Irish/ Australian international peace activist, Ciaron O'Reilly, referred to in Secret US cables ...
national |
anti-war / imperialism |
press release 
Thursday December 02, 2010 08:40
by Ciaron O'Reilly - Giueseppe Conlon House/ London Catholic Worker
"At Large!"
exposed by Wikileaks calls for Release of Bradley Manning
PRESS RELEASE
2 December 2010. For immediate release. No embargo.
Irish/ Australian international peace activist, Ciaron O'Reilly, referred to in Secret US cables exposed by Wikileaks calls for Release of Bradley Manning
Available for interview.....
Ciaron O'Reilly (London, England)
Landline 0208 348 8212 (calling from outside UK +44 208 348 8212)
Mobile 079 392 905 76 (calling from outside UK 44 79 392 905 76)
Catholic Worker activist, Ciaron O'Reilly, who has been referred to in secret cables from the American Embassy in Dublin, called today for the release of Bradley Manning and an end to US military flights through Shannon Airport.
In February 2003, O'Reilly was one of five Catholic Worker peace activists arrested by Irish Gardai and charged with $US 2.5 million criminal damage to a US war plane refuelling at Shannon Airport en route to the US-led invasion of Iraq. O'Reilly had previously served a year in US prisons for damaging a B52 Bomber in the lead up to the 1991 Gulf War.
The five activists known as the "Pit Stop Ploughshares", but referred to in secret US cables as the "Shannon 5" were unanimously acquitted by a jury at Dublin's historic Four Courts at a third trial in August 2006.
The acquittal of the five activists created much furore and consternation, expressed in cables issued at the time from the US Embassy in Dublin. The Wikileaks exposure reveals that the US government officials considered launching a civil case against the activists before abandoning the proposal.
O'Reilly, who now lives and works at the "Giuseppe Conlon Catholic Worker House of Hospitality for Homeless Refugees" in London, stated:
From its outset, the Pope declared the war immoral, the UN declared it illegal and now Wikileaks exposes the true nature and depth of the criminality and barbarity of the US led wars on Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wikileaks has shone a light in the darkness, which is a prophetic role. Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of these revelations, is rotting in a military prison in Virginia. Bradley is paying with his liberty for this valuable social service that he has given us. We need to join together in solidarity with those soldiers refusing further deployments and refusing to continue to wage these illegal and immoral wars with courageous nonviolent resistance in civil society. We have to stop these wars and free Bradley Manning! We have to address corruption, both economic and diplomatic, in Ireland today."
Ciaron O'Reilly is available for comment and interview:
Landline 0208 348 8212 (calling from outside UK +44 208 348 8212)
Mobile 079 392 905 76 (calling from outside UK 44 79 392 905 76)
BACKGROUND
Ciaron O'Reilly
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s166615...0.htm
The cable on the wikileaks page
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2006/09/06DUBLIN10....html
Wikileaks Daily Releases here:
http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/index.html
Attached are the dates and subjects of all the cables from Dublin or mentioning Ireland for those of you who don't have this list already.
More coverage
http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-government-united-stat...0-12/
Comments (12 of 12)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12http://contact.ie/blog/ciaron-oreilly-calls-release-all...nning
Ciaron outside Catholic Worker House.
Ciaron O'Reilly with 'Write to Bradley Manning Placard' and Photo of Giuseppe Conlon
Write to Bradley!
Letters and postcards to:
Bradley Manning
c/o Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave #41
Oakland CA 94610
USA
Letters will be opened, "contraband" discarded and then mailed weekly to Bradley via someone on his approved correspondence list.
Bradley Manning support website
http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Steve Austin Queensland/ Australia) ABC Interviews Ciaron O'Reilly on Wikileaks
(Audio - 13 mins)
02 December 2010 , 10:48 PM by Peter Gooch
Ciaron O'Reilly is a long time Australian/Irish anti-war protestor who - amongst many things - has been notable for attacking and damaging a B-52 bomber 'with shovels and sticks and stones (sic)' during the 1991 Gulf War. He disarmed a US navy warplane at Ireland's Shannon Airport in 2003, and he's disabled uranium mining equipment in the Northern Territory. He's been referred to by American officials in the latest Wikileaks documents as a member of the Shannon Five. What are his thoughts on what Julian Assange is doing?
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2010/12/ciaron-oreil...nings
Assange Q & A - Guardian yesterday
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian...leaks
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
The American airwaves quiver with the screams of parlor assassins howling for Julian Assange's head. Jonah Goldberg, contributor to the National Review, asks in his syndicated column, "Why wasn't Assange garroted in his hotel room years ago?" Sarah Palin wants him hunted down and brought to justice, saying: "He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands."
Assange can survive these theatrical blusters. A tougher question is how he will fare at the hands of the US government, which is hopping mad. The US attorney general, Eric Holder, has announced that the Justice Department and Pentagon are conducting "an active, ongoing criminal investigation" into the latest Assange-facilitated leak under Washington's Espionage Act.
Article continued...
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12032010.html
Wikileaks is not a conspiracy; it simply supplies accurate information garnered from diplomatic cables. We the readers of the world can dramatise the 'leaks' if we like - and some journalists have had a grand time demonstrating their hyberbolical literary skills - but the info is still there and quite reliable. It really is good fun to see diplomatic language in the public sphere shown up for the insincerity and obfuscation that we have often suspected it is. It is good fun to see the frank opinions paid diplomat observers form about public representatives and states' policies and prospects. Mr. Assange has paid world society a service and for that I am glad.
WikiLeaks cables: US worried about Catholic Workers
by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy on Dec. 03, 2010
* NCR Today
The acquittal of five Catholic Workers for a disarmament action at Ireland’s Shannon Airport in 2003 was discussed in a secret U.S. cable, the latest release of documents from the international organization WikiLeaks shows.
The lengthy cable, sent to Washington in September 2006 by then-U.S. Ambassador to Ireland James C. Kenny, analyzes constraints on U.S. use of the airport imposed by the Irish government.
Kenny reports that while the Irish government supported continued U.S. transit at the airport, it had imposed restrictions on the transport of troops and war materiel, primarily in response to public criticism of U.S. actions in the Middle East.
Kenny writes: "Segments of the Irish public...see the airport as a symbol of Irish complicity in perceived U.S. wrongdoing in the Gulf/Middle East and in regard to extraordinary renditions, a view that underpinned a recent jury decision to acquit the “Shannon Five” protesters who damaged a U.S. naval aircraft."
Article continued.....
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/wikileaks-cables-u...71406
..that those who say peaceful protest is a waste of time are not 100% right?
Not the desired result(block the premeditated resource-war traffic).But not altogether unheeded.
Getting it sustained against the indifference and bought complicity of our meejits is the trick.
Australian Government Conspires with U.S. Government agaiinst Australian Citizen
Ms Gillard has asserted that Mr Assange's actions were illegal. A taskforce of Australian soliders, intelligence officers and officials is investigating whether he has breached any Australian laws.
Mr McClelland yesterday said Mr Assange might not be welcome back in Australia if he is convicted over the leaks. He confirmed Australia was providing ''every assistance'' to US authorities in their investigation.
Full article....
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/pm-has-betray....html
Wikileaks on former Australian Labor PM Rudd
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/rudd-the-butt....html
Australian Activist Ciaron O’Reilly Referred to in United States Secret Cables
Posted on December 6, 2010
Ciaron O’Reilly was one of five Catholic peace activists who in February 2003 were charged with causing $US 2.5 million criminal damage to a US War Plane refuelling in Ireland.
O’Reilly and company were acquitted of these charges however the latest series of Wikileaks reveals that the US considered launching a civil case against them. Mr. O’Rielly reflected on this during his interview with Peter this morning.
Download Audio
http://radioadelaidebreakfast.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/...eaks/
What Do Governments Fear Most? They Fear Us
Dublin Wikileaks Cables Reveal Irish Govt. Groveling to the US
By HARRY BROWNE
June 3 / 5, 2011
Ireland’s foreign-affairs minister assured the US ambassador in Dublin in 2006 that the Irish government was prepared to change the law that had allowed the acquittal of five anti-war activists for damaging a US Navy plane.
The revelation that a senior Irish official discussed possible amendments to domestic criminal law with the US ambassador is contained in a Wikileaks cable (see below) that has not been published or reported upon elsewhere, but which has been seen by Counterpunch.
At the time of the acquittal of the so-called Shannon Five, or Pitstop Ploughshares, in July 2006, the US embassy made a public statement expressing its disquiet about the verdict. The then foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, responded with what was seen as a firm public statement of his own, underlining the independence of the judicial system and stating that its verdicts were not a matter for discussion by government officials or between governments.
The cable reveals, however, that a few months later Ahern privately told US officials that the “the Irish Government Cabinet” had been greatly disturbed by the unanimous jury verdict. (The delay between the verdict and this meeting may have been caused by a change-over in US ambassadors.) Ahern told the Americans that the Cabinet had asked the justice minister, Michael McDowell, to examine how the Criminal Damage Act might be amended to close the “legal loophole” that allowed the Shannon Five to be acquitted, so that such a verdict could not happen again. A previously released cable from the same period quotes a senior foreign-affairs bureaucrat telling the Americans the verdict was “bizarre”.
ARTICLE CONTINUED...
http://www.counterpunch.org/browne06032011.html
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