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SEÁN QUINN HAS insisted that a spate of attacks which have hit various properties associated with his group and its managers are not being carried in out in his name.
In a statement released to RTÉ this evening, Quinn said he had “no knowledge whatsoever” of any attacks on properties associated with the Quinn Group, which is now out of his hands and in permanent administration, other than what had been reported in the media.
Quinn added that he had spoken with the PSNI’s chief inspector in relation to the acts of sabotage in the past and stated that the actions were not being carried out in his name.
At that time, he said, he had requested that the attacks be stopped.
His statement conflicted with an interview given by the Quinn Group’s chief executive Paul O’Brien to the News at One earlier today, when he said the attacks were being carried out “in his [Quinn's] name”.
O’Brien had earlier said his home, and other priorioties, were beig targeted because people “want the new management out, and the original management restored. I think it’s as simple and clear as that. They’re being orchestrated with that in mind.
“Sean Quinn was asked, by the board, to renounce, condemn and ask for these activities to desist forthwith, and he refused.”
O’Brien’s family car was set alight outside his home in Ratoath in Co Meath earlier this week. The car was destroyed, and damage caused to his home and to that of a neighbour.
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can I say “I am on a train to Killbarack”
……and your having the craic!
+10000
You’re going to Kill Barack?
Reminds me of a story my father told me years ago about a man from his village who was arrested by the black and tans because when he was stopped and asked where he was coming from and going to, he said ‘I’ve been to Killpatrick and I’m off to Killmore’
Even if its not true it makes a good story!
DHS, do they not sell sofas?
Have no doubt, Fascism is alive and well, in the land of ‘The Free’
*scratches America off list of places to go*
Would it not save a lot of time, money and paperwork if they just automated the system to tweet the people they’d determined to be a threat and said:
“Dear tweeter, you are now on our watch list, please don’t bother coming to America as you will be questioned, jailed & subsequently deported”
-DHS.
Don’t forget to add “at your own expense.” to the end of that!
I’m too afraid to tell you about my experience of the aforementioned country and its border control.
Pity The Journal requires you to log on via facebook or twitter. Ugh.
Im pretty sure if terrorists are going to bomb the shit out of america, they arn’t going to put it up on facebook or twitter ffs. does that mean im barred from America now with that sentence?
Yup,your done mate..extradition order on the way!!!!
Yes
Game over !
America should officially burn their constitution, its is completely meaningless. Free speech does not exist there anymore. Ireland is a million times more free than the US and we dont go on about it all the time. This is a joke. I have made comments about america in the past, hope im put in jail the next time i try to go their.
The land of the free would make the old German Stasi jealous.
You’ve got to ask. a) why are they wasting their time monitoring a service that has only 100m users worldwide? and b) if they were that much of a threat, how were they allowed board a flight and arrive in the US of A? Doesn’t add up.
sorry accidentally gave you a thumbs down Brian, giving you a big green thumb up
What bothers me is that this situation concerned one Irish Citizen and who the hell gave the US the right to monitor social network traffic in other countries. Last time I checked we were the Republic of Ireland. Never was pushed about visiting the States, and as someone posted earlier “scratches America off list of places to go”.
public information, it’s a blog site.
It’s also hosted in the USA I believe (subject to correction).
i hate coca cola lol.. so im of to shoot the statue of liberty in america,then i will relax and enjoy a pack of tayto while i tweet the DHS.
Will Ferrell is getting carted off to a cell as we speak haha
If only Twitter and Facebook was around when the 9/11 gang were in action.
It’s too bad that it wouldn’t have worked. But then the CIA would only have their own people to follow if they were watching media sites like that.
lol, if you try tweet the article from the mail online link you put in there it has the words “Destroy America” in the tweet.
“forced to buy new flights back to Europe” ??? Go to be ****ed!! You not even going to deport me?? You expect me to pay my own way home?? No way José!
Welcome to the fourth reich. It must be destroyed
Bet they wish they hadn’t given twitter or Facebook their real names :)
Makes no difference to me either way.. I won’t give social networking sites my personal details and I have no desire to ever enter Big Brothers lair..
I sure as hell do. :-D
didn’t think things were THAT bad, time to go off the radar now perhaps?
Too little too late no doubt!
Ah.. I was advised not to when I was setting up my MySpace account, back before Facebook and Twitter came on the scene..
It seemed a bit paranoid at the time, but then I just used my nickname which my friends call me anyway.. But with twitter I don’t even use that – simply because I use it for accessing more public forums like this.. Like I explained to someone earlier – when it comes to expressing an opionion online it’s better to be mindful of who may be looking at it..
Hi Shanti – makes no odds if you give your real name; the chances are your man updated twitter on his phone, so the tweet was tied to a phone number. The DHS have access to all UK Phone Databases, so it’s very simple to track the accused! That’s why I still use a “dumb phone”.
Well that’s you banned from Tayto Land then….
The American People are amongst the nicest people on the planet and I really doubt that anybody would want to do them any harm. The International Military Industrial Complex which wages war all over the world and claims to be American is a totally different issue. Long live the American dream and may it be resuscitated sometime soon
Lickarse!! lol
It’s a great country Mark. Love it there. Though the people who make the decisions about its security (and military) often do it harm.
As a wise old man once said;
“That’s why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.”
― George Carlin
Well Mark, you pretty much nailed it. As an American and a former military man, I can tell you it’s gone out of control. The Military Industrial complex as you mentioned, does exist in a verifiable form. I would suggest all those people who gave thumbs down, and even those who didn’t, to have a nice little read of “Confessions of an economic hit man” by John Perkins. I would say more than a few people would get the shock of their life and indeed see the exact same scenarios playing out in Dublin right now.
It’s a bit bloomin scary alright Jackass! Did you see that video with Rick Santorum pretty much admitting the US assassinated that scientist in Iran? He went on to say any scientist thinking of working in Iran (he had presumed at the start of the speech that Iran is indeed working on weapons, prior to the results of the UN assessment) should be scared because they’ve done it, even to American citizens..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uNcIEvGdo&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Scary stuff if you ask me. I worry for those who live in the US.
Sorry Mr. Pike, We detected “bomb” “Shit” and “America”. Can you please contact your local embassy and arrange to be taken in. Alternatively we can have a flight waiting for you in Shannon. White business jet, no tail number.
thats you f*cked now aswell!!
Terrorist code: “Destroy” = “Cuddle”, “United States” = “Bunny Rabbit”.
So much for all the money and man-hours the DHS put into to this nonsense. Although I suspect it’s more about spying on people rather than catching the boogieman. I wonder what they’ll do if ACTA’s fully implemented!?
lol
there is an old 18th “Irish bull” about the Irishman who was arrested after saying thar he had just come from killmany and was on his way to killmore. they probably hung the poor bastard.
Hope his home address wasn’t Kill, Co Kildare!!
Excellent, if unnerving, article, Paul.
People should target Discover America, the US Tourist board, with requests that their colleagues in Homeland Security exercise a bit of cop on. Maybe set up a petition/boycott.
After all, it can’t make their job of attracting tourists to the US any easier when jobsworths are behaving like those ones in LAX.
I think that’s what you call hyper-vigilence gone wrong. I have vivid memories of having a Panic attack in Shannon airport. In hindsight, was it because I didn’t approve of the war in Iraq (which should never have happened) or was it an admin error? I will probably never know.
Until you attacked the people I was with you. There’s lots of very smart, very decent people in the states – the same percentage as you would find here, just on a much larger scale.. Don’t tar them all with the same brush, there’s poorly educated people everywhere..
The cops, government, black ops, patriot act, NDAA, PICPA (not sure if I have the acronym in the correct order there), Mandatory medications, blatant corporate fraud, lobbying and war mongering is what puts me off the country too.
“no decision making human entered the process” not possible some idiot jailed them, questioned them… the fact that they were stupid doesn’t detract from the fact that they were human ( note how I left American out of that sentence in case they got their hands on this…!
The fall of the American Empire is happening before our eyes. Rampant greed brings down all empires. About time too.
US customs are tough but after 9/11 that is understandable. The guy was just silly and I bet he regrets it now! People should remember what they say can be taken the wrong way and it’s not wise to post it online.
No, people should speak freely.
Living in fear that somebody somewhere could misinterpret you and punish you for it is not a good solution.
silly for using slang?
everyone uses slang every day!
What does customs have to do with anything? The article is about DHS and immigration.
remember america: Just because you are paranoid it doesnt mean they are not after you! ;p
now come and arrest me
When we are living in a time where privacy is nonexistent ANYWHERE online and we have almost every facet of our Internet usage is tracked, stored and analysed we really need to stop been so naive or lazy and use fake online accounts so nothing can fall back to the REAL you. The internet is an artificial state so everyone should be using an artificial name and identity. Type “ad preferences” into google on your phone/PC and see how much info google have on you already
“forced to buy new flights back to Europe” ??? Go to be ****ed!! You not even going to deport me?? You expect me to pay my own way home?? No way José!
Why can I not post this comment?? Has the “land of the free” grabbed the journal?
Stories like this really suggest that the United States of America are best appreciated from outside their borders. If we want to discover the glory of the North American continent, with sensible and proportionate security procedures in place to safeguard everyone involved, Canada has it all.
Lol reminds me of the time I made the mistake of wearing an Ed Hardy T shirt on the plane over. Only to be asked by a US immigration official, questions such as: Who is ed hardy? Do you have tattoos? Are you going to a tattoo convention? Is that a lion or a tiger on your shirt etc etc. strange experience.
It would honestly put you off going to the states – which is a real pity, as they seem to choose the humans with least humanity from their number to be be the first people you meet on arrival.
I was on a flight to Florida some years back, crammed with families going to Disney World. On arrival one family with young children were taken aside, treated in a very rude and unfriendly way (kids crying etc), and questioned by a series of quite threatening people. What marked them out? They had two small kids hurls – the wee tiny ones, for toddlers – in their luggage. Eventually, after a couple of unpleasant hours, the ‘weapons’ were confiscated and they were allowed in.
It was trivial in the great scheme of things but quite frightening not just for the poor family immediately involved, but for all the people watching them being bundled away, many of whom were trying to explain to the other immigration people what a hurl was.
Seriously, do you intelligent people believe this? Article, has so many holes in it it’s like a cheese grater. A) do you enter your passport number into twitter? If not then the armed welcome reception better be watching out for everyone with the same name as you…could be confusing
B) if they were a threat they would be imprisoned, not sent home. If deemed safe then they would be allowed to stay.
C) no decision making human entered the process other than to verify that Leigh wrote the post? Really? Computers are allowed to decide the deployment of armed response units?
Sanctimonious, patronising and plain old wrong Larry!
A) His name is Leigh Van Bryan – how many Irish or UK Passport holders have this name? Easy to spot him.
Also, he probably used twitter on his smartphone, therefore the account is tied to a phone number – the UK & US have sharing agreements in place for mobile phone number database registers. If he updated from a PC, then UK ISP Databases are also shared with the DHS.
B) They were taken to secondary detention. Once this happens, you ain’t getting in. Secondary detention will decide what your fate is (guantanamo/US Trial/Sent home). They were obviously classified as not being an immediate danger, but their fate was sealed when they went to secondary.
C) You are obviously not as intelligent as you like to think – I sell the kind of systems that the US are using to the British Government. They track every single passenger from check-in right to your destination. And yes, US DHS, CIA, ATF, FBI et all use computerised systems to deploy resources to “high-risk” areas.
There’s a great research tool called the internet, we probably won’t have it for much longer, so I suggest you enlighten yourself there
Daniel, I wasn’t trying to make a statement about how intelligent I am, more that I’m sceptical of the story details. However after further research I admit I don’t have too much grounds for the scepticism as it’s quite widely reported.
Fair enough, if your selling this computer system the it seems you know more on the topic than I do.
But I will make one further point, this story was broken by the Sun and Daily Mail and every major news source that features it is certain to quote that in order to distance themselves from any liberal use of the truth in the story details. Which was my original point, (granted I somehow managed to put in a very cheeky and argumentative manner) the story sounds a little bit soap opera.
Gonna head up to Montrose and then Kilkenny! Oops!
I think it would be awful if anyone tried to DESTROY AMERICA, or wanted to KILL AMERICAN POLITICIANS, and what a tragedy if somebody had a plan to ASSASSINATE THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A! There now, I think that should ensure the DHS take my details, which is good because I want them to understand just how stupid the rest of the world thinks they are. MUPPETS!
The question raises how did the government link these twitter account to a real person while most people often use aliases? Yes, in this case the name of the twitter account is his real name but mostly it wont. What about other people with the same name? Overall one has to ask if twitter is not handing over personal information to the US government. It seems most likely that it does.
“Congressman Dwight S. Tayto of South Carolina was rushed to a secure location today after a surge in online chatter indicated a possible Al Qaeda operation targeting him for destruction. The marked increase in chatter indicated a plot to possibly smother the Congressman using a small foil bag coated with salt.”
The typos in this article are shocking! One or two mistakes are grand but it eventually got to the point where it was clear the author was careless…
On the topic at hand though, terrible stuff from the Americans..
Anyone else find themselves trying desperately not to write a comment containing all the possible black listed words they could imagine might be on this algorithm thingy? I would like to go to America again one day.. I feel somewhat like a coward!!
Overreliance on computers and failure of human intelligence were the reason why 9/11 occurred. I do not think the U.S. government has learned any lesson from the tragedy. The more sophisticated the computers became, the less sophisticated the human intelligence became — and thus incidents like this that distract from real counter-terror work while also costing the American taxpayers more unnecessary money in this time of massive deficits.
What also makes me wonder is how the DHS gets to decide whose Twitter handles belong to whom. Presumably they have never subpoenaed Twitter for user records, they simply made a connection between Twitter handles and possibly the profile photos, and the travellers. Given that many people make up fake Twitter handles, sometimes even impersonating others as parodies, and also given that there are many people with same or similar names and Twitter handles, the rate of false positives can be astounding, and many of them are probably simply unreported in the media.
The arguments often used by the U.S. federal government is that the Constitution does not apply to those who have not yet been legally admitted to the U.S. by the CBP immigration inspectors. In this case, the immigration inspector did not exclude them — and this happened only after the fact at the customs inspection area. The moment the U.S. immigration inspector stamped their passport they are technically under the protection of the U.S. Constitution and associated due process. What makes this case murkier is the use of the Visa Waiver Pilot Program (VWPP, I-94W). Had they have a B-1/B-2 visa from the U.S. consulate, they could have had a better outcome. Unfortunately the VWPP requires tourists to waive all rights of appeal and all due process. Nevertheless, this case could prove to be interesting if the travellers choose to pursue a civil action outside the immigration system.
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