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Subject: Supreme Court refuses documents to protect MI5 agent
Date: 03 19 03

The Free State “justice” system has made an enormous effort in protecting paid informer and agent provocateur David Rupert over its own pretensions to uphold an impartial and fair justice. Evidence regarding Rupert’s dealings with Britain’s MI5, the United State’s FBI, and the Free State’s Special Branch has been withheld to Michael McKevitt, but can be used against him at his trial. Many unanswered questions remain regarding David Rupert’s role in the Omagh atrocity; and by complicity the British and American government agencies that had him in their employ at the time. David Rupert’s paid testimony is the only evidence against Michael McKevitt in his upcoming trial.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2003/0319/2762454381HM4CTMCKEVITT.html

Irish Times

McKevitt Challenge On Disclosure Of Documents Rejected
Mary Carolan

19/03/2003

The Supreme Court has refused an application by Mr Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the "Real IRA", for leave to take a legal challenge to the refusal of further disclosure of documents relating to FBI agent Mr David Rupert, the main witness against Mr McKevitt in his forthcoming trial.

The decision means Mr McKevitt's trial on charges of directing terrorism and IRA membership can proceed on June 18th next before the non-jury Special Criminal Court.

Mr McKevitt (51), with an address at Blackrock, Dundalk, but currently in custody in Portlaoise Prison, is the first person in the State to be charged with the offence of directing terrorism. He is charged with doing so between August 29th, 1991, and March 28th, 2001.

After a four-day hearing last year, the Special Criminal Court (SCC) refused an application by Mr McKevitt for further disclosure of documents, particularly material in the possession of the British security services and FBI relating to the credibility of Mr Rupert.

Mr McKevitt has received substantial documents relating to Mr Rupert but his lawyers were unhappy both with the manner in which that material was disclosed and the extent of it.

During the hearing of McKevitt's application to the High Court for leave to challenge the SCC's refusal, Mr George Birmingham SC, for the DPP, argued the DPP had met his disclosure obligations in full and claimed the application was an effort to prevent Mr McKevitt from ever being tried.

Last January, the High Court refused leave to Mr McKevitt to take the judicial review challenge. Mr Justice O'Neill found Mr McKevitt had established no arguable case in law on foot of which leave could be granted.

Yesterday, the five-judge Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Mr McKevitt's appeal against the High Court decision.

Giving the court's judgment, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, said the High Court's refusal of leave was "entirely correct" and it was not appropriate for the Supreme Court to grant leave for judicial review proceedings which would have the effect of restraining Mr McKevitt's trial.

Whether the SCC's decision refusing further disclosure was right or wrong, it was made within that court's jurisdiction and reached in a manner which was fair. It should not be interfered with by the Supreme Court.

The issue of discovery might arise again during the trial and the SCC might be asked to make further rulings, the Chief Justice said. Mr McKevitt had the option of appealing against any such decisions.

The Chief Justice said Mr McKevitt's lawyers had criticised the absence here of a prosecution procedure for cataloguing or indexing discovery documents which, it was contended, would give a concrete reality to the disclosure process. The Supreme Court took no view as to the desirability for such a system and how it might be introduced. It was not necessary to take a view because of the Supreme Court's decision that it was within the SCC's jurisdiction
to deal with discovery as it had.

Earlier, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, for Mr McKevitt, argued the disclosure procedures adopted by the prosecution were inappropriate and unfair and would deprive his client of a fair trial.

The only evidence against Mr McKevitt in relation to the directing terrorism charge was the evidence of Mr Rupert, the "paid agent" of the British security services and FBI. Material regarding Mr Rupert was in the control of foreign agencies over which the Irish courts had no jurisdiction.

Mr Hartnett said some material had been disclosed "hinting at David Rupert's prior criminal activity" but his side suspected there was more such material that had not been disclosed. Mr Justice Hardiman remarked Mr Rupert had no convictions. Mr Hartnett said his side suspected a decision had been made not to prosecute Mr Rupert because he was "of some use" to the FBI.

© The Irish Times
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Subject: One For All And All For One – McAliskey’s Deportation affects us all
Date: 03 18 03

Commentary from the Blanket - http://lark.phoblacht.net/index.html

The Irish Freedom Committee®
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http://lark.phoblacht.net/oneforall.html

The Blanket

One For All And All For One:
Why Bernadette McAliskey's Exclusion from the USA Affects Us All

Paul Dunne
March 13, 2003

Bernadette McAliskey, as regular readers of The Blanket will already know, was recently excluded from the USA shortly after her arrival at O'Hare Airport in New York. I won't go into the details here; they've already been covered more than adequately in The Blanket and a few other places (see my weblog for a fairly complete list). What I want to do instead is explain why I think this is important, more, why I see in this event one of those telling moments when the mist clears and everything stands revealed, when the real relationship between things is brightly illuminated. In particular, the case throws a strong light on
the relationship between Ireland and the United States of America.

The story didn't so much as fall dead from the press as never quite make it there in the first place. The Belfast Telegraph ran two short pieces on it, the Irish Times one, and RTÉ gave it a mention. And that was it. No outraged commentaries from columnists, no grave and measured editorials, no continuing coverage. Just a mention, a shrug, and on to other things. And it's not just the mainstream media in which the story is conspicuous by its absence. The new Internet phenomenon of "the weblog" is still dominated by Americans, but there are a few dozen Irish out there "blogging" away. However, not one of these Irish webloggers condescended to mention the matter, save myself, Mick Fealty, Sean McCann with a very good piece, and a belated brief mention on "The Plastic Cat", though a few Irish-Americans did cover it as well. Now, one can't expect webloggers to cover current affairs if they don't want to, or indeed write about anything other than that bad pint they had last night, the latest pop record they've been listening to, etc., etc. But surely one could expect that every Irish person with the time and energy to self-publish on the Web might spend a wee bit of that same time and energy in consideration of the fact that an Irish person can now be excluded from the USA solely on the whim of anonymous US officials? Well, apparently not.

So, why be bothered? Well, we're not talking now about some chancer slipping in without a green card to work in the "black economy". This is a woman paying a visit to friends and family. She's not there as the Bernadette Devlin who was in the Bogside in '69 and told us that "the tear-gas isn't so bad once you get used to it", nor as the wee slip of a girl who gave Reggie Maulding a good slap for himself in the House of Commons for telling lies about Bloody Sunday, nor as the H-Block campaigner, nor as the indefatigable commentator who always tells it just how she sees it. This is a private citizen on private business, a surprise visit to see friends in New York and to attend a christening, another trip to a country she's been to many times before. And what
could be more natural than to want to fly over for a week to see the new baby?

This is not a political issue, in the sense that it's not about whether you agree with Bernadette McAliskey's political views and opinions, whether you approve of her past, whether you think she's right in opposing the coming war against Iraq, or any of that. It is simply about an Irish woman being excluded from entering a country in which she has many friends and relations, because while at home in Ireland she dared to open her mouth and express opinions critical of the present US administration. I can't see how any Irish person, no matter how apolitical, could stay silent in the face of that. It's not as though
the USA is some obscure place with which Ireland has no connection. Many if not most Irish people have relatives in the States; at the very least, most will know someone who emigrated there -- I know I do. Clearly, this is a case of, Bernadette McAliskey today, me or you or yer man down the road tomorrow.

In my school days, a common experience was being hoisting up by the ear onto one's hind legs in front of the rest of the class, and berated for one's shortcomings in the Latin language -- for stumbling while reciting the declination of "mensa", let's say. That was an exemplary action on behalf of the Latin teacher, intended to encourage the rest of us to get the table of first declension nouns or whatever off by heart. So too, Bernadette McAliskey's exclusion from the USA is exemplary: we are all, every one of us, watching as one of our number is grabbed by the ear and given a going-over. We are being told: keep your opinions to yourselves, look the other way when the planes land at Shannon, what we do in Iraq is nothing to do with you... in short, "shut up and get with the program".

So why the silence across the land? What is it lads? Is it a case of, "oh, but she's from the North", and therefore nothing to do with us? Or do ye just not want to offend the Yanks? A bit of the old "whatever you say, say nothing"? If so, if the silence is born of the desire to do nothing that might offend the government of the USA, then I must say that it won't have the intended effect of making them nicer to us. Grovelling and cringing merely makes the strong despise you. But in any case, I'd thought that the days of touching the forelock and doffing the cap with a respectful "soft day tank God sor" and all the rest of the old "colonial cringe" repertoire were long gone. Or have we merely exchanged the old master for a new one? Isn't it time we copped on to ourselves, and learned to stand up for each other? Because if Irish people aren't prepared to stand up and be counted when one of their number is arbitrarily prevented from visiting a land with which most of them have ties through blood or friendship, with which their country has had such a long and close relationship, when in God's name will they stand up and be counted?

It's not that the Irish are silent on all issues. They seem very anxious about a whole range of things happening in far-away lands and far-off places to people they don't know. Isn't it strange, then, that they can't muster any enthusiasm for one of their own? Paul Mattick nailed down this mentality when, writing of the new leftists of the 60s, he noted that,

"They find their inspiration not in the developmental processes of their own society but in the heroes of popular revolution in faraway countries, thereby revealing that their enthusiasm is not as yet a real concern for decisive social change."

Such enthusiasm is rife in Ireland. We're very worried about all sorts of things, so long as they are happening far away and we can't really affect them anyway. It's a childish way of looking at the world.

It's been used and abused so many times it's become a cliché, but ... "First they came for the communists...". An over-reaction? after all, it's just one woman, it was just a deportation. I think not. I'll grant that the Americans haven't started putting us in camps (though it's not so long ago, after all, that their closest ally did); but this is symptomatic of our place in America's eyes, and of our place in the world. If we want to improve that place, we have to stand up for ourselves. We could make a small start by standing up for Bernadette McAliskey.

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Subject: Letter to AOH Derry
Date: 03 17 03

See links below for more news of the Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Mr. Danny Ayling, Secretary
AOH Hall
23 Foyle Street
Derry
Ireland

Monday March 10, 2003

Dear Mr. Danny Ayling,

It was our distinct honor to have been asked as International observers to attend a Civil Rights conference in Derry this February 22nd; convened at the Derry AOH Hall to address the grave concerns of family members and prisoners rights groups on the crisis situation at Maghaberry prison.

It was our great dismay, then, to witness the effect that the tabloid press and its laughable “coverage” of the event has subsequently had upon the AOH leadership in Derry. We are saddened to learn that the Derry AOH president has chosen to uphold the outrageous lies of the tabloid media over the honorable record of the organizers; who between them have logged several lifetimes of work on behalf of humanitarian causes.

Elements of the tabloid press clearly went to great lengths to smuggle spy cameras into the event and capture clandestine photographs of two American observers to the conference, this author included. A ridiculous and lurid two-page spread resulted from these photographs, claiming that Americans came to the conference bearing “millions” and dripping with “expensive jewelry.” Much use of the word “Hollywood” was thrown about. Sadly, while this flagrant hysteria has no basis in fact whatsoever, it seems to have provided sufficient reason for Derry AOH president Jimbo Crossan to dishonor the stated AOH creed of “Truth and True Christian Charity”; abandoning the true focus of the conference to a yellow tabloid lie that the Civil Rights and Political Status event
was some clandestine fundraising operation with an illegal intent.

As any person who was there that day can attest, the conference was not remotely a fundraising event and no money whatsoever was collected or solicited at any time. The event was free of charge, and even the food was provided by the hall and served by AOH volunteers. In point of fact the only money seen changing hands that day was into AOH coffers at the bar.

Having been advised of the conference’s agenda several months before it took place, it is hard to imagine how organizers now claim not to know what it was about. Having had ample time since then to discuss its purposes with family members and others in attendance, the only conclusion that can now be reached following the reactionary decision to “ban” other similar events, is that the tabloid mentality has dictated future policy for the Derry AOH. If it screams blood and money from the tabloids, it must be so. Shame on this kind of thinking.

Had we not the foresight to see the full horror of what was yet to come in 1976, before five long years of blanket protest and the prolonged heartbreak of hunger strike; let us have it now. Let those who speak out now against what may yet come to pass be commended for their bravery and not hung out to dry by those who feel that tabloid nonsense speaks louder than the facts.

Now is the time to join hands on the outside to see that the horrors of the past do not revisit the prisons. These fears are not idle speculation but the very real concerns of those who are suffering the most in all of this— the families on the outside. We cannot do enough to help to push for an end to the suicidal policy of forced integration and to do all we can from wherever we are to ensure that there are, as the organizers so powerfully stated, “No more body bags coming out of the prisons”.

The Derry AOH should reconsider its decision to punish the families of so many political prisoners at Maghaberry who sought a forum for their many urgent grievances. Please don’t go on record as having turned them away when they came to you for help. We urge you to reconsider your decision, and do not go on record as having succumbed to tabloid pressure to criminalize the families, and those who have worked so tirelessly to help them find redress for their gravest concerns. The Civil Rights Veterans deserve a place of honor in your ranks for their continuing humanitarian concerns, and in their tireless support of families in need must truly symbolize what it means to provide “True Christian Charity”.

Go raibh maith agat;

Deirdre Fennessy
National Secretary
The Irish Freedom Committee

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For more news on the Derry Civil Rights Conference for Political Status go HERE:

IFC NewsList 03 04 03 – Prisons Crisis CENSORED by Tabloid Media

IFC NewsList 02 27 03 – Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status

Irish Freedom Committee REPORT FROM MAGHABERRY

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Subject: Strabane man crushed to death at PSNI barracks
Date: 03 17 03
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/2856075.stm

BBC News
Monday, 17 March, 2003, 13:20 GMT

Inquiry after police station death

Mr Connolly died after apparently being crushed in the gate

An investigation has begun into the death of a 28-year-old man who was fatally injured at the entrance to a County Tyrone police station.

Ciaran Connolly died after apparently being crushed in the heavy gate at the complex in Strabane.

The man, from Castlegrange in the town, was taken to Altnagelvin hospital in Londonderry but later died of injuries to his head and upper body.

It followed an incident involving a number of men outside the police station at about 0145 GMT on Monday.

Detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding Mr Connolly's death in conjunction with the Police Ombudsman and the Health and Safety
Executive.

Police have appealed for anyone who witnessed the incident to contact them.

Chief Superintendent Stewart Tosh, acting assistant chief constable for the North Region, pledged a full inquiry into the death.

"I want to reassure the family and the community in Strabane that a thorough investigation will be carried out by the police with the independent oversight of the Ombudsman and the Northern Ireland Health and Safety Executive.

"This was a tragic death and the family will be kept fully informed of the progress of the investigation," he said.

It is understood officials from the Ombudsman's office are at the scene, along with forensic scientists and Health and Safety Executive representatives.

Local priest Father Michael Doherty said Mr Connolly's parents were still trying to comprehend their loss.

"They had five sons last night, now they have one less in tragic circumstances," he said.

SDLP Assembly member Eugene McMenamin said he thought there would have been sensors on the gates to alert the police.

"Questions need to be answered about the circumstances that led to this incident," he said.

Sinn Fein councillor Brian McMahon said there was "major disquiet" in Strabane about Mr Connolly's death. "There needs to be an open and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding this tragic death," he said.

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The Irish Freedom Committee®
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Subject: Rosemary Nelson Assassination – Four Years On
Date: 03 15 03

Four years ago today, human rights lawyer and mother of three Rosemary Nelson was murdered in cold blood in a highly sophisticated operation that was subsequently claimed by the Red Hand Defenders. Previous operations by the Red Hand Defenders were markedly less sophisticated, and lingering questions remain concerning weeks of military activity around her home leading up to her murder. In the weeks and months before her assassination the community reported heavy ground troop operations, including soldiers seen disembarking from helicopters in the field behind her house and ‘dissappearing’ into what appeared to be underground bunkers.

Rosemary Nelson visited the United States six months before her death to testify to before Congress concerning over two years of RUC police force death threats against her.

See segment below the following story for a link to the Pat Finucane Center’s documented report of weeks and months of heavy British Army activity in North Lurgan, ending abruptly after Rosemary Nelson's murder.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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The Irish News
March 13, 2003

Four years of failure to bring killers to justice
By Steven McCaffery

Four years after loyalists murdered solicitor Rosemary Nelson, Irish News journalist Steven McCaffery reports on the inquiry team’s failure to secure convictions, and persisting suspicions of police collusion in the killing.

On the day Rosemary Nelson was killed, her attackers visited her home not once, but twice. Police have built up a detailed picture of how the attack was carried out and while they privately concede that grey areas remain, this strange turn of events has been confirmed.

In the early hours of March 15 1999 the gang planted an under-car bomb below Mrs Nelson’s silver BMW while it was parked outside her Lurgan home.

They must have expected her to leave for work early that morning, for it has now emerged that when she did not, two of the gang drove back to her home to find out why the booby-trap device had not exploded.

When they saw Mrs Nelson’s car still parked outside her house they drove away and waited. It was not uncommon for Mrs Nelson to phone ahead to the staff in her Lurgan solicitor’s office, only to join them later.

She left for work at around 12.30pm.

The mother-of-three had driven only yards from her home when the device beneath her car exploded. She died a little over two hours later in hospital.

Only a few years before her death, Rosemary Nelson was unknown outside her home town. She ran her own solicitor’s office in Lurgan, Co Armagh, and gained a reputation as an effective lawyer.

But by the mid-1990s she had taken on three clients whose cases eventually brought the 40-year-old to wider attention.

Lurgan republican Colin Duffy was twice cleared of murder charges under her representation. In one case, the main prosecution witness was exposed as a loyalist paramilitary. Mrs Nelson was also asked to represent the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and found herself drawn into the bitter Drumcree marching dispute.

She later represented the family of Portadown Catholic Robert Hamill, who was kicked to death by a loyalist mob while police were parked nearby.

As these cases raised Mrs Nelson’s profile, she began to receive threats from loyalists. She also claimed that police officers interviewing some of her clients had issued threats against her. Her case attracted the attention of international human rights groups and was raised at the United Nations.

The solicitor’s death came despite calls for her protection and international demands for an independent inquiry.

The authorities resisted pressure for the RUC to be barred from the murder hunt. The inquiry team, led by a senior English officer, comprised a mix of RUC staff and police drawn from Britain.

Deputy chief constable of Norfolk Colin Port, who led the police team, stepped down as head of the investigation three months ago. A successor has yet to be appointed, but police insist that the murder hunt is continuing.

But after a four-year probe that has cost in excess of £7 million, it is unclear if police are any closer to catching Mrs Nelson’s killers.

Investigators have stressed that they went to unprecedented lengths to gather evidence against suspects, but the killers have yet to be brought to justice and the concerns of security force collusion in the murder linger on.

Mrs Nelson was in Donegal on the weekend before her death, but her car was parked outside her home from the early evening of Sunday March 14.

She lived in a quiet residential area, not covered by CCTV.

It is now thought that two suspicious cars seen in the area around midnight are likely to have carried the gang that planted the bomb.

These cars have never been located.

The bomb would have been attached to Mrs Nelson’s car in seconds.

It is now known that it contained 1lb of powergel explosives, with a triggering mechanism that included a mercury tilt-switch. Other such devices had fallen off the vehicles they were attached to, but the bomb which killed Mrs Nelson included a powerful magnet stolen from Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

The device was examined for features that might indicate the ‘signature’ of the bombmaker and similarities were found with two car bomb attacks launched by loyalists.

In December 1996 Belfast republican Eddie Copeland suffered leg and arm injuries but escaped with his life when loyalists planted a similar booby-trap beneath his car.

In October of the following year, it is thought that the bomb-maker increased the amount of explosives used in the device.

This was used to target Co Down man Glen Greer during a feud between the UVF and UFF. The Bangor man died as the explosion ripped through his car.

The Red Hand Defenders, who claimed responsibility for Mrs Nelson’s murder, was seen as a flag of convenience used by a coalition of loyalists opposed to the peace process.

At the time, the sophistication of the device was thought to be beyond anything the grouping had access to. It was quickly established that the attack was carried out by members of the LVF, working with members of the larger loyalist paramilitary organisations.

The Irish News now understands that investigators have identified between eight and 10 suspects who they believe were involved in the bombing. These include three high profile loyalists who are known to the police and were highly active in the Portadown/Lurgan area around the time of Mrs Nelson’s murder.

Former LVF leader Mark ‘Swinger’ Fulton is believed to have coordinated the attack on Mrs Nelson. He was in prison on the day of the murder, but he was granted parole in the days leading up to the killing and he is also thought to have contacted his accomplices from jail.

Fulton, a close associate of the LVF founder Billy Wright, was found dead in his cell in Maghaberry prison in June last year. The authorities have concluded it was suicide.

Police are also believed to have identified a loyalist in his mid-forties, who has been connected with both the UDA and UVF, as the man they suspect built the bomb, but they have been unable to gather evidence against him.

The list of suspects also includes two men with links to the security forces. The first is in his early thirties and was a soldier in the RIR at the time of the killing, but left within two months of it.

The second is a Co Armagh-based loyalist who was identified in a court case, unrelated to the Nelson murder, as being a police informant.

The men’s security links have fuelled the speculation of collusion in the killing, but it is understood that police have denied this is the case. They claim that the exact role of both men remains in doubt, while they portray the former soldier as a maverick who admired Billy Wright and was keen to help develop the capabilities of the LVF.

The remaining suspects are a mixture of well known loyalists and lesser known figures on the fringes of dissident loyalist activities.

Police say they went to great lengths to gather evidence on these suspects. Individuals were targeted for surveillance and undercover operations, with the aim of securing information that might pave the way for convictions.

This work may have helped police jail some of the suspects for other illegal activity, but it failed to unearth sufficient evidence to support charges in relation to Mrs Nelson’s murder.

During the course of the investigation, the Rosemary Nelson team made 30 arrests, carried out 69 house searches, took 4,864 statements and recorded over 11,000 investigative tasks carried out by officers. This resulted in 17 people being charged in connection with illegal activity including serious paramilitary related crimes. None of these charges, however, related to the murder of Rosemary Nelson.

From the outset of the investigation there were concerns over its ability to get to the bottom of the allegations of security force collusion in the killing.

At its height the Rosemary Nelson team included 150 police staff.

They continue to insist that no evidence has been found to support the fears of collusion. At the time of Mrs Nelson’s killing, concerns were expressed over
reportedly high levels of security force activity near her home in the days leading up to the attack. One observer has questioned “the bombers surprising degree of self-confidence”.

Mrs Nelson is known to have remarked upon the helicopter activity near her home on the night before her death in a telephone conversation with a close relative.

Police have claimed, however, that the activity levels were high for at least two weeks and say that it has now been accounted for.

While investigators studied the security force movements in detail it is believed this process was complicated by the fact that very little of the helicopter activity was actually recorded.

Despite police claims that they have found no evidence of collusion, close observers of the case have identified areas of concern, which they say remain.

The inquiry team was urged to question the police officers accused of threatening the defence solicitor. But police argued that earlier probes found insufficient evidence to bring charges against these officers and, in the absence of new evidence, they saw no grounds for questioning them again.

In the wake of the murder, two weeks passed before Colin Port was named as the outside officer who would take over the inquiry. The murder and collusion investigation was, therefore, under way before any outside scrutiny of its day-to-day activities began.

While there is no suggestion that this hampered the murder hunt, it has undermined the independence and transparency that Mr Port’s arrival was intended to stamp on the investigation. In addition, it has been claimed that a number of leaks to the media possibly alerted suspects.

Four years after the murder of Rosemary Nelson, her killers have yet to be prosecuted. But the history of the Troubles is dotted with similar human tragedies where the guilty have evaded arrest.

The unique element in Mrs Nelson’s case is that a two-year campaign, which included concerns for her safety being raised by the international human rights community, failed to save her. Four years after her murder, Rosemary Nelson’s killers have yet to be brought to justice, while the allegations that she became a target for abuse by sections of the security forces, continue to fuel fears of collusion in her killing.

Observers argue that the Rosemary Nelson investigating team has made considerable progress in disrupting the operations of the LVF, but has so far failed in the job for which it was created.

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Chronology of Security Forces Activity – documented by The Pat Finucane Center

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IFC NewsList – March 15 2000
Anniversary of Assassination in the “Peace Process”

IFC NewsList – March 15 2001
ROSEMARY NELSON ASSASSINATED 2 YEARS AGO TODAY

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Subject: ‘I have no regrets’ – Marian Price interviewed
Date: 03 13 03

Five days after this interview took place IRPWA offices in Belfast were raided by PSNI forces who ransacked the premises, destroying several pieces of furniture and smashing an engraved Bobby Sands mirror.

Excessive and needless damage was clearly the aim of this “new beginnings” show of force; which was evidently intended to subjugate and harass those who would continue to speak out against strengthened British rule in Ireland.

A protest was held outside PSNI barracks the following day, meeting with a supportive response from passing motorists.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Thursday March 13, 2003
The Guardian

'I have no regrets'
by Rosie Cowan

Thirty years ago Marian Price was sentenced to life for her part in the IRA's bomb attacks on London. Now, with the Provisionals believed to be on the brink of a historic move to disarm, she tells Rosie Cowan why she still believes violence can be justified

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A detective who questioned Marian Price after her arrest at Heathrow airport on March 8, 1973, recalled that just before 3pm, she calmly looked at her watch and smiled.

The IRA had phoned a warning to a newspaper an hour earlier, but only two of the four car bombs they had positioned, at New Scotland Yard and the British Forces Broadcasting Office in Westminster, were defused in time. The other two ripped through the Old Bailey and the Whitehall army recruitment centre. One man died of a heart attack, but with 200 injured, it was sheer chance there were not many, many more fatalities.

In another time, another place, Price might have fulfilled her childhood dream to become a nurse, finished the course she started in a Belfast hospital, and spent her working years tending those shot and blown up by her IRA colleagues.

But compulsory residence in the nurses' home was incompatible with night-time activities in the paramilitary group she joined at 17, and so she left to enrol at teacher training college instead. Two years later, she, her 22-year-old sister, Dolours, Gerry Kelly, now Sinn Fein's north Belfast representative and the party's policing spokesman, and eight others were bound for London, determined to hurl the IRA's bloody campaign on to the government's doorstep. Ten were caught; one got away.

A life sentence ended any chances of Price becoming a nurse or teacher. The sisters went on hunger strike in protest at being kept in an English jail and were force-fed for 200 days, mouths clamped open, tubes rammed down their throats.

They were not allowed out for the funeral when their mother, Chrissie, a staunch republican, died of cancer in February 1975, a month before they were transferred to Armagh prison. Marian developed tuberculosis and anorexia, her body wasting to 5st 10lbs before she was freed in 1980.

At first glance, that fanatical teenage terrorist seems worlds away from this slim, well-spoken, pretty woman, a young-looking 49, a married mother of two teenage daughters. Sitting in a cafe in the centre of Belfast surrounded by shoppers, there is nothing about her ordinary, neatly dressed appearance and assured manner that betrays her violent past. She may be softly spoken, so quiet you almost have to lean forward to hear her, but Price has lost none of her fervour.

"I don't expect sympathy," she says quickly, knowing most will not offer it.

"I have no regrets. I joined young but I knew the risks involved. I had thought long and hard. It wasn't an emotional reaction to something that happened my family or me. It was a question of fulfilling the beliefs I still hold."

The Provisonals are now believed to be on the brink of unprecedented moves to stand down and decommission most of their arms. Price is convinced this will happen and sees this virtual disbandment as a scandalous capitulation to the British government. The republican movement's fierce code of secrecy prevents her from disclosing any details about terrorist operations or her former comrades. But she is full of contempt for the man who allegedly commanded the IRA's Belfast brigade - Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

"Adams says he was never in the IRA. That is total hypocrisy," she said, her voice spitting scorn. "Nothing has changed to make what we did in the 1970s right then and wrong now. Sometimes I wonder is he trying to work out his own conscience, is that what this so-called peace process is all about?"

Price believes decommissioning was the logical conclusion of the Provisionals' recent strategy, though she doesn't think this third act will happen in full glare of the cameras, as Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble would like.

"They'll explain it away to their grassroots as a tactical move, but they'll do it. They conceded the principle in their heads a long time ago."

As a woman whose aunt was blinded in the 1930s, when the IRA munitions she was hiding exploded, she obviously views disarmament as treachery. But for Price, the ultimate betrayal was Sinn Fein entering Stormont, colluding in a partitionist government 25 years after the IRA succeeded in bringing it down.

But surely there's no excuse for terrorism in a democracy? Isn't all politics about compromise and winning popular support?

"No, democracy is an illusion, particularly in the western world. Ultimately, the most powerful decide," she said. "I don't believe Stormont is a stepping stone to a united Ireland. If Sinn Fein wanted to administer British rule in [Northern Ireland] there were easier ways to do it than fight a 25-year war. They could have joined the SDLP."

But post-September 11, post-Omagh, isn't any terrorist campaign simply counter-productive, never mind the terrible human cost?

She hits back, eyes blazing: "Is Bush a good guy, just because his bombs are bigger and better than mine and he drops them from further away? Does that make him right and me wrong? I don't take moral lectures from the likes of George Bush."

But maybe bombing was as wrong in the 1973 as it is in 2003?

"OK, I can respect that view as at least consistent, but I don't agree. Bombs are legitimate weapons of war and the IRA used them against an occupying force. The IRA campaign was never about killing civilians, that was not our intention, but accidents happen, that is an unfortunate consequence of war."

Tell that to the families of almost 2,000 people murdered by the IRA in the past 30 years. Doesn't Price realise they would see her teenage ambition to be a nurse as horrifyingly ironic? Yes, she accepts that. Nonetheless, she is adamant there is no contradiction. She was prepared to kill for a cause but equally prepared, once someone was injured, to give them the medical care they were entitled to, no matter which side they were on.

While many Northern Irish Catholics found the Provisional IRA campaign as odious as their Protestant neighbours, it tapped deep into a tacit vein of support in the nationalist community. But with opinion polls showing well over 90 per cent of Catholics now back the Good Friday Agreement, how can there be any justification for more violence?

For Price, popularity is no measure of the legitimacy of a cause. "The majority of Irish people have never supported the republican cause," she admits. "Most are not willing to make the sacrifices it requires. But as long as there is a British presence in Ireland there will always be justification.

"Republicanism will never fade. My principles and ideals will never be crushed. I didn't make the choices I did for individuals within the republican movement or Sinn Fein. The fact they've sold out does not belittle me," she says.

Price now works for a prisoners' welfare organisation, and belongs to the hardline republican pressure group, the 32-County Sovereignty Committee. But she denies the widespread view that its members are merely political apologists for the Real IRA, the dissident terror group that bombed Omagh in August 1998, killing 29 people.

She does not speak for the Sovereignty Committee, but claims there are diverse opinions within it on how to achieve Irish unity, not all necessarily espousing violence.

"We're not war-mongering maniacs who want to bathe in the blood of Englishmen. Armed struggle is only a tactic, not an end in itself."

She is circumspect about groups like the Real IRA, riven by splits and informers in the past couple of years, and fellow renegades, the Continuity IRA, who have stepped up activity in the last few months and vowed to kill Catholic police officers as Sinn Fein edges closer to endorsing policing for the first time in Northern Ireland's history.

Her days as an activist are long past, she says, with something like regret. But she will not be found guilty of double standards. "I cannot condemn another young person for following the same path I did."

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© The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates

IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------

Subject: Interview with Bernadette Devlin McAliskey – The Blanket
Date: 03 08 03

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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The Blanket
06 March 2003

Interview with Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

On February 21, Bernadette McAliskey was barred from entering the United States. Here she speaks with Breandán Morley about what happened
Breandán Morley

McAliskey: I was going to New York on holidays. I went through Dublin airport as usual. I filled in my visa waiver form, which I am entitled to do, I presented it and was processed through Immigration without any difficulty. I arrived in Chicago and Immigration informed me there that on foot of a fax received while I was in the air from Dublin, to the effect that a passenger, Bernadette McAliskey, was on the flight, was ineligible for entry, should be apprehended and returned.

They were very very jumpy. They were clearly under the impression that I had evaded Immigration in some way, that I had fraudulently filled out a form in some way and that I was a threat to the security of the United States of America.

I attempted to explain to them that I was in fact eligible for entry, had not fraudulently filled out any forms and was not a threat to anybody's security.

I was informed that I had no rights, that in fact nobody who is not a United States citizen any longer has any rights in America since Al-Qaeda, that what I had was a number of choices. My choice was to sit there quietly until they arranged a flight and put me back on it and to say nothing and to speak to nobody.

I said "No, I have rights here. I would like to contact somebody from the embassy. I would like to contact a lawyer. I have no intention of going back just because you tell me I have to go back."

They at that point said that if I insisted that I had rights where I had none, they would show me what rights I had. I would be handcuffed and imprisoned until such time as they arranged a flight back to Ireland.

In the midst of that one of the guys then said to me, who was the subordinate, he took me aside and he said "Do not anger my boss. Please do not make him angry, do not speak about rights, you don't have any. Don't contradict him. Last week he fired a shot over the head of a Russian gentleman."

I don't know whether he did or not, but that's what the guy told me "Don't anger him. You have no rights, he has power. He also has a revolver. Last week he fired it. Please, don't make this situation worse."

Then I was told that I would be photographed, questioned and fingerprinted and I said "No. I won't."

Again the guy said to me "Mam, when are you going to understand this? You do not have any rights,you have choices. Your choice is to voluntarily be fingerprinted and photographed, to be fingerprinted and photographed under duress or to be forcibly fingerprinted and photographed. Those are your choices. Then you will be going back to Ireland."

All through this I am trying to say to them "Look, let me see this fax. What is the authority of this fax?"

I got no information on that.

At the very end of two very disturbing hours, because this was happening to Mrs Citizen, not to Mrs Political Activist, this was happening to a person and these are the jumpiest people I have ever seen, these people are so scared. All the time I knew and had that feeling that had I been young and male in this situation I would have been very vulnerable to physical violence. These people could and would have given me a good kicking.

Morley: It was purely a personal visit, wasn't it? You weren't planning on addressing any political meetings at all while you were over there?

McAliskey: No, no. Nor was that even an issue, because they didn't know I was me. It's very important that that point is understood. This wasn't about me, this wasn't about me being against the war in Iraq, this wasn't about me and my history in Northern Ireland. They didn't know who I was. Only at the very end, when I am sitting ten minutes off the flight, theguy came back to me and he said "I have got your whole profile. I can see why you are angry. There is nothing in your profile that says you are ineligible for the United States. You are quite clearly not a threat to the United States."

At that point I said to him "OK, then why am I going back to Ireland. Can you not now recognise that and let me get on with my journey?"

He said "No. We have a fax from Immigration in Ireland that says that you are a person that basically is a threat to the United States."

So on the basis of, I don't know where the fax came from, I don't know what possessed somebody at the Immigration in Dublin to send the fax, but simply on the basis of a two- or three-line fax any person leaving Ireland and going to America at this time can be subjected to that kind of treatment.

Morley: Is this the first time that you have been denied entry to the USA?

McAliskey: Yes. And it had nothing to do with me being me, nothing to do with my actions, my history. It had to do with how jumpy and scared and unnerved and irrational the Americans are at this time.

Morley: Where do you intend to take it from here? Are you going to appeal the decision?

McAliskey: Well, there's not much point, it's not about my appealing that decision, because that's not the issue. The issue really is about basic human rights, about freedom of movement and freedom of expression and freedom of personal security. The real issue is that as a citizen of Ireland, information coming from Ireland removed those rights from me and I am not sure if the American citizen who took that action is amenable to the law in Ireland.

That would be the bit that to me is important, is whether that bit of Dublin that American Immigration controls, if a person behaves wrongly, which that person did, if a person, just because they take a notion of doing it, can actually restrict my rights, I must have some right under the Irish Constitution to know who did that, why they did it and what remedy I have. So I will be writing to Department of Foreign Affairs, but my suspicion is that we have leased that portion to America and that we have no protection of our rights against American Immigration at Dublin Airport.

Morley: I rang the American Embassy this morning and there was just a blanket refusal to discuss the case at all.

McAliskey: Well we will see if they refuse to discuss it in the High Court.

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IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------

Subject: Derry News Reporter on Civil Rights Conference
Date: 03 07 03

What follows is the original, uncut news report submitted to the Derry News by journalist Darinagh Boyle following the Civil Rights conference on Political Status held in Derry on February 22nd.

As the story below correctly attests, the sole purpose of calling the human rights conference was to address the escalating crisis at Maghaberry Prison; now dangerously close to a return to the dark days of 1976-1981.

Sadly, an outlandish attempt was made by tabloid elements of the press to hijack this civil rights conference and to create a sensational and farcical angle to suit salacious purposes. Fortunately that day there were journalists in attendance representing the best of their profession, who were more interested in factually recording the historic importance of the day’s events, and in relating the deadly serious issues uniting the conference attendees in concern.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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(The following is reprinted courtesy of “Stormont Watch” Forum)

----------------------
Derry News

MAJOR IRISH POW CONFERENCE HELD IN DERRY LAST WEEK
Fear of prison strife ‘spilling over’
By Darinagh Boyle

A republican prisoners’ solidarity group may field candidates in the May elections amid growing concern, it claims, that escalating sectarian strife in the prisons is on the brink of “boiling over”.

A specially convened conference highlighting serious ongoing violence against republican inmates, particularly in Maghaberry, was held in Derry at the weekend.

The Full Status Now Campaign demanded immediate movement to repatriate Irish prisoners currently serving in English jails and segregated wings in prisons
here.

And the tone of one of the speakers was distinctly ominous when he warned: “But if the situation escalates on the inside, the clear message is that
there will be repercussions on the outside.”

The meeting was attended by around 60 relatives of republican inmates. And every prisoner in Irish and English jails has been contacted by the campaign
by letter.

The former republican hunger striker, Marion Price read a statement on behalf of a group of IRA POWs in Maghaberry jail. In the statement they criticized the direction the political leaders of republicanism have taken and reiterated their commitment to the struggle for Irish freedom.

Loyalist inmates have made a number of “life-threatening” assaults on republicans according to a member of the relatives’ group who spoke at the meeting. He claimed Derry man Ciaran McLaughlin was lucky to have survived a recent “particularly vicious attack”. Others have sustained broken ribs and limbs - in one case from being struck with an iron.

He insisted that loyalist inmates “far outnumber” incarcerated republicans on many of the wings, that the isolation of individual republicans is acute and families of jailed republicans live in fear of further serious attacks.

It was also claimed that the number of violent attacks is grossly underreported partly due to the prison culture but also out of fear of even more vicious retaliation.

A spokesperson for the lobby group explained that in putting forward a representative to contest the May elections on an abstentionist ticket – they would raise awareness of the prisoners’ plight.

But the spokesperson stressed that prompt action is necessary to prevent violent attacks outside the prisons. And he suggested that protest hunger strikes as a means of raising the profile of prisoners’ rights has been ruled out.

“The message I’m getting from people in the prisons is, ‘If you people on the outside don’t do something, we’ll take it on ourselves.’ And we don’t want to see that. This is a basic human rights issue. You don’t have to be a republican to be motivated by basic concern for human rights.”

He emphasized the campaign’s “total opposition” to any further casualties but he stressed that there is mounting fear that if the “prisoners’ rights” are not met – a violent reaction may be impossible to avert.

“We don’t want to see any more prison deaths – whether that be loyalist or republicans … But if the situation escalates on the inside, the clear message is that there will be repercussions on the outside.”

MORE

Other relatives cite a long list of greviances including sniffer dog searches which they claim are designed to intimidate, distress and discriminate against those visiting republican prisoners, closed visits, the withdrawal of basic child care facilities, verbal abuse and intimidation, and inside the wings, hour-long cell searches and the destruction of personal items – including newspaper cuttings and in one example a Valentines card, among other alleged abuses.

“There are around 30 republican prisoners in Maghaberry out of around 500 in the prison. So you have a situation where there may be one republican prisoner among 24 others on a wing – loyalists, criminals, drug dealers, people who republicans don’t associate with.”

“A number of republicans have been seriously assaulted. Prison Services are courting danger … and they are going to wait until someone is killed.”

Another commented that republican prisoners requested and were refused a drugs-free wing.

“Drugs have never been found on republican prisoners in Maghaberry. Yet loyalists openly take drugs in there,” he claimed.

And he alleged that he was refused a visit, after a sniffer dog search, for no reason other than that he was visiting a republican”.

Meanwhile, an official report by the Inspector of Prisons yesterday described parts of Maghaberry Jail as “unsafe and unsatisfactory” as details of the inspection undertaken last May emerged. The report’s author also suggested that the prison population at the jail could be better served by a number of smaller establishments possibly contained on a larger site.

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For more on the Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status go to:
IFC NewsList - February 24, 2003 - Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status

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02 27 03 Irish Freedom Committee REPORT FROM MAGHABERRY

03 04 03 LIVE BULLETS FOUND AT MAGHABERRY

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© The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates

IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------

Subject: March Birthday List – MICK HEGARTY APPEAL
Date: 03 05 03

Please send birthday cards to the Irish Political Prisoners listed below. In particular the Irish Freedom Committee is asking that cards be sent to Mick Hegarty this month. Mick Hegarty is very ill and must feed himself with a tube for several hours a day in very unsanitary conditions. A recent visitor described his spirits as upbeat despite incredible suffering. This man has lost an enormous amount of weight and does not belong in prison at all. Please write to the Dublin Justice Minister and voice your humanitarian concerns for the suffering and grave endangerment this man is enduring. A sample letter with contact information for the Dublin Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is below for your reference.

REMEMBER KEVIN MURRAY – DON’T ALLOW ANOTHER IRISH POLITICAL PRISONER TO DIE NEEDLESSLY OF MEDICAL NEGLECT!!

(see link below: “WHY WAS THIS MAN ALLOWED TO DIE??”)

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Birthdays For the Month of March

- Mick Hegarty, March 8, 1963, Single, 10 Years, from Clare, Portlaoise Prison (E-4)
- Alan Patterson, March 11, 1970, Single, 9 years, from Dublin, Portlaoise Prison (E-2/E-3)
- Kenneth Patterson, March 11, 1970, Single, 7 years, from Dublin, Portlaoise Prison (E-2/E-3)

PRISON ADDRESSES: PORTLAOISE PRISON Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland (indicate wing #)

UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS

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MINISTER FOR JUSTICE,
EQUALITY AND LAW REFORM
CONTACT:
e-mail: minister@justice.ie
telephone: +353 - 1 – 6028202
(Suggested letter – please feel free to copy and paste or use your own words)
--------------------

Minister Michael McDowell, T.D.,
MINISTER FOR JUSTICE,
EQUALITY AND LAW REFORM

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
72-76 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2

Dear Minister Michael McDowell;

I am writing to register my great concern for the continuing
imprisonment of Mick Hegarty at Portlaoise Prison. I am aware that Mr.
Hegarty, who will be age 50 this weekend, is gravely ill and should not
be in prison at all. Visitors have told me that he is extremely
emaciated and must feed himself through a tube for seven hours a day in
very unsanitary conditions. Until recently he was feeding himself
through a tube for twenty straight hours a day. His doctors outside
have warned him that he must gain several stone immediately or face
severe endangerment to his chances of survival. Under the present
conditions it seems very clear that this man should not be in prison at
all. Please grant Mick Hegarty compassionate release to finish his
sentence at home, where he might have a better chance at a full
recovery. Please don’t allow another prisoner to die needlessly in an
Irish prison – please remember Kevin Murray and the needless suffering
and untimely death he suffered after many months of medical neglect at
Portlaoise Prison.

Yours very sincerely;

(Your name here/City)

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WHY WAS THIS MAN ALLOWED TO DIE??? VOL. KEVIN MURRAY - MURDERED BY FREE STATE MEDICAL NEGLECT

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WRITE TO IRISH POLITICAL PRISONERS
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net - click on POWs

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© The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates

IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE® NEWSLIST
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net
-----------------------------

Subject: Prisons Crisis CENSORED by Tabloid Media
Date: 03 04 03

For the Irish Freedom Committee report on the Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status please see the links provided below today’s story.

The Irish Freedom Committee®
www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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Subject: Prisons Crisis CENSORED by Tabloid Media
Date: 03 04 03

As reported here previously, family members of Irish political prisoners at Maghaberry Prison joined Civil Rights veterans, prisoners’ representatives, and human rights representatives from Ireland, Britain and the United States at a Derry conference last week to address mounting concerns for their loved ones at Maghaberry.

Prisoners’ representatives and family members have expressed serious concerns recently that Irish republican political prisoners at Maghaberry may be forced to take actions into their own hands and embark on protest in weeks to come, as the situation inside the prison goes from bad to worse, and the men inside are being pushed to the brink of endurance under the barbaric conditions which have severely threatened their physical safety.

FEARS FOR PRISONERS

Concern has escalated as several republican prisoners have been brutally beaten by loyalist paramilitary prisoners who are housed alongside them, outnumbering them in some cases up to eleven-to-one on a landing. Republican prisoners have no wing of their own and are forced to integrate with loyalist paramilitary members in a suicidal policy which seems intent upon delivering the violent death of any republican prisoner at any time. Many republican prisoners have already been visited by the RUC/NIPS police force who have delivered warnings of death threats drawn against them by loyalist groups inside the prison.

Family members wholeheartedly endorsed last week’s Derry conference by their presence, in the hopes that the deadly issues for their loved ones could be borne by a wide coalition of civil rights and humanitarian groups united for the day by conference hosts the 1968 Civil Rights Veterans and the Full Status Now Campaign in Derry. The conference was successful in uniting pledges from all in attendance to continue to expose the issues and lighten the load however possible for the men inside with renewed efforts to pressure local government and humanitarian agencies worldwide.

FAMILY TESTIMONIES

Members of the media were invited for the second portion of the conference, when family members spoke passionately and at length regarding the harassment they have endured as the prison has repeatedly attempted to break the connection between the prisoners and their loved ones on the outside.

Family members rose one by one to describe death threats to their loved ones, ransacked cells, forced integration with groups who don’t even live in the same communities on the outside, and the continuing fears that their loved ones will be forced to take matters into their own hands if the emergency situation is not soon addressed.

Cameras and microphones recorded as anxious mothers described the intimidation of their small children by large sniffer dogs, a needless attempt to frighten already terrified children. The media was reminded that republicans are staunchly anti-drugs and this fact would be well known to the prisons administration, who appear to be more intent upon enforcing the psychological intimidation of families and the random screening of visitors to particular prisoners.

Reporters and television cameras also were present and recording as the conference organizers and speakers summarized the day’s events by pledging to continue to work tirelessly on the outside to ensure that “no more body bags come out of Irish prisons”.

SHAME ON TABLOID SLEAZE MEDIA

It has been with great regret, then, that we have since witnessed a pathetic and farcical attempt by tawdry elements of the tabloid media to discredit the conference and some of its attendees.

The tabloid press apparently went to great lengths to smuggle out clandestine photographs of two American observers, to be sold to the highest bidder. These American representatives from the Irish Freedom Committee had previously declined requests for interviews and photographs in order not to detract attention from the day’s issues at hand, which seemed better represented by the heartfelt testimonies from family members on the grave dangers faced by their loved ones.

Seemingly incapable of recognizing either the significance of the event or the gravity of the issues being addressed, these tabloid fiction writers chose instead to hijack to conference and set their own agenda.

By totally disregarding the requests from conference organizers and the IFC representatives themselves not to be sensationalized at the expense of the family members, these tabloid journalists have shown that they embody the lowest and the worst of their profession. A farcical effort was made by these gutter press merchants to concoct depictions of the American observers that bordered on the ludicrous.

Through their small-minded efforts at sensationalizing an American observer presence at the expense of recording the very real concerns presented before them, these sleaze merchants demonstrated the utter absence of any humanitarian concern for either the families or the prisoners. Clearly these sexist and reactionary tabloid elements have only demonstrated that they will stoop at nothing to serve a pro-Treaty British agenda and thwart a campaign for the return of Political Status and basic human rights to Irish political prisoners.

We in the Irish Freedom Committee wish to re-assert our continuing pledge to work for the return of Political Status and basic human rights for Irish Republican Prisoners. We like the families feel that these men would not be inside prison walls were it not for an army of occupation in their native land. We will not be deterred by attempts to discredit our human rights work, which will continue as ever to speak for itself. We know that we are but a small cog in a great wheel of growing support worldwide for issues facing the Irish people in their pursuit of basic human rights and liberties and an end to foreign military oppression. Our attackers only serve to highlight the importance of the work we are doing, and can only strengthen our resolve to go forward.

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For more on the DERRY CONFERENCE:

IFC NewsList 02 25 03 - Derry Civil Rights Conference on Political Status

Derry Journal 02 25 03 – ‘Support for dissidents growing stronger’

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DEMAND THE RIGHT FOR POLITICAL STATUS TO IRISH REPUBLICAN POLITICAL
PRISONERS.

1. THE RIGHT TO SEGREGATION
2. THE RIGHT TO RECOGNITION AS A GROUP
3. THE RIGHT TO HAVE THEIR OWN SPOKESPERSON
4. THE RIGHT TO A WING OF THEIR OWN

Write to Irish Political Prisoners!!

For more information go to the IRISH FREEDOM COMMITTEE at www.irishfreedomcommittee.net

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© The Irish Freedom Committee® NewsList - IFC Updates

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