10,000 Protest Internment 1971 - 2013 in Belfast
international | rights and freedoms | news report 
Saturday August 17, 2013 16:50
by brionOcleirigh - AllVoices 
Release Martin Corey
The anti-internment march in Belfast on 9th August 2013, was a welcome display of disciplined unity, against a most serious abuse of human rights, that the establishment parties in Ireland, either wish to ignore or damn with feint protest, while at the same time professing to be democrats, socialists or republicans. Up to 10,000 marchers stewarded by a variety of Irish Republican Socialists, Republicans and human rights organisations, marched from Ardoyne in the north of Belfast, until they they were stopped for approximately 2 hours by PSNI jeeps and thousands of fascist, rioting UVF and Orange Order members near the city centre.
When the human rights marchers pushed their way through the PSNI roadblock, they left the massed riot paramilitary police, with no choice but to clear a route for the protesters, to march through Carrick Hill, before joining with an anti-internment contingent waiting the arrival of comrades at Divis Street. Despite considerable delay, the people of West Belfast lined the march route cheering up to 10,000 anti-internment marchers, making a nonsense of counter revolutionary, press statements and disinformation earlier in the day, bizarrely condemning the 10,000 strong human rights march, as a 'dissident' parade! The march which was lined with well-wishers all along the route, as it made it's way through West Belfast to the Busy Bee Centre, a traditional rallying point for Republicans, where speeches were given by well known human rights figures.
In "THE POLITICS OF INTERNMENT 1971" John McGuffin wrote of the re-introduction of Internment in Occupied Ireland, as follows:
IN the mid-1960's people might have been forgiven for thinking that internment was a thing of the past. (True, the obnoxious Special Powers Acts were still on the Statute Book, but they were in abeyance). Such thinking was not to be right, however. The monolithic structure of Unionism proved incapable of reforming itself under the onslaught of the civil rights campaign. Terence O'Neill might have been able to save the Unionists with his pragmatic approach and his appreciation of the need for change, but their diehard 'not an inch' backwoodsmen would have none of it. And so the week of 12 – 16 August 1969 saw the old familiar pattern: a police force unable, and, in many cases unwilling,[1] to prevent the sectarian attack upon the Falls Road periphery, led in some cases by the B specials. That month was to see house burning, intimidation and murder – ten civilians dead, including a 9-year-old boy asleep in his bed, shot by a high-velocity Browning machine-gun used with murderous recklessness by the police in their Shorland armoured cars; 145 injured, hundreds of families burnt out of their homes, 90% of them Catholic. Free Derry was born that week. The barricades went up in Belfast. The first steps towards the irrevocable demise of Stormont were taken. And, predictably, men were detained, without charge or trial.
At 6.45 a.m. on 14 August, 28 Republicans were arrested and taken from their homes. As usual, no 'Loyalist' extremists or gunmen were arrested.
When the English Special Branch men arrived next month to sort out the RUC they asked for the files on all the 'terrorists'. They were handed the records, mostly out-of-date, on the IRA. "What about the UVF," they asked. "It doesn't exist," was the reply. "We have no records on Loyalists."
But this time it was not to be internment. The British army had had to be called in. Callaghan and Wilson had summoned Chichester Clark to Downing Street. The B men were 'phased out'. The Scarman Tribunal was set up. The Labour Government was tired of the old-fashioned traditional Unionist methods. Moreover, from behind the barricades a campaign was being mounted. Illegal radios proliferated. Street newspapers were born. The detainees were released after 17 to 20 days. The message should have been clear; internment should have no place in the 1970's.
But the Unionist hierarchy learn nothing from history. The gangling figure of Chichester Clark, the stand-in PM, shambled off into obscurity as 1970 and 1971 saw an escalation of the violence by the Provisional IRA, themselves a reaction to the attempted 'Loyalist' pogrom of 1969.
On 23 March 1971 Brian Arthur Deane Faulkner achieved his lifelong ambition and became PM. The English press warned that he was the 'last man in'. If he couldn't control the situation, direct rule was a certainty. But despite the obvious immensity of the task, Faulkner was confident.
This was the moment for which he had schemed, intrigued and betrayed, for so long. With a staggering record of disloyalty to previous PMs, he could hardly expect to be trusted or liked, but surely all could agree on his shrewdness and ability.
In fact, Faulkner's intelligence was always greatly over-rated by the media. And his biggest mistake was soon to come. The Sunday Times 'Insight' team claim[2]that "when he took over the issue was not whether internment was to come, but when and on what scale. By then Faulkner had been an advocate of internment inside Chichester Clark's Joint Security Committee, for six months." Whether this is true or not, and on balance it seems a reasonable statement, it is certain that Faulkner had completely failed to learn the lesson of how and when internment 'worked'. He had been Minister for Home Affairs in 1959 under Brookeborough, and, with the help of his trusty aide, the civil servant William Stout, he bad been responsible for the implementation of internment, which he apparently felt to be responsible for the defeat of the IRA border campaign. As is made clear already, this just was not so. The campaign failed, for lack of popular support, and, most important, the internees could languish in Crumlin because there was no campaign to get them released.
Nevertheless, one of Faulkner's first actions upon becoming Northern Ireland's last PM was to order the RUC Special Branch to work with the Director of Military Intelligence at Lisburn in drawing up a list of those Catholics who should be interned. The army were unhappy. General Tuzo, the GOC in Northern Ireland since February 1971, consistently opposed internment, believing, rightly, as it turned out, that they could not get the right people. But as the violence escalated, Faulkner became more and more insistent. On 9 July he telephoned Heath. "I must be able to intern now" he demanded. Accordingly, with some reluctance, a 'dry run' was agreed upon. At dawn on 23 July, 1,800 troops and RUC raided Republican houses throughout the province, searching for documents. They got enough to encourage them. The decision to intern was only a matter of time then, despite army objections.
The position was complicated by the mistrust and, in some cases, downright hostility between the army and the RUC. As the Sunday Times team put it: "The army believed the police list was politically motivated, and the police believed that the army's list showed inadequate local knowledge." Both were correct. Some sections of the army had favoured a small internment in the spring of 1971, with only 50 or 60 men being lifted. They had been overruled. Now the task was to be much greater.
The list had more than 500 names on it. Of these only 120 or 130 were gunmen or officers in the IRA. The vast majority were regarded either as 'Fellow-travelling sympathisers' or troublesome political activists – like PD socialists. The police contribution was the names and addresses of former internees. But Faulkner was determined. At the Joint Security Committee meeting at Stormont, Shillington, the Chief Constable, agreed with Tuzo that internment would not work. That made no difference. Faulkner secretly flew to London that afternoon. There he convinced the Cabinet. Tuzo could offer no alternative. Maudling was his usual indolent self. Whitelaw said nothing. Internment without trial was acquiesced to.
The date was set for 10 Augnst. On Sunday 7 August, however, Harry Thornton, an innocent building worker, was driving his car past Springfield Road barracks when it backfired. Soldiers opened up and killed him. His friend Murphy was dragged from the car, covered with Thornton's blood, and savagely beaten by police and army. Within minutes the people of Clonard went wild. The fighting went on all night but had died down the next day. But the army were taking no chances. At midnight on Sunday the order went out: operation internment was brought forward 24 hours. Brian Faulkner had unwittingly signed himself his own political death warrant – and that of Stormont, too.
Anti Internment Republican March Attacked By Loyalists
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Jump To Comment: 1 2Author of “Enemies of the State,” Gary Murray, who researched Group 13 for a book but was prevented from writing it. During his research, he was dragged into the back of a van, and had a gun stuck to his mouth. He was told, it would be unwise to continue after which he decided to abandon writing the book.
Group 13 evolved from SAS soldiers and British Secret Service operatives, who were given hands on experience in the counter insurgency political laboratory of British Occupied Ireland, from the late nineteen seventies onward. Starting with Fredrick Holroyd, a Captain in British Army Intelligence, who focused on developing informers and human intelligence sources, connected with the IRA. Resulting viscous turf wars between MI5 and MI6, to control the highly lucrative“patch” of British Occupied Ireland complicated matters considerably.
Holroyd shed considerable light on Britain's dirty war and “Shoot to Kill” policies in Occupied Ireland, which resulted in the dysfunctional investigation of senior police officer, John Stalker. This was also covered in the feature film Hidden Agenda.To cover deployment in this politically sensitive area, they disguised themselves as “training teams,” with cover names like, the Royal Engineers, the Four Field Survey Troop, the Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF), and the 14th Intelligence unit.
All were SAS undercover units stationed principally at Castiledillon, Armagh. Right wing groups operating in the shadows of power, planned a right wing coup. These groups some based in Mid- Ulster, were given unofficial political cover for British State Terrorism, by the Tory Government of Margaret Thatcher, others named GB75, organised by David Sterling, founder of the SAS were operating alongside other groups who have close contact with British Secret Services, from which they still receive some unofficial cover.
Another mysterious group called Resistance and Psychological Operations Committee RPOC was based on material researched, during the torture of Martin Corey and his comrades, when tortured during Long Kesh internment in British Occupied Ireland. RPOC was a reflection of the Special Operations Executive SOE, a dirty tricks operation. RPOC have a clandestine underground movement, operating on a nod and a wink of the Conservative government, with forged close links to British Secret Services and also close links with the SAS. Little is known of the Tory SAS’s secret intelligence network, other than being tasked, with protecting the SAS, who’s lives may be under threat, as a result of their activities. The Irish journalist believes a contract has been put out on him, after this SAS secretive group had mopped on another freelance assassination team sent to kill other Irish human rights activists. “Mopping up” meaning killing members of the original assassination squad.
Elements within this group also evolved to become Group 13. Highly unofficial but desirable to players within the Tory government. Responsible for British political assassinations in Occupied Ireland and worldwide they have right wing agenda. The best known being the SAS in a “wet operation” murder of an unarmed IRA unit in Gibraltar, which led to the TV documentary Death on the Rock, based on eye-witnesses who testified, that the three members were gunned down in cold blood, which in the context of what was happening in Ireland during this period, was part of a shoot-to-kill-policy. meant to 'sanitize' the republican movement, prior to negotiations proper. Gene “Chip” Tatum a former CIA operative and former member of the international assassination team Pegasus, targeting influential international politicians and financiers, alleges that the British assassins, operated during the mid-eighties onward, under the direction of a high ranking British government official, who in turn answered only to Thatcher.
Connections between Group Thirteen and the United States intelligence community during the alleged assassination of Vincent Foster, associate and legal adviser to President Clinton, existed around a highly secret US assassination team, operating out of the National Security Agency NSA. This unit is called “I-3,” with the information on this unit, provided by a “former CIA agent with the CIA’s highest security clearance.” The NSA unit just happens to share a common name with “Group 13” and just happens to be in the same business?
Despite all the smoke and mirrors surrounding Group 13, significant information came to light after the Scott Enquiry into arms to Iraq. Gerald James a leading British munitions manufacturer has written of group 13 in his book In the Public Interest, blowing the lid off the British government's arming of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. James believes his removal from the Board of Astra, was orchestrated by non-executive director Stephan Kock, a self acknowledged former Security and Intelligence officer in the employ of Midland Bank.
In written evidence presented to the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee, James stated that he was told, that Kock was “… a former head of ‘Group 13.’ The organisation is a hit or contract squad for the Foreign Office and Secret Services.” The Foreign Office draws Group 13 operatives from the SAS and private security firms,” and “It’s duties involve ‘service to the nation.’” Polite language for British State terrorism. Kock had exceptionally senior level contacts inside British intelligence including ready access to the highest levels of the British government, including the British Prime Minister.
Dr. Gerald Bull - designer of the Supergun , who was shot outside his apartment in Brussels, a few months before his assassination, writing to a colleague, stated he was “advised in a letter of an imminent accident.” He identified the origin of the threat as being the British Foreign Office. This then is the background of the application to Russia for political asylum by the Irish journalist.
Under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." The United Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees guides national legislation concerning political asylum. Under these agreements, a refugee is a person who is outside their own country's territory owing to fear of persecution on protected grounds. Protected grounds include race, caste, nationality, religion, political opinions and membership and/or participation in any particular social group or social activities. Rendering true victims of persecution to their persecutor is a particularly odious violation of a principle called non-refoulement, part of the customary and trucial Law of Nations.These are the accepted terms and criteria as principles and a fundamental part in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees non-refoulement order
Unofficially he has been told that it is expected he will be allowed a temporary Russian visa while an asylum application is formally considered. Hopefully,Vladimir Putin will refuse to hand him over to the British.The Irish journalist hopes to make a permanent home in Nicaragua, in South America but the UK has ordered all countries to hand him over to the UK. In order to get asylum, the journalist has to prove a well-founded fear, which in his case means he has at least a 10 percent chance of being murdered by the British, for highlighting the Human Rights Abuse of internment without trial in British Occupied Ireland.
Then he has to give an account of political opinion, race, religion, nationality or group membership. In the case of political opinion, it will in his case be as a human rights activist, in the Police Dictatorship and British State Terrorism of British Occupied Ireland, where political assassination or internment without trial, are regularly used, against all Irish political dissidents of conscience. Several other countries including Spain, Ireland and Ecuador, have said that his asylum requests can’t be processed, because he is presently not in their country currently. However he feels that Group 13 operate openly there anyway. On Friday Daniel Ortega looked like the best option. However currently Russia offer superior quality Human Rights, despite the imprisonment of Pussy Riot. along with having considerably more diplomatic clout than the British, who besides interning Irish political prisoners of conscience, have also kidnapped international whistle blowers of war crimes, such as Julian Assange.
It's the first time I've ever heard of them (by that particular name).
"It is the number that carries the most occult significance. Throughout Europe it has historically been regarded as an ill omen. In Norse mythology, the number 13 often signifies death. Today, in the United Kingdom, there exists a paramilitary unit called Group13. The sole purpose of this ultra secretive unit is deniable assassination and it operates in the world of shadows. So little is known about them, that it is exceptionally hard to document its activities with any certainty."
The above excerpt has come from:
http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/group_13.htm
Google List #1:
"British paramilitary unit called Group 13 ..."
http://tinyurl.com/ma8puoh
Google List #2:
"Murder of Human Rights Lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, government corruption, crime, cover ups, and IMPUNITY, Ireland ..."
http://tinyurl.com/kuv6ynp
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