Is it now a crime to tell the truth?

THREATS have been made by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and the gardaí, that Anjem Choudary, who happens to be Muslim, should be prosecuted or investigated for ‘incitement to hatred’.

This is because he told a meeting of the TCD Philosophical Society that Ireland could be a terrorist target in view of "the Shannon stopover taking troops to Iraq."

Is it now a crime to speak the truth? Mr Choudary was quoted in the press as saying this "was not a position of neutrality."

Judge Nicholas Kearns agreed with this, in his ruling in April 2003 on the Horgan v Ireland constitutional challenge: "... a neutral State may not permit the movement of large numbers of troops or munitions of one belligerent State through its territory en route to a theatre of war with another."

It is hardly a secret that many Irish people have been making similar statements ever since the war in Iraq began.

I am one of those peace activists who has repeatedly warned that Ireland could be targeted by terrorists in retaliation for allowing US troops to use Shannon airport for the conduct of the Iraq war.

I have made these statements on radio and in the printed media. I have not yet been prosecuted or 'investigated for incitement to hatred,' and I challenge Mr McDowell to do so.

If speaking the truth is now a crime, then I will willingly go to jail rather than be silent in the face of gross wrongdoing.

I wish to remind all those with a mind to know that the numbers killed in Iraq have exceeded 100,000 according to credible independent reports published in The Lancet, and that up to 46% of those killed were children.

That amounts to 46,000 children killed mainly by US troops who have passed through Shannon airport.

Clearly, not all of those children were 'terrorists.'

It has recently been confirmed that US forces used chemical weapons against insurgents and civilians near Falluja. These chemical weapons include 'improved' napalm and white phosphorous. Use of these weapons contravenes the Geneva conventions and the UN charter.

When white phosphorous hits the body it burns flesh right into the bone.

Most of these US troops (over 250,000 so far this year) were transported to Iraq through Shannon airport and some of these chemical weapons are also likely to have passed through Shannon.

This puts Ireland at risk of retaliation.

This is the truth, and if speaking the truth is now a crime, then, to misquote Lord Nelson, 'prosecute and be damned,' minister.

Edward Horgan

Newtown

Castletroy

Co Limerick