A Great American Patriot Dies – Former US Ambassador to El Salvador Robert White died at age 88 on Jan. 13 after a lifetime of loyal, principled service to the truth and to his country. The Massachusetts-born White served in the Navy in the Pacific in World War II and joined the Foreign Service during the Eisenhower administration.

During his time in El Salvador, “Ambassador Bob,” as he was called, made America proud during the tragic civil war in his host country amidst the terror campaigns waged by right-wing dictatorships in Latin America during the Reagan presidential years.

If remembered at all, Bob White, an envoy who stood up for truth and decency, would be recalled for his public outrage that became immutably linked with the savage rapes and murders of four Catholic churchwomen by the Salvadoran National Guard.
The four American women – Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, lay missionary Jean Donovan, and Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke – were working with the peasants in El Salvador in a humanitarian attempt to provide food, water, and medical supplies and ease the endemic poverty of that country’s poor. Unfortunately, the Salvadoran government, corrupt and oppressive, viewed the women as enemies of the state, and fomenters of revolution. That judgment sealed their fate.

The murders by government forces were the subject of a cover-up, but Ambassador White knew the truth and he wouldn’t stay quiet. The Reagan administration and Secretary of State Alexander Haig made excuses for their Salvadoran government allies and sided with its bogus explanations. Haig fired White. During the next ten years 75,000 Salvadorans died, most of them victims of the government’s military and death squads.

Following his dismissal by Haig, the former envoy dedicated much of the rest of his life to his public testimony about what he had observed in El Salvador and to serving as an expert witness in a number of trials in which members of the Salvadoran military were convicted of deadly crimes.

I only wish that the American government had on the day of White’s death ordered our flag lowered at the State Department and at every US diplomatic mission across the globe to honor “Ambassador Bob.”

Oil Prices Down, Airfares, Fees Riding High – While gas and aviation fuels prices have dropped wondrously in recent weeks, air fares mysteriously remain at top levels and fuel surcharges continue to be levied by bottom-line-fixated airlines. With the lowest oil prices in more than five years, many people are asking: When are the airline savings from the lower-cost fuel going to be reflected in airline passenger fares?

One answer, not all that satisfying, is that airlines went through a sustained period of economic stress several decades ago that resulted in bankruptcies and a slew of mergers. That’s true, but that was then and this is now. It’s bad enough that airlines have kept the fares unnecessarily high, but the bean counters cutely overlooked the added fuel surcharges that were instituted to pass the once-high fuel costs onto the airline traveler and they remain in force.

Not all airlines have done this. Several carriers have moved to lower or remove fuel surcharges. Among those are Qatar, Japan Air Lines, and Cebu Pacific. Another reason for the continued surcharges, airline officials contend, is that many airlines hedge their fuel needs over a longer guaranteed price cycle to control cost, especially for long-haul flights.

What wouldn’t hurt, perhaps, is more transparency and maybe a keener government eye on airline price trends, especially when the higher prices for fees and surcharges prompt the airlines to come together as an industry to quietly agree and act as one to cover what once was considered illegal price agreements between competitors.

For the poor stiff in that middle seat, one low-octane way to let the airline know your unhappiness with high costs might be to mention the surcharges, fees, etc. every time he or she boards a commercial flight. And if the airlines offer a favorability survey, complain about those irritating and unnecessary costs. Can’t hurt!

Drones: A New and Uncertain Presence in the North – According to a Jan. 18 news story in the Irish Times, the police (PSNI) have been using drones in Northern Ireland for at least a year and a half. The drones were first acquired as part of the security preparations in the spring of 2013 for the G8 summit in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.

These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) resemble large model aircraft with cameras that are used to relay information to security forces on the ground. In addition to relaying photos, the drones can intercept communications and access electronic data.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the PSNI supplied details of where the drones have been used, but declined to release information on whether they are used in covert surveillance operations, citing security concerns. The drones, PSNI said, have been used 114 times in the North and the project so far has cost some $2.3 million. Since the drones were acquired they have been used to support policing operations during a British royal family visit to the North, the Belfast Marathon, and last year’s Italian cycling event.

Two points about the Northern Irish drones come to mind. While not as potentially destructive nor intended for military operations as with the US use of drones in the Middle East, could drones be used against so-called dissidents or others in police/military action in Northern Ireland? And given that the PSNI has drones and specialists operating them, what restraints, if any, exist and what type of operational use of drones might be out of bounds or barred in the North?

Charlie Revisited in New TV Mini-Series – The Irish people, or at least the powers that be in the television industry, have an enduring obsession with the former taoiseach and Fianna Fail Leader Charlie Haughey. The latest peek into the Haughey persona, extra-marital affair, and political chicanery included, has actors playing Haughey and his mistress and other still-living characters in this exotic, nationally televised three-part bio-pic that the former political leader’s family has found little to be comfortable about.

Sean Haughey, son of the late taoiseach, was critical of the TV drama, charging that the program portrayed his father as being obsessed with power, and also that the drama failed to capture Haughey senior’s personality. Not having viewed any of the TV rehash, I can well imagine that an actor, even a talented one, would have extreme difficulty in getting his hands around the charismatic Charlie Haughey.  In his time, if Charlie walked into a room unheralded as a politician, and unknown as a man, he would, I believe, soon be dominating the room. He had what the late Boston newspaper columnist George Frazier called duende, a certain something beyond good looks and regal bearing.

THE NO-GO ZONE – The oligarchy-like group that is supporting the Boston 2024 Olympics and that has made a  friendly capture of Mayor Marty Walsh (did he have any choice once John Fish & his band of boosters signed on?) deserves some rebuttal. Herewith a few words from the “No Boston Olympics” group, an all-volunteer, grass roots organization.

“Boston’s Olympics boosters tell us that the games will be an economic boon, and that costs will be borne by the private sector. This is the exact same rhetoric that was pitched in Athens, Vancouver, and London. Economists have found that none of these host cities enjoyed lasting economic benefits. And in each, the public was left on the hook for billions of dollars in overruns (the London Olympics was 3X over budget), one-time security costs, and ongoing maintenance of unwanted venues.

“A Boston Olympics would divert resources from education, healthcare, transportation, and open space – all to throw an extravagant party for the unelected, unaccountable members of the International Olympic Committee. Whatever our priorities as a commonwealth, it is clear that $19 billion, the average cost of a Summer Games (and more than the cost of the Big Dig), could be better spent on other things.”

King of Ireland? Gerry Says No – It may be that Gerry Adams, with his size elevens, has his feet in both corners of Ireland, but he has never been quoted about the appeal of straddling Ireland north and south as the king of all he surveys. What he has said is that he has given no consideration to the possibility of becoming taoiseach after the next general election due later this year. However, that would still seem to leave Gerry with some open field wiggle room in his march into history.

Humble Gerry may have an ace or two up his sleeve, but a possible impediment, even for someone of Gerry’s impressive protean powers, could be that both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have absolutely, positively ruled out going into coalition with Sinn Fein after the next election.

At the start of the new year, Gerry signaled that, unlike his casual bounce to a back burner of the taoiseach job possibility, he, as the spiritual leader of today’s Sinn Fein, has no plans to “step down” as leader of his party in the North and will be a candidate for reelection at Sinn Fein’s spring ard fheis.

One can only hope that the vaunted Adams leadership extends to his stepping up to the dais and answering why “Republican fuel smugglers are pumping massively toxic waste linked to cancers and abnormalities in unborn babies straight into water supplies in the Republic.”

The above quote is from the Jan. 18 issue of the Irish Independent, which goes on to charge former IRA members and other Irish republicans of disposing of waste from an illegal fuel plant in South Armagh into two lakes and the Fane River, which is the main reservoir for more than 40,000 residents in Dundalk. The Independent also alleges that 200 to 300 main operators in south Armagh “ continue their trade even though they are possible poisoning their own families.” Many of the main operators of the illegal, poisonous fuel plants have become millionaires, the Independent states.

Come on Gerry, profit is one thing, but having the troops poisoning their neighbors is another. Speak up, Mr. Adams.

Ruling Parties in No Rush on Overseas Vote – From recent comments from well-placed Irish politicians regarding giving the vote to Irish citizens living abroad, it appears that the idea has been shunted to the back of the room. It was pretty much granted that there would be action on a referendum to allow Irish overseas citizens to vote in Irish presidential elections, but that near promise has gone by the boards.

Minister of State for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan was the fall guy in announcing in early January that a referendum this year on the presidential election voting was “highly unlikely.” In announcing the disappointing news to the Irish abroad after a round table discussion at Dublin Castle, the minister said that two other referendums – one on marriage equality and one on age qualification of presidential election candidates – would be put to the people, but a third one on the vote would be difficult to do. I’m sure.

It is obvious that Irish office holders are trembling in fear at the prospect of putting their political futures in the hands of overseas voters. It’s not so much the presidential election that concern the incumbents and professional politicians but rather the impending slippery slope where opening the presidential voting to voters far from home could well turn into expanded voting rights to participate in parliamentary elections.

More than 120 countries have provisions for their citizens abroad to cast an election ballot. Ireland, however, does not currently allow emigrants to vote in presidential or Dail elections.

Former Boston Deputy Consul Named Ambassador – Brendan Rogers, a popular deputy Consul General in Boston during the 1980s, and more recently the top Department of Foreign Affairs official directing Ireland’s widely honored international aid program, has been appointed Ambassador to Thailand and Myanmar. Myanmar was formerly named Burma. Rogers, a native of Dundalk, Co. Louth, has held a number of key positions in the Foreign Affairs Department since his service in Boston, with postings in Zambia and similar African stations, and as a sustaining member of Ireland’s delegation to the United Nations. He assumed his new position in the Far East early in December.

Anglo Irish Chief Draws a Blank in Boston – Former Anglo Irish Bank CEO David Drumm ran into a perfect storm in Boston’s US Bankruptcy Court last month when his bid for a court decision declaring him bankrupt with his debts discharged was vigorously denied by Judge Frank Bailey. Not content to deny Drumm’s petition, the judge also decided that he should be held liable for debts totaling some $13 million.

The judge listened to six days of testimony charging Drumm with activities that the judge termed “both knowing and fraudulent.”  Drumm was also found guilty in the court’s judgment of telling “outright lies,” a finding that leaves him open to perjury charges. In his 122-page ruling, the judge said, “I conclude the plaintiffs have established cause to deny [Drumm] a discharge many times over.”

Drumm, who left Ireland in 2009 to seek bankruptcy relief in a Boston court, was found by the judge to have fraudulently omitted details of five property transaction transfers to his wife. The judge also found that cars and other properties had been transferred to Lorraine Drumm’s ownership in contravention of bankruptcy rules. It was revealed by the Irish Independent that the Irish police have been preparing to issue a warrant for Drumm’s extradition after he refused to return home to Ireland.

RANDOM CLIPPINGS
 Some 15 years after Mad Cow disease halted US beef imports from Ireland, the ban has been lifted and Irish beef is now available in America. … It now appears that the Tory threat to ban the Irish in Britain from voting in the May general election has been withdrawn and all’s well once again. … In the North, SDLP Leader Alasdair McDonnell has charged First Minister Peter Robinson with “ambitions for unionist domination at any price, starting with the repression of Irishness.”… Former Noraid wannabe Martin Galvin has decided to pull away from Irish dissidents in their violent campaign against the peace plan. … In a lead editorial, the National Catholic Reporter said that American nuns deserve an apology for Vatican-imposed apostolic visitations, calling the visits “a sham” and “an abuse.” … The Irish and British have signed an agreement that will have Irish troops training  British military in peace-keeping duties. … George Clooney’s announcement that he and his new wife, Amal Alamuddin, will visit Ireland has sparked a resurgence of interest in tourists visiting the Isle. … Kevin Vickers, the Canadian who foiled an attack in Canada’s House of Commons and became a national hero, has been named Canada’s ambassador to Ireland.

More than 56,000 vehicles were clamped (booted, that is) in Dublin last year, earning the city over $5 million in fines and fees. … The Democratic Unionist Party voted, with four party members abstaining, to back Mitchel McLaughlin as the first Sinn Fein speaker, the first nationalist in that post. … Irish Jobs Minister Richard Bruton is telling the public and his colleagues that Ireland will have full employment by the end of 2018. … The NI corporate tax cut is moving slowly toward possibility with supporters saying that adoption of the cut will benefit some 34,000 small businesses. … Thousands of Irish have signed a petition against Ireland TV’s Channel 4 making a sitcom of the Famine. … Irish coalition leader Fine Gael is skipping TV debates chaired by journalist Vincent Browne, who can be a sloppy reporter and arrogant to boot. … Cardinal Raymond Burke, a senior American churchman and a Pope Francis critic, blames the priest shortage on a “feminized church and altar girls.” The Rome-based Burke was recently demoted by Pope Francis.