Yesterday, the BBC gave huge prominence to a “suggestion” by the Attorney General of Northern Ireland that there should be no prosecutions of any terrorists pre “Good Friday Agreement” It has been almost universally rejected but the interesting aspect is the enthusiasm the BBC had for this immoral idea – an idea which Irish Republicans think may have legs. Today, the BBC via Panorama tonight, suggests that…gasp …British soldiers killed “unarmed civilians” aka IRA terrorists.
What sickens me most about all this is that the BBC – via our license tax – are helping drive the IRA meme that all sides were as bad as each other and so a general amnesty is the way forward. The sheer immorality of this seems to fly high over BBC heads as they contrive to manipulate public opinion.
I did notice that the latest Proparama programme is entitled: “Britain’s secret terror force.”
Yeh that’s right BBC, use the word “terror” when it refers to a British army unit. There’s no way it could be divisive now, eh?
Yes, and Islam Not BBC (INBBC), in a similar propagandist vein, terms Islamic jihadists mere ‘militants,’ not Islamic terrorists.
Don’t Beeboids show greater fealty to both Islamic jihad, and the IRA than they do to British troops?
A very good point. When I complained regarding the use of “militant” in the Nairobi attacks, I was fobbed off with the BBC style guide:
“The word ‘terrorist’ is not banned, but its use can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding. We should convey to our audience the full consequences of the act by describing what happened. We should use words which specifically describe the perpetrator such as bomber, attacker, gunman, kidnapper, insurgent and militant. We should not adopt other people’s language as our own. Our responsibility is to remain objective and report in ways that enable our audiences to make their own assessments about who is doing what to whom.
The words ‘terror’ and ‘terrorist’ may be used in a non-specific context, or in direct quotes – but it is not for us to label a particular group or specific act as terrorist.”
Double standards, surely?
‘I was fobbed off with the BBC style guide… Double standards, surely?’
Of course, but uniqueness comes with many of its own rewards.
Though, recognising the sheer number of standards now being routinely deployed, I think it has been renamed: The BBC Double Standard Style Guide .
Thus it has been again got about right.
Good spot, RD – cast-iron proof of BBC bias.
The BBC do love the IRA so. They also hate British troops.
They’ve made it clearer than ever today where their sympathies lie through their use of language and left-liberal echo chamber interviewing.
Traitorous scumbags.
Panorama: Britain’s Secret Terror Force
So British soldiers are terrorists…but Palestinian suicide bombers and Hamas are militants?
‘Unarmed civilians’……no, terrorists in civilian clothes….who may or may not have been armed….ala Gibraltar.
Where does the BBC get the information that the MRF killed the people listed in their article……and if they were so obviously murdered by British soldiers why weren’t their deaths brought up before?
The BBC says:
‘The soldiers appeared on Panorama on condition their identities were disguised’
Presumably the photo above that caption is not any of those soldiers then?
Soldiers have been royally stitched up by the BBC….but then what did they expect…foolish to say anything and believe their version wouldn’t be misrepresented by the BBC.
I agree that any soldiers who agreed to be interiewed were foolish, but they were probably told it was their chance to tell their side of the story. What are they going to do now about being misled – they can hardly go public can they?
Many, if not most, Britons willl be quite glad to know we could at times deal effectively with the IRA, and if the programme is correct then maybe if the MRF had been expanded rather than disbanded then thousands of lives could have been saved.
But what’s really going on here is a warning. The warning to those who still hope for justice for the victims of terrorism is that first the authorities will target for investigation the security forces, and only afterwards might the IRA’s murders be investigated. Alternatively, an amnesty can be declared and the terrorist victims willl have to watch the murderers of their friends and relatives go on the book and chat circuit.
Bias shows in even fair reporting when the topics are carefully selected.
Time has come for the bbbc to be split in 2.
The news, Politics shows in all its guises in one pot and the entertainment bunch in the other.
Pot 1 to be privatised.
Pot 2 retained but on a significantly lower Lic. Fee
Picture the Pot 1 lot leaving with their Iron Mountain cardboard boxes or better still black bin bags.
How come the IRA can be offered an amnesty for their atrocities, when the BBC was flying Larkins kite for the murdering scum( BBC?..IRA?…you decide)?
Surely these “crimes” are but mere “allegations” and “apparent”, and happened before Our Mo sorted out Northern Ireland in 1998.
No charges to answer I`d have thought…had it been the IRA doing this(yes, I know it`ll be a stretch to imagine this) I imagine that John Ware and the BBC would rather let boys be boys as it were.
Despicable…does a day go by when they`re not stabbing this country in its back…and increasingly with a smiley face.
BBC = Betraying Britain Continuously
What do you call an IRA terrorist without a gun? Answer: ‘an unarmed civilian’ (Copyright BBC, 2013).
Funny how we’ve yet to hear this given similar one-sided coverage by the BBC:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/sinn-feins-gerry-adams-faces-fresh-allegations-over-ordering-killing-of-jean-mcconville-29722681.html
You do realise those allegations are from a BBC NI programme?? See Pah’s comment.
This is to counter the revelations about Gerry Adams and the ‘Disappeared of Ireland’ perhaps?
Either way the British Army are hardly in the same league as the IRA scumbag-wise. It was not the British, after all, who assassinated a toddler in the back of a car nor blew them up whilst they were shopping with their mums. That takes a special kind of wickedness that only the BBC and their fellow travellers cannot see.
i think this was about feb/march 1990, the first dead body i saw was a fella called Patrick Flanaghan. He was the chief bomb maker for the derry brigade PIRA. He was also a “grass” for the army. Thats why their bombs kept failing to go off. The SAS replaced the detonators so the bombs didnt work (thanks Andy McNab, i owe you my life and a pint if i ever meet you)
Anyway, he was found down a country lane, black bin bag over his head with a bullet hole in it, murdered by PIRA. Thing is, i know who ordered his murder, like everyone else who was there knows who ordered that murder, and hundreds of other murders as well. He’s now the first minister of the NI assembly.
do you think the beeb want to make a documentary about him and all the unarmed people he killed?
fuckin scumbags
He’s now the first minister of the NI assembly.
Peter Robinson was in the PIRA!?!?
Less than a month ago it was the twenty year anniversary of the death of one of my Uncles, John Moyne… He was murdered by `loyalist` terrorists in the Greysteel massacre also known as the Halloween attack due to the masked gunmen shouting `Trick or Treat` before they opened fire with machine guns on the people who were there that night in the Rising Sun Bar… These same convicted killers were released only a few years later as part of the agreement and when released they immediately returned to thier violent ways… They are currently in Prison and serving sentences for various acts of criminality, violence, extortion, and also yet more activities relating to sectarianism… I think that it is not just the Republicans that should be back in Jail, I think that the Loyalists should be back in there as well…..
As for the British soldiers being accused of carrying out killings against civillians during the troubles, well tbh I think its beyond contempt… I`m pretty lucky as I live in England, I was born here to N.Irish Catholic parents and didn`t have to endure the false rhetoric of Sectarian based political leaders who knowingly supported and encouraged the violent acts carried out by these groups…. These same people are now enjoying seats in Storemont and positions within Government….. It`s a disgrace, until all known terrorist sympathisers are removed from N.Irelands administration, there will always be an undercurrent of mistrust and misrepresentation of the people of the Province as a whole….
These so called terror groups were nothing more than evil and callous murderers who used the unrest as a cover for thier criminal enterprises and subjugation of the verey communities they supposedly represented…. Here`s a paragraph describing what happened that night, to me, it is proof that these people did not represent anything except a complete disdain for life itself, whether it was a Catholic or a Protestant they did not give a shit…. Only wanting to make an example of a village pub whose regulars had the audacity to refuse to become involved in Sectarianism and bigotry going on around them…
On the evening of 30 October, the three UDA members, two of whom were wearing blue boiler suits and balaclavas, entered the “Rising Sun Bar” in Greysteel. There were about 70 people inside attending a Halloween party, and so the masked men were not noticed until they produced an AK-47 and a 9 mm pistol, and started shooting into the packed crowd in the lounge area. The leading gunman, Stephen Irwin (who was carrying the AK-47), yelled “trick or treat” as he opened fire. The scene was chaotic as people inside the lounge began to scream in panic, with women pleading for mercy from the gunmen. Six of those killed were Catholic civilians and two were Protestant civilians. None had any known links to political parties or paramilitaries. The killers, laughing, then made their escape in their getaway car—an Opel Kadett driven by Torrens Knight. Afterwards they were said to have boasted about the killings.
I have a genuine respect for those in the armed forces who were sent over to try to keep the peace in N.Ireland, most were young lads, and they were attacked from all sides, they had to do routine patrols knowing that behind every wall, curtain, or burnt out car there could be a sniper waiting to shoot them dead… Also they had to run the gauntlet of hate from teenagers throwing bricks, petrol bombs at them too, knowing that one of those missiles could turn out to be a grenade or a pipe bomb…. If any civillians were killed during the troubles, I believe that it wasn`t thier fault, I believe the blame for such needless deaths was the fault of the so called Sectarian groups and thier political mouthpieces who constantly ensured the violence would see no end….
As for the BBC …. well…. i don`t think that they even have any kind of agenda these days, all they seem to do now is create distractions wherever they can in a vain attempt to obscure the corruption and criminality that seems to be inherrent within every department of the corporation… The BBC only serves its own agenda and fuck knows what that agenda is, tbh I`d rather not know I just want it to end…….
Hi Justin, im sorry for for loss. I know Greysteel well. it was a cowardly attack on a peaceful village bar. The UK government let us all down, Republicans, loyalists, people who didnt care either way, soldiers, policemen, prison officers, by setting all the killers free
Thankyou for your comment @The Beebinator … I made the mistake of reading a news item on the BBC NI site… It was complete bullshit, the way they described Greysteel was an insult to an entire community and bereaved relatives… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24736060
Take a look…. This part especially pissed me off…
“The attack in Greysteel happened a week after the Shankill bombing. It was like many areas the North-West – gripped by fear of reprisal” …. If you know Greysteel then you also know that it was not like that at the time… Especially bearing in mind the fact that The Rising Sun Bar was used by both Catholics and Protestants alike and that it was hardly a hotbed of Sectarian unrest…. You have a read and see how they try to embellish the truth and in doing so obscure the most important details of those who died that night and why it was such an unforgivable atrocity… Later he describes how
” A colleague in Belfast told me to get to the scene as soon as possible as there were reports of multiple deaths. ”
What a wanker the guy who wrote this is…. He writes a false portrayal of the entire scene and presents his fictional account of what happened as though he was there and dodged the bullets himself…. Then tells the readers he was in f00king Belfast and only the possibilty that lots of deaths occured made him journey to the place not that night…. But the next day!!! Cunt!!!
Excellent post. I’m sure most on here would agree that all terrorists; IRA, UDA etc. should be back in prison. Wanton murder is wanton murder whoever commits it.
Whilst there is a ballot box there is no need for an armalite. That is unless, of course, only a few equally despicable people share your aims – then it seems to help.
Blair committed many treasons but his betrayal of the people of NI was the worst.
Mr Vance is a disgusting hypocrite, who now defends murder by the state, and the shooting dead of the injured and unarmed.
Don’t you think that the Attorney General of Northern Ireland’s comments should have been reported? Couldnt they apply to these soldiers as much as IRA members?
I note how you pick up on this programme, still no mention of the Spotlight programme last month about the IRA’s ‘disappeared’?
What I do welcome is that you are finally coming on and saying what you really mean, which is why you continute to be an irrelevance to any political discussion in Northern Ireland. And why so few voted for you when you stood.
Thankfully NI has moved on and you are a dinosaur.
Okay Dave using the same angle as yourself regarding the prosecution of soldiers with regards to deaths in N.Ireland can i just point out that it might be a good idea to first properly prosecute Torrents knight who was at the time of the murders was in the pay of British Intelligence both as an informer on his own `comrades` and also as a hired gun on behalf of the secret service dept. that dealt with N.Ireland at that time… It`s already been proven that huge payments were made to him and his group via bank accounts based in Scotland etc… So let`s stop blaming the British Soldiers and face the facts…. Both sides were culpable and both sides are the root cause of the deaths during the troubles…. The British Army were sent there to attempt to provide stabilty and a buffer between the opposing sides… Most had no clue what they were doing and when they were first deployed they were equipped with obselete armour and tech that had last been used in 1948 when they were pulling out of the Middle East… What you fail to digest is the root cause of all the deaths stem from Sectarianism, bigotry, and the rhetoric of gobshites holding megaphones refusing to take responsibility for any of the violence they caused… Listen mate…. The Geneva Convention doesn`t count in this kind of war…. They only wore those Khakis and berets at the funerals you know… How many times did you see pictures of Martin Macguiness inspecting the barricades on the Bogside wearing his Generals cap with a baton under his armpit??? Those soldiers had to fight fire with fire, next you will be critisizing the Gurkhas for not wearing High Vis clothing when carrying out behind the lines demolitions of Japanese bridges during WW2!!
All the so called terrorists represented themselves only, they had no real political or religious aims… They were nothing more than murderers and scumbags who preyed on the decent majority of the N.Irish populace for financial gain and to create positions of power over thier own communities… Murder, extortion, drugs, blackmail, you name it they all did it….. the soldiers were caught up in a thirty year turf war and were targetted by both sides… I`m all for returning the released terrorists and thier political leaders to Long Kesh or even better giving them a bullet in the back of the skull… But you can`t keep just blaming one side whilst ignoring the others involvment in many of the deaths during those years…..
He can’t be that irrelevant. You post on his blog.
“Thankfully NI has moved on”
Your comment is immediately void. You haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. NI is more entrenched in its sectarian past than South Africa.
I was born, raised and educated and live in NI. I studied Irish history and politics and the history of the conflict.
If you don’t know that NI has changed immeasurably since the Good Friday Agreement, then its you that doesn’t have a clue.
Did you know the MTV Awards were held in Belfast in 2011? or the World Police and Fire Games this year? Just an example.
Surely that would be two examples?
Perhaps you were as gifted in your academic studies as you are at counting ?
Ugh, good one.
If you don’t know that NI has changed immeasurably
He wasn’t saying that it hadn’t changed immeasurably; he was contesting your point that NI has moved on; indeed it has but what he said was that sectarianism is still entrenched there.
Please excuse some of the colourful language i have used on this thread… my only defence is that this particular topic is one which is always on my mind especially when something like this occurs so close to a date so close to a twenty year anniversary of the loss of a family member… i am a firm supporter of secular politics and have no interest in religion, I see the problems of N.Ireland as a psuedo Sectarian dispute which is being used by the scum of irish society to assert control over the majority of decent N.Irish people of which there are many… These groups have been a blight on the people of the six counties for too long.. I have no ill will towards the loyalist community in fact I have just as many friends who are Protestant as i do Catholics… Overall the N.Irish are some of the most decent and generous people around… As I`ve said i am lucky to have an Irish heritage and at the same time the security of living in England which although not as scenic as Co.Derry is a safe place for me to bring up a family… It`s sad fact that people ignore the fact that the IRA were not responsible for the troubles on thier own… People forget that or simply ignore it and start mouthing off about the IRA atrocities, I suppose a lot of it is due to the fact that the IRA were for a very long time the only republican group whereas the loyalists were in more than one group …
Ulster Protestant Volunteers
Ulster Volunteer Force
Red Hand Commando
Young Citizen Volunteers
Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Freedom Fighters
Ulster Young Militants
Ulster Defence Force
Ulster Special Constabulary Association
Down Orange Welfare
Orange Volunteers
Ulster Volunteer Service Corps
Ulster Service Corps
Ulster Resistance
Loyalist Volunteer Force
Orange Volunteers
Red Hand Defenders
Real Ulster Freedom Fighters
As you can see there have been many loyalist paramilitary groups and due to the constant splinter groups the number of deaths they are collectively responsible for is not so easy to calculate… Also these same groups have killed British soldiers too… If they were genuine `soldiers` with pro British values surely they should go help out our brave and unappreciated young men in the Middle East where they are engaged in a war that is far more important than putting on a fooking bowler hat and demanding to be allowed to march up and down the streets banging a drum or twirling a baton like a deranged majorette, it`s infantile and retarded and both sides engage in this kind of activity and devote thier entire lives to signing on and going to the Orange Hall or Catholic Boys Club to pratice playing a fooking flute!!!
Grown men in thier fifties and sixties calling themselves `Apprentice Boys` … all i can say about that is that at thier age surely whatever trade it is they`re apprenticed in is obviously not suited to them. Perhaps if they tried doing something else they might be able to get an actual Job instead of signing on every fortnight… Fuck Sectarians and fuck all the bigots in N.Irish politics theyre nothing but liars, thieves and murderers who have nothing but contempt for those around them..
Its just another opportunity for the BBC to do some British Army bashing. I hate the way they bash the armed forces at every opportunity then go all patriotic on remembrance day and other occasions where the armed forces are either remembered or parade.
Nobody seems to serve their sentence anymore………..Guildford 4, Birmingham 6, whatever, whatever. There’s a school of thought that if you are a member of one of these organisations and agree with these ‘methods’ of getting your point across then just because you didn’t set the timer but were there doesn’t mean you weren’t guilty. However a nice little industry of human rights lawyers, BBC, Guardian and other assorted shitehouses will champion your case.
this is the point I like to make: getting released due to fixed evidence or some other misdemeanor in the the trial doesn’t mean that they were innocent, just the the trial was botched.
Sounds like Dave gets all his life experiences from what he reads on the internet.
I’m not familiar with that school of thought, but I am familiar with the schol of thought that the Birmingham 6’s convictions were declared unsafe and quashed by the Court of Appeal. Ditto for the Guildford 4. There was no evidence any of the Guildford Four were involved with the IRA.
Could that possibly be why they didn’t serve all of their sentences?
see my point above. A botched trial doesn’t prove innocence. They were there for a reason but much as many police have fallen into the same trap of ‘trying too hard’ to get a conviction so ‘making sure’, thereby ironically, causing the opposite of what they intended.
They weren’t released because of a technicality, their ‘trying too hard’ was beating confessions out of their suspects. And without that evidence there was no evidence.
But then I suppose because they were Irish you have them down as guilty.
Only on this website, do people still think the Guildford 4 were guilty, that Hillsborough was caused by Liverpool fans, and that David Vance has ever said anything of any value.
Ah, if you were here for the Hillsborough threads what name were you using? And why can’y you reply to a comment so people know when you replying…or at least mention the name/comment time, luckily here there were no more comments so I can see you’ve replied.
Re Hillsborough, the point of contention is not that the Liverpool fans caused the whole it but that they refuse to accept ANY blame WHATSOEVER for anything, as if they weren’t really there…and when anyone mentions it they immediately jump to say ‘how could those at the front that died’ have caused it?’, bit like shouting racist in any immigration debate to try to stifle comment. Also that the inquiry takes as it’s starting point a time when everything – except the ‘stealing’, late ambulances, police actions on the pitch etc – had already occurred!