The 1985 Supplementary Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and the United Kingdom: an exercise in soft power

ABSTRACT

The relationship between the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland during the years of conflict in Northern Ireland has been the topic of significant scholarly literature, but rarely has this literature examined the statecraft behind US interventions in Northern Ireland in the years before the election of President Bill Clinton. In this article, I will use a range of recently declassified state papers and a series of personal interviews to examine the introduction of the 1985 Supplementary Extradition Treaty between the United States and United Kingdom and show how the British government successfully manoeuvred their American counterparts, in both the Executive and Legislative branches, towards ratification of both the extradition treaty and the Anglo-Irish Agreement Support Act of 1986.

KEYWORDS:

• Soft power
• Northern Ireland
• Anglo-Irish Agreement
• the United States
• special relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919–1939, 108.

2. Boulding, Three Faces of Power, 51.

3. Nye, Soft Power, 1.

4. Wilson, “Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power”, 110.

5. Nye, Soft Power, 5.

6. Most notable is Lynch, Turf War; see also Wilson, “Doing the Business”; Evans, “The US Peace Initiative in Northern Ireland”; Guelke, “The United States, Irish Americans and the Northern Ireland Peace Process”; O’Clery, The Greening of the White House; Powell, Great Hatred, Little Room, 77–79, 101–114, 182–191; de Breadun, The Far Side of Revenge, 14–15, 176–179; Elliott, The Long Road to Peace in Northern Ireland; English, Armed Struggle, 273, 304–306. Recent work by Mary Alice Clancy has expanded this to examine the role of the George W. Bush administration, see for example “The United States and post-Agreement Northern Ireland”, and “The Lessons of Third Party Intervention?”.

7. Cochrane, “Irish-America, the End of the IRA’s.”

8. Ibid., 229.

9. Agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Ireland concerning the International Fund for Ireland, London and Dublin, 18 September 1986 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1987).

10. Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Jack Lynch, T.D., to the National Press Club, Washington, 9 November 1979 in Taoiseach Mr. J. Lynch visit to U.S.A. November 1979 TAOIS 2009/135/716, NAI.

11. NYT, 5/3/1986.

12. NYT, 7/3/1986.

13. IT, 26/3/1986.

14. Nye, Soft Power, 13.

15. Basso, “The 1985 U.S.-U.K. Supplementary Extradition Treaty”, 305–306.

16. Full Text of the 1972 UK-USA Extradition Treaty, available at http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jul/22aUKUS1972.html, also available at http://internationalextraditionblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/gibraltar.pdf.

17. Ibid.

18. Quinn v. Robinson, 783, F.2d 776, 797 (9^th Cir. 1986) cited in Basso, 308–309.

19. Note, “American Courts and Modern Terrorism”, 617, 622.

20. Basso, 306–307.

21. Pyle, Extradition, Politics and Human Rights, 307.

22. McKittrick, Lost Lives, 138.

23. Irish Republican Army, “Green Book”, undated, available at: http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/organ/ira/ira_green_book.htm.

24. Irish Times, 20/6/1972.

25. Note of a meeting with Representatives of the Provisional IRA, Ballyarnett, near Donegal Border 3pm 20/6/1972, Situation in Northern Ireland, PREM 15/1009, TNA.

26. Lord Gardiner, “Report of a Committee to consider in the context of civil liberties and human rights, measures to deal with terrorism in Northern Ireland” (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1975), especially Chapter 5.

27. Gerard Hodgins, interview with author, 25/3/2010.

28. Margaret Thatcher “Speech in Belfast” 5/3/1981, available at http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104589.

29. Council of Europe—ETS no. 090—European Convention of the Suppression of Terrorism, 27/1/1977, available at http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/090.htm.

30. Ibid.

31. Suppression of Terrorism Act 1978, available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1978/26/introduction.

32. McElrath, Unsafe Haven, 47, see also Farrell, Sheltering the Fugitive?

33. Washington Post, 2/9/1979 and 7/9/1979, NYT, 13/1/1992; Justia, US Law, Case Law, Federal Courts, Courts of Appeal, Ninth Circuit Court, 1981, Peter Gabriel John McMullen, Petitioner v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Respondent, 658 F.2d 1312 (9^th Cir. 1981) Argued and Submitted 13/5/1981, Decided 13/10/1981, available at http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/658/1312/50826/.

34. Washington Post, 7/9/1979.

35. The New York Times, 1/1/1982.

36. The New York Times, 16/8/1981.

37. McKittrick et al, Lost Lives, 521.

38. Los Angeles Times, 21/10/1986.

39. Dillon, Killer In Clowntown, 827–828.

40. NYT 14/12/1984.

41. NYT 4/7/1988.

42. US State Department briefing on Doherty Case, Reagan Library, European and Soviet Directorate NSC (Thatcher Visit—December 1984), available at http://margaretthatcher.org/document/109404.

43. Basso, K., “The 1985 U.S.-U.K. Supplementary Extradition Treaty”, 302. Also, Parry, “No Appeal”, 551. Desmond Mackin’s case was resolved relatively quickly; although extradition was denied, he was deported to Ireland in December 1981, see NYT, 1/1/1982.

44. Telegram from UK Embassy Washington to FCO, 17/10/1985, PREM 19/1660, TNA.

45. Sheinwald, interview with author, 26/4/2013.

46. Hannay, “An Analysis of the U.S.-U.K”, 925–937.

47. Supplementary Treaty between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the United States of America (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1986).

48. NYT 13/1/1992.

49. L.A. Daily 13/6/1986.

50. Letter from Nigel Sheinwald to Peter Sommer 6/9/1985, CA Peter Sommer Files, RAC Box 2, 3, Box 3, Reagan Library. The NSC is the National Security Council.

51. Letter from Nigel Sheinwald to Peter Sommer 6/9/1985, CA Peter Sommer Files, RAC Box 2, 3, Box 3, Reagan Library.

52. Letter from Stephen S. Trott, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division to Richard McEldowney, Supreme Sir Knight, Knights of Equity, 4/12/1985, WHORM: Subject File CO167 United Kingdom, Box 214, Reagan Library.

53. United States and United Kingdom Supplementary Extradition Treaty, Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninety-Ninth Congress, First Session S. Hrg. 99-703 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1986). Hereafter “Supplementary Extradition Treaty, Hearings”.

54. Supplementary Extradition Treaty, Hearings, 1.

55. Ibid., 12–14 and 18–20.

56. Ibid., 39.

57. Ibid., 51.

58. Ibid., 97.

59. Ibid., 110.

60. Bassiouni, Testimonial Statement to Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 276–305.

61. These articles were revised by the 19^th amendment in December 1999. See Constitution of Ireland, October 2015, available at http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en/html.

62. See Note 14.

63. Lord Armstrong, interview with author, 9/10/2013.

64. Ibid.

65. IT, 22/12/1984.

66. US State Department brief (Thatcher Visit), undated, Reagan Library: European & Soviet Affairs Directorate NSC, available at http://margaretthatcher.org/document/109416.

67. Memorandum of Conversation, Meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Camp David, 28/12/1984. NSC Records, European and Soviet Directorate NSC, Reagan Library, available at http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/displaydocument.asp?docid=109185.

68. See Note 63.

69. Nye, Soft Power, 7.

70. Speech to Joint Houses of Congress, 20/2/1985, www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105968.

71. Note of points made during PUS’s meeting with NI Permanent Secretaries, 19/9/1985, CENT/3/36A, PRONI.

72. IT, 24/7/1985.

73. IT, 19/3/1985. Maurice Fitzpatrick has discussed the relationship between figures such as O’Neill and Ted Kennedy and John Hume, a founder of the Social and Democratic Labour Party, in John Hume in America: From Derry to DC (Newbridge: Irish Academic Press, 2017). McLoughlin notes the role of Kennedy in assisting Hume with a visiting position at Harvard University in 1976 as being pivotal in helping Hume reach a wider audience in the United States, see McLoughlin, John Hume and the revision of Irish Nationalism, 108–110.

74. Letter to Ian Paisley from Margaret Thatcher, 14/10/1985, CENT/3/37A, PRONI.

75. IT, 28/10/1985.

76. See Note 63.

77. UK Embassy Washington to FCO “UK-US Supplementary Treaty” 17/10/1985, PREM 19/1660, TNA.

78. See Note 63.

79. Sunday Times, 24/11/1985.

80. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 385, 402.

81. Joint Press Conference with French President (Francois Mitterrand), 18/11/1985, available at http://margaretthatcher.org/document/109416.

82. Joint Press Conference with West German Chancellor (Helmut Kohl), 27/11/1985, available at http://margaretthatcher.org/document/106183.

83. IT, 16/11/1985.

84. IT, 4/12/1985.

85. NYT, 26/12/1985.

86. IT, 23/11/1985.

87. IT, 14/1/1986, 31/1/1986.

88. IT, 6/2/1986.

89. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, 403–404.

90. For more see Owen, The Anglo Irish Agreement.

91. See Note 11.

92. See Note 12.

93. IT, 15/2/1986.

94. IT, 13/3/1986.

95. See Note 13.

96. IT, 11/4/1986.

97. IT, 15/3/1986. Ian Paisley referred to the fund as a retirement package for O’Neill, see IT 8/5/1986.

98. NYT, 24/3/1986.

99. NYT, 11/4/1986.

100. President’s Letter to the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Majority Leader, 22 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 524, 28/4/1986.

101. Sherard Cowper Coles to Otto Obermaier, quoted in Pyle, Extradition, Politics and Human Rights, 197. Other authors emphasise the Libyan dimension to the treaty: Cronin, Washington’s Irish Policy 1916–1986; Dillon, Killer in Clowntown; Kelly, “The Empire Strikes Back.”

102. IT, 17/4/1986.

103. IT, 2/5/1986. The Republican members of the committee at the time were Richard Lugar, Jesse Helms, Charles Mathias, Nancy Kassebaum, Rudy Boschwitz, Larry Pressler, Frank Murkowski, Paul Trible and Daniel Evans, whilst the Democrats featured Claiborn Pell, Joe Biden, Paul Sarbanes, Edward Zorinsky, Alan Cranston, Christopher Dodd, Thomas Eagleton and John Kerry.

104. IT, 6/5/1986 and 7/5/1986.

105. IT, 17/5/1986.

106. IT, 4/6/1986.

107. IT, 7/6/1986.

108. IT, 13/6/1986. The new language had won over Helms, Kerry, Biden and Dodd.

109. See Note 106.

110. The Supplementary Extradition Treaty Between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with annex, signed at Washington on 25 June 1985, available at https://www.congress.gov/treaty-document/99th-congress/8?q={%22search%22%3A[%22ireland%22%2C%22ireland%22]}.

111. IT, 25/7/1986.

112. Quinn was the only man extradited, in October 1986, while McMullen eventually gave up his appeal and returned to the UK in March 1996, and Doherty was deported in February 1992, see Wilson, Irish America, 259; Los Angeles Times 18/2/1986, NYT 21/10/1986; Glasgow Herald 17/2/1988; McKittrick, Lost Lives, 521; IT, 17/2/1988, IT, 8/11/1996, and Basso, “The 1985 U.S.-U.K. Supplementary Extradition Treaty”, 325. McMullen was sentenced to 14 years but freed immediately because of time already served whilst imprisoned in the United States, while Quinn and Doherty were released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1999 and 1998, respectively.

113. NYT, 7/3/1986; IT, 18/9/1986.

114. IT, 19/9/1986.

115. IT, 2/10/1986.

116. The case of Pol Brennan is particularly striking here, see Daily Telegraph, 1/2/2008, Belfast Telegraph, 22/8/2009.

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Andrew Sanders

Andrew Sanders is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University San Antonio.  A graduate of Queen's University Belfast, he is the author of Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy (Edinburgh: 2011) and co-author of Times of Troubles: Britain's War in Northern Ireland (Edinburgh 2012)