Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Mon May 05, 2025 01:02 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Calling the Rape Gangs a ?Dog Whistle? Issue Is Utterly Disgraceful Sun May 04, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred
Dismissing the rape gang scandal as a "dog whistle" isn't just tone-deaf ? it's a vile insult to victims and exposes a government more afraid of losing votes than of protecting children, says Henry Hill in the Telegraph.
The post Calling the Rape Gangs a ?Dog Whistle? Issue Is Utterly Disgraceful appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Police ?Will Not Rush? to Ban Trans Officers From Strip-Searching Women Sun May 04, 2025 17:00 | Richard Eldred
Police forces are dragging their heels on banning trans officers from strip-searching women, despite a Supreme Court ruling that sex is biological.
The post Police ?Will Not Rush? to Ban Trans Officers From Strip-Searching Women appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Reform: We Will Fight to Close Migrant Hotels Sun May 04, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Reform UK Chairman Zia Yusuf says the party will use every lever available ? including legal action ? to stop asylum seekers being housed in areas where it now controls councils.
The post Reform: We Will Fight to Close Migrant Hotels appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The ?Chinese Vampire Will Suck UK?s Blood?, Says Trump?s Tariff Chief Sun May 04, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
Donald Trump's trade adviser has slammed Britain's relationship with China, warning the UK is in danger of becoming a "compliant servant of communist China" and having its "blood sucked" by Beijing.
The post The ?Chinese Vampire Will Suck UK?s Blood?, Says Trump?s Tariff Chief appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

BBC off to a flying start on Flanagan's evidence to Rosemary Nelson Inquiry

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis author Tuesday January 20, 2009 11:56author by Shane OCURRY - wsm Report this post to the editors

The information branch of the British State does an excellent job

It reads more like the adoring parish gazette piece about the bell ringer retiring after 30 years of good Christian service, than objective reporting about the significant, and highly unusual development of a Chief Constable being called to give evidence before an Inquiry into the murder of a solicitor in circumstances that are suggestive of a security force cover-up, if not actual collusion in the murder. It is hard to imagine how anyone could have heaped more praise onto the north of Ireland's former security top-dog.
Daily Mail front page from 27 January 2007
Daily Mail front page from 27 January 2007

This was the second murder of a high profile solicitor while Sir Ronnie was a senior officer in the paramilitary Royal Ulster Constabulary. The first, that of Pat Finucane, was when he was in charge of Special Branch, whose finger prints are all over the latter's murder. It is also umpteenth case where there are allegations of outright RUC collusion, criminal neglect of duty and cover-up involving some of Northern Ireland's most heinous terrorist crimes.

Yet the piece only makes the most oblique of references to one these other cases, that of Omagh, and buries these references in one of the most highly-polished and sycophantic hagiographies seen in modern western journalism. Here, journalist Mark Simpson's blind assertion that "He did not even know that Special Branch had a file on [Rosemary Nelson]" makes one wonder whether he did his journalistic training in Albania, pre-1989. As for the rest of the piece, Sir Ronnie's PR team couldn't have written a better piece about him.

If Sir Ronnie deserves an Oscar for his performance at the Rosemary Nelson Inquiry, Mark Simpson deserves a Pulitzer prize for fiction for his coverage of it. Sir Ronnie is moving-on to greener fields as security adviser to the Interior Minister at the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, things are really progressing in the north of Ireland.

Related Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7836851.stm
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy