Oil And Terrorism Don't Mix

You don’t have to be a chemist to realise that a solution of oil and terrorism doesn’t mix. But politicians are would-be alchemists and in their eyes the two are intertwined, particularly when the goal is vast financial gain.

I don’t know about you but I have watched the whole saga of the Lockerbie Bomber’s release and the subsequent series of revelations totally aghast yet knowing that I should not be surprised. The whole genre of the current Government has been based on spin, deception, double dealing, incompetence, cronyism and sleaze and yet we still seem to accept it all well within our stride. In fact, it some ways it would still not surprise me much if Gordon Brown not only survives his own leadership battle but actually wins the next election – it is that perverse.

You see, we could have all bet our shirts that there was some sort of deal involved in letting a mass murderer go that involved oil and money. It is just so unpleasant how people try to lie about it, try to make it sound as if it is good for us all and that everyone was acting in a straightforward way.

But what came as a huge surprise to me, given the appalling history we have with Libya – the Yvonne Fletcher shooting, the Lockerbie Bomb, the IRA semtex and training grounds - is that Libya has been so welcomed back into the international mainstream and the speed at which the reconciliation has occurred, let alone its totality. For any minister to think that the public would swallow Gadaffi’s new bonhomie as being a good reason to forgive the nation for the atrocities we have all been told they perpetrated enough to show a jot of compassion - dead, alive or nearly dead - to a man who was convicted of blowing 270 innocent people out of the sky and onto the rooftops of Lockerbie is verging on the insane.

But Straw, Brown, Milliband and, no doubt, Mandelson seem to think that ‘All is fair in love and terrorism’.

Now we have the equal farce of the pursuit of compensation for the victims of IRA bombs which contained Libyan semtex. I had to admit, I had no idea that such compensation was being asked for and I was a little surprised. Not least, such claims cannot be viewed in isolation. I mean if IRA victims are to be compensated by rogue states who sell raw materials willingly, then where does it stop? Do Loyalist victims have similar claims? Moreover, do suppliers of money like the US, where Noraid was the front for the influx of considerable sums of money to purchase such weapons for the IRA, also have to be stood up and be counted? The question then extends to what people would like to think is the ‘ethical weapons trade’. Should we pursue all those manufacturers of weapons who allow their products to end up in the hands of terrorists and insurgents? I don’t know.

What I do know is that we have the idiotic sight of Gordon Brown openly telling relatives of the victims of IRA bombs that it was not in our interests to pursue claims for compensation from Libya in one sentence, then to say that he actually did support it in another and now for him to say support, yes, but directly against Libya, no. And then he has the complete chin to say that there are no background deals going on – maybe he is right, perhaps it is so obvious that there are deals but that he can deny that they are background or underhand as they are real and right in our faces.

I have been disillusioned with this Government for a long while and never, ever trusted them on an economic policy that I knew was flawed although even in my wildest nightmares could I have even guessed what havoc and cost it would cause. But while I am pro-free trade, I have a strong social conscience and it’s why, I think, a lot of people got sucked in by Tony Blair and his spin-merchants. The messages appealed to our sense of personal wealth status while answering our concerns on the social things around us. While the dream seemed real, the reality has been the opposite and pretty hurtful for a great deal of people. There has always been a lack of trust of the integrity of several individuals in the Government, not least Blair himself. But the one guy we all thought was too straight, sombre, cerebral and downright boring to be crooked was Gordon Brown. Full of his own economic importance, and incompetent at that, yes - crooked, no.

Well the whole affair over the Lockerbie Bomber and the subsequent shenanigans has changed all that. Brown is just as crooked as the rest of his sleazy ministers and he finally has proved that the Government is absolutely morally bankrupt.

Deja Vu

I am old enough to remember the old ways and days. The 'Troubles' as only the Irish can euphemistic call them, were the terrible period of 30 or so years from the 1960s in which over 3,600 people lost their lives both in Northern Ireland and on mainland Britain. It was an awful period of history for which no side can feel proud.

Mercifully, this came to an end. Through the germ on an idea from John Major and seen through to conclusion under Tony Blair with the help of the USA, it seemed we all finally learned that fighting force with force was never, ever going to solve the problem. For every IRA volunteer who was arrested or killed, there were several others waiting to take their place - the prospect of martyrdom is always a glorious motivator for such people and their Cause.

What we suddenly got to grips with was the concept that if you can take way the reason to fight, then the fighting eventually stops. This took a lot of courage by a lot of people but it ultimately resulted in Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, and Rev. Ian Paisley, ultra hard Loyalist, to share a stand, laughing and joking as if they had been pals all their lives.

At the height of the Troubles such as sight would have been no more likely than putting men on Mars.

New Beginnings

It is a shock, then, after more than 10 years of peace, that the killings have started again. Part of the Good Friday deal was complete disarmament by the terrorists or putting their arms beyond use. In the complex world that is terrorism, the consent was given but never fully achieved and more importantly, not every splintered faction of the terrorists were fully bought in. But it was enough to obtain a peace. It is part of the modus operandi of such people that they sleep with their guns close at hand in case things are not going the way they want - to some extent this is the risk of dealing with such people as compromise is so hard for them to stomach.

The likes of McGuinness and Gerry Adams, part of the Sinn Fein team that brokered the peace, have condemned the recent killings and have said 'those dark days are behind us'. I applaud that although they really seem to think that the prospect of the Army occupying Northern Ireland, more checkpoints and restrictions on people are the unfriendly alternatives - they were very careful not to say that the Cause was no more.

They also, despite being serving Members of Parliament, have never taken their seats in the House of Commons - old Causes die very hard even for Peacemakers.

Peace Is The Victory

In all those terrible years, the common factor that fuelled the violence was that all sides were convinced that for every atrocity, a more violent response was the only answer. The belief was that guns, bullets and bombs was the only language that anybody spoke and understood. In such a strategy, there can never be a winner, as each last bullet must be followed by another to prove the point. Only until every last family ever touched by the Troubles was eliminated could there be no others willing to take up the fight, would be the ultimate and stupid logic.

So much of what we saw was abetted by the flow of funds through Noraid in the USA as Irish Americans seemed to think it was fashionable and wise to support the people of their roots in their oppression and history gave them a sound case to do so. The expanse of the Atlantic allowed them to keep the horror that is terrorism and its outcomes at arms length and out of sight.

That changed forever when terrorism came to the USA in the most devastating way on 9/11 2001. At first hand, the Firefighters, who had held an annual lunch which Gerry Adams always attended to keep the money flowing, were faced with the evil and total disregard for life that is terrorism.

I hope one thing - that in this first show of violence in the name of the Cause for over 10 years, that all sides show the defiance that enabled Peace to be the one Victor in Northern Ireland, and to expunge these evil people from society by everyone turning their backs on them and denying them their Cause.

Peace is the only thing that is ever worth fighting for.