Post #9438

Just on the Paul Connelly story as there's been some confusion in the details: The phone with the red casing pictured below does not belong to Paul Connolly unless it's a second burner phone he owns. There are actually two phones in the footage which has been circulating. The phone with the black casing belongs to Paul Connolly and the one with the red casing probably belongs to someone else. Ireland Against Fascism's Charlotte O'Sullivan appears in the call logs of both phones. On Connelly's phone, she's listed as Char NTP which possibly stands for Newstalk Podcast. I've seen some people suggest the whatsapp conversation below is between Khurram Adnan Ishtiaq and Paul Connolly but Ishtiaq is likely texting a third party about his procurement of caps and hoodies. However, there is a message from a contact on Paul Connolly's phone which reads: "I don't see an issue unless things get hairy at the city centre one and they are potentially in more danger in Coolock that they were in in city centre or if a crowd were to follow them from city centre for example but I assume that is unlikely. They can only call that in the moment." There's evidence on the phone suggesting Connolly has been in contact with a security company called Security Central. Khurram Adnan Ishtiaq is the person who can be seen in the footage writing 'refugees welcome' on a tricolour in a room at the Travelodge Plus in Dublin. He also appears in footage taken on Connolly's phone being in the back of a van with a third man near the Garden of Remembrance, both dressed in black. There's a strong possibility the red phone belongs to this third man and based on other evidence in the footage of the phones, he has also been potentially identified. Khurram Adnan Ishtiaq also goes by Khurram Sheikh and describes himself as TV & film producer, writer, director and investigative journalist who is from Salford, where the BBC have their regional HQ for north west England. In one post on facebook, Ishtiaq congratulates the appointment of Pakistan's new Air Force chief, Zaheer Ahmad Babar, in 2021, who Ishtiaq describes as his dear friend. Charlotte O'Sullivan also stayed in a Dublin hotel in anticipation of her counter protest against a planned Ireland Opts Out rally at the Garden of Remembrance last Saturday which was subsequently cancelled due to Storm Kathleen. It's possible she stayed at the same Travelodge Plus which Ishtiaq stayed at. She appeared to goad potential attendees of the Ireland Opts Out rally on the night before the rally by writing: "I will be at the Garden of Remembrance just before 2pm tomorrow. If any of the far-right thugs and scumbags that have threatened me online for years want to have a word then put your money where your mouth is. Otherwise STFU and get back in your box. That is all." It's possible Paul Connolly wanted to use her to try to incite a confrontation and when that plan couldn't be realised, he travelled to Coolock instead where any plans he had became further unstuck. There are a lot of claims going around and it's hard to know what might and might not be accurate but one thing I have noticed is that the trusted factchecker community don't seem to be in any rush to clear any of it up. 👉🏻join Late Stage Ireland 🔗x.com