From the BBC:
"Bloody Sunday: Ex-soldier arrested over Londonderry shootings"
A former soldier has been arrested by detectives investigating the events of Bloody Sunday in Londonderry. Thirteen people were killed when British paratroopers opened fire on a civil rights march through the city in January 1972. A fourteenth died later. The 66-year-old is a former member of the Parachute Regiment. It is understood he is being questioned over the deaths of William Nash, Michael McDaid and John Young. The man is the first person to be arrested as part of the Bloody Sunday investigation. He is being interviewed at a police station in Belfast after being detained in County Antrim on Tuesday morning. He is soldier J, who was one of the soldiers who appeared before the Saville Inquiry. Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother, William, was killed on Bloody Sunday, said she welcomed the news. "I had a call this morning from the police liaison officer that deals with our family," said Ms Nash. "She said that they had arrested a soldier and that he was being questioned. She said she wanted the family to know first before it went out on the news. "She said he was being questioned in relation to the death of my brother, William and two others: Michael McDaid, John Young and the attempted murder of my father. "I started to shake. I couldn't believe it. I became very emotional. "To see a soldier even being questioned has truly shocked me. I never thought it would get to this. "There is a flicker of hope. It's a very positive step." The officer leading the investigation, Det Ch Insp Ian Harrison, said the arrest "marked a new phase in the overall investigation which would continue for some time". In a statement, Peter Madden of Madden & Finucane Solicitors, the firm that represents most of the Bloody Sunday families, said the arrest was "a very welcome development". A Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesperson said: "We are aware an ex-soldier has been arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in connection with their investigation into the events of Bloody Sunday. Former Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Mandelson told Channel 4 News: "There are perils in going back so far into history. Bloody Sunday was one of the most controversial days in Northern Ireland's history. In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron apologised to the Bloody Sunday victims on behalf of the state, after a long-running public inquiry unequivocally blamed the Army for the civilian deaths. The inquiry, led by Lord Saville, took 12 years to complete and exonerated those who died. It concluded that soldiers fired the first shot and gave no warning before opening fire on the civilian marchers. The Saville Report also found that some of those killed or injured were clearly fleeing or going to help the injured and dying. Accepting the findings of the 2010 inquiry, Mr Cameron described the killings as "unjustified and unjustifiable" and said he was "deeply sorry". The arrest was made by the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Legacy Investigation Branch. The specialist police team was set up to re-investigate unsolved murder cases, dating from the beginning of the Troubles in the late 1960s, up to 2004. The Legacy Investigation Branch replaced the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), shortly after an inspection report criticised the HET for treating state killings with "less rigour" than others. The branch began work in January this year, taking over the Bloody Sunday investigation along with other HET cases.
^ It's important to bring criminal charges on every soldier involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972 and those in the British Military and Government that helped to cover it up. You can not have the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (David Cameron at the time) apologize for the innocent murders and then still let the British soldiers involved to go free and even keep the awards and decorations they received (even from Queen Elizabeth II.) It sends a very bad message to the people of Northern Ireland: that yes we (the British) finally admit (after 40 years) that we massacred innocent people, but no we aren't going to do a thing to correct the mistakes we knew we were making back in 1972 with the massacre and cover-up because Catholic lives don't matter. I was in Northern Ireland, Ireland and England in June 2010 when the report came out and you could feel the extra tension especially in Northern Ireland. We force the Germans to punish the Nazis who massacred innocent people during World War 2 even 70 years after the war ended yet for some reason the Brits think they don't need to come to terms with their own massacres 42 years after they happened. A massacre is a massacre. The British Military went into Northern Ireland in 1969 not to keep the peace between the Irish Protestants and the Irish Catholics (as they should have), but to keep the majority Pro-British Irish Protestants in power and to help them keep the minority Irish Catholics submissive as they had been since 1922. It is as though the US Federal Government sent the US Military into the American South to help keep the Southern White Segregationists in power and the Black Civil Rights activists submissive in the 1960s. The Irish Catholics in Northern Ireland merely wanted to be treated as equals in: housing, job opportunities, etc but the Irish Protestants and the British didn't want to allow that. What followed was decades of war, violence and massacres. Had the Irish Protestants and the British treated the Irish Catholics as equal citizens in their own land back in the 1960 and 1970s the Troubles wouldn't have been as deadly as it became. The Irish Catholics only received equal rights in 1998 - the same rights the Irish Protestants and the British in Northern Ireland had since Ireland was divided in the 1920s. Because of their actions in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s the British Military, the British Government and the Northern Irish Protestants are guilty of starting the Troubles in 1969. The Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972 was viewed, at the time and for decades later, by the British media, the British Military, the British Government, the British Monarchy and the British people as the result of Catholics causing trouble and getting what they deserved when in reality those Catholics murdered by the British Parachute Regiment are heroes who were butchered for their religion and their beliefs in a free and equal society. The fourteen innocent people are the Northern Irish version of Civil Rights martyrs and should be given memorials and places named after them throughout: Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England to remind everyone what happens when you discriminate and murder the innocent. ^
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