"Seán Garland from Co Meath is somebody
else who is trying to cope with the consequences and inventions of the Bush administration's terrorism policy. On 21 November
last year, a few weeks after the American people had voted overwhelmingly for Obama, Bush's secretary
of state Condoleezza Rice personally signed an extradition request for 75-year-old Garland, whom the US believes is involved
in a major counterfeiting operation involving North Korea and the Russia mafia. The evidence against Garland is practically
non-existent and the extradition request is expressed in such general terms as to be meaningless. Garland appeared before
the High Court last month; a full hearing of his case is scheduled to be heard in July.
Garland has a colourful past. A former member
of the IRA, he led the 1957 attack on Brookeborough barracks in which Seán South and Feargal O'Hanlon, subsequently feted
in song, were killed. He later attempted to lead the IRA away from violence and towards left-wing politics, although
he was unsuccessful in both quests. The INLA tried to kill him in 1975. At 75, he is suffering from several serious illnesses
including diabetes and angina. He has also developed bowel and prostate cancer. Former FF senator Eddie Bohan believes Garland
would not last two months in a US jail.
A campaign to oppose Garland's extradition
was launched last week and is supported by a wide and lively cross-section of political figures – from Sinn Féin's Gerry
Adams to Ulster Unionist Chris McGimpsey; from Fianna Fáil's Chris Andrews to Labour's Joanna Tuffy – as well as writers,
actors and barristers. "It is not necessary to hold the same political worldview as another person to recognise them as a
person of integrity," said Chris Hudson, founder of the Peace Train movement in the 1980s. As Garland and the US were part
of the "tapestry of the peace process", he argued, it would serve no purpose to extradite him.
Others oppose the extradition because they
don't believe there is any evidence against Garland; others because of Garland's age and ill-health. Perhaps the best reason
is that the extradition warrant is a hangover from the Bush administration, with all that means in terms of unreliable intelligence,
lack of evidence and outright dishonesty.
Hopefully, the High Court will feel
the same".
You can read the full transcript of the article on the Sunday Tribune website at: http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/jun/21/diarmuid-doyle-much-of-obamas-first-five-months-in/?q=Obama
