semtex

Invest NI Money before principles

In 2014 Invest NI led a delegation to Libya while that country refused to compensate victims for the harm caused by their supply of Semtex to PIRA.

Of course, it was a delegation approved by the DUP and particularly by Arlene Foster, who should know , more than most , what Gadafy did here.

It raises the question ,posed most remarkably by Jamie Bryson, does this state exist for the aggrandisement of the few at the expense of the many?

What does the DUP really stand for? Corruption, fracking, land grabbing , planning scams, sexual misdemeanours, anti-gay angst, queer sects and more?

Noel Johnston, of Invest NI said “Libya is becoming an important place for our companies.” How interesting for those whose family members are dead, maimed or crippled at their hands.

Tobias Ellwood, a shameful performance

With that insouciance and practised air of effortless ease , Tory Grandee-in-the-making, Tobias Ellwood appeared in front of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in September.

He was accompanied by an official from the FCO, Mr Dart.

It should be explained that the Committee is about Paddies.

The  subject matter was irksome and somewhat tiresome. Why had every other nationality been compensated for Libyan Semtex murders except  those from the United Kingdom?

Cue Tobias. Ex Royal Greenjacket.

First up. No, he had not read the transcript of the evidence from the previous week. He had “scanned through  it”. [stuff about Paddies is as interesting as diesel carbon emission statistics].

Second , having scanned through it, he had come to the immediate conclusion that evidence given by experienced lawyers was wrong.

Third. The deliciously named Mr Dart dropped him in it by telling the Committee that the decision not to espouse the victims’ claims was a political one.

Fourth, he had no clue about the value of frozen Libyan assets.

Fifth and most astonishingly, Tobias agreed with Mr Dart that the holders of the frozen bank accounts were entitled to be paid the annual interest accruing. He even indulged in a conversation about this with Ian Paisley.

It will come as no surprise to you, Dear Reader, that the Treasury has told me today that Dart and Ellwood  [do I think of sunglasses at this point?] are completely wrong.

The point about this sorry tale is that Tory ministers pay scant attention to Northern Ireland and can’t even be arsed to pretend.

Let’s hope that those relatives of the victims from Tunisia understand where Perfidious Albion’s interests lie.

It is not with the victims of terrorism then or now.

Libya and HMG

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster has begun to take evidence about the failure of HMG to secure compensation for victims of Libyan Semtex and arms.

At the same time, many people on social media hold extreme views about the admission of refugees into the UK. They see things in ‘them and us’ terms. They appear to be confident as to who is our friend and who is our enemy. Consequently they argue that we should not admit the majority of refugees, because ‘what are the arab states doing?’ This presupposes that  all arabs are  friends, which is incorrect and that all arabs are our enemies.

I am no expert on the Middle East but it might be useful to examine the UK relationship with Libya, as a case in point.

Libya was an artificial creation by the Italians. They merged three countries and governed them as a colony.

After independence from Italy, who you might remember was our enemy then our  ally in WW1 , then our enemy, then our ally in WW2; it was ruled by a monarchy.

In 1969 a military coup overthrew the king. Gadafy emerged as the strong man of the plotters and became head of state. Interestingly his manual for oppression was a “green book”, where have I heard of that before?

Gadafy used increasing oil income to be the thorn in the flesh of the West and a friend of the Soviet Union. He began to sponsor terrorism.

So he was not our friend.

So much so that on 5th  April 1986 he bombed the La Belle Disco in West Berlin.

On 15th April 1986  the USA bombed Libya, using some aircraft which had taken off from British bases. This was not actually required for the mission but Thatcher wanted to show solidarity with Reagan against the dastardly Gadafy.

The bombing annoyed Gadafy. His adopted daughter was killed.

In March 1987 he told the Observer newspaper that he had increased arms supplies to PIRA, in response to the bombing.

PIRA were now the beneficiaries of new arms, lots of money and for the first time, Semtex, a deadly explosive which Gadafy had purchased from the the Czechs.

PIRA were required to demonstrate gratitude to their sponsors. What better target than two Remembrance celebrations? PIRA put these up and Gadafy was well pleased.

McGuinness was instrumental in the organisation of these operations and the committee heard today from Mr Donaldson about that. One bomb exploded, in Enniskilen,  killing 12 people. The other bomb failed to explode.

That was Gadfly’s revenge for the USA bombing. Pan Am followed in December 1998 and UTA in September 1989.

So what to do about a nasty person?  Kill him!

In 1993 Al Qaeda carried out the first attack on the world Trade Center. Al Qaeda were a bad lot.

Then in 1996 they were paid by HMG to assassinate Gadafy. They failed.

So, I hope you are following, Al Qaeda good, Gadafy bad…..repeat!

Twin Towers , November 2001, carried out by …..?

In 2003 the West cosied up to Gadfy. In March 2004 he became our new faithful friend. Blair went to Libya and snogged Gadafy in a tent. [Blair’s career has not looked back, surely the most useful kiss in Christendom?]

British firms flocked to Libya and were well rewarded. Gadafy told the Brits exactly what he had given PIRA…that wasn’t nice was it? So De Chastelain knew what had not been decommissioned and so did all the parties.

The victims of Libyan sponsored terrorism filed a claim in the USA in 2006.

In 2008 Blair and HMG ensured that we did not get paid.

The UK ambassador was promoting the City of London as a place for Libya to lodge $9 billion of its funds. In 1996 the City had been bombed, using Libyan Semtex.

More lucrative contracts followed for British firms. Our new friend was the nicest chap.

Then came the Arab Spring, it arrived in Libya in 2011 and HMG changed sides and bombed their friend’s army. Gadafy was murdered.

Oh well, some friends you lose!

Now, HMG are doing lots of business with Libya while the foreign secretary tells the House of Commons that there is nobody to talk to about compensation.

So, my questions to the hard men of the refugee crisis.

  1. Who are our friends?
  2. If you were Johnny Foreigner, would you trust Her Britannic Majesty’s Government?
  3. Who do you trust?

The Victims’ spokesmen were articulate today. If you cannot trust the State to protect you, who can you trust? This may now be a naive attitude but twenty five years ago the scales had not fallen from the eyes of the people.

The Peaceniks, have they gone away?

Apart from the Rev Good, I have not heard one supporter of the “Peace Process” speak out about recent events.

Where are those crowds who cheered the GFA?

Where are the people who lectured me on cynicism and espoused the GFA as a legacy for our children?

Where are all those dull academics whose support propelled them to greatness?

Where are those barristers who strode from the Bar Library to the City Hall to be seen? Judges now…

Where are the hundreds of place persons who are coining it with multiple posts in Quangos?

Have they no opinion on PIRA, which maintains a structure, an army council, guns and £400 million?

Or are they just hoping it will all blow over by the time they return from their exotic holidays?

Backing the wrong side in a revolution has always been a bloody business.

Libya, Semtex , PIRA and the duplicitous British Government

The regular readers of my blog will know that I have a personal interest in the craven behaviour of the British Government in relation to compensation for the PIRA use of Semtex.

There will be more of this in the coming weeks because the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has promised to conduct an investigation into why every other nationality received compensation except holders of a United Kingdom passport.

It might interest readers, in the meantime, to ponder this statement.

On 11th September 2008, Gordon Brown [surely the worst prime minister since Spencer Perceval] said, in a letter to my lawyers; “Libya has answered questions about its involvement with the IRA to the satisfaction of the UK government”.

So there you have it. Libya supplied tons of arms, ammunition and explosives to the IRA. Hundreds of people were killed but the UK Government is satisfied.

Of course, at this point Blair had done his deals and UK firms were flocking to Libya. So much for the Paddies…..

Handshake

It is said that it originated as a way of showing that you were unarmed.

English barristers do not shake hands because as ‘ learned friends’ that have no need of this display.

There have been many famous handshakes. Hitler/Chamberlin, Nixon/Mao, Sadat/Begin, Rabin/Arafat, McGuinness/ Elizabeth Saxe- Coburg-Gotha.

These have been ground breaking moments.

So why did  George Hamilton , stolid, NIO Gopher, go to West Belfast and shake the hand of  McGuinness, terrorist, gunman, murderer of policemen and others, member of PIRA Northern Command, and sometime member of PIRA Army Council?

What was the hidden agenda? What was the purpose? McGuinness confessed to having been momentarily in  PIRA, like Clinton confessed to smoking dope but not inhaling.

Is there a clue in what was said?

Hamilton  said ” there were serious problems with policing in the past”.

McGuinness said “tonight is another act of reconciliation”.

Leaving aside the  Relate-like language of these two almost former lovers [you don’t bring me flowers anymore], on whose behalf does Hamilton speak? Certainly not those officers killed, maimed or still living daily with their scars.

Certainly not on behalf of my parents, whom he refers to as a “legacy issue”.

Perhaps on behalf of Bryan Harold Harris or Anne Harris? The brother and mother of his deputy, whose father was killed by PIRA on 8 October 1989, on the orders of McGuinness?

Will he look his deputy in the eye on Monday morning?

Is the message from the PSNI that there will be no more arrests of senior Provos? Their head of intelligence Bobby Storey shared the platform. Hamilton had no issue with that.

And what of the other branches of government? Who knows what messages are being whispered into the ears of the judges in the back corridor?

The Secretary of State may not be able to fix welfare reform but there is a lot more on the republican agenda that we don’t see and which can be attended to.

Not all landmark handshakes survive. Hitler, Arafat…maybe we can add Marty and Liz to that list?

But wait! the most famous modern handshake of all! Blair and Gadafy! I’m coming for you soon Tony!

A victim

Much is said about victims. We have a Commissioner for them. She has an office and staff. This costs us about £1,000,000 each year. I have never sought help from them. Why, I hear you say Dear Reader, am I blogging about this, especially on an Ulster summer day? For this reason. Occasionally in the battle for compensation from Libya, a battle won for their citizens by the USA, Italy,France and Germany but disgracefully lost by Perfidious Albion.I have found myself writing about “victims” as if I am one. Also, more than one person has said “you’re forever portraying yourself as a victim”. So I’ve decided to think about what I am. To begin. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about my parents. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I’m a citizen of the United Kingdom. That gives me rights and responsibilities. I contend that the murders of my parents didn’t take place in a vacuum. They happened when the State had so penetrated the terrorists and so perverted justice that not only did one arm know who killed my parents but at a meeting on the Shankill Road another arm, the RUC , gave the UDA a name and the UFF set out to kill him the night my mother died. He was Sean Keenan, a well known Republican from Riverdale Park South. He survived, as he did when he was shot in 1984, along with Adams. So perhaps I am a vengeful angry citizen. I represented the Crown in court for twenty five years. How many times did the state deceive me and the court? But wait! In some respects I am a victim and I shouldn’t shy away. I’m a victim of people who should have been at my parents’ funeral and weren’t, I’m thinking of a particular grandson. I’m a victim of a spouse whose only solution was to hand me a glass of wine so that she was not bothered by my problems. I’m a victim of the Bar Library which never enquired into my well being for twenty five years until I got into trouble , then briefed Frazer Elliott , that icy cold , presbyterian, paragon of virtue to prosecute me. Not unexpected in that cold house for unionists. I’m a victim of senior police officers who continue to lie to me about what intelligence exists. I’m a victim of the many people who tell me to “get over it” or that it is “a legacy issue” or that “we need to move on”. I’m a victim of those erstwhile friends and colleagues who say “the grief has got to him” and pass by on the other side of the street.I’m a victim of the State which is just passing time until I , and others like me, pass on. So here I stand. A victim. But that is different from victimhood. My daughter criticises me for “not taking responsibility for myself” . An interesting accusation. Instead I’ve taken the responsibility of the fight for justice. I don’t regret that, nor what it has cost me [ my career, my house my family] , nor what the future holds. I can now go several days without seeing or talking to a soul. At the last I hope , though, that some will see me as a son who tried his best for his parents.   Franz Schubert said:” Every night when I go to bed , I hope that I may never wake again and every morning renews my grief.”

The Police Ombudsman –progress report II

Back in 2006, when I was an innocent sort of chap, who didn’t think that the state would be complicit in the murders of a retired policeman and his wife , I made a complaint to the Ombudsman about the standard of investigation into their murders.

In 2015, when the scales had fallen from my eyes, I made an entirely different complaint, naming each member of the bomb team and asserting that some, if not all of them were state agents. The Ombudsman, who I shall hereafter call the ‘Big O” has declined to investigate my complaint. The basis for the refusal is that the 2001 regulations “carves out a discretionary exception to these limitations”

I began studying law in 1967 and this phrase is new to me but perhaps I’m just not keeping up.

Nuala O’Loan has said that she came under pressure from the state to  refuse to investigate matters.

Maguire, the present Big O is of course a man who has been a state employee for some time and one wonders about his impartiality. Anyway, I have sought clarification from him.

Who made this decision and what is the precise statutory basis for it?

Students of law and others might be interested in looking at regulation 9 [2] of the 2001 regulations, which “carves out” , if this is the new legal argot, an exception if the new complaint is “not the same or substantially the same as a previous complaint”. My original complaint was that the investigation was inadequate. My new complaint is that the state was complicit. They are different complaints.

Of course, the list of state agents in my letter will have caused panic in the Establishment and has resulted in  a threat from at least one agent.

It’s disappointing that the Big O’s  refusal is so amateurish but that’s what you get in Norn Iron.

So, let’s see what the response is.

Aside from the stupidity of it all, how many people, less advantaged than I am, have been spoofed by the Big O?

The Police Ombudsman..progress report I

Over a month has passed since I lodged my detailed complaint and set out my allegations regarding the state agents who murdered my parents.

So far, all I’ve had is an acknowledgement.

Perhaps they are very busy, perhaps there is a fluttering in the coop. Who knows?

At least one suspect was so concerned with my blog on the matter, also published a month ago , that just yesterday he contacted me , threatening legal action.

Let’s see…..

Martin McGuinness a sense of outrage?

Given the remarks by participants in BBC Spotlight and previous accusations by me and others, what does it take for McGuinness to be arrested and questioned?

You might think that the DUP and the UUP would be outraged on behalf of their constituents but they are silent. I wonder why?

Will this community never face the truth?

Let me be clear, as politicians are keen to say.

Martin McGuinness is a multiple murderer who was in charge of northern command PIRA and a member of the army council. He probably retains those roles.

He was instrumental in the killing of my parents. He has been accused of all these matters before yet he has not chosen to contest the allegations in court.

I wonder does he have an assurance from the state that he will not be prosecuted?

Shall we ask Barra McGrory, his former lawyer? Now , God help us , Director of [some] Public Prosecutions.