Mary Kelly's Open Letter on Torture

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Monday January 09, 2006 16:46 by MK_LSG

Addressed to the People of Ireland, McDowell (Injustice) and various UN Hushpuppies

In this open letter and call to action, Ms. Kelly clearly outlines the criminal complicity of the Irish Government (i.e. McDowell & his Cohorts) in the matter of US warcriminals and torturers using Ireland for their obscene purposes.

It's OK to take off your hat now, McDowell, we know you!

To: ............... McDowell, Room 304
...................... Minister for Injustice
...................... Department of Injustice
...................... Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4


Copy to: ...... prisons_policy_INBOX@justice.ie
...................... UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland
...................... UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (Professor Manfred Nowack)
...................... Permanent Members of UN Security Council in NY, USA
...................... Committee against Torture
...................... The People of Ireland

From: ........... Mary Kelly

Re: ............... 1st Report by Ireland on UN-Convention Against Torture compliance


McDowell,

your Department (Injustice) advertised in December 2005 for ‘submissions’ on the abovereferenced matter.

This is my response – not because you do not already know all this and worse, but so that you and the disgusting body (‘Government’) you are part of cannot publicly continue to PRETEND you do not know, to FAKE ignorance of Irish Law and Convention Obligations, and try to fool the UN and the People of Ireland with stupid excuses, palaver and whitewash – in a sincere effort to expose you band of Quislings for the rotten FRAUDSTERS, PUPPETS and CRIMINALS you so truly are.

I am a member of the MAMA group (Mid West Alliance Against War) which presented similar material to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs on 20th December 2005, and further material will be added at later dates.

I know that you, McDowell, have access to a considerable amount of additional information confirming that Shannon Airport, Baldonnell (Casement Aerodrome) and possibly other Irish airports (e.g. Knock) are used repeatedly and habitually by the US Government, Military and CIA not only for the purpose of perpetrating War Crimes of Aggression internationally (e.g. against Afghanistan and Iraq), but also for the purpose of kidnapping persons for torture to and from third countries (so-called ‘special renditions programme’), in contravention of the International Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, fundamental customary international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

I know that you, McDowell, are well aware that in addition to the use of Irish airports for the refuelling of US military and CIA aircraft used for the kidnapping of persons for torture, that such kidnapped persons were actually transported through and over Republic of Ireland on dates between September 2001 and the present. In particular, persons being transported to and from Guantánamo Bay prison in the US-occupied part of Cuba.

I know, and will make it known to the world, that you, McDowell, and your puppet colleagues have, in the service of your paymasters in Washington and London, approved of these crimes against humanity and have been complicit in the commission of them, that you have illegally used tax revenue of the Republic of Ireland to subsidise these criminal operations and, by incompetently attempting to perpetrate a cover-up of all the above, you have demonstrated that you are accessories both before and after the fact.

You, McDowell, with you puppet collegues, are individually and severally responsible for complicity in these war crimes and for violations of the International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which has been authoritatively interpreted to prevent states from using their territory or allowing their territory to be used to aid or abet torture, cruel inhuman or degrading punishment.

I do not believe, McDowell, in setting a wolf to guard chickens. Therefore I do not petition you, or your mafia – the so-called An Garda Siochana (Irish Police) – to investigate this matter. Both you and they are completely complicit in and guilty of these crimes complained of.

I am aware that the Gardai at Shannon Town keeps logbooks detailing all US government and military aircraft, including chartered US troop carriers, that pass through Shannon airport.

This information should be secured immediately by the United Nations Committee against Torture and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and other international entities that are investigating the matters of international kidnapping of persons for torture.

I am also aware that much additional evidence is available within the records of Shannon Airport authorities, e.g. the Meteorological Service at Shannon, and in other Irish Government departments and agencies including the so-called Departments of Justice, Foreign Affairs, An Taoiseach, Transport, Defence, and the Irish Aviation Authority, all of which will demonstrate conclusively that Irish airports have been frequently used in support of the international kidnapping of persons for torture, with the full knowledge and approval of the Quisling Irish ‘authorities’.

You are hereby cautioned, McDowell, to take immediate steps to secure all such evidence and make it available to the United Nations and other international agencies investigating these matters, and to ensure that your cohorts and minions do not destroy or doctor, expunge or erase any such record or evidence.

In other words, the detailed records of all aircraft, from whatever origin, including all normal civilian passenger aircraft, that passed through Shannon, Baldonnell and other Irish airports from September 2001 up to the present time, must be carefully preserved and made available to investigating authorities outside the Republic of Ireland.

A careful analysis of these records, combined with others from US, EU, Middle Eastern and North African sources, will reveal which particular flights passing through Irish airports were carrying persons en route for torture, and/or who were being tortured, as defined by the UN Convention against Torture, while in or over Irish territory.

I know, McDowell, that you are painfully aware just how flimsy your excuses have been – it is no defence to argue that you, and the Irish authorities were not specifically aware of each incident of torture, but that you had, and have, a duty to ensure that Irish facilities and Irish citizens do not in any way assist with the process of torture, either in Ireland or elsewhere. By failing to take the necessary precautions, even when specific complaints were made to your officials concerning the possibility that Shannon airport (among others) is being used for the kidnapping of persons for torture, you, your officials and Gardai ARE guilty of complicity in acts of torture. But rest assured your cover-up will not work.

It will be interesting to see how your complicity as outlined above, McDowell, has assisted in the related crimes recently brought to light in Eastern Europe – from where reports emanate that kidnapped persons are secretly held by the US and subject to torture in literally subterranean prisons (so-called 'Black Sites') in countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria.

Following the failed visit of the US Envoy for War Propaganda (Rice) it is now reported that dozens of such torture victims were quickly removed from these European hell-holes to similar ‘facilities’ in North Africa and elsewhere, where the torture and unchecked abuse will continue with fresh vigour. Indeed it is highly probable that many such persons will then finally be murdered, simply in order to avoid embarrassment to the US government and its lackey European henchmen, including the Irish Quisling Stripeback variety, of which you, McDowell, are a glaring bloody example.

You, McDowell, together with your masters, cohorts and minions, have been and are guilty of (at least complicity in) kidnapping and torture, as opposed to fulfilling your formal legal obligations to prevent such crimes. While exoneration in your own personal case is impossible, it may have some mitigating effect if you would now at least desist from such odious practices and begin to uphold Irish law and Ireland’s Convention Obligations in respect of these crimes.

But then again, I would sooner expect that pigs will fly!

However, McDowell, regardless of what you now do, your record, while masquerading as ‘Minister for Justice’, of involvement in crimes including war of aggression, international kidnapping, torture and murder will be properly flagged up and pinned on you.

In connection with all the above, your perversion, McDowell, of the rule of law used at Shannon Airport to suppress exposure of your serious crimes does not go unnoticed. Over fifty peace activists have been arrested at Shannon over the past three years on trumped-up charges, many of which were later dropped or rejected by the courts. In such cases your Garda mafia minions have regularly seized and destroyed cameras and other evidence-gathering equipment and given demonstrably perjured evidence in court.

As an indication of the efforts by the Quisling ‘authorities’ of the Irish state to prevent exposure of their misuse of Shannon airport for the international kidnapping of persons for torture, and for war crimes and activities in breach of both Irish and international laws, including flagrant breaches of the Hague Convention V on Neutrality, I direct your attention to many reports published on Indymedia Ireland. For example, http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73566 Dec 22nd 2005, “Ed Horgan arrested at Shannon this Morning”.

The viciousness with which such persecutions have been pursued under your stewardship as Minister for Injustice, McDowell, is in marked contrast with your complete failure to pursue any investigation into the blindingly-obvious fact that the US military forces, whom you have invited to use this country as a launching-pad and base, have and are committing the most serious crimes, including war of aggression and mass murder in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition, you as Minister for Injustice have failed to carry out any investigation into the blindingly-obvious fact that the US military and CIA have been and are using Shannon and Baldonnell airports as refuelling hubs and support facilities for their programme of international kidnapping of persons for torture.

You, McDowell, have instead publicly stated that no investigations will be carried out until some member of the public POSITIVELY PROVES EVIDENCE of such crime. i.e. you insolently instruct your criminal co-conspirators that they are free to use these Airports for their crimes and that you will not investigate but rather cover for such crimes until irrefutable evidence is presented!

The wilful failure of your Garda mafia to search CIA and other US military aircraft and collect the abundant evidence of their crimes, and their failure to act on information received must be explained and rectified as a matter of urgency.

I demand that you, McDowell, explain to the People of Ireland and the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, in the report that you are now obliged to submit, why you and your cohorts in the puppet Irish Government have blatantly violated the International Convention against Torture, Irish law and Treaty obligations, and that you then immediately resign and hand yourself over for trial.

I await, McDowell, with no particular anticipation, your gutless reply and remain sincerely,


Mary Kelly


And to The People of Ireland –- let us put a stop to this disgrace on our Country!