Brian Lenihan said "our plan is working"

Over the last twenty months, we have taken decisive and bold action to bring this country back from the brink of economic and financial ruin. The latest of these measures were contained in last December's budget. We made savings of €4 billion through cuts in public sector pay, an average 4% reduction in welfare payments, and through controlling expenditure in all areas of Government. These measures have stabilised our public finances and greatly increased international investor confidence in our ability to work our way out of this most difficult of economic crises. The benefits are there for all to see. Take a look at this:

http://www.fiannafail.ie/page/m/1363c3e/33741a9e/244857af/585bcc6a/1284676890/VEsE/
This graph shows the cost of borrowing for Ireland and Greece. The cost of repaying our debt has fallen because the government has made the difficult but correct choices. If Ireland had gone the way of Greece, we could have expected to pay €3.6 billion more in interest over the next 10 years on the money we have had to borrow this year: dead money that we can now divert to much needed public services.
Internationally, we are now held up as an example of a country that is facing up to its economic difficulties and taking the necessary action. Now that we have begun to stabilise our public finances, we can take the necessary measures to return to economic growth and to create and protect jobs.
Please share this email with your friends, family and colleagues:
http://www.fiannafail.ie/page/m/1363c3e/33741a9e/244857af/585bcc6a/1284676890/VEsF/
In their measured reaction to a very difficult and painful budget, the citizens of this country have shown they are willing to make sacrifices in the short term for the long term good of all. This maturity and understanding of the economic difficulties we face is the envy of other countries in Europe. Our flexibility and our foresight will be of enormous value to us as we continue to enact our plan for economic recovery.
Thank you for supporting us,

Brian Lenihan T.D. Minister for Finance

STATEMENT BY PROINSIAS DE ROSSA Labour MEP for Dublin Chair

STATEMENT BY PROINSIAS DE ROSSA Labour MEP for Dublin Chair, EP Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council Tuesday, March 02, 2010 FOLLOWING DUBAI MURDER AND THEFT OF IDENTITIES, EU MUST STOP UPGRADE OF RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL
In a priority European Parliament question tabled to the European Commission, Proinsias De Rossa MEP said the almost-certain abuse by Mossad of Irish and other European passports in the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 20th January necessitated a halt to the upgrading of relations with Israel and a full review of the 2004 EU legislation aimed at preventing the forgery and abuse of Member States' passports.* Mr De Rossa said: "The misuse of Irish and other EU Member States' passports in this crime should not divert attention from Israel's murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, its brutal assault on Gaza last year, causing the deaths of hundreds of civilians including over 300 children, and its continuing blockade of 1.5 million people in Gaza - all of which are clear demonstrations of Israel's continuing disregard for international law. "The murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a leading Hamas militant, raises 'profoundly disturbing' issues for Europe as the EU Foreign Ministers acknowledged in their 22nd February statement. "The European Union is committed under the Lisbon Treaty to providing its citizens with 'an area of freedom, security and justice'. However the use of forged European passports in the Dubai crime undermines that commitment and casts doubt on the security of all European passports and on the ability of all Europeans to travel in safety worldwide. Indeed, while the theft was a direct attack on the sovereignty of the four Member States concerned and of Australia, the sovereignty of all Member States is at risk unless Israel is obliged to comply with International law. "Europe has to urgently review all aspects of its relations with Israel and put on hold any further upgrading of EU-Israeli relations until Israel complies in all respects with its obligations under international law and its commitments under EU-Israel agreements. "In their 22nd February statement, the 27 EU Foreign Ministers sought to reassure all Europeans that their passports remain among the most secure in the world and included a 'range of physical security measure to prevent forgery and abuse'. "The simple fact is that the protections offered by this legislation seem to have failed in this case. The European Commission must therefore undertake an immediate and full review of all the provisions and the implementation at national level of this legislation and present proposals to MEPs and Ministers to re-establish the integrity of European passports." ENDS Contact Proinsias De Rossa MEP at 087.2544644 www.labour.ie/press * Regulation 2252/2004 on 'security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States'. Written question by Proinsias De Rossa MEP to the Commission Subject - Theft of EU citizens' identities by those involved in the extra-judicial killing of Mr. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai on 20 January 2010 Article 3 (2) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) states that the Union shall offer its citizens 'an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers'. Article 3 (5) provides that 'In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens'. Article 4 (2) commits the Union to respecting Member States' fundamental political and constitutional structures and their essential state functions, including maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. On 22 February 2010, the Council acknowledged that the killing of Mahmoud al-Madhouh in Dubai, 20 January 2010, was not conducive to peace and stability in the Middle East and raised 'profoundly disturbing' issues for Europe. It strongly condemned the fact that those involved had used fraudulent passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens' identities and it sought to reassure EU citizens and the international community about the integrity of EU Member States' passports. Does the Commission condemn this killing? Does it accept that these actions displays a lack of respect by the organizers for Member States, and that the stealing of EU citizens' identities is an infringement of the sovereignty of the Member States' concerned? What steps is it taking to ensure that all countries, including Israel, the main suspect, cooperate with the investigation by the Dubai authorities into these criminal acts and in the investigations being carried out by the Member States concerned into the theft of their citizens' identity? Does it foresee taking the same actions it recently took in relation to Guinea and Sri Lanka if it is established that a state with which we have close relations is responsible for these criminal acts? Will it undertake a full review of the provisions and implementation of EC Regulation 2252/2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States, and other relevant EU legal instruments? What additional action is it taking or considering in this matter?

The Muslim Lobby Letter to Mr. Micheal Martin TDMinister of State, Mr. Dick Roche Minister for European Affairs

The Muslim Lobby Ireland
Themuslimlobby@yahoo.ie



To:
The Irish Government
Mr. Micheal Martin TD Dept for Foreign Affairs Minister of State
Mr. Dick Roche Minister for European Affairs

Re: Dubai assassination

We are delighted with the step of the Irish government to call the Israeli Ambassador over Dubai assassination and the participation in the related Foreign Ministers Summit in Brussels.

We are the Muslim community in Ireland see the killing in Dubai as an organized state terrorism and we don’t like Ireland nor Europe to be implicated in this terrorism.
What happened in Dubai requires proper investigation and serious actions to pinpoint the actual terrorist and to reveal the way EU identities were forged and used for this purpose.

We hop to hear more done about this matter.
Look forward to hearing from you.
God bless
You have our full support.
Administration

Six more hunted in Dubai assassination

The number of operatives involved in the alleged assassination squad is now thought to total at least 17.
Photographs of 11 of the suspects - from the fake British, Irish, French and German passports they used to carry out the killing - have already been released.

The identities of the new six have not yet been made public, but among the group there is thought to be at least one more female in addition to the woman originally identified as "Gail Folliard from Ireland", until the Irish authorities said that no such person existed.
The second, as yet unnamed woman, was caught on CCTV camera following al-Mabhouh to his hotel room and identifying him at close quarters, before other members of the team moved in for the kill.
She had arrived at the hotel dressed as a tourist and wearing a large summer hat and was accompanied by a large man in a Panama hat and beard.
Dubai police were last night also questioning two Palestinians, extradited from Jordan, amid allegations they met up with a member of the assassination team before the hit took place on January 20.
Jordanian government spokesman Nabil Sharif said the two had been handed over to the United Arab Emirates several days ago.
Their suspected involvement has led to bitter recriminations between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement, who have been accused of colluding with the Israelis in the attack.
But according to sources in the emirate, the two have a background in the police service in Gaza, suggesting they are more likely to be members of Hamas, which controls the region.
Among the 11 suspects already identified, six were carrying fake UK passports, with details matching those of British citizens living in Israel.
James Clarke, 47, Paul Keeley, 42, Melvyn Mildiner, 31, Stephen Hodes, 37, Jonathan Graham, 31, and Michael Barney, 55, have all expressed their shock after their names appeared on an international wanted list.
Speaking on Wednesday Mr Hodes' wife Gabriella said: "It started like a story that made us laugh, but now we don't know how to take it."
Michael Barney, who lives on a Kibbutz in the western Galilee, added: "This is a mistake or a case of identity theft. I know only that my passport is at home. I don't know who decided to use my name. I'm angry and very surprised."
Mr Clarke, who lives at a Kibbutz called Givat Hashlosha northeast of Tel Aviv, declined to comment except to insist it was not him in the picture.
Mr Graham, Mr Keeley and Mr Mildiner have also insisted they are the innocent victims of an elaborate sting operation.
Irish, German and French passports carried by the other suspects have also been exposed as fakes.
It is believed al-Mabhouh, who is now based in Damascus, Syria, had been travelling through Dubai on his way to Iran to buy weapons for the armed wing of Hamas, of which he was a founding member.
The group has carried out hundreds of attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis, and now rules the Gaza Strip.
He was also thought to be involved in the 1989 kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers.
According to his brother Hussein, al-Mabhouh had been the target of an assassination attempt on three previous occasions.
Top Hamas figures have denied claims that he was on his way to Iran but have refused to explain why he was in Dubai.

Allegations of ‘Irish’ involvement in assassination of Hamas commander

Could strain this country’s relationship with Israel WHAT do you think of this: seven people, including four Irish passport holders, burst into a hotel room in Dubai at around 9pm earlier this month, pushed the occupant to the floor, tortured him with an electric weapon that they held to his head, and then suffocated him with a pillow? The slaughtered gentleman was a Mr Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a high ranking Hamas military commander, accused by Israel of having been involved in the abduction of two of its soldiers in 1989. A Dubai police chief said they identified the Irish passport holders as suspects and that the arrest of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would be sought if evidence was found to link the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, to the killing. His comments reflected widespread belief in the Muslim world that Israel assassinated Mr Mabhouh. Hamas certainly pinned the blame on Israel, as did Iran. The Israeli government did not comment on the claims but over the years a number of Hamas leaders have died in operations that Israel calls "targeted killings". Some would argue that the proper description is "terrorism". In 2004 Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was killed in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack in Gaza. One month later, another Hamas leader in Gaza, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, was killed when two missiles hit his car. NO MEDIA INTEREST HERE Dubai police said that Mr al-Mabhouh's assassins fled to a ‘European country’ and they did not rule out the possibility that some of the killers went to Ireland. Strangely, the Irish media did not report the slaying - although information that the terrorists held Irish documentation was splashed across Middle East TV and newspapers. The Belfast Telegraph, however, which always had an interest in gruesome acts of terrorism, picked up the tale. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Mickey Martin also knew about the murder. They said: “We are aware of the media reports and we are in contact with authorities locally to try and determine the truth of the reports.” So far, Mickey has not released any information on the progress of his investigation into the terrorists’ use of Irish passports. Yet, it should not be an impossible task for his officials to trace the provenance of the passports. Apparently, UAE security personnel know who the killers are and are in the process of asking Interpol to identify the strategically placed accomplices who supplied the Irish documentation. LAW OF THE JUNGLE? However, it remains to be seen if a Mossad hit squad was responsible for the terrible incident. If such is the case, Martin's response will be interesting. The Minister has been a critic of Israeli barbarity in Gaza and, last year, he objected to the attempt to humiliate him by refusing him entry to the devastated territory. Indeed, should it turn out that the hit squad had origins in Mossad, the fractious relationship of this country with Israel will come under further strain. To have used Irish documentation to get into Dubai in order to carry out a heinous crime will raise the question of whether a deliberate violation of Ireland’s security and of its nationals who travel to the Middle East has been committed. The intriguing question will be to establish who is responsible for the skullduggery: the Israelis for using Irish passports or elements of the Irish government who permitted the passports to fall into criminal hands? As matters stand, Israel has scant regard for international law or international standards, but if it is established that its intelligence agency deliberately injected an Irish tinge into an appalling killing, the conclusion has to be that its government is truly living by the law of the jungle. Let’s not forget either that Mossad has had an unhealthy interest in this country. In 1983, it supplied a consignment of Uzi sub machine guns to Loyalist paramilitaries and, in 1987, Loyalists also secured a large amount of weapons in South Africa via Mossad. That organisation had captured the arms from the PLO. PASSPORTS FOR SALE Of course, this is not the first time that Irish passports were used in the pursuit of criminal activities. In 1986, US official Oliver North, who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, used an Irish passport to travel to Iran. Indeed, passport scandals have a long history in this little banana republic, beginning with the rogue Taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey. He sold them to the highest bidder. For twenty million pounds in 1991, Haughey disposed of eleven Irish passports to an Arab sheikh, to seven other Saudi Arabians and to three Pakistanis. Known as the passports-for-investment scheme, some of the cash went into a company called Leisure Holdings. Passport money also went into the development of Kerry Airport and a Portarlington steel firm. The sale of the 11 passports was later described by Justice Minister Michael McDowell as ‘irregular and unusual’ and, according to McDowell, raised serious questions into the role Haughey played in the scheme. Ray Burke was Justice Minister at the time the passports were issued and his involvement was one of the matters that triggered his resignation. The Moriarty Tribunal investigated the entire affair. The Saudi sheikh at the centre of the passport scandal was married to a sister of Osama bin Laden and went on to spend time under house arrest in a military hospital in the Saudi city of Taif, as punishment for alleged involvement in channeling millions of dollars to bin Laden. PASSPORT CLIENTISM In fact, our politicos love dabbling in passports, particularly those processed by a special unit at the passport office that speeds up applications. It’s a service available only to Oireachtas members. Brian Cowen, Willie O'Dea, Martin Cullen, Eamon Ryan, Mary Harney, Noel Dempsey, John Gormley are some of the politicos who fast-tracked 4,283 applications in 2008. In the same year, Mary Coughlan used her special privileges to speed up 499 passport applications in just 483 days. The anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International, criticised the practice as undue interference in the work of civil servants. Under the fast-track system, TDs and senators can leave passport applications given to them by members of the public in a drop box in Leinster House – all of which illustrates the fact tht terrorists (including Israeli terrorists) would encounter few problems in getting their paws on Irish passports. In the meantime, we await with interest the outcome of Mickey’s investigation.

By Archon Saturday February 20th, 2010

Holocaust Survivor Hajo Meyer Speaks Out on Gazza

Friday Demo at British Embassy, Saturday Holocaust Survivor Speaks Out on Gazza, and Haiti
Contents
Friday 29th Demo At British Embassy as Blair Gives Evidence On Iraq

Haitian tragedy compounded by long, ugly history of exploitation
Haiti’s never-ending tragedy has American roots
Donating to the Irish Anti-War Movement
1. Friday 29th Demo At British Embassy as Blair Gives Evidence On Iraq
The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) will hold a demonstration this Friday January 29th at 5pm outside the British Embassy in Ballsbridge, Dublin. The protest has been organised to coincide with the appearance of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair before the Chilcott inquiry, where he will answer questions about his role in launching the war on Iraq in 2003.
The protest will coincide with a series of protests taking place in Britain at the Chilcott inquiry and on the previous day (Thursday 28th) at the international conference on Afghanistan, hosted by current British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
The IAWM, like its British counter-part, the Stop the War Coalition, believe any serious inquiry into Mr Blair's role in the Iraq war could only conclude that he told multiple and deliberate lies to justify an aggressive and illegal war.
Similarly, the British and Irish anti-war movements believe that the international conference on Afghanistan being hosted by Gordon Brown, the day before Mr Blair's appearance at the inquiry, is a cynical attempt to re-brand the hugely unpopular war in Afghanistan as the "good war," when it is one equally as immoral as that fought in Iraq.
2. Holocaust Survivor Hajo Meyer Speaks Out on Gazza
The Misuse of the Holocaust for Political Purposes: Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer speaks out - Also, Dr. Haidar Eid on the Siege of Gaza
Sat 30th January 6.00pm, Central Hotel, South Great George’s Street, Dublin.
On Saturday 30th January 2009, holocaust survivor, author and activist Hajo Meyer will speak in the Central Hotel at 6.00pm about Zionism's misuse of the Holocaust for its own political purposes. Dr Meyer, an outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, will also be arguing that a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel is both necessary and justified. Another member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network will also speak.
Dr. Haider Eid (PACBI and lecturer in the Islamic Univeristy in Gaza) will also speak via video about the ongoing siege of Gaza.
More details: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayEvent.php?eventID=7...
3. Haitian tragedy compounded by long, ugly history of exploitation
PETER HALLWARD
Peter Hallward is professor of modern European philosophy at Middlesex University in England and author o f Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment
Irish Times - Fri, Jan 15, 2010
OPINION: The international community is as much to blame for the misery as the act of nature that caused the earthquake
ANY LARGE city in the world would have suffered extensive damage from an earthquake on the scale of the one that ravaged Haiti’s capital city on Tuesday afternoon, but it’s no accident that so much of Port-au-Prince now looks like a war zone. Much of the devastation wreaked by this latest and most calamitous disaster to befall Haiti is best understood as another thoroughly man-made outcome of a long and ugly historical sequence.
The country has faced more than its fair share of catastrophes. Hundreds died in Port-au-Prince in an earthquake in June 1770, and the huge earthquake of May 7th, 1842, may have killed 10,000 in the northern city of Cap Haitien alone. Hurricanes batter the island on a regular basis, most recently in 2004 and 2008; the storms of September 2008 killed more than a thousand people and destroyed thousands of homes.
The full scale of the destruction resulting from this latest earthquake may not become clear for several weeks. Even minimal repairs will take years to complete, and the long-term impact is incalculable. What is already all too clear, however, is the fact that this impact will be the result of an even longer-term history of deliberate impoverishment and disempowerment.
Haiti is routinely described as the “poorest country in the western hemisphere”. This poverty is the direct legacy of perhaps the most brutal system of colonial exploitation in history, compounded by decades of systematic postcolonial oppression. The noble “international community” which is currently scrambling to send its “humanitarian aid” to Haiti is largely responsible for the extent of the suffering it now aims to reduce.
Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti’s people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s phrase) “from absolute misery to a dignified poverty” has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies.
Aristide’s own government (elected by some 75 per cent of the electorate) was the latest victim of such interference, when it was overthrown by an internationally sponsored coup in 2004 that killed several thousand people and left much of the population smouldering with resentment. The UN has subsequently maintained a large and enormously expensive stabilisation and pacification force in the country.
Haiti is now a country where, according to the best available study, about 75 per cent of the population “lives on less than $2 per day, and 56 per cent – four and a half million people – live on less than $1 per day”.
Decades of neoliberal “adjustment” and neo-imperial intervention have robbed its government of any significant capacity to invest in its people or to regulate its economy. Punitive international trade and financial arrangements ensure that such destitution and impotence will remain a structural fact of Haitian life for the foreseeable future. It is this poverty and powerlessness that account for the full scale of the horror in Port-au-Prince today.
Since the late 1970s, relentless neoliberal assault on Haiti’s agrarian economy has forced tens of thousands of small farmers into overcrowded urban slums.
Although there are no reliable statistics, hundreds of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents now live in desperately substandard informal housing, often perched precariously on the side of deforested ravines. The selection of the people living in such places is itself no more “natural” or accidental than the extent of the injuries they have suffered.
As Brian Concannon, the director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, points out: “Those people got there because they or their parents were intentionally pushed out of the countryside by aid and trade policies specifically designed to create a large captive and therefore exploitable labour force in the cities; by definition they are people who would not be able to afford to build earthquake-resistant houses.”
If we are serious about helping, we need to stop trying to control Haiti’s government, to pacify its citizens, and to exploit its economy. And then we need to start paying for at least some of the damage we’ve already done. – (Guardian service)
© 2010 The Irish Times
4. Haiti’s never-ending tragedy has American roots
Haiti’s never-ending tragedy has American roots Sunday, January 17, 2010 By Vincent Browne
Late last week, the White House website carried details of a 30-minute phone conversation last Friday morning between President Barack Obama and René Préval, the president of Haiti.
It reported: ‘‘President Obama said that the world had been devastated by the loss and suffering in Haiti, and pledged the full support of the American people for the government and people of Haiti as it relates to both the immediate recovery effort and the long-term rebuilding effort.
‘‘President Préval said that he has been touched by the friendship of the American people, and expressed his condolences for the loss of American citizens in Haiti.”
The report continued: ‘‘President Préval closed by passing a message to the American people - ‘From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the Haitian people, thank you, thank you, thank you’.”
It would be churlish to criticise the president of a country devastated by tragedy, when he was pleading with the world for support at a time of such crisis for his people. But he could have been forgiven for being less wholehearted, for the story of Haiti is maybe the most vivid representation of imperialist murderous oppression in world history. That oppression added hugely to the tragedy that the earthquake brought last Tuesday to the people of Haiti.
Right from the beginning of the reports on the earthquake last Tuesday night, Haiti was repeatedly referred to as the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Rarely was it explained why this was so.
The island on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated was inhabited thousands of years ago by the Taino people, a branch of the Arawak, who populated the Caribbean and the eastern coast of South America down to Brazil. These were the people encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. He called the island Hispaniola.
The native population was quickly decimated and eventually extinguished when the civilising Europeans ‘‘discovered’’ it.
The Spaniards began importing African slaves into Hispaniola in the early 16th century.
In 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick divided the island between the Spanish and the French, with France receiving the western third, Haiti. It became the richest French colony in the New World, earning for its colonisers huge profits from sugar and coffee and the labour of the African slaves.
The French enacted the Code Noir, which sanctioned the most brutal treatment of slaves .A memoir from the time described how slaves were hung up with heads downward, drowned in sacks, crucified on planks, buried alive, thrown into boiling cauldrons, or consigned to man-eating dogs.
The French Revolution in 1789 prompted a revolution by the slaves in Haiti, and the French National Assembly abolished slavery. Following an unsuccessful intervention by Napoleon in the early 19th century, Haiti won independence and proclaimed itself a republic on January 1,1804.
In 1825,Charles X of France attempted to reconquer Haiti.
The then president, Jean-Pierre Boyer, agreed to pay the equivalent of €20 billion in today’s money as compensation for the profits lost by the French colonists by the abolition of slavery. Not surprisingly, many Haitians still demand that France repay this ransom.
A succession of coups followed into the 19th century. In 1888,US Marines supported a revolt against the government. The Germans did the same in 1892 and, in 1915, the US invaded and occupied the island until 1934.
The instigation for this occupation arose from a consortium of American investors, assembled by the National City Bank of New York, taking control of Banque Nationale d’Haiti, the country’s only commercial bank.
It and other US banks which had lent money to the Haitian government urged the then US president, Woodrow Wilson, to invade Haiti and take control.
A new constitution was imposed and approved in a plebiscite in which only 5 per cent of the people of Haiti voted.
Forced labour was imposed.
The Haitian economy was opened to American imports.
The law forbidding foreigners from taking control of Haitian companies was repealed. Another regime of gross human rights abuses followed. Franklin Roosevelt ended the occupation in 1934, but the US retained control of Haiti’s external finances until 1947.
A decade later, the Americans engineered the imposition of the Duvalier tyranny on Haiti, as a bulwark against the spread of communism from Cuba. This family dictatorship lasted until 1986.
In December 1990, JeanBertrand Aristide was elected president with 67 per cent of the vote. The Americans covertly supported a coup against him in 1991. In 1994,US President Bill Clinton engineered the return of Aristide on terms that forced him to adopt the neoliberal programme promulgated by the candidate he defeated in 1990, and which the country had rejected.
Aristide was disbarred from standing in the presidential election in 1996, but he won the presidency back in 2000. In 2004, the Americans again engineered his removal, this time arranging for him to be kidnapped and deported to the Central African Republic.
Meanwhile, Haiti was ravaged by corruption and the imposition of economic policies that drove people out of agriculture into the slums of cities where they died in their tens of thousands last Monday, unprotected by the ramshackle hovels in which they were forced to live.
Tens of thousands have gone illegally to the US over the past few decades, to escape the misery of Haitian life. Most formed families and had children; then, in 2008, a move was made to deport some 20,000 of them. The Bush administration deferred deportations following the hurricanes in Haiti that year but, almost as soon Barack Obama came to office a year ago, the deportations were ordered to commence.
The pity of this latest tragedy is that the president of Haiti says thank you, thank you, thank you, to America for all it has done.
5. Donating to the Irish Anti-War Movement
To set-up a standing order with the Irish-Anti War Movement please go to the following link http://www.irishantiwar.org/files/standing-order-form.doc fill in the form and post to the Irish Anti-War Movement P.O. Box 9260 Dublin 1.
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STATEMENT BY PROINSIAS DE ROSSA Labour MEP for Dublin

Monday, January 11, 2010 ‘DEFENDING HOPE IN GAZA’ DE ROSSA
Speaking today at the launch of Frontline's Photographic Exhibition 'Defending Hope in Gaza', a pictorial record of Israel's January 2009 war on Gaza in which more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians including 300 children, were killed, Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa called for an immediate and unconditional end to the two-and-half year Israeli siege of Gaza. He said: "Israel's siege of Gaza, now in its third year, continues to cause death and appalling suffering. The denial of the most basic of human rights, not only the right to a life of dignity but to life itself, is contrary to international law and to the UN Charter. The siege also has the perverse effect of ensuring impunity for breaches of human rights by the Hamas-controlled junta in Gaza. "Ending of the siege of Gaza would transform the living conditions of the 1.5 million men, women and children who are prisoners in their own land, and create the potential for political progress at a time when hope is fast fading for a negotiated two-state solution. "Last December I led an official cross-party delegation of MEPs on a fact-finding visit to Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza; at the last minute we had been denied access to Gaza by the Israeli authorities. In the course of our visit it was clear that Israel’s colonisation of Palestinian territory by settlers in the West bank and Jerusalem, coupled with its siege of Gaza, is breeding despair particularly amongst the young. The moderate leaders we met appealed to us to impress on European Union Member State governments the urgent need to act firmly in support of human rights and the right of Palestinians to their own independent, homeland, alongside Israel. They welcomed the strong 8 December statement by European Union Foreign Ministers (which coincided with out visit) outlining Europe’s support for a Palestinian state and for a halt to the colonisation of the West bank and East Jerusalem, but warned that this statement had to be followed up without delay with actions. "The humanitarian situation in Gaza has not improved over the past twelve months. Only a trickle of the goods necessary for a normal life is being allowed in by Israel, a fact confirmed by Israel’s own monthly statistics. Despite their best efforts, the UN and the other humanitarian and human rights NGOs in Gaza cannot overcome the devastation caused by the War and the destruction of the economy. Only an end to the siege can effectively address that. We cannot continue to do business with Israel as if it was fully in compliance with international law. If Israel were a member of the EU it would be expelled because of its persistent breach of the legal norms, the basic requirements for EU membership. "I would now urge the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael Martin T.D. to follow up his excellent initiative in seeking to access Gaza to see things for himself, which was also blocked by Israel, by unilaterally initiating a series of political and commercial steps in Ireland to exert pressure on Israel to end the siege. "This could include measures that ensure that all imports from Israel are clearly identified as such, and that no goods or food produced in the illegal settlements are allowed into Ireland. "He could also insist that companies tendering for public procurement contracts in Ireland establish that they are not engaged in any way in supporting illegal activity by Israel such as building the notorious and illegal 'Separation Wall', and that they do not have subsidiaries operating in the illegal settlements. "The Minister could also use Ireland’s well-known influence with the White House to encourage the Obama administration to re-engage alongside Europe, in pushing for the restarting of negotiations. He could follow-up these initiatives by encouraging other EU states to do likewise. ENDS Contact Proinsias De Rossa 087-254-4644
www.labour.ie/press EDITORS’ NOTE: The photographic exhibition 'Defending Hope in Gaza' is being launched today (6.30pm) at 'Filmbase', Curved St., Temple Bar, Dublin 2 by Mary Lalor of Frontline, Khalil Shaneen of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Proinsias De Rossa MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council. www.derossa.com www.frontlinedefenders.org