a lasting Peace in Ireland’, the secret talks between British Government intermediaries and the leadership of Sinn Fein/IRA, the Peace Process which produced the 1993 ‘Downing Street Declaration’, the 1995 ‘Framework Document’ and culminated in the 1998 ‘Good Friday Agreement’ all of which lead to Devolution and the power sharing Executive at Stormont Buildings in Belfast, the all important but less than perfect Republican and Loyalist cease-fires.



This book will take us up to 2010, a time in which the peace process has produced a power sharing executive at Stormont including the devolution of Policing and Justice from Westminster. The present threat from 'dissident' republicans will be examined and following the collapse of Unionism in the 2010 Westminster Elections I will ask what can the future hold for Northern Ireland and is a United Ireland any closer today than it was before thousands of people were slaughtered in it's name.















Chapter 1









Historical Regression









Irish Republicanism has, in every epoch of its existence, sustained life and meted out death through a combination of romanticised martyrdom and an out right hatred of the great British oppressor. Both can be seen here in a letter from one of the republican hero’s of the 1916-1923 Irish revolution against British rule, Terence Mac Swiney, writing from Brixton Jail in 1920:









Oh my God, I offer my pain for Ireland. She is on the rack…I offer my sufferings here for our martyred people beseeching Thee, O my God, to grant them the nerve and strength and grace to withstand the present terror in Ireland…that by Thy all powerful aid the persecution may end in our time and Ireland arise at last triumphant.[1]









Contemporary militant republicanism is embodied in Sinn Fein/IRA, Sinn Fein/IRA has at all stages failed to be a homogeneous ideological unit because of the diversity of its personnel. Countess Markievicz wrote in one of her prison letters (17 August 1919):









Sinn Fein is not a solid, cast iron thing like English parties. It is just a jumble of people of all classes, creeds, and opinions, who are all ready to suffer and die for Ireland. [2]









From the very out set of the creation of the new liberated territory known then as the Irish Free State (Irish Republic/Eire), Irish republicanism was in confusion. Britain had withdrawn from twenty-six of Ireland’s thirty-two counties leaving behind a divided republican movement. Those who had supported and signed the treaty with Britain were prepared to kill their former IRA colleagues to advance their vision for Ireland. Those who opposed the treaty with the British were willing to defend to the death the Irish people’s rightful claim to national self determination over the entire national territory of Ireland. Some militant republicans continued to murder, intimidate and discriminate against those Protestants who wished to continue to live in the Irish Free State where they had lived for generations. Tens of thousands of Protestants were forced from their homes and went either to the newly created Northern Ireland or England for their own safety. In conflicts all over the world it is the case that extremists who have tasted the power of dictating life and death over fellow citizens, do not wish to let go of that power.





In the aftermath of the Irish Civil War (pro and anti Treaty republicans fought each other) Irish republicanism was a fragmented ideology that had beaten itself into constitutional politics. As republicans began to regroup there were obvious ideological differences. Those who had signed up to a 26 county constitutional frame work free from British interference were content to allow the six northern counties of Tyrone, Armagh, Antrim, Down, Derry and Fermanagh to be a Protestant State remaining under British rule. Others continued to pursue a united Ireland through constitutional politics. Others remained within the ranks of militant republicanism and they would not accept that the Free State was anything more than a neo-colonial British state.









Simply put, those supporting the Treaty and accepting the Free State would become known as Fine Gael (political party), those who wished to pursue the ideal of a united Ireland through constitutional politics would after the 1926 extraordinary Sinn Fein Ard Fheis [3] be known as Fianna Fail. Those who would continue to support the IRA Army Council would be a combination of socialist O’Donnellites and others of a purely militaristic mind set who had supported the IRA’s break with Sinn Fein and second Dail in 1925 to pursue a policy of social agitation.[4]



It must be mentioned here that in 1922, when the opponents of the Treaty left the Dail and precipitated the Civil War, the Labour Party provided the first opposition, and consitutional politics was born in Ireland. While this book is focused on militant republicanism, it must be noted that the Labour Party would be the only true voice of the oppressed working class in the newly liberated territory and it continues in that role in the 21st Century. In a poll published in the Irish Times 12th June 2010, the Labour Party was found to be the largest party in the Irish Republic. This is the first time in its history that the Labour Party appears to have made Irish politics a three party contest and it is certain that Labour will be a major player in the Government of Ireland following the 2012 General election.



In the 1920s central Government in Dublin introduced the Local Appointments Commission and the Civil Servants Commission in order to stop corruption and nepitism at local Government level. However, dicrimination and jobbery were rife in local councils, this discrimination against Protestants in particular was highlighted by the appointment of a Trinity Graduate and Protestant to the position of County Librarian in County Mayo in 1930. Mrs Natasha Dunbarr-Harrison was appointed by the Local Appointments Commission on the basis of merit, however, Mrs Dunbarr-Harrison's appointment was not endorsed by the Library Committee of Mayo County Council. The committee initially suggested that Mrs Dunbarr-Harrision had not got a good enough grasp of the Irish Language, however, the real reason for her rejection was reflected in the comments of a Fianna Fail member of Mayo County Council as reported in the Connaght Telegraph on the 29th of December 1930:



I am opposed to the appointment of a product of Trinity which is not the culture of the Gael but poison gas to the history of the Celtic people......bigoted anti-Irish out-post of England in Ireland....that feeds like a parisite on the flesh and blood of our kindly Celtic people...we must check the progress of the pest if we are to preserve Celtic Culture.









These were the words of a constitutional 'republican' and while Mayo County Council were sacked for refusing to endorse the appointment of Mrs Dunbarr-Harrisson, Protestants would continue to be dicriminated against in every walk of life in the new Free State. When Sinn Fein or what remained of Sinn Fein, came out of the debris of the 1920s it was a party in total confusion. British withdrawal, yes, but was Sinn Fein purely a nationalist party or had it the socialist blood of James Connolly in its veins, bold uncompromising socialism appeared absent. Richard English, Professor of Politics at QueensUniversity, Belfast suggests that socialist republicans sustained their project through self deluding myths:









James Connolly’s socialist republican theory was their intellectual point of reference, but they failed to see that even Connolly’s own career demonstrated the inadequacy of his central thesis. Inter war socialist republicanism offered incoherent readings of the 1916-1923 revolutionary period; on the basis of these misconstructions they maintained the fiction that republicanism, properly understood, had class conflict at its root.[5]









Peadar O’ Donnell, one of Connolly’s most ardent followers in the subsequent generation acknowledged that it had been possible for Connolly’s socialism to be drowned in nationalist tears. Writing in 1933, O’ Donnell claimed that Connolly was not presented as having seen,









That the final battle ground for Irish Freedom must be the revolutionary struggle of the Irish workers against Irish capitalism.[6]









If Connolly’s socialism is ever mentioned, it is to admit a fault which the manner of his death redeemed. In the 1940s and 1950s the IRA Army Council continued to pursue a purely militaristic campaign. That said, the IRA’s military capacity even at its height was nothing more than a blot on the landscape as the Second World War raged, however, there were some exceptions:









At 2.30pm on the 25th of August, 1939, Broadgate in the centre of Coventry was crowded with shoppers and people returning to their places of work. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, and the weather forecast for the weekend promised two days of sunshine. What the people did not expect was for an IRA bomb to rip through the crowed streets. When the smoke cleared, fifty-two, men, women and children lay dead, dying or injured.[7]









What was even more alarming and in stark contrast to their rhetoric of Freedom was the IRA’s links to Hitler and Nazi Germany. One might suppose that the IRA viewed the enemy of their enemy as a friend. In February 1939 a German Intelligence agent Oskar Pfaus using the alias, Eoin Duffy, arrived in Dublin to make contact with the IRA. Pfaus meet with the IRA staff at General Headquarters, including some of the most senior republicans at that time, Sean Russell and Seamus O’Donovan. The Nazis wanted the IRA to work as a fifth column inside Britain and the IRA was happy to do business with them. O’Donovan travelled to Germany on many occasions in order to secure guns and explosives. On the 23rd of August, nine days before the Germans invaded Poland; O Donovan was on his third trip to Nazi Germany, which surely proved that there was nothing progressive about contemporary militant Republicanism.









The IRA’s pursuance of a purely militaristic agenda failed to draw any real attention except from the legislators in The Irish Republic and the Protestant dominated Stormont Government of Northern Ireland, both of whom introduced the usual measures to control militant republicanism, namely, internment, interrogation, raids, shootings and censorship.









Since the foundation of the Irish Free State/Republic there has always been a great deal of sympathy for the plight of the minority Catholic community that was abandoned to the dictate of the Unionist dominated Stormont Government. However, sympathy for the Catholics in the north among the masses in the south is sympathy for an oppressed minority; such sympathy cannot be taken to imply support for a united Ireland. In the north, the predominant concern of the Catholic community has been for an end of the Unionist regime at Stormont and its oppressive anti-Catholic policies. Compared with the question of reunification is of little more than sentimental significance.[8]









Following the creation of the Irish Free State the IRA had few friends; former allies had given their allegiance to de Valera and his new Government in Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament). American sympathisers with Irish republicanism consoled themselves in the Irish Constitution of 1937 (Bunreacht Na hEireann), a constitution that was drawn up by de Valera and the Catholic Church, in Articles 2 and 3 of the original constitution it laid claim to the whole Island of Ireland. This claim would be watered down in a constitutional referendum in order to facilitate the fledgling peace process in the late 1990s.









The initial claim to the whole Island of Ireland by de Valera in the original constitution was enough to convince Irish Americans to give their hard earned dollars to the new constitutional politics of de Valera and Fianna Fail rather than the militant politics of Sinn Fein/IRA. The American input even up to the modern day is a key component of Irish politics. The American input takes on many forms and they will be discussed throughout this book.









End Chapter 1: Click the link to take you directly to Chapter 2.



http://hubpages.com/hub/A-Fairly-Secret-Army-Chapter-2-Civil-Rights-and-the-role-of-the-IRA















[1] Page 46 English, 1994



[2] Page 29 English 1994



[3] Page 36 Patterson, 1989



[4] Page 44 Patterson, 1989









[5] Page 270 English, 1994



[6] Page 28 English, 1994



[7] Page 32 Dillon, 1994



[8] Page 160 Morgan, 1980

Dissidents, Provisional IRA and Drug Dealers team up to profit from Criminality

Dissidents, Provisional IRA and Drug Dealers team up to profit from criminality.

Read the full history of militant republicanism: irishrepublicanarmy-ira.blogspot.com




During the embryonic years of the ‘peace-process’ when Provisional IRA murders and other criminality were viewed as ‘internal-housekeeping’ by the British and Irish Governments entrepreneurial terrorists made fortunes. While the terrorists continue to make vast sums of money from open criminality, the Gardai can now pursue that criminality in a way that they could not as the Government tried and succeeded in corralling Sinn Fein into the democratic process. However, people who would continue to be viewed as PIRA members are continuing to make vast sums of money from criminality. These PIRA members who have not joined any ‘dissident’ group have now teamed up with ‘dissidents’ and other criminal gangs to maximize their profits. Dublin’s north inner city is now home to an alliance of some of Ireland’s most seasoned and ruthless terrorists and drug dealing criminals. On an almost daily basis these terrorists distribute drugs, illegal cigarettes, fuel, counterfeit CDs/DVDs while at the same time planning and carrying out armed robberies where and when possible.



While the Celtic Tiger roared around the country in October 2006 few even blinked at what was a significant Garda raid in the leafy suburb of Rathfarnham in Dublin. The Gardai raided a very fine house that was nestled among the manicured lawns and polished BMWs of the up market Rathfarnham suburb. The house with a market value of at least two million Euro at that time was not the home of a property speculator or banking executive, but was one of the many properties owned by the Officer Commanding the Provisional IRA in Dublin. The OC of the PIRA in Dublin was a close working associate of one of Dublin’s most notorious or now infamous criminals, Christy Griffin. In 2006 a feud had broken out in the north inner city of Dublin, after it emerged that Christy Griffin had been accused of raping his girlfriend’s daughter since she was a toddler.



When the Gardai searched this fine house they were looking for a stash of hand grenades that had been sent from the PIRA in Belfast to a PIRA member in Dublin who was heavily involved in the bloody feud surrounding Griffin. There had been two hand grenade attacks before the Gardai raid on the house, the grenades were traced back to similar devices that had been used in Belfast. During this period and for many years before, the IRA’s commanding officer in Dublin had been involved in large scale high-jackings from the lucrative Dublin Port. The PIRA leader had inside men at Dublin Port and these men would identify large shipments of high value goods that would be easy to dispose of on the black market; cigarettes were a particular favorite as they could be sold in the markets and pubs around Dublin. The IRA Commander and his drug dealing associates were making lots of money, and as early as 2001 the IRA Commander who had no visible means of income bought the house in Rathfarnham for 900,000 Euro. The IRA Commander also bought himself a holiday home in Wexford and this house was close to another house that had just been bought by his sister-in-law. His sister-in-law was living in Wexford with a former PIRA prisoner, all of the members of this closely net group where heavily involved with Sinn Fein.



While this criminal empire headed up by the PIRA Commander in Dublin and the Christy Griffin gang were allowed to operate without constraint as the peace process was finding its feet, their multi-million Euro robberies were starting to cause problems for both the Sinn Fein leadership and the Fianna Fail Government who had lead them into democratic politics. The Gallahers cigarette company had informed the Irish Government that it could no longer transport its cigarettes through south Armagh or Dublin Port due to the high number of PIRA high-jackings. The security services on both sides of the border felt that their hands were tied as any significant move against the IRA could not go ahead without political sanction. However, Michael Mc Dowell who was then Minister for Justice began to make public pronouncements that warned the Sinn Fein leadership that the honey-moon period was over and the State was going to take direct action against PIRA criminality. The Sinn Fein/IRA leadership was forced to close down its Dublin operation, the Provisional IRA Commander continued to maintain his business links with the drug dealers, but he was told that his association with the IRA would be denied if he ever appeared before a court for his criminal activity.



The Dublin PIRA was now able to get even more involved in the drugs trade as they had been disowned by the Sinn Fein/IRA leadership. By now Christy Griffin was charged, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of his girlfriend’s daughter. Christy had always been someone the PIRA could deny and deny they did, but for those of us who know the truth Christy Griffin was one of the PIRA’s best earners in Dublin. Christy Griffin had been paid hundreds of thousands of Euro by the PIRA in Dublin for his good works on their behalf. The PIRA Commanding officer in Dublin continued and continues to pay money into the Professional IRA/Sinn Fein organization, this money is laundered through a myriad of front businesses. As long as the PIRA in Dublin, along the border and in the north did not stretch their criminal activity to ‘political terrorism’ they could be certain that they could get away with murder and there would be no political sanction against Sinn Fein. The recent murder of 22 year old Paul Quinn in County Monaghan by members of the PIRA shows that their assessment is correct. By association people like drug dealer Christy Griffin enjoyed the fact that the Government were turning a blind eye to organized crime that was associated with the PIRA. Griffin and the IRA Commander in Dublin were career criminals, both had graduated from youthful theft to violent crime, they both enjoyed the terrorizing of innocent people or anyone who got in their way.



Christy Griffin involved many members of his extended family in his crimes. His nephew Colm Griffin was a member of his gang. Colm was an ad hoc intelligence officer who would be supplied with the details of Lorries carrying valuable goods and their movements, he would also received information on banks and post offices that could be easily robbed and the PIRA would supply him with the guns to carry out those robberies. However, in May 2005 Colm Griffin and his associate Eric Hopkins were shot dead as they carried out an armed robbery of a post office in Lusk in north Dublin.



As the feud surrounding Christy Griffin intensified several people were murdered. Thomas ‘tomo’ Byrne was well known within the north inner city, a female relative had been assaulted by the PIRA Commanding Officer, Byrne retaliated by beating the PIRA Commanding Officer and was later shot dead for his act of defiance. The PIRA Commander believed that he had a license to murder and mutilate at will.



This feud had all started with the decision of a then 19 year old women to go to the Gardai and tell them that she had been raped by Christy Griffin from she was eight years old. This decision caused a split in the PIRA that had up until this point protected Christy Griffin and his associates. Those who supported Christy Griffin were simply trying to protect their sourse of income; those who opposed Christy Griffin were simply embarrassed because of their close association with Sinn Fein. The IRA Commander continues to enjoy the life of a wealthy businessman and uses legitimate businesses to launder money for his former PIRA comrades who continue to engage in full-time/front-line criminality including drug dealing. The PIRA Commander has been forced to pay The Criminal Assets Bureau 500,000 Euro but it has made little impact on his criminal earnings, some of which still makes its way to Sinn Fein.



At its height the Christy Griffin feud claimed several lives including Stephen Ledden who was an innocent by-stander in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Gardai have managed to maintain a presence in the hot spots that have been central to the Griffin feud and this has reduced the feud to a smoldering cheek by jowl fist fight. The north inner city remains a dangerous place, yet it also remains a place where a great deal of money can still be made from drug dealing, cigarette smuggling and so forth. Now in 2010 the entrepreneurs among the criminal gangs including the PIRA, dissidents and the traditional drug dealers have joined forces to maximize profits. The PIRA members still manage to siphon off some money to Sinn Fein but keep the bulk for their own luxury; the dissidents are pure criminals who can satisfy their leadership by occasionally getting access to semi-automatic weapons that come in with drug shipments. The drug dealers continue to enjoy licensed protection from the various terrorist groupings. This pattern is being repeated in Limerick, Cork and many other urban centers around the country, however, Dublin remains the real money maker for all concerned.