2FM J. Ryan - Garda Press Vs. Ex-Army

national | miscellaneous | news report

Tuesday February 04, 2003 17:50

by S. Aerobics - Reclaim the Runways

"The army will patrol Shannon tomorrow after Gardai could not guarantee the security of the facility", - Jerry Ryan, 2FM. This morning's interview with a Garda press officer and a retired soldier who "keeps an eye on the army since he left in the early 80's".

Interviewing John Farrelly of the Garda Siochana Press Office, details of Mondays actions against the US war system at Shannon were avoided, "we're not going to discuss or infer anything regarding any issue before the courts at the moment".
Turning attention and dismissing a newspaper report of the possibility of a 'shoot to kill' policy to keep Shannon airport secure, J.Ryan presumed "these troops will continue to be an aid to the civilian authority and will be under your control".
"That is exactly the case", replied the Garda Press Officer.
However, interviewed later in the show, a former Irish soldier strongly disagreed. "No, the Garda Commisioner can request army assistance but the army remains under army control".
Q. And will they work alongside the Gardai ?
A. There will be Gardai there because soldiers don't have the power of arrest.
Q. Say if there's an attack on a plane, people refuse to do what they're doing. Will the army have to turn around to the Gardai and say "What should we do" ?
A. No, the soldiers in my opinion [are] guarding, they're the people on the ground with the weapons. If you put an armed soldier in a position where he's guarding a perimeter fence, why are you arming him ? Why is he carrying his weapon ? Why not give him a stick if you don't want him to discharge his weapon. They're not carrying the weapons just for show...
Q. To shoot to kill or shoot to disable ?
A. People only get shot for disabling in the movies... the rules and training they go through for [e.g. protecting deliveries to banks] is exactly the same as the rules and training for protecting a perimeter fence... they have to prevent destruction... they are allowed by law to use any reasonable force to prevent destruction to property... [for example] somebody breaches the perimeter fence and he's about to wield an axe... against the nose of a US plane. In that particular instance the most reasonable force to use may be to shoot him dead.
It sounds extreme but... in a great many cases a soldier is not meant to think, he's trained to act.