Shannon airport, the US war machine and the CIA

It will surely rate as one of the most risible political interactions of 2005. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, recently asked for and duly received ‘assurances’ from the US administration that all is well at Shannon airport.

So, that’s that, we can rest easy in our beds. The Bush regime has spoken.

Perhaps Dermot Ahern is having us on? This, I must confess, was the first thought that went through my mind when I heard the news. Assurances from the Bush adminstration? They who ‘assured’ the world that Iraq was overflowing with weapons of mass destruction? They who swore that a direct link existed between the Ba’athist dictator Saddam Hussein and the fundamentalist terrorist Bin Laden? They who have been caught out on so many lies with regard to the war on Iraq?

Surely not.

But, yes, it’s true – Mr Ahern, on our behalf, has graciously accepted US ‘assurances’ that CIA flights through Shannon are not involved in illegally transporting political suspects for torture and other inhuman methods of interrogation. He sought and accepted these worthless assurances, of course, because it suits the Fianna Fáil and PD policy of collaboration with the US war machine.

Let’s look at some facts.

So far this year, 303,323 US troops bound for the Middle East, and many weapons of war, have passed through Shannon airport. This compares with 158,549 soldiers in 2004 and 121,943 in 2003, the year that the US military invaded Iraq. In addition, Amnesty International and the international media in the past fortnight have confirmed what Irish anti-war activists have been saying for some time – CIA-chartered aircraft used for ‘extraordinary renditions’ are using the airport as a refuelling depot.

Indeed, at least six CIA-chartered aircraft have landed at Shannon as many as 85 times since 2001; one of these planes (reg. number N379P) has been linked directly to a now notorious case in Sweden involving the illegal transportation – ‘rendition’ in US spook-speak – from Stockholm to Egypt of two men kidnapped by the CIA in December 2001. A subsequent Swedish parliamentary inquiry found that both ‘rendered’ suspects had been subjected to ‘inhuman treatment’ while in prison in Cairo.

CIA misbehaviour has become a major public issue in the EU in recent weeks as information comes tumbling out about CIA-run secret prisons in Eastern Europe and about the ‘rendition’ of political suspects to countries that practise torture. Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, faced some hard questions when she arrived in Europe on December 6 for meetings with various European leaders. It has been revealed, for example, that the German government has compiled a list of 437 CIA flights through Germany over the past few years. Similar numbers of flights have passed through Spain and Italy. It is accepted that some of these were ‘rendition’ flights.

The Italian case is particularly interesting because a police investigation in that country has led to a magistrate issuing warrants for the arrest of 22 CIA operatives for allegedly kidnapping a Muslim man in Milan. This individual was subsequently transferred to Egypt where he was tortured.

What about Ireland? Have CIA-chartered aircraft ever had ‘rendition’ victims on board while stopping over at Shannon? The truth is that we don’t know because the Irish government steadfastly refuses to sanction inspections of such aircraft.

US military and CIA aircraft could be transporting anything from an empty crisp packet to a nuclear bomb through Shannon airport and we wouldn’t know. However, we are expected to rely on self-serving assurances from a US administration that has always prioritised spin and propaganda over truth. This is simply not acceptable. It is our airport and our airspace.

Fianna Fáil and the PDs, however, have adopted a policy of hear no evil, see no evil. They have wilfully turned a blind eye to US secret service activity in Shannon and are hoping that the attention of the media will soon shift elsewhere.

In that regard, the government is at least being consistent. Remember the Fianna Fáil/PD reaction to the huge anti-war marches in this country? On February 15, 2003, more than 100,000 people marched in Dublin against the war in Iraq and against Irish complicity with the US war machine. It was an incredible march, bringing together people from all sorts of backgrounds. Thousands also raised their voices at many other protests – in Cork; for example, two demonstrations in March 2003 attracted thousands of participants. Shannon airport itself has also been the location of repeated protests.

How did the government react to the huge marches of 2003? Did it stop facilitating the US military at Shannon airport?

No, it did not.

On the contrary, with breathtaking arrogance, Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney ignored the temper of the country in the hope that the widespread anti-war sentiment would dissipate. They treated those who marched with utter contempt and continued to assist the US war machine on its way to kill thousands of our fellow human beings in Iraq.

Bertie Ahern spoke out of both sides of his mouth – one moment he was supposedly against the war, the next he was bragging about our part in facilitating the invasion. Worse, those who engaged in non-violent direct action at Shannon, decommissioning US warplanes on two occasions, were dragged – and are still being dragged – through the courts.

It is indeed a strange new world we live in.

An Irish civilian airport has effectively become a hub airbase for the US war machine and its dirty tricks units – and this in a purportedly neutral country. The CIA connection is especially sinister and, not surprisingly, is encouraging renewed public criticism of the government’s role in all of this.

Understandably, many people are insisting that the solution is for the Irish government to assert its support for universal human rights by sending in gardaí to carry out searches of CIA-chartered aircraft when they land at Shannon.

It’s a view with which I can empathise. Who knows what or who might be on board?

However, such searches are not enough.

It would be immeasurably better if these aircraft never touched Irish soil in the first place. The facilitation of the US war machine at Shannon is a disgrace and makes this country complicit with Bush’s war on Iraq, and with any other mad adventure that he might get up to.

The US military should be firmly told to leave Shannon airport – and they should be told to take their spooks with them.

This article, by ISN member Fintan Lane, was published in the Cork Evening Echo on December 14th 2005.