Woke up this morning to learn of yet two more assaults on democracy in Ireland today.

The first one relating to the egregious refueling of CIA and US military flights in Shannon and Baldonnel. Some spineless FF senators have blocked the Seanad from inquiring any further into what exactly is going on.

Tim Dooley (FF): 'setting up a select committee would insult a friendly nation'

Paschal Mooney (FF): 'in view of the assurance by the US secretary of state that nothing illegal was going on in the US use of Shannon, it would be extremely dangerous to the relationship between this country and America to turn around and indicate that somehow they were telling lies. Was Mr Norris prepared to sacrifice jobs and the interests of those in the Shannon area?'

If the US is not telling lies then why would FF senators feel obliged to shut the inquiry down? If there is nothing to reveal then let the investigation vindicate the words of Rice. The silencing of the commitee speaks volumes in that FF care more about US interests than the interests of the Irish people whom I belive the vast majority want a straight answer on what is passing through Shannon and Baldonnel.

Yet another reason not to vote for FF.

(Interesting point to note on the above issue: The only broadsheet to report it today is the Irish Times.)

The second assault on democracy is the introduction of the Strategic Infrastructure Bill

The Bill is being introduced by Envionment Minister Dick Roche to speed up the planning process, which is fair enough as the delay in some of the large scale public projects can be frustrating. However the bill does not distinguish between infrastructure projects genuinely in the public interest and profit driven private sector projects ,as rightly pointed out by the Irish Planning Institute.

Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore:
“It will, however greatly limit the right of the public and of local communities to voice their concerns over major developments, he said accusing the Government of perpetrating an urban myth that planning objections by the public were responsible for most delays,”

Green Party environment spokesman Ciaran Cuffe: “This bill is an attack on local democracy, and will do little or nothing to speed up the planning process. The main planning delays to major projects are due to High Court challenges and poor quality applications in the first instance. The bill does nothing to remedy these failings.”

Groups like the Chambers of Commerce Ireland and IBEC on the other hand said the bill didnt go far enough with IBEC commenting that measures to speed up the process of dealing with objections should be added!

Frank McDonald of the Irish Times correctly highlighted the erosion of democracy since this Government was reelected in 2002, 'it has filleted the Freedom of Information Act, abolished Dúchas (the State Heritage Service) when it was seen to be getting in the way of "progress", and amended the National Monuments Act to give the Minister total discretion.'

Whatever next?

The Germans, 1933-45:They Thought They Were Free

The comparison to the US of today is eerie to say the least. Given that students are being offered $100 for providing notes on left wing lectures and the many erosions of civilian rights (the suspension of Habeas Corpus care of the Patriot Act and the domestic spying are just 2 of many examples) it does look like history is repeating itself. The main stream media however, as usual, are complicit in this slow march to fascism.

They Thought They Were Free

The Germans, 1933-45

Excerpt from pages 166-73 of "They Thought They Were Free" First published in 1955

By Milton Mayer

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

Irish media silence on neutrality

You would think that the erosion of Irish neutrality would be something that the Irish media would love to gets it teeth into. Its a big story and one I believe that everyone in Ireland would have a strong opinion on. However the broadsheet print media have largely ignored the story with a meagre 8 mentions in the press since Thursday the 9th when RTE first broke the news on its website that Wille O'Dea is to introduce legislation to allow Irish forces to participate in EU battle groups. (I'm sure there were articles in the tabloids but I don't consider them newspapers or even worthy of the title newspapers,perhaps gossipsoccertitspaper would be more appropriate)

Lets balance that against the number of mentions of the Six Nations got since the 9th - over 150 articles! Fair enough it was a match weekend but ffs why is rugby more imortant than our neutrality?
The count was done using Electric Search media monitoring software which is usually spot on although it only brings back mentions from online media but it still is a good guide as to where the priorities of the Irish media lie.

The articles I came across discussing Irish neutrality are as follows:
9th Feb
RTE: O'Dea says Irish troops can serve in EU force
Breakingnews.ie: Soldiers to be readied to join EU battle groups
SBpost.ie: Soldiers to be readied to join EU battle groups
10th
Irish Times: Irish soldiers will help to enforce peace
Irish Times: Latest step on march to EU battlegroups
Examier: Legislation imminent for EU battle group role
13th
Irish Indo: Why a global army is the answer to a corrupt UN

I also noticed a front page article in the Metro freebie on the 10th of Feb as well but they have no prescence online so there's no link. The article ran with the headline 'Irish troops face mission to Iraq'! Make what you will of that!

But how neutral has Ireland been anyway? Surely aiding and abetting the US by providing refueling in Shannon for CIA torture flights means that our neutrality is a thing of the past? Well lets see what the Hague convention says about that:

-A neutral Government is bound to employ the means at its disposal to prevent the fitting out or arming of any vessel within its jurisdiction which it has reason to believe is intended to cruise, or engage in hostile operations, against a Power with which that Government is at peace. It is also bound to display the same vigilance to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any vessel intended to cruise, or engage in hostile operations, which had been adapted entirely or partly within the said jurisdiction for use in war.

So there it is, Irish neutrality is no more and the media don't give two hoots.

William Blum: My 15 minutes of fame

Osama's favourite author (if you are to believe the tapes!) has released Feb's anti-empire report in which he details the experiences he has had in the US since being highlighted in the latest Bin-Laden tapes. Quite comical to say the least,esp the comment from one yank who exclaimed on a phone in show 'what has Israel ever done to the Palestinians?' !!! You couldn't make this stuff up!