Conference tallis::celt

1172.0. "Irish Politicla Prisoners in America" by KOALA::HOLOHAN () Thu Jan 21 1993 12:53

       Irish Political Prisoners in America?
       - by Stephanie Finucane

1992 was a year of unprecedented amounts of arrests in the American
Irish community.  While the year started off with the deportation of Joe
Doherty to Northern Ireland and the granting of political asylum to Sean
Mackin, the hunt for bodies continued with the arrest of Francis
Gildernew, Jim Smyth and Kevin Artt.  Each man was arrested by the FBI
on charges of passport fraud.  However, some aspect of their lives in
Northern Ireland is tied in:  Smyth and Artt are H-Block (Long Kesh)
escapees, and Gildernew spent eight years in Long Kesh where, since he
was sentenced before 1976, he was given political prisoner status.  Gerry
McGeough, in contrast, was extradited to the US from Germany after a
nearly two-year trial alleging his involvement in IRA attacks against
the British army.  As the case against him steadily crumbled, a US
extradition warrant was issued in January 1992 because he was named in
an indictment ten years prior, dating back to 1982, charging him with
conspiring to ship arms to the IRA.

The recent wave of arrests in New York are not of persons seeking asylum
form persecution in Northern Ireland, but of persons "conspiring" to
abet IRA activities.  Four Irish-born men were arrested on Wednesday,
November 11, 1992 on charges of conspiracy to obtain and export 2,900
bomb detonators and other munitions to the Provisional IRA in Northern
Ireland.  The arrests, made simultaneously between 2 and 4 o'clock that
afternoon, are based on an indictment issued by an Arizona-based Grand
Jury on September 3, 1992.

Tony Brannigan, 32, of Armagh, was arrested at his work site in
Manhattan where he is a porter.  Patrick J. Moley, 32, of Armagh, was
arrested at a Manhattan building site where he works as a plumber.
While tending bar at the Phoenix bar, of which he is part-owner, Thomas
Maguire, 36, of Fermanagh, was arrested while about 30 FBI agents raided
the bar after cordoning off the street.  No evidence was found, and
$6,000 was taken from the cash register.  Simultaneously, Maguire's wife
Breege and 2-year-old daughter were greeted by several FBI agents who
searched their home, confiscating not only documents like bank records
and passports, but also keys to the house and car.  (The keys and some
documents were later returned).  The family's collection of Irish
history books was taken.  The fourth man arrested is a Canadian resident
form Cork, 55-year-old Dennis Leyne, a retired vice president of a
Canadian bank at which he worked his way up during 33 years of
employment.  Leyne was arrested at JFK airport.
The day after the arrests, the men were arraigned and held at MCC in
downtown Manhattan and did not see each other until Tuesday, November 17
at the bail and identification hearing.  Assistant US attorney from
Arizona, Andrew Dember tried to convince presiding Judge Michael
Dollinger to deny bail, calling the men a threat to national security.
He also said the men had no community ties in New York so extradition to
Arizona was the only logical step because the indictment originated in
Arizona, regardless of the expense such a move would incur (four new
defense lawyers, travel costs, etc.) Defense attorneys Steven Somerstein
(one of Joe Doherty's lawyers), Peter Neufeld, Frank Durkan, and Michael
Kennedy demonstrated the men's strong community ties.  Not only was the
courtroom packed with supporters, while others waited outside, but
concerned persons had already pledged money to post bail for each of the
men - if bail was to be granted.  (To make things difficult, Canadian
securities were rejected.)  Durkan, Maguire's lawyer, who has
represented several Irish republican cases across the country, said that
no one charged of IRA-related offenses in the US has ever jumped bail.

At the end of the day, bail was granted for all four men.  Dember
immediately appealed the decision and the men were not released.  A
November 23 conference call between the defense lawyers and Arizona
Judge John Roll, recent federal appointee by Bush, resulted in a
postponement of the appeal hearing until December 11 because Roll had
not been able to fully review the case.  Meanwhile, the men who won bail
are still in jail and American tax dollars are paying for this.

Why these men?  Perhaps because each displayed concern for the situation
in Northern Ireland: Maguire is part-owner of the Phoenix bar which has
been the location of many fundraisers related to human rights violations
in Northern Ireland.  Leyne is active in preserving the story of Grosse
Ile, Canada's Ellis Island, which is the burial ground for over 20,000
Irish escaping the "famine" orchestrated by British colonialism.
Brannigan raises funds in his community for immigrants who are injured
or sick and lack medical coverage.  Moley ran in the 1992 New York
Marathon to raise funds for the Cullyhana Justice Group, which is
investigating the murder of Fergal Caraher by British troops in Northern
Ireland.  It's obvious these men are guilty of speaking out on the
horror story unfolding daily in Northern Ireland. (Likewise, Francis
Gildernew says he was targeted by the FBI because of his involvement in
lobbying for MacBride Principles Legislation in New York.)

Remember the Boston Three?  After seven years of surveillance involving
1000 phone booths in Boston, the FBI produced no physical evidence.  Yet
in August 1990, two Americans and an Irish immigrant were convicted of
conspiring to violate export laws and create a missile system to shoot
down British military helicopters in Northern Ireland.

Is it clear yet?  Standing up for human rights in Northern Ireland is
dangerous in the US.  The threat of "conspiracy" hangs over
humanitarians.  The arrests of 1992 tell us one thing:  the US is
pursuing a coordinated effort to intimidate Americans from practicing
their right to end human rights violations when it is in conflict with
the US agenda.  But human rights are not a variable, they are a
constant.  What is torture and discrimination in one country is the same
anywhere else, be it Northern Ireland or Somalia.  Why is Ireland always
the exception?  Are we not all human beings?