The Irish Times is certainly in love with this – in fairness, fascinating – story it has uncovered about former Irish soldiers training a rebel group in Libya. No fewer than three articles on the story adorned the IT on Wednesday, with a series of follow-ups coming yesterday, and doubtless more by the time you’re reading this. The most interesting article is the claim that the Gardai are now investigating the company involved which contracted out the ex-soldiers for the work, ostensibly on the grounds that sanctions against Libyan rebel groups may have been breached. The media, as a general rule, loves “Gardai investigating” stories – no headline beginning with those two words is ever turned down by an editor. The problem is that in this case, it’s not immediately clear what, if any, law has been breached.
This is presumably why in the same edition of the Irish Times, we are told that “Mr Martin has also asked his officials to examine the strengthening of legislation to regulate the activities of former and serving Defence Forces personnel in countries subject to UN or EU sanctions.” If their activity were already a clear and unambiguous breach of the law, then it is unlikely that any further legislation would be needed to deal with the matter.
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