British anti-war activists occupied the Irish Embassy in London today to protest the possible ten year jail sentence facing Ireland's Pitstop Ploughshares defendants when they go on trial in an Irish court on March 7th.

The criminal charges facing the Irish peace activists (Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon, Damien Moran & Ciaron O'Reilly) arise out of their non-violently disarming a US Navy Plane at Shannon Airport on Feb 3rd 2003.

This highly popular action had an immediate positive effect in reducing Ireland's complicity in war crimes as it led to a withdrawal (at that time) from Ireland of three of the four companies contracted to freight US troops and weapons through Shannon airport.

The Irish Government continues to facilitate the US Military at Shannon Airport with thousands of US troops transiting through Shannon to and from Iraq each month.

Does the introduction of PPP schemes into prison building also signal the introduction of private prisons? Security companies like Wackenhut and Group4 operate prisons in the UK and USA. Private prisons are routinely condemned by human rights groups. But what are the alternatives to building a new superprison in north Co. Dublin? What other options are open to the Minister for Justice?

In this short film, Joe Costello from the Labour Party (a regular commentator on prison issues and prisoners rights), Rick Lines from the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and Seanie Lambe from ICON (Inner City Organisations Network, a community organisation based in the Summerhill area) give their opinions on the closure of Mountjoy. Issues discussed include the implications of private companies' involvement in the construction of the new prison, what will probably happen with the existing site, and different initiatives that could be put forward to combat crime at its source, rather than continually incarcerating people & building bigger prisons.

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From the newswire: Some thoughts on reading the book 'Stasiland' on a society dominated by the secret police.

Extract: The first thing to note about Irish intelligence agencies is that it might be a naive assumption to think that they are controlled by Irish people in Ireland. It turns out that the control of the main domestic intelligence agency 'Security and Intelligence' , then known as C3 , was formally handed over to the British government in the form of MI5 at a secret meeting at Baldonnel airport in early 1974.(7) The reason given was naturally the suppression of terrorism. Turns out that at that time the main terrorism in the state was being carried out by the British intelligence agencies themselves , including the attacks that lead to the passing of the 'Offences Against the State" act.(8) It seems that this agreement is still in force.C3 in turn controlled Garda Special Branch and some army officers from Irish army intelligence known as G2 found themselves unpromoted because they were 'cautious of the apparently unquestioning alliance between some senior Garda officers and British intelligence.' An interesting phoenix article that discusses this subject notes this information given from a legal source who has seen the evidence given to the Barron enquiry on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings:

"For years, a cabal of senior Garda officers, controlled by a foreign intelligence agency (MI5) directed state policy in many crucial areas, often against the better interests of citizens who were quite unaware of what was happening.”

Maybe people wouldn't stand for the kind of practices that occurred in East Germany, but they aren't likely to be objecting to something they know nothing whatsoever about. The article goes on to state that army intelligence officers from G2 believe that one senior garda, in cooperation with MI5, had tried to oust the then taoiseach Jack Lynch. MI5 in the UK meanwhile are known, as the article points out, to have bugged 10 Downing Street and broken into the private home of Harold Wilson, one of the few recent British prime ministers to question the atlantic consensus. Not long ago I read a report of an Irish business man who wanted to speak to somebody in charge of security at Dublin Airport as he wanted to question some point about the ID he had shown. The person he was introduced to turned out to be English and admitted that he worked for a British intelligence agency .A statement from the Gardai , I think , was issued later claiming he had been on some 'training exercise' in Ireland.(9).

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Wikipedia Article about The Stasi