Irish
Echo. August 4-10, 2004
By Ray O'Hanlon
rohanlon@irishecho.com
President Bush is being urged to cancel an Iraq
security contract that involves a onetime British army
officer linked to the death of a man in northern Ireland.
The death of Peter McBride, shot dead by two members of
the Scots Guards regiment, remains one of the most
controversial during the troubles.
The regiment was commanded at the time by Lt. Col. Tim
Spicer.
Spicer, since retired from the military, now heads a
private security company, Aegis Defense Services, which
was recently awarded a $293 million contract in Iraq.
Fr. Sean McManus, president of the Washington D.C.-based
Irish National Caucus, wants President Bush to scrap the
deal.
"It has Irish blood on it," McManus said of the contract
in a statement.
"This (contract) could undo any credit you gained from
Irish-Americans for your support of the Irish
peace-process," McManus said in a letter to Bush.
"U.S. dollars should not subsidize such a person as Lt.
Col. Spicer. And long-suffering Iraq needs him no more
than Northern
Ireland needed him," McManus added.
McManus said that the INC was "determined" not to accept
what he described as a "terrible insult" to the McBride
family and Irish Americans.
"I cannot believe that President Bush would have approved
such an outrageous contract. He has got to undo this great
wrong. This is going to be an election issue.
McBride, who was 18, was shot twice in the back by Scots
Guards soldiers as he ran from a checkpoint in Belfast on
September 4, 1992. McBride was unarmed. Two soldiers were
jailed for McBride's murder in early 1995 but were
released in August, 1998.
n a letter to the Times newspaper of London, Spicer
defended the actions of his men stating that they had been
involved in a terrorist incident and had acted in
accordance with the law and their military training.
