Decommissioning

It’s time to decommission words…

Jim Deeds on February 25, 2017, 2:26 pm

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I remember walking past graffiti on a wall on the Falls Road around the turn of the millennium. In thick white scrawl it read, “NOT A BULLET, NOT AN OUNCE”. These words were a defiant prediction that there would be no decommissioning of weapons as part of the peace process. By 2010, however, all major paramilitary groupings had put their weapons beyond use. Some weapons were destroyed publicly and many more were buried in concrete bunkers. These acts of decommissioning …

“as head of British intelligence, you would be derelict in your duty if you did not do everything in your power to assist that process…”

Pete Baker on April 4, 2016, 2:09 pm

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Via the Pensive Quill. In this transcript of a discussion on Radio Free Éireann in New York, with John McDonagh (JM) and Martin Galvin (MG), veteran journalist Ed Moloney (EM) has some “stupid” questions for the leadership of Sinn Féin, British Intelligence Services, and the local media. From the transcript EM: There’s a whole untold story of the peace process in the latter years of the IRA’s existence in relation to the influence of British intelligence – to what extent that was …

IRA weapons wholly beyond use: a once white lie now a blood stained black

Turgon on March 7, 2016, 8:30 pm

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The latest attempted murder by republican terrorists involved an attempt to kill a prison officer with a booby trap car bomb. This tactic was one of the IRA’s favourites throughout the Troubles (and occasionally adopted by others). Thankfully the victim survived and all decent people wish him well: though as so often one wonders how well he will recover both physically and mentally. Clearly the responsibility for this latest crime is borne solely by those involved in it. However, as …

US President Bill Clinton: “We’ve all taken our licks for Gerry”.

Pete Baker on January 7, 2016, 4:06 pm

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The BBC’s freedom of information specialist, Martin Rosenbaum, has been reading through transcripts of calls and meetings between US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, between 1997 and 2000, which were released following a BBC freedom of information request to the Clinton Presidential Library. As he notes, [The transcripts] contain substantial redactions, especially of Mr Blair’s remarks… From the BBC report Much of their discussion was about the Northern Ireland peace process, in which President Clinton played a significant part. …

“The decision to bury hard facts about our troubled past cannot be taken on the nod”

Pete Baker on July 8, 2011, 7:25 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph Liam Clarke argues that the British and Irish Governments’ refusal to request and publish the IICD’s inventory of decommissioned weapons “tells us a great deal about their commitment to truth-recovery”. From the Belfast Telegraph article This is information which the governments commissioned and paid for on our behalf. If they decline to get it and publish it, that will send the clearest possible signal that the secrets of the Troubles, or at least any which can cause …

UVF breach cease-fire?

Pete Baker on May 28, 2010, 4:23 pm

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According to the Guardian’s Henry McDonald, the man shot dead on Belfast’s Shankill Road has been “named locally as Bobby Moffat, [and] is understood to have been a member of the Red Hand Commando (RHC) terrorist group.” The short Guardian report adds It is believed Moffat was killed as part of an internal loyalist dispute and there was no Republican involvement. Moffat is thought to have been in dispute with the RHC-aligned Ulster Volunteer Force. The killing will prompt questions about …