LL:PR:TRIMBLE ANNOUNCES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST AMAZON.COM

[Rosemary Nelson Campaign]

Fwd: For Immediate Release from Roberts Rinehart Publishers

Contact: Public Relations Officer Shelley Daigh at (303) 652-2685 or
Attorney Russell Smith at (516) 668-0818

TRIMBLE ANNOUNCES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST AMAZON.COM

Unable to Intimidate Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Ulster Unionist Leader
Lashes Out Against the Internet

David Trimble is trying again to stop publication of book he wishes was
never printed. Having failed in his effort to threaten Roberts Rinehart
Publishers into dropping the book, Northern Ireland=92s First
Minister-Designate and the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party announced
today that he is suing the world=92s largest internet bookseller,
Amazon.com. Trimble=92s latest maneuver comes the day before the paperback
release of the best-selling book, The Committee: Political Assassination
in Northern Ireland, which Amazon.com describes as "a gripping story of
terrorist atrocities and political corruption," which "makes clear that
[the IRA=92s] opponents have been just as capable of committing evil in
the name of their cause." Publishers Weekly calls the book "startling"
and "convincing."

According to the London-based establishment newspaper The Sunday Times,
Trimble is suing for libel in Britain "over allegations that he was
associated with a loyalist murder conspiracy," as discusssed in the
book. In an editorial today, entitled "The Truth On Trial," The Sunday
Times acknowledged that it may turn out that the book=92s author,
award-winning journalist Sean McPhilemy, "is possibly one of the most
successful investigative journalists in Irish history," and that "he
will have exposed a scandal that could see ministers and police officers
jailed."

Roberts Rinehart Publishers denounced Trimble=92s latest action, saying
"if Mr. Trimble truly wanted the facts to come out, he would have joined
Sean McPhilemy in calling for a public inquiry. Instead, he devotes his
time and energy to trying to stop this book." Russell Smith, the senior
U.S. libel defense attorney for the publisher and author, says that
"this move by Trimble is an attack not only against the book, but
against the internet, and against the freedom of the British and Irish
people to read what they want to read." Trimble previously had written
an angry cease-and-desist letter to the book=92s publishers, in which he
defended all of the alleged members of the Committee, which include two
known terrorists and two persons recently convicted of offenses in
connection with anti-Catholic riots in Drumcree.

In another development, according to The Sunday Times, Trimble today
tried to belittle efforts to subpoena him and compel him to testify
under oath in the $100 million U.S. libel suit against the book by two
Protestant Portadown businessmen. Trimble, the supposed statesman,
called this "a stupid stunt," adding that "Roberts Rinehart knows I
already have offered to give evidence..." Attorney Smith responded:
"While it is not true that Mr. Trimble communicated any such offer to
us, we welcome it now, and we have written to Mr. Trimble today to take
him up on his offer."

In another development this week, Committee witness James Sands, whose
supposed "recantation" of his eyewitness account of high-level collusion
between British security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries scandalized
the media world in Great Britain, has come forward to confess that his
abrupt change of story was a complete hoax on the part of the Royal
Ulster Constabulary. In a filmed interview, and in a sworn affidavit,
both obtained last weekend, this former political associate of David
Trimble says he stands by all of the revelations he made to Channel Four
Television in 1991, as recounted in the current book.

Sands has confessed how the RUC stage-managed his later "recantation,"
which was then amplified by The Sunday Times. In his affidavit, Sands
tells what happened: "After the RUC learned of my identity, I was
detained and held against my will in British Army barracks and various
police stations for a week. I was told what to say by RUC officers prior
to my tape-recorded questioning. The RUC made it clear to me that if I
did not cooperate with them and do what they ordered me to do, I would
be prosecuted or possibly even killed. I never would have freely given
any of the statements which I made to the RUC. By 'made it clear,' in
relation to death threats, I mean that RUC officers told me that if I
did not 'recant,' I could be assassinated by loyalist paramilitaries.
They told me I should cooperate 'for [my] own safety.'"

Sands also has provided Sean McPhilemy=92s Box Productions with a new,
filmed interview on the subject of the murder conspiracy, and he focuses
in particular on the RUC=92s role in organizing the assassination of
Belfast human rights lawyer Pat Finucane. Sands, who confirmed what he
told Channel Four in 1991, explains how the go-ahead for the murder was
given at a well-attended meeting of the Committee at Finaghy Orange Hall
in Belfast. In his filmed interview, he identifies some of those present
and states that the RUC representatives were particularly insistent that
the killing be done quickly. Shortly after that Committee meeting, which
was held at the end of January, 1989, Pat Finucane was shot dead while
having Sunday dinner with his wife and children.

Sands further revealed in the interview how two RUC officers arrived at
his home in Antrim just three weeks ago, in an effort to sabotage the
current investigation into the Finucane murder by London Metropolitan
Police official John Stevens. Sands states that the RUC representatives
warned him that the Stevens team soon would be questioning him, and
advised him to "stick to the story" from his "recantation," namely, that
the Channel Four documentary was "a hoax." Thus it appears that just as
in the case of the 1990 Stevens Inquiry into police-loyalist collusion,
the RUC is aware of the current Stevens team=92s movements in advance and
is taking deliberate steps to prevent access to the truth.

Sands, who has been neither paid nor promised any benefit for coming
forward, believes that he and possibly even his wife and children are in
grave physical danger because of what he knows. He realizes that his
current statements may add to that risk, but says that it is "the only
moral thing for me to do":

"Events in Northern Ireland in the years since my detention by the RUC,
as well as events in my own life, have caused me to want to come clean.
I realize that by coming forward and disavowing my 'recantation,' I risk
criminal prosecution and possibly even death. I believe, however, that
the only moral thing for me to do is tell the truth, even if it may harm
me personally."

The latest revelations further enhance the credibility and importance of
The Committee, a book which Congressman and Presidential adviser Peter
King, the Co-Chairman of the House Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs,
recently described as "a vital document in connection with worldwide
demands for reorganization and/or abolition of the RUC." As Congressman
King noted, "these are demands which will occupy Northern Ireland=92s
center stage in the coming months, when the government commission headed
by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten addresses allegations raised
in McPhilemy=92s book."

According to Irish America magazine, the book is to the Northern Irish
"troubles" what Uncle Tom=92s Cabin was to the issue of American slavery,
and for that reason, "it packs enough power to abolish the RUC."
Sands=92s statements also are yet another blow to libel plaintiffs David
and Albert Prentice, wealthy Portadown businessmen who are attempting to
prosecute a libel suit against the author and publisher of the book in
the U.S. Last week, the District of Columbia Superior Court in
Washington dealt
the first blow when it barred the Prentices from using the "discovery"
process to rummage through author Sean McPhilemy=92s journalistic notes,
memoranda and other documents.

The much-awaited paperback edition of The Committee, which will be
available on May 24, contains new revelations about RUC death squads and
provides details of over 100 assassinations, nearly all of which
officially are "unsolved." Further information concerning the book, as
well as the full text of the recent Sands affidavit, is available on the
internet at www.robertsrinehart.com/truth_in_ireland.htm   Persons
interested in helping to defray the costs of defending against the
ongoing lawsuit filed against the book by alleged Committee members are
encouraged to send their donations to The Truth in Ireland Legal Defense
Fund, c/o Roberts Rinehart Publishers, P.O. Box 666, Niwot, Colorado
80544.

# # #

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