A major addition to our understanding of media manipulation
- Basil Clarke is standing on left

Reading Brian Murphy on how the British manipulated the truth in 1920 "made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck" said Danny Morrison. The parallels between events in that one year and British activities many years later in Ireland are striking, he said.

The one time An Phoblacht editor and Sinn Fein Publicity Director, now author and playwright, launched Brian Murphy's 'The Origins and Organisation of British Propaganda in Ireland 1920’ on March 24th in the Teachers’ Club in Dublin.

The 100-page work was also launched by Professor David Miller of Strathclyde University and by the author, Brian Murphy.

The US Government has adopted a new pretence to justify its presence in Colombia and even direct action in the country by US personnel. Once again the so called war on drugs, a euphemism used by the US to justify interventions in Colombia, Panama, Turkey and other countries throughout the 20th Century, is to be used.

The US have redefined the FARC as a drugs cartel and issued 50 arrest warrants for the entire Secretariat of the FARC and a further 17 members of the High Command. The arrest warrants are accompanied by the offer of 5 million dollars for each member of the Secretariat and 2.5 million for the High Command leaders.

The drug cartel charge is a smokescreen. But why make the charge now? The answer is simple. Bush has made no secret of his desire to free up US money and hardware donated in the war on drugs for use in general counter insurgency operations. Now that the FARC has been redefined as a drugs cartel Bush can have that freer hand. The US Attorney General has not ruled out operations of the type which led to the killing of Pablo Escobar. In other words it has not ruled out direct military intervention to take out the Secretariat.

Further Reading:
Frank Connolly, McDowell and Alvaro Uribe
The Profits of Extermination
Another Leader of Colombian Peace Community illegally detained by The Police

The Traveller man is saying "We are people just like you".

St. Margaret’s Park is a 30 bay permanent halting site sandwiched between 2 busy roads on the outskirts of Ballymun. There are currently 63 families living in a space originally designed to accommodate 30 families. There is no playground and no safe pedestrian access to and from the site. Families on the site have been living without electricity on and off for three past 5 months.

Travellers and workers, angry at the situation, called a meeting on Wed March the 22nd. Councillors and Dublin City Council (DCC) officials were invited to explain to a meeting on site how they proposed to resolve the situation. Earlier on in the day a group of Slovakians from the LEAP Project (Legal Education For All), along with members of the Irish Traveller Movement Accommodation Working Group visited the site.