GOODBYE SHANNON! HELLO BELFAST!

Aer Lingus’ decision to withdraw its aircraft on the Shannon-London Heathrow route and transfer this service to Belfast-Aldergrove has stirred up a hornets’ nest of hysterical protest, special pleading and complaining about the losses involved to the surrounding region. It should be noted that, apart from the Trade Unions involved, none of these protesters were in evidence when the Government privatised the State Airline, Aer Lingus, last year. Despite warnings from the Trade Unions and the Labour Party that privatisation would have negative effects on access and future regional development, none of the so-called “business community” raised any objections to the privatisation and subsequently, the Government which engineered it was re-elected to power last May with substantial support from the Midwest region. Pro-privatisation TD’s received 80% of the vote in the election.

The Shannon Airport Authority, which is in the lead of the protest, was set up on demand of local management when Aer Rianta, the state company which managed the airports previously, was dissolved and the assets divided between Shannon, Dublin and Cork airports. SAA had, further, the brass-neck to demand that Dublin Airport Authority be saddled with Shannon’s share of the debt of Aer Rianta! Now, this molly-coddled bunch of incompetents who have sat on their hands since they were set-up and have done nothing to expand the business of their airport in the commercial sphere, preferring instead to wallow in the mercenary gains of the blood-dollars from the use of Shannon Airport by the US Military in supplying troops and materiel to its illegal imperialist War on the people of Iraq, and the illegal transfer of kidnapped persons to the US torture camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This is the main achievement of their existence, so far; to draw shame and embarrassment, internationally, on the Irish people and to ignore national protest and public opinion against this abuse of state facilities for prosecution of an illegal war.

Hypocrisy Flies Again

The howls of “protest” from the hypocritical bunch of FF/PD td’s plus gombeen hangers-on like Healy-Ray who trooped into the lobbies to vote for privatisation of Aer Lingus last year is a sickening display of the dishonesty and corrupt immorality of these parasites who trumpeted the privatisation as a necessity and a progressive development in so-called Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Yet, when the first commercial decision of the now private airline exposes their propaganda stunt and that dishonesty for what it is, they refuse to take responsibility for their own decisions to asset-strip the public sector and they run for cover as “local” representatives as if they were somehow detached from the Government they support in the Dáil. Then, along comes the Wicked Wanker of the Whinging West the vile, scurrilous Two-Gun Deputy O’Dea (Limerick East) who pretends, on occasions, to be Minister for Defence of this Republic, jumping on the bandwagon with a slimy attack on the Aer Lingus Chief Executive, Mr Dermot Mannion whom he likened to a “latter-day Oliver Cromwell”. Mr Mannion has done nothing but implement Government policy, the same Government of which Deputy O’Dea, on occasions, purports to be a member. It is Deputy O’Dea and his slimy Government who are the real “Oliver Cromwells”, the ones who failed to implement their own so-called “spatial strategy”, a political fraud along with their so-called “regional policy” to fool the EU into providing funds for these phantom “developments”. The “Irish Times” of 13/08/07 announces years of delay in 11 sectors of the much-vaunted “Transport 21” infra-structure project in another example of Government chicanery. How the “business community” can believe that they can get a coherent policy implemented by this shambles of a government with ministers contradicting each other in public doesn’t say much for their level of intelligence either.

Calculated Procrastination

There is, undoubtedly, both a demand for connections to London and further expansion required for industrial development in the Midwest region as a whole but, whether it should be Shannon-Heathrow or Aer Lingus, in particular, which provides the service is primarily a business, market- based decision, something which the FF/PD alliance has been preaching support for for years. The through-put at Shannon at just 3m passengers p.a., mostly on trans-Atlantic routes, compared with Dublin at 20m, Belfast at 1.2m and Heathrow itself with 68m shows just how limited the business for airlines is at Shannon with an Authority that couldn’t be bothered seeking new business until it was shocked out of its slumbers by the Aer Lingus withdrawal. What has been ignored in all the fury is that the connections to other airports in London are still operating from Shannon.

On surface transport for the region, the FF/PD alliance has equally failed to adopt a dynamic approach as their procrastination on re-opening the rail connections between Limerick and Sligo via Ennis and Athenry has shown. In the 60 years or more the Airport has been open at Shannon no attempt has been made to connect it to the relatively nearby national rail network.

Donegal, a county in the northwest with a population of over 100,000, has been cut off from rail access since the 1960’s and the FF/PD alliance have made not a sputter of effort there either. The sham “Regional Assemblies” which they set up a few years ago are toothless muppet-shows which have nothing to do with genuine local government which has been steadily degraded throughout the period of FF/PD being in power.

On Wings of Whimsy

In a savage irony, Leering O’Leery, the Pirateer of the Cabeens, scourge of the Trade Unions and persistent thorn-in-the-side of Blank-Cheque Bertie, has made a public offer to use his 25% shareholding in Aer Lingus in concert with the government’s 25% and the Aer Lingus workers’ shares at an EGM of the Board, which he has initiated, to attempt to reverse the management decision to withdraw the Shannon-Heathrow service. The Clown Prince of International Aviation now has the Blank-Cheque Supremo in a bind, forcing him into the open to make a stand for or against the Shannon-Heathrow link.

With less than 100 days since his “new” Government took office, the political blunders of the so-called “Teflon” Taoiseach have attracted mounting criticism; the arrogant, two-fingers to public decency re-habilitation of Beverly Stupor-Flynntstone, the disgraced former FF Td for Mayo; the cronyist appointment of Eoghan Guru Harris to the Seanad seen as an obvious reward for sycophantic a$$-licking during the recent General Election and the current debacle of the Shannon/Belfast switcheroo which smacks of three-card-trickery of the worst kind. His cabinet is in a shambles with Noel “let them eat cake” Dempsey being called out to a duel on the tarmac by Two-Gun Deputy O’Dea, the Wicked Wanker of the Whinging West. With friends like these Blank- Cheque needs no enemies.

The lessons from these events should be quite clear now; if you vote for privatisation parties like Fianna Fáil and PD, privatisation is what you will get, along with all the negative consequences of such transformations of public assets into privately owned ones, answerable only to the shareholders as with any other capitalist private company.

IF YOU COHABIT WITH SCORPIONS YOU ARE LIKELY TO GET STUNG!

(PHOTO: FFML)





YA GOT WHAT YA VOTED FOR!

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/Dublin, 15 Lúnasa /August 2007.

JUSTICE TRAPS THE GUILTY!

Yes, GUILTY as charged: the decision of the Chicago Jury in the trial of former Meeja Mogul , Conrad Black, also known as Lord Blackheart of Muckharbour, a title conferred by Tony Blairschmuck as a reward for Blackheart’s newspapers backing the imperialist War on Iraq. The Friday 13th July verdict proved dramatically unlucky for Blackheart, once the dahling of the Right all over the world and kiss-me-a$$ buddy of Buckfush and the American Neo-Cons cabal, now faces up to 30 years in the pen for his crimes

Prosecutors are demanding 15 to 20 years, although some lawyers suggested it would more likely be closer to five years. Defence lawyers said Blackheart would appeal against the convictions. Looking shattered and disbelieving, he stared in front of him as Judge Amy St Eve read out the verdicts. Co-defendants, Jack Boultbee, Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis, were also found guilty of fraud.

The US government petitioned for Blackheart to go straight to prison, describing him as a "flight risk" who might flee to Canada or Britain. Defence counsel Edward Greenspan pleaded for bail to continue, insisting his client would appear for sentencing. The Judge allowed Blackheart to remain at liberty pending a hearing on Thursday, but she ordered him to remain in Chicago. Blackheart was forced to hand his UK passport to the court clerk before hurrying away without a word.

Delivered just after 11am local time, the verdict ended a four-month trial and marked the final humiliation for the once lauded press baron who previously counted Baroness Thatcher, Princess Tony and Henry Kissinger amongst his friends. No doubt, Blackheart is now box-office poison in those quarters. In a cutting irony, the headline of the London “Daily Telegraph” once one of Blackheart’s prize possessions, announced; “Black, the fraudster”

The US attorney who brought the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, said it showed "grave concern" about integrity at the highest echelons of multinationals which had arisen when firms such as Enron and WorldCom collapsed. "The message is a very simple one," said Mr Fitzgerald, who also led the prosecution of the White House aide to Cheneyshite, “Scooter” Libby, recently convicted of obstructing justice but, immediately afterwards given a pardon by Buckfush; "If you're going to take liberties, and break the law with other peoples' money, there are going to be consequences." There was a public interest need to ensure "insiders in public corporations dealing with shareholders' money do not engage in self-dealing".

The case against Blackheart revolved around a series of phoney "non-compete" agreements attached to the sale of newspapers in America and Canada owned by Blackheart’s company, Hollinger International. According to the US government, he and his colleagues used these little-noticed clauses to skim as much as $60m from Hollinger. Indicted on nine fraud charges, he was convicted of three, amounting to embezzlement of $6.5m. The jury dismissed charges relating to his expense claims, and billing Hollinger for a holiday to Bora Bora and for his wife's 60th birthday party.

Throughout the trial, Blackheart has been ensconced at Chicago's Ritz-Carlton hotel. He all the time protested his innocence and lambasted prosecutors in vitriolic language, declaring he was "at war" with the US government and declaring his opponents were "Nazis".

Blackheart & Missus, right-wing screech

owl Babs Amiel, appropriately dressed as

Marie Antoinette, on-the-town in more

lavish mode before justice caught up with

himself.

A lawyer specialising in white-collar crime, Andrew Stoltmann, said chances of a successful appeal were slim, given the leeway allowed the defence: "I think Conrad Black has virtually no grounds for appeal. Judge Amy St Eve bent over backwards to give him a fair trial."

Once again, a jumped-up celeb Meeja Mogul, feted in government circles everywhere, and using the tremendous influence of the press to peddle lies and distortions for the political benefit of the rich and powerful elites he attached himself to, has been exposed as a miserable fraudster and immoral purveyor of blatant untruth and propaganda while lining his own pockets at the same time.

Sentencing has been set for November 30, 2007.





FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin, 25 IÚIL /JULY2007.

A Serb villager greives over desecrated graves in Kosovo, a regular
event in the UN/NATO ruled enclave. Photo: K.I.M.


NATO Aggression

At the end of the Yugoslav civil wars in 1998, wars provoked and financed by the USA and some of its NATO allies in an attempt to destroy Socialist Yugoslavia, a Russian ally, and pave the way for further NATO expansion up to Russia’s borders in Eastern Europe, further provocations began in the Serbian province of Kosovo mounted by the Albanian terrorist group, the KLA (“Kosovo Liberation Army”) When Yugoslav forces challenged and resisted the terrorist attacks they were accused of “genocide” by NATO and the whole raucous chorus of the Western monopoly media and in March 1999, quite illegally and without any authority of international law, NATO forces led by Clinton and Blair began a bombing campaign against Yugoslav cities and towns hitting mostly civilian areas schools, hospitals, homes, public transport and civilian infrastructure, killing hundreds of men, women and children and rendering thousands homeless.

During the warfare, Croatian aircraft, with Yugoslav markings, were used to attack civilians on roads fleeing cities and towns to bolster the NATO propaganda lies about Yugoslav “genocide”. Yugoslav forces, Army and Police were eventually forced to withdraw from Kosovo under threat of continuing the air assault and invasion by NATO land forces. A “ceasefire” dictated by Clinton and Blair forced Yugoslavia to allow NATO Occupation of Kosovo and only a swift, peremptory occupation of the airport at Pristina, the Kosovo capital, by Russian troops which were part of the UN forces stationed in neighbouring Bosnia, prevented total NATO control and allowed a token UN force which includes a small Irish contingent, to also be stationed in Kosovo.

Clinton's Secretary of State, Madelena Ne'er-too-Bright

with Hashim Taci, KLA terrorist leader.

At the 1999 negotiations between NATO and the Yugoslav representatives at Rambouillet, near Paris, Clinton’s Secretary of State, Madelena Ne’er-too-Bright , imposed Hashim Taci, leader of the KLA as representative of the ethnic Albanians. Washington and London had already decided to mount the air attacks on Yugoslavia and needed the KLA gangsters to triangulate positions on the ground for the attacking NATO aircraft. The US sponsorship of Taci led to the eventual displacement of Ibrahim Rugova, the moderate leader of the ethnic Albanians and the foundations were laid for the criminal narco-statelet which Kosovo has become under NATO/UN Occupation. The KLA was supposed to disband and its members join the “Kosovo Protection Corps” to be set up to police the territory under NATO administration. Instead, the KLA remained to continue as the muscle for the criminal activities of the Albanian Mafia and the KPC was totally infiltrated and rendered ineffective by this means.

MACEDONIA

In 2001 the KLA , through its off-shoot in Macedonia, the NLA, instigated a campaign of violence against the Macedonian Army and Border Police in which hundreds of civilians were also killed and thousands left homeless and made refugees in their own country. On March 18, 2001 Macedonia's Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski launched a dramatic appeal to the nation; "It is obvious that the international community cannot run away from the fact that this time we are dealing with the creation of a new Taliban by the Western democracies within Europe" he said. But, the appeals of the Macedonian Government were ignored in favour of NATO/EU “strategic” considerations.

A ceasefire, supposedly arranged by Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and current EU Security Commissioner, forced concessions from the Macedonian Government on unjustified increased political representation of “ethnic” Albanians in the Macedonian Parliament and coerced the Macedonian Government to allow NATO bases to be established in the country and thousands of NATO troops to be stationed there. Solana threatened to withdraw EU aid from Macedonia and block its application for EU membership unless it complied with NATO’s diktat. Intimidation, murderous violence, blackmail, bribery, mafia gangsterism, all used in NATO’s plan to establish military bases in all the former Eastern Bloc countries bordering Russia. Only Serbia stands in the way of these schemes but, the pro-NATO parties in Serbia, bribed by Washington financing and the promise of EU membership in the future, are actively trying to undermine the country’s independence and sell-out to NATO/EU at the earliest opportunity.

Solana, a complete imperialist stooge, carries out NATO and Washington orders against the interests of the EU which he supposedly represents. Solana is the leading lobbyist for militarisation of the EU and its involvement in neo-colonialist military adventures across the globe.


REPUBLIC OF HEROIN

Subsequent NATO/UN rule in Kosovo has proved disastrous, allowing the territory to become a hotbed of criminality, subversion, ethnic violence against the remaining Serb population, drug smuggling, human trafficking, and money laundering on a massive scale. The “Taliban within Europe” is now a well established fact. Both Interpol, the international police organisation and Europol, its EU equivalent, have condemned the deteriorating situation in the enclave and warned EU ministers that lack of action by them was allowing the creation of an uncontrollable situation with dire consequences for the whole of Europe.

European police forces estimate that 5000 tons of heroin per month are passing through the KLA/Albanian Mafia organisation in Kosovo, and the amount is steadily increasing. As far as Albania is concerned "We do not talk in kilos any more but in tonnes of drugs," a senior Western diplomat in Tirana told the “Irish Times” in July of 2006. "Albania is like a big drugs warehouse," the diplomat concluded. 19,500 Kosovo Albanians are clogging German jails for selling drugs; 2,500 Kosovo Albanians are in Swiss jails for selling drugs; Hungarian anti-mafia chief Djerd Holosi says Albanians control 80% of Hungarian drugs; Czech's attribute 70% of drug distribution to Kosovo Albanians. The Azuri coast in Spain is now controlled by Kosovo Albanian Mafia.

Agim Ceku, a lying terrorist war-criminal of the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army” (KLA) is now NATO appointed “prime minister” of this lawless territory and making belligerent statements threatening unilateral declarations of “independence” for his mafia-run enclave. There is no normal economy in Kosovo anymore, only criminal enterprises which function undisturbed right under the noses of the NATO/UN Administration and these activities could not continue without some active collusion by the supposed “Authorities”. "Ethnic Albanian groups have escalated from being simple service providers to other OC [organized crime] groups to reaching the highest echelons of international OC," declared the Council of the European Union in Brussels, 17 November 2005, and continued: "They are hierarchical and homogeneous, mainly involved in drug trafficking and trafficking in human beings (THB; often with disproportionate use of violence), exploitation of prostitution, facilitating illegal immigration and all kinds of property crime."

It is difficult to understand, then, why the EU is continuing to support the insane policy of separating Kosovo from Serbia and advocating “independence” for this lawless enclave. The Irish Government which has a contingent of troops in Kosovo, has done nothing to oppose these developments or bother to inform the Irish public of what is going on in the territory. We have seen in the past two days the extent of the efforts being made by international criminals to smuggle drugs into this country with the seizure of €120M worth of cocaine off the coast of West Cork yesterday. Cocaine comes from Latin America, mainly Colombia and Bolivia. There are now proven links established between the Colombian and Albanian Mafias. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Colombian cartels have set up supply bases in the Albanian port of Durres for transport of cocaine overland to the rest of Europe via Kosovo.

Mujahadeen

The introduction of thousands of “mujahadeen” fighters from the Arab world and further east into the Bosnian civil war at the end of the 90’s with the direct collusion of the Clinton regime in Washington, allowed Al Qaeda to gain a foothold in Europe which it has since consolidated and expanded into militant offshoots now based in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania. With the turn of events since September 11th, 2001, the US is now waging bloody war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda in Iraq but the “Taliban within Europe” as the Macedonian Prime Minister described it, is being supported and facilitated in its criminal enterprises. Within sight of the KLA drug-trafficking villages in Kosovo is “Camp Bondsteel” one of the largest US Military bases ever constructed overseas, on a vast site, near the village of Uresevac, and accommodating over 4000 troops.

"Camp Bondsteel", US Military Base, Kosovo. (Photo: GlobalSecurity)

This shows that the US has no intention of moving out of Kosovo, which it would have to do if the province was returned to Serbia, and this military presence fits in with the overall Balkans and Caspian Sea strategy of Washington. This is also the reason why the US is bullying its NATO allies and other EU countries into supporting the stupid “UN Plan” for Kosovo independence. There is nothing in the UN Charter which entitles the Security Council to detach territory from any member state and set it up as a separate entity. This is pure diktat by the Washington regime in pursuit of its own interests and the UN should not be misused and corrupted for this purpose.

The Irish Government should oppose these manoeuvrings both at the UN and at the EU Councils if its alleged commitment to International Law is to have any credibility.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn

Áth Cliath/Dublin, 05 IÚIL /JULY2007.

So, Who are the Anti-Americans?

The latest opinion polls taken in the USA show that 73% of the American public are now opposed to the Buckfush regime’s disastrous War in Iraq. The question has to be asked then; who are the Anti-Americans? Those who agree with the majority of the American public or those who ignore, defy and show only contempt for the democratic opinion of the American people?

We know who THEY are, don’t we? Buckfush and his discredited, shambling, crumbling regime of incompetence and corrupt manipulation of political power and daylight robbery and plunder of the US Treasury; Blairschmuck and his fawning cronies now ousted from power in Dowdy Street, and the miserable collection of ratbag dictators and despots who have joined up the so-called “War on Terror” for dollars and despoliation.

The “War on Terror”, far from defeating terrorism or even containing it, has, in fact, increased the danger and provided more propaganda opportunities and conflict areas for the jihadists and other extremists to join in. As the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, and the Palestine –Israel conflict is even further from any resolution as a direct result of Anglo-American pro-zionist policies, a new area of conflict threatens to open up in Europe with the attempts to separate NATO-occupied Kosovo from Serbia. The extreme stupidity of the EU-NATO moves on this issue, blinded by US military expansionism in Eastern Europe, will cost Europe dear if this situation is not resolved strictly in accordance with the UN Charter and International Law.

With Irish troops stationed in Kosovo in the direct line-of-fire if conflict resumes there, the spineless Irish Government has failed to make any efforts to assist a peaceful and law-based solution to the conflict there. But, then, this is par for the course with them since they continue to assist the US war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan by allowing US Military aircraft facilities at Shannon Airport despite clear breaches of the Geneva Conventions in respect of these activities.

FearFeasa Mac Léinn
Áth Cliath/Dublin, 02 IÚIL /JULY 2007.