A perfect description of Indymedia.ie and Mary Kelly-supporting twats.

Sunday February 02, 2003 15:41

by Jimmy

A very good descripion of Indymedia.ie.

The peace protesters at Shannon were previously perceived as fluffy, young and idealistic. Not any more, writes Brendan O'Connor

NOT only is Mary Kelly well known in Ireland, the "peace activist" is well-regarded internationally too. In fact, on Friday night, as she languished in prison for a crime she certainly committed, Mary Kelly was being feted at a $75-dollar-a-head dinner in New York.

The Annual Michael Flannery Testimonial Awards and Dinner is a fundraiser for the National Irish Freedom Committee (NIFC), "The Voice of the Republican Movement in America". The NIFC is a hardline anti-Agreement group founded in 1987 because of the perceived "betrayal-in-the-making of traditional republican principles and values by the leadership of Provisional Sinn Fein in Ireland". The NIFC is involved in fundraising for political prisoners through its "Cabhair" offshoot. Mary Kelly is this year's recipient of said organisation's Michael Flannery Award.

Speaking on an associated New York radio show, Radio Free Eireann, last week Kelly said she would be unable to attend the bash to collect The Michael Flannery Award because she was too busy with the peace camp at Shannon. However, she has defended her association with Radio Free Eireann and the NIFC, saying in a web discussion that she is "delighted when anyone takes a serious interest in reporting on the mass murder going on in Palestine, while most of the world turns a blind eye. I did many interviews for Radio Free Eireann ... I will work with anyone who has good attitudes, and stands up against injustice and war-mongering, be they peace commissioner, freedom fighter, soldier, prisoner ... the divisions between people has always been our downfall here in Ireland."

The attack by Mary Kelly on a US Navy airplane at Shannon Airport seems to have caused even more divisions here. It also marked a turning point in this country's attitudes towards the peace activists at Shannon Airport. Previously viewed as fluffy, young and idealistic, after Wednesday morning's vandalism, the peace movement has come to be seen in a more sinister light.

The attack, which will cost the Irish taxpayer {ðE}500,000 to {ðE}1m, also highlighted the casual disregard of the peace movement towards accuracy, in their words or in their actions. The attack was hailed by the peace movement as the "disarming" of an American "deathplane". In fact, the plane that Kelly vandalised, The City of Dallas, was a transport plane on the way to an Italian airbase at Sigonella near Naples, a NATO logistics base. It was carrying 23 men from a fleet logistics support squadron who provide support on the movement of men and cargo, a squadron that has been passing through Ireland en route to Europe for years.

The airplane's cargo consisted of some airplane wheels and stands, toolboxes and flight cases containing cokes and snacks. And I can say this for a fact because I examined the plane and the cargo on Friday morning as the cargo was transferred into The Spirit of New York City, the replacement plane that was sent to take the men of the VR 59th on to Italy.

The crew of the plane were not expecting me and had no idea that anyone could possibly get into the hangar in which the damaged plane was being kept under tight security.

There was no question then that they could have been prepared for my spot of arms inspecting. But I told the commander of the crew that I was a journalist and that I wanted to have a look at the plane and the cargo, and after a quick call to a superior officer, I was told I could look wherever I wanted and ask whatever questions I wanted. That's the difference between your average Yank and your average Iraqi.

The commander took me on a tour of what is essentially a military version of the Boeing 737. He said that the plane was a transport aircraft which was here fully in accordance with Irish law. There were no weapons on board. The commander showed me the cargo hold, the seating area and the slightly modified cockpit and he also showed me the damaged nose of the plane, or the "radome" as its known.

Mary Kelly clearly hadn't hacked indiscriminately at the plane. Her work seemed reasonably methodical and she had managed to damage several different pieces of vital equipment the radome, the nosewheel assembly and other parts of the skin of the airplane.

Her work would have been laudable had it not been so laughably off the mark. The commander is not overly insulted by the attack on his innocent plane. Having spent a few days in Ireland he feels that Mary Kelly's action is not representative of how most people here feel.

A C-40 plane has zero military application and can not even be adapted for military use. It seems that the experts who man the peace camp, monitoring from a half-mile off what planes come in and pontificating about their uses, got it badly wrong on this occasion.

Mary Kelly could have cost Ireland much more than a {ðE}1m with last Wednesday's action. She has also jeopardised what is a huge source of legitimate income for Shannon Airport. The US Navy and Air National Guard have been flying planes through Shannon for donkey's years. They pay the same fees as anyone else, they buy lots of fuel and when there are overnight stops, as in the case of the VR 59th last Tuesday night, they provide valuable income for local hotels in the off-season.

Like it or not, without these flights, Shannon would be practically deserted for more than six months of the year.

There is concern in Shannon this weekend that there are no World Airways troop carrying charter flights scheduled for Shannon for the next week or so. Instead, the World Airways charters carrying troops will be going through Frankfurt. Reliable sources in Shannon say that World Airlines staff in the US were getting harassed and threatened, via email, from Ireland.

World Airlines have been using Shannon since the company started. There is now a real concern that they may take all their stopover business to Frankfurt, which already hosts much of it.

American Transair or ATA has been another valuable customer at Shannon for 15 years. Recently, crews on ATA charter flights that have brought troops through Shannon have been harassed and doorstepped by protesters. ATA also could decide to reroute all their business through Frankfurt.

We overestimate our own importance in all this. Real war planes refuel in the air with fuel brought out from airbases in Britain, and the others could all go through other airports if they really wanted to.

But there's probably no point in trying to tell all this to the peace protesters. I discovered during the week, when I was involved in a discussion with one on the Marian Finucane Show, that they do not like to be taken on and they do not like to be questioned about their convictions.

Within an hour of me questioning the level of public support for the protesters and the strength of the protest itself, one intrepid activist had put my mobile phone number up on Indymedia, the principal activist website, encouraging activists to ring and tell me why "Hamburgers ain't good for the brain".

As a matter of interest, I received a sum total of two calls as a result of this Internet posting, both from the same woman, who refused to conduct a civilised discussion but merely wanted to rant at me.

Indymedia is an interesting example of how activists work. While it claims to be an independent voice of truth, it is in fact a free-for-all where any nutter can pass off anything he or she wants as fact. Anything you publish goes straight on to the site, with the onus being on the contributor to ensure the facts are correct. Items may be removed afterwards if they are found to be inaccurate, libelous or otherwise illegal.

None of the standard controls that apply to the mainstream press Indymedia vilifies so much applies to Indymedia. There are no standards of proof, no lawyers, indeed no controls at all on what appears, apart from the threat of removal later on. Yet these hysterical propagandists have managed, on occasion, to palm themselves off as journalists. The video footage of the May Day riots was taken by Indymedia. Yet it was carried on RTE as news footage.

For the record, some of the Indymedia crowd on the discussion board were gracious enough to admit that their woman wasn't terribly convincing on Marian Finucane and that the rest of us made a few reasonable points. Most of them, however, resorted to ranting and raging and personal insults and saying things like, "It's a pity he wasn't standing in front of the nose of that plane as the hatchet struck."

WHILE I'm sure there are many fine principled people in the peace movement, I must say that, in general, I have never come across a more narrow-minded, self-righteous bunch in my life.

And as they get the publicity they crave they are showing this to a wider audience. The peace movement is now imploding their icon is in prison with little public support apart strangely from that of Trevor Sargent and extreme republicans in the US.

The moral high ground is crumbling and the veneer of youthful idealism and sloganeering is being stripped away to reveal a petulant, immature, manipulative core that is cavalier with the truth and incensed when challenged.

And, by the way, you guys, it might interest you to know that none of the rest of us want a war either.