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September 18, 2005

Robinson & Adams Were Stars At Clinton Summit

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News about Ireland & the Irish

EX 09/18/05 Robbo Turns On Charm At Clinton Summit
BB 09/18/05 Police Attacked By Republican Crowd In Town
BB 09/18/05 Portadown School Blaze 'May Be Deliberate'
IT 09/19/05 Durkan Accuses Unionist Politicians
IT 09/19/05 Hain Address Unionist Concerns On Peace Process
IO 09/18/05 Paisley: Hopes Of Talks With IRA Are 'Fantasy'
IT 09/19/05 IRL Donates €390000 To Colombian Peace Process
GU 09/18/05 Bloody Sunday: Why Isn't This Shown On The BBC?
IT 09/19/05 Funder Of US Neo-Nazi Groups May Be In Ireland
MI 09/18/05 Pull Out Of Iraq Says Col. Tim Collins
IT 09/19/05 Protest Over Plans For Dún Laoghaire Baths
BB 09/18/05 Enniskillen Britton Is Killed At Ballybunion
HC 09/18/05 San Antonio Attny Pat Maloney Sr. Dies

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http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/world/Full_Story/did-sgSXZFezhnHeIsgHuTLc4nqWo2.asp

Robbo Turns On Charm At Clinton Summit

By Ann Cahill, New York

MARY ROBINSON and Gerry Adams played starring roles in Bill
Clinton's summit of world leaders and tycoons in New York
over the weekend.

The event raised over €1 billion in pledges for projects to
combat poverty, war and climate change and launched the
Clinton Global Initiative.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds
were among a select group to attend breakfast with the
former US President. Ms Robinson hosted one of the four key
sessions, with the Sinn Féin leader discussing how to break
out of religion-fuelled conflict. The audiences included
some of the world's most powerful figures, from US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's Tony
Blair to media mogul Rupert Murdoch. There was a touch of
Clinton-era glamour too, with Leonardo di Caprio in the
audience for Mr Adams's round-table discussion of religion
as a source and solution to conflict.

Angelina Jolie was at the session discussing the role of
enterprise in tackling poverty while Barbara Streisand and
Mick Jagger were at the Friday night dinner. The 800
attendees received a gold-trimmed card inviting them to
fill in the amount they wanted to pledge for a specific
cause. Mr Clinton, looking well after his health problems,
warned them that if they don't stick to their pledges they
won't be invited to the next Initiative event.

With the help of hundreds of volunteers and backing from
billionaire Thomas Golisano, the high-energy event was a
stark contrast to the summit of world leaders across town
at the United Nations. Ms Robinson, virtually banned from
the UN with all NGOs, charmed guests including Ukraine
keader Viktor Yushchenko into a debate on the need for
decent government. One of the advisors to the Clinton
Initiative, her sessions had standing room only and guests
responded to her self-described "bossy line of
questioning".

Mr Adams was equally relaxed with a group including former
US Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Nobody appeared
quite sure why Mr Clinton had launched such a high-profile
event. Some suspected it might be to help his wife in her
expected presidential bid while others suggested he may be
campaigning to be next head of the UN, despite the rota
saying it must go to somebody from Asia when Kofi Annan
stands down next year.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/4257286.stm

Police Attacked By Crowd In Town

Police have come under attack from crowds of youths in a
nationalist area of Antrim for a second night running.

At least 10 petrol bombs and other missiles, including
bricks and bottles, were thrown during trouble in the
Rathenraw estate, police said.

Stiles Way was closed for four hours as a crowd of up to 60
youths burned a number of wheelie bins in the road.

Three males aged 15, 17 and 18 were arrested but were later
released, pending further reports.

Two police vehicles sustained minor damage in the
disturbances.

SDLP assembly member Thomas Burns said a small number of
people were behind the trouble.

"There can be no excuse or justification for the violence
we have witnessed over the last couple of nights in
Rathenraw," he said.

"Those responsible for the rioting must realise that it is
their own community they are destroying.

"They must realise that the people in the Rathenraw do not
want violence and destruction to mark their area."

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/09/18 17:20:18 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/4257620.stm

School Blaze 'May Be Deliberate'

A fire at a secondary school in Portadown is being treated
as arson, police have said.

The blaze at Drumcree College on Moy Road was discovered on
Sunday, shortly after midnight.

It is believed the fire was started at the back of the
school in a store room which was badly damaged. A nearby
classroom was also damaged by smoke.

Condemning the incident, Sinn Fein assembly member John
O'Dowd called for an end to such "mindless" attacks.

"This appears to be a totally random act of vandalism at
this stage," he said.

"Though the motive remains unclear, regardless of the
motive, it's a totally unnecessary attack against a
community facility."

Police officers have examined the scene of the fire, and
detectives have appealed for information.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/09/18 17:28:00 GMT
© BBC MMV

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/0919/4285755136HM6NIWRAP.html

Durkan Accuses Unionist Politicians

Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor

SDLP leader Mark Durkan continued his onslaught on DUP
and Ulster Unionist Party political leaders at the weekend,
saying the loyalist "paramilitary tail" appeared to be
almost "wagging the unionist political dog".

After the serious rioting and violence last week Northern
Ireland was relatively peaceful during the weekend, despite
some protests and minor disturbances.

The main trouble involved nationalists, who for two
consecutive nights attacked the PSNI in Antrim on Friday
night and Saturday night.

There is concern, however, that loyalists will persist with
their street protests, which caused major morning and
evening rush-hour traffic disruption in Belfast and in
other towns in the North last week.

Northern Secretary Peter Hain will deliver a speech in
Belfast on Wednesday in which he will try to address
loyalist and unionist concerns about the peace process,
particularly their claim that it is a one-sided process in
favour of nationalists.

He is expected to focus on the need for a "common agenda"
to improve the situation for everyone in Northern Ireland,
while also focusing on the alienation and disaffection felt
in loyalist areas.

He is unlikely, however, to heed calls from the Orange
Order and unionist politicians for the disbanding of the
Parades Commission. Orange Order leaders blamed the
commission and the PSNI for triggering last week's trouble
and insisted its members bore no responsibility for the
violence, despite police footage of Orangemen involved in
the disturbances.

Mr Hain, with Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, will
today try to experience at first hand what the issues are
that cause loyalists most concern, when he visits loyalist
estates in the Lisburn area.

Mr Durkan, however, hit out again at the weekend at
unionist leaders for a failure of leadership. He said they
were guilty of "almost soliciting" the loyalist violence
that flared after Saturday week's rerouted Orange Order
Whiterock parade.

It appeared the loyalist "paramilitary tail" was almost
"wagging the unionist political dog".

Of unionist leaders, he added: "Effectively, the signal
they sent to people was 'do your worst and we won't blame
you, do your worst and we will blame the police. Do your
worst and we will blame the Parades Commission and we will
blame the Secretary of State.' Of course, that is exactly
what they have done since."

Mr Durkan told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme
that the leaders of the DUP and UUP had allowed the
loyalist paramilitaries to take the lead on policing and
parades.

"It seems as though the whip hand in unionist politics
actually lies with the paramilitaries, who showed their
real nature last weekend," he said.

Two Church of Ireland bishops have issued a statement
rejecting violence as a legitimate method of expressing
grievances, while offering to help communities caught up in
the loyalist violence.

Bishop Alan Harper of Connor and Bishop Harold Millar of
Down and Dromore said they hoped to meet people in the
areas affected, so that they might "understand the issues
behind the violence".

It also emerged that a 14-year-old Catholic schoolboy
allegedly joined loyalist rioters to hurl stones at the
PSNI and British army in Lisburn last week.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/0919/3815086215HM1NEWDECOMMISSION.html

Hain To Address Unionist Concerns On Peace Process

Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor

Northern Secretary Peter Hain will this week attempt to
tackle loyalist and unionist disaffection with the peace
process as the IRA remains on track to decommission in the
coming weeks.

Mr Hain will deliver a speech in Belfast on Wednesday which
the British and Irish governments, alarmed by recent
loyalist violence, hope will help to calm the current level
of unionist and loyalist volatility, official sources have
confirmed. Both governments remain hopeful that IRA
decommissioning is imminent.

The weekend passed off relatively peacefully although there
are still concerns that the violence that flared after the
rerouted Orange Order Whiterock parade could re-erupt.

The Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party
have been pressing the British government to move on a
range of matters to help boost unionist confidence. These
include the abolition of the Parades Commission, greater
investment in loyalist areas, and support for Orange or
unionist cultural traditions.

Mr Hain is expected to acknowledge unionist and loyalist
concerns and antipathy to the Belfast Agreement. He has
resisted any attempts to discredit the Parades Commission
but nonetheless is due to chart a course for restoring some
stability to loyalism based on the theme of a "common
agenda" to benefit all of the people of Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams is expected to
further prime the republican base for impending IRA
disarmament in what his party is billing as a keynote
speech in south Armagh on Thursday.

There was some anxiety that loyalist violence during and
after Saturday week's rerouted Whiterock parade might delay
the IRA's July commitment to fully render its arsenals
beyond use.

The governments, however, were heartened that the IRA
appears still on course to decommission, as made clear by
Mr Adams in comments in Belfast early last week and in the
US towards the end of last week. Well-placed sources said
that the expectation remains that decommissioning will take
place by the end of this month or in the first two weeks of
October.

In Washington and New York Mr Adams briefed senior US State
Department officials, senators and members of Congress on
the IRA's July statement in which it said it was ending its
armed campaign and committed the organisation to full
disarmament.

Sinn Féin issued a statement at the weekend saying Mr Adams
in his US meetings "stressed his confidence that the IRA
leadership will honour its commitments, including that of
engaging with the IICD (decommissioning body) and putting
its weapons beyond use".

There is a remaining uncertainty as to whether the nature
of the decommissioning body's statement about IRA
decommissioning - to which an independent Protestant and
Catholic cleric are also due to attest - will be
sufficiently detailed to convince unionism that the IRA has
fully disarmed.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.online.ie/news/viewer.adp?article=3276820

Paisley: Hopes Of Talks With IRA Are 'Fantasy'

online.ie
2005-09-18 17:10:02+01

Ian Paisley's hardline Democratic Unionist Party today
dismissed as "fantasy" any idea of it taking part in early
negotiations with Sinn Fein over the resumption of power
sharing even if the IRA disarms.

The republicans are widely expected to announce the
completion of decommissioning within the next week or two.

But the DUP made it clear Tony Blair was very wrong if he
thought that would signal a rush from the main voice of
unionism to restore the power sharing administration at
Stormont.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds said the British government
had decided to do a deal with republicans of which his
party was not part.

"They will find short shrift from us if they think they can
act in this way and then just expect us to meekly acquiesce
in their plans to get Sinn Fein into government," said Mr
Dodds.

He accused the government of caving in to the IRA on the
issues surrounding the full verification and transparency
of the decommissioning process.

At the same time it had dropped the requirement for the
disbandment of the IRA as an organisation.

"In so doing they are deliberately making the process into
something that will not build confidence in the community,"
he said.

Mr Dodds added: "It has rushed with obscene haste to
deliver concessions to Sinn Féin and treated the elected
voice of unionism with disdain."

The Government, he said, would not dictate to the DUP nor
would the DUP respond to pressure from those whose aim was
to place IRA/Sinn Féin in government.

And he warned: "By doing a side deal with republicans and
ignoring unionist demands the Government has set back the
prospects for progress."

While Mr Dodds was standing firm on there being no
negotiations, the SDLP asked when the penny was going to
drop that only through real dialogue and real partnership
would solutions be found to the communities' problems.

North Antrim Assembly member Sean Farren said the message
of the past week of violence was that the political vacuum
was filled by paramilitaries and their supporters.

He said to restore the hope which was present during the
short period of devolution, the government should
immediately set about reconstructing "a real political
process to replace the shambles for what passes as a
process at present".

Calling for parties to work together, he said: "Working
together, we can tackle the deprivation that affects
Catholic and Protestant communities.

"Working the (Good Friday) Agreement we can end the
politics of suspension and side deals. Working as partners
we can heal the divisions in our society."

Mr Farren said it must be almost incredible to the outside
world that while parts of Belfast and other towns burn, the
elected representatives of society had no opportunity to
work together to resolve whatever problems lie at the heart
of the mayhem.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/0919/4273241399HM6COLOMBIA.html

Ireland To Donate €390000 To Colombian Peace Process

Deaglan de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, in New
York

Ireland is providing €390,000 in funds to support the
peace process in strife-ridden Colombia. This emerged on
the eve of a meeting at the United Nations between Minister
for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and his Colombian
counterpart, Carolina Barco.

The funds are being provided over a three-year period to
the "peace and verification" mission of the Organisation of
American States (OAS) in Colombia. Other donors are the
Netherlands, Sweden, the US and the Colombian government.

The mandate of the OAS mission is to oversee the
disarmament and demobilisation of right-wing paramilitaries
in Colombia who are one of the major element in the
country's long-running civil conflict.

The funding was approved last June and will be reviewed on
an annual basis to ensure that proper account is being
taken of human rights issues. The New York-based
organisation, Human Rights Watch, has already urged the
Swedish and Netherlands governments to withdraw their
support because the Colombian government, in creating a
legislative framework for the demobilisation process,
allegedly failed to provide justice for the victims of
human rights abuses committed by the paramilitaries.

Mr Ahern will discuss this aspect of the legislation with
Ms Barco.

Today's meeting between the two ministers is taking place
at the request of the Colombian government. The main item
on the agenda is expected to be the question of the so-
called "Colombia Three" who escaped from Colombia to
Ireland to avoid serving 17-year sentences imposed by an
appeal tribunal for training the left-wing Farc guerrillas
in bomb-making techniques.

Mr Ahern will inform Ms Barco that, while the Government
shares the Colombian Government's commitment to fight
international terrorism, any question of a breach of Irish
law is a matter for investigation by the Garda Síochána and
the independent DPP.

The Minister will also tell Ms Barco he is aware the men
have been convicted of very serious offences under
Colombian law and that he understands the Colombian
authorities are very anxious to have them brought back to
serve their sentences.

However, he will point out that the Government does not
have the authority to arrest and detain the men or to
extradite them without due legal process and that these are
matters for the Garda, the DPP and the courts.

He will draw Ms Barco's attention to the fact that Garda
officers travelled to Colombia on September 7th as part of
their investigation. The Government had instructed that the
legal implications of the case be examined as a matter of
urgency and would meet its international obligations,
bearing in mind that there was no bilateral extradition
treaty between the two countries.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1573332,00.html

Bloody Sunday: Why Isn't This Shown On The BBC?

When the Tricycle theatre's Bloody Sunday drama premiered
in Derry on Friday, the relatives of the victims had one
question. Eamonn McCann reports

Monday September 19, 2005
The Guardian

The warmest applause at Friday's performance in Derry of
Bloody Sunday: Scenes From the Saville Inquiry came during
the discussion afterwards, when somebody in the balcony
called for a campaign to pressurise the BBC into presenting
the play on television. Director Nick Kent had explained
that although the BBC had contributed £10,000 to
development of the piece with a view to a TV screening,
nobody from the corporation with commissioning authority
had come to the Tricycle theatre to see the finished work.
To many in the audience it seemed obvious that here was
another example of the media glancing at Bloody Sunday and
then averting its eyes from the clear truth emerging, and
that the appropriate reaction was to fetch out the
placards.

"I don't know, though," sighed Gerry Duddy - brother of
Jackie, who was 17 when he was shot in the back by a
paratrooper as he fled across the Rossville flats car-park.
"Thirty years of campaigning is nearly enough."

The presence of relatives of all 13 civil rights
demonstrators killed in the Bogside, as well as half a
dozen of the surviving wounded, gave the evening a jagged
edge. "I won't read out the next paragraph," said Tom
Hardiman as Michael Mansfield, glancing round at the
auditorium, cross-examining Soldier F about the bullet he'd
fired into the back of the head of Barney McGuigan, 41, as
he stepped out from cover of a telephone box at the corner
of the flats waving a white handkerchief to go to the aid
of Paddy Doherty, 31, as he lay dying from a bullet that
hit him an inch from the anus and furrowed through his body
to exit at his chest. Questioning F in October 2003 at the
Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, Mansfield had omitted
the passage out of deference to members of the McGuigan
family present. The consideration was apt here, too.

The audience's involvement - participation, almost - in the
play reflected a sense of ownership of the proceedings on
which the script was based. Many had sat through all of the
431 days of evidence. They wanted to see what the writer,
Richard Norton-Taylor, had made of the search for the truth
which their campaigning had forced upon the British
authorities.

"It was completely balanced, completely objective," said
John Kelly, whose brother Michael, 17, was shot as he
stumbled from a rubble barricade in Rossville Street.
"That's what'll have worried the BBC. Anybody watching that
play can see we were right."

None of the five soldiers whose evidence is covered - F, S,
Colonel Derek Wilford of the Parachute Regiment, 8th
Brigade Commander Pat MacLellan and the Commander of Land
Forces NI, General Robert Ford - emerges with reputation
intact. All of the civilians depicted, including Mickey
Bridge (wounded as he ran remonstrating towards the
soldiers who had just killed Jackie Duddy) and Bishop
Edward Daly (both also in the audience), Bernadette Devlin
(now McAliskey) and Reg Tester, the quartermaster of the
Official IRA, came across as credible. Herein lies the
source of the terror the Derry audience believes is still
felt by powerful interests in Britain, including media
interests, when confronted with a representation of the
truth about Bloody Sunday.

A majority of people in Derry aren't waiting for Saville to
tell them the truth, but to discover whether Saville will
tell the truth to the world. The killings unfolded over a
period of perhaps 17 minutes in a built-up area in broad
daylight. Every killing and wounding was witnessed, some at
very close quarters, from the windows of flats and
maisonettes or the nooks and crannies where local people
had huddled. Within hours, even as the paratroopers'
fraudulent account was being transmitted around the world
by British government agencies, people in Derry were
piecing their memories together, resolving that, however
long it might take, there'd be a reckoning.

The Tricycle won acclaim for its Scott "arms-to-Iraq" piece
and The Colour of Justice, from the Stephen Lawrence
Inquiry. Saville offered a bigger challenge politically:
the truth about Bloody Sunday has to do not with
institutional prejudice or administrative complicity in
law-breaking, but with the direct, wilful murder of
innocent unarmed civilians by uniformed representatives of
the state.

And, as Kent pointed out, "We have Iraq now ... The
soldiers there have to know that the law applies to them."

This may be a factor - certainly, the families believe it
so - in the failure of the mainstream media to report
adequately on the proceeding of Saville. Of the close on
250 soldiers who testified, from teenage privates to
General Sir Michael Jackson, then second in command of the
paras, none provided an explanation of how the 26 people
now acknowledged as innocent came to be shot. Jackson, for
example, managed not to observe a single killing or
wounding.

The Tricycle's Bloody Sunday was thus seen in Derry not as
a piece of political drama but as an episode in a long
political struggle, a chink in the official armour still
imprisoning the truth, a voice speaking out from within
surrounding silence.

It's doubtful whether anybody here has the energy for a
campaign to persuade the BBC that this is a voice worth
amplifying to its audience. But they left content that the
London theatre at least had played its part in the truth-
telling they crave ·

Bloody Sunday is at the Tricycle Theatre, London NW6
(020-7328 1000), from tomorrow.

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/0919/3782076430AG19ODRICSOLL.html

Millionaire Funder Of US Neo-Nazi Groups May Be Hiding In
Ireland

Seán O'Driscoll

America's FBI thinks a neo-Nazi on the run may have an
Irish connection, Seán O'Driscoll reports from New York

The leading funder of US white supremacist groups is
believed to be hiding in Ireland, the FBI has said. The
bureau of investigation in Seattle, Washington state,
uncovered a forwarding address in Beresford Place, Dublin
for multimillionaire Vincent Bertollini, who has spent
millions of dollars promoting neo-Nazi and white
supremacist groups.

The FBI and police in Sandpoint, Idaho have just renewed
their interest in Bertollini after a finance company
foreclosed a home he purchased for a neo-Nazi group,
signifying that Bertollini is determined to remain
undetected.

He fled his home in Idaho in 2001 while awaiting sentencing
on his third drink-driving offence, for which he was due to
be imprisoned.

Bertollini (56) made millions of dollars during the Silicon
Valley tech boom in the 1990s, along with his business
partner and fellow white supremacist, Carl E Story, and
used it to fund racist groups.

The pair also set up their own neo-Nazi church, called the
11th Hour Remnant Messenger and regularly visited the Aryan
Nations headquarters in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Story and
Bertollini believe that white Anglo-Saxons are the chosen
people described in the Bible, that Jews are the product of
a sexual union between Eve and Satan, and that non-whites
are soul-less subhumans.

The activities of Bertollini and Story have been monitored
by the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based organisation that
campaigns against anti-Semitism and other forms of race
hate. According to the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, which
the pair produce, "blacks, orientals and other races",
unlike "Aryans", do not have souls. These "pre-Adamic"
people intermarried with the Jews, producing "a mongrel,
hybrid, a non-race".

Story and Bertollini believe that America has become a
"dictatorship," enslaved to "Jewish communism".

They predict that there will be a third World War, followed
by the migration of the "white race" from America to
Israel.

Eventually, "The War of All Wars!" between the "white" race
and the Jewish, Satanic "non-race" will lead to
"Armageddon", or a fourth World War, resulting in the
victory of the "white" race and the unending reign of Jesus
Christ over his "white" people.

Bertollini is described as 1.8m (6ft) tall, weighing 75kg
with brown hair and blue eyes. The FBI gave The Irish Times
a previously unpublished surveillance photograph of
Bertollini attending a neo-Nazi rally in northern Idaho in
the hope that someone in Ireland might recognise him.

Bertollini was the biggest funder of the Aryan Nations neo-
Nazi group and regularly attended its rallies. He purchased
a home in Idaho for the group, which is now being
foreclosed, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
sending out white supremacist mailing and setting up racist
websites.

FBI agent Norm Brown, a supervisor at the anti-terrorism
taskforce in Seattle, Washington, said that Ireland was the
"best possibility" for finding Bertollini.

"He just disappeared but with the forwarding address, it
looks like Ireland is our best chance but he could have
moved on," he said.

Norm Gissel, an attorney in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and member
of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said
that Bertollini fled Idaho after telling fellow white
supremacists that "the Jews" were determined to put him
away.

"He has proved to be a very consistent funder of hate
groups and he has poured a lot of money into the Aryan
Nations," he said.

Bertollini was close to Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler
until Butler's death in 2003.

In 2000, a mother and son who were beaten up by security
guards outside the group's headquarters won a $6.3 million
(€5.1 million) judgment against Aryan Nations and the group
was forced to sell its property.

Bertollini purchased a new headquarters for the group in
nearby Sandpoint, where his drink driving charges are still
outstanding.

Bertollini is notorious in Sandpoint for mass mailing
racist and neo-Nazi literature in the area. He once mailed
out 9,000 video-tape interviews with Butler.

Another mass mailing included a "genealogy chart" showing
how white Christians were descendants of Adam and Eve,
while Jews were descendants of Eve and Satan.

A local residents group organised a campaign to mail back
the hate literature to Bertollini's home.

He is also known for running for Sandpoint mayor as a
write-in candidate and received less than 40 votes.

© The Irish Times

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16147106&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=pull-our-boys-out-of-iraq--says-col--tim-collins-inspirational-former-iraq-war-commander--name_page.html

19 September 2005

Pull Our Boys Out Of Iraq Says Col. Tim Collins
Inspirational Former Iraq War Commander

Colonel Tim Collins

THE death last week of Major Matthew Bacon brought to 95
the number of British servicemen killed in Iraq. Yesterday,
Defence Secretary John Reid said more British troops were
ready, if needed, to go to Iraq to bolster the 9,000
already fighting the insurgency.

Here Colonel Tim Collins, who commanded the 1st Battalion,
Royal Irish Regiment during the invasion of Iraq, and gave
a stirring eve-of-battle speech of his troops, argues that
the time has come for the West to get out.

WE need to get out of Iraq. Not just the Brits, but the
entire Western force.

We must leave Iraq to show that any progress in the country
has been achieved by the Iraqis themselves.

Otherwise it will be an echo of Vietnam in the 1970s where
the government had very little credibility because it was
seen as a puppet of America.

So we must insure the legitimate Iraqi government is
nobody's puppet.

Advertisement

The time will come when Iraq can only be stabilised by the
Iraqis themselves. Only they hold the solution to the
overwhelming problem of insurgency.

Only Iraqis truly understand it well enough to resolve it.

And some of the measures they will have to take may not be
particularly pretty, may well not abide by any conventions
we're used to - and we may not want to be closely
associated with them.

But people like the Fedayeen need to be rooted out, and
doing it will be a dirty business.

There is no easy solution to people like these. They are
brought up to worship Saddam Hussein at all times - the
ultimate loyalists.

They are still dedicated to Saddam - and still dedicated to
the disruption of the occupying forces.

And it is the Fedayeen who are orchestrating the
insurgency.

The very bottom line, however, is that we need to get out
of Iraq because we really have too many better things to
spend our money - and the treasured lives of our soldiers -
on.

BUT it's now a conflict that, having become involved in, we
must stay with. We can't just cut and run.

It would be nice to have our troops out tomorrow but if we
leave too quickly it would stay with us for generations and
create another Lebanon.

The tragedy of it all is that we could have been out much
sooner.

If we had bothered to take a real interest in what we were
doing earlier, we could have left a stable situation and
cost fewer lives.

In reality, we overturned the Iraqi regime but gave no
thought to what was needed to follow on.

Consequently, we had a disastrous outbreak of looting and
an insurgency which could have been controlled by the Iraqi
police and military, had we planned to harness their
capabilities and goodwill sooner.

Now we must concentrate on the fact that we have dragged
the Iraqis into a deep hole - and we must help them out of
that hole before we even think about getting out ourselves.

The only way that can be done is by giving the Iraqis the
ability to defend themselves - which is very important.

And we need to give the middle-class, middle-of-the-road
educated Iraqis the incentive to get involved in their own
politics.

The danger is, as in Northern Ireland, that the politics is
left to the extremists.

So we need to make sure there is security for normal Iraqis
to become involved in politics without being murdered.

A huge difficulty is that the voluntary recruitment to the
Iraqi army has predominantly attracted Shia and Kurds - and
the Sunnis, disinclined to enlist, have become estranged.

A prime example of that was the battle for Tal Afar this
week, a town divided between Shia and Sunnis.

What happened was the security forces - predominantly Shia
and Kurds assisted by US forces - had a huge victory over
Sunni resistance fighters.

The coalition forces defeated the insurgents but many are
saying it was the evil Shia and their wicked Western allies
beating the Sunnis.

Unless we scrupulously ensure that the Iraqi security
forces reflect the full diversity of the country, then they
will be seen as a sectarian force.

It took us a while to understand that in Northern Ireland
and now it's almost as if we've forgotten those lessons.

The ideal situation would be to have a Sunni security force
defeating Sunni insurgents simply because they are
criminals. A Shia security force is seen as a tool of the
evil West when they do it.

As well as improving the security situation we need to let
Iraq prosper, to let the people of Iraq harness the
potential of the country and to turn away from the men of
violence.

They must see the tangible benefits of their wealth, see
progress and stability, see the infrastructure improving
and better lives for their children.

AND that is only going to happen if they can enjoy the
revenue from their oil wealth.

At the moment the Iraqis don't have enough control over
their own resources - they're all in the hands of foreign
companies.

Equally important is a diplomatic offensive, encouraging
the other countries of the region to become involved in the
politics of Iraq.

That means helping seal their borders against the
insurgents that are constantly creeping into Iraq.

We've had a number of false starts, so now we need another
two years to help the Iraqi security forces find stability
on a more representative basis.

As they reorganise, the Western coalition must provide the
security that is so necessary on the ground.

If we walk away without getting Iraq properly organised
they will just lash out and, like Yugoslavia, become a
cause for war in the future.

And we must show them the crude approach is not necessarily
the best approach.

We still have an opportunity to stop what could become a
disastrous civil war.

-Rules Of Engagement: A Life In Conflict by Tim Collins is
out now from Headline, £20.

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2005/0919/2434995626HM3BATHS.html

Protest Over Plans For Dún Laoghaire Baths

Fiona Gradient

Up to 4,000 people attended a march and concert in Dún
Laoghaire yesterday, in protest at plans to develop the
local derelict baths.

Residents from around the county and the Save Our Seafront
(SOS) organisation were joined by musicians including
Christy Moore, Ronnie Drew and Mike Hanrahan, of Stockton's
Wing, to highlight their opposition to the council's plans
to develop Dún Laoghaire baths on Queen's Road.

The €140 million proposal was designed by Dún Laoghaire
Rathdown County Council architects. It includes an eight-
storey building with 180 apartments over retail units and
restaurants, an indoor swimming and leisure complex, and a
maritime park on five acres of infilled seashore.

Marchers walked from the gates of the People's Park,
through the town and back along the coast to Scotsman's
Bay, where the concert was held.

The protest is the third organised by SOS and has added to
pressure on councillors, who are expected to make a
decision on progressing the baths plan at the next council
meeting in October.

Locals fear that the proposed development will destroy the
view and privatise what they believe should be a public
amenity. The council argues that the only way the
regeneration of the baths can be financed is through
including a residential element in the development.

Speakers at the event included Richard Boyd Barrett,
chairman of SOS, Nicola Serrate, the organisation's
secretary, Maireád Meegan of An Taisce, Gene Heifer of
Combined Residents to Save Open Spaces, Green Party TD
Ciarán Cuffe and John Elliot of the Sandycove and Glasthule
Residents' Association. Some local councillors also
attended. Other acts included Red Kid, Claustra, and the
Dalkey Gospel Choir.

Speaking before going on stage, Ronnie Drew said he decided
to support the protest because he was "sick and tired of
developers getting handed over things that belong to us".

"It is all very patronising, those in power telling us
what's good for us, we know what's good for us and it's not
this," he said.

Christy Moore said the baths should be available to all
people and not just the wealthy few.

"There are too many luxury apartments in the area already,"
he said. "Historically and traditionally everyone who so
desired could paddle and fish, swim and enjoy their day at
the seaside."

Richard Boyd Barrett said that SOS is calling on
councillors to shelve the plan at their next meeting.

"We have shown clearly that the majority of people in the
area are utterly opposed to this outrageous plan," he said.
"We want firm commitments from the council and central
Government to provide the money for a fully public swimming
amenity. If they had the money to run the baths in the past
when this country was a lot poorer, they certainly can
afford to run them in the era of the Celtic Tiger."

© The Irish Times

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/4257912.stm

Britton Is Killed At Ballybunion

Richard Britton has been killed at the Ballybunion road
races.

The popular Enniskillen rider died after crashing in the
250cc race on Sunday. The meeting was abandoned.

Britton, 34, who was married with a five-year-old son, was
one of the top road racers of his generation, winning at
national races throughout Ireland.

He was a double Irish and Ulster road race champion and won
one international race, the Production event at the 2000
North West 200.

He also won the Regal 600cc series on four occasions and
was a podium finisher at both the Isle of Man TT and Ulster
Grand Prix.

Eyewitness reports suggest that Britton's bike seized on
the first lap of the race and it is believed he was killed
instantly at the scene of the accident.

Born in England, Britton moved to Northern Ireland as a
child and began his racing career at Aghadowey in 1991.

Although generally regarded as a road racer, he also
enjoyed short circuit racing and listed Bishopscourt and
the North West 200 as his favourite tracks.

He enjoyed mixed fortunes in 2005 and parted company with
the DMRR Honda team in July, signing for the Vitrans Honda
team for the Ulster Grand Prix.

Britton previously raced for Schimmel Racing and then
enjoyed a long-term association with Garvagh businessman PJ
O'Kane.

The Ballybunion races were being staged for the first time.

Noel Johnston, clerk of the course at the Ulster Grand Prix
described Britton as "one of the characters of the paddock
who always had a smile on his face, and had the talent to
match his attitude."

Story from BBC SPORT:
Published: 2005/09/18 12:44:21 GMT
© BBC MMV

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

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3357718

Sept. 17, 2005, 6:46PM

Pat Maloney Sr. , Who Tried Cases For 50 Years, Was Known
As The King Of Torts In San Antonio

Million-dollar verdicts became his specialty

By CARMINA DANINI
San Antonio Express-news

Pat Maloney Sr.

• Born: Aug. 9, 1924
• Died: Sept. 11, 2005
• Survivors: He is survived by three sons, Pat Maloney Jr.,
Michael Maloney and Tim Maloney; two daughters, Janice
Maloney and Patricia Maloney; and five grandchildren,
Michelle, Erica, Dennis, Patrick and Connor Maloney.
• Services: A funeral Mass was held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday
at San Fernando Cathedral.

SAN ANTONIO - Pat Maloney Sr., a firebrand plaintiffs'
lawyer known as the king of torts, whose clients included
nuns, madams and Vietnamese fishermen in a landmark murder
case, died at the age of 81.

"I will die with the greatest of reluctance and the
strongest of resistance, but I'd love to stay here because
I'm having fun and I would love to try more lawsuits,"
Maloney said in a videotaped memoir made several years ago.
"Having said that, I'm still trying very hard to die well."

He died Sept. 11.

For more than a year, Maloney had been suffering from
pulmonary fibrosis, a rare and terminal disease that leads
to scarring of the lungs.

A trial lawyer for half a century, Maloney specialized in
personal injury and product liability cases. His clients
were as varied as the Congregation of Sisters of Charity of
the Incarnate Word; Duval County rancher Clinton Manges;
famous San Antonio madam Theresa Brown, whom Maloney once
referred to as "an intellectual giant;" Vietnamese
fishermen; and a dog named Wimpy.

During a career marked by controversy, he tallied more than
100 cases in which winning verdicts totaled more than $1
million. He won the first million-dollar verdict in the
history of San Antonio.

Born to an impoverished Irish Catholic family on Aug. 9,
1924, in San Antonio, Maloney didn't start out as an
attorney.

With only $50, half provided by his father, he enrolled at
the University of Texas at Austin in fall 1941 to study
journalism. Three months later, after the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor, Maloney left UT and joined the Marines. He
was wounded while serving in the Southwest Pacific.

Maloney made himself a promise that if he survived the war,
he would attend Mass every day. He often arrived at San
Fernando Cathedral a half-hour before 6 a.m. Mass.

Unwilling to open earlier, Father Virgilio Elizondo, the
church's former rector, finally gave Maloney a key to the
cathedral and showed him where to turn on the lights.

Maloney still had the key when he died.

After receiving a Purple Heart and an honorable discharge,
Maloney returned to UT in 1945. Three years later, he
received a degree in journalism.

"I was doing very happily as a sportswriter until I met
someone who was in law school," he recalled in 1999.

That someone was Olive Patricia Boger, the woman who later
became his wife and briefly, law partner. She died in 2004

Still working as a sportswriter, he entered UT law school
and got his degree in 1950.

Maloney said he thought he would join Lyndon B. Johnson's
staff in Washington and write speeches.

Instead, he joined the Bexar County district attorney's
office "because we had a difficult political race."

Maloney never got to Washington. He stayed at the DA's
office three years, as chief trial attorney and first
assistant DA.

In 1953, after he was defeated for Bexar County district
attorney, Maloney opened his firm, the Law Offices of Pat
Maloney, PC.

Maloney's fortune changed when he won his first
multimillion-dollar verdict in lawsuits against
Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. in 1976 and 1977.

Another of Maloney's largest verdicts stemmed from a 1975
butane-tank truck explosion near Eagle Pass. The truck
swerved to miss a car, jackknifed, overturned and exploded.

It sailed 500 yards into a roadside mobile home park, hit
one home and bounced into another, setting it afire.
Sixteen people, including the truck driver, were killed; 51
were burned.

At the end of the 12-week trial in Del Rio, a state court
jury awarded the victims and survivors $50.1 million in
damages. Maloney's client, Jimmy Flores, was awarded $26.5
million, at that time the largest personal injury verdict
in the United States.

Maloney was as known for his flamboyant courtroom tactics
and for the television commercials he filmed on different
legal issues. He began the Knowing the Law TV spots in
1983.

Maloney wrote the book Winning the Million Dollar Lawsuit
and was co-author of Trials and Deliberations: Inside the
Jury Room .

His 1999 novel, Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor , was based
on the 1979 case of two young Vietnamese brothers accused
of killing a fellow fisherman.

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