Calling on the GOvernment of the United Kingdom to Establish a Public Judicial Inquiry into the Murder of Northern Ireland Defense Attorney Patrick...
CALLING ON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TO ESTABLISH A PUBLIC JUDICIAL INQUIRY INTO THE MURDER OF NORTHERN IRELAND DEFENSE ATTORNEY PATRICK FINUCANE
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Lantos and certainly Chairman SMITH for bringing this resolution to the floor today.
One of the reasons that American foreign policy has triumphed in Ireland has been because this was done in a bipartisanship way, a bipartisanship way, the way American foreign policy formally was conducted. And the success that we have enjoyed in the North of Ireland has largely been indispensable due to the involvement of America, and revisiting these cases, as Mr. Smith has requested and Mr. Lantos has sanctioned, is terribly important.
Think of these murders, cold-blooded murders, shooting down attorneys who were providing a common defense for suspected, suspected, members of the IRA. Never was there ever indication that they were members of the IRA; they were suspected members of the IRA, and they were not entitled to a common defense under the former justice system in the North of Ireland. So, the attorneys are murdered as well as the suspected members of the IRA.
What is notable about this is what occurred last week. Many of us in this Chamber, Members of this House, have been involved in cases dating back to Gibraltar, to Birmingham, and to a series of other cases which we in this House brought forward. It is Members of this body that demanded that the British Government bring these cases to light and be put under the magnifying glass of critical analysis. And now we find that not only was there collusion on the ground, there was collusion at the highest levels of the British Government where the military gave information to paramilitaries on the loyalist side, who then cleared the area so that attorneys could be targeted for assassination. That is how far reaching these murders were.
What is also significant is this: It is because of this Chamber that the IRA and its political ally Sinn Fein had the courage to proceed with not only disarmament but, just as importantly, they decided to join policing. And let me just say this about policing today in the North of Ireland. One section of the community used policing to keep the other section of the community in line. That is what this was about.
And now the faith that has been offered by the Good Friday Agreement, again in a bipartisan sense, has allowed us to proceed and to move forward. And it could not have been done without people like Mr. Smith. And I could go on and on with Members of this Chamber, and Mr. Lantos again offers support to this initiative today.
So it is terribly important. And I want to thank all of you, and Mr. McCord, the chief constable from the North of Ireland will be in my office tomorrow to answer questions from the Members of Congress
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