newcorporationforyou.net

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.”

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Monday, November 5, 2007

In the 1980’s and the 1990’s there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals that has come to be known as The Satanic Panic. In the United States, the Kern County child abuse cases, McMartin preschool trial and the West Memphis 3 cases garnered worldwide media coverage. One case took place in Jordan, Minnesota, when children made allegations of manufacturing child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, coprophagia, urophagia and infanticide, at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation was alerted. Twenty-four adults were arrested and charged with acts of sexual abuse, child pornography and other crimes related to satanic ritual abuse; only three went to trial with two acquittals and one conviction. Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted in a discussion of the case, “[t]here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged,” and cited the repeated, coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation.

One of the most visible Satanic organizations—though one that was never a suspect or charged in any of the Satanic Panic cases—is the Church of Satan, founded by Anton LaVey. Members of the Church, such as Peter H. Gilmore, Peggy Nadramia, Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, Diabolos Rex, and musician King Diamond, were active in media appearances to refute allegations of criminal activity and the FBI would later issue an official report debunking the criminal conspiracy theories of this time.

Gilmore feels Satanists are often misunderstood or misrepresented. LaVey’s teachings are based on individualism, self-indulgence, and “eye for an eye” morality, with influence from Friedrich Nietzsche and Ayn Rand; while its rituals and magic draw heavily from occultists such as Aleister Crowley. They do not worship—nor believe in—the Devil or a Christian notion of Satan. The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word for “adversary” and originated from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally applied to an angel. Church of Satan adherents see themselves as truth-seekers, adversaries and skeptics of the religious world around them.

On a windy October day in Central Park, Wikinews reporter David Shankbone sat down with the High Priest of the Church, Peter H. Gilmore, who has led LaVey’s congregation of Satanists since his passing in 1997 (he became the High Priest in 2001). They discussed the beliefs of the Church, current events, LaVey’s children and how Satanism applies to life and the world.

Saturday, March 5, 2005The US military is funding the research and development of a weapon that could be used to inflict excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away, but is meant to otherwise leave victims unharmed. Pain researchers have been left furious after work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop technology aimed at maximising it.

Intended for use against protesters and rioters, the research focuses on the effect electromagnetic pulses can have on pain reception. Due to be ready by 2007, the Pulsed Energy Projectile (PEP) weapon will fire a burst of electrically charged gas, or plasma, which will generate an electromagnetic pulse on impact. It is this pulse which will trigger impulses in nerve cells causing extreme pain.

A review of the non-lethal weapon by the US Naval Studies Board in 2003 concluded that PEPs produced “pain and temporary paralysis” in animal test subjects. Studies ongoing at the University of Central Florida in Orlando aim at optimising this effect. The ultimate aim is to generate a pulse which will trigger optimum pain in the subject without damaging tissues. Studies due to be carried out on lab grown cells aim at identifying the threshold of pain that can be inflicted on someone without causing death. There is some concern that the studies will fall short of demonstrating a safe level for a plasma burst.

The work came to light after documents were released under the US’s Freedom of Information Act to the Sunshine Project, an organisation who aims to expose biological weapons research. One document entitled “Sensory consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser induced plasmas” concerned the generation and firing of PEPs. Pain researchers have condemned the research, claiming that it could be put to use as a means of torture and that it is unethical.

“I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research,” said Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. “Even if the use of temporary pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown.”

Clinical psychologist at University College London, Amanda Williams expressed concern that victims risk long term harm. “Persistent pain can result in a range supposedly non-destructive stimuli which nevertheless change the functioning of the nervous system,” she says. Studies “cannot tell us about the pain and psychological consequences of such painful experience,” she said.

[edit]

Friday, December 2, 2005

The body of former Manchester United player, George Best, has arrived in Northern Ireland. It was flown into RAF Aldergrove, on a chartered plane accompanied by his son, Calum, and his agent, Phil Hughes. Bests Family, including his father Dickie were waiting at the runway of RAF base in County Antrim.

Mr.Bests body was then driven in a black herse along a 20-mile route to the home of Best’s father, Dickie, in the Cregagh Estate in east Belfast, where it will be kept overnight.

Up to 500,000 people are expected to line the streets to Stormont, the Northern Ireland Parliament buildings, where a public funeral ceremony for the former Manchester United and Northern Ireland football player will be held tomorrow.

Mr Best died at the Cromwell Hospital in London last Friday afternoon, aged 59. A private family service will be held at Best’s Fathers home, which has been turned into a shrine to his son. Then a service will take place in the Great Hall at Stormont, before Best is buried in a private family service beside his mother Ann at Roselawn Cemetery. Among the people attending the private ceremony will be Best’s lifelong friend Denis Law, Harry Gregg and Derek Dougan.