Available On Web Now Through Indymedia

After two tribunals, numerous trips to the High Court and a further delay to allow for printing, the Ansbacher Report, detailing suspected tax evasion, illegal banking operations and numerous breaches of company law right up to the 1990s, and pointing the finger at builders, bankers, restaurant owners and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, was finally published. It stretches to ten thousand pages and comes in two large boxes. A CD-ROM version was also made available, at a cost of E25.40.

The vast majority of official reports are now made freely available online, for example the benchmarking report. However, the Director of Corporate Enforcement (Paul Appelby) decided not to publish the report on the Web, due to fears over the State being sued in other jurisdictions for defamation - if this was to happen, it would mean a serious restriction on the freedom of the media and even sovereign Governments to report on controversial issues.

You can read the full report online for free, by clicking here. Some sections to note are the conclusions of the inspectors and of course the infamous "list of names", published on the newswire.

The Dáil has been recalled to discuss the report. None of the people or corporations named in the report have been tried before a court, however the Socialist Workers' Party have called for the Ansbacher Gang to be jailed. The Director of Corporate Enforcement in a press release was not willing to commit to any particular course of legal action, and fears are growing that, as was the case with the Beef Tribunal, no prosecutions will follow. Charles Haughey, the subject of much criticism (1) in the inspector's report (2), had a previous trial suspended when his lawyers argued that the statements of Mary Harney and the SWP contributed to a climate where a fair trial would be impossible. The commercial media have reported on the findings in depth, with many journalists writing that those who are alleged to have evaded tax were innocently "caught up" in the illegal banking scheme run by Ansbacher and Haughey's accountant, the late Des Traynor.

(1) Point 3.11, at page 59
(2) Appendix 54

Read the report now!

Last Sunday, the 7th of July, a crowd of 100,000 gathered at the Salthill Air Show. Treated to a display of military prowess billed as the 'greatest free show in Europe', the crowd 'ooh'd' and 'aah'd' as Hercules helicopters, F-15s and a B1 bomber streaked overhead. Defending the air show, The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, who opened proceedings, announced that allowing military aircraft to entertain crowds was not a breach of Irish Neutrality (see Irish Times article). The Galway Anti-War Alliance disagree. They made a loud and vocal protest at the show, airing their contempt for aircraft like the B-1, and pointing out that the price of one B-1 could provide clean water to several thousand villages in the third world (see their press release).

There are allegations that Irish neutrality, which the government claim they are protecting in the current round of Nice treaty negotiations, has been quietly eroded for years now. US military aircraft have been landing in Shannon, refueling, and taking off for the Middle East since the Gulf War (report). Since September 11th the amount of US military traffic coming through Shannon has dramatically increased (reports 1, 2, 3). No longer content with simply refueling they are now carrying out training exercises, something that is mostly unreported in our mainstream news.

The Irish government's claims that these are merely transport aircraft rings false with reported sightings of F-16s and AC-130s landing at the airport. It was an AC-130, which bombed the wedding party in Kandihar last week.

Limerick is several thousand miles from Afghanistan, but it is clear that there are ties between the quiet comings and goings in Shannon and America's 'War on Terror'. Our government is loudly fighting to secure Irish neutrality at the EU summit in Seville, and at the same time quietly breaching our neutrality daily in Shannon.

Related link: Refueling for peace