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International - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Martin Corey Britain's Abu Ghraib Irish Guineapig

category international | rights, freedoms and repression | event notice author Wednesday July 31, 2013 16:41author by brionOcleirigh - AllVoices

Anti-Internment Rally, Belfast, August 9, 6 p.m,, Ardoyne Ave.

These forms of Irish internment torture, which Britain was found guilty of torture, by the European Court of Human Rights, became known as the 'Five techniques,' which the British promised not to use again but instead they trained American personnel in their application, for use in places like Abu Ghraib later on.
Abu Ghraib's Irish Guineapig Martin Corey
Abu Ghraib's Irish Guineapig Martin Corey

These forms of Irish internment torture, which Britain was found guilty of torture, by the European Court of Human Rights, became known as the 'Five techniques,' which the British promised not to use again but instead they trained American personnel in their application, for use in places like Abu Ghraib later on.

40 years ago Martin Corey was interned in Long Kesh Concentration Camp, with hundreds of felloW Irishmen from all over British Occupied Ireland. Below is an account of what happened subsequently. Martin was released almost 20 years later, only to be interned again, despite a supposed Peace Process, more than 3 years ago without any reason, charge or trial given to him. A judge ordered his release but was overruled by the non-elected English Viceroyal in Ireland. The British were originally taken by the Irish Government to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and Britain was found guilty of torture. Martin Corey has to go to the European Court again to get a trial as the British won't give him one. The British government is currently considering a withdrawal from the International Human Rights Courts because, they have been found guilty in 3 out of 4 cases of Human Rights Abuse.

"After being hooded I was led to the helicopter and I was thrown bodily into the helicopter. During this exercise my hands and wrists were hurt due to the others handcuffed to me not being pushed equally. (Before being led off to the helicopter, I understand that one of the hooded men, now known to be F. McGuigan, collapsed when the hood was first applied.) On being put into the copter, the handcuffs were removed and were applied to the back of the hood to tighten it around the head. The helicopter took off and a journey which I would estimate to have taken about an hour began. The helicopter than landed at a destination unknown to me and we were taken from the copter and led into a building and eventually into a room where I was made to stand in a search position against a wall. My position was the same as for other men – fully stretched, hands as far apart as humanly possible and feet as far from the wall as possible. Back rigid and head held up. Not allowed to relax any of the joints at all. If any relaxation of limbs – arms, elbow joints, legs, knee joints – someone came along and grabbed the limb in a rough manner and put it back into position again. After being against the wall for a few hours. I was taken away and brought, I was told, to a doctor. Sometime during this period I was taken out of this room, put into a helicopter and flown away. I was always handcuffed and hooded. When the 'copter landed I was put into a lorry, driven a short distance, transferred to a jeep, five-minute journey, put into another 'copter, taken for half-hour journey. End of journey put into a police van, driven short distance, five-ten minutes, beaten about the face and body, transferred to other vehicle. Holding my face, asked why, said that I did not want to be beaten again. Assured that I wouldn't be. Brought into a building, hood removed, shown detention form. Hood replaced, return journey as before

The build-up to this collapse was frequent numbing of the hands which when it happened I closed my fist only to find that my hands were beaten against the wall until I opened my fingers again and put my hands back into position. On the other occasion I tried to rest by leaning my head against the wall but the response to this was my head was 'banged' on the wall and shaken about until I resumed my position. All the time there was the constant whirring noise like a helicopter blades going around. From the sound of this noise I would say that it was played into the room where I was because on the occasions that I was taken from this room even outside the door of the room the noise was noticeably vague almost to be inaudible.

As I have said, I collapsed completely after that long period of time. I was brought round and carried out into the main room again and made resume my position as before against the wall.
There then followed a series of collapses – I could not say how many times I collapsed. Initially my hands and legs were beaten whenever this happened and the insides of my feet were kicked until my ankles were swollen to almost twice their normal size. After a number of these collapsings I was then made sit on the floor, with my knees up to my chest, my head between my knees and my arms folded around my knees. In this position I was swayed backwards and forwards in order I presume to bring my circulation back. Whenever this was done I was put against the wall again in the original position. The noise was insistent, driving mental resistance to its utmost. I thought that I was going mad. This noise was the only noise one heard save the groans of the other people lined up against the wall.

All the time that I was against this wall I got bread and water once and water alone on two other occasions. This was fed to me by the hood being lifted to my nose and bread and water was fed into my mouth in this way. I should emphasize that I was fed, I did not feed myself. The cup of water was put to my mouth and the bread was put into my mouth.

I cannot possibly estimate for what duration I was against this wall and underwent the collapsing experiences and physical torture against this wall, but I would estimate that it must have been at least two full days and nights. During all of the time no sleep was permitted. At the end of the period I must say that I was extremely fatigued both physically and mentally. I was certainly verging on complete mental exhaustion, suffering delusions which were of nightmarish nature.

I was taken out of this room – into another room where my hood was removed and I found myself confronted by two plain-clothes RUC SB men, one of whom was standing beside a table and the other was seated behind it. I was told by these men that I had asked to see them. I do not recollect ever having done so. I told them I did not ask for anyone. They then began to interrogate me. These men did not introduce themselves to me, so I do not know who they were. The hood was removed during this entire interview. These men interrogated me for a couple of hours. I should say that at the start of this interview I imagined that I was talking to my brother. At the end of this interview the hood was put back on again and I was put back into the other room and put against the wall. I asked where I was but I was told that I could not be told.

As I was against the wall this time I was given a beating: kicked about the legs, a knee was stuck in the base of my spine and the hood was jerked back tight on my face, hurting my neck. I collapsed at the end of this beating. I was also punched in the ribs and in the stomach, as well as being nipped. I was brought round after collapsing and put up against the wall again. The nipping and punching on the arms and ribs commenced. At that I shouted Fuck off', and punched one of my assailants. I was then grabbed by a number of people and I was punched, kicked and kneed all over the body, stomach, ribs and back of my head. The hood was pulled tightly around my neck, nearly suffocating me. I was then put back against the wall. After a short time against it I collapsed. I do not know for how long I was out. The next thing that I clearly remember was sitting in this small room with the same two men as before, who again told me that I sent for them. The hood was taken off for this interview as well. This interview lasted only a very short time, a matter of minutes. I was re-hooded and taken out again into another room where I was beaten continuously for a long number of hours. During the beating I was asked questions concerning the IRA, naming various people, and they also asked me about arms dumps. During all of this time I was standing. Due to the beating – mostly about the body and head, not face – I fell unconscious. When I awakened I was lying on a floor and as I was waking I was being punched. During this period of unconsciousness I had a dream where a friend of mine – my fiancee's brother – bought a scrap-yard. Whenever I awoke and found myself being beaten I began to struggle – I kicked one person and punched another. I was then overcome – my hands were put behind my back and I was handcuffed in this position. There was an attempt to handcuff my ankles. I was then carried down a flight of stairs into a further interrogation – by a different person than previously. The hood was taken off. He told me that I had sent for him. I said that I did not but that I had asked for a priest. He told me that I would get no priest there. After a few questions I was re-hooded and led outside and into another room where I was made, hands still handcuffed behind my back, stand facing a wall with the crown of my head leaning against the wall. As I stood there my arms were pulled further back causing my wrists to be cut and torn. I was left alone in this room un-hooded for a few hours. This same SB Branch man came back in but was very gentle in the course of questioning. He would have questioned me for two to three hours. He then left me again alone in the room – this time for about six hours. He returned when it was morning and told me that I was going back in for a few hours. I asked him where and he said, 'to the jail'. He brought me into a washroom and helped me to shave and have a general clean-up. I was then brought to a doctor. I complained to him of dizziness and pain in my right knee. He bandaged it and gave me an examination. Then I was photographed in the nude both front and rear. I was given my clothes back when I got back to the room. I changed and, after about an hour, I was brought now re-hooded to a Land-Rover and then after a short journey of five to ten minutes was put into a 'copter. After about an hour's flying journey we landed. Taken out. I know now that I was landed at the back of the prison (Girdwood). Marched through a hole in a wall. Across a football pitch and then put into a jeep. Driven to a gate – transferred into another police jeep and driven to the prison reception. I asked in the prison reception, where I was weighed etc., what day it was and he told me Tuesday. I said that it couldn't be since I was in Girdwood on Tuesday but he told me that that was a week ago. After going through the formalities of reception I was put into a cell in the basement where I was kept until the following morning when I was transferred to C wing amongst the other detainees. Whilst in the basement I was given a meal – the first substantial food I received in over a week.

European Commission of Human Rights inquiries and findings

The Irish Government, on behalf of the men who had been subject to the five methods, took a case to the European Commission on Human Rights. The Commission stated that it "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 "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" From Wikipaedia

The Guineapigs in the title were fourteen Irish political prisoners on whom the British Army experimented with sensory deprivation torture in 1971. These 'techniques' are now outlawed, following Britain's conviction at the International Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, but have been exported and used by Britain's allies throughout the world. This book first appeared in 1974, published by Penguin Books in London. It sold out on its first print run and was then abruptly taken off the market following pressure from the British Government.
In Ireland in 1971 there was deliberate and careful use of modern torture techniques, not merely to get information but to perfect the system of Sensory Deprivation for use against civilians. The author, an ex-internee himself spent two years researching the book following his release from Crumlin Road jail where he had been held without charge or trial. In this new edition he is at last able to name the torturers and those responsible for this sordid episode in British Imperial history. No member of the British Army or the Royal Ulster Constabulary has ever been convicted of torture or brutality to prisoners, although the Government has been forced to pay out over $5 million in compensation to torture victims.
This re-issue of 'The Guineapigs' is dedicated to the blanket men in Long Kesh concentration camp and the women political prisoners in Armagh jail. 'Na reabhloidi Abu.'
The Guineapigs

by John McGuffin 1974,

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

Caption: Video Id: rz7UNxnOI3M Type: Youtube Video
Long Kesh - Abu Ghraib


Comments (5 of 5)

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author by brionOcleirigh - AllVoicespublication date Thu Aug 01, 2013 19:10author address author phone

Besides the mental torture of indefinite internment without trial with no release date the use of 'internment torture' by Britain against civilians has been systematic and widespread. Evidence gathered by several Human Rights investigations and the British Army’s own investigative branch, along with many reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross reveal, that the British regularly breach international law by committing the following acts against interned civilian prisoners:

• water-boarding
• mock executions• hanging
• “stress positions”• burning
• rape and sodomy
• beatings with all kinds of weapons• sensory assault/deprivation
• cutting with knives
• injurious use of flexi-cuffs
• suffocation• sleep deprivation
• extreme heat and cold• electric shocks
• starvation and thirst
• withholding medical treatment• psychological torture, sexual humiliation, threats against family.

The degree of torture and abuse of internees is so widespread that even British Army Chaplains who know about the brutal torture and are aware of prisoners being murdered fail to report crimes because “the abuse was so widespread that he believed it could only happen with the consent of very senior British Army commanders”.

Long Kesh Internment Torture
Long Kesh Internment Torture

Long Kesh Internment Torture II
Long Kesh Internment Torture II

Caption: Video Id: 9fIsp4wAqtw Type: Youtube Video
Release Martin Corey


Related Link: http://bit.ly/16Jr7AK
author by brionOcleirigh - AllVoicespublication date Fri Aug 02, 2013 11:33author address author phone

Unite to End Internment Now !

End Internment Now !
End Internment Now !

Related Link: http://bit.ly/16o5nwr
author by Brian Clarke - AllVoicespublication date Sat Aug 03, 2013 03:21author address author phone

Gerry Adams made a lovely speech to the McGill Summer School in Donegal yesterday. I don't know who the speech wordsmith was but let's give credit where credit is due, t'was a lovely speech surely, and this is what he said:

“Almost 100 years ago partition created two conservative states ruled in their narrow self-interests by two conservative elites. The northern state was a one party state which reinforced the institutionalised use of discrimination, sectarianism and segregation.

Partition also affects this part of the island.This state is the product of the counter-revolution that followed the Rising and of a dreadful civil war which tore out the heart at that time of what remained of the generosity of our national spirit.

As the idealism of the aborted revolution waned a native conservative elite replaced the old English elite with little real change in the organisation of Irish society and no real movement towards a rights based dispensation.

Religion was hijacked by mean men who used the gospel not to empower but to control, and narrow moral codes were enforced to subvert the instinctive generosity of our people.Women were discriminated against; gay and lesbian citizens were denied equality under the law and all the while scandals like the abuse in the industrial schools, the Magdalene laundries, Bethany Home and the barbaric practice of symphysiotomy were tolerated and encouraged.

Those who suffered were mostly poor.The arts were censored. Our language undermined. Our culture corroded. Millions fled to England, the USA and Australia.A lesser people would not have survived.Moreover the institutions of this state, whether media, academia as well as the political elites are very partitionist.

They have their backs to the border.While they are generally benign, policy makers knew little about the north and cared even less.Their concern is to protect the interests of the establishment as they understand it.This will only be changed when a genuine national spirit is recreated to replace the nonsense popular in some circles that this state is the nation and that Ireland stops at Dundalk or Lifford."

We are living in a post Good Friday Agreement Ireland.This is most obvious in the north.But nowhere are the equality safeguards or parity of esteem measures of the Good Friday Agreement reflected in this state, in its governance or the protections for citizens."

Now words are however one thing, but Gerry himself has been in public life as an elected representative for quite a number of years and the last time I checked with his constituents, they have more than a few issues with our fella Gerry, particularly the truth tellers. Now truth tellers like children are a particularly vulnerable section of any society and like Gerry's speech stated, public representatives have major responsibilities in this area.

Gerry's speech by omission does not however mention some primary truths in this area and the reason he gets away with it i,s that Gerry and his entourage of middle class housewives would prefer be distracted by the relatively obscure practice of 'symphysiotomy' than talk about systemic child rape in both parts of Ireland. Lovely fancy word that, 'symphysiotomy' which like the distracting, pseudo-feminist, yuppie liberal word 'misogyny' is meant to sound clever and distract us from far more pressing class priorities at hand. Of course there are huge issues with regard to the way women in Ireland were and are treated but lets get back to Irish children for a moment.

The most glaring example of the dysfunctional nature of both the Protestant and Catholic states in Ireland, is systemic child abuse, or more accurately child rape. God fearing Ulster Protestants and Papist Roman Catholics were, and still are, up to their necks in the systemic practice of it, with women and Protestants just as guilty as Catholic men, particularly as enablers. What is even more odious, is the practice of professional enablers, particularly those public officials, charged with the protection of the young. Now I am going to be kind to Gerry and his elected British Sinn Fein officials and not elaborate further at this point in time, if they are seen to be socially responsible and make an effort and clean up their act.

Now ,in the matter of truth tellers, particularly those of political conscience, who were volunteers in Gerry's 'political party' and those who served considerable time in British prisons, for the "Irish Cause' and disagreed with Gerry's politics, these are and always have been, a particularly vulnerable section of society, in the scum sectarian state of British Occupied Ireland.

Take Martin Corey for example. When Martin, a former Provisional colleague of Gerry's in 1973, took part in a Provisional IRA ambush, to voluntarily defend his community from British Government paramilitaries, who were wearing the uniforms of both the British army and the since disbanded disgraced police force, conducted house to house sectarian murders's in Martin Corey's neighbourhood, known as the murder triangle, he was entitled to expect a little solidarity. from elected colleagues on his release from prison.. Martin served close to twenty years in Long Kesh Concentration Camp, suffering brutal, regular beatings, batterings and torture at the hands, boots and batons of sectarian prison guard thugs

So coming up to the time when Martin Corey was released without signing any documentation in 1993, (i.e. officially without conditions), he had every reason to be optimistic, especially with many of his 'political colleagues' or children of 'political colleagues murdered' on the outside now elected politicians. When he received a bank loan for a mechanical digger, so he could serve as grave digger, he settled down with is partner to a well earned, quiet life of long overdue matrimonial bliss, catching up on the 20 brutal years he lost to British repression.

Martin now believed himself a freeman, especially with all the peace dividends, Gerry Adams and his Peace Process promised. Martin also knew that with his neighbour, Rosemary Nelson around, he had an internationally renowned lawyer, who had the profile and professionalism to protect him, from any vindictive retribution from the British military, who resented intensely, this Irish human rights lawyer with a passion.

Martin also knew, there was the precedent of the British being found guilty of torture of 14 of his colleagues in Long Kesh by the European Court of Human rights in Strasburg beside the Nuremburg, court of the Nazi infamous war crime trials. Martin also had reason to be confident in 1989 that he had a lawyer in his community, called Pat Finucane an expert in European Law, who had an international reputation of being a human rights lawyer, who was a constant thorn in the side of British injustice. Martin also had another famous neighbour, a journalist called Martin O'Hagan who highlighted cases of British injustice in the media.

However in 1989 when Human Rights lawyer Pat Finucane was murdered in his home on the orders of the British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher and again around about the mid '90's, Martin started to get a little nervous, when elected colleagues, like Gerry Adams, started to disown Martin, the IRA and the armed struggle. In fact some elected colleagues, despite mountains of evidence, claimed they never belonged. The British Government started 'to sanitize' the IRA, to make the Peace process palpable to the sectarian state, with many executions and murders of other comrades of Gerry Adams who appeared to have been 'set up'.

Meantime after release, Martin despite considerable pressure, held on to his political beliefs in a United Ireland, while his party Sinn Fein, moved to a position of just civil rights instead, which was policy of the previously popular SDLP a non republican party. When the split came between the new British Sinn Fein and traditional Irish Republican Sinn Fein, Martin loyally went with his longtime trusted republican comrades like Ruairi O' Bradaigh, stalwarts of Irish republican tradition. Many of Martin's colleagues were battered with cudgels, for not following Gerry Adams and British Sinn Fein.

So when his neighbour, the journalist Martin O'Hagan was also murdered, along with his two human rights lawyers by the British Government, Martin had good reason to be worried ,because he had not changed his beliefs, in that he still regarded himself as Irish, with a belief in a United Ireland, which he pursued in a perfectly legitimate political party, called Republican Sinn Fein. It must be stressed at this point that 63.old Martin Corey has never been involved in any militant political activity, since his release in 1993. The only political activity he engaged in, was white line, peaceful protests, on behalf of comrades left behind in Maghaberry torture, his loyalty, contrasting sharply with the highly paid collaborators, of the British, scum, sectarian, state.

Martin's sense of vulnerability, without any protection proved well founded. Martin was taken back into custody on April 16, 2010, on the order of a non elected British Viceroyal in Ireland, based on "closed material" of the notorious British SS MI5. However on July 9, Justice Treacy ruled that Martin Corey's human rights, had been breached and that he should be released immediately on unconditional bail. This was again overruled by Order from the unelected British Viceroyal. This is political internment without trial.

When Martin has asked what the charges were, he was told that the police officers “did not know', when brought to Gaol, the prison staff did not know either. In fact more than 3 years later, neither 63 year Old Martin or his lawyers, have any idea why he has been interned without trial or charge. Police have not, questioned or interrogated Martin. The only conclusion that can be drawn, is that in Gerry Adams' enabled, scum, sectarian, British statelet, being Irish or contemplating Irish unity, is a most serious crime. Martin Corey is a political prisoner of conscience.All of this makes a mockery of Gerry Adam's British Sinn Fein enabled judicial system, when a British Viceroyal who is unelected by people in Occupied Ireland, can determine an Irish person's personal freedom. Martin Corey is politically interned by a British system of injustice that makes being Irish or beliefs therein illegal, in their own land The conditions of Martin Corey's political internment are disgraceful. Mail has been kept from him indefinitely, Celtic spiritual, crafts that are a labour of his love, have been been smashed by vindictive British prison officers and he has been left in physical agony for weeks on end, while being denied proper medical treatment in a reasonable time.

When Martin Corey appealed his internment without trial on the basis he had not been charged with any crime or brought before a judge, Judge Treacy an expert on both British and European Law, said Martin Corey's human rights were breached and ordered Martin Corey to be released immediately without any conditions on release.

Martin returned to Maghaberry Prison to pack his few belongings, while his family travelled from Lurgan to bring him home. While Martin waited in the prison reception area, he was told that the British Viceroyal had overruledJudge Treacy and had ordered Martin, to be returned to his prison cell. The British waited until Judge Treacy boarded a plane to leave the country. With Judge Treacy out of the way, another stooge of British SS upheld the order and Martin was taken back to his cell. Martin’s lawyers then applied for permission to take his case before the Supreme Court in London, confident of winning but their optimism was short lived, with the appeal denied without any valid reason being given.

The Good Friday Agreement, signed 1998 by Gerry Adams as part of a peace process, came with a promise of equality with justice for everyone but 15 years later, Martin Corey is but one of the better known examples of thousands of people, who consider themselves Irish, who are still suffering from a great injustice and hardship at the hands of a racist British Tory government. The fact is, that there really is no law of the land in the scum statelet of British Occupied Ireland, as the case of Martin Corey's clearly demonstrates under objective scrutiny.

How then can the vast majority of Irish people, considered by the British establishment in private, as "white nigger,' as in communication demonstrated above, at their own Embassy in Dublin respect their laws. If the British authorities believe Martin Corey or any other Irish person is guilty of a crime, then they must charge him and bring him before a transparent public court of law, where he has the right to defend himself. It is time to end internment without trial, which has existed in every generation in Ireland, since the foundation of both scum states, which clearly have failed as political entities. It is high time that Martin Corey was freed.and it is also well past the time for Gerry Adams and British Sinn Fein, to stop enabling the scum state of British Occupied Ireland and its child rape culture, along with SS political blackmail, both being crimes against humanity, as is enabling them!

 "White N#gger"
"White N#gger"

Related Link: http://bit.ly/16P8nQs
author by Brian Clarke - AllVoicespublication date Tue Aug 06, 2013 05:18author address author phone

BOYCOTT EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR MONEY!

In the last two day I have produce two blogs. One is called:

" BURN EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR COAL "

and the other is called;

" BOYCOTT BRUTISH BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS CRIMINALS "

Now I have been overwhelmed with the response to both blogs but I just have one problem. I do not censor anyone unless it is particularly violent. I am trying with your help to create a proper Peace in Ireland which obviously must be built on Justice, and again obviously just from political Internment currently and the Martin Corey example, the present Peace Process in Ireland is not based on Justice and almost destroyed by the British.I find it heartbreaking that by far the better response is to the, " BURN EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR COAL " I cannot publish everything, because the British who already censor my blogs with 'slowing intranets' will completely censor it, besides I do not advocate violence. Just one example of the support for the " BURN EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR COAL " bog was the brief comment; "Fire is Clean."

BOYCOTT EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR MONEY!

So while thanking everyone for their support, especially all those good people, who have been retweeting constantly, many of them not Irish but simply good people who actually care about Peace and Justice not just pontificate about it, who have a political conscience, I am just informing you now, we have an issue in that more people support burning Britain, than boycotting Britain, judging from the response.

Now aside from being personally confused about all of this, the only explanation, I can think of, is that people who want Peace with Justice are staying silent? So if you support Peace with Justice rather than simply burning the British out, please show it! You can do so by;
" BOYCOTT BRUTISH BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS CRIMINALS "
andby attending the Anti-Internment march this Friday evening and by researching political internment in Ireland at the following link;
Martin Corey Britain's Abu Ghraib Irish Guineapig

BOYCOTT EVERYTHING BRITISH BUT THEIR MONEY!

Burn or Boycott Britain?
Burn or Boycott Britain?

Caption: Video Id: en8DYzSV2-A Type: Youtube Video
Enlightenment Era: Jonathan Swift - A Modest Proposal (Lecture)


Related Link: http://bit.ly/16w7vCv
author by brionOcleirigh - AllVoicespublication date Tue Aug 06, 2013 21:06author address author phone

The European Court of Human Rights, ruled on the notorious murder by the British SAS of three IRA members involved in preparing a bomb near the Governor’s Residence in Gibraltar on 6th March 1988. The three IRA Active Service Unit's (ASU) members, Danny McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell, were unarmed, with their bomb in a car, more than thirty miles away in Marbella, in a Spanish jurisdiction, confirmed that the SAS personnel involved in the Gibraltar murders (Operation Flavius) were following a British Government official “shoot-to-kill” policy. Claims of British State Terrorism were confirmed in the aftermath of the shootings by a BAFTA Award winning Thames Television documentary Death on the Rock.
The existence of a British Government shoot-to-kill policy, within and outside British Occupied Ireland, was also reluctantly acknowledged by the British establishment, in Mark Urban’s British Gung Ho Big Boys’ Rules where he concluded that there was official British Government involvement in a series of extra-judicial killings:
‘The 1980s saw the emergence of a pattern of aggressive special forces operations with the acquiescence of politicians and senior officers, who knew little of the operational detail … This did not involve the killing of any and every IRA volunteer who could be found, as republican propagandists try to imply. Rather, it meant that those in possession of unusually specific intelligence about a forthcoming terrorist attack provided that knowledge … to the SAS. … it was understood that these soldiers would then take the opportunity to play big boys’ games by big boys’ rules.’
A new militarized Zionist-Christian approach to counter-terrorism, which traditionally had dubious legality, at home as opposed to overseas, however came under growing influence from Israelis within the Britain's SS, along with specific Israeli intelligence input, into the Gibraltar Operation, without Spanish knowledge, contributed greatly to the Murders on the Rock. The origins of the Zionist-Christian movement can be traced to the early 19th century, when a group of eccentric British Christian leaders, began to lobby for Jewish restoration to Palestine, as a necessary precondition for the return of Christ. They gained traction mid-19th century, when Palestine became strategic to British colonial interests in the Middle East. Christian Zionism preceded Jewish Zionism by over 50 years. Theodore Herzl’s strongest advocates were British Christian clergy.

With a blind eye from prosecution authorities, the use of lethal force continued throughout the second half of 1970s and 1980s, during Roy Mason’s tenure as Viceroyal for British occupied Ireland. The British Government’s standard text on counter-insurgency since this time being Frank Kitson, Low Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, Peacekeeping using the ‘law and the legal system, simply as weapons in the armoury of the British government, within the legal system, its Court officials and lawyers being used in an extremely manipulative, blackmailed way. This also involves the use of British, extra-judicial murders of human rights lawyers in Occupied Ireland ( see‘ Notre Dame Lawyer 49, 76).
In the mid-1980s the corruption of the British criminal justice process was dramatically evidenced, by the refusal of the authorities to prosecute members of the British police, implicated by Colin Sampson’s the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire investigation, into a series of murders by British State Terrorism in Armagh, in late 1982 and In re McKerr 12, [9]). Incidentally this is the same corruption of the Justice system which is destroying the Peace Process in Ireland currently with internment without trial.
The European Court of Human Right’s ruled, that the United Kingdom had indeed violated Article 2, marking a pivotal shift in relations between the courts and the executive, in the context of British State Terrorism in British Occupied Ireland.
The European Court’s decision, criticized the intelligence information provided to SAS soldiers prior to their British Government order to murder the IRA Active Service Unit with suggestions that the British fooled the Spanish authorities, who could have intervened in the plot at an earlier stage if the British were not involved in State Terrorism within the Spanish jurisdiction. However the European Court decision was largely censored by the British in the media, with the only matter to receive extensive British media coverage in terms of its impact upon British SS being Spycatcher, see The Observer and The Guardian v United Kingdom (1991) 14 EHRR 153).
The British Government's murder of Danny McCann had more influence upon policy. The Court’s decision in McCann one of the Gibraltar three, forced the United Kingdom, to fundamentally reconsider the courts’ ability to restrain the response of armed police or military personnel, returning the focus to their need, to act in accordance within the bounds permitted, under the concept of self-defence in criminal law (see s.3(1) Criminal Law Act 1967 and s.76Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008). These provisions allow an individual to use such force as is a proportionate response, to the threat she honestly believes to be posed by another.
The hyped SS fear of July 2005 which tragically led up to the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent South American, at Stockwell Underground Station is agood example of this. The Inquest into the execution emphasized self defence standards, with the coroner, instructing the jury:
‘You should return a verdict of lawful killing if you are satisfied of two matters on the balance of probabilities: (a) that at the time they fired, honestly believed that Mr de Menezes represented an imminent mortal danger to them and/or others around them; and (b) that they used no more force than was reasonably necessary in the circumstances as they honestly believed them to be.’ But the jury however returned an open verdict, indicating that they were not satisfied that these conditions of self defence were met. This shooting demonstrated the latitude extended to British state personnel under Article 2(2) ECHR, despite the successful prosecution of the Metropolitan Police for violating the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.
After McCann the European Court has continued to impose requirements of strict proportionality, upon the use of force in counter-terrorism operations. More significantly the influence of McCann over decisions such as the Israeli Supreme Court’s limitation of Israel’s targeted assassination policy in The Public Committee against Torture in Israel (2006) HCJ 769/02, which approved the European Court’s proposition that:
‘The use of lethal force would be rendered disproportionate if the authorities failed, whether deliberately or through lack of proper care, to take steps which would have avoided the deprivation of life of the suspects without putting the lives of others at risk’. The British as a result of these restraints are the only country in Europe , who as result of these civilized restraints, want to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights.
Should policy makers in states under the European Convention disregard these considerations, and seek to either openly approve or tacitly condone extra-judicial killings by state agents of state terrorism, as does the British Government , Article 2 stands as the surest safeguard that military action will not supersede the criminal law as the state’s primary means of responding to terrorism. Britain currently, not alone ignores natural law, Irish law, European but also Spanish Law, with their Criminal murder on the Rock of Gibraltar.

Unarmed Mairead Farrell moments before   British Murdered her close range in Gibraltar
Unarmed Mairead Farrell moments before British Murdered her close range in Gibraltar

Caption: Video Id: x7MBqTw2vl0 Type: Youtube Video
Death On The Rock, SAS executions in Gibraltar


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