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July 10, 2005

Deportation Reprieve Hope For McAllister

News about Ireland & the Irish

SL 07/10/05 US Deportation Reprieve Hope For McAllister
BB 07/10/05 Tutu Lauds NI Truth Process Plan
SL 07/10/05 Loughinisland DNA Breakthrough Hope
SB 07/10/05 Irish ID Cards Planned After London Atrocity
SB 07/10/05 Shannon Tightens Security
ST 07/10/05 Tories Hope London Bombs Will Put Pressure On IRA
ST 07/10/05 Opin: Scots Must Not Forget They Hate Us Too
SB 07/10/05 Opin: Bombings Unleash The Politics Of Hypocrisy
SB 07/10/05 Opin: Through A Lens Darkly: Reality Terror
SL 07/10/05 Key Billy Wright Probe Witness Mogg Dies
SL 07/10/05 UDA Jim Spence Recovering From Heart Attack
SL 07/10/05 UDA To Sever Links With Neo-Nazi Groups
SL 07/10/05 UDA Shoukri's Pub Application Turned Down
BB 07/10/05 Opin: The Mountain Before Them
SL 07/10/05 IRA Hardmen Sniff Out Cocaine Cash
SM 07/10/05 Interview: Ian Paisley Jr
ST 07/10/05 Opin: Nobody Votes For A Loser
ST 07/10/05 Probe Into Radio Station With 'Orange Playlist'
IO 07/10/05 Irish Doctors Over-Prescribing Antibiotics
WP 07/10/05 Irish American Astronaut Eileen Collins Ready
IO 07/10/05 Yeats Collection Goes Up For Auction

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=651987

US Deportation Reprieve Hope For Ex-INLA Man

10 July 2005

A FORMER Belfast republican and his two children, who face
deportation from the United States, are hoping for a reprieve.

At a recent hearing in New Jersey District Court, Malachy
McAllister was told he will learn his fate within 60 days.

US immigration is barring an application for refugee status
because the 47-year-old has a criminal record.

The former INLA man was jailed for three years in 1982 for
attempted murder, but insists he has completely turned his back
on terrorism, and has built a successful construction business
in New Jersey.

He and his family were forced to flee Ulster in 1988 after a
gun attack on his home by a Red Hand Commando gang.

Malachy believes a death threat from the loyalist terror group
still hangs over him.

He's made a comfortable life for himself and his family in
America.

Carol Russell, a US campaigner to keep the McAllisters in the
States, said Malachy and his two kids, Nicola (18) and Sean
Ryan (17), are hopeful they will be allowed to stay.

Legislation governing immigrants has been tightened since the
events of September 11, which has impacted on the family's
application for refugee status.

Said Carol: "The panel of three judges had a good sense of all
Malachy had endured in Belfast during the 70s and 80s.

"They also remarked how the incidents during his years in a
foreign land had little bearing on the national security of
post 9/11 America.

"The real concern now are the US laws, which have since been
enacted, and the broad definition of 'terrorism' included in
those laws.

"Sometimes, even the most compassionate judge cannot go against
federal law.

"It was emphasised throughout the hearing that the US Attorney
General has the most discretion in such cases and that he can
or cannot exercise that."

A number of members of the American Congress are now writing to
the chief law officer asking that he use his power to defer
deportation.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4668895.stm

Tutu Lauds NI Truth Process Plan

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said the South African Truth and
Reconciliation Commission is not a universal blueprint for
post-conflict societies.

But he said a possible truth process in Northern Ireland could
still learn lessons from the commission's work.

The Nobel Peace Laureate was a leading figure in the fight
against apartheid and he later chaired South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.

He said people in NI could learn from "our successes and our
failures".

Archbishop Tutu told the BBC's Sunday Sequence programme:
"There are things that people might very well want to learn
from our successes and from our failures, and seek something
that is tailor made, ad hoc, for the particular situation, in
this case Northern Ireland."

Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for
his role in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

He became an internationally known figure around the time of
the 1976 Soweto uprising.

Healing wounds

In 1995, he was invited by President Mandela to chair South
Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which reported
three years later.

Last year, former Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Mr Murphy
travelled to South Africa to find out how it had handled its
truth and reconciliation process.

The government has also been looking at other truth and
reconciliation processes around the world.

It has been considering other ways of enabling people who lost
loved ones during the Troubles in Northern Ireland or suffered
trauma to tell their tale.

The British Government announced in May 2004 a consultation
process on the best way to heal past wounds.

Last June, Chief Constable Hugh Orde suggested that a type of
truth and reconciliation process may be needed to bring closure
to the past.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/07/10 09:23:22 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=651999

Loughinisland DNA Breakthrough Hope

10 July 2005

ENHANCED forensic techniques are to be used in a bid to catch
the killer gang responsible for the last major massacre of the
Troubles, Sunday Life can reveal.

Cops called in to re-examine the UVF murders of six Catholics
in the Co Down village of Loughinisland 11 years ago have been
asked to use advances in DNA technology to help track down the
killers.

Evidence gathered in the immediate aftermath of the 1994
atrocity at the Heights Bar is to be re-examined, at the
request of the Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan.

Sources close to Mrs O'Loan's office said police have been
asked to look in particular at forensic samples which were
gathered at the time.

There is no suggestion of an imminent breakthrough in the
investigation, and security sources have hinted it may be one
of the cases that has to be referred to the forthcoming 'cold
cases' review.

The move to re-examine forensics was prompted after former
South Down SDLP MLA Eamonn O'Neill personally delivered a
dossier to Mrs O'Loan on behalf of relatives of the six men
killed.

There has been concern that RUC investigators at the time did
not follow up a letter purportedly written by someone who was a
witness to the planning of the massacre.

However, if there is any chance of a breakthrough, it will come
from matching DNA samples taken from tests on the rifles and
balaclavas used in the killings, which were found buried in a
field near Saintfield.

The Loughinisland massacre has become known locally as the
'forgotten' tragedy of the Troubles, because no one was ever
charged.

The six victims were murdered by a Belfast-based UVF gang as
they watched a World Cup football game on TV in June 1994.

They included the oldest victim of the Troubles, Barney Green
(87).

His 59-year-old nephew, Dan McCreanor, died beside him.

The youngest to die was 34-year-old Adrian Rogan.

Brothers-in-law Eamon Byrne and Patsy O'Hare, and Malcolm
Jenkinson, were the other victims.

slnews@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

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http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS-
qqqs=news-qqqid=6360-qqqx=1.asp

Irish ID Cards Planned After London Atrocity

10 July 2005 By Barry O'Kelly and Pat Leahy

The almost certain introduction of ID cards in Britain
following the London bombings is likely to lead to their
introduction here, according to government sources.

The Sunday Business Post understands that government officials
are involved in "ongoing discussions'' with their counterparts
in London about British plans for ID cards.

"We are watching events closely in Britain, and our
understanding is that the ID cards will now go ahead over
there," said one informed political source.

"This will have huge implications for Ireland. We have a common
travel area and a land border between the two jurisdictions, so
we will have no alternative but to follow suit.

"We are monitoring the situation very, very closely."

Even before the Tube and bus bombings last Thursday, Minister
for Justice Michael McDowell had given several indications that
identity cards were likely to be introduced in Ireland.

In response to questions from The Sunday Business Post, the
Department of Justice said that, while McDowell was "personally
not in favour of identity cards, he reluctantly accepts that we
may need to introduce them if the UK does''.

At a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Justice Committee,
McDowell also indicated that identity cards might become
inevitable in this jurisdiction. "If ID cards were introduced
in Britain, we would be forced to examine the situation," the
minister told the committee.

"There are all kinds of obvious implications, like the North-
South dimension. Will Irish citizens be required or have to
carry ID cards if they cross the border?

"These are serious matters, and issues such as whether the
nationalist population in Northern Ireland want to have British
ID cards, whether the Irish state would provide them with
alternative cards and whether the two systems would be
integrated are ones where considerable discussion and thinking
have yet to be done."

The minister said he was considering the issue.

Meanwhile, more than 50 Islamic extremists with links to al-
Qaeda and fundamentalist Iraqi groups have been identified by
the Garda Siochána. These activists and another 200 supporters
are under increased surveillance following the London bombings.

The Garda Middle East Section has been overhauled in the last
year, with a dedicated unit now operating with specialist
skills, including a working knowledge of Arabic dialects.

The unit is believed to have received additional support from
officers in the National Surveillance Unit and the Garda
Immigration Bureau.

Gardai are believed to be carrying out blanket surveillance on
a group of around 20 militants with links to the fugitive Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian radical behind many of the
suicide attacks in Iraq.

Activists with links to other senior figures in al-Qaeda are
also being watched.

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http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS-
qqqs=news-qqqid=6358-qqqx=1.asp

Shannon Tightens Security

10 July 2005 By Niamh Connolly

Security is to be tightened at Shannon Airport following a
serious security breach when a knife was taken through
passenger checks without detection.

The Sunday Business Post has learned that the lapse occurred at
the country's second largest airport, through which thousands
of American visitors and US troops pass each week.

The weapon, which was concealed in clothing, went unnoticed
through security during an unofficial audit carried out by
officials from the Department of Transport in May.

It will raise serious concerns in the wake of a series of
embarrassing breaches at Dublin Airport in April when knives,
guns and a simulated bomb went undetected during an audit by
European Civil Aviation Council (ECAC) inspectors.

A spokesman for the department said it was not policy to
comment on audits for security reasons, but sources said
security risks had been identified at Shannon Airport in the
course of a "controlled audit''.

The airport is now taking steps to rectify any weakness in the
system.

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA),which is still responsible for
the running of Shannon Airport, declined to comment on what it
described as "specific passenger security issues''.

A spokesman for the DAA said the company was reviewing its
security resources at Shannon.

The last breach of security at Dublin Airport led to a major
boost in security checks causing lengthy delays for travellers.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1688303,00.html

Tories Hope London Bombs Will Put Pressure On IRA

Garbhan Downey

Wider Impact

THE shadow Northern Ireland secretary said the London bombings
should increase the pressure on the IRA finally to disarm and
cease paramilitary activity.

David Liddington, the Tory MP for Aylesbury, said the
explosions on Thursday had changed the context for any move by
the IRA. "I hope it will add to the pressure on the
Provisionals to deliver finally on what they promised seven or
eight years ago," he said.

"I think it will certainly reinforce a political climate in
North America as well as in the United Kingdom, that terrorism
is totally unacceptable." The slaughter in London had been a
"very vivid reminder" of just how barbaric bombs could be, he
said.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, said he did
not know when the IRA would issue a statement about its future.
He said the situation had been complicated by disputes over
Orange parades and the re-arrest of Sean Kelly, the Shankill
bomber, last month.

"I do know that very serious deliberations and discussions took
place within the IRA and I wouldn't be surprised if the IRA
leadership was analysing these discussions. It's a matter for
them. We're not going to speculate about any of this except to
say that we're hoping for a positive outcome. When that comes
is a matter for the IRA," said McGuinness.

It now appears that the IRA will defer its "winding-up"
statement until the end of August, after the marching season.
In April, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president asked the IRA to
begin a consultation process on how it would achieve its aims
by purely "political and democratic" activity. While the
consultation has now been completed, the IRA is still
deliberating on the feedback from its members.

Jeffrey Donaldson, of the Democratic Unionist party, said Sinn
Fein must decide once and for all if they were democrats or if
they were on the side of those who planted the London bombs.

"It doesn't surprise me that the IRA statement may be delayed,
given that republicans seem to be experiencing difficulty
making a clear and unequivocal commitment to end paramilitary
activity.

"But in the aftermath of what happened in London — and Adams's
condemnation of the bombings — is it not a complete
contradiction that the IRA cannot announce an end to their
terrorist campaign? Terrorism has never been more repudiated
internationally than it is today. And Sinn Fein must decide if
they are on the side of democracy or those who planted the
bombs."

Meanwhile, negotiations are continuing to try to prevent
violence flaring up at this week's parades.

In Dublin, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman urged
marchers and residents not to put themselves in "entrenched"
positions. "All members of the community have a role to play
here," he said. "We would emphasise the great achievement in
Derry when all sides got together, listened to one another and
exercised restraint and respect. It is a model for other areas
to follow."

Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, this weekend asked the Orange
Order not to march through contentious areas over the Twelfth —
but called on residents not to hold protests if such parades go
ahead.

"At a time when streets will be filled with funerals and grief
in London, it would show no respect if our streets were filled
with rioting and strife," he said.

Republicans have said they might not be able to contain
troublemakers from disrupting a contentious parade which passes
through the nationalist Ardoyne in north Belfast. They claim
that the re-arrest of Kelly — after he was photographed close
to a flashpoint earlier this year — will stop other former
prisoners from taking to the streets to prevent trouble.

The police are not expecting any trouble at today's parade at
Drumcree, where Orangemen have again been banned from marching
along the Garvaghy Road.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1688403,00.html

Comment: Allan Massie: Scots Must Not Forget They Hate Us Too

Bernard Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, had no reason to feel
kindly towards London when he woke on Thursday morning. His
city had lost the 2012 Olympic Games and he had complained
about what he saw as the aggressive and unsporting behaviour of
London's bidding team. But the bombing changed everything.

"Right now, we are all Londoners," he said. "Life has been
endangered in a friendly city. The competition is derisory
compared to the blasts." In short, he recognised that we are
all in this together. Terrorist bombs in London, like the
terrorist bombs in Madrid last year, represent an act of war
against western democracies, against us all.

The fact that the attacks on London coincided with the meeting
of the G8 leaders in Scotland should bring this home to us. The
war on terror is not something we can opt out of. Some of us
may like to think we can, and will not have been impressed by
the sight of President Bush on the Gleneagles lawn assuring the
world that we will not yield to the terrorists. Some Scots may
suppose that we will escape bombs as we escaped IRA violence.

Perhaps we shall, though the peace-loving, democratic Dutch
could tell us from their experience that nobody's safety is
assured. We should not deceive ourselves. Instead we should
say, with the mayor of Paris, "We are all Londoners today", and
not only because London is the capital of the United Kingdom,
our city too, where most of us have friends or relations.

When the first shock and horror have passed, there will be many
here — many in England too — ready to say that the attacks on
London are the direct consequence of Britain's participation in
the Iraq war and that, consequently, ultimate responsibility
rests with Tony Blair and his government. The point has indeed
already been made; first by the group that has claimed
responsibility for the bombings and says they are acts of
vengeance for the "massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and
Afghanistan"; and then, characteristically, by George Galloway,
who told the House of Commons that "the hatred and bitterness
engendered by the invasion of Iraq . . . feeds the very
terrorism of Bin Laden". He went on to "urge the government to
remove people in this country from harm's way, as the Spanish
government acted to remove its people from harm by ending the
occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the
development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the
Middle East".

Galloway was right in saying that we need to develop this "real
solution", and there are many in Scotland who will think the
act of appeasement he advocates is the right course. Get out of
Iraq, they will say, and the terrorists will leave us alone.

Well I, too, thought the Iraq war unwise, even wrong,
principally because it seemed that invading a secular state in
the Middle East, however vile its regime, was irrelevant to the
war against the Islamist terrorism sponsored and executed by
Al-Qaeda, and also because I thought it likely to make a bad
situation worse, serving as a recruiting ground for the
fanatical organisations threatening the liberal West. Though
the post-war situation in Iraq is not quite as bad as I feared,
these doubts still seem justified. It may even be that in the
dark hours of the night Blair sometimes fears that his war was
a mistake.

Be that as it may, to withdraw now from Iraq in response to the
London bombs, would be — to quote Alex Salmond on the Kosovo
war — an act of "unpardonable folly", a terrible display of
weakness. Nothing would more completely convince the Islamist
terrorists of the decadence of the West, of the feebleness of
our will. Such weakness would be an encouragement to the
terrorists, not a deterrent.

Those who see the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as the cause of
Islamist terrorism miss two points. First, that Islamic
terrorism predates 9/11, to which these wars were, directly in
the case of Afghanistan, indirectly in that of Iraq, a
response. The first Islamist attack on the World Trade Center
in New York took place in 1993. Second, there have been more
terrorist bombings in moderate Muslim countries and in those
friendly with the West (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Algeria and
Pakistan) than in Europe and America.

Some draw attention to the contrast between Blair's willingness
to negotiate with IRA terrorists and accommodate them in the
Northern Irish "peace process" and his participation in
President Bush's "war on terror". Some do so condemning the
former as appeasement, others condemning the latter because it
is not appeasement. Others, like Galloway, approve the
appeasement of the IRA and would have us seek to appease Al-
Qaeda in like manner.

The two cases are very different. Irish republican terrorism
was certainly atrocious, but IRA/Sinn Fein had political
objectives, which could be made the subject of negotiation, and
these objectives were supported by a good part of the
population of Northern Ireland. Compromise was possible and the
compromise that was achieved has been approved by a majority of
the province's electorate in a referendum. So some sort of a
political settlement has been attained, even if it is not
wholly satisfactory to either party.

In contrast, it is impossible to envisage any political
settlement that could even begin to satisfy both radical Islam
and the West; there is scarcely one possible between radical
Islam and the secularists and moderates in the Muslim world. In
short, there is no conceivable basis for negotiations. You
cannot negotiate with Al-Qaeda as you could negotiate with
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. There is no common ground.
As Max Hastings, the military historian and former editor of
The Daily Telegraph, wrote on Friday: "It is impossible to
parley with Al-Qaeda, for its objective is nothing less than
the dissolution of our world."

That, in a sentence, is why we in Scotland cannot opt out, and
I'm sure that Salmond and the other responsible leaders of the
SNP realise this. We are part, a proud part, of the
civilisation the terrorists hate. Scots have done as much as
any other people, more than most, indeed, to make this
civilisation. A couple of years ago the American historian
Arthur Herman wrote a book subtitled The Scots' Invention of
the Modern World. It is that world which is under attack. Our
world. That's why we, like the mayor of Paris, are Londoners
today.

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http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/wholestory.aspx-
qqqt=VINCENT%20BROWNE-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqsectionid=3-
qqqc=5.1.0.0-qqqn=1-qqqx=1.asp

Bombings Unleash The Politics Of Hypocrisy

10 July 2005 By Vincent Browne

Three months ago, local doctors in Fallujah, Iraq, reported
that more than 800 civilians had been killed in a concerted
American and British military assault on the city.

That estimate is now thought to have been too high and the
reported civilian death toll is put at something over 600.

Half of the dead are reported to have been children.

The major assault on the town took place before women and
children were allowed to leave.

I refer to this, not to suggest that a crime against humanity
provides any justification for the slaughter of more than 50
civilians in London last Thursday morning, nor to suggest that
the Fallujah massacre was the motivation for the London attack.
I don't believe it was.

Rather my point is that condemnations of the slaughter of
innocent civilians should apply to the slaughter of all
innocent civilians.

Tony Blair's condemnations of the London killings is a piece of
awful hypocrisy, given his complicity in what happened in
Fallujah.

But, of course, Blair's hypocrisy does not stop there.

He bears culpability for the deaths of thousands of people,
including the killings of British and American soldiers in
Iraq, because of his complicity in the unlawful invasion of
that country on the basis of a deceit.

Blair and his ally George Bush have no credibility in
condemning any killings. He and Bush invite ridicule in
promising retribution for the London killings. Indeed, more
than ridicule, they invite retribution on themselves.

As was the case during the Northern Troubles, comment that
might be regarded as justifying atrocity is censored.

Anything other than outright, unqualified condemnation of
particular atrocities is demanded, uncluttered by reference to
other atrocities.

Breakers of this code are classified as sneaking regarders of
terrorism, as well as facing the usual taunts of anti-
Americanism.

In saying that I regard the London killings as crimes against
humanity, unjustified by any cause, I feel that, to some
degree, I am capitulating to this intellectual terrorism, even
though that is my conviction.

That ' terrorism' word causes me difficulty. How is it
terrorism to set off small bombs on a London underground train
and not terrorism to drop massive bombs from aeroplanes over
cities and towns? Are the people in the towns and cities being
bombed any less terrorised than the passengers in the London
trains? Is it morally OK to massacre civilians from the air and
a crime against humanity to massacre civilians in far smaller
numbers on the ground?

In the last week, the killing of well over 100 people in the
Democratic Republic of Congo has been reported. Almost
certainly, many more were killed. Since 1998, millions of
people have died in that country because of war.

My point is not that the former colonial powers are to blame
for those deaths (although there is some basis for attributing
responsibility to them), nor that the Americans who supported a
dictator there for decades were responsible (although that,
too, was a contributory factor).

Nor am I saying that the United Nations or the western powers -
or the west in general - is to blame for failing to intervene
to resolve the conflict (although there are elements of truth
to that as well).

My point is that the war in that country was made possible by
massive shipments of arms into the region from Britain, the US
and other countries - including Israel, some of the Balkan
states, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Those shipments could have been prevented, had there been the
will to do so. Were those who ordered or facilitated or
permitted those shipments terrorists?

The panoply of world leaders on stage in Gleneagles over the
last few days contained several mass murderers. For a start, of
course, there was George Bush and Tony Blair. Also Vladimir
Putin.

To be fair to Putin, he had a good point when he said last
Thursday that the west clung to "double standards in the
assessment of bloody crimes''.

He was referring to the way Europe and the United States regard
attacks by Chechens on civilian targets in Russia as part of a
local separatist struggle, rather than terrorism.

But how can the butcher of Grozny complain about terrorism, the
mass murderer of thousands in Chechnya complain about double
standards?

It is also hard to take a French president complaining about
terrorism.

France armed, supplied and then protected the genocidal Hutu
regime in Rwanda before and during the genocide in 1994, and
then intervened, saving the mass killers from retribution and
justice!

And our own crowd - couldn't they just shut up?

What credibility does our government have in condemning
terrorism when we facilitated - and continue to facilitate -
the infliction of terror on the people of Iraq by allowing
American warplanes to pit-stop at Shannon?

Is it impossible to be against all killings: against the London
killings, the Fallujah killings, the other Iraqi killings, the
African killings, the Afghan killings, the Chechnya killings,
the Moscow killings, the Twin Towers killings, the Madrid
killings?

Is it impossible to regard as crimes against humanity what the
Germans did in World War II and in the Holocaust, what the
Japanese did during that war in Asia, what the Americans did at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, what the British did at Dresden, what
Stalin did to the kulaks in Russia, what Mao did in China?

Is it possible to be against all terrorism and all mass murder
and not be classified as a sneaking-regarder of terrorism and
mass murder?

sbpost@iol.ie

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http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/wholestory.aspx-
qqqt=TOM%20MCGURK-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqsectionid=3-
qqqc=5.3.0.0-qqqn=1-qqqx=1.asp

Through A Lens Darkly: Reality Terror

10 July 2005 By Tom McGurk

On screen, it has turned into some kind of ghoulish reality
television programme. The first reports of a bombing come in.
The 24-hour newscasters can hardly conceal the hint of
excitement in their voices. The modern ticker-tape of text
updates begins to march across the bottom of the screen. Here
we go again.

Welcome to Big Terrorist: the reality TV show designed to
frighten the pants off all liberal western democrats. Except
for the unfortunates trapped in smoking trains or fumbling
along in the dark of underground tunnels, or the ambulance and
firemen putting the heads, legs and burnt torsos into plastic
sacks, it becomes a day-long, 24-hour reality TV horror movie.

All the players know their parts. The reporters keep well away
from the scene. The fire, police and ambulance spokespeople
display to their media trainers how good they have become at
saying nothing.

The ever-expanding tribe of 'terrorism experts' streams towards
the television studios, while the actual intelligence experts,
already meeting in secret rooms, are counting the real losses,
known only to them.

Act I is complete when the prime minister appears ashen-faced
and presents a robust case for democracy, and speaks about
values and that sort of thing, in a hastily-arranged broadcast.

Presumably, by this stage, the crazies who carried out the
atrocity have returned to base and have joined the television
audience.

Can you imagine the bizarre goings on in their heads as they
watch the pathetic results of their morning's work being loaded
into ambulances or sealed into body bags? Do they take bets on
the numbers?

Do the different bombing teams have a little competition with
each other to see who scores the most? Or does their version of
Allah forbid gambling and games in general?

There is, of course, a hideous logic to all of this. If you
bomb the Third World in pursuit of whatever strategic
requirement you deem urgent at the time, then sooner or later,
the Third World will come back and bomb you.

To put it more concisely, what is the linkage, please, between
Cruise missiles obliterating downtown Baghdad, and fanatics
with lunch-boxes full of plastic explosives buying one-way
tickets on the Piccadilly line? Answers, please, in 500 words
to the Rt Hon Tony Blair, 10 Downing St, London SW1.

But as Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, pointed out, it was not
the high and mighty and the powerful who got blown up in
London. Indeed, just like the victims in Iraq, it was the
nominally inconsequential ordinary men and women just going to
work.

Here indeed is a strange war for all of us to ponder, as the
ambulances carrying the dead and the dying drove through those
same streets where more than a million ordinary citizens once
marched to protest against the invasion of Iraq. Did any of
those ambulances carry people who had protested against the
war? Who knows, maybe the bombers themselves had walked along
under some banner on that occasion?

For us, the Irish, bombing London is about as close as the war
can come without actually bombing Dublin. London is a familiar
landscape to so many of us, and no doubt, given the population
breakdown, there were Irish or the children of Irish among the
victims in London.

But almost certainly the principal consequence the bombings
will have for us on this side of the Irish Sea will be on the
relationship between our liberal society and the state.

Britain's ID card system will surely go ahead at full speed now
and, as the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has argued,
we will then have no choice but to follow.

After 9/11, the attacks were used to ratchet up state control
over civil liberties in the US, with Homeland Security and the
Patriot Act.

Quite how crazies who have shown the ingenuity to hijack
airliners and fly them into skyscrapers will be rendered
helpless in the face of an ID card society and clamping down on
civil liberties, I don't know, but that's what the men in suits
are telling us.

In fact, the principle consequence of these attacks on our
western democracies has been the proportional growth of state
power over the citizen.

The Irish could argue long and hard, given the draconian usage
of Britain's Prevention of Terrorism Act over the last 30
years, that legislation of this sort is not effective in
dealing with this type of threat.

As the history of the act in this country has shown, it's
usually the innocent and those in the wrong place at the wrong
time who are likely to be locked up - not terrorists.

Now those in politics who believe that society, in the face of
this type of threat, must be firmly controlled, watched and
spied upon, have a very powerful ally in the bombers.

Given that the original justification for the Iraq invasion was
the need to protect our society and our way of life, are we not
all in a deadly spiral with our political leaders and the mad
bombers together winding the rope around us?

For Tony Blair, last Thursday was the day at the office he had
been fearing for years.

He cajoled and led the British people into a war that he argued
was necessary to defend their security, and he ended up with
bodies all over the Central and Piccadilly lines.

But then, given the cruel mathematics of this war, London's
casualty figure must have been much lower than he had feared.

Having played his part in reducing Iraq to its present state of
lawlessness and virtual civil war, no doubt he will be
consoling himself with the thought that, as bad as London's
figures were, they are much like an average car-bombing on any
morning in Baghdad these days.

We all know exactly how we got into this terrible spiral, but
does anyone have any ideas about how we can get out of it?

******************************************

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=652000

Key Wright Probe Witness Mogg Dies

By Alan Murray
10 July 2005

A FORMER Prison Service chief who was to be a key witness at
the inquiry into the jail killing of LVF boss Billy Wright has
died.

Martin Mogg was governor of the Maze at the time the loyalist
terrorist was shot dead by INLA inmates in December 1997.

His passing means that his testimony about events leading up to
Wright's death won't be heard.

As a result, his knowledge of crucial decisions made by the
Prison Service, which brought LVF and INLA inmates together in
one H Block, can't be probed.

Mr Mogg was both governor of the Maze and the director of
operations for the Prison Service when Wright was transferred
to the jail and subsequently killed.

He was dubbed 'Mr Barrowclough' by prison officers, who likened
his manner to the kindly character in comedy series Porridge.

It was Mogg who made the controversial decision to put the
rival loyalist and republican factions in separate wings of H6.

It was suggested at the time that he believed he had secured a
'gentlemen's agreement' from both the INLA and LVF that they
wouldn't attack each other if they were both housed in opposite
wings of H6.

"Why Martin took that fateful operational decision, we will
never fully know now," said one ex-Maze officer.

"There was a documented report from Maghaberry, where (INLA
murderer) Crip McWilliams had been held, stating that he had
indicated that he wanted to go to the Maze to kill Billy
Wright.

"You'd have thought that would have been enough to have
prevented his transfer, but it didn't.

"As director of operations, Martin Mogg approved that, and as
number one Maze governor he also agreed to accept McWilliams
into his jail, but we won't hear from him in his own words why
he took such a major gamble."

Mr Mogg was memorably recorded on prison CCTV cameras playing
on a bouncy castle with children of republican prisoners during
a Christmas party in 1997, days before Wright's murder. On the
same day, IRA man Liam Averill walked out of the Maze dressed
as a woman.

"Mr Barrowclough, as we called him, was a genuinely nice and
very astute man," said one prison officer.

"He'd been in Army Intelligence before joining the Prison
Service, so he was no mug.

"His one weakness, though, was this very humane dimension which
led him to see good in people rather than recognise the evil in
some of the people we had to deal with."

A spokesperson for the Prison Service said it was not aware if
Mr Mogg had, before his death, prepared a comprehensive
statement for the public inquiry into Wright's death.

He was cremated at Roselawn last month.

******************************************

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=652004

Wee Attack Of Stress, Jimbo?

UDA spy suspect Spence recuperating in Bulgaria following minor
coronary

By Stephen Breen
10 July 2005

SUSPECTED MI5 agent and top UDA man Jim Spence is recovering
after suffering a heart attack.

Senior security sources told us the north Belfast loyalist
suffered the mild attack at his luxury home last week. He was
then rushed to hospital.

The crime boss, who is in his 40s, was later released following
the scare.

Sources claim he plans to recover by spending the Twelfth
holidays in sunny Bulgaria.

Spence, who has denied being the loyalist equivalent of IRA
superspy 'Stakeknife', is known in loyalist circles as a
playboy.

Along with his cronies, he regularly makes trips to cities in
England and Scotland for boozy weekend parties.

But sources believe the stress of being labelled a top informer
caused Spence to have the heart attack.

It is also understood he fears being the next senior loyalist
to be expelled from the UDA, following the expulsion of Jim
'Doris Day' Gray.

Said a source: "The word is that Spence thought he was going to
die when he had the heart attack - it really frightened him.

"He has been coming under a lot of pressure recently and the
informer claims just won't leave him in spite of the support he
has received from the UDA leadership.

"A man of his age shouldn't be having heart attacks and it
looks like everything is getting to him. There's all sorts of
rumours flying around about Spence at the minute.

"He's clearly under pressure and everything just seems to have
taken its toll on his health at the minute."

In a separate development, senior loyalist sources have claimed
that ousted terror chief Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair was back in the
province last week.

It is understood Adair was spotted by undercover soldiers
walking close to the home of a leading loyalist in north
Belfast earlier this month.

Added a source: "Adair was driven to north Belfast in the early
hours the other week and got out of the car.

"He was spotted by an undercover team close to the home of a
senior loyalist and told to clear off, but he wasn't
questioned.

"He claims that he can come into Ulster without his enemies
knowing and the word is that he is even planning on coming here
for the Twelfth."

******************************************

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=652003

UDA To Sever Links With Neo-Nazi Groups

By Stephen Breen
10 July 2005

THE UDA leadership last night vowed to cut off the terror
group's links with neo-Nazis in England.

Senior loyalist sources said the terror group's 'inner council'
will break all ties with fascist groups after a number of
concerns were raised at a secret UDA summit.

One of the main concerns was the support right wing fanatics
like Combat 18 have offered to the ousted Johnny 'Mad Dog'
Adair.

The UDA was also unhappy with a number of racist slurs made
against north Belfast boss Andre 'The Egyptian' Shoukri on a
White National Party (WNP) website.

And the sources claimed some UDA members in Britain are to be
booted out.

They include the UDA's leader in England, who is understood to
be close to Adair, Adair's former sidekick John 'CoCo' White
and ousted east Belfast leader Jim 'Doris Day' Gray.

The UDA is also concerned that the right wing groups have
forged contacts with the LVF over the last year.

Said a senior UDA source: "We want nothing more to do with
these people because they are continuing to offer support to
Adair and his cronies.

"The leadership is trying to move away from these groups
because they no longer have any interest in the loyalist cause.

"The racists have caused a lot of harm to the loyalist cause.
The negative publicity they receive doesn't help the UDA's
commitment to eradicating criminality within its ranks."

A senior Ulster Political Research Group source said the UDA
was set to end all contact with right wing groups, adding: "The
leadership realised the negative role these groups play in
Ulster and is committed to ending all contact with them.

"Any group which has links to someone like Adair cannot be
trusted."

******************************************

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=651998

Pub-lic nuisance

Shoukri linked Bonaparte's meets it Waterloo in licence bid

10 July 2005

A CONTROVERSIAL application for a pub entertainment licence has
been turned down - because police believe the bar is under the
'control' of Andre Shoukri's north Belfast UDA mob.

The decision by the city council - the licensing authority -
was last night welcomed by many residents living in the shadow
of Bonaparte's Brasserie and Ale House on the Cavehill Road.

There was widespread concern over the application and police
had held talks with householders, local politicians and
community groups.

One member of the Cavehill Residents' Action Group had earlier
told the council's health and environmental committee that a
number of householders had even considered selling up.

A police inspector told the same meeting that police were of
the belief that the bar was under the control of a paramilitary
organisation.

Police have been cracking down on pub licensing applications,
particularly those they suspect are being used by
paramilitaries, but fronted legally.

They stepped in to ensure the closure of the notorious Network
Club in Belfast's North Street after it was taken over by
loyalists linked to Shoukri.

According to police, there has been an increase recently in the
number of complaints about Bonaparte's.

On one occasion last month, they required additional back up
when a "significant number" of patrons were found drinking
outside with loud music coming from within.

The council's environmental health officer reported that
officers within the noise pollution unit had responded to
complaints about loud noise and discovered that music in the
form of a karaoke was being provided and a DJ's voice had been
audible on the Cavehill Road.

The applicant said she had made various attempts to meet with
residents to address their concerns.

The council rejected the application on the grounds that the
applicant was not a fit person to hold such a licence and also
ruled that to grant it "would be likely to impact adversely on
the residential amenity of the area".

******************************************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4669041.stm

Analysis: The Mountain Before Them

By Mark Devenport

BBC Northern Ireland political editor

Late last month I found myself interned inside Number 10 for
about 20 minutes.

Along with a group of increasingly impatient correspondents, I
had to hang around after an unremarkable news conference given
by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern.

The reason we could not make our way out into Downing Street
was that the Iraqi prime minister had just arrived.

Security dictated that we wait until a clear route back to the
famous front door became available.

At one point the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Jonathan
Powell, arrived at the far end of our holding area, accompanied
by a group of Iraqi officials.

Realising that a bunch of journalists was in close proximity,
Downing Street staff quickly shut the intervening doors.

"He's probably holding talks with Al Zarqawi's political wing,"
we joked, because of Powell's reputation for operating in the
shadows so far as Northern Ireland is concerned.

This month, in the wake of the London bus and tube atrocities,
the paths of the Northern Ireland process and the wider
conflict engulfing Iraq, Afghanistan and the cities of the
western world seem very far apart.

The notion of talks with Osama Bin Laden's sympathisers, or
whoever was responsible for the carnage in London, appears
preposterous.

That said, a military victory against bombers prepared to
attack the softest of targets in the most populous of cities is
surely impossible.

Questioned on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics about whether
the British and US governments should be talking to Al Qaeda,
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said he would
not be surprised if they were already seeking to initiate some
kind of contact.

He noted that, at a time when most people believed it was
unthinkable that the British government should talk to the IRA,
officials were in secret contact with republicans.

However, on Inside Politics, both Martin McGuinness and the
Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, David Lidington,
pointed out that the fragmentary and diffuse nature of the
Islamic militant groups made it difficult to embark on any
meaningful talks.

At least with the Provisional IRA, the British government had a
cohesive and identifiable enemy.

Even if dialogue did get underway, could the governments deal
with Islamic extremists demands?

Bombers prepared to commit suicide for their cause (and at the
time of writing we still do not know whether this was the case
in London) may be more interested in killing "infidels" than
negotiating with them.

If western troops were to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq,
what then would be the next demand?

The removal of all foreigners from the Arabian peninsula? The
re-integration of Spain into an Islamic caliphate?

Initially, any talks could well prove as fruitless as those
between Willie Whitelaw and IRA leaders in the early 1970s,
when the republican demand for British withdrawal was firmly
declined.

Still, there is a strong sense that any security response to
the bombings must be accompanied by a sophisticated political
approach.

This has to be part and parcel of what Tony Blair calls
"pulling terrorism up by its roots".

On Inside Politics, David Lidington noted that within the UK,
good community relations are essential.

Demonising Britain's Muslim community, in this analysis, is not
only wrong, but also highly counterproductive if one is seeking
to isolate and acquire intelligence about potential extremists.

On the international front, Lidington argued, issues like
Israel/Palestine and Kashmir must be treated on their merits
whilst bearing in mind the implications for the wider peace.

In Iraq, the US is already reported to be in touch with some
insurgents, presumably in an effort to peel off some groups and
isolate the likes of Al Zarqawi.

Against the backdrop of the casualties being suffered daily in
Iraq and the attacks on New York, Bali, Madrid and London,
direct negotiations with Al Qaeda, of the kind once suggested
by the former Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, seem
impossible to envisage.

But it was no coincidence that one of the government's secret
go-betweens during the troubles was code named "the Mountain
Climber".

As Jonathan Powell and his colleagues inside Number 10 know
well from their Northern Ireland experience, the military and
intelligence services can only hold the terrorist threat at
bay.

If there is to be a solution, and that remains a big if, then
the politicians and the diplomats must start climbing the
mountain before them.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/07/10 11:45:12 GMT
© BBC MMV

******************************************

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=651996

IRA Hardmen Sniff Out Cocaine Cash

Provos provide protection for drug dealers

By Ciaran McGuigan

10 July 2005

PROVO godfathers are providing muscle for drug dealers flooding
the North West with cocaine.

A senior IRA man is earning thousands in drugs cash from the
big-time dealers, in return for protection for their rackets
from other criminal gangs and dissident republicans, according
to security sources.

The dealers are believed to be responsible for much of the
cocaine now readily available on the streets of Londonderry.

Their ringleader is known to Sunday Life, but cannot be named
for legal reasons.

He was referred to in court earlier this year, after a man was
arrested in possession of a kilo of unmixed cocaine at a Derry
address.

The seized cocaine, when eventually mixed and sold, would have
had a street value of around £240,000.

The man, when quizzed by cops, admitted that he was going to
sell a bag of cocaine that was recovered.

However, he refused to name any of his accomplices "through
fear of reprisals", a court was told.

Sunday Life understands that the leader of the drugs gang pays
a known IRA hardman for protection, and it is this man that the
feared reprisals would come from.

Said one senior security source: "This gang is responsible for
a lot of the cocaine going into Derry.

"The amount that was seized wasn't huge, but it was a fair
amount and this gang is starting to move a lot.

"They are cocky, because they think they can operate in the
city with impunity, because they have the backing of the
Provos."

The senior IRA man is not involved directly with drugs, but is
believed to profit indirectly from their sale.

That move contrasts with the IRA's previous stance on drugs in
Derry.

In April 2001, under the guise of Direct Action Against Drugs,
they murdered Christopher 'Cricky' O'Kane.

O'Kane (37), a major player in Ulster's drugs trade, was gunned
down outside his heavily-fortified home on the Waterside.

cmcguigan@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

******************************************

http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=755532005

Like Father, Like Son?

CATHERINE DEVENEY

INTERVIEWING Ian Paisley Jr, North Antrim's representative in
the Northern Ireland Assembly and son of the province's most
famous politician, is like staring hard into an ambiguous
picture. In ambiguous pictures, two images co-exist, but at
first glance, most people see only one. One famous example
simultaneously depicts a young girl and an old, haggard woman.
Once you've seen one, it is hard to find the other. But the
point about ambiguous pictures is that what you see depends on
how hard you are prepared to make your brain work. When you
think the picture is complete, when you think you have seen
everything, you have to force yourself to look again and, this
time, see it differently. And so it is with Ian Paisley Jr.

He smiles warmly as he walks towards me in the grand entrance
of Stormont, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly. I have come
through security but the Assembly is suspended at the moment.
Stormont is a fabulous building but a parliament is about
people, not bricks: the debating chamber lies empty, the
corridors are deserted. Leading me to his office, Paisley has
that personable manner, the affable self-confidence of a young
Tony Blair. The thunderous declamatory tones preferred by his
father, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, are absent.
All the more disconcerting, though, when harsh words come
softly wrapped in a voice designed for tenderness.

He is a son of the manse, and the Rev Ian Paisley would have
liked him to be a minister rather than a politician. Young Ian
felt the pressure but not the calling. I have read that he
prays before interviews, though - did he pray before this one?
"I pray every day, ask Him to get me through the day." The
strange thing about God in Northern Ireland is that both sides
worship the same one. "Then kill each other?" says Paisley.
Exactly. So whose side is God on? "God is only on one side," he
answers. "God himself said he came to the world not to unite
but to divide. God is on the side of truth, of righteousness."
His side, then? Paisley ignores the sarcasm. "I believe it's my
side, yes. I'd be a fool if I didn't believe it."

Paisley does not want to live in a "boring Ulster" where
everyone is the same. Yes, there's tension and suspicion but
most people can live with the differences. Except extremists.
"For example, we're coming up to the marching season. Marching
harms no one. My goodness, it's a bit of craic, a bit of fun.
It's a celebration. For some, it's a religious affair. It hurts
no one. But there's a small element who believe it's designed
to hurt and provoke them. It's getting to that element and
saying, 'Wise up. Accept we're different. We're not asking you
to march with us.'"

But if I wanted to organise an anti-black march through
Brixton, I wouldn't be allowed, would I? "Sure," he agrees
softly, "that would be racist." So why allow anti-Catholic
marches through Catholic areas? "I think Catholics are the last
thing on people's minds on the march." But it's commemorating
the Battle of the Boyne, when Catholic King James was
overthrown by William of Orange. Isn't it celebrating the death
of Catholics? "That's like saying Armistice Day is about
celebrating the death of German soldiers. I don't believe it is
about celebrating anyone's death. It is about celebrating
deliverance. And, yes, in that people die. That's war. Things
happen." It's not about hatred? "Absolutely not."

Political turmoil in Northern Ireland stretches back centuries
and is well documented. In the 17th century, Protestant
settlers - many of them Scots - were "planted" in Northern
Ireland and given seized Catholic lands in an attempt to secure
the Protestant English Crown. It was a political manoeuvre that
would send reverberations down the following three centuries.
But the modern Troubles came to a head in the late 1960s when
Catholics began to be more vocal about the lack of equality
between themselves and Protestants with regard to voting
rights, housing and employment prospects. Their protest marches
spilled over into violence. In 1969 Harold Wilson ordered the
troops into Belfast and Londonderry.

Paisley does not accept traditional historical accounts.
"Rubbish is the reality. There was a Protestant working class
who didn't have it that good either. Numerically, more
Protestants were discriminated against than Catholics." He
thinks Catholics still have an exaggerated sense of oppression
- as their objection to marches illustrates. "I am entitled to
free expression," says Paisley. Although it seems those in the
Republic were not. "They got a parliament that, quite frankly,
they probably weren't entitled to."

I can't see the outline of Paisley's picture; he can't see
mine. Maybe we both bring too much baggage to the canvas. We
sit overlooking the sweeping driveway of Stormont, the weight
of it between us like a great lumpen obstacle. Then it strikes
me that perhaps, like an ambiguous picture, both can exist
simultaneously and have their own truth. Perhaps, in my hour
with Paisley, I have to ignore the image I see readily and try
to find the other one. Find his picture. See with his eyes.

THE FRAGMENTS BEGIN to come together, like the slowly forming
pattern of a kaleidoscope. Ian Paisley is 13. He has a twin
brother, Kyle, and three older sisters. Terrorists want them
dead. The children travel to school in a police car. One night,
the phone rings. His father and Kyle were on their way home
from the BBC when two shots rang out, aimed at their car. "I
was angry," recalls Paisley. "I didn't know why. I remember
being thankful, too, that it wasn't worse. What if it had hit
one of them? It was so personal. One of your own."

He grew up surrounded by violence. Did it damage him? "I
suppose you could grow up with a chip on your shoulder. I don't
believe I did. The biggest security I had was a very safe
environment at home. I remember my parents talked to us about
why these things happened. But the '70s and '80s were the worst
years of the Troubles and that has to have an effect on you."

He remains close to Kyle, a minister, who lives in England. But
how close is he to his famous father, who is also his boss? "My
dad is about 40 years older than me. He'll be 80 next year. So,
generationally, we are very different, but we're very good
mates. There are things I can talk to my dad about that I
couldn't to anyone else."

His father may be more famous but his mother was just as
political - elected as a councillor before her husband - and
just as big an influence. "If not bigger. Because he was away
so much, she had to raise us all. Mum could just do it all. She
was like superwoman." He smiles. "Mum is very much the boss.
Dad comes in and does what he's told. Politically, he's
forceful, but as a man, as a friend, he's not at all. He's very
quiet in the house. My parents have similar tastes, lifestyles
and views. They both love reading."

His father's public persona is different. "The hardest man in
Ulster politics," agrees Paisley. "He's an anvil. He's no
softie, no push-over. He says what he means and he means what
he says. I don't think anyone with a softer position could have
survived as long." What would people watching him on television
not know? "He is very loving, very kind, very generous," says
his son.

So I read him a quote of his father's: "Catholics breed like
rabbits and multiply like vermin." Did he say that? "I don't
know. You'd have to ask him." Then he says, "I'm not going to
bluff you on it. To be fair, there are similar comments that
have been attributed to him." That does not sound like the
kind, loving man he describes. "I can only describe the man I
know."

But it is Paisley Jr's generation of politicians who will shape
the future of Ireland now. If people wanted to know what he
stood for, should they look to his father? "He's a touchstone.
But I don't think I could be true to myself, let alone be
respected by others, if I tried to be his clone. That's not my
calling in life. There are a lot of others who want to be his
clone. Go ahead. That's for you but it's not for me."

Some would go further. "I would say his father would be more
progressive," says a Sinn Fein source. "Ian Paisley today is
not the Ian Paisley of 20 years ago or even five years ago."
Why? "Because he's coming closer to his mortality. He's going
to meet his maker soon." Could his son progress things in
Northern Ireland? "I don't believe so. DUP politicians such as
Peter Robinson, the deputy leader, are more pragmatic."

Ask Paisley if he expects to succeed his father and he says no
instantly. "I have no ambitions that way." But it might happen?
He shrugs. "It might rain tomorrow. I have political ambitions
in terms of where I would like to be, but I don't have any
great Machiavellian mission to lead the party." Anyway, he
says, reports of his father's imminent demise are exaggerated.

The next DUP leader is critically important. April's general
election transformed the political landscape in Northern
Ireland. On the way to Stormont, my taxi driver claimed people
were coming closer together personally than ever. That may be
true, but politically they have become more polarised. The
dominant Ulster Unionist Party was trounced, with its leader,
David Trimble, losing his seat, and the more hardline DUP
replacing it as the biggest party in the North. On the
Republican side, the moderate SDLP lost out to Sinn Fein. The
centre ground was obliterated. The reason, Paisley claims, is
that the UUP sold out and people didn't like it.

Paradoxically, Sinn Fein agree. "I think the DUP are seen as
more reliable than the UUP," says a Sinn Fein source. "The UUP
were more perfidious. You didn't know where you were with them.
The DUP will play hard ball and get the best possible deal they
can get, but they will make it stick. David Trimble was seen as
a weak leader who couldn't make decisions. He may have signed
the Good Friday Agreement but he never sold it."

The Good Friday Agreement has stalled over IRA decommissioning.
Paisley wants the government to re-galvanise it (despite,
incidentally, the DUP originally voting against it) without
Sinn Fein. What does he feel, not politically but emotionally,
when he looks at Sinn Fein across the chamber? "A couple of
emotions. First of all disgust, not so much with them
personally but with the fact that there's a community out there
who votes for them, because when I look at my side of the room
I don't see bombers, killers, gangsters sitting there. I don't
see people who are elected by the Protestant unionist people
who have that track record. I also feel frustrated that the
community is so divided."

But he's not being honest, is he? His own father was involved
in the Third Force, an armed, unionist group. Self-defence
only, argues Paisley. And when some wanted to use guns
proactively, his father left the organisation. But what about
unionist politicians aligned to terrorist groups? "Yeah, well,
anyone who votes for the Progressive Unionist Party or the
Ulster Democratic Party votes for the UDA and UDF. Hardly any
Protestants will lower themselves to do that."

Unionism has always prevailed. But what if there was a
democratic vote for a united Ireland in his lifetime? "I would
have to accept it as a democrat." Is there a political cause
for which he would pick up a gun? "I believe if your country is
being sold out, if the government fails to do the job it is
supposed to do for you, you have the right to consider all
options." Including taking arms? "Including taking arms. But I
don't advocate it. I don't believe we are in a situation where
it's necessary."

Sinn Fein says it wants the peace process to belong to
everybody. "We are willing to work with the DUP at a minute's
notice," says a source. "There is no reason to wait for an IRA
statement. The reason for armed groups was that politics wasn't
working. You have to show it working, and delivering government
to the people, and then their rationale is gone."

Paisley doesn't see it that way. Sinn Fein should simply be
excluded. "We have only a small window of opportunity. I think
we have a matter of months, to the end of this year, to get
changes. Otherwise we reach crisis point again."

THEREIS A MOMENT when electricity crackles, a sudden surge of
energy and tension. Could you ever have fallen in love with a
Catholic?, I ask, and Paisley meets my stare head-on. "How do
you know I didn't?" he says softly. For a few seconds, there is
absolute silence. That, I say, is a far better question than
the one I asked, because it is not hypothetical. Did he ever
fall in love with a Catholic, then? Paisley smiles. "Mind your
own business," he says.

But it is interesting, I push. "I am simply not going to tell
you," he says. I am uncertain whether this is because of course
he hasn't, but he wants me to think he is more open-minded than
he really is, or whether, tantalisingly, there really is a
little possibility that he did, but knows the potential fall-
out if he says yes. "I have lots of friends and have never felt
restrained about the people I could grow up with or enjoy the
company of."

Catholic friends? "I have had Catholic friends since I was a
child. Northern Ireland is not so divided that you can grow up
without meeting the other side." Anyway, it is not just
Catholic friends who would take issue with him. He has a
Protestant friend he has known since his schooldays, a
policeman, but they avoid politics. They don't agree.

Let's put the love question a different way then. He has four
children. What if his daughter came home and said she wanted to
marry a Catholic? "My daughter is only 11." Well, look ahead.
"Too far ahead," he says. This is a principle, not a
practicality. Would it cause him concern? "It would cause me
concern for their religious views. Put it this way. I think one
of the reasons I am so happily married is that I have something
in common with the girl I married and fell in love with.
There's a faith we share. Marriage is not a bed of roses. There
are always difficulties, whether those are financial
difficulties or relationship difficulties. I think you have to
have something that underpins that and is important to you. So
I hope that when my children do fall in love and marry, I hope
happily, it will be with people who share the same belief."

If, though, he saw that his child and partner were "together"
in important ways, would he accept it, or would he be the kind
of father who boycotted the wedding? "I don't think you can
stand in the way of people. I don't think you can stand in the
way of a Paisley either. They're pretty obstinate people. And
when they make up their mind, they do what they want." An
ambiguous answer.

He denies any personal animosity. "I love my neighbours. I love
all my neighbours whether they are Catholics, Protestant, Jews,
Muslims, whatever. I don't ask." All constituents receive the
same attention. "They might have a different identity to me,
might never vote for me, but they know one thing. I'll work
darned hard to get them what they want, whether it's welfare
benefits, planning permission, a housing executive house...
Why? Because I am trying to impress Catholics? No, because it's
my job. I've got skill I can use to their advantage and it's my
duty to do so."

What empathy, I wonder, does he have with Republican families
who suffer grief or pain or loss? Does he feel for them? "Of
course." He is on the police board of Northern Ireland. The
body of a dissident IRA man, murdered two years ago and thrown
into the canal, was found recently. "I felt revulsion for that.
As a father myself, I know that creates a sense of loss, of how
twisted this place can be. Did I agree with anything he stood
for? No. I detested every single fibre of his belief about
republicanism. But I still empathised with his family and with
the sense of loss they had. I am not going to say that a
mother's tears for her son, no matter the circumstances
surrounding his death, are different because of the
circumstances. If a person feels hurt or pain or loss... of
course, it is the same. Tears are tears. Hurt is hurt."

The photographer knocks on the door, ending the interview. "The
self-analysis was great," says Paisley. "I don't even charge,"
I say. We both grin. He doesn't either.

AFTER THE INTERVIEW, Paisley takes us for coffee in a Stormont
members' club. (And insists on paying for his guests.) "What's
your background?" he asks. He catches my smile and adds
quickly, "I mean, where are you from?" During the interview, he
had said, "I don't ask what you are and I don't care." I said
he was being disingenuous and knew very well; Irish names tell
all. But on a personal level, I think he probably doesn't care.
Away from politics, he is good company. He starts a nun joke
and I wonder where's he's going with it. But it's not
offensive, just funny in a mischievous way.

His small courtesies are not displayed by all interviewees, or
even most. A lift to the airport is no trouble; he's going by.
There is a split second's irrational fear as I walk towards his
car... memories of the old Belfast. In the new Northern
Ireland, how big is the personal threat to politicians? He has
had three serious threats in the last few years. His house is
covered in alarms. His children used to play with the security
system and he had to sit them down and explain what they were
for and why they mustn't play with it. "It changed their lives
a bit," he says. Just as terrorism must have changed his.

The car has "I smell... wash me" written in the dust. His kids?
He comes round to look. Wait till he gets hold of them. Still,
he jokes, the boy's a good writer for four, isn't he? He's
proud of his children. "A gift," he says. The words of a Sinn
Fein source spring into mind. "Ian Paisley Jr?" he'd said.
"Obnoxious." Ever met him? "No." But he'd heard plenty. And
then he'd added, "But I suppose he is as loveable and affable
in his family as I am in mine."

We chat about Ireland as the landscape speeds by. The Giant's
Causeway is part of his constituency. "God's own country," he
says. But people die there because they don't understand the
power of the sea. Once when he was there, a man held two small
children by the hand down at the front and an enormous wave
swept them out to sea. Paisley and another man jumped in and
pulled the children out. One was dead. I look out of the
window, trying to imagine the horror of pulling a four-year-old
dead from the sea. That's a life-changing kind of thing, I say,
and notice that Paisley's head swivels from the road towards
me. "Yes," he says.

Of all the pictures of Ian Paisley I'm left with, that is the
one that suddenly clicks most powerfully in the frame: a man
who pulls a child from a stormy sea, no questions asked. Makes
you wonder what he'll do if he gets the political chance to
rescue a whole generation of them.

******************************************

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1687866,00.html

Comment: Sarah Carey: Nobody Votes For A Loser

Voter disillusionment with politicians is often attributed to
the frequency of financial and planning scandals involving our
public representatives and big business. Yet one of the
greatest acts of political betrayal in recent times had nothing
to do with money.

From 1989 to 1992, Dick Spring launched a series of ferocious
attacks on the Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrat government of
the time, inspiring a pre-Celtic tiger electorate to vote
Labour in 1992. The party won 33 seats, a huge 18-seat gain.
Fine Gael lost 10 and Fianna Fail nine. The people clearly
wanted a change and expected Spring to deliver it.

What they discovered was that, while Labour hated Fianna Fail,
they hated Fine Gael even more and were rewarded with another
five years of Fianna Fail in power — this time with Labour.

Despite the midterm musical chairs that saw Fine Gael
unexpectedly gain power in 1994, Labour was punished for its
betrayal and the status quo was resumed in 1997. The party lost
10 seats, nine of them going back to Fine Gael. Of course,
Fianna Fail remained in government, this time with the
Progressive Democrats and supported by some of the
independents. Among other things, it had developed a talent for
losing elections but winning power.

The damage done by Labour's broken promise was still affecting
voter behaviour 10 years later. During the 2002 general
election campaign, Ruairi Quinn, one of the advocates of the
coalition with Fianna Fail, refused to rule out another deal
with them. Quinn's analysis had not changed in the preceding
decade: from an economic policy perspective, Labour and Fianna
Fail were closer and so, in theory at least, it should be easy
to formulate a shared programme for government that mollified
Labour's left-wing base. But this amounted to a naive belief on
Quinn's part that Fianna Fail's willingness to award big pay
rises to the public sector corresponded to socialism.

The result of Quinn's ambivalence about whether Labour would do
business with Fianna Fail was that the party's support
plateaued at 20 seats. He later resigned.

Floating Fine Gael voters, despairing of the inevitability of
yet another Fianna Fail victory, swallowed Michael McDowell's
spin. If Fianna Fail was going to get in, it was imperative
that somebody keep an eye on them. Socially liberal and
economically right-wing voters in affluent constituencies such
as Dublin South East and Dun Laoghaire panicked and, as a
result, the Progressive Democrats doubled their seats to eight.

Fianna Fail has been in government for 16 of the past 18 years,
an extraordinary reign by any standards. Anybody who wants to
see them out of government must welcome, therefore, the
strengthening of the Fine Gael-Labour pact through the joint
statement of the leaders last week. But will it deliver? To
date, the agreement to co-operate has been a matter of style
over substance. There have been no joint policy statements and
Enda Kenny's earlier suggestion about joined-up candidate
selection in certain constituencies was quickly brushed aside.
If they want to unseat the incumbents, Pat Rabbitte and Kenny
will have to do more than that.

Rabbitte has managed to consolidate his leadership within the
Labour party and, despite a robust debate at its conference in
May, the party voted by a significant majority to give him
authority to negotiate with Fine Gael.

Despite the obvious lessons of the past, there were some
people, most notably Brendan Howlin, who baulked at a pre-
election deal with Fine Gael. However, Rabbitte had won the
2002 contest for the Labour leadership on a platform that
explicitly ruled out coalition with Fianna Fail. He even went
as far as making clear his displeasure with Quinn's strategy
when he said he would refuse to take ministerial office if
Labour did go into coalition with Fianna Fail. His consistency
on this issue will be vital to regaining the faith of voters in
an alternative government.

Fine Gael's failure to get into government means that many see
them as increasingly irrelevant on the political landscape.
While it comes under pressure to define itself, Fianna Fail is
credited with safe management of the economy, notwithstanding
the vast sums of money wasted through inefficiency.

Kenny may still struggle to answer questions about whether his
party is right or left, for enterprise or for the poor, tax and
spend, or just tax. Yet, to a certain extent, this identity
crisis is nonsense. Fianna Fail has never defined itself in
those terms. Their happy partnership with the right-wing PDs
could just as easily evolve into an even happier one with
Marxist Sinn Fein and nobody would care.

In fact, Fine Gael has generally exercised care when it comes
to the public purse. Those who disagree will point to the
excellent stewardship of the exchequer by Fianna Fail's Ray
MacSharry between 1987 and 1989. They will neglect to point out
that this was a minority government maintained in power by Alan
Dukes's Tallaght strategy, which saw the opposition vote with
Fianna Fail as long as it implemented responsible economic
policy.

Politics is like the stock exchange, though, and the value of a
share is often based on confidence rather than the bottom line.
If people think Fine Gael could win power, they just might vote
for them. Nobody wants to vote for a loser and, prior to the
recent local and European elections, Fine Gael had the smell of
death about it.

The structure of our electoral system exacerbates this effect.
The Dail is too large and the multiseat constituency system
makes it prone to clientelism. If people are going to vote for
the guy who will do a personal favour for them, then it makes
sense to vote for the party with power. Since Fianna Fail seems
to be in power most of the time, this was good enough reason to
keep them there.

Voters might yet be persuaded to switch to back a different
horse — if the odds are good enough.

******************************************

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2090-1688398,00.html

Probe Into Radio Station With 'Orange Playlist'

Marc Horne

POLICE are investigating Scotland's first sectarian radio
station, which broadcasts loyalist and anti-Catholic propaganda
through an internet server in Jersey.

Detectives believe that Calton Radio — a 24-hour station that
claims to have attracted 130,000 listeners since February — may
be in breach of a new law banning incitement to religious
hatred.

The station has an exclusively "Orange" playlist, including
songs ridiculing the Pope and celebrating outlawed terrorist
organisations.

Its official website features photographs of loyalist
paramilitary murals honouring terror groups including the
Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), the Ulster Defence Association
(UDA), the Ulster Freedom Fighters and the Red Hand Commandos.

It offers downloadable computer wallpaper featuring armed men
in balaclavas carrying guns and shoulder-held rocket launchers
alongside the names of the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commandos.

Visitors can click on an online link to watch graphic video
footage of British Army corporals Derek Wood and David Howes
being brutally beaten and murdered by a republican mob in
Belfast in March 1988.

It also features a "humour" section that refers to "Taigs" — a
derogatory name for Catholics — and features a mocked-up
photograph of Jack McConnell, the first minister, in a Celtic
strip.

The station was originally launched as an offshoot of the
Calton Protestant Defenders Lodge in Glasgow. Now it is run
independently by a group of volunteer "loyalist DJs" there.

Listeners can interact with disc jockeys and request music
through e-mail and the site's chatroom, which boasts more than
4,600 registered members.

The station has been condemned by Nil By Mouth, the anti-
sectarian pressure group, and by Donald Gorrie, the Liberal
Democrat MSP who persuaded the Scottish executive to introduce
the new offence of religious hatred.

The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 treats religiously
motivated crimes as aggravated offences, leading to tougher
sentences. Detective Chief Inspector Robert Hamilton, of the
National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, said that the station could fall
within the scope of the act. "We have been made aware of this
radio station and will be making investigations," he said.

Gorrie said: "The people behind this radio station appear to be
attempting to import a lot of the culture of Northern Ireland
to Scotland and that is something we can do without.

"I am glad that this matter has been drawn to the attention of
the police."

Sandra White, the Glasgow MSP who has campaigned for sectarian
paraphernalia to be outlawed, added: "Some of the material that
this radio station is broadcasting is extremely distasteful and
I hope the police will take it off the air."

A spokesman for Calton Radio denied that it promoted
intolerance and said that it had raised £2,500 for the Royal
Edinburgh Hospital for Sick Children. "We are ordinary people —
not Nazis — who want to express our British culture and
heritage," he said.

"Jack McConnell likes to talk about One Scotland Many Cultures.
He will have to realise that the loyalist community is one of
those cultures and our radio station is here to reflect that."

******************************************

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=63718376&p=637y8678&n=6371
8756

Irish Doctors Over-Prescribing Antibiotics

10/07/2005 - 12:15:09

Doctors in Ireland are being singled out for European criticism
for the over-prescription of antibiotics.

A new European survey shows antibiotics are being overused in
Ireland, and doctors often prescribe more powerful antibiotics
when a lesser one will do.

The results could explain why Ireland has a high resistance
rate to antibiotics.

The Irish Medical Organisation's Doctor Ronan Boland believes
awareness is key. "There's increasing awareness among many
patients that antibiotics are not the always the answer," he
said.

"There remains a problem that significant numbers of patients
will perceive that if they've gone to the trouble and expense
of going to the doctor that they shouldn't leave unless they
are armed with prescriptions," he added.

******************************************

http://www.pressconnects.com/today/topstories/stories/to071005s
177122.shtml

Collins Ready For Her Moment

Elmira native leads first shuttle flight since 'Columbia'

BY GUY GUGLIOTTA
The Washington Post

HOUSTON -- Astronaut Eileen Collins stands 5-feet-6, wears her
auburn hair short, and has a neat, economical way about her
that inspires confidence and encourages confidences. At test
pilot school, they called her "Mom" because the boys liked her.

The other part turns out to be harder to get at. The part about
how a blue-collar kid from public housing in Elmira climbed to
the top of one of the world's most exclusive professions so
smoothly and inevitably that it seemed almost a birthright.

But the other part is there. It's in the windblown, jut-jawed
portrait that celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz made of
her in 1999. And in the shrug she gave the Associated Press
after a fuel leak almost forced her to make an emergency
shuttle landing in Africa: "I knew we had an out somewhere."
And it's in the headline that the magazine Irish America used
for its "Irish of the Century" feature: "Eileen Collins: Rocket
Woman."

Now, after a quarter-century of being singled out for being
female in venues as unlikely as Air Force flight school, the
Grenada invasion, and space, Collins, at 48, has become
probably the best-known active-duty astronaut in the country --
of either sex.

Wednesday, barring delays, she will command Discovery on the
first shuttle flight since Columbia disintegrated 2 1/2 years
ago. It will be the most watched launch in years, and it fell
to Collins to lead it, not because she lobbied for the job or
because she is who she is, but simply because she was next in
line.

There are those who might say that being "next in line" is
Collins' secret, for she seems to have been standing there ever
since the day in 1978 when she was a Syracuse University ROTC
senior and the Air Force decided to take women for pilot
training.

"I was six months from graduation," she said in a recent
interview. "I applied immediately."

In the mid-1980s, when she wanted to fulfill a lifetime dream
by becoming a math teacher, she chose the precise moment when
the Air Force Academy was desperate for role models to inspire
its first trickle of female cadets.

"We were lucky to get her," said Air Force Col. Danny
Litwhiler, head of the academy's mathematics department, noting
the shortage of qualified female teachers with flying
experience at that time.

But she did not get the job just because she was next in line,
Litwhiler said. Even in 1986, Collins knew her own worth, and
she did not like it when the Air Force grounded her temporarily
after Grenada in 1983 for violating the edict that women not
fly combat missions.

"Her bottom line at the time was 'I want to teach, and you
won't let me fly to Grenada, so let me teach or I'll go fly
somewhere else,' " Litwhiler said. "She is disarming and has
this big smile, but if she battles you, watch out. You don't
even know you're losing."

What Collins has always had, said Litwhiler and other
colleagues and acquaintances who spoke about her, is a very
clear idea of what she wants, and a talent for getting it --
but always as a team player, and always within the rules.

"Eileen had doors open for her, but the thing that was
different was she took advantage of every one of them," said
Jerri Truhill, one of 13 fabled members of the Fellow Lady
Astronaut Trainees -- trained to fly in space in 1960 but never
allowed to go because they were women. "We pushed the envelope.
She took the ball and ran with it."

The Trainees, virtually forgotten for decades after NASA
shunted them aside, have enjoyed a recent return to the
limelight, partly, perhaps, because Collins mentions them
frequently and has invited them to every one of her launches.

"We see her as somebody really special," said Truhill, now 76
and retired from flying. "She even had two children between
flights, and that tickles us, too. For every reason they said
we couldn't do it, she's proved them wrong."

But she never rubs anyone's nose in it. "In my job, I'm not
aware of the difference between male and female crew members,"
she said recently. "It may be meaningful to the rest of the
world that a woman is leading this flight, and I think that's
great. For me, it's a way of life."

Like many astronauts, Collins has impeccable public relations
skills, regularly serving up bromides on diverse subjects
including the value of human spaceflight -- "Being an explorer
is human destiny" -- and the repeated postponements of
Discovery's launch -- "We're not going to fly until we're ready
to fly."

She surrenders some personal tidbits:Her parents were her role
models; she learned about flying by watching gliders in Elmira,
the "Soaring Capital of America"; roller coasters "scare me to
death"; and, yes, the guys used to call her Mom, and sometimes
still do.

But she yields little information about her children, Bridget,
9, and Luke, 4, or her husband, Pat Youngs, a former Air Force
pilot now flying for Delta Air Lines. Her telephone numbers --
and Youngs' -- are unlisted. She does not appear to like being
called Mom by adults. She guards her privacy like a celebrity,
because that's what she is.

But it's also beside the point, said former astronaut James D.
Wetherbee, who commanded the 1995 mission to the Mir space
station with Collins as the first woman ever to pilot a
shuttle. "Deep down," he said, paying her the ultimate pilot's
compliment, "she just wants to fly."
----

Beginnings

This was not always apparent. Eileen Marie Collins was born in
Elmira on Nov. 19, 1956, the second of four children to James
Collins, a surveyor and postal worker, and his wife, Rose
Marie. Her parents split up when she was 9, and she lived in
public housing, graduating from Elmira Free Academy in 1974.

"I was always fascinated by the geometry in my father's job,
and I wanted to be a teacher," she said, so she entered Corning
Community College and graduated with an associate's degree in
mathematics and science in 1976.

So far, so ordinary. "She wasn't somebody who comes in and is
super-gifted," said Lawrence Josbeno, chairman of the college's
physics department. "She was a good student, but I tell my
young women students today, 'You could be Eileen Collins.' "

Maybe. Collins today is an almost mythical figure in Elmira, a
frequent visitor who attends Mass at St. Peter & Paul's Church
and makes periodic public appearances. Corning Community
College has a 20-inch telescope at the Eileen Collins
Observatory.

But even though Collins talks today about watching Star Trek as
a kid and going to Harris Hill to look at the gliders, her
dedication to flight apparently arose, at least in part,
because of a cold calculation she made at Corning:"There was an
overflow of teachers. So I learned about airplanes."

And she went to Syracuse.

Anticipating the Air Force's change of heart about female
pilots, she took flying lessons before her senior year, working
as a waitress at Pudgie's Pizza to pay for them.

"Oh, yeah. She was good," said Alan Davis, a former fighter
pilot who taught Collins at a local airport. "I was able to
chat with her about some of my experiences, but she didn't need
pep talks."

Air Force 2nd Lt. Collins graduated in 1979 from pilot training
at Vance Air Force Base, Okla., in the first class to accept
women, and remained as an instructor on T-38 jet trainers. Then
she transferred to Travis Air Force Base in California, where
she met Youngs and flew C-141 cargo jets.

She went to the Air Force Academy in 1986 after negotiating a
deal that allowed her first to get a master's degree in applied
mathematics at Stanford University so she could qualify for an
academy job. While at the academy she earned a second master's
in space systems management from Webster University.

"She was already known as an outstanding pilot in the C-141
world when we got her," Litwhiler recalled. "They didn't want
to let her go, but she was very persistent." And there was
something else:"She wanted to go to test pilot school."

And, of course, she did.

By 1989, after two years at the academy, Collins was as hot a
property as the Air Force had. "She had 1,500 hours in two
different aircraft -- and an engineering background," said
retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael Kostelnik, former head of
the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base and, as NASA's
deputy associate administrator for the shuttle and space
station, Collins' boss. Kostelnik had been watching her for two
years because "she was exactly what we were looking for."

Collins became only the second woman to complete test pilot
school, but she was gone almost as soon as she graduated --
accepted, on her first try, to become an astronaut.

From that moment until today, she has lived in a fishbowl.
There were 23 astronauts in the class of 1990, but only one was
both a woman and a test pilot. From the day she arrived at
Johnson Space Center, she was destined to become the first
woman to pilot the space shuttle.

It happened in February 1995 with Wetherbee aboard Discovery,
the same orbiter she will fly this week. Two years later, she
piloted Atlantis to rendezvous and dock with Mir, and in early
1998, President Clinton brought her to the White House to
announce that she would be the first woman to command a shuttle
flight. "Her life," Clinton said, "is a story of challenges set
and challenges met."

She cemented her mystique aboard Columbia as shuttle commander
on July 23, 1999, when two of the main engine computers short-
circuited on launch. Backups kicked in, but a second breakdown
-- a leak of liquid hydrogen -- threatened to leave Columbia
out of gas and not yet in orbit. An emergency landing loomed.

She never lost her cool, and Columbia had just enough fuel to
creep into space. Five days later, after placing the Chandra X-
Ray Observatory safely in orbit, Collins glided to a feather-
light landing at Kennedy Space Center. "Eileen rocks," said
pilot Jeff Ashby.

Collins was named to command the upcoming Discovery flight long
before the Columbia accident and has waited for nearly 2 1/2
years while her spacecraft was outfitted with new safety
features and the mission reshaped as a test flight for new
equipment and procedures.

If the tedium and the endless questions -- about the shuttle's
safety, about NASA's shortcomings, about the symbolism of
making the first post-Columbia flight -- are wearing thin, she
doesn't show it. "I am very excited to be here and very proud
to be part of this great team," she said at a recent news
conference.

But the other Collins is always in the background.

"I have no nerves, no emotion, no pressure," she said in an
interview after the news conference, dismissing a question
about all the attention her upcoming flight is getting. "I've
got a $2 billion spacecraft on my hands. I don't think about
what's happening outside."

******************************************

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=122375360&p=yzz37594x&n=12
2375969

Yeats Collection Goes Up For Auction

10/07/2005 - 12:46:37

A collection of letters and an essay penned by one of Ireland's
greatest poets, William Butler Yeats, is to be auctioned in
Sotheby's of London this week.

The album, which includes an annotated, working manuscript of
"The Tragic Theatre" and 18 signed letters written by Yeats is
expected to fetch up to €120,000.

It is understood several Irish people have contacted the
auctioneers eager to snap up the highly sought after personal
letters and writing.

Philip Errington, literature expert with Sotheby's, said the
lot had attracted universities, institutions, and individuals
as it was unusual to get a piece of work of such major
importance.

"It is one of the most important groups of manuscripts to have
ever appeared at auction in recent times," he said.

"It will appeal to collectors of modern Irish literature and we
have had conversations with institutions who would like to add
this to collections."

A number of Irish and American buyers are believed to have
joined the race to buy the collection.

Mr Errington said the writings offered one of the best insights
into the mind of Yeats since the 387-page Great Vellum Notebook
was sold in 1990.

The album contains 18 letters from Yeats to his friend Sydney
Cockerell along with several other personal letters, and a
picture of Irish playwright Lady Gregory.

Yeats' essay, "The Tragic Theatre", was first published in the
periodical The Mask in 1910 and discusses his conception of
tragedy in theatre along with many annotations and changes.

The edition on sale next week is 25 pages in black ink, fully
annotated and signed.

It will go under the hammer on Tuesday as part of the
Literature and History Sale.

A first edition of James Joyce's "Ulysees", inscribed by the
Dublin writer to his friend, the artist, Arthur Power will also
be auctioned and is expected to reach up to €36,000.

Several lots of works by Oscar Wilde will also be offered to
collectors including a first edition of "An Ideal Husband" and
a number of photographs of Wilde.
Posted by: Unknown / 8:43 AM
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