Unusual US military activity at Shannon and in Irish Airspace

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Monday July 28, 2008 21:22

by Edward Horgan

Is something going down somewhere sometime soon?

Shannon airport and Irish airspace are being used on a daily basis by US warplanes, with the permission of the Irish Government, in contravention of international laws on neutrality, in spite of the Irish Governments claims that Ireland is still a neutral state.
Lies, Lies and Damn Lies

On Friday last, 25 July there were two US airforce Hercules C130 warplanes at Shannon.
On Sunday a US military Gulfstream IV N473GA. Painted in military colours, US military reg 90-0300, landed and refuelled at Shannon.
http://www.planepictures.net/netsearch4.cgi?srch=90-030...rng=2
Also refuelled at Shannon on Sunday was a C17 US warplane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-17_Globemaster_III

We have reliable reports that the following US warplanes flew through Irish airspace also on Sunday 27th July:
C5 - US military cargo plane and a Boeing Sentry, a surveillance and communications plane.
http://www.airframes.org/reg/750560 About http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_Sentry

See also in todays Irish Times P4 details of Irish complicity in the rendition of Binyam Mohamed to Morocco, to Afghanistan, and to Guantanamo using CIA aircraft N379P and N313p, that were refuelled at Shannon, and whose crews stayed overnight in the Shannon region.
The noose is tightening around our complicit criminals at Shannon and Leinster House.

see also Amnesty Press release

Amnesty International
NEWS RELEASE

For immediate release
25 July 2008

Amnesty welcomes UN support on renditions and trafficking

Amnesty International Irish Section has welcomed recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Committee on renditions and trafficking. They were contained in the Committee’s concluding observations on Ireland’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The organisation’s Executive Director Colm O’Gorman has called on the Government to accept and implement the recommendations and said that the Government’s position on Shannon was now in ‘tatters’.
“The Irish Government’s position of relying on US assurances that Shannon is not being used to facilitate extraordinary renditions is in tatters,” said Mr O’Gorman.
“The UN Human Rights Committee is the latest organisation to warn the Government it is placing too much reliance on assurances from the United States that Shannon Airport is not being used for rendition flights.
“We welcome their support for a ‘…regime for the control of suspicious flights…’, which Amnesty International and various human rights organisations in Ireland have long been calling for. The Committee also recommends that ‘…all allegations of so-called renditions are publicly investigated.’ This echoes Amnesty International’s call for an independent inquiry to investigate thoroughly all allegations that aircraft engaged in renditions have transited Irish airspace or airports.
“The Government must be clear whether it will accept these recommendations or whether the United Nations is to be ignored in favour of dubious assurances from discredited sources that Irish airspace is not being used as part of the illegal CIA renditions programme.
“It is one thing for the Government to refuse to listen to the voice of human rights organisations and legal experts but when the United Nations joins the Council of Europe in supporting our position the Government cannot continue to bury its head in the sand.”
The UN Human Rights Committee also expressed its concerns the victims of trafficking were not being properly protected.
“Amnesty International welcomed the entry into law last month of the
Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 but warned that the Government was still failing trafficking victims,” continued Mr O’Gorman. “Protections for victims are conditional and fall short of our international commitments under the European Convention on Action Against Trafficking.
“I am calling on the Government to accept the UN’s recommendation to allow trafficking victims to remain in the state even if they do not cooperate with the Gardaí in prosecuting alleged traffickers. “Given the nature of these criminal gangs, victims who work with the Gardaí can understandably be concerned not only for their own safety but that of their families in their home countries.
“This would be an important step for the Government in meeting the minimum standards for the protection of these women who have been subjected to
horrific abuses.”

ENDS

For further information please contact:
Justin Moran, Communications Coordinator, Amnesty International
01 863 8300, 085 814 8986