Sunday Independent trying to decide Shell spin

by John Donovan - ShellNews.net Sun Jul 17, 2005 09:51 john at shell2004 dot com 847a Second Avenue, New York NY 10017 USA UK: 01206 501782

So how can the protestors in Ireland expect to be treated by Shell in the current Corrib pipeline troubles? Imprisonment of protestors and mass public protests have already occurred. Will Shell be honest and open in line with its code of business ethics, or ruthless and underhand in the ongoing litigation? We can speak with some authority on the matter having had a few battles with Shell ourselves.

Please read the relevant ShellNews.net article by clicking on the link provided.

by eeekkkkk Sun Jul 17, 2005 12:02

Five have had their say

Having initially won popular sympathy over their willingness to go to prison for their principles, the so-called Rossport Five now threaten to alienate public opinion over their apparent determination to stay there. It has not been a good week for the Mayo men, jailed for refusing to obey a court order that allows Shell to run a gas pipeline from the offshore Corrib field past their homes in Rossport. The obstinate rejection by the protesters of a conciliatory initiative by Noel Dempsey, the minister for communications, marine and natural resources, suggests that they are more interested in confrontation than compromise.

Placed in an invidious position by the dispute, Mr Dempsey’s efforts to break the deadlock are commendable. Shell’s Corrib gas project has, after all, been approved by an exhaustive planning process. The majority of Rossport residents are happy to permit the laying of pipes on their land, in return for payment. But scare-mongering by a small anti-gas group has raised unnecessary fears about the pipeline’s safety, which the company and several independent engineering observers insist are misplaced. Mr Dempsey’s proposals include a further safety review of the onshore pipeline conducted by international experts.

Strangely, these clear concessions were greeted with a hardening of position by the jailed protesters. Their original requests for safety assurances have given way to extravagant demands that Shell be forced to build an offshore terminal to carry out gas processing.

Ironically, the focus on the Rossport Five deflects attention from more serious issues surrounding gas-drilling in Irish waters, such as the allocation by government of exploration licences with little or no benefit to the state. The jailed men would better serve themselves, their families, their community and indeed their country if they climbed off their high horses, and accepted the compromise offered by Mr Dempsey as an honourable means of regaining their freedom. Their fate is in their own hands.

by eeekkkkk Sun Jul 17, 2005 12:18

The one that Works is here:

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1433542&issue_id=12743

Gotta love those senior garda sources and shell management sources

by Anthony Sun Jul 17, 2005 13:04

Another fine piece of writing from the Sunday Independent ignoring reality and misrepresenting the situation in the 6 counties. The text is copied and pasted as you need to be registered to read the article.

Softened up for another IRA fudge

WE'RE being insidiously softened up by some politicians (notably, the Taoiseach) and media people to accept a forthcoming IRA statement that will probably be full of the usual fudge and will stop well short of announcing disbandment.

After giving Sinn Fein/IRA the cold shoulder last January, Bertie Ahern has been nice to them ever since, talking to Gerry Adams in Washington in St Patrick's week, when the SF leader was being otherwise shunned.

Ah well, muses Bertie out loud, we can't exclude people. So, he's been having 'private' (not secret, mind you!) meetings with republicans in recent months, including one last Friday with Adams.

After his talks with Ian Paisley in June, Bertie was at his fudgiest: "I have never used the word 'disband' because I think moving to a commemorative organisation is not disbandment but disbanding away from criminality or paramilitarism."

The Taoiseach had "no difficulty" with "old boys' parades", ie. an illegal organisation celebrating a bloody civil and sectarian war.

And Bertie has no problem with the inordinate length of time the IRA are taking with their deliberations. He respectfully approves of the notion of members of a criminal conspiracy meeting throughout his jurisdiction for months on end. You'd swear they were a reputable debating society.

Government sources (ie. Bertie and co.) were annoyed that Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has been sceptical of IRA intentions, describing his attitude as "unhelpful" - that is, don't upset the delicate sensibilities of the peace processors.

Another well-worn IRA ploy is that if you push the organisation too far, such as insist they disband, you will create splits and therefore more dissident groups.

Fr Alex Reid, SF's favourite peace-maker, has been pushing this old chestnut of late and, astonishingly, Bertie has gone along with it. This is further calculated to encourage IRA ambivalence.

With one eye, perhaps, to a future FF/SF coalition, Bertie continues to play into the hands of Provo propagandists. Having expressed tender concern for the reimprisoned IRA terrorist Sean Kelly, he praised the "calming" work of SF leaders during the Ardoyne riots last Tuesday night, taking them at their own valuation as heroic social activists.

Bertie also regretted the "premature" PSNI plastic rounds response! In fact, SF's hostility to the PSNI is a key reason for street unrest and political instability.

Recently some media commentators have been conditioning us to accept as "ground-breaking" and "historic" an IRA statement that is likely to be anything but.

Last Monday, Irish Examiner political editor Harry Magee pre-empted the statement when he asserted: "Only the most craven(?) anti-republican would deny that the statement, when it comes, will be historic."

On the same day, the Irish Times referred to a possible "new mode" for the IRA. What mode can there be for illegal militants except to pack up, get out and feel grateful they're not in jail?

Be warned. Have your bullshit detector to hand when the IRA statement appears. And Michael McDowell, the watchdog-in-chief of FF appeasement, had better not be on holidays.

by eeekkkk Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:10

Sources: "The Shell company also revealed", "the Shell statement said", "The company said it.."

and that's it!

by m. m. mccarron - osi Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:30

Spot the Smear
The Sunday Indendent and the Sunday Times
Scaremongering and large articles filled the pages this weekend.
The notion that Rossport needs any unique and unusual help to make the justice of their cause clear is faracical.
Rossport has proved the point of people power exercised by walking, sitting, standing or looking out from behind glass screens.
The power is now cynically there behind the glass screens and no longer for the present in the State and in Shell.

by divided we fall Mon Jul 18, 2005 12:11

But the Sinners are ok:

Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris Letter to Irish Times on SF and Rossport Campaign
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70844#comment114631

'Sinn Féin is fully supportive of the Rossport protesters and is part of a broadly based campaign which involves the families of the Rossport men, the local community there, environmentalists, anti-globalisation activists, socialists, anarchists and many people who are simply outraged at what lies behind the protest.'

by Campaigner Mon Jul 18, 2005 13:31

Who Pays the Piper?

On a side note this issue totally demonstrates the importance of the independence of Indymedia.

Tony O’Reilly, owner of the Belfast Telegraph, the London and Dublin Independents, the Sunday Independent (Ireland), the Independent on Sunday (England), the Sunday World, The Star, The Evening Herald, some of the Sunday Tribune, various local weeklies including The Kerryman and the Drogheda Independent, as well as other media internationally, also owns Providence Resources.

Providence Resources are an oil and gas exploration company with interests in potential fields off the south and west coasts of Ireland.

There is the possibility that what is happening in Erris, Mayo, will only be the first instance of corporations cutting corners at the expense of the environment and local communities as they exploit the potential oil and gas reserves off the coast, particularly the west coast, of Ireland.

by Barry Mon Jul 18, 2005 21:38

Irish people do not own their country in any way shape or form . British and US interests control our nations destiny . They have stolen the future happiness and prosperity of generations of Irish people in this massive theft . Ireland clearly has no sovereignty . At every step of the way the state has bent over backwards to facilitate the theft of OUR money , our resources and our future . Any notion of Independence here is a sham . The free state was created in the first place to serve the interests of British and foreign capital , not to serve the Irish people .

The Irish constitution which supposedly declared our ownership to these resources was set aside without a whimper to facilitate capitalists . Our political system was put at their disposal to aquire the territory , titles and land they wanted . Our judicial system was used to imprison and co-erce those Irish citizens brave enough to stand in Shells , and ultimately the British establishments way . Tell us what notion of sovereignty remains in the 26 cos ? In whose interests is Ireland run ? Not in our interest thats for fuckin sure .

The British and US establishments demand we drop our claim to territorial integrity in articles 2 & 3 and Irelands politicians do as they were bid enthusiastically . They demand Ireland drops its claim to the nations resources of our coast and we roll over even quicker . Whats left of this country ? An empty SHELL !

The scale of this theft , the sheer naked insult of it is beyond belief . Theres no sense just laying the blame at the door of Ray Burke or Lowry . Its the 26 co state along with its ultimate British / US masters which are to blame .

Anyone with a relative lying on a trolley for days , who cant get adequate or dignified medical care must be outraged that the money which can pay for it is going into thieves pockets . How many of our schools are overcrowded rat infested and unsanitary ? How many of our inner cities and housing estates are without basic services and dignity because of the lack of resources . How many homeless , how many drug addicts dying because of no treatment ?

While Margaret Thatcher was busy arming northern loyalists to the teeth in the mid 80s her husband Denis and his company was busy negotitaing the deal which abandoned all Irish rights to their own countrys resources . Neither of these people wanted to see a socialist republic here . Britain and the US have apparently known for decades about the resources off our coast while we remained in ignorance . Only now this country has been stabilised through a peace deal they sponsored and basically wrote themselves do they make their move to rob our nation blind .

And it was amazingly easy to do . We are not a united nation . Our establishment is terrified at the very notion of our people uniting in their own interests . We are not a nation that will ever stand up for itself and its people while we give allegiance to states , north and South which were never created to act in our interests . We never created either political system on this island . Britain and now latterly the US did . And now their companies steal the very resources which could put this nation firmly on its feet well into the forseeable future . These resources could cure many of our ills and unite all our people if used wisely and in their interests .

While I dont believe one word of the bullshit being spun in O'Reillys rags I honestly believe that Shell , its executives and employees should be hanging from the few trees left in Mayo or at the very least pitchforked out of this nation for good .

Absolutely nowhere in the world have native people ever been able to wrest back control of their resources from these types of robbers in a peaceful manner . The majority of Irish people will ultimately bow to the very state system and interests which facilitated the theft of their childrens future in the first place . We will respect their laws while they laugh at them, and us and all the way to the bank . Anywhere else in the world theft on this massive scale would result in widespread disorder and revolution in the streets . But we will stay robbed , divided occupied and weak for all eternity .The clowns of Europe