Creeping Internment exposes Fascism at the heart of the ‘Northern’ state

It has become clear within the past year that MI5 the PSNI and the Crown courts are rolling out a strategy of subtle Internment in Ireland, remanding without credible evidence selected political activists perceived at various times to be a threat to the Stormont state.

Deliberately designed legal procedures, including lengthy waiting times and courts which unquestioningly accept police statements over defence explanations have provided British military intelligence and the PSNI with a conveyor belt system that allows them to detain, charge and remand republicans with little or no evidence at all.

Under this system, republican activists are being removed from the streets for political convenience for periods of up to three years, effectively bypassing the most basic civilised concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’.

In the past week, Ardoyne republican activists Alan Lundy and Tá McWilliams have been removed from the streets on the strength of mere speculation. No evidence – credible or otherwise – has been offered to justify their incarceration. Yet due to biased collusion between Crown judges, the PSNI and Mi5, once these men were arrested their incarceration became inevitable.

This is an undeniable form of Internment, albeit with a symbolic court setting to make it appear legitimate, ensuring that Britain avoids the adverse publicity that it incurred in 1971. But degrees of subtlety and the symbolic setting of a Crown court does not make for a credible system of Justice.

What we are seeing is the roots of a Fascist round up, and at the heart of a so-called peace process. This is not a ‘new beginning’; it is the opening stages of a process in which all citizens that prove inconvenient to the state may face the prospect of prison without due process.

Some of the most corrupt individuals in Irish and British society are now lending credence to these draconian practices. Millionaire Tory boy Owen Patterson has overseen the returning to Gaol of Marian Price and Martin Cory, both of who are now gravely ill, betraying a deep underlying conservative hatred of Irish republicans.

Corrupted middle class barrister Barra McGrory has betrayed the community he made his living from and used his position as Director of Public Prosecution to facilitate American style ‘intercept material’ as ‘credible evidence’. Allowing the state to level bizarre allegations against chosen individuals and opening the doors to unlimited abuse of people’s freedom.

The fact that the Stormont state now has to rely on Internment betrays the underlying corrupt and un-progressive nature of that setup.
As always, republican unity is crucial in the face of this dangerous yet predictable threat to legitimate political dissent in modern Ireland. If they can do it to Alan Lundy and Tá McWilliams they can do it to all of us.

 

http://www.republicannetwork.ie/