No Justice in County Clare: Harry Browne Counterpunch Article

Mary Kelly Vs The State Trial Updates: 6.20 PM Thursday 28th - Guilty Verdict - Jury 10:2

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligation of obedience. Therefore [individuals] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal 1945-1946.

"His insistence that the invasion of Iraq cannot be mentioned in testimony is actually contrary to the Criminal Damage Act, which takes a person's state of mind into account when they perform the so-called damage. If they are deemed to have an honestly held belief they were acting in the interests of others, then they cannot be guilty of criminal damage. Therefore, Mary absolutely must be allowed to explain her motivations in order for there to be fair trial."

"Lawful excuse" defense not allowed by hostile Judge
Judge Carroll Moran ruled today in Ennis Circuit Court that the use of Shannon airport by the US military and the war in Iraq are "not relevant" to Mary's case. Court report

Court Watcher "...the judge denied almost every witness that the defense attempted to call. Among the witnesses denied the stand were Mr. Denis Holliday a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Daniel Einsberger of Pentagon Papers fame, Dr. Horst Gunther who uncovered the United States use of depleted uranium in Iraq, Mr. Edward Horgan a former UN Peacekeeper, and Dr. Curtis Doebbler an international lawyer..."

Relevance of evidence in first trial. "He [Judge Moran] ignored the defence testimony, directing the jury not to allow feelings or issues of conscience to influence them in making their decision. This extraordinary instruction, when the whole function of a jury is to act as the conscience of society in matters of law, is perhaps an indication of how profoundly the rosecution’s agenda had been shown up by the strength, clarity and truth of the defence.

Out of Sight out of mind There hasn't been an "immediacy clause" for the necessity defence Mary is using since 1997, when the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act amended the Criminal Damage Act (1991).

"In his ruling against Eoin Dubsky earlier this month in the same courthouse, J O'Donnell also leaped back in time to find him guilty because his defence under Section 6.3.c of the Criminal Damage Act ("Lawful excuse") wouldn't hold cause Iraq is so far away."

Question of the trial? Whats more dangerous knives, bombs or policy? Judge Carroll Moran cautioned Ms Kelly on sticking to relevant issues in her defence, he told her, that the defence of lawful excuse refers only to an action taken to prevent a threat to a person, their property, or other persons, but only when that threat was of an immediate nature. He gave the example of damaging the knife of a potential attacker, brandishing such an implement and went on to inform her, that the war in Iraq and the presence of a US plane did not impose an immediate threat to her or other persons when she damaged the U.S.A.F. navy plane

(from June 2003 court report) "The sage-like Ramsey Clarke (former U.S. Attorney General and longtime peace campaigner) testified for 30 minutes about the adverse effects of U.S. foreign policy, stating facts and figures about the effects of long-term low-intensity conflict in Iraq since 1991. He expressed deep concern about the sanctions, with at least 585,000 young children dead as a direct result of them. He also compared Mary’s action to somebody removing the bullets from a gun that would otherwise be used to kill someone. The prosecuting counsel strenuously questioned the relevance of Clarke’s testimony, and asked him the following question: “If someone broke into your house and did 1.5 million euros worth of damage, how would you feel?” Clarke replied that if his house was capable of complicity in the murder of innocents, he’d be actively offering invitations to people to come and damage it. Clarke was asked the question several times (apparently the prosecutor felt he hadn’t answered it), and gave the same reply each time. I am sure many bizarre questions are asked in courtrooms, but this one strikes me as similar to asking Rosa Parks “If someone sat in your usual seat in the bus, how would you feel?” Removal of context, universalizing of the particular, seems to be a tool used by empire time and again. And, because we all know that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house (to borrow from Audre Lorde), all that a defence can do is to continually push the focus back to the context in which an action occurs."

June 2003: Hung jury doesn't satisfy state.
"Despite being effectively told to ignore their own human consciences, the jury couldn’t convict Mary Kelly for her efforts to undercut the U.S. war machine." Statements and Audio interview with Mary Kelly after initial trial.

Review of previous trials on Mary Kellys Website - Trial 1 June 03 - Trial 2 June 04 - Trial 3 October 04

Mary Kelly Vs The State Trial Updates

Commenteer: There hasn't been an "immediacy clause" for the necessity defence Mary is using since 1997, when the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act amended the Criminal Damage Act (1991).

Two Anti-war activists interrupt Fianna Fáil ceremony by unveiling banner and heckling high profile party members. Questionable behaviour from Youthful FFers follows.

In other breaking news a Judge rules that objectively observed cause and effect reality be discounted when it comes to Shannon Airport.

Oh if this all seems a little fucked up - Don't worry - Terry Leyden sez it's all ok because his nephew is in the US Military . . . .

Building up to the 2005 G8 summit.

To download this documentary, click here to visit the site www.radio4all.net. If you right click on the download option for the programme in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, you will be given an option to open or save the file on your computer. Saving it onto your hard drive first is probably the better option. You will need a piece of software on your computer that can play MP3 audio files. Something basic like Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, or Musicmatch Jukebox will all play MP3 files.

"Dissenting Voices" was recorded in September at the Dissent! Network gathering in Edinburgh. The Dissent! Network was formed in late 2003 to facilitate and organise resistance against the upcoming G8 summit being held in the UK in 2005. It is organised around the People's Global Action (PGA) hallmarks.

The G8 summit takes place next summer in Gleneagles, Perthshire, a remote part of Scotland. "Dissenting Voices" looks at who the G8 are and what they stand for; various activists explain what the Dissent! Network is about, and how they are trying to do outreach to local communities around the UK in the run up to the G8; Scottish activists discuss the issues surrounding the choice of Gleneagles as the location for the summit, such as accessability, the work they will have to do, and the current situation with the local communities around Gleneagles and Perth; and also one activist who was over in the USA for the Fix Shit Up! action talks of how it was an incredibly positive action, which many at the gathering wanted to replicate in some similar fashion next year.

This documentary was made using Goldwave software which is a basic .WAV digital audio editor. You can download it for free from the Goldwave Site . This allows you to run 150 commands in a session and 3000 commands total before the shareware license runs out. .WAV files are useful as they are used for burning audio onto CDs which most CD players can read. The MP3 file was created with a free MP3 converter called dbPowerAmp which you can download by clicking here . This allows you to compress your files into the MP3 format, which takes up less space and is easier for people to download from the internet.

Indymedia Global Audio/Radio site
Radio 4 All - Radical Audio Archives
The Dissent! Network
Indymedia Scotland

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From the Newswire by Seedot: A report and pics from a weekend in London - covers the Camden Centre, Beyond the ESF and the Official ESF.

The ideals of the social forum process speak of the creation of a space for dialog and debate between the many social movements that present an opposition to capitalism. The Porto Allegre principles are designed to ensure as inclusive and broad a forum as possible, to encourage the cross-fertilization of all these strands that make up what is referred to as the 'movement'. While the London organising process has been heavily criticised for its departures from the charter of principles many people traveled to London because of the sheer scale of the event, the opportunity to see the differences between the groups and test the pulse of the European movements. The diversity was supposed to be the strength of the social forum, the size was supposed to overcome the problems in the organising with space for everyone in the various events.

Before I left Dublin I had read of the range of groups and spaces and thought that the weekend would be an opportunity to witness this marvelous coming together that many had spoken of in the social forum process. The weekend before I had sat in a circle at the Irish Social Forum and heard academics, trade unionists, social democrats and anarchists discussing their opposing and complimentary views of neo-liberalism and their strategies for dealing with it. The meeting had been positive, not least for the links that were made and the comparisons drawn with the mass movement that developed in Ireland a century before as Nationalism, Socialism and what came to be Irish Republicanism coalesced to defeat the imperialism of that time. London was supposed to be this on a much larger stage.

Flying home my feelings were more of frustration and opportunities missed than any real satisfaction or excitement. I attended events at the Indymedia Centre in Camden, at the Beyond the ESF in Tottenham and the 'Official' ESF at Alexander Palace. Each event was well organised and attended yet it felt like I had been to three conferences in the one weekend. The frustration was that the linkages and cross fertilizations seem to have been ruled out even before the event began as each of the movements retreated into its own space, establishing multiple fora which talked amongst themselves. While what happened was thoughtful, sincere and at times exciting it was what didn't happen that left the lasting impression.