IAUC Presents Obama’s Top Foreign Policy Advisor with Thank You from Jean McBride
On Wednesday, September 10, IAUC president Kate McCabe met with Dr. Susan Rice, top foreign policy advisor to Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama to discuss issues of importance to the Irish American community. At the start of the meeting, McCabe asked Dr. Rice to thank the Senator for his comments in relation to the controversial US private security contract with Aegis Defence Services in Iraq, and presented her with a letter from McBride. The letter reads as follows:
10 September 2008
Dear Senator Obama,
I am writing to express my sincere thanks and the thanks of many Irish people throughout the world for your comments in relation to the Pentagon security contract with the British based firm Aegis Defence Services. In answer to a constituent of yours in late 2005 you noted,
“…As you know, the CEO of Aegis Defense Services Tim Spicer has been implicated in a variety of human rights abuses around the globe. Given his history, I agree that the United States should consider rescinding its contract with his company.”
As you know Tim Spicer is a former officer in the British Army who has continually sought to justify the 1992 murder of my unarmed teenage son Peter. Soldiers under his command were convicted of the murder but Spicer and others argued that soldiers were above the law when serving in N. Ireland. His later activities as a mercenary in Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea also give cause for considerable concern. My personal plea to you and the American people is based on the belief that the Pentagon should not have awarded a private security contract to a company whose CEO has sought to justify the murder of an unarmed teenage boy in broad daylight by soldiers under his command. What message does this send to private security contractors under his command in Iraq?
You have shown foresight and courage in raising concerns about this contract just as Frederick Douglass, a previous Presidential candidate and former slave, showed foresight and courage in a past generation in raising concerns about British policies in Ireland. (There is a wall mural to Douglass less than a mile from my home.) If this contract were to be cancelled I can assure you that Irish people and the Irish diaspora would be deeply appreciative.
Again many thanks,
Jean Mc Bride
Belfast
September 2008
For more information on the contract and background on Peter’s case, visit the Pat Finucane Centre’s website.
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