On This Day 1972: Bloody Sunday, Derry, N. Ireland
Joe Quinn | 31.01.2007 01:29 | History | Repression | Terror War
A civil rights rights march by 15,000 Irish Catholics in the city of Derry was attacked by members of the British paratroop regiment. Under direct orders to "get some kills", the British soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing thirteen including six children. Five of the dead had been shot in the back. One demonstrator was shot twice in the back as he lay wounded on the ground. Another was shot at close range in the face. There was also evidence to suggest that some soldiers had used modified "dum dum" bullets that create a larger wound with greater blood loss and trauma.
British Justice. Bloody Sunday, Derry, Jan 1972. That was then.
US, Israeli and British Justice. Baghdad, Iraq, Jan 2007. This is now.
All the dead were unarmed members of the civilian community.
In the aftermath, the British government and military attempted to cover up the murders, including the planting of nail bombs on the bodies of the dead in an attempt to criminalize them.
After the initial British government Widgery inquiry in 1972 cynically concluded that the soldiers had been fired on first despite the lack of supporting evidence, 26 years passed before a second "independent judicial inquiry" into the massacre was announced by Blair in 1998 - the Saville inquiry. The final report is still pending, sometime in 2007 at the earliest according to the official web site. When released, it is fully expected to conclude that which has been generally and publicly known for decades - that British paratroopers deliberately fired on and killed 13 innocent Catholic civil rights demonstrators in Derry in January 1972.
The reasons for such an apparent 'break down in discipline' among some of the best trained soldiers in the British army, however, will be left suitably vague, and it is in this respect that the Saville Inquiry will be just another whitewash, if significantly more sophisticated than its predecessor. The final report will engage in what is known as a 'limited hang out' - a partial revealing of truth disguised as full disclosure or as full a disclosure of the truth as is "humanly" possible.
Basically, the "what" and the "who" of Bloody Sunday will be answered, and the all-important question of "why" deemed beyond the scope or capability of the inquiry to answer. After all, who knows what led those crack troops to recklessly fire on innocent civilians? Was it fear? Anger? The stress, or even the exhilaration, of the moment? Ultimately, each must decide for him/herself, we will be told, and British officialdom will close the book and record that, in the final analysis, Bloody Sunday was the result of a convergence of unique circumstances that can only be understood in the context of the prevailing conditions of that day. In short, it is just "one of those things that happens." The ultimate Truth - that "in politics, nothing happens by accident, if it happens it was planned that way" - will be conveniently ignored.
Soldiers, particularly "elite" soldiers like members of the British paratroop regiment and the SAS, carry out orders to the letter - they are trained to do so, not to think or act on their own initiative. They receive their orders from their superior officers, who in turn receive orders from "civil servants" and policy makers in government. In cases of state-sponsored murder of civilians however, this well-known line of command is ignored as a potential trail leading back to those ultimately responsible in favor of the "heat of the moment" explanation. In short, the foot-soldiers, the impressionable and the gullible, those who believe the patriotic nonsense that they are fed in "training", are scapegoated, though rarely prosecuted.
Like so many similar events before it, Bloody Sunday had the potential to literally change the world: to open the eyes of normal human beings to the truth about the nature of certain individuals that we have come to call our leaders. Sadly, that potential is unlikely to ever be realised, chiefly due to the fact that the same 'leaders' control the extent and nature of the information that reaches the public mind.
The masses of normal humanity therefore find themselves caught in a trap of their own design. Imprisoned by their own refusal to believe, against all evidence, that their political leaders would ever consciously do anything to harm them, they thus provide these same leaders with unlimited scope to pursue their criminal and duplicitous agenda.
Song: Bloody Sunday - by Cruachan
Remember well the 30th of January,
The feeling of dread that was in the air.
The people marched for their right to equality,
They only wanted to be treated fair.
Shots were fired by a mindless military,
The people ran they were unarmed
Across the world we will read of Derry
And those who died by oppressive hands.
13 people lost their lives that Sunday,
Women, children and innocent men.
Many wounded lay crying in agony,
The knights of Malta attended them.
And so began the government cover up.
And so began the lies and deceit.
Soldiers statement would be changed and torn up,
No reports would come from men on the street.
As the years went by the people began to talk,
The hidden crimes were now being told.
Innocent protestors - shot in back,
Left to die in the winter cold.
The bullets used had all been tampered,
Maximum injury would come from them.
This tyranny will not go un-noticed,
Our day will come again.
In the aftermath, the British government and military attempted to cover up the murders, including the planting of nail bombs on the bodies of the dead in an attempt to criminalize them.
After the initial British government Widgery inquiry in 1972 cynically concluded that the soldiers had been fired on first despite the lack of supporting evidence, 26 years passed before a second "independent judicial inquiry" into the massacre was announced by Blair in 1998 - the Saville inquiry. The final report is still pending, sometime in 2007 at the earliest according to the official web site. When released, it is fully expected to conclude that which has been generally and publicly known for decades - that British paratroopers deliberately fired on and killed 13 innocent Catholic civil rights demonstrators in Derry in January 1972.
The reasons for such an apparent 'break down in discipline' among some of the best trained soldiers in the British army, however, will be left suitably vague, and it is in this respect that the Saville Inquiry will be just another whitewash, if significantly more sophisticated than its predecessor. The final report will engage in what is known as a 'limited hang out' - a partial revealing of truth disguised as full disclosure or as full a disclosure of the truth as is "humanly" possible.
Basically, the "what" and the "who" of Bloody Sunday will be answered, and the all-important question of "why" deemed beyond the scope or capability of the inquiry to answer. After all, who knows what led those crack troops to recklessly fire on innocent civilians? Was it fear? Anger? The stress, or even the exhilaration, of the moment? Ultimately, each must decide for him/herself, we will be told, and British officialdom will close the book and record that, in the final analysis, Bloody Sunday was the result of a convergence of unique circumstances that can only be understood in the context of the prevailing conditions of that day. In short, it is just "one of those things that happens." The ultimate Truth - that "in politics, nothing happens by accident, if it happens it was planned that way" - will be conveniently ignored.
Soldiers, particularly "elite" soldiers like members of the British paratroop regiment and the SAS, carry out orders to the letter - they are trained to do so, not to think or act on their own initiative. They receive their orders from their superior officers, who in turn receive orders from "civil servants" and policy makers in government. In cases of state-sponsored murder of civilians however, this well-known line of command is ignored as a potential trail leading back to those ultimately responsible in favor of the "heat of the moment" explanation. In short, the foot-soldiers, the impressionable and the gullible, those who believe the patriotic nonsense that they are fed in "training", are scapegoated, though rarely prosecuted.
Like so many similar events before it, Bloody Sunday had the potential to literally change the world: to open the eyes of normal human beings to the truth about the nature of certain individuals that we have come to call our leaders. Sadly, that potential is unlikely to ever be realised, chiefly due to the fact that the same 'leaders' control the extent and nature of the information that reaches the public mind.
The masses of normal humanity therefore find themselves caught in a trap of their own design. Imprisoned by their own refusal to believe, against all evidence, that their political leaders would ever consciously do anything to harm them, they thus provide these same leaders with unlimited scope to pursue their criminal and duplicitous agenda.
Song: Bloody Sunday - by Cruachan
Remember well the 30th of January,
The feeling of dread that was in the air.
The people marched for their right to equality,
They only wanted to be treated fair.
Shots were fired by a mindless military,
The people ran they were unarmed
Across the world we will read of Derry
And those who died by oppressive hands.
13 people lost their lives that Sunday,
Women, children and innocent men.
Many wounded lay crying in agony,
The knights of Malta attended them.
And so began the government cover up.
And so began the lies and deceit.
Soldiers statement would be changed and torn up,
No reports would come from men on the street.
As the years went by the people began to talk,
The hidden crimes were now being told.
Innocent protestors - shot in back,
Left to die in the winter cold.
The bullets used had all been tampered,
Maximum injury would come from them.
This tyranny will not go un-noticed,
Our day will come again.
Joe Quinn
Homepage:
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/
Additions
Ordered by the Cabinet
01.02.2007 04:23
In the weeks leading up to the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry, on January 30, 1972, in which the Paratroop Regiment killed 13 people taking part in a civil rights demonstration, JB was informed by his handlers that the British army had been ordered by the Cabinet "to use whatever force and tactics necessary to put these troublemakers down". JB "concludes there were plans for mass murder to be committed that day The Bloody Sunday massacre was sanctioned by the government and top military chiefs." JB is sure that there was a preconceived plan to open fire on the civil rights demonstrators, with the full knowledge this would cause civilian deaths. He believes military intelligence thought this would shake the IRA. Instead, the massacre was a huge boost to IRA support and recruitment.
The day before Bloody Sunday, JB was taken for a training session at Palace Barracks, where he was given a pep-talk by a major who praised him for "having the courage and loyalty to participate in covert actions against the common enemy". The major told JB: "We are hoping to provoke a confrontation with the IRA in Derry, and give them an example of what to expect in future attacks." JB was then offered the chance, he claims, to accompany his military handler, Mike, to Derry to watch the operation to contain the demonstration. Military intelligence sources today say events such as this would help forge a bond, or esprit de corps, between agent and handler.
JB was provided with a British army uniform, a gas mask, camouflage face-paint and a rifle as cover for the time he would spend in Derry with his handler. During the events, JB watched from a military intelligence observation post as soldiers opened fire on civilians. He also claims to have seen members of military intelligence shooting at, and hitting, unarmed civilians from the gun nest in the observation post.
The day before Bloody Sunday, JB was taken for a training session at Palace Barracks, where he was given a pep-talk by a major who praised him for "having the courage and loyalty to participate in covert actions against the common enemy". The major told JB: "We are hoping to provoke a confrontation with the IRA in Derry, and give them an example of what to expect in future attacks." JB was then offered the chance, he claims, to accompany his military handler, Mike, to Derry to watch the operation to contain the demonstration. Military intelligence sources today say events such as this would help forge a bond, or esprit de corps, between agent and handler.
JB was provided with a British army uniform, a gas mask, camouflage face-paint and a rifle as cover for the time he would spend in Derry with his handler. During the events, JB watched from a military intelligence observation post as soldiers opened fire on civilians. He also claims to have seen members of military intelligence shooting at, and hitting, unarmed civilians from the gun nest in the observation post.
dp
Homepage:
http://www.sundayherald.com/analysis/analysis/display.var.1152814.0.0.php
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