i didn't read and that's the truth. your first few words offended me.. So skipped the rest. Waste of time.
@brb when does a soldier become a terrorist, when does it cross the line, I'd suggest that a soldier crosses the line when he's not following orders and opens fire/causes harm on innocents for no reason. Not sure that would make a soldier a terrorist, though.
An point that hasn't been made is that 2 squads moved in but only one squads actions are called into question and there is an obvious inference that the actions of their Lieutenant contributed to what then occurred.
There's also the issue of the judge making an unusual comment for the record that he had no doubt named IRA leaders (McGuiness I think) were there and armed, despite no evidence being put forward to prove it. The suggestion was he was wanting to make sure any future inquiry was aware.
here is the part on McGuiness who if my memory is holding up was the Commander of the Derry Brigade of the Provos at the time. 3.119 In the course of investigating the activities of the Provisional and Official IRA on the day, we considered at some length allegations that Martin McGuinness, at that time the Adjutant of the Derry Brigade or Command of the Provisional IRA, had engaged in paramilitary activity during the day. In the end we were left in some doubt as to his movements on the day. Before the soldiers of Support Company went into the Bogside he was probably armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun, and though it is possible that he fired this weapon, there is insufficient evidence to make any finding on this, save that we are sure that he did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire.
Reading that and if there was any knowledge he was in the area and may possibly have a weapon ie a sub-machine gun, that would make me very twitchy as a soldier regardless of rank. If i was taking part in a march and i knew one of my fellow civilians had a weapon, that would cause me grave concern of the dangers that the individual was putting the marchers in, especially in a volatile area. Case dismmised.
blimey some of you lot should actually try reading the conclusions of the report as there is no evidence that the soldiers did know this however they probably heard the first shooting of the day which was this incident 3.10 At about the same time as Colonel Wilford sent this message, two soldiers of Machine Gun Platoon fired between them five shots from the derelict building on William Street, shown on the map below. Their target was Damien Donaghey (aged 15), who was on the other side of William Street and who was wounded in the thigh. Unknown to the soldiers John Johnston (aged 55), who was a little distance behind Damien Donaghey, was also hit and injured by fragments from this gunfire.
but is there any evidence they didn't know either Simple really, just go to court and say there was a rumour among the troops the he was in the area with a sub machine gun. Although there was no evidence at the time this to be true, evidence in latter years seems to suggest this might have been true. Move on, case closed.
well i assume something like that will be defence but there are some flaws in it but then again i wouldn't be surprised if this never goes to court. PS do think it interesting that everyone focuses on the Provo activity that day when we know some of the earliest shots of the day were by a member of the official IRA and they are the only known shots from Republican forces though it is fairly safe to assume some others did occur.
no Civil Rights march by then was peaceful as one side or another would kick off in fact it was illegal to be on the march since permission had been refused but it fact the main march was in fact peaceful .
This just gets better and better. If the stupid bastards had have listened they wouldn't have absorbed some rounds that day. After learning this, as brb stated, case dismissed.
