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November 26, 2006

Report: Loyalist & Brits Collude On Bombing

News About Ireland & The Irish

SB 11/26/06 Report: Loyalist & Brits Collusion On Bombings
SB 11/26/06 SF, DUP Meet Tomorrow Following Farce
BB 11/26/06 DUP And SF 'Have To Move Forward'
TO 11/26/06 Fury At Paisley’s Statement
BB 11/26/06 Stone's Release Licence Suspended
BN 11/26/06 Killer's Jail Term To Be Decided
OB 11/26/06 UDA Hit Squads Sent To Hunt Stone
SL 11/26/06 Hero: 'I Thought Michael Stone Was A Human Bomb'
BN 11/26/06 US/UK Treaty Gives UK Power Over US Citizens
SL 11/26/06 Shoukris Moved Due To Safety Concern
IT 11/26/06 RUC Vets Seek Funding For Museum
IT 11/26/06 IRA Ambush Anniversary Marked
BG 11/26/06 Opin: Lesson From A Bloody Past
GU 11/26/06 Opin: IfPower-Sharing Fails, Stone Will Be Back
SL 11/26/06 Opin: Alan Mcbride: Fudge ... With Added Nuts!
FD 11/25/06 Blog: British Agenda Is Set In Stone
LW 11/25/06 Blog: Idiot Of The Year Michael Stone Fat Chops
SB 11/26/06 Ex-IRA-Hunger-Striker In Major Property Battle
SB 11/26/06 Dollar Decline Prompts Fears For Global Markets

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http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=19220-qqqx=1.asp

Report Unearths Loyalist And British Collusion On Bombings

26 November 2006 By Colm Heatley

Britain colluded with loyalist gangs responsible for three
bombings in the Republic in the 1970s, including a bomb at
Dublin Airport that killed one man, an Oireachtas report
has found.

Britain colluded with loyalist gangs responsible for three
bombings in the Republic in the 1970s, including a bomb at
Dublin Airport that killed one man, an Oireachtas report
has found.

The joint Oireachtas committee report into the bombings at
the airport and Kay’s Tavern in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 1975
and a bombing in Castleblayney in Monaghan in 1976 will be
published on Wednesday.

Five people were killed in the three attacks.

The report was commissioned to examine the findings of the
Barron Inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings
and make recommendations on the findings.

Sources involved in the report say that it points to a high
level of collusion between the British government and
loyalists.

Among the information presented to the committee was a
Department of Foreign Affairs document that said the Irish
government contacted the Irish ambassador in London in 1975
over its concerns of British collusion with attacks in the
Republic.

The document states that the Dublin authorities wanted the
issue to be discussed at a senior political level, not a
police level.

However, no progress was made and contact between the Irish
and British governments on the matter ceased in August
1975. One source close to the committee said he was
disturbed by the level of collusion.

‘‘British intelligence was directing RUC and UDR members
who were involved in the murder of innocent people south of
the border,” the source said.

‘‘What becomes obvious is that when the Northern Ireland
Office [NIO] takes the primary role in the investigations,
the flow of information stops. We have also heard evidence
that, when RUC members did cooperate with families, they
were told not to, and were stopped by more senior RUC
people.”

Margaret Urwin, of victims’ group Justice For the
Forgotten, said the government should hold a public
inquiry.

‘‘I think the overwhelming amount of evidence should force
the government into holding a public inquiry as a matter of
urgency,” she said.

‘‘Successive investigations have found strong evidence of
collusion, yet there is still no sign of a public inquiry.”

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http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=19215-qqqx=1.asp

SF, DUP Meet Tomorrow Following Farce

26 November 2006 By Pat Leahy and Colm Heatley

Sinn Fein and the DUP will come face to face again tomorrow
morning at Stormont, when the Programme for Government
committee meets to continue its work.

Sinn Fein and the DUP will come face to face again tomorrow
morning at Stormont, when the Programme for Government
committee meets to continue its work.

Sources in the British and Irish governments said this
weekend that it would be an important test of whether the
DUP can move forward following splits in the party that
became evident last Friday.

Both governments have been aware for some weeks that a
split was brewing in the main unionist party over
participation in government. However, they both believe
that Ian Paisley wants to see the restoration of the power-
sharing administration - subject to Sinn Fein’s commitment
to support the police - but are unsure if he can convince
the hardliners in his party to back him.

‘‘His hold on the party isn’t what it used to be, it
appears,” said one source involved in the process.

Northern and government sources also pointed to the
opposing sides taken by Nigel Dodds and Peter Robinson as a
foreshadow of a DUP leadership contest. Dodds is aligned
with the religious, Free Presbyterian wing of the party,
which is suspicious of Robinson’s progressive tendencies.
‘‘He can’t wear the disciple’s uniform,” said one source.

Behind the scenes, contacts between the British and Irish
governments and the Northern parties are continuing, while
the Taoiseach and British prime minister Tony Blair are due
to meet in London tomorrow week for a private dinner.

It is believed that Blair has been in intensive contact
with Paisley all week, up to and including when the
assembly was actually in session.

Officially, the two governments are insisting that the
timetable for devolution and a power-sharing executive
remains intact, although senior sources were increasingly
pessimistic that the March 24 deadline for the restoration
of limited self-government would be met. One Irish
government source said that while some progress had been
made, they were ‘‘nowhere near where we thought we’d be . .
. This was supposed to be the easy bit.”

It has emerged that the carefully choreographed plans for
Friday’s meeting of the Northern Assembly were thrown into
confusion when Paisley failed to read out crucial parts of
a previously-agreed statement.

This prompted initial confusion, and demands from Sinn Fein
and the Irish government for a clear statement of Paisley’s
intentions to accept a nomination as first minister if Sinn
Fein agreed to support the police. That statement was made
later in the day, but only after a group of DUP dissidents
had expressed their opposition to any power-sharing
executive.

The Taoiseach and the British Chancellor of the Exchequer
Gordon Brown are due to address a meeting of the
Confederation of British Industry tomorrow, where they will
appeal for increased investment in the North. However,
officials pointed out that against the background of last
Friday’s events, it would be a hard sell.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6185190.stm

DUP And SF 'Have To Move Forward'

Sinn Fein must call a party conference on the issue of
policing, the Northern Ireland secretary has said.

Peter Hain also insisted the DUP "should stop saying they
will never accept devolution in their political lifetime".

"If they keep saying that, some of their leading figures -
not Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson... there is no prospect
of moving forward," he said.

The assembly is expected to meet again on Monday to resume
proceedings.

They were disrupted by a security alert. It will hear a
report on the security implications of Friday's incident at
the entrance to Parliament Buildings.

On Friday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern welcomed what he called
further clarity from DUP leader Ian Paisley on his
intention to accept the position of first minister.

Sinn Fein said Martin McGuinness was its choice for deputy
first minister.

However, speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mr Hain said he
would not "pretend that what happened on Friday was the
best that I had been hoping could have happened".

"But under the circumstances, what we got was that
everybody was prepared to move forward on the St Andrews
agenda.

"They all agreed to that agenda and we have got the
prospect now of devolution in place - but in the end
dissolution is the alternative."

He added: "Sinn Fein need to understand that they need to
fulfil what they signed up to in paragraph six of the St
Andrews Agreement - and that is in the legislation -
completely signing up to policing.

"If we can get clarity on those issues, then we can move
forward to devolution.

"But if it is not achievable - and it may not be - of
course, dissolution and the packing up of Northern
Ireland's politicians is what they (the parties) will be
responsible for."

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/26 11:22:27 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-2472419,00.html

Fury At Paisley’s Statement

Liam Clarke
The Sunday Times November 26, 2006

A HIGH-RANKING Democratic Unionist party figure has broken
ranks and criticised Ian Paisley for agreeing to be first
minister in the Stormont assembly if Sinn Fein meets
conditions on policing and other issues.

Paisley made the promise in a statement of “clarification”
after failing to make such a commitment in a statement he
read out on the floor of the assembly on Friday.

Jim Allister, the DUP MEP, said: “I thought the statement
in the assembly was good and that is where the matter
should have been left. I didn’t understand the need to
change the content of it.”

He said that Paisley’s clarification had now caused
ambiguity. “I couldn’t see it ever being possible to form
an executive with Sinn Fein within the timeframe of March
26,” he said. This is the date set in the St Andrews
agreement for devolution of powers to the Stormont
executive.

Allister’s views enjoy considerable support within the DUP.
Some hardliners are opposed to Paisley giving any
undertaking to share power with Sinn Fein. Nigel Dodds, the
MP for North Belfast, has already stated this would not
happen “within a political lifetime”.

Pressure from the hardliners, who have the support of more
than a third of the DUP’s assembly members, led Paisley to
renege on an understanding he had with the British
government on Friday. He left out a crucial line in the
statement he read to the assembly, which stated that if it
fell to him he would accept the post of first minister.

Although he had indicated to Tony Blair on Thursday evening
he would read out the words, Paisley had been persuaded to
drop them at a meeting of his assembly group less than an
hour before he spoke. Despite the omission Eileen Bell, the
assembly speaker, welcomed his statement and said he had
indicated he would accept the post.

Sir Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist leader, said: “What
Paisley read out was not the text he had agreed with the
government and the speaker’s response was the response
which was meant to be given to the agreed text — not the
response to what actually happened.”

If Bell did not spot Paisley’s omission, the prime minister
and the taoiseach who were watching it on television, did.
They were in immediate phone contact and briefly considered
closing the assembly.

But Blair and Bertie Ahern decided to hold off, provided
Paisley did not contradict Bell’s interpretation.

“I believe that Paisley went down to Stormont Castle,”
Empey said. “Hain was in a very bad way and told him it
could be a bust and the lights could be turned out (on the
assembly).”

Later in the afternoon Paisley issued a new statement
making it clear that he would become first minister if Sinn
Fein fulfilled all the conditions. Ahern welcomed this,
saying, “I said at midday that clarity was necessary and Dr
Paisley’s comments this afternoon have provided welcome
clarity.”

Sources close to Paisley say he is prepared to take
internal flak if necessary. They say they have been assured
that Sinn Fein will hold an ard fheis and pass a
leadership-backed motion in support of the Police Service
of Northern Ireland in January.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6184614.stm

Stone's Release Licence Suspended

Loyalist Michael Stone, freed from jail early under the
Good Friday agreement, has had his release licence
suspended.

He was arrested after a security breach at Stormont and
later charged with attempting to murder Sinn Fein's Gerry
Adams and Martin McGuinness.

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said the move
followed Stone's "actions on Friday and after consideration
of a police report into what took place".

Stone, 51, also faces five charges of attempted murder
after the incident.

He was also charged with possession of articles for
terrorist purposes and possession of explosives when he
appeared in court on Saturday.

Stone was released in 2000 under the terms of the Good
Friday Agreement, after serving 12 years in prison.

He was sentenced to almost 700 years in jail for six
murders, three of which were committed during a lone gun
and grenade attack on an IRA funeral in Belfast in 1988.

Breach

An order suspending his licence was signed by Northern
Ireland Office Minister Paul Goggins, on behalf of Northern
Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, on Saturday.

In his statement, Mr Hain said Stone was "in clear breach
of the conditions of his release".

Under the terms of the licence, prisoners released early
can be sent back to jail if they become re-involved with
terrorism, or are considered a risk to the public.

When Stone was convicted, the trial judge recommended that
he should serve a minimum of 30 years.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr will now decide how much
more of the life sentence he must serve.

If he accepts the minimum recommendation tariff set by the
trial judge, Stone will spend another 18 years in jail.

Stone, who appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on
Saturday in connection with the incident at the Northern
Ireland Assembly during a sitting, is also charged with
possessing an imitation firearm.

In addition to being charged with attempting to murder the
Sinn Fein leaders, he is accused of trying to murder two
security guards and a person unknown.

The court heard the articles allegedly for terrorist
purposes included nailbombs, an axe and a garrotte.

A police officer confirmed to Stone's solicitor that during
two police interviews, the defendant had told police "he
acted alone in that no other person or organisations were
involved in the preparation or planning".

The defendant was remanded in custody until December 22.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/11/25 20:44:19 GMT
© BBC MMVI

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http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/11/26/story286663.html?rss=yes

Killer's Jail Term To Be Decided

26/11/2006 - 13:41:24

The Northern Lord Chief Justice was today preparing to tell
loyalist killer Michael Stone how long he will have to
spend behind bars.

The 51-year-old killer is back behind bars after being
charged with attempting to murder Sinn Féin president Gerry
Adams and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness when he
launched an assault on Stormont Parliament Buildings while
the Assembly was sitting on Friday.

Whatever sentence he may or may not get for his latest
offence, he faces a very long time behind bars for his past
deeds.

It looks like he faces spending 18 years in jail before
again being allowed out.

He was jailed in 1989 for what became known as the Milltown
Massacre – his slaughter the year before of three
republicans and injury of many more in a gun and grenade
attack on the funeral of the three IRA members shot dead in
Gibraltar – and three other murders.

Stone was freed on licence in 2000 – one of 800 terrorists
let out under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

With the early release licence revoked by Northern
secretary Peter Hain following the charges surrounding the
Stormont attack it will now be left to the Lord Chief
Justice to determine the time he spends behind bars.

The trial judge handed down sentences totalling almost 700
years and recommended Stone serve a minimum of 30 years
before being considered for release.

If Brian Kerr reinstates the whole sentence Stone will be
almost 70 before he gets out.

Meanwhile it became clear today Stone – ever the publicity
seeker – tipped off a number of Belfast journalists he was
about to do something that would put him back in jail.

In a bizarre phone call he said: “I’m just ringing you to
let you know that I’ll be going back to prison very
shortly. I can’t tell you why I will be going back, there
is an embargo on it until after 12.00.

“I just want to let you know that I have something big
planned, but I am not able to say anything else.”

At 11.08 on Friday Assembly speaker Eileen Bell suspended
the session after Stone was seized by security staff at the
front door.

Eight explosive devices were later defused by army experts.

The suspended debate will be resumed in the morning by the
Speaker.

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http://view.nowpublic.com/?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.ca%2Fnews%2Furl%3Fsa%3DT%26ct%3Dca%2F1-2-0%26fd%3DR%26url%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fobserver.guardian.co.uk%2Fuk_news%2Fstory%2F0%2C%2C1957396%2C00.html%26cid%3D1111351968%26ei%3DGOhoRaibKbCGaeyswOsM

UDA Hit Squads Sent To Hunt Stone

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday November 26, 2006
The Observer

The Ulster Defence Association dispatched four hit squads
to hunt down convicted killer Michael Stone as he made his
way to his aborted alleged attack on Stormont.

Senior UDA sources told The Observer yesterday that the
units were told to either 'arrest or shoot' Stone because
they feared he was planning to destabilise Northern
Ireland's peace process.

Stone, 51, appeared at Belfast magistrates' court yesterday
in connection with the attempted attack at the city's
Parliament Buildings on Friday morning. He was charged with
the attempted murder of five people - Sinn Fein leaders
Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, two security staff and
an unnamed person - possession of articles for terrorist
purposes, including nail bombs, an axe and a garrotte, and
possession of explosives with intent to endanger life and
of an imitation firearm.

The loyalist, who has arthritis, hobbled into the dock on a
crutch. He was remanded in custody until 22 December. He
will face a non-jury trial, and if found guilty could be
sent back to prison for the rest of his life.

Before being led from the dock, Stone shouted: 'No sell-
out. No power-sharing with the sinners, they are war
criminals. Ulster is not for sale, no surrender.'

UDA leaders only learnt that Stone was allegedly about to
carry out an attack somewhere in Belfast early on Friday
morning. They were so concerned about his mental state that
they sent out four terrorist units to find him.

'Nobody knew for sure what he would do,' said one UDA
source. 'So four teams were sent out to find him and they
were armed. If Stone resisted arrest, he would have been
shot. That was how serious they were taking the threat.'

One of the units looking for Stone was seen on Belfast's
Ormeau Road, driving erratically on the Ballynafeigh side
of the river Lagan. Eyewitnesses told The Observer they had
a police-style siren in the front of the car to alert
motorists that they were undercover police. UDA sources
stressed that Stone acted alone and that the organisation
remains committed to the peace process.

'Stone has been very irrational in recent months. He has
been talking to tabloid newspapers constantly claiming
responsibility for operations in the Troubles in which he
played no part. None of us, though, imagined he would do
this,' one UDA leader said.

Stone's alleged attempt to bomb the Assembly is an
embarrassment for the UDA. The largest loyalist
paramilitary group has been seeking millions from the
British Exchequer to set up community projects aimed at
employing former paramilitary activists. The figure asked
for is believed to be in the region of £30m. In return the
UDA has promised to dissolve the organisation and move
thousands of its members away from paramilitarism. Stone
came to prominence in 1988 when he launched a lone gun and
grenade attack on the funeral of three IRA members shot
dead by the SAS in Gibraltar. He killed three people and
injured a number more, in the full glare of the cameras.
Stone became an icon to younger loyalists including Johnny
'Mad Dog' Adair. He was jailed for 684 years in 1989 for
six murders and three conspiracies to murder - with a
recommendation that he serve a minimum of 30 years.

Released early from prison in 2000 under the 1998 Good
Friday Agreement amnesty for paramilitary inmates, Stone
initially committed himself to the peace process. He became
dedicated to painting and recently took part in a BBC
television programme where the family of one of his victims
confronted him.

Last night Adair said he felt sorry for his former hero but
added that men like Stone belonged in the past. Speaking
from exile in Scotland, Adair said: 'This man is criminally
and politically insane. He should be sectioned. He has been
on television lately admitting to murders he never
committed. At one time he was a big fish but now that time
is moved on he is left on the shelf.'

Stone's targets on Friday were, according to UDA sources,
the Sinn Fein leadership whom he hoped to ambush in
Stormont's Great Hall as they were being evacuated from the
debating chamber.

Stone's alleged attempt to bomb the Assembly forced its
members to abort their first meeting since last month's St
Andrews Agreement aimed at restoring devolution to Northern
Ireland.

Divisions remain between the main parties, Sinn Fein and
the Democratic Unionist Party with both facing internal
opposition to compromise on policing and power-sharing. The
debate is due to be resumed tomorrow morning.

Republicans opposed to Sinn Fein's political strategy are
holding a public meeting in Gerry Adams's west Belfast
constituency tomorrow which is expected to hear calls for
republicans to oppose plans to support the PSNI. The
organisers hope to attract disgruntled Sinn Fein members
and dissidents from Republican Sinn Fein, the Irish
Republican Socialist Party and the 32 County Sovereignty
Movement.

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http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=716130

So brave

Heroic Action: 'I Thought Michael Stone Was A Human Bomb'

By Stephen Breen
26 November 2006

The Stormont security guard who stopped Milltown killer
Michael Stone wiping out Sinn Fein's leadership last night
told Sunday Life: "I was afraid he was a HUMAN BOMB."

In an exclusive interview, Susan Porter - a 22-year RUC
veteran - said: "My only thought was to get Stone out the
door before the building became engulfed in flames.

"There were kids in there.

"But I'm no heroine - I don't want any bravery award for
what happened.

"I was only doing my job."

Stone appeared in the dock of a Belfast courtroom yesterday
charged with attempting to murder Gerry Adams, Martin
McGuinness, Susan and her colleague, Peter Lachaundis, and
a fifth person.

He is also accused of having explosives and an imitation
firearm.

In a sinister phonecall only hours before the attack, Stone
had bragged to a Sunday Life journalist of his plans to do
"something big" - but added, chillingly: "That's embargoed
until noon on Friday."

Ulster Secretary Peter Hain last night suspended Stone's
early-release licence for the murder of three people at an
IRA funeral at Belfast's Milltown cemetery in 1988.

'I was only doin my job'
- Security guard reveals true extent of her bravery

The Stormont security guard who disarmed crazed loyalist
killer Michael Stone last night revealed her fears that he
was a HUMAN BOMB.

In her only interview since the psychopath's mass-murder
attempt on Friday, hero ex-RUC constable Susan Porter told
Sunday Life how Stone was prepared to DIE in his mission to
wipe out Sinn Fein's leadership.

Susan - who survived numerous IRA murder bids during her 22
years as a police officer in south Armagh and south Down -
still can't believe the series of events which unfolded at
Parliament Buildings.

She said: "This whole experience was like being back in the
police again.

"I've restrained people before who had knives, but I've
never encountered anyone with bombs.

"I had no doubt in my mind that he was a human bomb.

"My only thought was to get him out of the door before the
room became engulfed in flames - there were kids in that
building.

"This man told me that he was prepared to go up with the
bomb and that meant him taking a lot of innocent people
with him.

"I don't know why he did this. But it's clear to everyone
that he is not well.

"He looked pathetic lying on the ground. I feel sorry for
him - he needs help."

Added Susan: "It was two of us who tackled Stone and I
certainly don't want to be considered some sort of hero. I
was just doing my job.

"He is a big, strong guy and he fought with us at the door
and then he gave up."

But the brave security officer, from Co Down, also told us
how she:

:: Watched in HORROR as Stone attempted to ignite his
holdall;
:: Tied his shoe laces together in a bid to stop him from
moving;
:: Was told by Stone that he was prepared to "GO UP" with
the bombs;
:: Watched as smoke emerged from his holdall and home-made
bombs fell to the ground;
:: Fought desperately to get him out of the building over
fears visiting school children would be engulfed in flames;
:: Removed flares and knives from his pocket;
:: Kicked the bag of home-made devices away from the door,
and
:: Was PRAISED by Stone for disarming him.

Susan - who works as a CCTV operator for Federal Security -
was only deputising for a sick colleague at Parliament
Buildings.

And she believes her police training and her years of
service on the frontline helped her disarm one of Northern
Ireland's most notorious killers.

Said Susan: "When he got to the door, I saw his eyes and I
knew it was Michael Stone. I saw him with a bag and there
was smoke coming from it.

"I then saw him attempt to light the bag and then Peter
(Lachanudis) and I tried to get him out the door. I was
trying to get him out because I believed he was a human
bomb.

"But Stone produced the gun and then I was lucky enough to
get it off him. I hit him over the head because I thought I
could force him out of the door.

"After I had got the gun off him, I tied his shoelaces
together, because I thought this would prevent him from
moving any further.

"I still believed he was packed with explosives which could
ignite at any time. He was also wearing a flak jacket and
shouting 'No Surrender'."

She added: "When we got him outside, I found the knives and
also took the flares out of his pocket.

"I had to sit on his knees when I was searching him and,
during this, I was trying to calm him down. When I was
sitting on him, he said, 'You're good, the pair of you.'

"I also kept asking him what was in the bag and the only
thing he said was that he was prepared to go up with the
bomb.

"We were very lucky to restrain him until the police
arrived - the whole experience is still hard to take in."

Susan, who helped needy kids and homeless people during her
time as a police officer in south Down, does not want to be
considered as a heroine.

Incredibly, she was back at work yesterday less than 24
hours after the incident.

She also vowed last night to continue in her role as a
security officer.

Susan also told how senior Sinn Fein representatives
Mitchel McLaughlin and Michelle Gildrew, thanked her for
her actions.

She said: "I am no heroine - and I don't want any bravery
award for what happened.

"I was only doing my job. I was only helping someone out
and I am very rarely on the front gate when I am working at
Stormont.

"I never thought my day would end up the way it did.

"There were two of us restraining Stone and I think Pete
and I are both embarrassed over the incident.

"I didn't really sleep on Friday night and the phone
wouldn't stop ringing.

"I realise he could have caused a lot of damage, but I
don't want to be considered some sort of hero."

Murderer boasted of 'something big'

Crazed cemetery killer Michael Stone boasted to me of his
plans to do "SOMETHING BIG" just hours before he stormed
into Stormont armed to the teeth.

In a bizarre telephone call before the drama unfolded at
Parliament Buildings on Friday, the Milltown murderer told
me he would be going back to jail.

But when I asked him exactly what he was planning, the
former UFF hitman replied: "It's EMBARGOED until after noon
on Friday."

Stone is renowned for his publicity seeking antics, but I
had no idea that the arthritis-wracked old gunman was
planning to return to his terrorist ways.

Only recently he had told me again that his "war was over".

Clearly, he was either planning or claiming to be planning
some sort of stunt, but it never crossed my mind that Stone
was going to arm himself with a replica handgun, knives,
home-made bombs and chant "no surrender" as he tried to
barge his way into Stormont with the aim of killing Gerry
Adams and Martin McGuinness.

With hindsight though, it appears the killer wanted, for
some reason, to let me know he was intending to make the
headlines again.

Stone told me: "I'm just ringing you to let you know that
I'll be going back to prison very shortly. I can't tell you
why I will be going back but there is an embargo on it
until after 12.

"I just wanted to let you know that I have something big
planned, but I am not able to say anything else.

"I will be getting interviewed by police again and then
sent to jail. I will also be making statements to my
solicitor.

"I can't say anything else at the minute and you will just
have to wait and see.

"Contact me on Friday morning, because you won't be able to
get me in the afternoon.

"I also want to tell you a few other things, but they will
have to wait."

But when I tried to ring Stone on Friday morning, his
mobile phone was switched off.

Little did I know he was on his way to Stormont with a bag
of bombs.

It was all the more shocking to me because of that recent
conversation in which he repeated his assertion that his
war was over.

Although he has been saying this for quite some time, he
has also been telling journalists of his plans to reveal
new details about his terrorist past.

Stone, it seemed, was hell-bent on returning to jail. Most
observers thought he would achieve this through admissions
about his murderous past.

Instead, his attack at Stormont - although it contradicted
everything he has been saying recently about the peace
process - has achieved his aim.

It is now unclear if the publication of his second book,
due to be released next year, will now go ahead.

Stone planned to kill Adair at face-to-face

Micheal Stone told of his plans to kill arch-enemy Johnny
'Mad Dog' Adair before his mass-murder bid at Stormont.

In a telephone call to me on Thursday, Stone claimed he had
been planning to shoot Adair in the head in front of myself
and a photographer.

At the time, I thought Stone's claim was an idle boast.

I didn't believe he really meant it, but at that stage I'd
no idea of the state of his mind or that he was planning to
do at Stormont the following day.

Stone had pleaded with me to arrange a face-to-face meeting
with Adair to discuss their roles in the Troubles, but the
Shankill Road man refused to take part.

Then on Thursday, Stone bragged about what his real
intention was in seeking a showdown with his old jail
enemy.

Said Stone: "I just wanted to let you know that if you had
been successful in arranging that meeting I was going to
shoot Adair in front of you.

"I was going to put one in his head and then you would have
had your exclusive. Adair is a war criminal who deserves to
die.

"The only way I thought I could get close to him was
through the media, because he would never have trusted me
to arrange a private meeting.

"I regret Adair not taking up the challenge to meet me. I
was putting one in his head and that would have been the
end of it.

"No-one else would have been injured, because I would have
just taken out Adair. That meeting will never take place
now, but I just wanted to let you know."

Speaking to us from his new home in Troon, Adair laughed at
Stone's claims.

Said Adair: "This lunatic should be sectioned. He is
mentally unstable and I kind of feel sorry for him. What
was he going to shoot me with - the plastic gun he had at
Stormont?

"He has repeatedly said his war was over, so why did he go
to Stormont? He's a headcase and just lives for publicity.
He always has to create his own publicity.

"I haven't a clue where he goes from here - probably
Purdysburn or Carstairs in Scotland. He probably did this
because he knows my TV documentary is coming out.

"If loyalists are laughing at him, what must republicans be
thinking? The man is a total headcase and I have been
proved right.

"It also goes to show you that everything he has been
saying from his release from prison has been a load of
nonsense, including the claims I was gay."

Adair laughed as he added: "I've sent him a card. He'll
probably get it in jail on Monday. It says 'look where you
are and look where I am. I'm doing fine'."

Talks salvaged after chaos

Behind-the-scenes political talks salvaged the Northern
Ireland peace process after Stone plunged it into chaos, it
emerged yesterday.

While security staff at Stormont wrestled with Stone, Sinn
Fein were locked in discussions with the British and Irish
Governments to urge the DUP to commit to devolution plans.

Earlier, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuiness had been nominated as
Deputy First Minister in a future Assembly but the Rev Ian
Paisley had stopped short of agreeing to become First
Minister.

Mr McGuinness said yesterday: "We were involved in
intensive discussions with both Governments all afternoon.

"Other parties were also involved in these discussions. Out
of all of that, through the combined efforts of everybody,
did we see the statement from Ian Paisley.

"I think Ian Paisley obviously recognised the importance of
saying something to clear up the confusion that had
occurred in the morning."

Mr Paisley had indicated his willingness to go forward as
First Minister in a power-sharing executive if Sinn Fein
signed up to policing and other conditions.

Killer on five charges of attempted murder

By Sinead McCavana

Michael Stone hobbled into court on crutches yesterday to
face charges of attempting to murder Gerry Adams and Martin
McGuinness and the two security guards who overpowered him.

Dressed in a navy blue boiler-suit with the zip pulled down
to expose a tattoo on his chest, the convicted murderer sat
solemn-faced as he listened to the charges being read out.

Belfast Magistrate's Court was told that Stone (51), who
refused to give his address, was carrying nail-bombs, a
garrotte, an imitation firearm and an axe when he burst
into Parliament Buildings on Friday.

He faced a total of five charges of attempted murder,
relating to Adams, McGuinness, the two security guards and
a fifth person.

The Milltown killer was also charged with possession of
explosives, an imitation firearm and articles believed to
be of use to terrorists.

Stone was remanded in custody until December 22.

There was a heavy police presence at Laganside Courthouse.
Four PSNI Land Rovers were parked outside and dog-handlers
patrolled the perimeter.

Police wearing bulletproof vests were also visible on the
ground floor, in the public gallery and inside the dock
with Stone.

More than a dozen reporters attended the brief hearing
before magistrate Bernadette Kelly.

A PSNI detective sergeant, questioned by a defence
solicitor, told the court that Stone had spoken freely
during two police interviews.

The solicitor asked the detective: "Has Mr Stone indicated
he acted alone with no other person or organisation
involved."

The officer replied: "He has."

As Stone, who suffers from arthritis, was pulling himself
up from his seat using the glass panels in front of him, he
shouted: "No sell-out. No power-sharing with the Shinners.
They are war criminals. Ulster is not for sale. No
surrender."

He was then led away by prison guards.

The security breach at Stormont forced the adjournment of a
special session of the Assembly at which the Rev Ian
Paisley and Martin McGuinness were to indicate that they
were prepared to take the positions of First Minister and
Deputy First Minister next year.

The debate is due to resume for its final stages
tomorrow(correct) morning.

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

http://bridgenews.org/news/102006/usuktreaty

Treaty Gives UK Unprecedented Power Over US Citizens

Document Actions
Written by : George Cuddy

Last modified 2006-11-26 06:17

On Saturday, September 30, the U.S. Senate unanimously
approved a treaty allowing British authorities to seize
American citizens and property, transport them to Britian,
and detain them on the basis of unsupported allegations.

Imagine that you are a citizen of the United States and you
have voiced, in a peaceful manner, your opposition to
certain political policies of the British government. You
have ranted and raved on your blog, or you have engaged in
a demonstration outside of a consulate, or you have gone so
far as to discuss your feelings in a social setting among
friends and acquaintances.

Imagine further that, with confidence in the First
Amendment rights you are allegedly guaranteed under the
U.S. Constitution, you have specifically protested the
equally colonial and imperialistic reign of terror that
England has conducted in Ireland for the past 800 years.

Reality, however, must now take hold. Your supposed freedom
of expression could wind up costing you two months in a
British jail thanks to the US/UK Extradition Treaty.

Never heard of it? Of course you haven’t! The treaty was
passed into law, in unanimous fashion no less, by the U.S.
Senate on Saturday, September 30 of this year. Not
surprisingly, there was little if no media coverage from
the major television networks, radio conglomerates and
press syndicates. Outrage from the extensive Irish-American
community in the United States was minimal at best.

What is this treaty? In a nutshell, according to Jerry
Boyle of the Irish Freedom Committee, it "subjects U.S.
citizens to extradition based solely on unproven
allegations by the British government. For example, any
American who is active in Irish affairs faces potential
detention, and transportation to the United Kingdom,
without any proof of guilt and without judicial review.

"Never before in its history has the United States
government subjected the liberty of its citizens to the
whims of a foreign government."

The treaty was originally the brainchild of legendary
humanist, and then-U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft and
U.K. Home Secretary David Plunkett. The dynamic duo signed
the treaty on March 31, 2003, and the proposed law was
inconsistently reviewed in the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee for over three years until it was unanimously
passed on to the full Senate for debate and vote. Now U.S.
law, Treaty Doc. 108-23 has among its provisions the
following points:

:: An allowance for extradition even if no U.S. federal law
has been violated.
:: The elimination of any statute of limitations.
:: The elimination of the need for any showing by the United
Kingdom of facts (prima-facie evidence) sufficient to show
the person requested is guilty of the crime charged: mere
unsupported allegations are sufficient.
:: An allowance for "provisional arrest" and detention for
60 days upon request by the United Kingdom.
:: An allowance for seizure of assets by the United Kingdom.
:: Retroactive application for offenses allegedly committed
even before the ratification of the treaty.

"No Irish-American activist is safe if this treaty passes,"
commented Mr. Boyle.

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

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=716168

Shoukris Moved Due To Safety Concern

By Alan Murray
26 November 2006

Loyalist brothers Andre and Ihab Shoukri have been moved to
integrated accommodation within Maghaberry Prison.

They had been held in isolated conditions in the jail after
being removed from the lower landing in Bush House where
most UDA prisoners were held.

Following an exclusive interview published in the Sunday
Life three weeks ago, the Prison Service decided to remove
the brothers from Bush House because of concerns over their
safety. The two brothers resisted the move saying they
didn't fear any attack from UDA prisoners loyal to the
inner council faction that had expelled them from the
organisation in July.

But the Prison Governor decided to take no risks with their
safety.

The Shoukris and three other UDA prisoners loyal to them,
including John Boreland, are now housed in integrated
conditions within Maghaberry Prison.

They are no longer confined under Rule 32 conditions and
have normal association enjoyed by prisoners held in
integrated conditions.

Ihab Shoukri may apply for bail soon on the UDA membership
charge he faces and if he is freed he is expected to go to
live in the south east antrim 'brigade' area where he and
his brother have friends at a high level in the UDA.

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1126/breaking9_pf.html

RUC Vets Seek Funding For Museum

RUC veterans are to seek Irish Government help set up a
museum celebrating the history of policing on the island of
Ireland.

The memorabilia collection, to be housed in Belfast, will
display uniforms, helmets and weapons dating back to the
Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) — the All-Ireland force that
kept order between 1822-1922.

Also featured in the museum will be the Dublin Metropolitan
Police (1836--1925), the Irish Republican Police (1920-
1922), the RUC (1922-2001), an Garda Siochana (1922-
present) and the PSNI (2001-present).

The project is the brainchild of the RUC George Cross
Foundation which was established in 2001 to commemorate the
force replaced by the PSNI. The Foundation met with
President Mary McAleese last week at Aras an Uachtarain
along with members of the Garda Siochana Historical Society
and the Garda Siochana Retired Members Association.

It was the first-ever visit of a RUC group to the Aras. It
is hoped the museum could be based next to Belfast's
Memorial Garden — which commemorates RUC officers killed
during the Troubles.

The Foundation, which is seeking Government funding for the
initiative, has also appealed for the public to donate
memorabilia like old uniforms and buttons.

Foundation chairman Jim McDonald said: "We want to develop
a new museum of policing covering the history of all of the
island, north and south. I'm sure it will be a unique
visitor attraction." Mr McDonald, who is a policing
historian, said he already has up to 8,000 items of police
regalia, some dating back to 1814, to put into the museum.

The horde includes swords, bayonets and truncheons as well
as archive records of the RUC. The Foundation is also
planning to compile an oral history of policing by
interviewing up to 1,500 retired officers, including
surviving personnel from the 1920s and 1930s.

If the Foundation can secure funding for the initiative in
2007, it should be open within three years. Mr McDonald
appealed to members of the public to donate old police
uniforms or badges that may be lying in the attic or in
outhouses.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said
he "will consider any application for funding from the RUC
George Cross Foundation." The Foundation has forged strong
links with the Garda in recent years and members undertake
cross-Border exchange visits.

The Foundation was the first RUC group to visit President
McAleese at her Aras an Uachtarain residence in Dublin last
week. The delegation was taken on a tour of the Aras
grounds in Phoenix Park. "It was a first-class enjoyable
day and we had a good interchange of ideas," Mr McDonald
commented. President McAleese also hosted a dinner for
senior members of the Garda and PSNI at Aras an Uachtarain
in recent weeks.

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

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1126/breaking1_pf.html

IRA Ambush Anniversary Marked

The 86th anniversary of an ambush of 17 British soldiers in
Co Cork during the War of Independence will be marked
today.

IRA riflemen opened fire on two lorries carrying the
Auxiliary Division officers at Kilmichael, about 14 miles
from Macroom in November 1920. A wreath will be laid today
at Castletownkenneigh Cemetery where three IRA casualties
are buried.

A parade will be then led to the Kilmichael Monument and
Fianna Fail Senator Mary White will deliver an oration.

Members of the local Khaki Green historical group will
discharge blank ammunition rounds over the monument. The
group has been granted special permission from the Garda to
fire the rounds.

Commemoration Committee secretary Sean Kelleher said:
"We're honouring the men who struck a blow for our freedom.
"It was a very significant event during the War of
Independence because it came a week after the events of
Bloody Sunday." Relatives of the IRA volunteers and members
of other political parties are also expected to attend
today's commemoration.

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

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/11/26/lesson_from_a_bloody_past/

Opin: Lesson From A Bloody Past

Militant's arrest in Belfast may aid negotiations

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Staff November 26, 2006

The image of Michael Stone being wrestled to the ground
Friday while trying to enter the Northern Ireland Assembly
in Belfast harkened to the bad old days, when there was no
future in Ireland, only the past happening over and over
again.

The first time Stone injected himself into the Northern
Ireland conflict -- in 1988, when he killed three mourners
at an IRA funeral -- he unintentionally helped persuade
politicians that the dispute over territory and national
allegiance had become a bloody standoff that no side could
win.

Some historians cite that two-week period of bloodletting
in 1988, during which eight people were killed under
appalling circumstances, as the start of what is now known
as the peace process in Northern Ireland.

It began when British commandos gunned down three unarmed
IRA members in Gibraltar, and escalated when Stone attacked
the subsequent IRA funerals with hand grenades and a
handgun. The murderous cycle ended after two plainclothes
British soldiers drove into the funeral cortege for one of
Stone's victims and were attacked by a mob and shot dead by
the IRA.

Like Stone's arrest Friday, the latter two attacks were
captured on film and shown around the world. Unlike in his
1988 attack, no one was hurt Friday.

Yesterday, Stone, 51, was charged with attempting to murder
four people, including Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and
Martin McGuinness, and with possession of weapons for
terrorist purposes, including explosives, several nail
bombs, an ax, and a fake handgun.

Stone's abortive attack overshadowed a day on which the
British and Irish governments had hoped Catholic
nationalists and Protestant unionists would agree to share
power. It remains to be seen whether his most recent
attempt at infamy will again prove an unintended catalyst
for peace.

Certainly, that's how Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair,
and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, tried to portray
it after their latest effort to restore power-sharing was
put on hold by the familiar specter of unionist leader Rev.
Ian Paisley saying no and a sectarian killer trying to
hijack the political process.

"It's precisely what should make us more resolute in
consigning that type of activity to the past and making
sure that democratically elected politicians are able to
exercise their democratically given power without
paramilitaries of any sort interfering," Blair told
reporters Friday in London.

In interviews, British and Irish diplomats said that the
prospect of a final deal was still in reach, and that
Paisley's words and Stone's actions provided a stark
glimpse of the future and the past.

According to the diplomats, Paisley made it clear in a
statement after the chaotic disruption of Friday's
parliamentary session that he would share power with Sinn
Fein, the IRA's political wing, as soon as Sinn Fein
endorses the authority of the Northern Ireland police
force. Officials believe that issues can be resolved before
a new election for the 108-seat assembly is held in March.

Chief Constable Hugh Orde described Stone's attempted
attack as "a sad publicity act by a very sad individual."

Stone's ability to breach security at Stormont
inadvertently demonstrated how advanced the peace process
is. Security has been gradually reduced since the 1994
cease-fire by the IRA and loyalist groups. Stone's
infirmity, meanwhile, embodied the increasing impotence of
the paramilitary forces that once made Northern Ireland the
most intractable conflict in Europe.

Stone's audacious attack in 1988 made him a loyalist icon,
but he was always a loner. His actions Friday appeared to
some investigators to be an attempt to re-create his lone-
wolf attack of 18 years ago, when he said he had gone to
Milltown Cemetery to kill Adams and McGuinness.

As he was being restrained Friday, Stone shouted the names
of Adams and McGuinness, who was nominated Friday to serve
as deputy first minister of the local government -- a moot
point when Paisley refused to be nominated as first
minister.

"No surrender!" Stone could be heard yelling. "No sell out,
Paisley!"

It was only after Stone entered prison following the 1988
attack that other loyalists embraced him. Throughout his
incarceration, he was given a wide berth by other
loyalists, many of whom considered him unstable and
motivated more by hatred of ordinary Catholics than the
IRA.

"Are you Catholic?" Stone asked a Globe reporter who
interviewed him following his release from prison in 2000
under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.

It would be ironic if Stone succeeds in persuading the
politicians in Northern Ireland that it is time put the
past behind them.

But it wouldn't be the first time.

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

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

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957405,00.html

Opin: If Power-Sharing Fails, The Likes Of Stone Will Be Back

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday November 26, 2006
The Observer

The female security guard who wrestled Michael Stone to the
ground in Stormont's ornate Great Hall, took the gun off
the multiple killer and trained it on him, has arguably
done more to keep Northern Ireland's peace process on track
than any of the politicians inside the parliament on
Friday.

Her actions in halting Stone from getting deeper into the
building and perhaps murdering a nationalist or republican
politician turned what could have been tragedy into a
bizarre farce.

But when the proverbial fog of Michael Stone's near-war
clears it becomes apparent that the main parties are still
firmly stuck in their own trenches. And, judging by the
political events of last Friday, they are bedded down there
for some time to come.

Far away from Stormont, in the pages of a Swiss newspaper,
a Sinn Fein representative inadvertently revealed the
extent to which the republican movement is facing its own
internal problems over the policing issue.

Supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland and
swearing an oath to uphold law and order is seen by Ian
Paisley's Democratic Unionists, as well as the British and
Irish governments, as Sinn Fein's passport back into power.

In order to take such a historic step, Sinn Fein is obliged
by its own constitution to hold a special delegate
conference, which the two governments hoped would be held
in January - just two months before elections to a new
Assembly and the real deadline for devolution on 26 March
2007.

By a sheer coincidence, however, Sinn Fein member of the
Assembly Francie Brolly managed to give the game away.
Brolly told a Swiss interviewer in Le Temps on Friday that
such a conference might not take place until the summer.
His comments are significant because he is seen as
relatively moderate on the policing issue.

Tomorrow evening in west Belfast an alliance of republicans
opposed to Sinn Fein's strategy will hold a public meeting
just a couple of hundred yards from the party's main
Belfast HQ. On the agenda is just one issue: opposition to
what they see as a British police force. If the meeting at
Conway Mill, a traditional forum for internal republican
debates, draws a large crowd it will further panic an
already worried and cautious Sinn Fein leadership.

Across the political battlefield, deeply embedded in the
Orange trenches, is a group of unsettled, potentially
mutinous DUP Assembly members equally concerned about being
accused of 'selling out'.

Twelve of Paisley's Assembly members - including four of
its Westminster MPs - issued a statement on Friday that
rejected a benign interpretation that their leader had
conditionally accepted that he and Martin McGuinness were
now the First and Deputy First Minister. Paisley, also
sensing rebellion in the ranks, has since stated publicly
that he has not yet signed up to power-sharing with
republicans and nationalists.

So why does the whole process go on? There are two reasons:
Tony Blair and the likes of Michael Stone. Blair and his
strategists, most notably his Downing Street chief-of-staff
Jonathan Powell, sniff the chance for a historic deal even
if that means waiting longer for Paisley to get his party
used to the idea of sharing power with Sinn Fein. And when
Blair leaves office next year, perhaps he will do so with
the knowledge that he achieved what Gladstone, Lloyd
George, Churchill and a whole host of other British Prime
Ministers couldn't - the final solution to the Irish
Question.

As for Stone, his irrational, solo sortie at Stormont
reminds everybody that if the process crashes, might there
be a new army of angry young men out there who are able to
push the north of Ireland over the abyss?

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

http://www.sundaylife.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=716164

Opin: Alan Mcbride: Fudge ... With Added Nuts!

26 November 2006

What have evaporated milk, vanilla, butter and sugar got in
common with an apparently reconstructed republican
terrorist, a shallow, self-promoting politician (is there
any other sort?) and a self-appointed fundamentalist
preacher?

They're both recipes for fudge, of course (and they're all
bad for you in all but the smallest of quantities).

If you were to add a handful of almonds, brazils and
cashews to the first recipe, and an unreconstructed,
unhinged loyalist terrorist to the second, you'd get total
nut fudge, which is what we witnessed up at Stormont on
Friday.

I've suggested before that maybe we simply have the
politicians we deserve, but surely no one deserves this
political fiasco.

I can't help wondering why the threat to stop their wages
if they didn't deliver by November 24 dropped off the
agenda.

Silly me . . . because we've reached November 24, of
course! Why didn't the Secretary of State stop their wages
when they stopped doing the job four years ago? Probably
because it's not his money. Indeed, one could ask whether a
man who falls asleep listening to a father alleging that
Special Branch blocked the police inquiry into the murder
of his son cares about anything except advancing his
political career.

Look at it this way. If you and I failed to carry out a
piece of work we were asked eight years ago to implement,
we would have been rightly sacked some time ago.

Will there ever be a time to deliver the same verdict to
the 'folks on the hill'? I don't know about you, but I have
had enough of the procrastination. If they are not careful,
the political process so many ordinary people dared to
believe in is about to be left behind.

The world has moved on. One only has to look at the level
of coverage (or lack of it) that Northern Ireland has
received recently in the national Press.

And who can blame them? We have had ample opportunity to
sort this thing out - for many years, the province has
punched above its weight in terms of the world's spotlight.

Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern have gone much further than any
of their predecessors in addressing the Irish question - we
have had millions of pounds pumped in from Europe, millions
more raised through international funds, not forgetting the
£50bn reputedly on its way from Gordon Bung.

All this, and still our politicians can't actually sit down
together in the same building and 'do politics' for any
length of time.

Of course, all the play-acting that we see on TV is
probably a million miles from what's really going on.

The DUP is full of people who don't want to share power
with republicans under any circumstances, just as Sinn Fein
is full of people who don't want to have anything to do
with the PSNI. Not an easy basis for their leaders to cut a
deal.

Maybe the reality is that our politicians are actually
doing a fantastic job simply keeping the show on the road.

It might be the road to nowhere, but at least we still have
hope. If we simply take things at face value, I have to say
(and this is not something I say often), that I actually
agree with the 'Big Man' in his insistence that those
involved in governing us sign up to policing.

However, I wonder whether he is simply picking an issue
that he thinks they won't be able to deliver on, in order
to occupy the moral high ground and say to the governments:
"Well, it's not us that's causing the problem."

I've talked to republicans who have explained just how
difficult signing up to policing is for them, given what
their community has suffered at the hands of the police in
the past. But I would like to see them get to a point where
they can call the Big Man's bluff on this issue.

If it's not a bluff, we might just be one step closer to
that democratic, inclusive society that some of us still
dream about.

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

http://www.ferdiad.com/blog/2006/11/british-agenda-is-set-in-stone.html

Blog: British Agenda Is Set In Stone

I want to discuss an issue near and dear to my heart. There
probably isn’t another issue that I have studied in as much
detail as the struggle in Northern Ireland for
reunification with the Republic. Yesterday was supposed to
be a monumental day in the effort to restore power to
Stormont. The idea is a joint power-sharing arrangement
between the predominantly Catholic Sinn Fein and the mainly
Protestant Democratic Unionists.

Rather than just getting into the history and politics
behind the struggle, I want to point out how it was
reported in two different sources. To begin, a convicted
murder ran into Stormont with a gun and homemade
explosives. The man’s name is Michael Stone. Stone is
famous (or infamous) for attempting to assassinate Gerry
Adams and Martin McGuiness. In his attempt, he killed six
innocent people attending the funeral of an alleged IRA
man. Stone was free in 2000 as part of the reconciliation
process set forth in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. To
my counterparts on the British side, yes Protestants were
also released as part of the GFA.

The part of the story I want to focus on relates to how
Stormont collapsed in 2002. Recent efforts have been aimed
at restoring power, otherwise called devolution. Lets look
at how the Chicago Tribune reported the collapse of
Stormont:

“Self rule for Northern Ireland was suspended in 2002 after
an alleged IRA spy scandal.”

Now, lets look at how the New York Times reported the
collapse:

“The level of distrust between political parties has
remained high in the eight years since the negotiation of
the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which ended much of
the politically motivated violence and led to the first
power-sharing local government to involve Protestant
politicians and Catholic representatives from Sinn Fein.
But local rule fell apart in 2002 amid distrust between
Catholic and Protestant leaders.”

Anyone see the difference? The first article leads you to
believe that the IRA caused the collapse of Stormont in
2002. What the Tribune article fails to point out is that
the men accused in the alleged spy ring were all acquitted.
The British admitted that they had zero evidence of a spy
ring. What is worse is that it later turned out that one of
the guys in the “alleged spy ring” was actually a British
agent! I pose this question to you: Is it responsible
journalism for the Tribune not to report the entire story?
Of course not, but that is what happens all the time. The
BBC reported that:

“Unionists in Northern Ireland have called for a public
inquiry after an expelled Sinn Fein official admitted he
was a British agent.

Denis Donaldson said allegations of an IRA spy ring which
led to the collapse of power-sharing had been "a scam and a
fiction" invented by UK intelligence.

Last week he was one of three men cleared of gathering
intelligence for the IRA at Stormont.

The DUP has said Tony Blair should make a Commons statement
on the subject.

DUP MEP Jim Allister said the prime minister must be
prepared to give answers.”

You see, this is what the press does. Rather, this is what
the powers that be do when they use the press to push an
agenda. For example, there was a big bank heist in Northern
Ireland a few years ago. It has still not been solved. Of
course, like Pavlov’s dogs the British establishment and
the Unionist parties accused the IRA. They said that no one
else had the organizational skill to pull it off. That kind
of message resonates with people. Then, a few months later
a few Sinn Fein supporters were arrested an alleged to have
been caught with bank notes from the heist. The headlines
were everywhere that Sinn Fein party reps were involved.
Then, quietly, all the men were released on a false alarm.
They didn’t have any bank notes from the heist and no
charges were ever brought. Do you think all the major
papers ran that story on the front page? Of course not.
Sinn Fein was tarnished and that was goal. Oh year, about
one year later there was an even larger bank robbery
outside of London. International crime syndicates were
implicated, but never caught. I guess when bank’s are
robbed in London it can only be an “international criminal
gang,” but those gangs don’t know how to cross the Irish
Sea (I with the same would be true for the British). I said
from day one after the Northern Bank heist that if I were a
criminal gang I would rob a bank in Northern Ireland. No
one will ever investigate you. They will just accuse the
IRA.

The other problem with the Michael Stone attack casts a
larger net. Whenever someone like Stone commits an act like
this in the name of the party holding all the power (the
British, the Unionists) he is singled out as a “zealot” or
“deranged” or “crazy.” Just read some of the headlines and
stories. They all focus on that theme. The idea is that
nothing is wrong with the British State or the Unionist
agenda. There is nothing systemic in the British State that
causes this sort of decay in society. The focus is on Mr.
Stone as an individual. He is to blame. He should be locked
up. Nothing in British policy should change because the two
are mutually exclusive.

On the other hand, what if Mr. Stone were a Catholic and a
Sinn Fein supporter? What if Mr. Stone ran into Stormont in
an attempt to assassinate Ian Paisley or Tony Blair? What
if he were a member of the IRA, as opposed to a Protestant
paramilitary group? The story would be altogether
different. The story would say how “the IRA hasn’t given up
violence.” They story would quote Ian Paisley and Tony
Blair saying how Sinn Fein/IRA has proven itself to be a
failed ideology and that negotiations were over. They story
and the party line would not focus on Mr. Stone the
individual, but rather the entire IRA and/or Sinn Fein
movement. The British would attempt to discredit and
tarnish an entire people.

You see that is the way it works. For some reason we put
the entire onus of peace and progress on those WITHOUT the
power. We force them to do ambiguous things before
negotiations. Ian Paisley said that before he will share
power in a democracy Sinn Fein must “abide by the rule of
law.” What the hell does that mean? It is just an excuse to
never share power. I don’t care if we wait 1,000 years,
there will always be some jerk on any side that breaks the
law, advocates violence, etc. Does that mean we deny equal
rights to the majority of people that just want peace and
democracy? If you support the state with the power, then
yes. Those with power want to keep it. They want to impede
progress because inevitably progress translates into less
power for them. Just think about the government in South
Africa that operated under Apartheid. Democracy, the
abolition of Bantustans (segregated and fenced in black
slums) meant less power for the white government. Of course
they didn’t want that. They called Nelson Mandela a
terrorist and held him in jail for decades. The same holds
true in Northern Ireland. The IRA and Sinn Fein have lived
up to their end of the bargain. It is time for the British
to hold up their end. They hold the cards and world
attention should be focused on their actions. They are
responsible for this mess and they must be held
accountable.

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

http://loyalistwonders.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/idiot-of-the-year-michael-stone-fat-chops/

Loyalist Wonders

Exposure of Loyalists in Northern Ireland

Blog: Idiot Of The Year Michael Stone Fat Chops

November 25th, 2006

This is probably the best idiot award that Loyalist Wonders
is ever going to hand out and with Michael Stones stupid
stunt at Stormont yesterday this one is well deserved.

Michael Stone finally flipped his lid yesterday when he
stormed the Northern Irish political parliament, Stormont.
Armed with a Gun and a number of explosive devices the
heavy fat man didn’t make it too far into the building
after being wrestled by unarmed guards, some proof that Fat
Michael is no longer the man he used to be as he sweated
like a fat greedy pig trying to get through the doors.

Fats was previously sentenced to over 800 years in jail for
previous murders in Northern Ireland but was released early
under the pathetic terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Thankfully, the stupid idiot was charged was attempted
murder of Gerry Adams & Martin Mc Guinness so its likely he
will be locked up until he kicks the bucket, dam pity this
country doesn’t have the death penalty!

There have been various speculations on why Michael Stone
pulled the stupid stunt at Stormont with some believing he
was simply looking for publicity. My belief is that
Michaels Stones life outside of prison was that of a lonely
sad man who spent his days picking up benefits, eating
burgers and living in fear from being murdered by a
Republican hit squad. He probably decided that he was safer
inside prison where his other idiot friends are locked up
and he didn’t have to walk far for his next meal so he
pulled this stunt for a free ticket to get back inside.

So congratulations to Michael Stone on winning this idiot
of the year award, his children and grandchildren would be
proud of being related to such an idiot!

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=19193-qqqx=1.asp

Ex-IRA-Hunger-Striker In Major Property Battle

26 November 2006 By Ian Kehoe

Tom McFeely, the IRA-hunger-striker-turned-property-
developer, is at the centre of a multi-million-euro court
battle with a rival development company.

Tom McFeely, the IRA-hunger-striker-turned-property-
developer, is at the centre of a multi-million-euro court
battle with a rival development company.

Dublin property company Rivertree Property Developments has
taken a High Court action against McFeely following a
dispute over the sale of property.

Rivertree lodged documents with the High Court several
weeks ago and the matter has now been transferred to the
Commercial Court, a division of the High Court that fast-
tracks multi-million-euro disputes.

The case centres on McFeely’s involvement in the €500
million redevelopment of The Square shopping centre in
Tallaght, Dublin. McFeely and his business partner own a
one third share in the Millennium Square project.

McFeely has retained Dublin law firm John B O’Connor, and
has indicated that he intends to defend the action.

The case is due to be heard next month, and is expected to
last two days.

Rivertree Property Developments was this year involved in
the sale of two houses on Shrewsbury Road, where
residential properties are the most expensive in the
country. The company had applied to demolish 1 and 3
Shrewsbury Road and build apartments, but it did not
receive planning permission.

The houses were subsequently sold to Dublin financier and
wealth manager Derek Quinlan.

McFeely, who spent 53 days on hunger strike in Long Kesh
prison in 1980, is involved in the Tallaght deal with
Quinlan and property developer and solicitor Noel Smyth.

The redevelopment will include the creation of a new main
street for the west Dublin town.

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

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=19197-qqqx=1.asp

Dollar Decline Prompts Fears For Global Markets

26 November 2006 By Cliff Taylor

A sharp fall in the value of the US dollar late last Friday
will prompt a nervous opening for financial markets this
week.

A sharp fall in the value of the US dollar late last Friday
will prompt a nervous opening for financial markets this
week. The euro rose above $1.30 for the first time in 19
months, closing in New York a fraction below $1.31.The
decline was prompted by speculation that weakness in the US
economy could prompt the Federal Reserve Board to cut
interest rates next year and the near certainty that the
European Central Bank will push up its rates again early
next month, with further increases possible in 2007.

The dollar decline led to nervous trading on Wall Street,
where the market closed early due to the Thanksgiving
weekend. The Dow Jones index lost 0.4 per cent, but
analysts warn it could suffer further next week if the
dollar decline continues.

Stock markets in Europe also closed lower last Friday as a
weaker dollar hits EU exporters and companies with US
earnings.

Senior market sources in Dublin said that, given the number
of Irish quoted companies with US subsidiaries, any
sustained decline in the dollar would be bound to affect
share values here. Among the companies with significant US
operations are CRH, IAWS, Kerry Group and AIB.

The key question now for markets is whether we are seeing
the start of a significant dollar slide, prompted by
economic weakness in the US related to a weak housing
market and declining consumer sentiment. The enormous US
trade deficit, or imports over exports, has led to
speculation over the past couple of years that the dollar
could be vulnerable to a sharp sell off. Fears were
heightened about this vulnerability following comments last
Friday by Wu Xialong, deputy governor of the People’s Bank
of China, who indicated her unease at the rapid build-up of
$1,000 billion of currency reserves in China.

Asia’s reserves were at risk due to the dollar decline, she
said. Any move to sell dollars by Asian central banks could
have a major impact on the US currency.

Any sharp move in the US dollar’s value could also affect
the path of EU interest rates. The ECB is now almost
certain to increase its key interest rate again in early
December by 0.25 of a point to 3.5 per cent.

However, if the dollar declines, this will slow EU growth
and lower inflationary pressures, putting pressure on the
ECB to hold off further increases in 2007.

This weekend, Pervences Beres, a French MEP who chairs the
European Parliament’s monetary and economics affairs
committee, said further increases in interest rates were
not appropriate with the euro trading at over $1.30.

A number of senior German politicians have been making
similar comments, fearful that an upward spiral in euro
interest rates could set back the economic recovery in
Europe’s biggest economy.

Most analysts had expected the ECB to increase rates at
least once more in 2007, before a possible pause to see the
impact on economic growth.

----
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