Irish-Americans Welcome Carnahan- Hearing

September 16, 2010 -- “Human rights must be the heart and soul of
the Irish Peace Process. And a strong Bill of Rights must take center
stage in Northern Ireland—an area that never showed much respect for
human rights. Nor was it ever meant to because it was artificially
engineered to be a sectarian State by the British in their Government
of Ireland Act of 1920”.

That is what Fr. Sean Mc Manus, president of the Capitol Hill –based
Irish National Caucus, said regarding today’s Hearing before the House
Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and
Oversight -- Chaired by Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO). Fr. Mc Manus
continued:

“However, the Good Friday Agreement 1998, followed by the power-
sharing executive have dramatically changed things for the better.

Sadly and ironically, Protestant paramilitaries -- supposedly on
ceasefire—are terrorizing some Protestant families. And the British
Government and elements in the PSNI seem to turn a blind eye. Some
dissident Republicans are trying to start up the conflict again but
have little support.

The United States has played a key role in combating discrimination in
Northern Ireland through the Mac Bride Principles, which the Irish
National Caucus launched in November 1984. However, there is still
reason for concern, and still much work to be done.

A recent Report by the NY State Comptroller’s office (with which the
Irish National Caucus works closely) states that, “the Government
economic development agencies… continue to steer outside investment
toward Protestant areas, most especially those in and around Belfast”.
(Report on Northern Ireland Investment. 2010).

This helps to highlight one of the most profound and fundamental
problems in Northern Ireland: the deep, historic anti-Catholic
sectarianism upon which the State was founded.

However, there is little point in criticizing that sectarianism
without repealing the Act of Settlement 1701, an integral part of the
British Constitution, which institutionalizes and justifies that very
sectarianism.

For all these and other reasons, it is still vital for the U.S.
Congress to stay actively involved in promoting unity and peace, human
rights and equality, nonviolence, and reconstruction on the island of
Ireland.

Irish Americans congratulate Chairman Russ Carnahan for his commitment
to human rights in Ireland and across the globe. He deserves great
credit”. END.

Statement for the Record

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President, Irish National Caucus.
“Fulfilling the Promise of Peace: Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.”
House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight.
September 16, 2010.

Human rights must be the heart and soul of the Irish Peace Process. And a strong Bill of Rights must take center stage in Northern Ireland—an area that never showed much respect for human rights. Nor was it ever meant to.
The British Government by its 1920 Government of Ireland Act carved out and tore away six small counties (roughly the size of Rhode Island) from the rest of Ireland, partitioning that ancient country, and setting up the new artificial state as the largest area their Unionist/Protestant allies could control for the British Crown and for Unionist supremacy. Noted commentator Brian Feeny of the Belfast Irish News recently explained: “Talking about the north as an economic success gives credence to the notion that Northern Ireland emerged because it was a viable unit instead of carved out as the biggest chunk on the island unionists could control, a place where they could try to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people on the island”.1
However, the Good Friday Agreement 1998 and the power-sharing executive have dramatically changed things for the better:
. The sectarian anti-Catholic police militias have gone. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is making significant progress in becoming an acceptable police service to the Catholic community.
. Naked anti-Catholic discrimination has decreased.
. The IRA is no longer active. The British Army is off the street. Some Republican dissidents are still active, but with hardly any support.
. Loyalists deaths squads have ended their once systematic assassination campaign of innocent Catholics.
COLLUSION
However, sadly and ironically, Loyalists paramilitaries—supposedly on ceasefire—are beating up and terrorizing some Protestant families. And the British Government and elements in the PSNI seem to turn a blind eye.
My Protestant, Unionist friend -- the heroic Raymond McCord Sr. of Belfast—last October testified before this Subcommittee on how the British Government and the Northern Ireland police colluded in the murder of his son Raymond Jr. in 1997. 2 Still, to this day, no arrest has been made—even though the British Government and the police know those responsible. The murder of young Raymond was ordered by a British agent and police informant as revealed by the Northern Ireland Ombudsman Report 2007. 3
ANTI-CATHOLIC DESCRIMINATION
The United States has played a key role in combating discrimination in Northern Ireland through the Mac Bride Principles, which the Irish National Caucus launched in November 1984. However, there is still reason for concern, and still much work to be done.
A recent Report by the NY State Comptroller’s office (with which the Irish National Caucus works closely) states that, “the Government economic development agencies… continue to steer outside investment toward Protestant areas, most especially those in and around Belfast”. 4
This helps to highlight one of the most profound and fundamental problems in Northern Ireland: the deep, historic anti-Catholic sectarianism upon which the State was founded.
However, there is little point in criticizing that sectarianism without repealing the Act of Settlement 1701, an integral part of the British Constitution, which institutionalizes and justifies that very sectarianism.
Would there have been any point in condemning racist Whites in the Deep South of America for their attitudes towards African-Americans without changing the laws and structures that justified racism?
In the same way, it does not make sense to just condemn Orange extremists who see themselves as faithfully upholding the letter, and logically fulfilling the spirit of the British Constitution, which requires of its subjects the acceptance of anti-Catholic discrimination and bigotry. The Act of Settlement 1701 is an integral part of the unwritten and uncodified British Constitution. It determines succession to the Crown of England, and is, therefore, a fundamental constitutional statute. Indeed, the very foundation stone of The Royal Family.
The Act of Settlement 1701 – still in force today -- bars a Catholic from succeeding to the British throne and decrees that if the monarch becomes a Catholic or marries a Catholic, he/she forfeits the throne and ‘‘the people are absolved from their allegiance’’.
The Act, therefore, enshrines and condones anti-Catholicism – officially establishing the principle that it is legitimate to discriminate against Catholics because under the law, they are not equal to Protestants.
Imagine if there were provisions in the United States Constitution barring a black person from being president or decreeing that the president could not marry a black person. Imagine how that would have justified and inflamed White supremacy and racism. And there would be little point in condemning the members of White racist organizations without first condemning – and organizing to repeal -- the pernicious provisions in the Constitution.
Orange bigotry merely reflects the anti-Catholicism that is enshrined, justified and practiced in the British Constitution. It was not the Orange Order that originated the sectarian Act of Settlement --- it was the British Monarchy and Parliament.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who did so much good work for justice and peace in Northern Ireland, declared the Act was “ plainly discriminatory”. Yet, even he, did not move to repeal the Act.
CONCLUSION
For all these reasons --and others besides -- it is still as important as ever for the U.S. Congress to stay actively involved in promoting unity and peace, human rights and equality, nonviolence, and reconstruction on the island of Ireland.
Irish- Americans congratulate Chairman Russ Carnahan for his commitment to human rights in Ireland and across the globe. He deserves great credit.
God bless America, and God save Ireland.
1 “SDLP displaced by Sinn Fein”. Brian Feeney. Irish News. Wednesday, August 11, 2010.
2 Hearing before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight: “ Concerns Regarding Possible Collusion in Northern Ireland: Police and Paramilitary Groups”, on October 22, 2009.
3 “The Statutory Report -- sometimes referred to as “Operation Ballast” or “The O’Loan Report” -- was published on 22 January 2007, and can be found at www.policeombudsman.org”
4 Report on Northern Ireland Investment
[Prepared for the New York State Common Retirement Fund Pursuant to New York State Retirement and Social Security Law, § 423-a]. Thomas P. DiNapoli.New York State Comptroller. 2010.
IRISH NATIONAL CAUCUS. PO BOX 15128. WASHINGTON, DC. 20003-0849
TEL. 202-544-056I8; FAX: 202-488-7537. EMAIL : sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON NORTHERN IRELAND GREAT SUCCESS

Senator Russ Carnahan (D. Mo.) and Father Sean Mc Manus
At Hearing before the House Sub committee on International Organizations,
Human Rights and Oversite.


Capitol Hill. September 16, 2010 ------ The House Human Rights
Hearing on Northern Ireland has been rated a “great success”.

The president of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fr.Sean Mc Manus, who has spent a lifetime promoting Congressional Hearings, observed:“The Hearing was a great success. The witness on Northern Ireland, Aideen Gilmore,Deputy Director Committee on the Administration of Justice, was entirely excellent”.

Ms Gilmore told the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, Chaired by Congressman Russ Carnahan (D.MO): “While a lot of progress has undoubtedly been made in Northern Ireland … We would urge continued vigilance and support for the protection of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland as a means of embedding and sustaining peace.”

Fr. Mc Manus lavished praise on Congressman Carnahan. “He deserves great credit. Irish-Americans are deeply grateful for his support of human rights and equality in Northern Ireland.”

Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
Capitol Hill
PO BOX 15128
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax 202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org

Aegis founder Spicer has not left the building

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
By Susan Falvella Garraty


Earlier this month, Aegis Defense Services set up a non-operating holding company in Basel, Switzerland. Aegis has an estimated 20,000 employees involved in private security efforts around the world; it formed the new holding company in the neutral European nation’s more hospitable tax environment.
Several media reports indicated Tim Spicer, the controversial founder of Aegis, was leaving the company after its move out of the United Kingdom.
“He has most definitely not left Aegis,” responded Sara Pearson, publicist for Aegis, when asked if Spicer had left the company.
Spicer is, according to Pearson, the Group Chief Executive and Director of Global Operations.
That has the Swiss government a little nervous.
Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, said in a radio interview this week that private military firms must respect international humanitarian law and human rights, and following Aegis’ move to Basel, commissioned an investigation into how the presence of such a security firm might impact the perception Swiss military neutrality around the world.
“The Swiss have every reason to be nervous,” says Fr. Sean McManus, the president of the Irish National Caucus.
Contacted while he was home in Fermanagh for the summer holidays, McManus says wherever Spicer goes, trouble follows.
In 1992, two members of the Scots Guards killed an unarmed teen named Peter McBride. Tim Spicer defended the men that shot Peter McBride in the back and who were later found guilty of murder. Their murder conviction has never been overturned, but the pair were allowed to return to active duty after their release under the terms of the Good Friday Accord.
Spicer was then involved in arms for hire controversies in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone. In 2004, Spicer and Aegis received one of the largest security contracts from the US government for more than 293 million dollars.
Then senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined other senators including Edward Kennedy (D-MA,) Charles Schumer(D-NY,) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT,) in protesting the awarding of the contract to Aegis because of Tim Spicer’s connection to the McBride murder and other incidents. The senators sent a letter to then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking the contract to be rescinded.
When a then new senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was apprised of the situation, he joined with those fellow Democrats in targeting the Spicer contract for removal.
“As you know, the CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company. Several of my colleagues have contacted the Pentagon expressing their concerns about this issue. I will be in touch with their offices to see how I can be of assistance in their efforts…”
The Aegis contract was never rescinded, and the Aegis legacy of controversy continued when in 2005 there emerged “Trophy Videos” of Aegis employees allegedly shooting arbitrary civilians in Iraq.
Yet now under the Obama administration, Tim Spicer stands to continue to make millions of dollars in new contracts. Even as President Obama makes a prime-time speech to the nation from the Oval Office about the draw down in combat troops in Iraq, the role of private security firms becomes more prominent. The role of how the US will bolster security in Iraq and Afghanistan will become more in the hands of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Will she continue the practice of awarding Aegis and Tim Spicer more US dollars for private security services?
“I am a great admirer of Hillary Clinton, but I would hope that she would take a strong position and oppose the use of these soldiers of fortune,” says Fr. McManus.
The Echo contacted both the White House and the State Department of comment on the new Aegis contracts, but received no reply.
The contract, obtained by the Echo, shows Aegis charges the U.S. government any where from $500 to almost $1,200 a day for services for hundreds of their employees. The contract is good from May 2009 till May 2014.
Examining the whole process of military and civilian contracts for the Iraq and Afghan wars is the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting. This past spring, the commissioners held hearings on Capitol Hill to investigate whether best practices were being employed as the US government paid hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to large and small defense and civilian contractors.
Professor Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Maryland, is a commissioner and he had some questions for Aegis’ US president, Kristi Clemens Rogers when she appeared before the commission. Tiefer asked if Tim Spicer was a mercenary.
Clemens did not deny that Spicer had been a mercenary, but explained repeatedly that he had only acted on behalf of “governments that were Western-allied governments.”
“I was less than reassured than I had hoped to be at the hearing,” explained Tiefer in a telephone interview with the Echo.
“Congress charged the commission to pay especially close attention to private security contractors whose work arouses more public concern than say the suppliers of bulk food or gasoline,” he added.
The commission already recommended that Aegis be stripped of some supervisory powers over itself and other private security contractors it had been acting upon within the Iraqi theater.
But will the commission be another paper tiger and cog in the bureaucratic wheel where many have circuitous relationships between government and contractors?
Kristi Clemens Rogers, the Aegis US president, is married to Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mi.) She was a Homeland Security official under the Bush administration, and started out as – a contractor for her husband.
“We’re not doing this because we like the cafeteria food,” said Tiefer.
He hopes that he and his fellow commissioners will make sure precious budgetary resources are allocated fairly and to firms of integrity.

Irish-Americans Welcome Another Congressional Hearing.

CAPITOL HILL. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 --- Irish-Americans are delighted that -- for the second time within twelve months – there will be another Congressional Hearing on Northern Ireland: “Fulfilling the Promise of Peace: Human Rights, Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia.” Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 9: 30 AM. Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. Room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Ave & South Capitol St. SW. (and available live, via the WEBCAST link on the Committee website at http://www.hcfa.house.gov) Expected to last 2-3 hours.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill based Irish National Caucus said: "Subcommittee Chairman, Congressman Russ Carnahan (D. MO.) is a man of his word. Last St. Patrick’s Day he promised me he would hold a Hearing on Northern Ireland. And the following day, March 18, I brought along Ms. Aideen Gilmore --Deputy Director, Committee on the Administration of Justice, (CAJ) Belfast -- to meet him. Aideen will now be the witness on Northern Ireland – and an entirely excellent one at that. ’’

Fr. Mc Manus continued: “ Just last October 22 we had a Hearing before the same Subcommittee (Congressman Bill Delahunt of MA. was then Chairman ) on British Government collusion in the murder of the young Protestant, Raymond Mc Cord Jr in 1997 in Belfast by Protestant paramilitaries.Raymond Sr. was the witness. Now within twelve months of that, we have a second Hearing. This demonstrates that the U.S. Congress maintains a high interest in Northern Ireland. The Irish National Caucus is determined to keep it so. Human rights must be the heart and soul of the Irish peace –process. Irish-Americans are deeply grateful to Congressman Carnahan for his commitment to human rights in Ireland, and across the globe. He deserves great credit”.

END.