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Exclusive Report by one of the Peace team that sabotaged US warplane at Shannon airport last Tuesday

category national | anti-war / imperialism | feature author Wednesday December 28, 2011 00:30author by Galway Alliance Against War - Galway Alliance Against War

Reprinted from GAAW's December Bulletin

featured image
Omni troop carriers. Shannon Dec 2011

Below we reproduce a handwritten communication we received from one of the members of the Peace Team that sabotaged a US troop transporter at Shannon warport last Tuesday morning, 20th December 2011. We have verified that this person participated in this action.

“Direct action is no substitute for mass political action for peace, nevertheless it felt great in the early hours of last Tuesday morning cutting the hydraulics on all the landing gear of that US troop transport plane. LOL".

Why Did We Do It?
1) Irish democracy has been subverted on so many levels and no less so on the Irish neutrality front. Despite the overwhelming majority of Irish people supporting the concept of Irish neutrality successive Irish governments have become accessories to mass murder in Afghanistan and Iraq and they have been directly involved in torture through allowing Shannon airport to be turned into a US warport. Disgust at these developments led to us immobilising this US troop transporter.

2) It was also as a gesture of respect for the people like Malalai Joya of Afghanistan, who had called at a conference in Bonn for acts of solidarity with her country.

3) President Higgins in his inaugural speech offered to “champion” those who “make their own imaginative and practical contribution to the shaping of our shared future”. We look forward to Ireland’s new ‘dear leader’ championing our act of peace last Tuesday morning, 20th December 2011.

4) It was appropriate to carry out this peace action in Christmas week, when the media and politicians’ speeches the world over are full of hypocritical Christian cant about peace, while they support and even profit from wars in far off lands.

5) We will be criticised for jeopardising jobs in Shannon. But such jobs are created on the basis of killing innocent people in foreign lands. That is no basis for job creation. Our stand is the same as the stand taken by the men and women in Easter 1916 against imperialist war.”

The Peace Act of Sabotage: The Details
“There has been a virtual media blackout of our act of peace last Tuesday morning. But for the record here is what took place.

“We were dropped off at a perimeter fence to Shannon’s warport. We quickly cut through that fence and were immediately confronted by four curious looking young cows. We bade them a good morning and went on our merry way to the second fence, which was easily breached, and into the warport proper. (By the way, rumours abound that Dr Doolittle has been called in by the Gardaí to interrogate these four innocent bystanders)

“It took a little while to get our bearings, but then we proceeded in the direction of the warport’s terminal, passing on the way a hangar where work on a passenger plane was being conducted. We regularly stopped to observe our surroundings to make sure we wouldn’t be caught.

“As we got closer to the warport terminal, we could see the shape of the plane parked out on a side runway. We approached it with caution, as we initially thought we could see people guarding it. That proved not to be the case. And although there was plenty of activity at the terminal, the area around the plane was completely deserted. Actually we all lay on the ground observing the plane and its surroundings before we decided to move in and carry out our act of sabotage.

“The only press report states we “vandalised” a plane. How can one “vandalise” a vandal? Because that is what this planes is. And it is owned by vandals, by mercenary airlines like Omni airlines, who profit from the US-led wars.

“Beforehand we agreed we would immobilise the hydraulics of all the landing gear: the metal tubes that run vertically along the shaft holding the wheels. Four sets of landing gear were sabotaged – three in the middle, one at the front. This was all pre-planned. While that peace work was being completed another peace activist sprayed the words: “PEACE – U.S. TROOPS OUT” on the side of the plane.

“We then made our retreat and were soon being ferried away from Shannon having completed a good morning’s work. We had consciously decided not to seek being arrested. It is our view that if we were to be arrested we would fight any case on the basis that our act of peace was justified. But we prefer not to have to go through the rigmarole of court cases, which would also be ignored by our very unfree press.

“Will we do it again? Perhaps. But we would honestly prefer if people would participate in public peace activities. Set up their own local peace group. Make contact with groups like the Galway Alliance Against War. Attend the vigil held the second Sunday of every month between 2-3pm at the roundabout at Shannon warport.

“Our sabotage we hope will be a bit of fillip to all those peace activists out there.

“Our first priority in this peace action was to prevent harm coming to anyone: preventing injury and death to the Afghani people by disrupting the flow of foreign soldiers into their country; preventing harm to the people working at Shannon warport and preventing harm to US troops by preventing the plane from transporting them to their deaths. These planes carry up to 300 armed US troops to the imperialist wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The act of peaceful sabotage we carried out was undoubtedly a symbolic gesture in the context that over 2,000,000 troops have travelled through Shannon on their way to war and we were only able to halt one plane.

“But it was an expression of our disgust at the role of successive Irish Governments being accessories to both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to torture – Shannon warport is intrinsically linked to so-called extraordinary rendition. The leaders of Fianna Fail, the former Progressive Democrats, the Greens and now Fine Gael and the Labour Party have blood on their hands.” ENDS

Comments (8 of 8)

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author by paul o toolepublication date Tue Dec 27, 2011 17:28author address author phone

An act of beauty......

author by Madam Kpublication date Tue Dec 27, 2011 18:21author address author phone

Thank you for this action , Peace .

author by Intrested Observerpublication date Tue Dec 27, 2011 18:34author address author phone

Any Pictures

author by Damien Moranpublication date Tue Dec 27, 2011 20:28author address author phone

This must be the first ever political statement to use LOL:-))) I lolled and drank a beer when I heard about this action and am lollying all over the floor reading about this inspiring action. It's great to know the cows know much more about what happened than the Gardai. They, of course, need no Dr. Doolittle to extract a confession. Rumour has it that 2 of the cows have been taken into custody, waterboarded and over-milked to reveal the names of the involved peaceniks. Maybe we can call this action 'Heifer Ploughshares';-))

Saw nothing, heard nothing, know nothing -  now fuck off Mr. Garada and let me get back grazing
Saw nothing, heard nothing, know nothing - now fuck off Mr. Garada and let me get back grazing

author by GAAWpublication date Wed Dec 28, 2011 02:41author address author phone

We are reliably informed that the cows were bullocks. That may well be a load of bullocks, but what harm. The contribution above is highly amusing. May i lol?

author by W. Finnertypublication date Wed Dec 28, 2011 08:26author address author phone

Article 28.3.1 of Bunreacht na hEireann (Constitution of the Republic of Ireland) reads as follows:
"War shall not be declared and the State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of Dáil Éireann".

How could Dáil Éireann lawfully (i.e. constitutionally) have given its consent to the Anglo-American-led (Bush & Blair) invasion of Iraq in 2003, when the then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, very clearly stated in public that it was illegal (under international law)? This (in my view) is further evidence of a massive -- and ongoing -- problem with corruption in our legal profession: which is STILL not even being looked at, let alone corrected.

Related Link: http://www.humanrightsireland.com/ChiefJusticeSusanDenham/13November2011/Email.htm
author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Mon Jan 02, 2012 16:36author address author phone

..its no longer Dail Eireann....Obama brung change, remember.

Now its Dial Eirestrip 73 and tell them sit up and beg for a biscuit.

author by mighty mouse - squeekpublication date Wed Jan 04, 2012 06:47author address author phone

amazingness all round! Still can't believe it. im so glad ye were able to pull it off.....

hope we can all make some New Year's Resolutions to get with the programme and carry out more defiant actions on all fronts to make us all wake up and smell the crisis capitalism that preys on all of us, permetuating the made-up war on terror and causing endless injustices to both people and planet.

BUALADH BUS!

=)


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