Archive for the ‘Britain’ Category
Plain Speaking About Torture – Ireland’s Hooded Men Betrayed
On Tuesday March 20 2018 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decided that in August 1971, during an Internment Operation in the six counties of Northern Ireland, the British State did not torture a group of “Hooded Men”. In plain language the ECHR says the British State did not, in this instance, deliberately inflict pain on captive persons.
Is that credible? Consider this :
Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Linked With Torture in Sri Lanka
Gareth Pierce is a distinguished human rights lawyer who helped free Irish people wrongly convicted by the British government. She wrote: “Torture is the deliberate infliction of pain by a state on captive persons. It is prohibited and so is the use of its product. The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment emphasises that there are no exceptional circumstances at all justifying its use” According to Pierce, the British, during the Mandate period in Palestine, in Kenya and Northern Ireland mastered the art of the “lesser” tradition of stress torture, forced standing, forced sitting and choking with water, exposure to extremes of heat and cold, and suspension. “These tortures were clean and allowed for plausible denial not because they are less painful, but because they leave less of a visible mark.” Nonetheless, these tortures produce agonising muscle pain. The kidneys eventually shut down.
Amnesty International describes what the British State did to the Hooded Men in 1971 :
Amnesty International comments on a “disappointing” ruling
The detained men were interned in 1971, and subjected to sustained interrogation by the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary, involving the ‘five techniques’ of hooding, stress positions, white noise, sleep deprivation, and deprivation of food and water. These were combined with physical assaults and death threats, which the Court did not consider in its 1978 ruling.
Amnesty International’s full statement is, as Oscar Wilde might say, disappointing.
This ECHR ruling is careless – those six judges who left the British State off the hook don’t even know what torture looks like.
The surviving hooded men will not give up. Why should they? They were tortured.
Gerry Adams and the Sons of former Portlaoise Prison Officer Brian Stack, Killed by the IRA in 1983
Many of my friends may be surprised, but I think Gerry Adams is telling the truth about his encounters with the sons of Brian Stack, a Portlaoise Prison Officer killed by the IRA in 1983.
Austin Stack probably gave the names of alleged 1983 IRA killers of his father Brian Stack (a prison officer) to the Sinn Féin President, not the other way around. That explains the Gerry Adams email to Garda boss Nóirín O’Sullivan on this matter.
A hidden scandal – MI5 in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland under the peace process is supposed to have put the bad old days of Police Collusion with Loyalist Murder Gangs, and state force misbehaviour, into the distant past. The recent De Silva Report on the murder of civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane contains a lot of material which is very critical of the British State but leaves many questions unanswered :
Ed Moloney concludes in this essay :
“So, a powerful indictment of…what? RUC incompetence or malevolence, or evidence of some hidden subterranean manipulation? We don’t know because as with so much of Sir Desmond de Silva’s report, there are more questions than answers, more what’s, where’s and when’s than why’s.”
Bringing the story up-to–date read Eamonn McCann’s Belfast Telegraph Article
Sham row over ‘FBI-style’ body hides scandal of MI5
Web Link :
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/eamon-mccann/sham-row-over-fbistyle-body-hides-scandal-of-mi5-16268218.html?r=RSSMore and More, peace process policing and justice in Northern Ireland is hidden from view – Kafka-like rules are becoming more common, where people are held in jail without even knowing the charges made against them – as highlighted in another article on this blog featuring Dáil questions from Clare Daly TD to Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore.
Why Was Billy Stobie Charged With Pat Finucane’s Murder?
I should first of all disclose an interest in this story. As they say in the country where I now live, I have a dog in the fight.
Billy Stobie was a valued source of mine and not only did I harbor the loyalty towards him that journalists should always show their sources – in our case to the extent that I fought and successfully defeated a Scotland Yard subpoena seeking the notes of our conversations which were sought to buttress his criminal prosecution – but I also liked him despite his all too evident flaws.
That he was a rogue and a scoundrel was undeniable. That image that was set in cement in the public mind when The Sunday Tribune published his photo above the story of his involvement in the Pat Finucane scandal just after his arrest in June…
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Bernadette McAliskey’s Speech to the January 2013 Bloody Sunday March for Justice – We Have Got to Get Our Act Together or We Are In for One Hell of a Hiding
Bernadette McAliskey addressing the rally at this year’s Bloody Sunday March For Justice which had the theme ‘End Impunity’. Despite a wet, windy, wintry day around 3500 people braved the elements to march in solidarity with the victims of Bloody Sunday and other injustices
Link to a Video of Bernadette McAliskey’s Speech :
End Impunity! on Vimeo on Vimeo
Some Key Points from the speech :
Is the state of Northern Ireland governed according to the principles of openness, transparency and accountability?
Lawyers and human rights campaigners had to spend a whole day in court to force the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, Alliance Party Leader Mr David Ford, to allow Marian Price spend four hours grieving beside the coffin of her dead sister Dolours.
Nobody read about this because Mr Ford asked the judge to prevent public reporting of the case in the media.
But Bernadette McAliskey is not reporting; she does not work for the media; so she was only telling us :
The judge told Mr Ford that his behaviour was “unlawful, unreasonable, and irrational”.
“We are not supposed to say this” advises McAliskey. Read the rest of this entry »
Radio Free Eireann interview with Anthony McIntyre and Ed Moloney: The Death of Dolours Price | Boston College Subpoena News
http://bostoncollegesubpoena.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/radio-free-eireann-interview-with-anthony-mcintyre-and-ed-moloney-the-death-of-dolours-price/ Level headed tributes to Dolours Price as the British State bars her sister Marian from leaving prison to mourn.
Which State Has Invaded Nine out of Ten Countries on Earth?
Or what quality does this select band of states share?
Andorra, Belarus, Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Mongolia, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe, Sweden, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vatican City?
Here is a link to the unsurprising answer :
British have invaded nine out of ten countries so look out Luxembourg
And Union Jack wavers wonder why they provoke ridicule :
Germans Laugh at British Absurdity
Not seen much on British TV because this
piece was deemed a potentially anti-monarchy satire and so was not promoted too much in the UK.
Update :
The Journal.ie writer did not mention regarding the brilliant sketch “Dinner For One”: Freddy Frinton was an anti-fascist who blocked the screening of his sketch in Germany for 30 years.
And finally, Hitler comments on the Union Jack fluttering in Belfast :
British Trotskyism Until 1949 on Mastermind
We wonder is this a spoof? How many questions did you get right? Happy Christmas and give the 2013 New Year a fab welcome!
Update, Stephen’s Day, December 26 2012 :
Definitely this is genuine, not a spoof :
Mastermind – First Round Heat 21/24
Practically a photo finishThe BBC’s inscrutable campaign to sabotage the original Mastermind show continues. For at exactly the same time that the show began tonight on BBC2, a version of Celebrity Mastermind, featuring David Tennant, and Screamin’ Davina hosted by John Humphrys made up a small segment of the Comic Relief Extravaganza. Coincidence ? I should cocoa.If you missed the original and best, then its a shame, since it was a great episode tonight, and the tension for me was heightened by the fact that I know two of tonight’s contenders. Howard Pizzey took part in the 2007 series of blessed memory, and achieved the unenviable feat of scoring a massive 29 in the first round, but still not getting to the semi finals. Howard had no luck whatsoever last year, so my fingers were resolutely crossed for him.I also know David Porch, in as much as David is a ‘face’ in the pub quiz circuit between Cardiff and Bridgend. We’ve played against each other in many quizzes. Eagle eyed viewers might also have spotted David playing for one of the teams in Battle of the Brains a couple of weeks ago. David , who is new to Mastermind,was answering questions on the films of Sidney Poitier. It was a virtuoso performance too, and these questions were no picnic. 14 and 1 pass sounded like a pretty good score to me.
Paul Moorhouse is not someone I know personally, but he is not unknown in Mastermind circles. This was, I believe his third Mastermind performance, having made the semi finals in both 2000 in the Radio 4 Mastermind competition, and the 2004 series. It seemed to me that he had some very long questions on his subject of British Trotskyism, so 12 points and no passes was not by any means a bad return. Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 