INDYMEDIA IRELAND MARTIN COREY INTERNMENT DEBATE

a

INDYMEDIA IRELAND INTERNMENT DEBATE LINK

Julian Assange BRITISH INTERNMENT POLITICAL Martin Corey

Assange Talks About Possible Holder Prosecution

By DSWright 

As Attorney General Holder faces possible perjury charges Julian Assange, the publisher of Wikileaks, discussed his case with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. Amy Goodman asked Assange to comment on the AP spying scandal as well as a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, being listed on a warrant signed by AG Holder that lists the reporter as a possible co-conspirator in violations of the Espionage Act.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, let’s look at this phenomena from two aspects. Don’t be deceived by what appears to be small maneuvers by the Department of Justice to go after AP, to go after Rosen, to go after us, etc. We have over here the bulk surveillance industry run by the National Security Agency that already has all these records. It has them all already. The National Security Agency—and this has come out in one court case after another—was involved in a project called Stellar Wind to collect all the calling records of the United States, every record of everyone calling everyone over years. And the result of that lay out the entire community and political structure, based upon who people are friends with. You can infer that by who calls who, and what the status is by the relative flow of calls around the country, to suck out the entire community structure of the United States. That has already been done. Those calling records already enter into the national security complex.

What we’re talking about here are mechanisms to use that information in a court case, and therefore it has to be clean. This is the dirty team; this is the clean team. And so, these are maneuvers to pull people into court cases that will become public to set a deterrent against national security journalism. And the most pernicious aspect of that is the abuse of the Espionage Act and other mechanisms to try and conflate the activities of a source with the activities of a journalist or a publisher, and to try and say that whenever a journalist deals with a source, they’re in fact engaged in a conspiracy. And if there’s an allegation—of course, allegations can be very easily made, placed on the table, just invented from thin air—that a source’s behavior affects national security and is therefore espionage, and therefore, extend that allegation over to the journalist and to the source—and to the publisher. In the case of Rosen, they have done that in order to get at Rosen’s emails and other records, to then back reflect onto the source or onto other sources. You know, it is simply a disgrace. It is unethical conduct. It is politically worrying conduct. It is chilling conduct. And it is—why is it being done? Because they believe they can get away with it. It is part of advancing the frontier of the national security state to roll on over the First Amendment and every other traditionally accepted U.S. value.

If Holder has an ongoing prosecution against Assange and Wikileaks it may not only have a chilling effect on journalism but invalidate his statement to the House Oversight Committee on having “never heard of” prosecuting the press for disclosure of material.

While a journalist has never been prosecuted under the Espionage Act, does Holder consider Assange a journalist? What about the New York Times and McClatchy, both published the Cablegate memos. Was Assange a source, a co-publisher, or both? Hopefully Holder will chose to clarify the Justice Department’s actual press policy and will do so on the record instead of elitist backstage double dealing.

This article was originally published at FDL

POLITICAL INTERNMENT EXPERIENCE IRELAND

In the wake of the internment of Marian Price, which I believe over the last two years, can generally be agreed, to have been a form of internment because it lacked a proper, transparent trial, in a timely manner. I also believe it can be generally agreed by reasonable informed people, to have been a major setback, to what is known as the peace process in Ireland. I personally have neither been a proponent of this process or have believed it will achieve traditional Irish republican aspirations but I accept very reluctantly, it is a reality, delivered by a leadership with elements of competency, without wholesale fratricidal, blood letting.




There is an old expression, that the three long term curses of the Irish, are the English, drink and religion. From bitter personal experience I would agree, that recovery is not an overnight process, no more than a lasting peace based on justice is. The main problem accompanying the above three curses, are that to live or survive in such an environment, requires a lot of secrecy lies and generally many unhealthy, dishonest, subservient habits.




The current British occupation in Ireland, requires a considerable amount of draconian secrecy, under their Official Secrets Act and all the variations that ensues, with secret internment without trial, secret courts, and a feral secret service. This form of repression in Ireland has always been met with resistance, including physical force. To sustain resistance over any given time also requires considerable secrecy, 'rough justice,' along with violence to oppose the British Imperial violence of invasion, None of this is compatible with the necessary basic justice, that is a critical requirement of peace. Those who call for peace without this basic justice, are disingenuous and often do so from a vested interest, class based privilege. However equally, it must be also said, that after 800 years of traditional struggle, we have made little progress with our methods towars our goals.




It has been stated by experienced genuine revolutionaries, that we have a moral responsibility, to try every possible means of resistance, before the last resort of armed struggle. It is my own experience, reluctant opinion and conclusion, from bitter personal experience, that a long term campaign of guerrilla warfare, is not sustainable, successfully, in the culture of the small island of often socially incestuous, contemporary, Ireland. There are a myriad of reasons which at this point in time, would to take too long to explain this peoperly.It does however merit, considerable honest debate and discussion by genuine people, particularly of no property in Ireland.




Experience is the best teacher, but a fool will learn from no other. - Benjamin Franklin




This appears to be a very harsh statement but again from I personal experience, I have to agree. So what then is a serious alternative, to physical force politics, state terrorism and reactionary violence. I personally believe that in this age of the internet, in the absence of overbearing malign censorship,we have a tool to win our aspirations, albeit slowly and with considerable patience. Patience is for me, the best definition of the often abused word of love. Love is patient. There are many examples is Irish history, of heroic love for our island expressed by our sons and daughters. Probably the most famous recent, well known example being the death of twelve Irish hunger strikers in the present phase of struggle, there being a total of twenty two altogether. Our success depends on coming from love rather than hate, again easier said than done in an outside, mentored political environment of tit for tat divide and conquer.




It is difficult to refuse to rise to the bait of provocation and infuriating for me personally at times, as someone who sees religion, as a big part of the problem, to recognize that certain truths expressed in the Good Book, correspond perfectly with my own experience of baby steps towards the solution. The Book states, that no greater love had anyone, than to lay down their life for their friend. It also states that the truth will set us free. I believe personally, that under present circumstances, despite draconian censorship and repression, we have responsibility to try the truth rather than live by the sword. Many say the truth is is the most powerful thing on the face of this planet and personally from my own experience, I would have to agree.




Many will say on a class basis, that all of thsi it is easy to say, for someone relatively comfortable, than to have such patience, in the face of murderous imperialism and dire poverty on their doorstep. From personal experience I agree but we do have an alternative and I believe a moral responsibility, for those with potential leadership qualities, to seriously try, before resorting to armed struggle. Contemporary experience demonstrates, that terrorism begets terrorism, be it British state terrorism or reactionary violence. Having stated all of this, I believe there is a tipping point in any mass movement, with a mandate of overwhelming mass support, where there a responsibility lies with the leadership, to take the levers of power for the people, with as little bloodshed as possible.




The Truth will Set us Free in a Society as Sick as its Secrets




For those of you out there who disagree, and wish to demonstrate to me the errors of my ways, you are very welcome to do so. In the meantime I will do my best with these attempts on the internet to walk the talk. I believe every element of traditional Irish republicanism, even the Gerry Adams' flock can teach me something, so I will be quoting you. I have to say, as a non-member of Republican Sinn Fein that their traditional document, 'Eire Nua' is the best blueprint I have found, as a democratic way forward to the solution.




Going back again to the Marian Price saga, I believe Gerry Adams made a very rational remark, in the wake of Marian's release from internment. “The logic of today’s release is that Martin Corey should also befreed," Provisional Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. In the interest of not inflaming passions further and making a serious effort to underpin a serious Peace Process with justice, the onus is on all of us, not to just pay lip service a superficial peace. This will require serious commitment, patience, tenacity and many volunteers.


To remain honest with you, it is my belief , that the status of British Occupied Ireland, cannot sustain itself in the contest of the small island of Ireland, without supremacist outsiders, engineering the cancer of sectarianism heaped on top of their class based system of inherited privilege and monarchy. I challenge them to prove me wrong. In the meantime I will try to walk the talk by quoting below an article from Wikipedia about the experience of internment being used in Ireland, in the context of trying to learn with Martin Corey's current internment without a proper trial. - Brian Clarke

Operation Demetrius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Operation Demetrius
Part of The Troubles and Operation Banner

The entrance to Compound 19, one of the sections of Long Kesh internment camp
Location Northern Ireland

Objective Arrest of suspected Irish republicanparamilitaries
Date 9–10 August 1971
04:00 – ? (UTC+01:00)
Executed by British Army
Royal Ulster Constabulary
Outcome 342 people arrested and interned
7,000 civilians displaced
Casualties (see below)


[show]

v
t
e
The Troubles



Operation Demetrius was a British Army operation in Northern Ireland on 9–10 August 1971, during The Troubles. It involved the mass arrest andinternment (without trial) of 342 people suspected of being involved with Irish republican paramilitaries (the Provisional IRA and Official IRA). Armed soldiers launched dawn raids throughout Northern Ireland, sparking four days of rioting that killed 20 civilians, two Provisional IRA members and two British soldiers. About 7,000 people fled their homes, of which roughly 2,500 fled south of the border. No loyalist paramilitaries were included in the sweep and many of those who were arrested had no links with republican paramilitaries, which caused much anger. The policy of internment was to last until December 1975 and during that time 1,981 people were interned.[1] Its introduction, and the abuse of those interned, led to numerous protests and a sharp increase in violence. The interrogation techniques used on the internees were described by the European Commission of Human Rights in 1976 as "torture", but theEuropean Court of Human Rights ruled on appeal in 1978 that while the techniques were "inhuman and degrading", they did not constitute torture.[2]


Contents [hide]
1 Planning
2 Legal basis
3 The operation and its immediate aftermath
4 Long-term effects
5 Effects on domestic and international law
5.1 Parker Report
5.2 European Commission of Human Rights
5.3 European Court of Human Rights
6 References

Planning [edit]

Internment was re-introduced on the orders of the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner. The policy of internment had been used a number of times during Northern Ireland's (and the Republic of Ireland's) history.

In the case brought to the European Commission of Human Rights by the Irish Government against the United Kingdom, it was conceded that Operation Demetrius was planned and implemented from the highest levels of the British Government and that specially trained personnel were sent to Northern Ireland to familiarize the local forces in what became known as the 'five techniques', described by opponents as "a euphemism for torture".[3]

On the initial list of those to be arrested, which was drawn up by RUC Special Branch and MI5, there were 450 names, but only 350 of these were able to be arrested. Key figures on the lists, and many who never appeared on them, were warned before the swoop began. It included leaders of the non-violent civil rights movement such as Ivan Barr and Michael Farrell. But, as Tim Pat Coogan noted,


What they did not include was a single Loyalist. Although the UVF had begun the killing and bombing, this organisation was left untouched, as were other violent Loyalist satellite organisations such as Tara, the Shankill Defence Associationand the Ulster Protestant Volunteers. It is known that Faulkner was urged by the British to include a few Protestants in the trawl but he refused.[4]

It was agreed to introduce internment at a meeting between Faulkner and UK Prime Minister Edward Heath in August 5, 1971. The British cabinet recommended, “balancing action”, such as the arrest of loyalist militants, the calling in of weapons held by (generally unionist) rifle clubs in Northern Ireland and the indefinite ban on parades, particularly those by the Orange Order. However Faulkner argued that a ban on parades was unworkable, the gun clubs posed no security risk and there was no evidence of loyalist terrorism. It was eventually agreed that there would be a six-month ban on parades but no targeting of loyalists and that internment would go ahead on August 9, in an operation carried out by the Army.[5]
Legal basis [edit]

The internments were initially carried out under Regulations 11 and 12 of 1956 and Regulation 10 of 1957 (the Special Powers Regulations), made under the authority of the Special Powers Act. The Detention of Terrorists Order of 7 November 1972, made under the authority of the Temporary Provisions Act, was used after direct rule was instituted.
The operation and its immediate aftermath [edit]

The HMS Maidstone, a prison ship docked at Belfast where many internees were sent

Operation Demetrius began on Monday 9 August at about 4AM.

The operation was in two parts:
(1) Arrest and movement of the detainees to one of three regional holding centers: Girdwood in Belfast, Ballykinler in County Down, or Magilligan in County Londonderry.
(2) The process of identification and questioning, leading either to release of the detainee or movement into detention at Crumlin Road prison or aboard the HMS Maidstone, aprison ship in Belfast Harbor.[6]

In the first wave of raids across Northern Ireland, 342 people were arrested.[7] Many of those arrested reported that they and their families were assaulted, verbally abused and threatened by the soldiers. There were claims of soldiers smashing their way into houses without warning and firing rubber bullets through doors and windows. Many of those arrested also reported being ill-treated during their detention. They complained of being beaten, verbally abused, threatened, harassed by dogs, denied sleep, and starved. Specific humiliations included being forced to run a gauntlet of baton-wielding soldiers, having their heads forcefully shaved, being kept naked, being burnt with cigarettes, having a sack placed over their heads for long periods, having a rope kept around their necks, having the barrel of a gun pressed against their heads, being dragged by the hair, being trailed behind armored vehicles while barefoot, and being tied to armored trucks as a human shield.[8][9]

The operation sparked an immediate upsurge of violence, which was said to be the worst since the August 1969 riots.[7] The British Army came under sustained attack from Irish nationalist/republican rioters and gunmen, especially in Belfast. According to journalistKevin Myers: "Insanity seized the city. Hundreds of vehicles were hijacked and factories were burnt. Loyalist and IRA gunmen were everywhere".[10] People blocked roads and streets with burning barricades to stop the British Army entering their neighborhoods. InDerry, barricades were again erected around Free Derry and "for the next 11 months these areas effectively seceded from British control".[11] Between 9 and 11 August, 24 people were killed or fatally wounded: 20 civilians (14 Irish Catholics, 6 Protestants), two members of the Provisional IRA, shot dead by the British Army, and two members of the British Army, shot dead by the Provisional IRA.[12]

A mural commemorating those killed in theBallymurphy Massacre during Operation Demetrius

Of the civilians killed, 17 were killed by the British Army and the other three were killed by unknown attackers.[12] In West Belfast's Ballymurphy housing estate, 11 Irish Catholic civilians were killed by the British Army between 9 and 11 August in an episode that has become known as the Ballymurphy Massacre. Another flashpoint was Ardoyne in North Belfast, where soldiers shot dead three people on 9 August.[12] Many Protestant families fled Ardoyne and about 200 burnt their homes as they left, lest they "fall into Catholic hands".[13] Protestant and Catholic families fled "to either side of a dividing line, which would provide the foundation for the permanent peaceline later built in the area".[10] Catholic homes were burnt in Ardoyne and elsewhere too.[13] About 7000 people, most of them Catholic, were left homeless.[13] About 2500 Catholic refugees fled south of the border, where newrefugee camps were set up.[13]

By 13 August, media reports indicated that the violence had begun to wane, seemingly due to exhaustion on the part of the IRA and security forces.[14]

On 15 August, the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) announced that it was starting a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of internment. By 17 October, it was estimated that about 16,000 households were withholding rent and rates for council houses as part of the campaign of civil disobedience.[7]

On 16 August, over 8000 workers went on strike in Derry in protest at internment. Joe Cahill, then Chief of Staff of the Provisional IRA, held a press conference during which he claimed that only 30 Provisional IRA members had been interned.[7]

On 22 August, in protest against internment, about 130 non-Unionist councillors announced that they would no longer sit on district councils. The SDLP also withdrew its representatives from a number of public bodies.[7] On 19 October, five Northern Ireland Members of Parliament (MPs) began a 48-hour hunger strike against internment. The protest took place near 10 Downing Street in London. Among those taking part were John Hume, Austin Currie, and Bernadette Devlin.[7] Protests would continue until internment was ended in December 1975.
Long-term effects [edit]

Anti-internment mural in the Bogside area of Derry

The backlash against internment contributed to the decision of the British Government under Prime Minister Edward Heath to suspend the Northern Ireland Government and replace it with direct rule from Westminster, under the authority of a British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Following the resignation of the Government of Northern Ireland and the prorogation of theParliament of Northern Ireland in 1972, internment was continued by the direct ruleadministration until 5 December 1975. During this time a total of 1,981 people were interned: 1,874 were from a Catholic or Irish nationalist background, while 107 were from a Protestant or Ulster loyalist background.[15]

Historians generally view the period of internment as inflaming sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland, while failing in its goal of arresting key members of the IRA. Many of the nationalists arrested had no links whatsoever with the IRA, but their names appeared on the list of those to be arrested through bungling and incompetence. The list's lack of reliability and the arrests that followed, complemented by reports of internees being abused, led to more people identifying with the IRA in the nationalist community and losing hope in other methods. After Operation Demetrius, recruits came forward in huge numbers to join the Provisional and Official wings of the IRA.[13] Internment also led to a sharp increase in violence. In the eight months before the operation, there were 34 conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland. In the four months following it, 140 were killed.[13] A serving officer of the British Royal Marines declared:


It (internment) has, in fact, increased terrorist activity, perhaps boosted IRA recruitment, polarised further the Catholic and Protestant communities and reduced the ranks of the much needed Catholic moderates.[16]

In terms of loss of life, 1972 was the most violent of the Troubles. The fatal march on Bloody Sunday (30 January 1972) in Derry, when 14 unarmed civil rights protesters were shot dead by British paratroopers, was an anti-internment march.
Effects on domestic and international law [edit]
Parker Report [edit]

When the interrogation techniques used on the internees became known to the public, there was outrage at the Government, especially from the Irish nationalist community. In answer to the anger from the public and Members of Parliament, on 16 November 1971 (just over a month after the start of the operation), the British Government commissioned a committee of inquiry chaired by Lord Parker (theLord Chief Justice of England) to look into the legal and moral aspects of the 'five techniques'.

The "Parker Report"[17] was published on 2 March 1972 and found the five techniques to be illegal under domestic law:


10. Domestic Law ...(c) We have received both written and oral representations from many legal bodies and individual lawyers from both England and Northern Ireland. There has been no dissent from the view that the procedures are illegal alike by the law of England and the law of Northern Ireland. ... (d) This being so, no Army Directive and no Minister could lawfully or validly have authorized the use of the procedures. Only Parliament can alter the law. The procedures were and are illegal.

On the same day (2 March 1972), United Kingdom Prime Minister Edward Heath stated in the House of Commons:


[The] Government, having reviewed the whole matter with great care and with reference to any future operations, have decided that the techniques ... will not be used in future as an aid to interrogation... The statement that I have made covers all future circumstances.[18]

As foreshadowed in the Prime Minister's statement, directives expressly forbidding the use of the techniques, whether alone or together, were then issued to the security forces by the Government.[18] These are still in force and the use of such methods by UK security forces would not be condoned by the Government.
European Commission of Human Rights [edit]

The Irish Government, on behalf of the men who had been subject to the five techniques, took a case to the European Commission on Human Rights (Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on Hum. Rts. 512, 748, 788-94 (Eur. Comm’n of Hum. Rts.)). The Commission stated that it


...unanimously considered the combined use of the five methods to amount to torture, on the grounds that (1) the intensity of the stress caused by techniques creating sensory deprivation "directly affects the personality physically and mentally"; and (2) "the systematic application of the techniques for the purpose of inducing a person to give information shows a clear resemblance to those methods of systematic torture which have been known over the ages...a modern system of torture falling into the same category as those systems applied in previous times as a means of obtaining information and confessions.[19][20]
European Court of Human Rights [edit]

The Commissions findings were appealed. In 1978, in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) trial Ireland v. the United Kingdom(Case No. 5310/71),[21] the facts were not in dispute and the judges court published the following in their judgement:


These methods, sometimes termed "disorientation" or "sensory deprivation" techniques, were not used in any cases other than the fourteen so indicated above. It emerges from the Commission's establishment of the facts that the techniques consisted of:
(a) wall-standing: forcing the detainees to remain for periods of some hours in a "stress position", described by those who underwent it as being "spreadeagled against the wall, with their fingers put high above the head against the wall, the legs spread apart and the feet back, causing them to stand on their toes with the weight of the body mainly on the fingers";
(b) hooding: putting a black or navy coloured bag over the detainees' heads and, at least initially, keeping it there all the time except during interrogation;
(c) subjection to noise: pending their interrogations, holding the detainees in a room where there was a continuous loud and hissing noise;
(d) deprivation of sleep: pending their interrogations, depriving the detainees of sleep;
(e) deprivation of food and drink: subjecting the detainees to a reduced diet during their stay at the centre and pending interrogations.

These (a to e) were the 'five techniques' referred to above. The court ruled:


167. ... Although the five techniques, as applied in combination, undoubtedly amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment, although their object was the extraction of confessions, the naming of others and/or information and although they were used systematically, they did not occasion suffering of the particular intensity and cruelty implied by the word torture as so understood. ... 168. The Court concludes that recourse to the five techniques amounted to a practice of inhuman and degrading treatment, which practice was in breach of [the European Convention on Human Rights] Article 3 (art. 3).

On 8 February 1977, in proceedings before the ECHR, and in line with the findings of the Parker Report and UK Government policy, the Attorney-General of the United Kingdom stated:


The Government of the United Kingdom have considered the question of the use of the 'five techniques' with very great care and with particular regard to Article 3 (art. 3) of the Convention. They now give this unqualified undertaking, that the 'five techniques' will not in any circumstances be reintroduced as an aid to interrogation.
References [edit]

^ Joint Committee on Human Rights, Parliament of the United Kingdom (2005). Counter-Terrorism Policy And Human Rights: Terrorism Bill and related matters: Oral and Written Evidence. Counter-Terrorism Policy And Human Rights: Terrorism Bill and related matters 2. The Stationery Office. p. 110.
^ http://www.worldlii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/1978/1.html
^ Parker, Tom. Frontline: "Is torture ever justified?". PBS.
^ Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's ordeal 1966-1996 and the search for peace. London: Hutchinson. p.126Internment - Summary of Main Events
^ The Irish Story - Internment is introduced in Northern Ireland
^ The Compton Report, November 1971. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
^ a b c d e f Internment: A chronology of the main events.Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
^ Danny Kennally and Eric Preston. Belfast August 1971: A Case to be Answered. Independent Labour Party, 1971.Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN).
^ Danny Kennally and Eric Preston. Belfast August 1971: A Case to be Answered. Chapter: Treatment of Arrested. Independent Labour Party, 1971. Conflict Archive on the Internet(CAIN).
^ a b McKittrick, David. Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died through the Northern Ireland Troubles. Mainstream, 1999. p.80
^ "Blunt weapon of internment fails to cru

1. sh nationalist resistance". An Phoblacht. 9 August 2007.
2. ^ ^a b c Malcolm Sutton's Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland: 1971. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's ordeal 1966-1996 and the search for peace. Palgrave, 2002. p.152
4. ^ "Violence ebbing in Northern Ireland". The Milwaukee Journal, 13 August 1971.
5. ^ Internment - Summary of Main Events. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
6. ^ Hamill, D. Pig in the Middle: The Army in Northern Ireland. London, Methuen, 1985.
7. ^ The Parker Report, March 1972. Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)
8. ^ ^a b Ireland v. the United Kingdom Paragraph 101 and 135
9. ^ Security Detainees/Enemy Combatants: U.S. Law Prohibits Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Footnote 16
10. ^ Weissbrodt, David. Materials on torture and other ill-treatment: 3. European Court of Human Rights (doc) html: Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on Hum. Rts. 512, 748, 788-94 (Eur. Comm’n of Hum. Rts.)
11. ^ IRELAND v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 5310/71 (1978) ECHR 1 (18 January 1978)

British Political Internment Madness to Induce Suicide of Marian Price

 international | crime and justice | news report  Thursday October 04, 2012 08:39 by BrianClarkeNUJ 

Secret Trials and Experiments

Issues of mental health and insanity due to solitary confinement and other extreme forms of Sensory Deprivation date back to the 19th century and were widely researched by a variety of academics and scholars at that time.Some of these early prison experiments indicated that many prisoners preferred the lash over solitary confinement, because it did not induce permanent damage and would not incite madness like solitary confinement. Mental instability has been linked to solitary confinement since the 1860s. Prison records of the Danish institute of 1870-1920 demonstrate, that inmates showed signs of mental illnesses in isolation, revealing that knowledge of this has been around for more than a hundred years before the British started serious experiment on Irish political internees, who later became known as "The Guineapigs" after an internee John McGuffuin, wrote a book about it by that title .

British Political Internment Experiments

Issues of mental health and insanity due to solitary confinement and other extreme forms of Sensory Deprivation date back to the 19th century and were widely researched by a variety of academics and scholars at that time.Some of these early prison experiments indicated that many prisoners preferred the lash over solitary confinement, because it did not induce permanent damage and would not incite madness like solitary confinement. Mental instability has been linked to solitary confinement since the 1860s. Prison records of the Danish institute of 1870-1920 demonstrate, that inmates showed signs of mental illnesses in isolation, revealing that knowledge of this has been around for more than a hundred years before the British started serious experiment on Irish political internees, who later became known as "The Guineapigs" after an internee John McGuffuin, wrote a book about it by that title .

The British as result of these Sensory Deprivation torture experiments, became the world's leading experts on the matter and refined it down to their sick art. The British are very aware as result of these experiments, on how to induce various forms of specific psychosis and are still perfecting their dark arts, on their latest internees of political conscience, which includes Marian Price. The experiments are also used to induce a psychotic state, to later discredit political prisoners, such as the Price sisters when eventually they are released. The British experiments are often supplemented with different drugs, secretly administered in the food of Irish political prisoners. On other occasions the British use the induced psychotic state to induce the suicide of political dissidents.

Solitary internment without trial in British Occupied Ireland, which Marian Price has endured now, for more than one year on this occasion, coupled with more than six months of force feeding previously, has left Marian Price permanently, distraught and physically damaged and in seriously bad health. The Irish internees of this special form of torture in which political dissident internees are isolated from any human contact, is sometimes used as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for Irish political prisoners, as well as conducting further experiments in their dark sadistic British art. Some previous interned Irish political prisoners or the original Guineapigs of Sensory Deprivation, prior to the latest form of selective internment, suffered subsequent seriously bad health, death and suicide.

On June 5, 1975 Sean McKenna died. On his death certificate the cause of death was 'heart attack'. At the funeral oration Ruari O'Bradaigh, President of Sinn Fein said: "Before 1971 Sean McKenna was a strong, healthy man, but after suffering at the hands of the enemy, the great tortures to which he was subjected, his time was marked. He started to die for Ireland at 4 am. on August 9, 1971 when he was interned and tortured." At the time of his internment Sean McKenna, at 42 was the oldest of the Guineapigs. He was also one of those worst-affected. Following the experiment he was kept interned at Long Kesh, in a very bad state, for two years before being transferred to various psychiatric hospitals and finally released, only to die a year later.

Professor Robert J. Daly of Cork University, who carried out a five year study of many of the Guineapigs, examined McKenna four months before his death reporting him physically fit. "He had a feeling of impending fatal illness and had gross symptoms of anxiety." Professor Daly also spoke of three of the other Guineapigs. "One 29 year old hooded man has developed Hodgkin's disease, of which there was no evidence prior to his arrest.Hodgkin's disease is a rare form of cancer. It is still not curable but can be treated. Another man has had surgical treatment for carcinoma of the skin which developed on one of his scars which he received on his leg while being 'interrogated in depth'. A fourth man has had colonic resection for suspected Chron's disease. He developed intense and chronic diarrhoea some three months after the 'interrogation in depth'. All the hooded men report disability to a greater or lesser extent and this has included outpatient and inpatient psychiatric treatment as well as treatment for medical illness."

British Army training in 'psyops' or psychological operations, torture and sensory deprivation has continued with Marian Price, despite the British Government giving an 'assurance' that such methods would never be used again, when they were found guilty of torture in Ireland, at the International Court of Human rights in Strasbourg. The end result of the 'Guineapigs' experiment, like so many other experiment being conducted in British Occupied Ireland, is that the British are now regarded as experts at this form of torture and are regularly invited to give demonstrations and seminars, at places such as Fort Bragg, Carolina, and Fort Huachuca, Arizona and Bad Tolz in West Germany.They also instructed the fascist P.I.D.E. Portuguese secret police until they discovered to their disgust and embarrassment after an Army coup, they had unbeknownst to themselves, been giving lessons of Kitsonian counter-insurgency techniques and torture, to guerrillas in Latin American, who had infiltrated the Portugese Army and the British torture courses.

Besides the psychological harm the British have inflicted on Marian Price the sensory deprivation will have a severe negative impact on her mental state and may lead to mental illnesses such as depression, permanent change in her brain physiology, along with an induced existential crisis, that will probably lead to her premature death. Women are more far more likely to become depressed because of paranoid feelings of and imagined lack of support by their families outside prison. The extreme form of solitary confinement, Sensory Deprivation and isolation suffered by Marian will be felt by the larger Irish community as a whole. The unreasonable amount of time Marian has spent in solitary confinement will probably mean that Marian will suffer from serious mental illnesses even if the British ever release her.

The British plan as result of their experiments on Irish political guineapigs, with new legislation this Autumn and more secret courts in England to place prisoners in solitary confinement based on sexual orientation, race and religion. This form of psychological torture and its negative psychological effects were described by one leading judge to rule that “Solitary confinement or Sensory deprivation units are virtual incubators of psychoses seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates.” This author has received uncorroborated evidence more than one year ago, that the British plan with regard to the torture of Marian Price, is to induce her suicide, with the use of Sensory Deprivation. This has already been achieved with other prisoners of political conscience. 

Related Link: http://irishblog-brianclarkenuj.blogspot.com/

New Irish Revolutionary Army

Link

McGuinness's Mental Masturbation

Unrepentant Fenian Bastard

Click Link to


McGuinness's Mental Masturbation

BLACK IRISH

They say opinions are like Arsenils and everyone's got one !

Here are just some diverse opinions on what the term 'Black Irish" means. Other opinions are welcome !



The term Black Irish is used in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and Canada to describe individuals of Irish ancestry who have features which are darker than stereotypical Irish features — blue or green eyes, fair hair, and pale skin. Irish individuals with dark hair and eyes are often referred to as Black Irishand are understood to have Iberian ancestors.


Black Irish comes from social and political biases as well as genetic history. In the 1800s, many Caucasian people believed that the Irish were somehow related to Africans. Africans and individuals of very dark features were held in distaste and considered to be inferior peoples. Therefore, the term Black Irish was born and upheld. In 1862, John Beddoe, an esteemed ethnologist, published Races of Britain in which he described those of Celtic descent as having features similar to those of African descent.

"I am 100 percent Irish American with possibly 1/8 Belfast Orangewoman blood. My grandfather has always been described as Black Irish with thick, black wavy hair, dark eyes and skin. Also, his wife, my paternal grandmother came from a family of three siblings - one red haired and freckled like me (like my grandmother), one blond haired, blue eyed with pale skin who looked Scandanavian and one who was dark haired, with dark eyes and skin. Both my parents are dark haired with blue eyes (although my mothers hair was blonde when she was younger), my three siblings were red-haired and freckled with one sister with blond/light brown hair and green eyes. That said, most groups that have a relatively high incidence of redheads are groups with mostly dark hair (brown and black). Red hair was a mutation of the protein that normally expresses (genotype) as eumelanin, in the realm of the black/brown hair color. This mutation, pheomelanin, is responsible for the yellow-red pigmentation, while eumelanin is the default coloring for most humans - the brown-black end of the pigmentation scale. The mutation that caused red hair is known as the MC1r variant, and first occurred between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago. It first appeared in humans with dark hair and skin, enabling them to take advantage of their ability to make more D vitamins, which enabled them to flourish in the higher latitudes. Blonde hair, on the other hand, took much longer to develop, starting gradually with hair colors only slightly lighter than in preceding generations. Consequently, the blonds in northern Europe took longer to develop than the mutant redheads (I say this with tongue in cheek, being of the red persuation myself, lol). Therefore, of the groups inhabiting northwest Europe, while the blonds were the result of extended exposure to the higher latitudes of Europe over a period of time, the redheads appeared suddenly (due to mutation) within dark haired, original populations of CroMagnon Europe. If there could said to be an aboriginal population during the Upper Paleolithic, this was them. In addition to appearing amongst humans, the pheomelanin carrying individuals also appeared amongst mammoths, bears and other mammals of the Upper Paleolithic. It would eventually show itself amongst other animals of the period, continuing until today. Irish setters and Persian cats also bear their coloring in the modern era. So, the orignial group that redheads appeared amongst were those with the eumelanin characteristics. That said, an ancestral relationship of dark hair/coloring/eyes in the greater ethnic group of the Celts would be compatible with a high incidence of red/yellow haired/colored individuals. That does *not* preclude the general coloring of Irish individuals to include those with darker hair and coloring. Where this coloring may originate is an interesting question. Given that Celtic lanuages have as much in common with Semitic languages as with IndoEuropean languages, it is no great stretch to imagine an ancestral group with general coloring in line with Jews and Arabs. That said, imagine a group that broke off millenia ago from a larger group of Semitic languages to encounter and colonize the lands to the north and west. Over time, this group would retain much of its original language, and incorporate the language of the "new" peoples it encountered. What you get in the end are Irish and Scots Gaelic. Moreover, the Celts looked different from the Germanic peoples who lived nearby. Their hair was curly/wavy instead of straight and lank. Their noses were softer and smaller than their Germanic counterparts - more like African than "European" (as it was generally understood). That, along with other characteristics, show the modern day Irish and Scottish and others of the original Celtic nations to be a distinct people unto themselves, rather than some variation of Teutonic origins, as with the English. Yes, there are black Irish - maybe they are examples of the first Celts."

People on the west coast of Ireland are almost genetically identical to people in the Basque region. As are the welsh. If you go to Irish speaking communities, you will see a significant number of the population with dark features. I look like a Spaniard in the summer.

Mention the term "Black Irish" to an American, and you'll usually be met with confusion. They've not heard of the lore of the Black Irish, tales of a Spanish Armada wrecking along the coast of Ireland. Black, to them, means only one thing -- African American -- and this idea clashes horribly with their idea of the Irish and what being Irish means. Forget that the Irish were once known as "white Negroes" and black peoples as "smoked Irish." This website is about me and thus about the contradictions of a society that judges the individual by the stereotype rather than vice verca. We tell people that they look like such-and-such a star rathan than the star looks like them, and when exciting things happen, we say it's "just like the movies," judging reality by the fiction.

interview with the author at http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/jan97postel.htm

Q: You point out that at one point the Irish were known as "white Negroes" and black people were referred to as "smoked Irish." What did those terms reflect?

A: They reflected the scorn and disdain with which both were regarded by the better situated, by the leading elements of American society. There was speculation that there would be some "amalgamation," that is, that Irish and black would blend into each other and become one common people.



Montserrat was devastated by the eruption of its volcano, and areas now under volcanic ash include the Galway wall, Cork, Kinsale, and Sweeney's Well. A high percentage of Calypsonians are from Montserrat; they reflect their Irish heritage in their singing.

St. Kitts has built a monument to Irish slavery in commemoration of the 25,000 Irish men and women who were shipped there as slaves. In one particularly grueling story, over 150 Irish slaves were caught practicing Catholicism, and were shipped to tiny Crab Island, where they were left to die of starvation. Many of the Irish who managed to survive, and their descendants, were eventually shipped from the West Indies sugar plantations to the new English settlements in South Carolina.

Lest I be accused of presenting a one-sided view of history, let me hasten to add that there were other Irish, or more correctly Anglo-Irish, who also had an influence on Jamaica.


National Portrait Gallery, London
Robert Nugent, Earl Nugent, by James Sayers, 1782
Both Lord and Lady Nugent had Irish ancestry. George Nugent served as Adjutant General in Ireland. His signature is on the death warrant for patriot Robert Emmet, who was executed in 1803 and whose speech from the dock contained the immortal phrase: "When my country takes her place among the nations of the Earth, then -- and not till then -- let my epitaph be written."

Lady Nugent, in the journal of her residence in Jamaica, had the following to say in regards to her African slaves: "We treated them with beef and punch, and never was there a happier set of people. All day they have been singing odd songs, only interrupted by peals of laughter; and indeed I must say they have every reason to be content, for they have many comforts and enjoyments. I only wish the poor Irish were half as well off."

William O'Brien, the second Earl of Inchiquin, was made governor of Jamaica in 1690. Howe Peter Browne, the Marquess of Sligo, was governor of Jamaica at the time of emancipation from slavery in 1834. It is in his honour that Sligoville, the first freed slave village, is named. Thomas Lynch from Galway, also known as Buckra Lynch, came over as part of Venebles army. He became chief justice and eventually governor of Jamaica, after the tenure of notorious pirate and buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan. He is also supposed to be the man who designed and built Flat Bridge over the Rio Cobre, which makes sense as the bridge has no sides to it and is at right angles to the main road! This bridge spans the Bog Walk Gorge, and as the Irish (or at least the part I come from) were often referred to as Bogtrotters, I have no doubt we had a hand in naming that, too

Various Irish regiments, such as the Earl of Ulsters, the Royal Leinsters, the Royal Irish Rifles, and the Royal Inniskillings, were all billeted at New Castle. Irish Town and the Cooperage are testimony to the Coopers, who were brought over to make the wooden barrels for the export of rum and coffee. Between Irish Town and New Castle is the quaint district known as "Red Light," where Irish colleens gave lonely soldiers religious instruction, usually on how to break the 6th commandment. The Jamaican Constabulary was patterned after the Royal Irish Constabulary, down to the red stripes on the side of their pants.

And how did they reach Barbados? For that we have to thank Oliver Cromwell, who in 1648 put down a rebellion in Ireland with such savagery and cruelty that his name is still today burned into the Irish psyche. In his own words after the siege of Drogheda, "the officers were knocked on the head, every tenth man of the soldiers killed and the rest shipped to Barbados."
Cromwell drove Irish men and women from their home counties into the relatively barren and inhospitable province of Connaught. The soldiers and the intelligencia, mainly Catholic priests, teachers and Gaelic bards, posed a real threat to a new government. His solution was to institute a system of forced labor, which would also provide British planters in the Caribbean with a massive influx of white indentured laborers.

According to Thurloe's state papers, "it was a measure beneficial to Ireland, which was thus relieved of a population that might trouble the planters, and of great benefit to the sugar planters who desired the men and boys for their bondsmen and women and Irish girls in a country where they had only Maroon women and Negresses to solace them." Speaking from my own personal experience, I would say that the planters came off the worse in that deal.


Cromwell's son, Henry, was made Major General in command of the forces in Ireland. It was under his reign that thousands of Irish men and women were shipped to the West Indies. From 1648 to 1655 over 12,000 Irish political prisoners were shipped to Barbados. Although indentured servants (Irish included) had been coming to Barbados since 1627, this new wave of arrivals was the first to come involuntarily.
The Irish prisoners made up for a serious labour shortage caused by the English planter's lack of access to African slaves. The Dutch and Portuguese dominated the slave trade in the early 17th century and most white landowners in Barbados and the neighboring islands were unable to purchase slaves of African origin.
Numbers vary, but reliable estimates put the number of Irish shipped out at between 30,000 and 80,000 persons.


http://www.experiencefestival.com/black_irish/articleindex





Bono once said that you have to be either black or Irish to sing this song. It's a cover of Bob Marley's famous song of freedom.

Redemption Song

Old pirates yes they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly
All I ever had, is songs of freedom
Won't you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
Redemption songs

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fullfill the book

Won't you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
Redemption songs, redemption songs

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but oursekves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look
Yes some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fullfill the book

Won't you help to sing, these songs of freedom
Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
All I ever had, redemption songs
These songs of freedom, songs of freedom

A year earlier, Bono inducted Bob Marley into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Here's his speech.

"I know claiming Bob Marley is Irish might be a little difficult here tonight, but bear with me. Jamaica and Ireland have a lot in common. Naomi Campbell, Chris Blackwell, Guinness, a fondness for little green leaves- the weed. Religion. The philosophy of procrastonation- don't put off till tomorrow, what you can put off till the day after. Unless, of course, it's freedom. We are both islands; we were both colonies. We
share a common yoke: the struggle for identity, the struggle for independence, the vulnerable and uncertain future that's left behind when the jackboot of empire is finally retreated.

The roots, the getting up, the standing up and the hard bit, the staying up. In such a struggle, the voice of Bob Marley was the voice of reason...These were love songs that you could admit listening to, songs of hurt, hard but healing, tuff going...Songs of Freedom, where that word meant something again ... Redemtion songs. A sexy revolution where Jah is Jehovah on street level. Not over his people but with his people. Not just stylin', jammin'. Down the line of Judah, from Eithiopia, where it all began for the Rastaman...

I spent some time in Ethiopia with my wife, Allie, and everywhere we went we saw Bob Marley'sface...There he was, dressed to hustle God. Let my people go. An ancient plea. Prayers catching fire in Mozambique, Nigeria, the Lebanon, Alabama, Detroit, New York, Notting Hill, Belfast.

Dr. King in dreads. A Third and a First World superstar. Mental slavery ends where imagination begins. Here was this new music, rocking out of the shantytowns....Lolling, loping rhythms, telling it like it was, like it is, like it ever shall be. Skanking. Ska. Blue Beat. Rock Steady. Reggae. Dub. And now ragga. And all of this from a man who drove three BMW's. BMW- Bob Marley and the Wailers, that was his excuse!

Rock & Roll loves its juvenilia, its caricatures, its cartoons. The protest singer, the pop star, the sex god, your mature messiah types [laughs]. We love the extremes, and we're expected to choos: the mud of the blues or the oxygen of gospel, the hellhounds on our trail or the band of angels.

Well, Bob Marely didn't choose or walk down the middle. He raced to the edges, embracing all extremes, creating a oneness. His oneness. One love. He Wanted everything at the same time. Prophet. Soul rebel. Rastaman. Herbsman. Wildman. A natural-mystic man. Lady's man. Island man. Family man.
Rita's man. Soccer man. Showman. Shaman. Human. Jamaican!

So the spirit of Bob and the spirit of Jah lives on, in his son Ziggy and his lover Rita Marley...I'm proud to welcome Bob Marley into the Hall of Fame.

Amen!"