Irish People 10/4/97 News Update Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source:Paddy Newell Wed, 01 Oct 1997 The Irish People 04 October 97 http://inac.org/IrishPeople/ ************************************ H-Block Three squeezed H-Block bail response The siege of Stormont ************************************ H-Block Three squeezed Brennan in hole; Artt moved to Oakland By Christy Mac an Bhaird Confidence in the US Government's support for the peace process in Ireland took a downward turn this week when it was learned that three Irish political prisoners held in jail in California had been separated, and that one was tossed into solitary confinement for the second time in a week. On September 18th, his birthday, Kevin Barry Artt was moved from the Pleasanton Federal Detention Center near Dublin, Cal., and has been denied medical treatment for a long-standing dental problem. Artt is now in the general population of the maximum-security North County Jail in Oakland. In addition, Pol Brennan was moved to solitary confinement in FDC Pleasanton on Sunday, September 28th, after refusing to do prison work. It was the second time that prison officials demanded that Brennan take part in the prison work program and the second time he refused, saying that as a remand [held without bail] prisoner he should not have to do prison work. Both times he was sent to the "hole" for punishment. Terry Kirby remains in FDC Pleasanton but has been moved to the "pretrial" wing, where prisoners are not required to work. Efforts to separate the three began shortly after they were visited by Sinn Fein Ard-Chomhairle member Martin McGuinness, MP. Artt, Brennan and Kirby had been housed together for some weeks after their bail was revoked back in August. According to Artt, the three were separated after the local California press reported on the September 7th McGuinness visit. Artt said that prison officials have decided that the men are a "security risk," despite the fact that Artt and Kirby shared a cell for a year back in 1995, and that all three were housed at the same facility for some time. The three, along with Jimmy Smyth, are known as the H-Block Four. Smyth was extradited back to the North of Ireland earlier this year and is now being held in Long Kesh prison outside Belfast. All four escaped from the Kesh, along with 34 other Irish political prisoners, in 1983. The four are from Belfast. Artt was moved from Pleasanton to his current address in Oakland on September 18th. He was woken at 5:30 in the morning and told to "roll it up." He thought he was being taken to a dentist for treatment of gum disease, but he was shifted to North County Jail instead. The regime in the maximum-security North County Jail is far more restrictive than in Pleasanton. Artt no longer enjoys open visits, and the four visits a week Pleasanton have been reduced to two in North County. During the 20-minute visits, visitors, including his lawyers, must yell through a thick piece of glass that separates them from him. He gets one hour a week on the roof of the jail as his fresh-air exercise. According to Artt, the move came after officials at Pleasanton told federal marshals they didn't want to house the three there any longer, for "security" reasons. He said that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) didn't want the three men together. Just before his move, Artt says, he was on the phone with his lawyer when a prison-guard councillor told him to hang up. When he tried to explain he was talking to his lawyer, the "councillor" hung up the phone and sent him back to his cell. Artt says harassment of the three began just after McGuinness visited them, and it was shortly after the phone incident that he was moved. Some supporters think that the local prosecutor is upset with the publicity surrounding their cases after the McGuinness visit. "We are being persecuted on American soil for our political beliefs," said Artt, adding, "The same thing happened to prisoners in England after the 1994 cease-fire." Artt says he is allowed out of his cell only one hour in the morning, two hours in the afternoon and three hours in the evening. The facility is very crowded, and he passes the time playing cards. He has received no mail since his transfer and has seen no newspapers. News programs are blocked from the prison television. There is no prison library at North County, he noted. According to his wife, Erin, Artt recently lost a tooth and has been seeking medical treatment, which so far has been denied. She said they are giving him pain killers, but the tooth has developed an abscess. He is denied simple things, like dental floss, which would alleviate some of the pain. Artt's lawyers have requested that prison officials allow him to visit a private dentist. Supporters of the three on the West Coast say Brennan was put in the hole last week after he refused to do prison work. It is Brennan's contention that as a political prisoner--none of the three has been charged in the United States and all are being held for extradition to the North--he should not be forced to do prison labor. After he refused to work, Brennan was reportedly told by a guard, "You belong to the BOP [Bureau of Prisons]." He was then put in solitary. Brennan and Kirby have since been moved to different wings of the prison and meet now only by chance. The three hope to hear news on their application for bail within the next three weeks. [Editor's Note: Kevin Barry Artt's new address is: Kevin Artt, number UFN852, North County Jail, 4E11, 556 6th St., Oakland, CA 94607. Brennan and Kirby can be written to at the Federal Detention Center, 5675 8th St., Camp Parks, Dublin, CA 94568.] ____________________________________________________ H-Block bail response The hopes of Kevin Barry Artt, Terry Kirby and Pol Brennan ("the H-Block Three") for a speedy release on bail may depend on the sworn statement of Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness that their release will promote harmony in the Irish peace talks. The affidavit, signed by McGuinness, was included in motions for release on bail, filed September 15th with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. One week earlier, the three had been briefed on the peace process by McGuinness, who is Sinn Fein's chief negotiator in the talks and an elected member of the British legislature. Under US extradition laws, a court may grant bail if "special circumstances" warrant. In 1996, the 9th Circuit upheld a lower court's determination that delay in legal proceedings and parity treatment with fellow H-Block escapee Jimmy Smyth constituted special circumstances warranting bail. In addition, the 9th Circuit added another special circumstance--the fact that granting bail would promote harmony in the North of Ireland Although the same district-court judge has now ordered the extradition of the H-Block Three and has revoked their bail, the bail motions argue that the special circumstances cited in earlier court rulings still apply: The appeal process will be lengthy, the three will not receive credit for time served in jail here, and under the law they are entitled to parity treatment with Jimmy Smyth, who was granted bail. Attorneys for the three estimate that it would be at least a year before the 9th Circuit would consider their appeals of the extradition order. The most important special circumstance may be the promotion of harmony in the North of Ireland. The 9th Circuit itself added this to the list of special circumstances cited by the district court. McGuinness' declaration, a letter from Dublin-government consul general Declan Kelly, and letters from San Francisco Assemblyman Kevin Shelley and State Senator Tom Hayden support the contention that the release of the three will promote harmony. McGuinness' declaration is particularly important, because it is a sworn affidavit from a key participant in the peace talks and an MP. His declaration states that a grant of bail by an American court "would constitute an expression of belief by the United States, which has done so much to facilitate the upcoming negotiations, that the parties will be able to resolve successfully the status of these prisoners, thereby creating the conditions for an overall peace settlement." _________________________________________________________ The siege of Stormont As the participants in Tuesday's talks drove out of Castle Buildings past the colonial splendor of Stormont, they would have noticed a placard under the statue of Carson, the founder of modern Unionism and the six-county state. It read: "David Trimble, Northern Ireland's de Klerk: A Traitor." And judging from Trimble's behavior as he faced the press after his "showdown" with Sinn Fein, he is all too aware of the rising cries of "sell-out" from inside and outside his own ranks. While all other talks participants exuded calmness as they joked and bantered with the press, Trimble's body language betrayed a man under tremendous pressure. Although his clipped, mincing stride, his clenched jaw, and his jerky hand movements verge on the comical, they reveal a man boiling with anger and frustration. On Tuesday, he ended his press conference in abrupt fashion when he refused to take a question from Downtown Radio journalist Eamon Mallie. Significantly, Trimble and the Ulster Unionists did not go to Stormont on Tuesday with the representatives of the loyalist death squads, the UDP and PUP. They had walked in with them last week, but it caused such a furor among Unionist supporters that the UUP dared not repeat it. It was yet another debacle in a Unionist strategy which seems not to look more than a couple of days ahead. There was a general feeling that Tuesday was about going through the motions. The Unionists arrived, refused to talk to the press, presented their "indictment" of Sinn Fein, gave a truncated press conference--and went home. No one thought they would succeed in having Sinn Fein thrown out of the talks, and it was clear that the Unionists themselves knew it was a hopeless pursuit. But even as a media stunt, it was all rather lame and embarrassing. The press were bored. They knew that Wednesday was the big day and, like everyone else, they wanted the Unionists to begin the real business. Trimble's performance apart, this historic day was relaxed and uncontroversial. The media are camped outside the gates of the talks building and are developing their own siege mentality, fated to spend long winter months living off the scraps thrown to them by wary politicians. There are better jobs. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.08.97-18:01:23-12207