Appeal for Hearings
Posted by Jim on June 22, 2015
June 22, 2015
Honorable Brendan Boyle
118 CHOB
1st Street & Independence Ave SE
Washington, D. C. 20515
Dear Representative Boyle:
Thank you for your timely call for hearings by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee for Security and Cooperation in Europe (HelsinkiCommission) into the latest revelations of British security forces collusion with loyalist death squads in Northern Ireland. Other evidence relating to the British allowing informers to murder innocent people, the deSilva Report into the assassination of attorney Patrick Finucane, the book LETHAL ALLIES by journalist Anne Cadwalladar all document without question the lawless oppression endured by the Catholic/Nationalist minority for 30 years.
Your voice for accountability reminds me of the late Representative Joseph Moakley’s (MA 9th-D) challenge of America’s support of the military in El Salvador at the time of the assassinations of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper at their University in San Salvador. In 1989 he led a House Task Force which conducted hearings and visited El Salvador essentially to do the work of the U. S. State Department. You may face the same challenges. Our State Department has a sordid history of silence, looking the other way and complicity when it comes to British lawlessness, murder, injustice and the crushing of democracy in Ireland from the civil rights protest in 1968 through the assassination of six elected Sinn Fein officials and seven campaign workers. The Reagan administration did everything it could to deter Congressman Moakley from holding hearings and meeting with El Salvadorian officials. But such was his courage and determination that Salvadorian soldiers were eventually imprisoned. In fact, more Salvadorian soldiers were imprisoned for that one act of slaughter than British soldiers ever imprisoned in 30 years of their murderous work in the North of Ireland.
In exercising your important foreign policy oversight function, it is vital that those with the primary responsibility for implementing foreign policy—the Department of State —be invited to testify. Perhaps they could address some of these critical areas pertaining to your concern.
State assessment and accountability for the implementation of the Belfast Agreement (as amended) particularly with regard to the ‘independent’ investigation into over 1000 killings in the conflict but particularly those deaths involving police and security forces which are being investigated by current or retired PSNI (RUC).
The official Department response, if any, regarding the BBC One Panorama and the Spotlight documentaries and Brendan McCourt’s RTE report regarding British collusion with loyalist death squads (Glennane Gang), the use of informers, the British Army Military Reaction Force and the corruption of the justice system in N. I. as depicted in the book LETHAL ALLIES.
State’s position and any documentation exchange with Britain regarding its failure to implement an independent public inquiry into the assassination of attorney Patrick Finucane as required by the Belfast Agreement, failure to disclose information about the British Army role in the Dublin Monaghan bombings and British involvement regarding the murder of attorney Ms. Rosemary Nelson, journalist Martin O’Hagan and six elected Sinn Fein Councilors and seven campaign workers.
State’s opinion of the BBC interview with loyalist leader Ken Meginnis, a member of the Ulster Defense Regiment, in which he asserts he was called by Prime Minister Thatcher after the killing of three UDR soldiers by the IRA. He was asked for the names of the killers and he gave her three names. The next day those individuals were killed by the British Army. Does the Department of State understand this action as compatible with the rule of law or the law of the jungle?
The Department of State’s position with respect to the 2012 Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) subpoena request from the Royal Ulster Constabulary (PSNI) for tapes held in the Irish Archives of Boston College. State had an important Treaty- defined role to play in determining whether the Justice Department should grant the request or oppose it because it would be harmful to U. S. interests e. g. the peace process in Northern Ireland; was in violation of treaties like the Belfast Agreement; was contradictory to representations made by the State Department in support of U. S.-U. K. extradition treaty amendments; or contrary to U. S. policy with respect to human rights. Did State offer any reservations to the Department of Justice about the intent of the subpoena request and the moral obligation to question it?
Disclosure of State Department records pertaining to the 1981 statutory embargo of arms sales to the RUC imposed by Congress and the secret resumption of arms sales by the Reagan administration in direct violation of that statute. Does State understand the implications for enforcing arms embargoes as a tactic with other nations if the U. S. government won’t abide by its own embargo of arms?
Congressman Boyle, the police force in Northern Ireland is the most discredited police force in Western Europe. It is worth determining whether or not any one in the State Department has actually seen these latest documentaries or read LETHAL ALLIES or the Stalker/Sampson and Sir John Stevens reports from the 80’s. Alone each would justify opposition to the MLAT subpoena. Each would justify enforcement of the law banning arms sales to the RUC.
Your position is morally and politically defensible but will opposed just as Congressman Moakley’s Task Force was opposed. I hope you will not be deterred in performing your duties in search of the truth in what was described in the Irish Independent recently as the “…bone chilling moral bankruptcy…” of collusion. Our Department of State and the British government opposed President Clinton’s granting of a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and you should expect similar opposition even from House leadership with arguments like Northern Ireland is such a small problem in the world and the U. K. is such a dear friend of the U. S. You may realize, as did President Clinton, that America’s standing in the world was enhanced when it confronted those naysayers. Congressman, even that big step from President Clinton began with small steps like a dialogue between former Senator Christopher Dodd and former New York City Council leader, the late Paul O’Dwyer and others like colleagues Joe Crowley, Peter King, Richard Neal, Jim McGovern and Eliot Engel and former Representatives Jim Walsh and Bruce Morrison.
In the past, the leadership of organizations like the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Irish American Unity Conference, the Brehon Law Society, the Irish Northern Aid Committee and the Irish-American Labor Coalition has proven to be steadfast in support of efforts such as yours. I hope you will consider building and expanding such a coalition again so that they can become a bulwark in defense of your pursuit of truth, justice, the rule of law for all those living in Northern Ireland. If I can be of any assistance in this effort, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Cummings