Govt must verify that US planes in Shannon not illegally conveying suspects
The Green Party today called on the Government to immediately implement a policy of inspecting CIA-chartered planes landing at Shannon or any other Irish airports. Many of these planes have been identified by Amnesty International as being implicated in so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights.
Green Party Chairman and spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Gormley TD said today that, “These planes, including the US Gulfstream V jet nicknamed the ‘Guantanamo Bay Express’, have been involved with the illegal detention and transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture while interrogating suspects.
“The Government is obliged under two European Conventions (Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment) to verify that Ireland is not being used as a transit point for conveying people to face interrogation methods in breach of the EU Conventions. The New York University School of Law has also provided British MPs with legal advice that even the refuelling of these ‘rendition’ planes – as is happening at Shannon Airport – is contrary to international law, even if the prisoner is not on board.
“Amnesty International has revealed that at least fifty of these CIA flights have passed through our airports, numbers far in excess of the single figures that the Government has been providing us in the Dáil. The question to be asked is whether our Government is being totally hoodwinked by the US Administration about what is happening at Irish airports, or is the Irish Government in collusion with the Americans?
“Of particular interest is why US Federal Aviation Administration records indicate that flight records for CIA-chartered planes from September 2001 to September 2005 reveal that fifty such flights landed at Shannon but only thirty-five took off! Amnesty states that these figures suggest ‘that some flights were kept secret’. Secret from whom? What do Irish flights records show, or not show?
“Assurances from the US Government on this matter are not good enough. US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice’s assertion that Shannon has not been used by the US for ‘untoward’ purposes begs the question of what ‘untoward’ means to the Bush Administration, how torture is defined, and, indeed, why prisoners have to be transferred in the first place if nothing ‘untoward’ is being planned.
“It is imperative that this ‘turn a blind eye’ treatment to potential ‘torture flights’ be ended and that the Government ensures that these flights are boarded and searched by Irish officials”, concluded Deputy Gormley.