Date: Tuesday February 01, 2000 5:24 PM

Subject: The Unmentioned Arsenal

If there ever was any question of the futility of the current Treaty, consider the existence of the 139,588 legally-held firearms-- (British Gov't figures, representing only civilian-held licenses, and excluding British Army and RUC guns)-- held overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, by the Loyalist community.

These weapons have never been the subject of any substantial debate in the "decommissioning" issue, either by the press or Adams and his delegates.

The sheer amount of these legally-held firearms, relative to the under-1.5 million population in the 6 Counties, is staggering. Bearing in mind that these numbers represent only guns that have actually been registered, combined with the KNOWN number of British Army and RUC weapons, that equals one legally-held, anti-Nationalist gun for every LESS THAN 5 people in the entire 6-County area. 

The figures given for registered gun dealers are almost meaningless, given the on-going weapons exchange between the British Military and Loyalist paramilitary groups. 

D.Fennessy

The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

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Ireland on Sunday

January 30th 2000

Weapons held for 'doomsday' scenario

Anne Cadwallader

In the sustained debate over paramilitary arsenals that has raged in the North, virtually since the first IRA ceasefire was called in 1994, the issue of legally-held weapons has barely broken the surface.

Yet the North is the most tooled-up society in Europe, with over a hundred thousand weapons in the hands of its ordinary citizens – it’s believed the vast majority in the hands of the unionist population.

The irony is that, although there are obvious arguments to support the North having the tightest regulations on the possession of firearms within the British jurisdiction, there was no strengthening in the law after the Dunblane tragedy.

On April 2nd 1998, the then Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, announced that she was not "convinced of the need to prohibit the possession and use" of handguns, bearing in mind the "clear commitment to maintaining the highest standards of personal behaviour" of firearms holders.

This affirmation by Labour of the Conservative government’s decision, giving a unique exemption to the North, only came after a long campaign by the gun lobby that resulted in the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, claiming he had won the argument in talks with the then British prime minister, John Major.

The unspoken fear in the minds of many nationalists is that those guns, somewhere "out there", have been obtained for the event of a "doomsday".

More significantly, on the deterrent principle, their existence exerts a powerful influence.

Just as during the Cold War, when the very existence of intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles, lurking in silos in the USA and USSR, had the effect of bi-laterally limiting the military/political ambitions of both superpowers, so these legally-held weapons in the North have their own baleful effect.

Rightly or wrongly, putting it brutally, for some Catholics living on the Falls Road the existence of the IRA's stock of semtex is a comforting deterrent against the possibility of the loyalist hordes staging a repeat of the 1969 burning of Bombay Street.

Equally, it could be argued, the existence of over 100,000 guns, legally-held, in the hands of the unionist community is also a powerful balancing factor assuaging loyalist fears of the fenian hordes pouring over the peace line.

The difference being, of course, that one arsenal is perfectly legal and has the full endorsement of the state, while the other is illegal and could, unless decommissioned, bring down the Good Friday Agreement.

The high incidence of gun ownership is seen by many Catholics as a largely Protestant phenomenon. There is abundant anecdotal evidence that Catholics find it more difficult to acquire licences (only one Sinn Fein member has ever been allowed one - Jim McCarry in north Antrim, whose house has been attacked on at least nine occasions).

This has all been factored into the political equation by nationalists as representing the hidden fist behind the respectable face of unionism, an implicit threat of violence to assert their will by force of arms if necessary.

Memories run deep of gun clubs being set up at the start of the Troubles by disgruntled former "B Specials" and photographs of the DUP leader, Ian Paisley, marshalling 500 gun-licence-waving supporters on the slopes of Slemish mountain in Co. Antrim. 

According to the 1997 RUC Chief Constable's report, there are gun licences for 138,727 firearms in the North - working out at one known gun held for every eleven members of the population, men, women and children (if you take into account RUC and British Army guns, that figure becomes more stark at one in five).

By contrast, in England and Wales there is one legal weapon for every 59 people, nearly six times less, and in Scotland it is one for every 48 members of the population.

It is the same story with gun dealers. In the North there are 161 registered arms dealers, an increase of nine from the previous year, or one for less than every 10,000 people. In England and Wales the ratio is one dealer for every 20,000 people and in Scotland one for every 14,000 people.

The explanation for this high incidence of gun ownership is usually explained by the authorities as reflective of the North's rural and agricultural population. However the facts do not bear this out. Scotland is every bit as rural, agricultural and sporting-oriented as the North yet gun ownership there is less than a quarter, pro rata. 

In 1997, there were 83,500 firearms certificates current in the North. If you add together the number of personal-issue protection weapons (9,800); the estimated number of farmers in the North (5,060 in the telephone directory); and the number of gun club members (3,350), it gives a combined total of 18,210. That leaves a massive total of 65,290 certificates held for undisclosed personal use. Statistically, there are over 1.5 guns held per certificate, which means there is a total of 97,975 legally-held weapons in the North - which serve no apparent utilitarian purpose.

And that amount is not decreasing. The RUC Chief Constable’s annual report for 1998/9 shows there are 139,588 firearms currently held legally in the North (nearly two thousand more than the previous year). There are now 51 registered firearms clubs (up ten from 1996 - an increase of 25% over two years), 48 approved ranges (up six from 1996) and 161 firearms dealers.

Of the 1997 total, 111,014 were shotguns and airguns, 13,736 were small bore rifles, 326 were full bore rifles, 12,771 were handguns and 880 were "miscellaneous firearms". 

Because most of the guns are .22 calibre weapons, arguments are made that the guns are used mainly for sporting purposes, on gun ranges, for hunting and target shooting, and to control vermin on and around farms, but the above figures, again, do not bear that out.

In order to obtain a firearms licence you have to provide a photograph, the appropriate fee and show that you are not prohibited by law from possessing a firearm, are not of "intemperate habits or unsound mind" and are not unfit to be entrusted with a firearm.

You must also show you have good reason for having the firearm (this can be permission to shoot on a farmer’s land, or gun club membership) and that you can be permitted to have the firearm in your possession "without danger to the public safety or to the peace".

Some of these official stipulations are, of course, entirely subjective.

One man’s respectable, law-abiding, church-going citizen is another’s raving bigot with dangerous macho tendencies.

The question of the North's 51 authorised gun clubs has also become controversial. This paper revealed last year that one prestigious club included amongst its members two loyalists who, while members, were convicted of manufacturing weapons for the UDA and UVF. 

In addition there have been claims that a group of eleven Catholics were suspended from membership of the same club, the Ulster Rifle Association on "security" grounds, although none of the 11 had any convictions. Amongst the URA's officer board are the Duke of Abercorn, and (ex-officio) the General Officer Commanding British troops in the North and the RUC Chief Constable. Other officers include Ulster Unionist MP, Willie Ross and several leading judges.

This paper also revealed last year that ammunition seized by the police from South African-supplied loyalist arms dumps, along with police-issue bullets and NATO-issue target boards, were being routinely stolen from RUC stores and used at registered gun clubs.

Top-of-the-range ammunition, for example, taken from Ballykinlar British Army firing range in Co. Down and Garnerville RUC training college in east Belfast, was sold-on at gun clubs throughout the North, according to gun club sources to whom we spoke.

One of the eleven Catholics suspended from the URA told Ireland on Sunday "Catholics are subjected to spurious security vetting, on top of the normal RUC investigations needed to get a gun licence, but loyalists can behave with impunity.

"There are also deeply worrying links between a minority of gun club members and loyalism, which need to be exposed and dealt with. The fear is that they are preparing for some "doomsday" situation".

The two members of the club, found guilty of gun manufacture while they were members of the URA, were Samuel McCoubry and Denis Lindop, convicted separately in two high-profile gun-manufacturing cases. 

Lindop (49), described at his trial as a "UVF quarter-master" was convicted in 1997 (two years after its ceasefire) of making sophisticated guns, some inscribed "UFF Avenger 1995" at his home in Holywood, Co. Down. 

At his trial, Lindop was described as cutting a "Rambo" like figure during target practice, regularly wearing unnecessary camouflage fatigues, dispensing with the usual ear-protection muffs and shouting loudly how much he loved to hear the noise of gunfire.

Mr. Justice McDermott, at the trial, said the home-made arsenal at his home amounted to an "Aladdin's cave". The haul included more than 40 weapons including 24 handguns, 20 rifles (one an assault rifle), 10 sub-machine guns, three shotguns, cartridges, rifle ammunition and magazines.

Samuel McCoubry (53), a former member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, was jailed in 1990 for 14 years for running what was described in court as the "largest arms factory then found" in the North.

The RUC uncovered over 30 Sten guns and parts for over 1,000 Uzi-type rapid-fire machine guns at his home in Spa, Ballynahinch, Co. Down. 

McCoubry had been manufacturing guns for nearly 20 years from his home-made factory. 

Four "Dillon Re-loader" bullet manufacturing machines were also uncovered at McCoubry's home. He had been subsidised by the British government through LEDU (the Local Enterprise Development Unit) in his legitimate saw-making business.

It’s clear that the North’s gun culture is not restricted to those in possession of illegal guns, although both the SDLP and Sinn Fein have singularly failed to make a case that legal guns, also, should be decommissioned in a new Ireland.

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Date: February 01, 2000 6:14 PM

Subject: U.S. Cover Up For Loyalist Suspect

-----------------------------

United States Citizens need to be asking themselves what role the British Government has in the day-to-day workings of the U.S. State Department. 

The following 2 articles, from the Irish Voice, illustrate just how much influence the British Government has on its own interests here in the U.S.—in this case protecting a chief suspect in the murder of civil rights attorney Rosemary Nelson, arrested recently in Murietta, CA, from criminal weapons charges.

The fact that these weapons charges against him were quickly dropped, despite the extensive arsenal which was found in his home; combined with his possible involvement in Rosemary’s assassination; should give pause to any U.S. Citizen still under the assumption that the U.S. is playing an impartial role in Irish affairs. 

D. Fennessy

The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

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The Irish Voice

Volume 14, No. 5 Jan. 27 - Feb. 4, 1999

EDITORIAL

Urgent Action Needed on Fulton

IN the week when Florida prosecutors threw the book at four suspected IRA operatives and sought life in prison terms for them, the extraordinary case of William James Fulton, arrested near San Diego and a convicted Loyalist terrorist, received little or no coverage in the mainstream U.S. media. 

Fulton is suspected of planting the bomb that killed Rosemary Nelson, the civil rights lawyer who was killed in March of last year in Northern Ireland. Fulton is also the brother of Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Mark Fulton. The LVF, which operates mainly in the mid-Ulster area, is the most bloodthirsty of all the Loyalist groups.

Fulton was arrested in the San Diego suburb or Murietta in possession of weapons, bomb making materials, anti-tank weaponry and drugs. When Fulton and other family members were arrested police found several .22 caliber rifles, an M-72 anti-tank rocket launcher, a six-inch cannon, two pipe bombs, out hand grenades with some gun powder residue, 5.5 ounces of hashish and a small amount of methamphetamine. 

The FBI in San Diego immediately told local police to place a major security alert around Fulton when arrested, though the police were never told the reason. Until they were contacted by Irish newspapers they had no idea they were holding a key suspect in one of the most infamous murders of the Troubles.

Then, in an extraordinary development, the gun charges against Fulton were dropped and only the drug charges, which are considered quite minor, are being pursued.

Not surprisingly, U.S. supporters who were close to Rosemary Nelson are smelling a rat. New York lawyer and civil rights activist Richard Harvey, who is also head of the Rosemary Nelson Campaign for Truth and Justice, has called for an immediate congressional inquiry into how Fulton got into the U.S. despite his extensive terrorist background, and why the arms charges have been dropped against him.

He has put the following questions to the U.S. authorities -- 

1) How did a convicted terrorist from Northern Ireland's anti-Catholic death squads gets entry into the U.S. in the first place, and why he is allowed to remain here after his entry permit expired? 

2) How he came to be in possession here of an arsenal of weapons and drugs.

3) How such serious charges can get dismissed over the objection of the local District Attorney.

4) What role the FBI, BATF, and U.S. Attorney's office are or should be playing in this case.

5) Why the INS appears to be the only branch of the Justice Department showing the faintest, albeit belated, interest in this case?

Harvey concluded, "If Jim Fulton were a suspected member of the IRA, every Justice Department agency would be involved. Instead, the FBI, which is supposed to be assisting in the search for Rosemary Nelson's killers, seem to be sitting on their hands. 

The question has to be asked -- are they doing so at the request of those same members of the RUC who threatened Rosemary with death?" 

It is also important to ask was Fulton given a "safe house" in San Diego by unnamed person who was interested in spiriting him out of Northern Ireland in the wake of the Nelson killing?

Richard Harvey and the Rosemary Nelson committee have carried out a valuable service in alerting us to the Fulton situation. Now members of Congress should insist on a full inquiry. 

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The Irish Voice

Volume 14, No. 5 Jan. 27 - Feb. 4, 1999

Nelson Suspect Still in U.S. Custody

By Jack Flynn

A CHIEF suspect in the murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson is still in custody on drug possession charges in California, as questions continue to swirl as to how William James Fulton made it into the U.S. in the first place.

Fulton, who is currently being held on $100,000 bail, is charged with possession of marijuana and cannabis with intent to distribute. If convicted, he faces up to three years in a prison for the felony offenses. 

Tim Freer, a deputy district attorney in Perris, California, told the Irish Voice that Fulton will be in court again on Wednesday morning, for a hearing on felony arraignments in a Riverside County (California) courtroom.

It is believed that both the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service are monitoring Fulton’s situation in California as well. The brother of jailed LVF leader Mark "Swinger" Fulton, he is considered a suspect in the still-unsolved Nelson murder, which happened over 10 months ago. 

Last Thursday, Fulton, his wife and two other defendants were in Perris Judicial Court in an attempt to get their bail reduced. The motion was denied, as all four defendants were labeled flight risks. The $100,000 bail is extremely high for a simple drug charge, but prosecutors declined comment on why such a high bail was set.

Fulton was arrested on December 16 in California, along with his wife, Tanya, and three other people in the small town of Murrietta, California. Local police were alerted to the scene when neighbors heard the sound of gunshots coming from the house where Fulton was apprehended.

Police found a number of high-power firearms and quantities of marijuana in the house when they made the arrests. According to reports in Ireland, court documents show that police also seized a black T-shirt bearing the slogan "Loyalist Volunteers Lead the Way" with the drugs and firearms.

In the interim, the weapons charges have been dropped, which did not please prosecutors and has raised eyebrows among followers of the case. Judge Curt Hinman dropped the weapons charges against Fulton, Freer said, because he felt there wasn’t sufficient evidence to retain them.

Fulton is no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law, having served three years in jail beginning in 1992 on terrorism charges. He has ten other convictions for various offenses on his record as well.

Meanwhile, the Rosemary Nelson Campaign called on Congress last Thursday to investigate how Fulton was able to get into the country "in possession of weapons, bomb making materials, anti-tank weaponry and drugs." 

Richard Harvey, the U.S. spokesman for the Nelson Campaign, said that the campaign has "contacted a number of concerned members of Congress to request a full congressional inquiry" into several lingering questions, including why Fulton was allowed in the country and why the weapons charges were dismissed. 

"If Jim Fulton were a suspected member of the IRA, every Justice Department agency would be involved," Harvey added. "Instead, the FBI, which is supposed to be assisting in the search for Rosemary Nelson's killers, seem to be sitting on their hands. The question has to be asked: are they doing so at the request of those same members of the RUC who threatened Rosemary with death?" 

Colin Port, who is heading up the Nelson investigation in Northern Ireland, has said that he does not consider Fulton a suspect in Nelson’s death at this time. 

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Date: Thursday February 03, 2000 9:19 AM

Subject: Direct Rule to Resume

For anyone to now deny that this was always the desired end product of the “Peace Agreement” is fooling themselves. From the very beginning, the process was manipulated into a vilification of Sinn Fein, which, given British history in Treaty negotiations, should come as no surprise to them now. The GFA was always a British document, with the onus to disarm put only upon the Provisionals. By accepting that Britain had the right to dictate the terms of the Treaty, Adams and his delegation were never in a position to demand concurrent British and Loyalist decommissioning. 

The whole process has been a huge diversion of energy, ending with Provo hawk Martin McGuinness “near tears” at yesterday’s Stormont Press Conference. The Republican Movement is now divided, draconian measures (including property seizure in the 26 Counties) have been slipped onto the books, and Articles 2& 3; Ireland’s only constitutional claim to the 6 Counties, have been surrendered. 

To borrow the title of Capt. Jack O’Brien’s excellent book, we have just witnessed “The Unionjacking of Ireland”.

Deirdre Fennessy

The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

********************************************

The Guardian/Observer

Ulster direct rule looms as talks fail

Nicholas Watt in Belfast

Thursday February 3, 2000

The Northern Ireland peace process will today be plunged into its gravest crisis when the government restores direct rule over the province, barring an 11th-hour change of heart by the IRA on disarmament.

Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland secretary, is expected to outline the move in a Commons statement amid signs that a frantic round of diplomacy involving Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, his Irish counterpart, has failed to produce a breakthrough.

The two prime ministers are expected to mount a final effort to rescue the process this morning when they hold emergency talks during Mr Blair's trip to Devon.

Mr Ahern, the taoiseach, is due to report on his talks with the republican movement in Dublin last night where he issued an appeal to Martin Ferris, a member of the IRA army council, to save the process by making a gesture on arms.

The appeal appeared to have been unsuccessful when the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, said after the talks last night that the Unionist demands for immediate decommissioning were "disastrous".

Mr Blair also struck a pessimistic note in the Commons yesterday when he admitted the IRA had still not agreed to disarm, throwing the peace process into a "serious crisis" that could place lives at risk.

"Let us never forget that there are people now today that, if we don't get this peace process sorted out and moving forward again, will not grow up either in normal conditions and some will not be alive at all," Mr Blair told MPs.

The prime minister is expected to make a final decision on restoring direct rule after his meeting with Mr Ahern this morning. 

Pulling the plug on Northern Ireland's first power-sharing executive in 26 years would be a drastic step that would deeply anger Sinn Fein. Mr Adams has warned that such a move would provoke the IRA into withdrawing from General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body, ending any prospect of disarmament.

The Sinn Fein president reiterated his warning last night, saying that restoring direct rule would be a disaster. "If there isn't a political process then it is very difficult to know how matters can be resolved," he said.

However, ministers on both sides of the Irish border have reluctantly come round to the view during the past week that suspending the executive is the only way of preserving the position of the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble.

His resignation as first minister is due to be triggered tomorrow if the IRA fails to begin the process of decommissioning weapons. By freezing the executive ministers will be able to hold out the hope that Mr Trimble could resume office at a later date in the unlikely event of a deal. 

The deputy leader of the SDLP, Seamus Mallon, last night issued an impassioned plea to the Unionists and Sinn Fein to hold fire. 

"Stand back from the brink that you're standing on now. Stand back from the brink that you're having everybody else standing on. Stand back from the brink and the chasm that faces the entire community," Northern Ireland's deputy first minister said.

But the Ulster Unionist party made clear that it would abandon the executive today unless the IRA begins to disarm. Sir Reg Empey, the party's senior negotiator, said that words from the IRA were no longer enough.

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Date: Thursday February 03, 2000 9:31 AM

Subject: Slippery U.S. Policy

This editorial comes to us from Owen Sullivan, Pittsburgh Chapter IFC.

The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

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LONE IRISH FEMALE DENIED U.S. VISA FOR DISAGREEING

By Owen Sullivan, Pittsburgh Chapter Irish Freedom Committee

February 2000

Bill Clinton's State Department denied Irish Patriot, Marion Price, a visa because she will not support the so called Good Friday Agreement.

Although she had yet to even apply for one, she had been invited by the American Irish Freedom Committee to come speak at their public gathering in New York on January 29th.

Just another predictable outrage never experienced by Roberto Dobisson of El Salvador, Rios Mott of Guatamala, Hafad Assad of Syria or John White of Belfast. That rogues' gallery of well known mass murderers, butchers and drug dealers, like a lot of German Nazis before them, simply had their visas rubber stamped by our English-American infested State Department which never met a killer they didn't like so long as they didn't disagree.

God forbid we free Americans should hear a point of view different from Bill Clinton's or THE NEW YORK TIMES.

What's really annoying though, is that Uncle Bill will (if he hasn't already) soon be standing teary eyed, like the lying hypocritical narcissist that he is, at some White House Lawn function paying homage to Nelson Mandela who openly supported armed struggle and never capitulated to a Good Friday-like Agreement that guaranteed the white minority in South Africa a gerrymandered majority rule until they decided otherwise.

Now that you know who our government and mainstream media is in bed with, here is a suggested byline for their next issue or press release: "Lone Irish Female Denied Visa For Having Contrary Point Of View. Nation's Leaders Breath Sigh of Relief and Join President Bill in Humane Letters       Ceremony for Chilean Fascist Augusto Pinochet" (who beat the Spanish democratic rap for mass murder while toasting tea in London with English Fascists).

If Pinochet can't make it, any other neo-colonial devil will do. Such is life on the slippery slope of political sanctimony.

Owen Sullivan

Irish Freedom Committee - Liam Lynch Cumann

Pittsburgh, PA

sullivan@co.cambria.pa.us

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Date: Mon 2/7/00 12:43 PM

Subject: "Piece" Agreement

It is mind-boggling to wonder where exactly Adams thought this Treaty would lead. It is beginning to look like he never actually read it before he signed it. Which is entirely possible, as it’s quite clear he hasn’t read the Green Book lately, either.

Were the "Piece" process simply a colossal waste of time, exhausting huge resources of time and energy to wind up right back at Direct Rule, it would be bad enough. But as people like Ruairi O'Bradaigh, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Bernadette Sands, Martin Galvin, and Marion Price have been saying all along; the Treaty was designed with much baser intent.

The only purpose the "Piece" Agreement has ever had, from the very beginning, was to fully install British rule in all of Ireland. Look at how easily they pulled it off.

The Republican movement has been split into "Good" Republicans, who can come into the parlour; and "Dissident" Republicans, who might do something bad in there.

The "Good" Republicans can now all get jobs in the "New" RUC, where they can do a much better job on the "Dissident" Republicans than the British ever could.

The 26-County Free State, busy having a Celtic Tiger, has already forgotten the 6 Counties it gave away to get "Peace" imposed. Yet up in those 6 counties, State-assisted murder, wholesale neighborhood clearings, and daily firebombings continue in Nationalist communities as they ever have, except now they REALLY officially don’t happen. 

And finally, talk of joining the Commonwealth is sharing the air of "reasonable" folk in the Free State, who have to admit they get a little pleased with themselves at the thought that the Queen herself will come and take a look at them soon.

Gerry’s “United Ireland in 2016” is coming all right, and it’s going to be flying a Union Jack.

Deirdre Fennessy

The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

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The Irish Times

Saturday February 5, 2000

IRA stance governed by the fear of defections

IRA leaders prefer unity to decommissioning, fearing that to agree to give up their guns would lead to a substantial split. Suzanne Breen reports on opinions within the organization.

The refusal of the IRA to decommission has reinforced traditional unionist fears that the Provisionals were never serious about the peace process and are planning a return to war.

In the current circumstances these fears are wholly understandable, but according to informed sources they are wrong. A majority of the IRA Army Council supports the political direction of the Sinn Féin leadership and wants the new Assembly and Executive to work.

The reason the Provisional IRA is not decommissioning is to prevent a split in its ranks. Sources estimate that at least a third of its members would leave if arms were handed over. Many would join the so-called "Real IRA".

Although "Real IRA" guns have been silent since the Omagh bombing 18 months ago, the Provisionals are concerned about the organisation's potential. Its ceasefire was purely tactical. 

Despite threats from the Provisionals in the aftermath of the bombing, the "Real IRA" refused to disband. Its leaders continued recruiting, training and buying arms. 

Previously its membership was restricted mainly to Border areas. It has now established a foothold in Derry and Belfast and is led by former senior Provisional figures, including the quartermaster-general, who resigned in 1997.

A fortnight ago it issued its first statement since Omagh, calling for support from the grassroots. "The existence of the `Real IRA' poses problems because it means there is somewhere for disgruntled activists to go other than home," says a senior republican source.

Opposition to decommissioning is very strong along the Border, particularly in south Armagh, but the Provisionals have also been experiencing unrest elsewhere, even in normally loyal west Belfast.    

"Everything can be contained, but only if there is no decommissioning," says a local republican.

The IRA Army Council faced two choices: to decommission to save the peace process or to do nothing and keep its own organisation intact. The desire for unity triumphed.

Sinn Féin and Provisional IRA leaders have managed to sell many compromises to their grassroots: calling a ceasefire without a British withdrawal, accepting the Belfast Agreement, entering Stormont. Why has decommissioning proved so difficult?

Even members who do not support a return to violence are against it. "It is a matter of principle," says a former prisoner. "The guns may never be used again, but I would rather see the whole process fall than hand them over.

"It would criminalise the republican struggle. It would be saying the past 30 years were wrong, that everyone who went to jail, was killed or died on hunger strike was wrong."

Another west Belfast republican says decommissioning would be surrender.

"Only defeated armies hand in their weapons. `Decommissioning a few guns wouldn't harm the IRA's military capacity. But it is the symbolism of even handing over a single bullet."

The Ulster Unionists' deadline for decommissioning did not help those within the Provisionals arguing for a gesture. "If the grassroots were ever to agree to decommissioning, it would have to be seen as a voluntary act and not at the behest of David Trimble," says another source.

Even though the Executive will probably be suspended next week, the Sinn Féin/Provisional IRA leadership does not want a return to war, sources insist.

It is also doubtful whether an organisation which has been on ceasefire for almost five years could sustain a lengthy campaign. The 1996-97 campaign was regarded by many republicans as a military failure, nd there is no credible reason for the Provisionals to return to war, having accepted the current political arrangements. 

Insiders also insist the leadership does not have the stomach for it. They have become used to a very different lifestyle during the peace process. 

Sinn Féin knows the huge political gains it has made on both sides of the Border would disappear with a renewed conflict, and it would lose its new friends in Dublin, London and Washington. 

Sources say party leaders were concerned about the weight of international media opinion against them on decommissioning this week, but despite the current crisis, the leadership remains committed to the peace process. 

Convincing rank-and-file members to make a gesture on decommissioning when the new institutions were functioning was always going to be difficult. 

Selling a compromise when they have been suspended will be even harder. 

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Date: Wed 2/16/00 3:15 PM

Subject:  Belfast Human Rights Atty to Visit

For those of you in the Midwest region who might be interested in meeting with human rights lawyer Eammon McMenamen of the Belfast firm Madden & Finucane (firm where Pat Finucane represented Nationalist residents in claims of abuse and murder, against the British Government, before his assassination in 1986)— he will be at the Notre Dame Law School, weekend after next, in South Bend, Indiana.

Mr. McMenamen will speaking to the law students there on Monday night, but he has agreed to host a question-and-answer seminar open to the public on Saturday, February 26, at 4:00 pm, at the Notre Dame Law School. Guests at this function will also include prominent human rights attorneys Charles Rice and Robert Emmet Connolly, as well as many others. Following the free seminar, the Lawyers Alliance will sponsor a dinner with Mr. McMenamen at the nearby Tippicanoe Club in South Bend. Price of $25 includes a full dinner, with beer and wine.

If you are interested please contact:

Ed Lynch, Lynch & Lynch, 445 East Main Street, Denville, New Jersey.

Phone 973 627-8511, or e-mail him at:

edmundlynch@compuserve.com

You may send checks, payable to the LAWYERS ALLIANCE, to 445 East Main Street, Denville, New Jersey 07834.

This should be an interesting and informative evening, and I would encourage anyone with even a passing interest in the rampant and on-going human rights abuses by the British Government against the Nationalist Irish population to attend. It is by no means necessary to have a law background to participate. 

If you are in Chicago, we are considering renting a van if interest warrants it. Please email me below if you are interested in sharing a van from Chicago—- however do send the registration fee to Ed Lynch at above address.

Thank You;

Deirdre Fennessy

National Secretary

Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

Following is the announcement from Pittsburgh Cumann Member Owen Sullivan, as well as a couple of links which may be informative.

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Belfast human rights lawyer Eammon McMenamen of the firm Madden & Finucane (assassinated lawyer Patrick Finucane's firm) will be visiting the University of Notre Dame Law School on the weekend of February 26, 2000, in South Bend, Indiana.

The Law School has agreed to host Mr. McMenamen at a presentation to students on Monday evening, February 28th. All are welcome to attend. 

However, since most people will not be able to stay over through Monday because of work and other commitments, Lawyers Alliance For Justice in Ireland has (through their fearless leader Edmund E. Lynch, Esquire of Lynch & Lynch in Denville, New Jersey) arranged for Attorney McMenamen to meet us at dinner at the Tippicanoe Club in South Bend on Saturday evening February 26th. This is the old Studebaker mansion which allegedly serves up a first class meal.

The complete cost for dinner with wine or beer will be $25.00 . Please let Ed Lynch know if you will be joining him for what should be a great evening. His phone number is 973-627-8511, his fax number is 973-627-4142, and his email address is edmundlynch@compuserve.com . And note, you do not have to be a lawyer to attend or even to belong to Lawyers Alliance. They even let Judges in. 

Slan, Eoghan O'Suillebhain, Esquire.

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Home Page of Madden & Finucane Law Offices, Belfast:

http://www.madden-finucane.com/madden-finucane/

For more information on the 1986 assassination of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane:

http://www.lchr.org/l2l/finucane0799.htm

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© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

Date: Sat 2/19/00 5:22 PM

Subject: What's Good for the Goose

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Commentary from Fionnan O'Se & Eoghan O'Suillabhain, Liam Lynch Cumann; Irish Freedom Committee, Pittsburgh, PA.

Deirdre Fennessy

National Secretary

Irish Freedom Committee/Cumann na Saoirse

P.O. Box 11417

Chicago, IL 60611

deemail@msn.com

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Dear Editor,

Just got done reading this weeks' editorials and stories about Northern Ireland by writers employed by the usual English, Irish and American mainstream newspapers. Evidence all again that some colonial ties never die. For instance, editorials this week in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe papers called on the IRA to turn in their weapons to save the so-called peace process. Of course, this has been the hue and cry of the mainstream American media for the last several months (if not years). Curiously, there has been no call from our 4th estate to have the Chechnyans disarm.

Apparently, what's good for the British bulldog, is not good for the Russian bear, which leaves us to believe that we are once again witnessing a peculiar institutional reflex: when British MI6 (England's CIA) has Feinian gas, our English-American infested State Department farts out  terrorism" for our WASP and WANNABE owned newspapers to sniff up like submariners gasping fresh air.

This digestive allignment of political propagandists is no accident.  And while it may not be a conspiracy, it certainly is at the very least an ongoing coincidence of elite institutional interests in England and the United States worthy of our weariness. In fact, not too long ago on December 1st, 1999, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette said it all when they published a pro-GFA/IRA disarm editorial along side a Russian-bear-eating-Chechnya cartoon. The PPG could just as easily have substituted the British bulldog eating Ireland and saying same: i.e. "Ireland is 'urp' an internal matter.". But then they could not have had their Bill Clinton caricature in this cartoon expressly wishing the British bulldog indigestion as it did the Russian bear. 

After all, no way would an American President or an English-American owned and operated newspaper hold the British to the same objective standard of international behavior that they hold the Russians. For instance, has The PPG or any mainstream American newspaper ever published an editorial or cartoon critical of historically successive U.S. State Department policy which completely recognized and genuflected to England's claim (that Northern Ireland was an internal not international matter) by always assigning diplomatic responsibility for Northern Ireland to the American Ambassadors in the Court of St. James in London rather than to the American Ambassadors to Ireland in Dublin? 

Don't get us wrong, we don't want to see the Russians in Chechnya anymore than we wanted them in among other places East Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia or Latvia, or the Indonesians in East Timor, or the Americans in Vietnam or Puerto Rico, or the French in Algiers or Vietnam, or Iraq in Kuwait or that's right---- the British in any way shape or form in Ireland or in any of their other former or current colonies. By our way of thinking, what's good for the Russian goose ought to be good for the British gander and everyone else in the international community. But apparently, our mainstream media, like British MI6, doesn' think so. 

That's why they can write, probably without even blinking, that "...successive British governments... have disclaimed any selfish interest in the (Northern Ireland) province...". Oh, really? Then why haven't they relinquished their internationally unlawful claim of soverignty and left? Because words are cheaper and the GFA a bargain basement buy for new and improved colonialism. Would the American Government and Media be so uncritically accepting of Russian disclaimers for Chechnya?

The American Media too often buys hook, line and sinker the British propaganda that the problems in Northern Ireland are all just the result of a religious conflict in need of a GFA resolution which will guarantee continued British colonialism by way of a new and improved partition. No real attention is paid to the facts of British colonial conquest and domination. Whereas, when the colonial French "outsider" population, who were mostly Catholic, were in violent conflict in 1950's Algiers with their then mostly Muslim Algerian "insider" subjects, no one claimed this to be a religious conflict in need of a GFA-like resolution. Everyone recognized it for what it was---- a fight for who controls what is now independent Algeria, the Imperial French or the Nationalist Algerians. 

The same analysis holds true for Chechnya. No one claims that its just a religious quarrel between the mostly Muslim Chechnyans and the mostly Athiest or Orthodox Russians. Its nationalism versus imperialism. Can you imagine what the mass media's critical editorial reaction or Bill Clinton's reaction would be if the Russians proposed a similar GFA-like resolution to the bloody Chechnyan conflict and then disclaimed any interest in the place without ever leaving it?

Better yet, can you imagine what the U.S. Senate's reaction would be if George Mitchell proposed same GFA in treaty form to the U.S. Senate after an alien nation invaded the northeastern United States (starting with Maine) and got used to living and discriminating there? After all the other Senators hung him for treason from the nearest tree outside (for proposing that the U.S. give up its territorial claim to Maine so that the invaders can more freely determine by an artificially gerrymandered veto whether Maine can join back up with the States), their scathing euology would no doubt quote American Revolutionay Benjamin Franklin who said during our own War against the British that: "Those who would trade freedom for peace, will have neither.". 

That is why the usual mass media is not honestly going to be able to blame the IRA for the failure of the so called "Good" Friday Agreement. 

All parties who signed off on this fraudulently procured document will get Pax Britanica, not peace or justice. Which is why we should all ignore this current editorial hue and cry from our government and mass media and be like Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (who never gave up their armed struggle for freedom and never capitulated to a Good Friday like agreement which would have guaranteed the white minority in South Africa a gerrymandered majority until they decided otherwise) and hold on to our 2nd Amendments! 

Sincerely,

Fionnan O'Se & Eoghan O'Suillabhain

Liam Lynch Chapter of the Irish Freedom Committee

P.O. Box 3286

Pittsburgh, PA 15230

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© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.

© The Irish Freedom Committee NewsList - IFC Updates

Permission to re-publish any article from this post is granted provided author credit is attached and the active link back to this site is included.