I agree David. Just as the Loughgall terrorists deserved to die because they were terrorists NOT to facilitate Adams.

Arbitrary executions carried out by a government without ‘due process’ is simply tyranny. If our government can do it to people you don’t like then they can do it to people you do like too (maybe even to you or your children). Scares the hell out of me how our government (that supposedly represents our best interests) sometimes behaves. Bring on Scottish independence.

Billy Wright? Really, who in their right mind gives a toss about this vermin being exterminated.

Billy Wright? Really, who in their right mind gives a toss about this vermin being exterminated.

By any measure he was beyond the point where the rules of human rights, civil society or law and order cease to apply.

Will the people he murdered get the same money lavished on them. Once again the terrorist is presented as victim.

DV: "I believe that all terrorists should be brought to justice. I favour execution of all terrorists under due process of law. "

So why do you deny this for terrorists who, whilst in the employ of the British Army, murderered 13 innocent civilians on January 31st 1972?

NRG: "Billy Wright? Really, who in their right mind gives a toss about this vermin being exterminated."

Sure, he was a despicable type. However, that does not excuse the British government using proxies to execute him or to collude with "terrorists" to have their dirty work done.

NRG,

I have to disagree. If the State can kill at will, OUTSIDE due process, who is to say that you, or I, may not be next on their list? Lawful execution I advocate when it comes to terrorists but this was not lawful execution and so I do see that the Wright family have a point. Of course your broader point is right - the victim of terrorism is put lower in the ranking hierarchy than the terrorist and that IS obscene!

Daithio,

Yes. Let's execute them. We should do it on the same day we execute all known IRA Commanders who werre present that day in Londonderry, and of course all other senior IRA leaders. Guess that might leave a few vacancies at Stormont, eh - but so what?

murderered 13 innocent civilians on January 31st 1972?

cobblers

>>Lawful execution I advocate when it comes to terrorists but this was not lawful execution and so I do see <<

David, almost all victims of the so-called "shoot-to-kill" policy were killed unlawfully, and as far as I remember you had no problem with that. Now it seems you are weighing in with the civil-rights lobby. Hmmmm ..strange...

Ratcatcher, have you ever seen or heard an interview with Wright Senior? He is a very decent man, who abhors what his son did but nevertheless loved him as much as any father. He must be allowed grieve like anybody else.
While Wright was a killer, he was also a victim of the Troubles in many ways. Let the dead rest in peace.

What shoot-to-kill policy is that then Noel?

David, I'm talking about the practice of shooting dead Republican paramilitaries instead of trying to arrest them, even when this was an option.

Even if this were not a formulated policy, it was common practice in the 1980's.

Here's John Stalker, Deputy Chief Constable of Manchester Police, who investigated some of these killings:

"The circumstances of those shootings pointed to a police inclination, if not a policy, to shoot suspects dead without warning rather than to arrest them. Coming as these incidents did, so close together, the suspicion of deliberate assassination was not unreasonable... There was no written instruction, nothing pinned upon a notice board. But there was a clear understanding on the part of the men whose job it was to pull the trigger that was what was expected of them."

"the practice of shooting dead Republican paramilitaries"

The ambiguity is begging for a response. Anybody?

Iain,

"Scares the hell out of me how our government (that supposedly represents our best interests) sometimes behaves."

Show me the state that DOESN'T behave like this and I'll show you... er, now that I think about it, even Alice's Wonderland was guilty of it.

I seem to recall that the French once sent their special agents to blow up a Greenpeace ship. It seems to be common practice in Putin's Russia, and not even that great democratic state, the USA, is averse to a spot of "wet work" when it needs be.

David, I suppose with the benefit of rationality I would agree with you, but I just feel there are some many more deserving people and atrocities to worry about than Billy Wright. And more significant instances where the line might have been crossed where genuine innocents have been killed or harmed.

Let me get this straight. Paisley is now persona non orange and the British authorities have destroyed evidence and used violent surrogates to eliminate an individual whose existence was contrary to their plans in NI. This Balrog site is fascinating.

>>The ambiguity is begging for a response. Anybody?<<

Doesn't seem to be any takers, CKER. Maybe you should give it a try yourself.

Doesn't seem to be any takers, CKER. Maybe you should give it a try yourself

Yes, CKER, don't be so lazy!