Other Feature

THETUCGSON SI

Denis Leyne stepped off a
plane in New York City on
Nov.11,1992andintothe hands
of the FBI. But Leyne’s story
does not begin on the date of
his arrest, itbegins three years
earlier.

Itwasthen,inJanuary 1990,
in West Palm Beach, Florida
that four Irish North American
activists were arrested in an
FBI sting operation. The men,

system was exposed. The
British courts lost a lot of
credibility and found it
increasingly difficult to abuse
their power. Subsequently,
British authorities looked
overseas to enlist the support
of the FBI in winning back the
ground they had lost,according
to the Canadian-based Irish
Information Services.

Se Ar

who have become ‘known as
the Florida Four, were charged
with attempting to procure
munitions,specifically astinger
missile, forthe Provisional Irish
Republican Army. Two of the
four have since been aquitted
and two have been convicted.

Leyne helped to lead a
public outcry against what
many Irish nationalists
perceived to be the wrongful
arrest of the Florida Four and
thus became a thorn in the side
of the FBI. Many Irish North
Americans who, like Leyne,
support Ireland’s strugele for
independence are troubled by
what appears to be the
increasing systematic
persecutionofIrishnationalists
living in the US and Canada.

The case of the Florida Four
ishauntingly remIniscentof the
cases of the Birmingham Sixand
the Guilford Four, where, in the
early 1970s, British government
authorities used the courts asa
political weapon in their
continuing war against the
Six Counties of Northeast
Ireland. In those cases,.ten
Irish Catholics were
incarcerated for more than
15 years each for crimes
which they did notcommit.

Thanks to Amnesty
International and other
civIlrightsadvocates,it was
revealed that no evidence
had ever existed to hold
the ten prisoners, that
confessions had been
obtained by torture and
forensicevidence faked. As
it turned out, their only
crime was being Irish and
being within grasp of.a
justice sytem desperate to
scapegoat any Irish
individuals for a rash of
pub bombings that had rocked
the areas of Birmingham and
Guilford.

The Birmingham Sixand the
Guilford Four were not only
released, but the corruption
within the British judicial

Irish American
communities have long
provided critical support for
thenumerous Irish Nationalist
organizations operating within
Ireland. Thus a strike at the
Irish American community
would undermine Irish
resistance. Also, the erosion of
civil liberities combined with
elastic conspiracy laws in the
US would make it possible for
the FBI, acting with British
guidance, to entrap and
incarcerate Irish Nationalists
with little or no evidence.

Ithas thus Been suggested
that the FBI was recruited by
British authorities to carry out
thesting ofthemen whowould
become known as the Florida
Four.

Two of the four men were
eventually aquitted after the
FBI released tapes thatshowed
they had madefalseallegations
and had lied. As Leyne

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
  
     
       
 
 
  
  
  
 

DENIS LEYNE
ee
PUBLIC OUTCRY
Ant 4 me
Sealed
RELEASING TAPES
THEY HAD
RECORDED
WHICH PROVED
THEY LIED

participated in the public
outcry which led to the
aquittals, the FBI suddenly
became interested in this man
from Etobicoke, Ontario. They
opened a file on Leyne and,
with the cooperation of the

the Other Press

RCMP, began to monitor his
activities.

RETRIBUTION
WAS INEVITABLE

In 1991 Leyne came into
contact with a group of
individuals who had formed a
board to produce a film on the
Irish hunger strikers of Long
Kesh Prison of the 1980s. The
intent of the film was to honor
the memory and tell the story
of Bobby Sands, Francis
Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Patsy
O’Hara, Joe McDonnell, Martin
Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Kleran
Doherty, Tom McElwee and
Mickey Devine--Irish
Nationalists who gave their
lives hunger-striking to be
recognized as_ political
prisoners.

Mickey Rourke was a
potential candidate for a key
role.

Leyne, a bank manager,

offered his managerial skills to ©

assist in the production of the
film. Such films are blatantly
illegalunderBritishcensorship
laws but are perfectly legal in
North America. Oneoftheonly
ways to stop the production of
such a film in North America
wouldbetostrikeatit’sfinances.
Incarcerating the production
board’s financial manager—
Leyne in this case—might also
prove effective. British
opposition tothemaking of the
film may have added pressure
to the FBI to do something
about Leyne’s activities.

Up until the later stages of
1991 and the first half of
1992 there was little reason
to suspect that the RCMP
didanything morethanaid
the FBI in the surveillance

of Leyne.
Thenthingschanged onthe

Canada’s political
landscape.
TheCanadian government

proposed a theme park
called Canada: Land of
Welcome and Hope on the
site of the mass graves of as
many as 200,000 Irish
immigrant detainees who
died of cholera and other
diseases on Grosse Ile, a
small island in the St.
Lawrenceriver. TheGrosse
Ile tragedy has been described
by PatO’Shea of theSt. Patrick's
Society of Montreal as a
“holocaust” and has beencalled
the “most significant [Irish
Potato] famine site on earth
outside of Ireland.”

-Leyne_ spearheaded a

group called Action Grosse Ile.
Themembers of Action Grosse
Ileworked tostoptheCanadian
government’s plan to build
such a park over the mass
graves and to prevent it’s
rewriting of the horrific history
of the island. Action Grosse Ile
united Irish Catholics and
Protestants inside and outside
of Canada and forced the issue
intothe publiceye. Many media
forums, including theCBC and

 

March 1Sth , 1993

 

hearings in Vancouver at the
Westin Bayshore Hotel on
March 22 and 23.) Although
the Canadian government
appears to be making
concessions, one look at the
bottom of the latest brief from
ActionGrosselletellsadifferent
story. The brief is signed by
Gretta Dillon, the secretary of
Action Grosse Ile, because its
leader, Denis Leyne,isin prison.

 

 

 

Canadian University Press,ran
stories on the concerns of Irish
peoplein Canada who opposed
the theme park.

The man responsible for
orchestrating the theme park
planwasthe federal ministerin
charge of Parks Canada, Jean
Charest, a current contender
for the leadership of the Tory
party.

In the summer of 1992 the
Grosse Ile controversy reached
its apex and the government
conceded to extensive public

—————

————

HOW THE
BUST WENT DOWN

On Aug 26, 1992 Denis
Leyne and three others were
quietly indicted in Tucson,
Arizona, for conspiracy,
possesion of 2900 detonatorsin
violation of the laws of the
United States, illegally
transporting the detonators
withthe knowledge and intent
that they would be used to kill,
and willfully placing the
detonators on a vehicle
employed in_ interstate

 

hearings. (There will be public

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