The Hyde Jeopardy: Hearing Jeopardizes Lives and Due Process of Colombian Three

Posted By: March 29, 2013

Washington D. C. Wednesday, April 24, 2002 — The Chairman of the House International Relations Committee (HIRC), Congressman Henry Hyde has been accused of endangering the lives and due process of the Colombian Three — the three Irishmen who are jailed in Colombia.

The President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fr. Sean Mc Manus, has said that the Hearing being conducted today by Chairman Hyde “will do no good to the United States and a lot of harm to Ireland by being seen as an attempt to undermine the Irish peace-process . Furthermore the Hearing will jeopardize the lives and due process of the Colombian Three”.

Fr. Mc Manus pointed out what happened in 1989 when a British Government Minister used the House of Commons to declare that some Catholic attorneys in Northern Ireland were too sympathetic to the IRA — three weeks later Pat Finucane was assassinated by right-wing extremists . ” Now”, said Fr. Mc Manus, ” Chairman Hyde is using the HIRC in a similar fashion to brand the Colombian Three as IRA men before they have had their day in court. There is real danger that Hyde’s reckless conduct will be seen as an open invitation by right-wing extremists in Colombia to assassinate the three Irishmen.That is not the way to conduct the legislative business of the American people, who do not want anyone set up for assassination by the irresponsible conduct of Congressional leaders”, he concluded.