Irish-American Unity Conference – BRITISH CAN’T SEEM TO GET IT RIGHT
Posted by Jim on August 24, 2012
What is it about the British? They throw a wonderful Olympic party, for which we all can be grateful Prince Harry kept his clothes on. No doubt Her Majesty’s Government gave VIP treatment and freebies to hundreds of U. S. government employees for their loyalty to the Crown. Such amenities are the mother’s milk of the ‘special relationship.’ What’s not to like? Alas British hospitality comes with a price.
Last week it was revealed that a British bank, Standard Chartered, whose Board has at least 4 Directors with ties to the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defense, admitted ignoring U. S. and U. N. sanctions against Iran and laundered oil transactions to the tune of $200 billion dollars. As the late Sen. Everett Dirksen once said: “Pretty soon you are talking serious money!” That is only the amount admitted in an indictment to which the bank recently plead guilty in the State of New York. All this lawlessness was going on even as President Obama was signing a law to increase and strengthen the sanctions. Talk about dissing a President and the members of Congress who supported the measure like the Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
But save your sympathy for Ireland. The coalition government there rolled out the green carpet and spent money it could ill afford for a Queen who praised the new atmosphere of cooperation all the while her Government was working feverishly to unravel the Irish peace process and escape accountability for decades of murder, corruption and human rights violations. Do not believe me? Just thumb through the reports submitted by the Committee on the Administration of Justice, Relatives for Justice, British-Irish Rights Watch recently submitted to Congressman Chris Smith and Senator Ben Cardin, Co-Chairs of the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
So is it their bullying arrogance, their rank hypocrisy or mischievous meddling which is more obnoxious? Some say it is the insufferable hypocrisy of the UK criticizing China for its persecution of attorney Cheng Guangcheng. Just months before
Britain admitted colluding in the murder of Irish human rights attorney Patrick Finucane. This collusion came as a surprise to Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who recently held a press conference in Washington with Cheng. Others believe it is their bullying arrogance as typified by the phone hacking engaged in by British-owned News Corp. Senator Rockefeller intends to use the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act should there be evidence of hacking in America. The smart money is on boodles of hacking Stateside. Or for that matter what better display of arrogance than the imperial dismissal of the Irish governments request for British Army documents related to the largest act of slaughter of the conflict, the no-warning car bombing of Dublin & Monaghan shopping centers. The cars were delivered and bombs were primed by British Army members and handlers. As the song goes “..and they dare to call me a terrorist….” But my personal favorite is their obnoxious meddling in the affairs of another country, something they always complained about when countries objected to their crushing of the civil rights movement, their corruption of the rule of law, media censorship or their destruction of democracy with political assassinations. Fearful of a political party’s success in Ireland Britain has chosen to meddle in America by using Attorney General Holder to subpoena tapes held in the Irish archives of Boston College. This could be a win-win for Britain. They might get the tapes and spin them to try and influence Ireland’s politics. That surrender by the Obama administration could offend constituencies in key States and thereby insure that Britain will get a chance to put that second bust of Winston Churchill back in the White House.
If this subpoena is enforced and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is abused, it will be the most spectacular insult to a President and Congress since the 1812 burning of the White House. Consider. Attorney General Holder initiated the subpoena prompted by an ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary member of the much maligned Special Branch based upon an interview of Marian Price, who is opposed to the Irish peace process. Her claim being that a now Sinn Fein leader had something to do with a killing 40 years earlier at the height of civil unrest in N. I. The 1998 Belfast peace treaty addressed all that or so believes the Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry. The insult to the intelligence to every sitting member of Congress and the Obama administration can be found in these facts:
· From 1971-1973 in N. I 183 people were killed by the British Army. Not one soldier was prosecuted.
· 1984 Sir Patrick Mayhew says evidence of wrongdoing by 11 RUC officers in a dozen murders but states “not in interest of State to prosecute.
· Stevens Report is so damaging it cannot be released in full. A released summary states that “..many innocent people were murdered.”
· 5 elected Sinn Fein officials murdered by collusion. Nothing to compare in any modern democracy. No investigation or prosecution.
· Over 800 Catholic murders were to be re-examined per the Belfast Treaty because there were no arrests or prosecutions.
Now the British government would have the Attorney Generaland others believe a bona fide criminal investigation is underway in this singular case.
Who will hold Britain accountable for this mockery of justice, democracy and the rule of law? Will it be Representatives Sherman, Deutch, Berman and Senator Kirk who claimed that those ignoring sanctions on Iran and Syria will “..face serious consequences?” Let no one think for a minute the British government was surprised by the 5 year Project Gazelle of Standard Chartered bank. Perhaps President Obama will overrule Attorney General Holder or he will issue an MLAT request to prosecute the real crimes of Standard Chartered. Or Secretary of State Clinton may bail him out by assessing the threat to the Irish peace process. Maybe Senator Kerry will seek a delay on delivering anything to the British until a full Senate hearing is held to determine the validity of not only the request but the worthiness of the requestor. Stay tuned.
Michael J. Cummings, Member
National Board