semtex

The Orange Donkey

It seems meet that this subject should be now aired.

it used to be said that the Unionist party could field a donkey for election and it would win.

Has anything changed? Well, looking at loyalist areas of North Belfast, certainly not. Deprivation is everywhere. But so long as the marches are uppermost in the minds of the masses, all will be well.

Let’s look at a few Orange Donkeys.

Nigel Dodds and Jeffrey Donaldson. Compensation for victims of PIRA crimes. Twenty five years on, all we hear are the same old promises. I and others are at least walking wounded. Many victims live appalling lives of suffering. This duo of donkeys just witter.

Jamie Bryson. Did he shake hands with McGuinness? I have asked him twice, but he has not replied. What has this man done for the lives of the loyalist community?

Saving the best for last. Willie Frazer, that flim flam man of loyalism. Carpet Bagger extraordinaire. Seller of fake medicines to loyalism. That man , with no visible means of support and no visible results. Does Willie draw a salary from FAIR? If so how much? Can anyone tell me of any victim of the troubles who has received practical support from him, apart from a second hand cooker?

Let’s look at the Kingsmills project. if there was not a start to disclosure to the Coroner by 27 March , Willie was marching in Dublin. Well, the date has come and gone and there is no sign of Willie’s Dublin march and no sign of documents.  But, you see, he met the Irish Prime Minister. So that’s all right then.

Somehow, he is again the voice of FAIR, an organisation which is supposed to be non-sectarian. Let’s examine some recent Willie posts. Amnesty International is part of the Republican movement, apparently. The Irish Government financed the IRA murders of innocents, according to Willie.

Why was Willie not in Ballymurphy, supporting the claims of innocent victims there?

Did his handlers advise against it?

The point of this article is to draw attention, if such were needed , to the Big House Unionism which still prevails and to the followers on their coat tails, who , like Bryson and Frazer , make no practical difference to the most vulnerable in our society.

The PIRA volunteer

Somewhere out there , in Ardoyne or West Belfast are men [and/or women] who came to my parents’ house at dead of night and planted a bomb.

Next day my mother, who was a ‘non-combatant,’ received such serious injuries that she died within 36 hours.

Who were these people? How do they feel today, nearly twenty five years on?

What is their reaction when they read of the pardons given to senior commanders? What about the informers, Scap, Donaldson, Gillen etc? All living the good life, in the pay of the British State.

What do they now think , as parents, about PIRA treatment of women and boys?

How do they feel , still living in Andytown, while Gerry has three houses?

Do they feel betrayed? The paradise state of a united Ireland has not been attained.

And what do they remember of a sixty six year old beautiful woman, whose life they took?

Administrative scheme for ‘on-the-runs’

Whilst the enquiry carried out by the NI Affairs Committee has , as suggested; ‘shone a light’ into a dark corner, it cannot hope to illuminate the true horror of “the peace process”.

OTRs, letters, RPMs and secret deals combined to ensure that a huge swathe of PIRA criminals remained untouched and the City of London remained un-bombed. That imperative was sold to the masses of Northern Ireland, [softened up by placemen, selected over the years], as the “Good Friday Agreement”, what a heart tugging nomenclature. For years the state had trawled the old Poly at Jordanstown for third rate  academics whom the could put into positions of trust. They were relied on to influence their respective flocks that we should all forgive and forget. The architects of this plan in London, were clever Oxbridge types who had studied the activities of Mao, Hitler and Stalin. They have subsequently gone on to deal with Afghanistan and Libya.

The key to unlocking this puzzle is the fact that many PIRA commanders were state agents and informers for many years. Thus the state is vulnerable to legal challenge.

The idea that the state did not know of PIRA activities [participating informants] is laughable.

I , along with others, am getting there , inch by inch.

If the Westminster Executive would bend the rules in this instance, what else would they do to protect the stockbrokers?

It is interesting that the NI Attorney General felt that the judgement of Sweeney J. might be open to challenge in Europe. Of course, if Downey was another state informer, that would not be a path that the state would want to tread.

But that , given that the post Belfast agreement legal system in Northern Ireland is packed with safe pro-agreement puppets, Europe is the only option.

McGuinness the PIRA commander and his fellow murderers

Some readers of this blog may have thought that I was uncharacteristically quiet. Worry not , Dear Reader, I have been working hard. I intend to publish, for the twenty fifth anniversary of the murder of my parents, a comprehensive analysis of those who ordered and carried out the act. Thereafter I intend to pursue them through the legal process. We will see, in  time, how robust the PSNI and the  legal system here really is.  Until then audi, vide, tace.

Cameron speaks with forked tongue?

The newspapers , in May and July 2014, including the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, carried a story that the PM had appointed Sir Kim Darroch to “secure compensation for British victims” of Libyan/PIRA/Sinn Fein terrorism. It was reported that he would negotiate on behalf of the families. I have no doubt that this information came from Number Ten and that it was the same line peddled to the DUP when they had tea with Cameron in the garden. He was looking for their votes of course. The same story was given to my lawyers.

Here is what Sir Kim told me about his role: “This is a broad remit to lead discussions with the Libyans to facilitate progress for all UK victims of Qadhafi sponsored terrorism. It is not a mandate to secure payment of individual compensation claims.’ Cameron told him to “build a dialogue”.

So there you have it, misled again by Cameron, the man who almost daily tells you how tough he is on terrorism. The deaths from semtex occurred twenty five years ago.

This British Government is a laughing stock abroad. It contributes almost nothing to the war on IS. It has left Libya prey to IS, Cameron having got his photo opportunity there. Afghanistan was a military disaster. Despite hectoring NATO allies to spend two percent of GDP on defence, he refuses to implement that spending here.

If any British citizen thinks that the world of terrorism fears us, think again. The Government of Toffs is incompetent.

I trust that the DUP will not promise their support in the event of a hung parliament.

Finucane-what we have in common

Geraldine Finucane is reported as saying “gunmen were two-a-penny in Northern Ireland. They don’t interest me. I’m interested in the chain of command.’  If she did say that , I agree with her. I, too, on the ninetieth anniversary of my father’s birth, am interested in the chain of command that led to his murder and the murder of my mother.

The chain of command led from the ASU , through Spike Murray, Bobby Storey and Brian Gillen , to Martin McGuinness. At least one of this group and possibly more, were State agents.

The murder of Pat Finucane, whom I knew, is no more replete with State involvement than many murders in Northern Ireland. Paramilitary organisations were so heavily infiltrated by the late 1980s that the State had overall control of who lived and who died.

The line parroted by the police , that “there are no fresh evidential leads” is a barefaced lie in many cases.

What government in the West does not target the leaders of terrorist organisations? Consider the behaviour of the Americans and the Israelis. Does it not strike the ordinary citizen of Northern Ireland that not one senior terrorist leader was prosecuted after the 1970s?

I am sure that there is information, given by State agents, which would lead to the prosecution of many senior paramilitary figures. To blame, for example, the Republic of Ireland for withholding information on Kingsmills is a clever red herring, dangled by the British and swallowed by people like Wiilliam Frazer. The truth is sitting in British files.

It’s time to prise it free and do justice for all those killed by the State.

So far , of course, unlike the Finucane family I have not had the advantage of any inquiry.

Police and the bomb makers

During the course of the “troubles”, between 150 and 200 people were killed by under car booby trap bombs. In the period 1987-1992, thirty two attacks took place in the Belfast area. These devices, used almost exclusively by PIRA , reflected their cowardice and the morals of one of their leaders, Old Grandpa McGuinness, that folksy murderer who is now the Deputy First Minister.

What will  shock readers is the attitude of the RUC and PSNI to these devices. Here is what police told me:

“The intelligence picture showed there was a high degree of expertise within the Provisional IRA vested in an extremely small number of people. When the police identified these individuals they were subject of  [sic] intensive operations to target and disrupt their activities”

Imagine that instead of murder, rape was the crime. Contemplate the outcry if police said; “intelligence shows us that there are several serial rapists in the Belfast area. These people are known to us and they are the subject of intensive operations to target and disrupt their activity.”

To my knowledge, no UCBT bomb maker was ever convicted . My view is that the RUC high command did not try too hard, on orders from above.

Why do we accept this as normal?

Willy Fraser

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….

UCBTs, another PSNI shambles

The Historical Enquiries Team told me in 2008 that “whenever a device failed to detonate it would be examined by Army Technical Officer’s [sic] and by this means ‘technically’ linked to other devices…There is no specific reference in the available case papers detailing any linkage between the UCBT used in the murder of your parents and other devices recovered during this period.”

Note there is no mention of forensic scientists.

In May 2014, I asked the Chief Constable  [among other things] :

1. What did the examination of the surviving bombs reveal?

2. Are the component parts of these bombs still available for evidential purposes?

3. What DNA has or could be extracted from these items?

ACC Harris [as he then was] replied in August 2014 as follows:

“The HET report made reference to fifteen UCBT type devices being defused. Although the SCRT review has led to the identification of potential forensic opportunities in respect of these devices, a senior scientist has concluded that although the bombs were similar in their makeup, they had subtle differences and could not be attributed to a single bomb maker.”

I asked Forensic Science NI for a copy of the report. Their reply was that :

“FSNI examined a number of devices during the period 1990 to 1992 however these were not correlated into any single report that we hold or have access to in our files.”

I served a freedom of information request on the PSNI on 13th November 2014. After much delay, it turns out that there is no report. Police now say that there was a verbal discussion with the HET during July 2014. They then go on , later in their reply to me to say this :

“there is no written report from the senior scientist in the case papers or the material created or gathered by the HET. The senior scientist verbally briefed the SIO and did not produce a written report or record notes of the verbal comments.”

So, dear reader, there you have it. Fourteen years after the murders , a senior police officer has a “verbal discussion” with a “senior scientist”. The latter has no written report and the former, disgracefully in respect of such an important matter, makes no notes whatsoever.

It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that police operations are populated with clowns and that senior officers would tell you anything.

Of course the alternative explanation is that they have been told not to try too hard.

Whichever way it is , the pain and grief that this  disgraceful behaviour causes victims is beyond words.

Libya, ourselves alone.

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.