Libertas leader accuses rivals of 'intimidation'
Declan Ganley denies anti-Lisbon stance is motivated by business links with US military
Sunday June 01 2008
Declan Ganley, head of the Libertas 'No' campaign, has claimed that he has been subjected to intimidation in the run-up to the vote on the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent, he also denied Yes campaign claims that his US company, Rivada Networks LLC, played any role in US military offences in the middle East. He is insisting that it has only been involved in domestic rescue and disaster operations. The Yes side have also questioned the military connections in the US of airline tycoon and Fine Gael activist Ulick McEvaddy, who is also leading the No campaign.
Ganley also said that he was also subject to what he called "low-level" intimidation by Fianna Fail at a recent meeting of the Forum on Europe in Galway. He said that certain members of the Yes side were going out of their way to play dirty tricks.
"I've been told, 'We're watching what you say, what you do, who you talk to and where you go'. It shows the lengths these people will go to to damage me because they haven't got a decent explanation [of] why this treaty should be passed. But I'm a big boy I can take their snide remarks and jibes. It's all they have."
The Yes side has stepped up their attacks on Ganley and Libertas, and have gone to great lengths to try and discredit their role and motivation for running their well-bankrolled and expansive 'Vote No' campaign without having a national structure like the established political parties. According to the Yes side, the Irish people can't trust Libertas because they are being bankrolled by a US company, Rivada, which has direct links to the US military; such funding is illegal; Libertas has been secretive about its massive budget for the campaign (up from €300,000 to €1.3m) and are opposed to Lisbon because of their US military links.
Declan Ganley is chief executive of Rivada, a high-tech telecommunications company which has, by his own admission, provided support for US domestic military bodies such as the coastguard. The company is based in Deleware but has an Irish regional office registered to Ganley's home in Galway. But he denied his company was involved in front-line military operations and told how he was commended for the role Rivada had played in helping the US National Guard and coastguard rescue stranded people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
However, it has emerged that several of the key Libertas staff were on the payroll of Rivada and when questioned two of the top people admitted the bulk of their Rivada work was for Libertas. A spokesman for Libertas this weekend said that Libertas employees Dave Cochrane (formerly of Politics.ie), Naoise Nunn and John McGuirk are now all employed by Libertas and not Rivada, but he declined to disclose how much each was paid.
The 'Yes' side have said that it is simply not possible for an organisation with no national base network to raise their expected total budget of €1.3m-€1.5m, compared to €600,000 by Fianna Fail and €500,000 of Fine Gael (while Labour intends to spend about €200,000 on the campaign).
Fine Gael's Lucinda Creighton said: "There is no way this Libertas money is coming from donations. They aren't being genuine in the slightest." Libertas insisted this weekend it is being funded totally by donations, many from big business who feel the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) have sold them out.
There was also concern when the Libertas accounts showed that to the end of December last, there had been no overheads or expenditure on staff or administration, despite the campaign having been in existence for several months. In response, Libertas said all its accounts will be published in due course.
The 'Yes' side have also called on Libertas to reveal their donor list. But Libertas and Ganley have hit back, with Ganley saying: "It's a little rich that people in Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are trying to lecture us about raising money, their records aren't squeaky clean. They set the rules up and we are in total compliance with their rules. We have a huge number of business donors who want to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, but we will reveal a list as soon as FF/FG show theirs. Given what I have experienced, I'm not willing to expose them to that."
Fine Gael also said that the real motivation of Libertas and businessman like McEvaddy, who also deals with the US military, is to protect their own business interests.
Lucinda Creighton said: "The businesses of Ganley and McEvaddy are heavily dependent on contracts from the State Department, the Pentagon and US government agencies. These men are a lot less concerned about Irish sovereignty than they are about the potential hit to their own personal business interests."
Ulick McEvaddy dismissed Creighton's claims saying she was more like "Michael Creighton" with the fiction she was putting out on him. McEvaddy added that he has never hidden his links with the US military and despite Creighton's "rantings" to the contrary, the US establishment was in favour of Lisbon.
- DANIEL McCONNELL
