News about the Irish & Irish American culture, music, news, sports. This is hosted by the Irish Aires radio show on KPFT-FM 90.1 in Houston, Texas (a Pacifica community radio station)

October 12, 2006

Action Alert - Election Questionaires

IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE

- ACTION ALERT -

Recently, the Unity in Action Group, of which the IAUC is a
member, sent out an election questionnaire (see below) dealing
with Irish issues, to all candidates for the House of
Representatives and the Senate.

We are asking and urging all our members to contact their local
candidates for these offices to inquire if these candidates have
responded to the questionnaire and if they have not done so,
asking them to respond as soon as possible. Impress upon them that
it is important to you as a voter to have the answers to these
questions when you are deciding who to vote for in the upcoming
election. The more local people who contact their candidates the
better chance we have of them answering the questionnaire and
making them realize that Irish issues are still important to the
electorate.

Please provide a copy of any feedback from offices you receive to
us at iauc@iauc.org.

Jerry Lally
Political Action Chair

IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE
National Office
611 Pennsylvania Ave, SE # 4150
Washington , D.C. 20003 1-800-947-4282
Email: iauc@iauc.org
----


Irish American Unity Committee
c/o Jim Cullen
Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C.
1251 Avenue of the Americas New York ,
New York 10020-1182 Telephone: 212-278-1565
Fax: 212-278-1733 E-mail: jcullen@andersonkill.com

September 27, 2006

Dear Candidate:

The undersigned Irish American organizations represent many
politically active Irish Americans in the United States . Of
particular concern to our members is the situation in Northern
Ireland . As you know the historic U.S.-brokered Good Friday
Agreement (GFA) was signed in 1998 to resolve over 30 years of
conflict in that region.

Unfortunately, due mainly to Unionist stalling and the
unwillingness to date of the British and Irish governments to
confront these stalling tactics, many key elements of the
agreement have not been implemented 8 years later. In addition,
the local Assembly set up to return local government to the region
has been suspended for four years and has been in operation for
only 20 months of the eight years since the GFA was signed.

American political leaders were instrumental in establishing the
Irish peace process. Our political leadership is critically
needed now to bring that process to fruition.

As the 2006 elections approach, our members would like to know the
position of all candidates for federal office on certain key
issues regarding Northern Ireland . The questionnaire below seeks
to ascertain your position on these issues, which we will
communicate to our members for their consideration prior to
Election Day. We are aware that some candidates are reluctant to
answer questionnaires and hope that you will not take that
position.

Please return the questionnaire to the fax number above attention
James Cullen or email it to Deanna Turner at editor@iauc.org

Sincerely,

:: Robert Linnon – President - Irish American Unity Conference (IAUC)
:: John Meehan – President - Ancient Order of Hibernians
:: Paul Doris – Chairman – Irish Northern Aid (INA)
:: Jim Gallagher – Past President – IAUC
:: Frank Durkan – Chairman -Americans for a New Irish Agenda
:: Gerry Coleman - Political Education Director – INA
:: Gerald Lally, Esq - Political Education Chair - IAUC
:: Brendan Moore - National Director - Freedom for All Ireland National
:: Stephen M McCabe - Irish Parades Emergency Committee - President, Brehon Law Society
:: Julie Coleman - Irish American Unity Committee - INA
:: Patrick Doherty - Brehon Law Society
:: James Cullen, Esq - Brehon Law Society
:: Ned McGinley - Past President - Ancient Order of Hibernians
:: Deanna Turner - National Coordinator - Irish Deportees of America Committee
----


QUESTIONNAIRE

1) NOVEMBER 24, 2006 DEADLINE FOR RESTORATION OF THE ASSEMBLY:

The Irish and British governments have set November 24, 2006 as
the deadline for the restoration of the Assembly. All major
parties, with the exception of Ian Paisley’s DUP are prepared to
serve in the restored assembly.

As an elected official, would you support engagement by the US
government to convince the DUP to join with the other parties in a
restored assembly before said deadline and support full
implementation of the GFA.

Comments:

2) DEADLINE UNMET: If the November 24, 2006 deadline is not met,
the Irish and British governments have indicated that they will
institute some form of joint authority or joint partnership to
govern the six counties of Northeast Ireland .

As an elected official, would you support engagement by the US
government to insist that any such joint authority or joint
partnership be a true and equal partnership between the two
governments and not one dominated by the British government?

Comments:

3) POLICING IN NORTHERN IRELAND : The Good Friday Agreement
instituted the Independent Commission on Policing (Patten
Commission) which published its recommendations in January, 2000.
To date, many of the recommendations of the Patten Commission have
not yet been implemented, and political policing has not been
brought to an end.

As an elected official, would you support engagement by the US
government to push for the full and immediate implementation of
all the recommendations of the Patten Commission?

Comments:

4) PUBLIC HEARINGS: For years Irish Americans and international
human rights organizations have called for independent public
hearings into the murders of human rights lawyers Patrick Finucane
and Rosemary Nelson and many other civilians because of collusion
between the murderers, the police force and military personnel.
While the British government has begun public hearings in some
instances, they blatantly refuse to permit an unfettered public
hearing into the murder of Patrick Finucane. The House of
Representatives already has overwhelmingly demanded such a
hearing, H.Res. 740, and we recognize the support for this issue
from those Representatives.

As an elected official, would you support engagement by the US
government to demand a totally unrestricted public hearing into
the murder of Patrick Finucane?

Comments:

5) DEPORTEES: Irish America has rallied behind many former
political prisoners who had been involved in the conflict in
Northern Ireland , but who, after rebuilding their lives in this
country, faced deportation from the United States for offenses
which the signatories to the Good Friday Agreement implicitly
recognized to be politically motivated. All political prisoners
from both sides of the conflict were released pursuant to the GFA
in order to boost the Peace Process, yet Irish deportees are still
treated as if they present a danger to the safety and security of
the United States .

As an elected official would you support legislation which would
exempt Irish nationals from deportation for convictions relating
to the conflict, who demonstrably present no threat to the safety
and security of the United States ?

Comments:

6) ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: Many Irish American groups have supported
the efforts of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, promoting
sensible and comprehensive immigration reform, and opposing
legislation which would criminalize millions of illegal
immigrants, Irish included.

As an elected official would you support the type of compromise
legislation voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, namely
the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S.2611.PCS) .

Comments:

7) EXTRADITION: Irish American groups are bitterly disappointed
at the failure of the Senate Foreign Relations committee to halt
or amend the proposed US/UK Extradition Treaty, which bargains
away the due process rights of U.S. citizens. We note that, in
its lobbying efforts supporting the treaty, a senior British
minister made misleading statements to Senators giving the
impression that Britain was not seeking the extradition of any
individual in relation to the conflict in Northern Ireland, in the
full knowledge that extradition proceedings already had commenced
against an Irish-American.

As an elected official, would you work to reinstate the rights of
U.S. citizens to due process, and hold the Executive to account if
it attempts to facilitate the extradition of any U.S. citizen to
Northern Ireland to stand trial before an internationally
discredited justice system?

Comments:

Thank you for your time.


----
To Subscribe to Irish Aires Google News List, click Here.
For options visit: http://groups.google.com/group/IrishAiresNews

Or join our Irish Aires Yahoo Group, Click here

To Get RSS Feed for Irish Aires News click HERE
(Paste http://irishaires.blogspot.com/atom.xml into a News Reader)

To October Index
To Index of Monthly Archives
Posted by: Unknown / 8:33 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?