Declan Ganley

Declan James Ganley (born July 23, 1968 in London ) is a British businessman and political activist. Ganley has been an Irish citizen since 2006 at the latest; he lives in Abbeyknockmoy , County Galway , Republic of Ireland . Ganley was the founder and chairman of the European Libertas party . With the forerunner organization of the same name, he played an important role in the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by Irish voters in the 2008 referendum.

Profession and political career

Ganley is the managing director of Rivada Networks, a US company that provides secure communications systems for the United States National Guard . The communication systems are used in disaster control - including during Hurricane Katrina - where they ensure communication between the various security forces such as the police , the fire brigade and the national guard in the event of the breakdown of conventional networks . Declan Ganley was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the US state Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina .

Before that, he was active in the sale of Russian aluminum, building broadband infrastructure in various European cities and in the wood industry in Latvia , where he became a foreign policy advisor after independence in 1991. CNBC European Business magazine estimates Ganley's assets to 300 million dollars .

As a political activist, Ganley played a significant role in the Irish “no” to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty through his platform Libertas . In 2003 he wrote a critical essay on the then planned EU constitution for the US Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI ) in Philadelphia . In the run-up to a possible repeat vote on the Lisbon Treaty, Ganley referred to the treaty as a “dead document” in November 2008 and insisted that “the treaty needed to be thrown away” (the treaty must be thrown away).

His dealings with the United States National Guard were used by political opponents to accuse him of financial dependence on the United States. From the trade in secure communications technology and the resulting business relationships with the US military, it was deduced that Ganley was an "arms dealer". However, there was no evidence that his communication technology was also used in war zones such as Iraq or that he was involved in military projects beyond civil protection.

On September 22, 2008, Daniel Cohn-Bendit asked the European Parliament whether US intelligence agencies had supported Ganley's campaign to vote against the Irish No. Other media reported that Ganley was financially supported by the CIA against the Lisbon Treaty . For an interview with Deutsche Welle, two days after the Irish Lisbon referendum, Ganley removed a US flag from his office. The report, which was also shown in ARD Europamagazin, also contains a denial of Ganley's work for American clients. The passage with the US flag was used by many European television stations as an indication of Ganley's proximity to America (including the Irish station RTÉ and the German ZDF). In a daily topic report on ARD, Ganley was brought into connection with European-critical American scientists from the Heritage Foundation , who see a unified European appearance as being directed against the interests of the USA. However, Ganley's own statements contradicted this, according to which he wanted to make the EU the "leading force on the world stage" through an elected president and a common foreign policy.

Libertas took part in the 2009 European elections in several EU member states , but was only able to win a mandate in France . Ganley himself ran in Ireland and achieved around 13% of the vote in his constituency North West, but did not move into the European Parliament . After the election, he announced his retirement from politics. Before the second Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, he once again supported the no campaign. However, the referendum ended with approval of ratification. Ganley has not been politically active since then; the Libertas party also stopped its activities.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Irish Times : “Nationality of Libertas founder was listed as British in UK records” , September 22, 2008 (English)
2. ↑ Portrait at Rivada Networks ( Memento of the original from July 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ CNBC : "Portrait at CNBC" ( Memento of the original from February 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 18, 2008 (English) 
4. ↑ BBC : "He Holds the Louisiana Distinguished Service Medal," October 1, 2008 (English)
5. ↑ US magazine claims Ganley set to become billionaire. In: The Sunday Business Post ( online ( memento of the original from June 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) 
6. ↑ Declan J. Ganley: Europe's Constitutional Treaty: A Threat to Democracy and How to Avoid It.FRPI, December 2003 ( online ( memento of the original of July 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) 
7. ↑ Irish Times: “Throw Lisbon Treaty away, Ganley tells committee” , November 18, 2008 (English)
8. ^ Format: "Commentary by Peter Pelinka" , November 21, 2008
9. ↑ Wolfgang Proissl: Did the USA sabotage the EU treaty with Ganley's help? In: Financial Times , September 25, 2008 ( online ( September 26, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ))
10. ↑ www.ad.nl, Frans Boogaard, September 23, 2008: VS financierden mogelijk Iers 'nee'
11. ↑ European magazine: Ireland - The Conspiracy Theory , broadcast on June 21, 2008, 4.30 p.m. (WDR)
12. ↑ ^{a b} ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Tagesthemen, Rolf-Dieter Krause, October 15, 2008: Reasons for the Irish No )
13. ↑ "Irish 'No' proponents announce Europe-wide campaign", DLF "Informations am Mittag", 12:10 p.m., 11 December 2008

Web links

• Liberta's website