Thursday, October 5, 2006

The Independent Monitoring Commission has reported that the Provisional Irish Republican Army has undergone major changes within their military structure and shows that the IRA Army Council wants to put its military campaign behind it. The Commission consists of John Alderdice, a former Alliance Party leader; Joe Brosnan, former Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Republic of Ireland; John Grieve, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and former head of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terror Branch; and Dick Kerr, former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Agency.

The report states the IRA no longer has the capacity to mount a military campaign anymore or return to one. The units that have been shut down were responsible for weapons-making, arms smuggling and training. The IRA decommissioned their arms last year.

The report also mentions that the IRA has also put its criminality beyond use and is “clamping down” on criminals within the organization, said Lord Alderdice, as he presented the report. He also added, “That doesn’t mean that criminal activity by all members has stopped but the leadership has made public statements and internal directions, investigated incidents of breach of the policy, even expelled some members and has emphasised the importance of ensuring that business affairs are conducted in a legitimate way.”

Finally, the report added that there is not enough evidence or intelligence to identify who killed Denis Donaldson, a British spy who infiltrated the IRA and Sinn Fein, before revealing his status as a spy.

However, the report added that splinter groups like the Real IRA (RIRA) and Continuity IRA (CIRA) are still threats and are still continuing their activity. The Real IRA was the group behind the deadly 1998 Omagh bombing. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) “was not capable of undertaking a sustained campaign [against the British State], nor does it aspire to” according to the report.

It is also noted the creation of two new organizations, Oglaigh na hEireann (Irish Gaelic for “Volunteers of Ireland” and is used by the Irish Defence Forces and the various IRAs.) and the Republican Defence Army. However, the groups are small dissident factions according to the report.

The report also added that the two loyalist paramilitaries, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) are also beginning to move from violence but at slower pace and not at a grassroots level like the IRA. Another loyalist paramilitary, the Loyalist Volunteer Force

The report was received warmly by Irish Toaiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ahern, said “These positive and clear-cut findings are of the utmost importance and significance. It is time to make decisions and for Northern Ireland to look to the future.”

“The IRA has done what we asked it to do, and while issues like policing remain to be solved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important.” said Tony Blair in a live statement.

In a surprising reaction, the notoriously hardline leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley, also welcomed the report. He believes that his party’s pressure is working and if Sinn Fein signs up to policing there could be a deal. Paisley said, “If the police question is settled absolutely on a democratic basis and principle we would have come a long way along the road.”

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said “The DUP don’t have anything other than very limited options. They will or will not participate in power-sharing arrangements. If they don’t participate they are condemning people here, but particularly their own constituents, to second class public services, run by second class fly-in, fly-out British ministers. All the DUP can do is to delay, is to attempt to slow down, but they can’t stop the process of changing.”

Friday, October 13, 2006

Mario Corti, former head of Radio Liberty Russian Service, criticized pro-Kremlin media reporting on the murder of independent Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya as an insult to the victim. In a commentary in Russian and English posted on FreeMediaOnline.org, Corti took issue with Russian media reports referring to President Putin’s assertion that Politkovskaya’s murder would benefit Russia’s enemies.

In speaking with journalists in Dresden, Germany, on Tuesday, President Putin downplayed Politkovskaya’s importance by saying that “she had minimal influence on political life in Russia” and that her murder caused “much more harm than her publications did.” FreeMediaOnline.org reported that pro-government media in Russia interpreted this comment as a signal to journalists that the value of Politkovskaya’s reporting and, by implication, the work of other journalists should be measured by how much damage they cause to Russia’s reputation.

Corti wrote that Politkovskaya’s death was not a blow to Russia’s reputation but a blow to those who brought shame to Russia by their “evil deeds.” Politkovskaya’s reporting exposed numerous murders, cases of torture and other human rights abuses in Chechnya and in other parts of the former Soviet Union. Her reports angered the Russian establishment and she was frequently harassed and detained by Russia’s security services.

Corti also wrote that the pro-Kremlin media reaction to Politovskaya’s murder has caused many pro-democracy Russians to doubt whether they can still live in Russia. He countered, however, that her death has a greater meaning in showing that the struggle for human rights and for the dignity of all men has always required sacrifices. According to Corti, Politkovskaya loved Russia and wanted it to become a fully democratic country in which people respect each other, a country without torture, and a country in which the dignity of every person takes priority over everything else.

Corti was in charge of Radio Liberty’s Russian broadcasts from 1998 to 2003. He now works as an indepenent journalist and is a member of the FreeMediaOnline.org Board of Directors, a California-based nonprofit organization supporting media freedom worldwide.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Qatar-based Arabic language television network al-Jazeera has aired a new tape of al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. In his first video appearance to mention the Peshawar province missile attack in Pakistan, Al-Zawahri refers to the alleged strike on himself and calls United States President George W. Bush, a “butcher” and a “failure”.

On the tape, al-Zawahri says he survived an American air strike targeting him in eastern Pakistan on January 13. The air strike killed 13 villagers and led to widespread demonstrations in Pakistan for the alleged deaths of civilians. The U.S. has made no official claim of responsibility for the cross-border attack from Afghanistan.

“Butcher of Washington, you are not only defeated and a liar, but also a failure. You are a curse on your own nation and you have brought and will bring them only catastrophes and tragedies,” Zawahri said, referring to President Bush. “Bush, do you know where I am? I am among the Muslim masses.”

al-Zawahri also threatened the citizens of Britain and the U.S.A. in the tape; “The lion of Islam, Sheik Osama bin Laden, may God protect him, offered you a decent exit from your dilemma. But your leaders, who are keen to accumulate wealth, insist on throwing you in battles and killing your souls in Iraq and Afghanistan and — God willing — on your own land.”

A U.S. counterterrorism official said to AP reporters on condition of anonymity, that the message broadcast by al-Jazeera indicates that al-Qaeda believed it was important to show that al-Zawahri is alive. The U.S. official also noted that the video was delivered quickly, demonstrating al-Zawahri’s ability to get his message out even faster than bin Laden. As al-Zawahri make a reference to Osama Bin Laden’s offering of a truce, it appears this tape is recorded not more than 12 days ago, which make a very short time according to al-Qaeda standards.

It has been widely reported, but not confirmed, that some al-Qaeda operatives were killed by the U.S. airstrike on the village of Damadola in Pakistan.