Letter to Atorney General Chris Koster of Missouri

This morning I got good news and bad news from the Innocence Project.   

 George Allen Jr. was released from a Missouri courthouse earlier this month after serving more than 30 years for a rape and murder that previously undisclosed evidence shows he didn’t commit. Judge Daniel Green overturned Allen’s 1982 rape and murder conviction based on police failure to disclose evidence pointing to his innocence and ordered Allen’s release. St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced that she will not retry Allen for the crime, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a meritless appeal to a state intermediate appeals court, which is only serving to further delay justice for Allen.

Having looked up Chris Koster's website I was pleased to find an  e-mail contact: attorney.general@ago.mo.gov.

My e-mail to him was returned however, unread. So I am hoping that he will now be able to read it here when one of his helpers Googles his name for news.

Letter to Chris Koster

Dear Chris

I read with horror the case of George Allen recently released after 30 years of unjust imprisonment in your State.

It beggars belief that officers used every trick of their trade to get false confessions from this man, false confessions that have now been discredited but which have kept him as a prisoner for all of those years.

What an outrage for any human being to be deprived of his liberty for a crime that he did not commit.

How terrible to think that this human being could have been murdered by the State through the connivance of its officers only for a juror's unexpected and enforced absence rendered the sentence of death impossible on the day.

DNA has been the ace that has has shown up all the false convictions that have taken place throughout the United States over many years on people who were often inadequate poor black or from poorer strata of society.

I am amazed and horrified to learn that, in spite of all the new evidence pointing to a gross miscarriage of justice against George Allen, you, Chris, have decided to appeal the decision to release him and so put him through further torment with the courts.

I appeal to you to reverse this decision.

With best personal wishes

Justin Morahan 
Human rights activist

Netanyahu a War Criminal says Nobel Peace Laureate

Calls for Boycott,Divestment, Sanctions

Summary: In a speech delivered in Belfast on 24 October 2012, Mairead Maguire declared that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Premier, is a war criminal. She also criticised Obama's stance on Israel, and the media's lies; and she called for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel

The following is the full text of her speech


"Hello Everybody, I would like to thank the Irish congress of Trade Unions and all the other organisations for inviting me to speak today and for organising this rally and I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming along today. We heard that the ceasefire has been declared but we know that this is not the end of the siege of Gaza or the occupation of the people of Palestine. We witnessed yet again on our television sets this week inhumanity that we cannot believe is allowed to exist. It was called 'self-defence'. But how can you call self-defence the massacre of women and children in Gaza and the destruction of their infrastructure, this is a war, these are crimes against humanity, we declare that Netanyahu is a war criminal and we can do something about this.

We can ensure that when any of the Israeli leaderships such as, Perez, Netanyahu and their military war executive, try to leave their country and come to any civilized country, we as the people will issue our own indictments of war crimes. We as the people have to stand up for human rights, for international law, for democracy, for a future for our world, because if we don't do this, our world will plunge into war and to destruction and to barbarity and we will not have such a thing as a civil or political or religious liberty or right. We elect politicians to serve the people, to stand up for our right to food, education, safety and security.

Obama's dismal failure

Our politicians are failing us dismally; we have no real political leadership with any moral courage in our world today. We supported Obama when he came in and said 'there is a new way'. President Obama stood in Burma this week and he said: ' There is no excuse for violence against innocent people', what was his message about the violence against the people of Gaza? What has his message been about the violence, occupation,destruction, persecution, apartheid regime against the Palestinian people for the last 60 years? His message was (and the minutes are available from the White house two weeks ago) ' We will uphold Israel’s right to self-defence and anybody who questions that, we will not accept'.

What kind of political leadership is that to our people in the world today? The biggest block to real change is not Israel but the United States of America continually vetoing and supporting the murder of children in Gaza and war against civilians.

What Israel is about

We have to know what Israel is about. Jimmy Carter gave an interview last week, and in this interview Jimmy Carter said the policy of the Israeli government is to confiscate Palestinian land. The policy of the Israeli government is to take more and more Palestinian land, they want a greater Israel and not only do they want a greater Israel, they want the 20% of the Arab people who live within Israel proper to acknowledge Israel as a 'Jewish state'. They want a Jewish state for a Jewish people. When do they think we're living? Do they think we're living in the dark ages? Every person has a right to their statehood. Every person has a right to their freedom, a right to dignity. But it's about the land stupid, it's about the land as Bill Clinton would say, it's about the territory stupid. Let's wake up, this is not about Hamas, this is not about the fact that Israel has no partner for peace. I sat with Yasser Arafat in his little compound before he was killed and he cried out for peace. I sat in Gaza with Hamas in 2008 and they cried out for peace. What was Israel's answer? Israel's answer was war against them, and not only dropping one or two bombs but the policy of the Israeli government, and look it up, is that when they go to war, they do the utmost damage. They don't kill one or two, they destroy a people.

"Sociocide"

There's a new concept available now, it's called 'Sociocide', you know our Philosophers and our Professors, too many of them who sit behind university walls, if it’s not going out to new links with other universities so they can get more money for military experiments. Sociocide means another country destroys a people’s whole ability to live - and this is what’s happening in Gaza. The Gazan people: their identities are being destroyed as Palestinians, their country is being destroyed as Palestine, their children are being killed, their spirit is being dampened, they're being demonised by the Israelis as if they were nothing. Who are the Palestinians? The Israelis created another lie in 1948 when they said they went to 'a land without people', they went to a land that was full of the very best of people, good people, kind people, people who opened their hearts to them coming in, in 1948, people who gave them homes and supported them and what did the Israelis do? What did the Zionists do? In 1948, they cleared over 400 Palestinian villages, putting the people out of their homes. The Palestinians had to flee their land, this was 'The Nakba' of the Palestinian people. It was genocide as important as the genocide of the Holocaust. I've been to Auschwitz, I am not an Anti-Semite. I've been to Auschwitz, I've seen the suffering and in Auschwitz I swore the next time I saw people suffering like this I would not remain silent and we must not remain silent.

We must stand up against Israeli aggression

It is a myth that The Nakba and the ethnic cleansing that went on in 1948 by the Israeli's is over. It's happening today as we stand. The Israelis are clearing villages in the Negev desert so they can take over the very best of Palestinian land. We must up stand up against this. This is not acceptable and we're not powerless. We're not powerless, the people of Northern Ireland, no they're not powerless because we know what it's like for bombings and shootings and killings and fear and division. And we stood up and we said this is not acceptable. So the people of Israel and Palestine together can stop this. They have to do it, because the world leaders are not going to do it. The people have to do it and do it together, because Israeli's too are suffering.

Boycott, Divest, Sanction

We must support the Israeli Peace Activists. They are on a hard road but their message is right. Their message is non-violence, dialogue and solving this problem. It's not who will start this problem; it's who will end it. Boycott all Israeli goods. Boycott Israel and the companies that trade with them. Divest from Israel and the countries that support Israel. We must applaud the Co-op, because the Co-op, one of the first retailers has come out with a very strong Boycott campaign and we send out from this platform our thanks to the Co-op and we implore more and more to follow their example. But, you know, also sanctions, sanctions against the arms that are flowing into Israel. We must say to America, you are breaking your own laws because every day you have 8 million dollars going to support the militarism of Israel. They are being used illegally by Israel and America has to stop this. Europe too has a lot of work, Europe funds Israel, Israel gets more money out of the European kitty - and that's our money - to do military research so it can remain a nuclear weapons country with the fourth biggest army in the world.

We're paying for that, so they use these to destroy a country and destroy the buildings that our tax money built in Gaza. This is not acceptable.

Lies from the Media

I thank you all for coming. We are powerful but the most important thing, our greatest enemy is cowardice, our greatest enemy are those who refuse to speak the truth because of their own fear. Our greatest enemies are people like the BBC and the media who tell lies about what is happening . Where are the media reporting exactly what is happening? We demand, we're paying tax, we're paying our license and we want the truth. Thank you very much for all you’re doing. There's great hope because I have met with the Israeli activists and I have met with the Palestinian people and witnessed their message of non-violence, Palestine has a great non-violence movement, tragically a lot of them are in Israeli prisons. So we together can solve this and help our Palestinian people. We did it in Northern Ireland and we are a model. People said it couldn't be done, we said it will not be done through militarism, arm struggle and violence. It will be done with truth and courage and love and forgiveness and we can do it. That's our message to the Israeli and Palestinian people. You can do it another way.''

Protests over Shannon airport continue

Every second Sunday of the month there is a protest at Shannon airport against the misuse of the airport by US troops and possibly drones on their way to war in Afghanistan.

Usually the group assemble, show their posters and leave after an hour.

On Sunday, 7 September 2012 however, Margaretta Darcy and Niall Farrell of Galway Against the War brought their protest to the runway.  It was the eleventh anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan

Shannonwatch tells the full story with video by Tommy D.



In May 2012 at the Shannon protest I was detained along with Edward Horgan and John Maguire and put in the back of a Garda van.  Below is Shannonwatch's account:

Here is Shannonwatch's account with pictures:

Mon, 14/05/2012 - 00:24 by shannonwatch  

Prisoners at Shannon Airport - Edward Horgan and Justin Morahan in a Garda van following their detention for displaying a banner saying "US Troops Out of Shannon"

John Maguire detainee at Shannon for carrying a flag with the word "PEACE"

Three peace activists were detained by Gardai at Shannon Airport today for displaying signs saying "Peace" and "US Troops Out Of Shannon". After being removed from the airport they joined the regular second Sunday of the month vigil which took place from 2pm to 3pm outside the

Full Text of Julian Assange's Balcony Address

Here is the full text of the now famous address from the Balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

"I am here today because I cannot be there with you today, but thank you for coming. Thank you for your resolve, your generosity of spirit.

On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy, and police descended on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the world’s eyes with you.
Inside the embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape. But I knew that there would be witnesses and that is because of you.

If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Convention the other night, it is because the world was watching and the world was watching because you were watching.

So, the next time somebody tells you that it's pointless to defend those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the embassy of Ecuador.
Remind them how in the morning the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.

And so, to those brave people, I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and in granting me political asylum. And I also thank the government, and in particular Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, who  upheld the Ecuadorian Constitution and its notion of universal citizenship in their consideration of my asylum.


And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and defending this Constitution.

And I also have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this Embassy, whose families live in London, and who have been showing me hospitality and kindness despite the threats we all receive.

This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in Washington, DC, to address this very situation. And so I am grateful to those people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and to all other Latin American countries who have come out to defend the right to asylum.

To the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia, who have supported me in strength, even when their governments have not,  and to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting for justice: Your day will come.

To the staff, supporters and sources of WikiLeaks, whose courage and commitment and loyalty has seen no equal.

To my family and to my children, who have been denied their father. Forgive me. We will be reunited soon.

As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression, and the health of our societies. We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

Will it return to and reaffirm the values - the revolutionary values - it was founded on?   Or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world, in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?

I say it must turn back.

I ask President Obama to do the right thing.

The United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks.

The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation.

The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters.

The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.

There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organization, be it WikiLeaks or be it the New York Times.

The US administration’s war on whistleblowers must end.

Thomas Drake, and William Binney, and John Kiriakou and the other heroic US whistleblowers must — they must be pardoned and compensated for the hardships they’ve endured as servants of the public record.

And the Army Private who remains in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, who was found by the United Nations to have endured months of torturous detention in Quantico, Virginia, and who has yet — after two years in prison — to see a trial—he must be released. Bradley Manning must be released. If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and an example to all of us and one of the world’s foremost political prisoners. Bradley Manning must be released.
On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815^th day of detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days.

On Thursday, my friend, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, was sentenced to 3 years for a tweet.

On Friday, a Russian band was sentenced to 2 years in jail for a political performance.

There is unity in the oppression.

There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.

Thank you."

Mairead Maguire calls for the release of Marian Price

international | rights and freedoms | news report Monday August 13, 2012 23:51 by Justin Morahan

Nobel Laureate sends strong letter to Secretary of State Paterson

(Summary: Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire states in an open letter to Owen Paterson, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland that Marian Price is seriously ill and on these ground and the grounds of justice she should be released immediately from her illegal imprisonment.)

The following is an OPEN LETTER from Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire to British Secreatary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Owen Paterson:

Dear Mr.Paterson,

CALL FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON HEALTH, HUMANITARIAN, AND JUSTICE GROUNDS OF MARIAN PRICE.

I write to you regarding the continued immoral and illegal internment of Marian Price. As you are well aware Marian has spent over fourteen months, in prison, twelve of which were spent in forced isolation, and she is at present seriously ill and held under armed guard in an isolated hospital ward.

This treatment is cruel and inhumane and amounts to torture as the words of the UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez on torture states: “indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement in excess of 15 days should be subject to an absolute prohibition”.

The illegal detention of Marian Price for political offences committed nearly forty years ago, and for which she was pardoned, is a serious violation of her human rights, a blank disregard for due process and a violation of our ‘the Good Friday Agreement’.

Unanimous medical opinions confirm Marian Price is unable to participate in any legal Proceedings due to her rapidly deteriorating health and as this is the case, and also in the interests of truth and justice, I write to request that this seriously ill women be released immediately to her family.

Yours sincerely,

Mairead Maguire
13th August, 2012