Posted by Jim on June 13, 2015
The unionist paramilitary UVF is being blamed after a masked gang this
week threatened to shoot a man at his home while his 14-year-old son was
inside. Three men, one armed with a gun, threw a brick at the house on
Blythe Street in Sandy Row in south Belfast before threatening the man.
The men were dressed in black and wearing balaclavas. The victim of the
attack, who did not wish to be identified, said he ran out when he heard
the brick hitting the house on Wednesday evening.
“I looked round and three of them were standing there,” he said.
“Then one said ‘get him’.” “I heard click, click, click, but the gun
didn’t go off. It must have jammed or something. I ran back in and told
my son to run upstairs.”
The man said it was the fourth time his house had been attacked within
the last eight months. In two separate attacks in May, a hoax device was
thrown at the house and windows were smashed with a sledgehammer.
“Last night was the worst,” he said. He blames the UVF for the attack
and said the loyalist group have targeted him following a dispute.
FLAGS
The attack comes amid increased loyalist paramilitary activity as the
Protestant marching season advances towards a climax next month.
Again this year, a UVF gang was observed erecting loyalist flags at a
north Belfast interface while under the watchful eye of the PSNI.
The flags were erected on lampposts close to the loyalist protest camp
at Twaddell Avenue earlier this week, within sight of the PSNI armoured
vehicles. The site is just yards from Catholic-owned business and homes
in Ardoyne.
The development comes almost a year to the day since the PSNI publicly
claimed they would treat attempts to raise loyalist flags on a mixed
section of the Ormeau Road in south Belfast as a breach of the peace. At
the time, Sinn Féin assembly member Alex Maskey said the PSNI had
“brought themselves into disrepute” after they stood and watched flags
being put up in the area.
A spokesman for Sinn Féin said the “erection of these flags is a highly
provocative act, particularly at this time of the year and is designed
to intimidate local residents.”
TOUR OF THE NORTH
Loyalists and unionists have held almost daily protests in the area
since the anti-Catholic Orange Order were banned by the Parades
Commission from holding a sectarian parade through the nationalist area
in July 2013.
This week, Orangemen expressed further outrage at a decision by the
Parades Commission to restrict the annual ‘Tour of the North’ sectarian
parade from playing their tunes within earshot of St Patrick’s Catholic
church.
The County Grand Orange Lodge of Belfast denounced the Parades
Commission as “increasingly aloof and discredited” and “a mouthpiece for
republican propaganda”.
SHORT STRAND
Earlier in the week, loyalist flags were erected by a gang outside a
Catholic church in east Belfast, close to a volatile interface. The area
has been the scene of increased interface violence in recent weeks with
attacks on property in the nationalist Short Strand.
A house in Bryson Street in Short Strand was attacked with paint bombs
at on Tuesday night while an hour earlier, three petrol bombs were
thrown at a property in nearby Strand Walk causing damage to pipes and
guttering.
Reports of missiles being thrown have been ongoing since the previous
week, when two bombs were thrown at homes in Short Strand.
Residents have said attacks on their homes have been “organised and
planned” by paramilitaries attempting to stoke up tensions ahead of the
marching season.
One of those attacked, who did not want to be named, said: “I have been
involved in cross-community work trying to keep tensions low. Perhaps
that is why I have been targeted. There is a select few across (the
interface) that have no intention of keeping any peace.”
“This is organised and it is planned. The past two months it has been
intermittent attacks throughout the day. They are trying to get a
reaction from this side of the street.”
Posted by Jim on
The head of the PSNI police in the north of Ireland, George Hamilton,
has said the force has a “vault” of secret information on the conflict
in the North but is concerned its release would create a “one sided
focus” on the force’s actions.
Mr Hamilton was speaking as a new television documentary, the third to
be broadcast in less than three weeks, further increased pressure for
the British state to tell the truth on its murderous collusion with
hundreds of informers and state agents.
Hamilton said he would consider allowing the proposed Historical
Investigations Unit (HIU) to look at the material, which he said
contained “millions of documents”, but that some information would have
to be legally suppressed “to protect lives and to protect people’s
privacy”.
He said that if the vault is opened, “out of that will pour material
that will present challenges for other people in the system”.
“I don’t think we should be exempt from scrutiny from investigation in
the police service, past or present. I think that’s good… but I
actually think other people have stories to tell and questions to
answer,” Hamilton told journalists ahead of the broadcast.
He feared the records, including plans for covert operations and minutes
of meetings, meant that there would be an excessive focus on the role of
the RUC/PSNI police in atrocities.
“My understanding is that the IRA, the UVF and the other players in this
didn’t keep notes or minutes of meetings or records of decisions… we
did. And I think all of that has left us somewhat exposed.”
Lawyer Kevin Winters, whose firm represents many of those who were
victims of collusion, said if the reported “vault” had been opened years
ago, “we wouldn’t have all this civil litigation. If the government had
said: ‘Yes, we saved lives, but we got things wrong as well’… It’s
the blanket denial that’s the problem. The families just want to know
what happened.”
Hamilton was speaking ahead of a documentary by Irish state broadcaster,
RTE, to be aired next Monday, which will allege that collusion between
the Crown forces and loyalist paramilitaries went right to the top of
the British government, with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
turning a blind eye to it.
The programme points out that the Crown forces concentrated their
efforts on “destroying” the Provisional IRA, at the same time as
publicly stating that it was dealing with the conflict in an even-handed
way.
Such was the extent of collusion with loyalists in the 1980s that a RUC
Special Branchman tipped off a top-level UDA paramilitary ‘brigadier’
about the presence of an informer in the organisation.
The programme includes a statement by a former member of the RUC/PSNI
Special Branch, that when he raised the issue of the use of informers
and agents with government authorities, the message he received from the
Thatcher administration in London was “carry on – just don’t get
caught”.
Former PSNI Chief Hugh Orde also told documentary marker John Ware that
the former head of the British Army’s secret Force Research Unit (FRU),
Gordon Kerr, should have been put on trial over collusion — without
admitting any complicity of his own. Former Police Ombudsman Nuala
O’Loan tells the same programme that she was pressured to drop her
investigations into PSNI collusion after Orde became PSNI chief in 2002.
Mark Thompson, director of Relatives for Justice, said there was no
longer any doubt that collusion was formally approved by the British
government. He said the ‘Kitsonian doctrine’, or the ‘dirty war’ of low
intensity operations put in place in the early 70s by British Army
brigadier Frank Kitson, had “framed the entire conflict”. He said a
“firewall of protection” existed through unwritten rules and guidelines
that would otherwise create a trail of responsibility to the door of No.
10 Downing Street.
“In meetings with the most senior government, military and police
officials, one imagines, no one specifically identifies a particular
person and says “go and kill’ or “take out that person”, especially
meetings and briefings involving a prime minister,” he said.
“It’s rather more discreet; a convenient framework policy is
intentionally adopted that enables and facilitates practices that have
the exact same desired end result.
“This is as effective as having named and pointed a finger at a
particular individual to be targeted and killed.
“This includes a particular community, or section of society such as the
nationalist community, creating terror and fear among republicans, and
their families including women and children. And fueling internal feuds
within non-state groupings.”
Posted by Jim on June 7, 2015
By Susan Edelman
Two veteran FDNY fitness trainers have been yanked from the Fire Academy as the department conducts what some call a “witch hunt” for whistleblowers and those trying to uphold standards, The Post has learned.
Lts. Michael Cacciola and Peter Critsimilios — a duo who ensured the strength and agility of more than 8,500 Bravest in the past 14 years — were removed from Randall’s Island on Monday and sent to the ceremonial unit, which conducts funerals and other official events.
Their reassignment sent shock waves through the department.
“I know of no reason why,” said Jake Lemonda, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. “They are two highly experienced and dedicated members who have served the department well.”
Their transfers come as the department has watered down its fitness criteria and standards.
Last month, The Post reported that probationary Firefighter Rebecca Wax, 33, graduated from the academy despite failing the crucial Functional Skills Test, an obstacle course of job-related tasks (inset). Under new criteria, her high academic grades made up for her physical deficiency.
Cacciola, 55, and Critsimilios, 57, rigorously upheld fitness standards, sources say.
Outraged by their ouster, several firefighters who work overtime as mentors to recruits have quit in protest.
“They’re so pissed off at what’s going on, they all resigned,” a source said.
Some contend that Chief of Department James Leonard, appointed last October, harbored a grudge because the trainers once failed his probie son on a fitness test, requiring more training. A spokesman said the son “had nothing to do with it.”
Sarinya Srisakul, president of United Women Firefighters, lauded the transfers — and the department for “taking the right steps” to deter media leaks, she told The Chief-Leader newspaper.
Cacciola will be replaced by Lt. Thomas Tanzosh, the son of Staten Island Deputy Chief William Tanzosh, a spokesman said.
Officials would not explain the moves.
In a statement to The Post, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said: “I have made changes throughout the department and will continue to do so where I believe we can improve our performance. I believe we do a great job training new firefighters — and going forward we will do even better, while maintaining the high standards we have set.”
But plugging news leaks is also paramount to Nigro. He had issued an internal statement vowing “to do all we can to identify those responsible” for press leaks.
“Behind some misguided sense of ‘protecting the standards,’ their public criticism of members is an embarrassment to me and should be to all of you,” Nigro said.
The lecture offended many firefighters.
“There is a witch hunt against any and all members who exercise their first amendment right in letting the public know they are in danger,” one posted online.
The FDNY confiscates cellphones and subpoenas employee phone records to hunt for those who speak to reporters. One hunt for leakers began after The Post wrote about Wendy Tapia, a probie allowed to graduate from the academy in November 2013 despite failing a required running test.
Larry Seary, president of the New York Press Club, blasted the tactics as “suppression and intimidation.”
“It sends a chilling message to public employees: Don’t rock the boat and don’t expose anything,” he said.
Cacciola and Critsimilios will file grievances to challenge their transfers, sources said. Both were instructed not to speak to the press.
Posted by Jim on June 6, 2015
Secretive deployment of toxic gas against prisoners
The British government secretly authorised the use of a chemical riot
control agent, fired from aerosols, water cannon or dropped from the
air, to be used on republican PoWs at the height of the conflict, it has
been confirmed.
Papers from 1976 obtained by the Observer newspaper under the British
government’s freedom of information legislation show that the use of
‘CR’ or Dibenzoxazepine — a skin irritant 10 times more powerful than
other tear gases — was permitted from 1973 to be used on the prisoners
in the event of an attempted mass breakout.
The documents confirm that British ministers ordered the chemical agent
to be moved to prisons in Ireland from July 1974. They show that the
authorisation was so sensitive that officials involved in organising
training with the chemical were warned of the consequences of “idle
talk”.
The man behind this highly classified order was David B. Omand, a
senior official in the Ministry of Defence. He later rose to become head
of security and intelligence at the Cabinet Office, one of the most
senior in the British government.
News of the disclosures will further inflame the controversy over the
use of the chemical in October, 1974, to quell rioting at Long Kesh
prison, something British ministers have always refused to discuss. The
prison held some of the most prominent republicans at the time,
including Gerry Adams. More than 50 of the prisoners at Long Kesh who
were sprayed with the chemical have died or have developed cancerous
illnesses.
Jim McCann, who was in Long Kesh between 1973 and 1981, has led a
campaign for full disclosure of the use of what amounted to a chemical
weapon.
‘I’ll never forget it, there were grown men screaming for their
mothers,’ he said. ‘We’d all had experience in CS gas, which was easy to
avoid, but this was something different, you couldn’t get away from it.
I felt like I was on fire. They just decided to experiment on us like we
were guinea pigs.’
Sinn Fein spokesman Richard McAuley, who was also at Long Kesh at the
time of the riot, said the chemical had been dropped in capsules from a
helicopter and sprayed by soldiers inside the prison.
‘It was like a thick fog,’ he said. ‘People were being sick and their
eyes were streaming. It was a very frightening experience. The truth of
what happened should be told.’
The use of CR became a priority in 1976 when the government became
concerned about a backlash in prison following the removal of Special
Category status for IRA prisoners. This effectively meant they were no
longer treated as political prisoners.
The documents also show that British Prime Minister James Callaghan
authorised the use of the chemical agent to be fired from water cannon,
in a device called ‘Pigsquirt’. He also authorised the use of a device
called ‘Pussycat’ which fired a polyethylene capsule that threw liquid
CR on rioters on impact with the security fence of a prison.
The effects of CR are similar to the more common riot control agent CS
gas, except that it also induces intense pain to exposed skin. The
affected areas remain sensitive for days and become painful again after
contact with water.
The use of chemical weapons and riot gases were limited by international
agreement at the time. Further notes from senior officials show that
training was carried out in absolute secrecy in a secure training area,
in case it raised suspicions — there was ‘no way the public could find
out about the intention to use chemicals’.
HOODED MEN GET COURT DATE
In a separate development, a group of interned prisoners who were
tortured in 1971 have cleared the first stage in a legal battle to have
their case fully investigated.
Lawyers representing the “hooded men” were granted leave to seek a
judicial review at the High Court in Belfast.
Last year the 26 County government asked the ECHR to revise its 1978
judgment that they had been victims of inhuman and degrading treatment,
but short of a finding of torture.
The controversial judgement is said to have encouraged British ministers
to continue to develop and implement torture techniques in conflicts
around the globe.
The men are also seeking a full inquiry into their treatment.
Granting leave to seek a judicial review in both applications, Mr
Justice Treacy ruled they should proceed “in tandem”. There will be a
full hearing over four days starting on November 30.
Posted by Jim on June 4, 2015
Patrick Roberts June 04,2015
Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Photo by: University of Oxford /Alan Richardson
The notion that Britain would not have overreacted to a 9/11 in their own country like the US apparently did is being peddled by the Irish-born, new Oxford University Vice Chancellor Professor, Louise Richardson.
It is poppycock, as the Brits say. Professor Richardson, Waterford-born, is the first woman in 800 years to become head of Oxford. She can surely do better than this.
She cites British reaction to the IRA campaign in Northern Ireland in which she appears to believe it was conducted under Marquis of Queensbury rules by legal and military authorities when dealing with the Troubles.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Northern Troubles almost fatally undermined British justice with kangaroo courts such as those that convicted the Birmingham Six and Guildford Four, non-jury trials, shoot-to-kill, rules of evidence changed, evidence destroyed and – worst of all – killers set loose as government informants.
No less an authority than former police ombudsman, baroness Nuala O’Loan, has said that the British military allowed “serial killers” – her term – to operate with impunity in order to try and stop the IRA.
She would have been referring to Robert Jackson, the Mid Ulster Jackal who allegedly killed at least fifty people, some claim he killed twice that number, in the Dublin bombings of 1974 and the slaughter of the members of the Miami Showband.
Yet Jackson was never convicted of a crime. Then there was the wholesale cover up and blackening of the name of John Stalker, the top British cop sent to investigate shoot-to-kill allegations, after he bravely revealed that wholesale murder and mayhem was being carried out in the name of law and order.
Should we also discuss Pat Finucane, the Bloody Sunday cover-up etc, etc, or have we made the point that when it came to overreaction the British had few peers?
They were determined to destroy the village to save it, as the recent “Panorama” BBC TV show “Britain’s Secret Terror Deals Revealed” showed with stark clarity.
Indeed, that show highlighted one case where the RUC Special Branch sacrificed one of their own fellow cops. Female policewoman Colleen McCullough was killed by an IRA bomb manufactured in part by one of their informers, who told them the attack was about to happen.
They did nothing to prevent the young officer’s murder, preferring to keep the informer in place.
So I’m not sure what Professor Richardson is saying. She is described as an expert on international terror, but her premise sure seems very flawed.
Was there an American over reaction? Certainly the invasion of Iraq has proven to be an utter disaster.
Would the British have reacted any better given how they operated in the North?
The evidence is clear on that too.
The answer is no.