Pondering my blogs this evening and wondering about the future of loyalist victims, I turned my mind to Willy Frazer.
What has he done for victims in his locale? Or anywhere in Northern Ireland?
The answer is that I don’t know, but undoubtedly he will tell me.
When I spoke to him he was very keen to tell me how much money he had spent , progressing the claims of victims..
Not mine gov….
Mr Frazer, who is apparently a loyalist campaigner of sorts , rang me today to complain about comments allegedly made about him on my blog. He said that he had not seen them but people had contacted him. I undertook to examine my blog and to delete any message which may be considered abusive or libellous. I could find only one item which referred to him at all. It was from “Mike Gambit”, not his real name I’m sure. He wondered why “the self proclaimed victims [sic] champion isn’t spitting nails over this issue”.
This seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable comment.
Stopping there, readers may wonder what the relationship is between me and Mr Frazer.
The answer is -absolutely none. I am a claimant on a writ issued in a court in the USA. My lawyers are Motley Rice of South Carolina. So , of Mr Frazer I have had no need.
Anyway , if one scrolls back in time to October 2011 , here is what the Sunday Times proclaimed.
“Libya will pay out to IRA victims”
Mr Frazer is quoted in that journal : “the deal has been agreed and the victims or their surviving families will receive between £2 million and £3 million each”
Three years on , nobody has seen a penny. Mr Frazer, in conversation with me , blamed the British Government for going back on their word. Bizzarely, this is the first I have heard of this.
His conversation was vaguely threatening, but he might just have been put up to that by others.
Fact is , I don’t threaten easily , especially about my parents’ murders.
He also criticised me for potentially queering a deal . I asked him if a deal was imminent. he said it was not.
I’m still trying to understand what he has done in the last three years to remedy the ‘betrayal’ by HMG.
Northern Ireland loyalists have had their share of carpetbaggers and charlatans in the last fifty years.
My claim relates to the brutal murder of my parents in 1990.
Any compensation would go substantially to my daughter who has had to live with the consequences of the incident, all her life.
Money is important to all victims.
For me? I have a separate action against the state for complicity in my parents’ murders.
I do not need to be rung up by a self proclaimed “loyalist” to be reminded of my responsibilities.
The tragedy is that republicans will continue to get away with it and all the posturing by Willy Frazer, if he is genuine, is to naught.
My parents were killed by a semtex bomb in June 1990.
In April 2006, proceedings for compensation were started in USA courts.
Within two years US citizens had been compensated and Uk citizens abandoned in a deal brokered by Tony Blair.
Eight years have gone by since the issue of proceedings and no settlement is in sight.
The provisional Libyan Government, later recognised by the UK as the legitimate government , promised to compensate us. Three years on they have not done so.
Our lawyers and politicians appear helpless and/or useless.
It is time to take this on and get personal.
I have asked that I be permitted to give evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. I shall also make the same request of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
When you hear our politicians condemn terrorism, think about what they do in practice.
It is well known that the same bunch of terrorists who looked for the on the run letters also opposed and continue to oppose the payment of compensation to the victims of semtex supplied by their friend [and Blair’s] Gadafy.
They are supported in this endeavour by the Northern Ireland Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.Such was the NIO and FCO indifference to the claims that pressure had to be applied to wrest control from them and place negotiations in the hands of Sir Kim Darroch, who now reports to the Prime Minister.
The subject is so sensitive up at Stormont that McKibbin, the Permanent Secretary at OFMDFM refused to tell me or Jim Allister what was discussed between the Libyan Prime Minister and the First and Deputy First Ministers at the City Airport, after the G8 summit.
Readers will know that in June 2008, Blair, no longer in office but setting out to be a multi millionaire, met Gadafy and gave him a big hug.It is clear from FCO documents of the time that Blair was brokering a deal which resulted in Bush receiving 1.5 billion dollars from Libya for the American claimants and freezing out the British subjects.
Why did Blair do this?
To ingratiate himself to Bush? “Yo Blair”. Already done some time earlier.
To get a financial advantage from Gadafy? Maybe.
When looked at with the right end of the telescope, the reason is clear.
The payment to UK citizens would involve millions of pounds in compensation going largely to Protestants.SF/IRA still maintain their hatred of Protestants, so for the sake of the peace process, just like with the on the runs, Blair sided with the terrorists.
Imagine that you had helped Britain and France in the Great War and had been deceived.
Imagine that a man turned up at your home, you opened the door, he carried a gun in one hand and the Old Testament in the other. He said, “this book says that 2000 years ago this was my land.”
Imagine living with several million other people in a piece of land the size of the Ards Peninsula.
Imagine that the West cares little.
I spent two years in Saudi Arabia 1980-82.
While the Saudis were welcoming, many harboured a dislike of the USA and the UK. Apart from the matters above, they felt that the West had screwed them over oil.
When the Falklands War started it was obvious whom they backed. A generation on, after the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other countries , I judge that the dislike of the West has turned to hatred.
That is not to condone the Paris killings.
But until we truly understand the reasons for the hatred, nothing will change.
Why should not the Palestinians have a state?
It is easy for people to pontificate about terrorism, try experiencing it at first hand.
It is easy, too, to drive unhappy people into the arms of religion. “There is no God but Allah and Mohammet is his messenger” Killing for a greater power gives legitimacy.
Four hundred years ago , this state burned people at the stake. Not that long ago the USA had witch trials. Read Miller’s play.
Next time you read the Daily Mail, ask yourself this question; “who is speaking to me?’
I bet you will come to the conclusion that it is not the ordinary man, in London, New York, Gaza, Tel Aviv or Tripoli.
The images from Paris are shocking.
Of course, PIRA often shot police officers and civilians in similar fashion.
I doubt if the leaders of the Islamist terrorist group, responsible for this will ever sit in government in France.
I’m also sure that the French citizens will not have to wait twenty five years for compensation and justice.
It all makes Cameron’s words ring hollow.
The Times today published a letter from Dr Jim Swire, “father of Flora, murdered at Lockerbie”. Can a father ever have written a more poignant phrase?
The bombing, in 1988, remains fresh in the minds of those who were then alive.
British foreign policy might be summed up as ” we have no allies or enemies, only interests”.
Dr Swire has been unswerving in his search for the truth and for justice for Flora, though the twists and turns of the case.
He is a man who fears no-one. Read today’s letter.
He is correct. Who would tell you the truth? The judiciary? The prosecution service? The State?
All is subsumed to the requirements of the State and all the state’s actors play their part.
I wish him well, I hope I can stay the course as he has done.
One of the problems with the present talks is lack of additional money. Another is funding “the past”. In May 2011, the National Transitional Council in Libya signed a memorandum of understanding in which they said that it was their “sincere desire to enter discussions to consider an appropriately resourced humanitarian fund to be set up to recognise the pain and suffering of such victims and the wider society in the UK , and in particular Northern Ireland”. This was after it had apologised for the harm caused by the supply of guns and semtex to PIRA, led by Martin McGuinness and others.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was tasked with examining ways in which this fund might be established and resourced. Three years on , it has made no progress.
It is estimated that 3,500 people, mostly in Northern Ireland, could benefit from this fund. It is an important aspect of dealing with the past.
Billions of pounds of Gadafy’s assets are frozen in the UK , yet no politician, or lawyer,local or national, appears to have the skill to make this happen.
Disappointed that neither Nigel Farage or his only assembly member in Northern Ireland responded to me about compensation for victims of Libyan semtex. Not the way to gain votes.
Some commentators would have you believe that Libya is in need of humanitarian aid. Here are some random facts.
Income from oil in the first half of 2014, $4billion
Crude oil output at 700,000 barrels per day
Owes Uk £14 million for army training costs
Is suing a Tanzanian firm for $37 million
Has assigned members of the Lebanese Bar to identify and recover assets in Lebanon
Cost the British taxpayer £200 million to defeat Gadafy
Who is the fool?
seftonblog 