EU slams FF over "Guantanamo Express" flights

by anon Tue Jan 23, 2007 16:00

This is the transcript from Dermot Aherns performance at the committee last December.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_pag...n.htm

Transcript
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/tempcom/tdip/repo...m.pdf

Dermot Aherns response today
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0123/bre...8.htm

"Instead of highlighting ways in which extraordinary rendition could be prevented in the future, the report indulges in political point-scoring. The suggestion, for example, that Ireland should institute a ban on all CIA-operated aircraft is extraordinary, especially given that Ireland is the only one of 27 member states to which this recommendation is addressed," he said. (Although he said he would ban one particular plane)

"Given that this recommendation was inserted at the behest of an Irish MEP, I can only conclude that it was intended to serve partisan purposes.

However, Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance said the Government had refused to seek evidence that the CIA flights were passing through Irish territory. "Ignorance of the law is not a defence," he added.

Dermot is most upset and the notion that 147 renditions planes are mentioned, but the FG/FF meps failed to get the motion passed, maybe he could narrow the number down for us then or it will stay high.

THe INTERIM REPORT , (todays report)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-/...ge=EN

Margarrett Becker quietly admitted last week that they knew of the CIA rendtion program
http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/world/BO40600/
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/?PHPSESSID=8e8064876df1905c...00dd0

Meanwhile
Shannon Airport staff vote down cutbacks plan
http://www.unison.ie/business/stories.php3?ca=80&si=1751653

by twsi Tue Jan 23, 2007 21:16

I was waiting for the 9 o clock news to watch this but it seems to be dropped. Typical!!!!

by TD - Cosantoiri Siochana Wed Jan 24, 2007 05:43

Following Dermot Ahern's acceptance of US "assurances" as incontrovertible fact that no victims of extraordinary rendition were transited through Irish airports, it is reliably reported that, shortly, Ahern and two of his cabinet colleagues will be augmenting and building on this ground-breaking precedent further:

Following "assurances" from surviving members of Nazi SS and noted historian David Irving that the Holocaust didn't occur, next week, Ahern will be vigorously putting this fact to the Special UN rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory, John Dugard.

Contingent on "assurances" from criminals that the crimes they were imprisoned for didn't happen, Michael McDowell will shortly be releasing them.

Following "assurances" from neo creationists and the Flat Earth Society, all Geography, Anthropology, History books, etc, employed in the Irish education system are going to be amended to reflect these salient facts through a Breathnach ministerial order.

by Tim Hourigan Wed Jan 24, 2007 08:15

Just did a short interview with Radio Ulster this morning on this topic.
They asked if Dermot Ahern was right to say that the EU parliament was engaging in political pointscoring on this point rather than suggesting solutions.

I pointed out that Minister Ahern is paid well enough that he might use his own head in looking at the situation, that if his government has been given a list of these aircraft that have been involved in torture in other locations, then surely steps can be taken to fulfill Ireland's obligations under the Criminal Justice (UN Convention Against Torture) Act, which was passed by the FF/PD government justa few short years ago.

Minister. Ahern also lamented that the report was not 'forward looking'. Well, I'm sure it would all be very well to brush the past under the table, and waffle about 'what might be done', but that would be an easy way of avoiding the fact that this report highlights the systematic failure of the Irish State to comply with the UN Convention Against Torture, or Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Perhaps he doesn't like the implications, given that under the Criminal Justice (United Nations Convention Against Torture) Act ,2000, S5(1) any person suspected of committing, aiding, or abetting torture (whether alleged to have taken place in
this state or not) can be imprisoned for life upon conviction.

Rather than simply turning a blind eye, it is worth also noting that it seems on some occassions that these flights were enjoying the protection of the Garda Siochana.

The diplomatic assurances, as Minister Ahern well knows, are worth nothing and are not legally enforceable. Besides that, they came from the same people who were defending the use of torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and saying it's not really torture. Not very credible when one considers the source.

Another point Mr. Ahern made to the parliament was that the allegations were made too late, based of a mass of "material which could not have been known at the time"
This is 100% UNTRUE, our first complaint, see the link at the end, was in October 2004, and these aircraft continued to come through in 2005 and 2006, despite the fact that the Gardai were given the registration numbers of these aircraft, even after the changed them to hide their identities, I searched the FAA database and printed documents for the Gardai showing the change in registration, and the new reg to look out for when it landed at Shannon. STILL no action was taken.

Minister Ahern referred to numerous Gardai investigations, the bulk of which consisted of travelling away from the airport, where the planes were landing, to ask various people "where is the evidence" and not using the powers that they have under UNCAT and the Air Transport Navigation Acts to board the plane to do a quick headcount.

He also said "We did a random check of some of the 147 planes mentioned". In this he was referring to checking the ownership records, which is not a huge task, so why did they only pick some of the flights to check up on? A journalist in the UK managed to compile a much larger list without the resources of the Dept of Foreign Affairs, Dept of Justice, Dept of Transport. What was lacking in Ireland? Political will to find the truth.

The Government said it was the job of an independent Garda Siochana to do this, and they would not interfere, however, when I spoke to the Gardai at Shannon, the consistent reply was that the Government had an understanding that there is nothing on these planes. Since when does and independent police force take government policy and diplomatic assurances into account when upholding the law?

The most farcical suggestion was made by Ahern was however this and I quote from page 12 of the transcript of his testimony. "If you're going to move people like that - i.e. prisoners on extraordinary rendition - you do not want to land at a civilian airport like Shannon,because you must have a pre-existing medical support structure in place when you land. If a prisoner or detainee becomes medically distressed, you have to have medics on hand, and you will have those in military bases such as places in Germany or England."

Sophia in 't Veld, sitting on the committee questioning Minister Ahern, said that given the places that they were bringing these people (torture chambers) that she does not believe that their medical distress would be the main concern of the CIA.
I would add this, given that the detainess are hooded, gagged, sedated and bound, in what way would the CIA even NOTICE medical distress even if they did care?
Also, the CIA could easily have medics (or for that matter a spare plane) quickly flown in from a US base in the UK in the event of a medical emergency or mechanical fault.

Minister Ahern had plenty of waffle, but he did not answer all the questions put to him.

by Pat Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:18

Apparently they picked up on the story at 22.49 last night... So the one o'clock
news today seems more likely.

by Pat Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:20

Sorry meant Re:Was this on RTE news at 6? And not 9.

by anon Tue Jan 30, 2007 20:59

Eoin Ryan continues to deny that Ireland and Europe were complicit in torture and kidnap or that it even took place.
http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?p=524699&highlight...24699
Don't suppose anyone has this.

by anon Thu Feb 01, 2007 13:16

Inquiry urged for North Carolina link to torture
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/17557
Legislators suspect planes used to take suspects overseas

RALEIGH, N.C. - State legislators are urging Attorney General Roy Cooper to investigate whether a North Carolina company provided planes to the CIA to shuttle terrorism suspects to countries where they may have been tortured. The 22 legislators, all Democrats who signed a letter sent to Cooper and the State Bureau of Investigation, urge an investigation into "credible allegations that Aero Contractors conspired to commit federal crimes," according to a copy of the letter provided by advocacy group Stop Torture Now.

In October, SBI Director Robin Pendergraft declined a request from 12 legislators to investigate whether Aero Contractors violated federal laws prohibiting torture as a form of interrogation, saying that the matter didn't fall under SBI jurisdiction.

Background and work of Stop Torture Now in NC
http://durhamspark.blogspot.com/2006/07/taking-on-globa....html

According to an AP report out of Berlin in the Charlotte Observer and Durham Herald-Sun:
http://www.bluenc.com/germany-issues-warrants-for-nc-ci...ilots
ARD public television reported that investigators worked from passport photocopies made by a hotel where the suspects stayed. The report gave what it said were the cover names of three men who were pilots and lived in North Carolina.

Local radio mp3 on the subject
http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=2703