Tim Collins

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:58

As with every other news item Indymedia readers, I presume, are free to give it prominence as you have done now with this item.
I'm glad the man has been found innocent -particularly I'm glad that these horrible events didn't take place. Everyone is entitled to his or her good name.
I still detest the whole idea of soldiery, killing by order, mass murder by order, the invasion of Iraq, the lies on which it was based, the uncertainty about the truth of any war statements we hear.
There's no need to attempt to garnish the truth.
It would be nice now to be able to examine the sources for the Tim Collins story

by Feckdiss Mon Apr 05, 2004 09:31

You detest the whole idea of soldiery??

Nice if you can afford that luxury, but many people throughout history had to fight to dfend themselves. How do you think Europe would have turned out if Hitler had been unopposed???

So too, America has to take up arms to defend freedom from those who would kill us merely because we are unbelievers.

Grow up Justin, the world is not a nice place, accept it.

by Leon Mon Apr 05, 2004 13:06

Feckdiss you little weasel. America doesn't have to take up arms to defend us; we have no right to ask them to do that and they haven't.

They aren't even defending themselves.

I thought that the invasion of Iraq would leave Iraqis better off by about now.

I was wrong.

by Joe Mon Apr 05, 2004 13:35

So one year on what the occupation of Iraq gets worse day by day, when no WMD's have been found all the pro-war crowd can be cheerful about is one libel case victory!

Written by N. Klein in Iraq hours before the 'riots'

"The US occupation authority has also found a sneaky way to maintain control over Iraq's armed forces. Bremer has issued an executive order stating that even after the interim Iraqi government has been established, the Iraqi army will answer to US commander Lt General Ricardo Sanchez. In order to pull this off, Washington is relying on a legalistic reading of a clause in UN security council resolution 1511, which puts US forces in charge of Iraq's security until "the completion of the political process" in Iraq. Since the "political process" in Iraq is never-ending, so it seems is US military control."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1184993,00.html

by Joe Mon Apr 05, 2004 13:39

This one is from the Baghdad burning blog

"There's also a new 'Mukhaberat' or "National Iraqi Intelligence Organization" (or something to that effect). The irony is that while the name is new and the head is Ali Abd Ul Ameer Allawi (a relative of the Puppet Council President Ayad Allawi), the faces of the new Mukhaberat promise to be some of the same as the old. They've been contacting the old members of the Iraqi Mukhaberat for months and promising them lucrative jobs should they decide to join the new Iraqi intelligence (which, we hope, will be an improvement on American intelligence- I’d hate to have us invade a country on false pretenses). "
http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

by Canteen Kevin Mon Apr 05, 2004 13:47

Leaving aside the facts that troops previously under his command have been implicated for murder and torutre in southern Iraq, here is an excerpt from "The Sun" on British Helsinki Human Rights Group; website

"The most extraordinary, nigh inexplicable aspect of this strange tale is the response of Murdoch’s own Sun newspaper. On 22nd May, The Sun went to town, not only did it report the story, it also published some highly unflattering ‘pen portraits’ of the Colonel from people who did not seem to share Ms. Oliver and Prince Charles’s love affair with the Sun’s former pin up boy.

'He snubbed suicide son'

By NEIL SYSON

NOT everyone agrees with Col Tim Collins’ forthright style.

And four cases brought to The Sun’s attention yesterday show that at best he might be heavy-handed and at worst is a bully.

CASE 1 came from a grieving dad whose squaddie son committed suicide in mysterious circumstances while under Col Collins’ command.

Royal Irish Regiment ranger Paul Cochrane, 18, fired his gun into his mouth while talking to dad Billy on the phone in 2001.

Belfast cabbie Billy told how the desperate lad begged Col Collins for help in a letter he wrote three weeks before his death. But the dad said: “Collins did nothing.”

An Army welfare officer tried to discover Paul’s problems but was told he was a happy lad.

All that is known is that he was suffering from a serious ear infection while serving at Drumadd barracks, Armagh.

But senior officers would not let him take home leave urged by doctors.

Paul told his parents he was getting “hassle” and told Col Collins he felt “deserted” by the regiment.

On the day he died he wrote a letter to his family referring to a secret tape he made of a meeting with senior officers.

The tape was found destroyed in the barracks grounds three days later.

Billy is convinced senior officers know its contents. But he says the Army has refused to give him details of an internal investigation into the death.

The dad said: “I’ve met Collins since. He is a law unto himself, no one can question him. He acts like the Terminator.”

CASE 2 concerns a chaplain who left Col Collins’ unit a year ago after claiming the CO bullied him relentlessly.

The cleric, in his 40s, lodged a formal complaint saying Col Collins screamed abuse at him while waving his fists.

A source said: “The chaplain got sick and tired of the bullying. His replacement lasted just a few months. I think he ran into similar problems.”

Military police probed the complaint but no action was taken.

CASE 3 came from an Army wife who called The Sun to tell how Col Collins thumped four boys aged 12 and 13 after they set fire to leaves near regiment homes in Canterbury.

She said: “He put his hand into a fist and swiped each one around the head. The force of one blow made two boys crack their heads together.”

The wife added that Col Collins then summoned the boys’ fathers, all soldiers.

When one dad threatened to alert the press, the colonel allegedly said: “If you want your life, don’t.”

CASE 4 involves a senior officer who served under Col Collins in Ulster.

He said the CO ruled by creating “a climate of fear”.

And he added: “He loses his rag so quickly and violently there were bound to be problems in Iraq.”

BHHRG turned to the paper’s leader page expecting to find a rousing 150 word defence of The Sun’s own desert hero. There was nothing there.

What can have caused this amazing fall from grace? Apparently, Lt.-Colonel Collins was ‘shopped’ by an American major, shocked by his treatment of POWs and local Iraqis. Apart from The Sun, all British news outlets have put this down to ‘sour grapes’ and the US army’s ‘jealousy’ as its British counterpart is constantly praised for its sensitive, experienced way of handling peace-keeping compared with the Yanks’ ‘shoot from the hip’ approach. Maybe the boot is now on the other foot and we might find that the preening, self-regarding Brits are no different – maybe, dare one say it, they might occasionally be even worse. Not impossible, according to the people interviewed in The Sun.

Whatever one’s response to a possible falling out between the (two) members of the famed ‘coalition’, the whole episode is very mysterious. As veteran war correspondent, Bill Deedes pointed out after hearing Collins’s speech in The Daily Telegraph: British commanders rarely if ever talked of death, and breaking that spectre broke a long military tradition. Perhaps Colonel Tim Collins’s high-profile trip into the limelight, complete with cheroot and Ray-bans, will also be the last for some time to come. "

I note he won f*ck all from this rag in libel damages

by lawyer Mon Apr 05, 2004 17:04

Lets get something straight here - Collins was not found innocent by this court case, or by the actions of a newspaper retracting a story that it could not stand over.

He is just as innocent as the alleged criminal who beats a poorly put together prosecution, and one that has both its hands tied behind its back. He is of course innocent in the eyes of the law, but innocent in the eyes of a law that has been written to protect him and those under his control.

Collins was the subject of an army investigation into allegations of what constitute war crimes, and was found not guilty - found not guilty by a tribunal in an organisation that has a lot to lose by finding him guilty. Found not guilty in a system where there is no investigation other than by fellow soldiers. And lets not forget that Coalition personnel have been removed from the jurisdiction of any iraqi court, and it is after all the iraqi people who have the interest in seeing justice being done (see link to Coalition Memorandum No 3 below)

This type of investigation isn't good enough for us in Europe - why should British and other coalition troops be afforded this luxury when they are fighting against non-Europeans?

Colonel Collins may not be guilty of these allegations, but lets not forget that the situation is set up the way it is to ensure that no British soldier is found guilty and to effectively give British soldiers a carte blanche in achieving their military objectives without international human rights treaties getting in the way.

If the British army really want to clear its name and reject the allegations and status of war criminals then they should submit themselves to an independent and effective judicial process. In the absence of this, then what are we supposed to think when such allegations are made. The track record of the British army hardly would give us cause to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The same of course applies to the position of British soldiers, police and paramilitaries who murdered and colluded in this country, and who remain above the law.

by Ali la Pointe - fu-fighting anti-imperialistas Mon Apr 05, 2004 18:36

RIR chief comes out smelling of roses from case presided over by golfing partners of Lord Hutton (of diplock courts and inquiries into Bloody Sunday and WMD row fame). Long live the British Army! Long live British Justice!

by Northern Eye Mon Apr 05, 2004 20:47

To whomever it was that said America has to take up arms to defend itself: it woundn't have been attacked in the first place if it didn't support and keep afloat the Israeli killing machine and starve to death one million Iraqi children or have military bases in the middle of a country which one billion worldwide regard as holy and sacred and, weather you agree or not, thats the simple truth which no amount of propaganda can alter.

You see injustice breeds war ( it is the brutal, and almost untalked about, truth that after the end of hostilities of the First World War it was the victorious allied powers insistence on humilliating Germany that allowed a certain A.Hitler to flourish ) and creates anarachy and more hate and more war again and again and again. The wheel of suffering is kept moving by the triple evils of stupidity, greed and revenge and only by justice, respect and true education can conflict be ended otherwise war, war, war and more war.

All war involves terrorism. All conflict is just far too real and everything should be done to destroy the root causes of it.

by Drbinoche Tue Apr 06, 2004 20:23

I am very glad that Tim won his case. I believe it was a baseless argument against him, now I have to ask to those of you who are offended by the result, the law states Innocent until proven Guilty, and since he has not been proven Guilty, than he is Innocent by the Law. Same way as the Ploughshare Guys are Innocent of any wrong doing until they either get convicted or aquitted. Way of the world.

by binky old boy Tue Apr 06, 2004 23:37

Although Tim Collins has been cleared of torturing prisoners of war. Tim Collin's conduct towards his own soldiers and concern for their welfare whilst in the RIR, has been judged by the families of soldiers who commited suicide whist in the RIR under gasbag Collins control, to be far from humane or fair.

by rooster Thu Apr 08, 2004 03:02

THE Ulster Army officer who gave a famous eve-of-battle speech to his men before the start of the Iraq war was receiving his OBE today.

Belfast-born Colonel Tim Collins, along with 100 other servicemen and women, will be decorated for their part in the conflict at a Buckingham Palace investiture.

Colonel Collins achieved worldwide fame with his words to the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment.

Steeling themselves for the fight ahead, he told his men: "If you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory."

Poignantly, he warned the 600 soldiers poised on the Iraqi border, that some of them may not return to their families.

He urged his troops to wrap their fallen comrades in a sleeping bag, fight on and grieve for them after the heat of battle.

The speech earned him lavish praise from the Prince of Wales and was admired by US President George W Bush, who reportedly hung a copy on the wall of the Oval Office.

The charismatic soldier was often pictured wearing his trademark dark sunglasses and puffing on a cigar during the conflict.

Col Collins (43) was later cleared of alleged war crimes during the war following a Ministry of Defence investigation.

He later won substantial undisclosed libel damages against two newspapers that made allegations about his conduct during the Iraq war.

Married to Caroline, with four sons and a daughter, he was a lieutenant colonel during the conflict, but was later promoted to the rank of colonel before resigning from the Army in January.

Around 350 honours in all have been given to those involved in the conflict.

The Prince of Wales will award the honours on behalf of the Queen who is on a state visit to France.

by Noddy Thu Apr 08, 2004 04:52

So, the murdering thug receives his OBE from Bigears, the head of the Parachute Regiment which callously gunned down innocent people in Derry.
Ah, shure the divil looks after his own.

by rooster Sat Apr 10, 2004 01:50

Actually, I don't think the Prince was at Bloddy Sunday on that day, unless you know something we don't?
There's no point asking Marty McGuiness as he refused to give evidence at the Saville inquiry.

by TT Sat Apr 10, 2004 02:20

Nobody said that bigears was present on Bloody Sunday. What was said was that he was head of the regiment which carried out that massacre.

by rooster Mon Apr 12, 2004 02:47

He's not the CO of the unit so he's not in charge of anything?

by TT Mon Apr 12, 2004 04:54

He is the CIC of the Parachute regiment. Anyway he is part of a despicable bunch of parasites.

by rooster Mon Apr 12, 2004 11:37

Oh, you must know something that the rest of the World does'nt, the results of the Saville inquiry have'nt been released yet, so how do you know that it was murder?

by * Mon Apr 12, 2004 14:04

not fooling all of the people all of the time. Americans didn't target civilians for mass punishment in Fallujah in runup to Easter Sunday you'll be telling us next.

by rooster Mon Apr 12, 2004 18:06

The brave ulster troops fight for your freedom and the oil that your economy runs on and all the south can do is drip and moan about our conduct in the war.
This happened 60 years ago when eire did'nt have the bottle to confront nazis and fascists but then whinged about how we bombed civilians in germany!

by Ben Tue Apr 13, 2004 00:54

"Brave Ulster troops" me arse. If you are refering to the second world war there were at least as many soldiers from the south.
To compare the present debacle in Iraq to the second world war is an insult to all who fought on the allied side in 1939-45.

by sinead Sat May 28, 2005 17:49

Radio Ulster talkback programme interview with Tim Collins, mentions the Irish in the British Army, the Iraq campaign and Sierra Leone among others.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/netw...l?ulster/tb_fri