Jim Higgins comments on Declan Ganley and the US military are backed by Fine Gael party

The full text of Jim Higgins speech is on the Fine Gael website. Given that ganley tried to sue Higgins only a few months ago over the same claims regarding Ganley's unsavory motives this implies that the whole party have disregarded Ganley's legal threats.
It will be interesting to see if new legal threats are issued by Ganley or will he accept that the truth should be in the public domain.
The below is the portion of the speech dealing with Declan Ganley and his secretive Libertas party.

The decision by the Irish people to reject the Lisbon Treaty is nothing short of a catastrophe. We have pushed ourselves from the heart of Europe to the fringe of Europe. We have jeopardised the possibility of further, but much-needed funding for infrastructure and agriculture. We have damaged our international reputation and prospects of jobs from direct foreign investment, not to speak of retaining the vital important US jobs which up to now have been a key component in our economy.

I cannot emphasise strongly enough how crucially important it is that whenever Lisbon is put to the people again, we do everything possible to ensure that the electorate turn away from the lunatic fringe which mounted a deliberately misleading and spurious campaign. The Lisbon Treaty protected every vital Irish interest - our attractive corporation tax, our neutrality, our stance on defence and last, but by no means least, our total revulsion and rejection of abortion. To manage to get the people of Ireland to buy into an alliance of Sinn Féin and Libertas speaks volumes in terms of the ability of the two ends of the spectrum to find common cause, all designed to sabotage our vital national interest.

I welcome Mr Declan Ganley's decision to contest this election. At long last we might be in a position to find out exactly what Mr Ganley's agenda is.

He will have to tell the people why ten months after the Lisbon vote he has constantly refused to tell the Standards in Public Office Commission the nature and conditions of his personal loan to the Libertas Lisbon campaign and the involvement of his Rivada Networks staff. This is the Lord of the Manor who lectures from on high in relation to transparency. It begs the question, what is Mr Ganley hiding?

He will have to explain why two of the Eastern European politicians who signed his ratification for recognition as a political party have now withdrawn their signatures.

He will have to come clean about the one million Swedish Krona offered to the Swedish Euro sceptic political party Junilistan to add the name of Libertas to its title, only to be told by its leader "I was insulted. It would be extremely unethical for our party to be funded by a millionaire from another country."

People would like to know why, after courting and supporting the ultra right wing Catholic LPR party in Poland, Mr Ganley has suddenly bolted in the opposite direction this week.

Mr Ganley likes to parade himself as a loyal Irish man. Why then has he described himself in the past as British? Why has he appointed on to his board four-star US generals, a former British SAS general and high-ranking former defence staff?

The truth is that Mr Ganley is a puppet of the US military. The truth is that the United States military are frightened stiff of a united and stronger European Union through the Lisbon Treaty. The truth is that Mr Ganley does not want a united Europe. Anything that would get in the way of his multi-million dollar contracts with the US military must be opposed. Hence his opposition to Lisbon. Hence his reason to contest these elections.

It was once famously said that the first casualty of war is the truth. At his campaign launch last week, Mr Ganley accused me of voting for a €9.2 million swimming pool and sauna for the European Parliament. I never voted for such a project, and neither did any of my colleagues. Declan, if you continue with such malicious claims I will be seeing you in another forum and it won't be the European Parliament. You pretend to be pro-Europe. The reality is that you are anti-Europe.

Declan Ganley's US military contracts are the reason for his opposition to Lisbon Treaty - MEP

Jim Higgins has branded Declan Ganley a puppet of the US military. He goes further to say that Ganley's opposition to the Lisbon Treaty was informed solely by his close ties and business contracts with his American military paymasters.

Higgins who Ganley targeted recently, firstly by trying to scare him into silence Ganley threatened to sue the MEP. While Higgins failed to be impressed by Ganley's threats, Ganley , as usual, failed to proceed with his legal action. Ganley is becoming notorious for his threats to sue that are not backed up by legal actions. This has correctly been viewed by may in Ireland as intimidation tactics, as Ganley attempts to use his alledged wealth and therefore his ability to fund legal actions to silence critics.

Higgins in whose constituency Ganley is contesting the European elections in June has been a particular target of Ganley mistruths.


Higgins also asks why Ganley is courting far right politicians in Europe. The Irish Independent has further quotes to the ones used in the Irish Times. See Also

Ganley is branded a 'puppet of US military'

FINE Gael MEP Jim Higgins yesterday launched a furious attack on Libertas leader Declan Ganley -- branding him a "puppet of the US military".

Just one week after Mr Ganley launched his campaign to contest the European elections in the North-West constituency with a verbal attack on Mr Higgins, the veteran politician hit back.

Speaking at the party's selection convention in Sligo yesterday, he welcomed Mr Ganley's decision to enter the race but said he would have to reveal his true agenda.

"The truth is that the United States military are frightened stiff of a united and stronger European Union through the Lisbon Treaty.

"The truth is that Mr Ganley does not want a united Europe. Anything that would get in the way of his multi-million dollar contracts with the US military must be opposed. Hence his opposition to Lisbon. Hence his reason to contest these elections," he said.

He called on the Libertas founder to reveal why he has constantly refused to tell the Standards in Public Office Commission the nature and conditions of his personal loan to the Libertas Lisbon campaign and the involvement of his Rivada Networks staff. Last night Mr Ganley's spokesman John McGuirk hit back saying: "Mr Higgins' comments are not just lies, they are embarrassing lies from an MEP who has for four years done absolutely nothing to justify the salary paid to him by taxpayers.

"Jim can snipe at Declan's record in business, but only one candidate has a record of actually creating any jobs, and that's Declan Ganley."

Explain

Earlier, Mr Higgins added Mr Ganley would also have to explain why "two of the Eastern European politicians who signed his ratification for recognition as a political party have now withdrawn their signatures" and to come clean about the one million Swedish Krona (Correction: It was 10 mil SEK =1 mil euro Libertas Nein Danke) allegedly offered to the euro-sceptical political party Junilistan to add the name of Libertas to its title.

Mr Higgins claimed that its leader had responded by saying that it would be "extremely unethical" for the Swedish party to be funded by a millionaire from another country.

He said the public would also like to know why, after courting and supporting the ultra right wing Catholic LPR party in Poland, Mr Ganley has "suddenly bolted in the opposite direction" this week.

- Anita Guidera

Ganley begins election campaign with negative spin against TD he tried to sue

Funny stuff coming out of the west of Ireland.

Todays Irish Times
Ganley and Fine Gael MEP in election row
Declan Ganley: criticised Jim Higgins for swimming pool planDeclan Ganley: criticised Jim Higgins for swimming pool plan
DEAGLAN de BREADUN, Political Correspondent

THE LAUNCH of Libertas founder Declan Ganley’s campaign for the European Parliament in the Ireland North-West constituency has been marked by a war of words with sitting Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins.

In a weekend speech in Galway announcing his candidacy, Mr Ganley referred to Mr Higgins as “Swimmer Jim” because of the MEP’s support for a €9.2 million plan for a swimming pool at the European Parliament.

“I have heard Jim Higgins preaching about the Government wasting money. Then I see Jim Higgins going to Brussels, when he thinks you aren’t looking, and voting for €9.2 million to be spent on a swimming pool for himself and his friends. Well Swimmer Jim will have to answer to the electorate for that,” Mr Ganley said.

Responding in kind, Mr Higgins told The Irish Times it was “a bit rich” of his opponent to focus on “trivia”, given the questions that remained over financing of the Libertas campaign against the Lisbon Treaty last year.

“I’m very disappointed that Mr Ganley should launch his campaign in such a negative fashion,” the Fine Gael MEP said.

“If the best he can do in the course of the campaign is concentrate on trivia rather than serious political debate, I’m afraid his chances of connecting with the electorate are minimal.

“I think it is a bit rich of Mr Ganley to be talking about transparency and financial spending when he has failed utterly over a 10-month period to explain to the Standards in Public Office Commission the nature and conditions of the loan which he personally made available to the anti-Lisbon Libertas campaign and the involvement of his staff members employed by Rivada Networks,” Mr Higgins said.

In his speech at the Glenlo Abbey Hotel in Galway on Saturday night, Mr Ganley said: “In 12 weeks’ time, the people of Galway, along with people from Malin Head to the Shannon estuary, will cast their ballots to choose the people who will represent them in the European Parliament for the next five years.

“After much thought, consideration, and careful preparation, tonight I can tell you and those outside this room that I will be a candidate in that election.”

Mr Ganley said nobody who put themselves before the people had any right to expect to be elected, and he knew he had an uphill battle to win the trust of the people of Ireland North-West over the next three months.

“I am a businessman, not a politician. I know what it takes to create wealth. I know what it will take to dig Europe out of the mess that our politicians have created,” he said, according to a supplied script.

“We are led today by a group of people who have no basic understanding of economics. A group of people with no real life experience of business.

“A group of people who have never, not once, created a single job, except when they do it with taxpayers’ money to employ bureaucrats instead of doctors.”

He added: “Our campaign here in Ireland will be vigorous. We will be attacked, and we will be slandered, and we will be lied about.”

Mr Ganley said Libertas’s message was true. “ Our principles are correct. We are on the side of the people, not the establishment in Dublin. If we work hard, stay focused, and make our case, we will win.”

Libertas has declared its intention to run candidates throughout the European Union.

Ganley of course has his own swimming pool at his house in Tuam which is also headquarters of Ganley International, Rivada Networks and Libertas. I presume Jim Higgans has no pool at home to dip himself in. Of course Jim Higgins is one of the legions that Ganley has threatened to sue in order to intimidate them only to not pursue the actions. He is a serial premature litigant. If you have received a writ from Ganley let this blogger know.

Higgins had a huge spat with ganley last year Ganley's people said

“We were expecting an apology, it was the least he could do. He said that Mr Ganley profits from war and death and that he openly profits from the murdering of other people. This is taking it too far.”



The legal action centres around an interview given by Mr Higgins, broadcast last September, which included comments that “He (Mr Ganley) supplies particular pieces of equipment to the United States military and the more war there is, the more money there is, the more dollars that will pour into Mr Ganley’s private bank account”.




Now those of you who read this blog will know all about Ganley's military fetish, his profiteering from war, his use of Rivada to fund Libetrtas etc
As you would expect Higgins has not been sued by Ganley but merely threatened see here

When Ganley says he is on the side of the people who does he mean? the American people?, the Iraqi people?, the British army people he hires and socialises with?, The people who pay his bills? what people? he certainly is not on the side of the people of Irelan d or the people of Europe.

I have heard that he made a donation to local travellers in Tuam Co. Galway but has anyone seen Ganley ever engage in philanthropy?