From CIA analysts to critics of US Middle East policy

In the week running up to the Shannon demonstration, Kathleen and Bill Christison, formerly senior analysts with the CIA and highly respected scourges of the present U.S. regime, will visit Ireland for the first time, on their way back from a fortnight in Israel-Palestine. In public talks around the country from October 21st-29th, they will give an informed update on the situation in Palestine, discuss what Kathleen has called “the coming collapse of Zionism", and offer an expert view on U.S. support for Israel, and indeed on the U.S.’s own imperial adventures

"Those who continue to support Israel, who make excuses for it as it descends into corruption, have lost their moral compass." - Kathleen Christison

In the following article from the newswire, a member of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign analyses the insights of these two experts into the situation in Israel-Palestine.

To people who build their careers
on manipulation it must seem that ordinary people
cannot rise up of their own volition.

Sunday World

Paul Williams, employee of Tony O’Reilly (owner of an oil and gas exploration company), starts off with allegations from an unnamed group and unnamed spokesperson of people “directly affected by the Corrib gas pipeline controversy” alleging “widespread intimidation” by Shell to Sea thugs.

It is not known if people “directly affected” include the owner, along with Exxon-Mobil, of oil and gas fields off the coast of Clare, aka Tony O’Reilly. There is no named person citing direct experience of intimidation with names, dates, and places, thus it is utterly meaningless. No charges have been brought although the first story alleging this, was, to my knowledge, in July 2005. The intimidation is linked to Sinn Fein and republicans.

Related Stories of Media Manipulation: Anonymous smear campaign aimed at undermining the right to protest | The Empire Strike Back! - White House & Indo Sic on to the Acquitted Ploughshares | What Is The Sindo and The Rest of O'Reilly's Empire Doing?

In January of this year we were part of an eight-country Global Women’s Strike delegation to Venezuela from co-ordinating groups in England, Guyana, India, Ireland, Peru, Spain, Uganda, and US – over 70 women and men. Working with the Bolivarian revolution since 2002, our global network took advantage of Caracas hosting the World Social Forum to work together in the heart of the revolution. We wanted as many of us as possible to witness how grassroots communities, beginning with women, are spearheading a revolution and winning back their oil wealth, through an extraordinary relationship with their elected President Hugo Chávez Frías.

For decades successive ‘democratic’ governments helped the US-backed mainly white elite collaborate with multi-national corporations to steal that wealth, while the Indigenous, Black and mixed race majority lived in poverty.

President Chávez has said ‘to end poverty we must give power to the poor.’ Social programmes (called missions), based on grassroots self-activity which bypasses corrupt state institutions, are funded by Venezuela’s oil revenue. This revenue is being made available to those with least throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Even in the US, CITGO, Venezuela’s oil company there is providing heating oil to low-income communities, such as the victims of Katrina, at a 40% discount. On his visit to Europe in May, President Chávez offered the same to those of us who are poor here.

The appointment by the FAI of Steve Staunton as manager of the Republic of Ireland international football team has once again demonstrated the capability of those who walk the corridors of Merrion Square to professionally handle the responsibilities necessary for an international football team to progress on the international or world stage.

Let us be openly straight and honest about this current situation, the FAI are about as capable of directing the interests of Irish international football as Eamonn Dunphy is of keeping quiet and that is by no means of any disrespect to Eamonn Dunphy. Time and time again the FAI have made one debacle after another, as one crisis runs immediately into another and Irish soccer, be it at a national or international level, is once again placed under the microscope and seen for what it really is.

Other links: A Clear Case of Off-Side | Red card to racism shown at Tolka Park | Roy Keane was right to speak out | Sam Maguire - Irelands most famous Protestant | Ireland v Israel | Israel v Zimbabwe | Opening up Croke Park | Will Handball Ever "Take" in Cooley? | Who Stole the Soul of Manchester United?

“I’m happy with the way the Gardaí have conducted themselves”. Garda Press Officer, Supt. Ray McHugh at Bellanaboy.

In the wake of Tuesday’s dramatic events outside the gates of Shell’s proposed refinery site at Bellanaboy, campaigners were out in force Wednesday and Thursday undeterred by the heavy police presence and inclement weather. For the last two days over 200 local residents and Shell to Sea activists gathered in the semi darkness of the early mornings to voice their opposition to the Corrib gas project and to underline the fact that although work has temporarily recommenced on site, Shell to Sea resistance to this project will continue. In the face of deliberate attempts by Gardaí to opportunistically provoke and inflame the tempers of the protestors at this sensitive time, the nature of the last few days’ protests has been consciously peaceful, as usual, in an effort to diffuse the tension imported by An Garda Síochána.

The effective occupation of the Bellanaboy area by police since Tuesday morning continues. Hundreds of Gardaí who have been drafted into the small community to facilitate Shell’s work remain in the area and have maintained a strong presence outside the proposed refinery site since then. In the same way that Nigeria’s “oil police” violently suppress dissent to Shell’s corporate rape, the Gardaí are effectively Shell’s state provided private army protecting the global giant from the community which it is attempting to destroy. Public roads have been blocked and Garda checkpoints erected. Wednesday morning’s protest witnessed a heavy police presence with luminous coated Gardaí lining the roadside. This morning police presence was more low-key with Gardaí waiting on standby in buses.