Libertas chairman Declan Ganley has said it is “absolutely ridiculous” to suggest that his company, Rivada Networks, has war-related contracts with the US military.
He was responding to this morning's Irish Timesreport which highlighted the fact that several Libertas founders were employees of Rivada Networks which had links with the US military.
“Let me be very clear. Rivada Networks is a public safety communications company,” Mr Ganley said. “We have a contract with the US northern command which is a branch of the US military and the national guard bureau in their role in public safety disaster response,” he said.
“We supply emergency disaster response communications systems.”
Mr Ganley said he was awarded the Louisiana Distinguished Service Medal for leading Rivada Network’s response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“Trying to somehow suggest that we have some sort of contracts with the military for wars and stuff like that is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
“Now I know nobody has specifically said that but by not being clear there’s deliberate fog being put out there, and, of course, all of that distracts from...the issue we are talking about, what’s in the treaty.”
Mr Ganley was speaking at a Libertas press conference on the World Trade Organisation talks. He claimed that the Government was “wilfully misleading and telling outright lies” on the issue of Ireland’s right to veto any future World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements.
And he called on the Government to point to the specific area in the Lisbon Treaty which would allow the Government to invoke a veto against a world trade deal.
