Gardai- Shannon-Rendition Searches

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Saturday June 17, 2006 17:15 by paul o toole

The Contradictions ...

The Gardai said in a statement to RTE that they had carried out five investigations into the landings at Shannon by the US military following allegations about CIA rendition flights. This statement by an annonymous spokesperson followed the announcements from Amnesty International that Ireland was implicated in their report into CIA renditions, and that the Irish government should regain control of its airport.
The Garda statement contradicted itself in as much that it read that no US military planes were inspected during their investigations, and that no US military personell were interviewed.
If this is what the police are volunterrily admitting omitting from their investigations, It would be interesting to find out what form these alleged 'investigations' actually took. The lethargy to follow up on this, a simple matter, is no indication of the seriousness of the situation of transporting residents from other countries through Shannon to be tortured, as outlined by the AI report. Of the thousands of flights passing through Shannon over the past years not one has been inspected even though their are sources in amongst the US militarty saying that the planes through Shannon are carrying Mark-77 firebombs , which used to be called Napalm-which is now deemed an Illegal weapon by the UN.

It is in marked contrast that I recall the Gardai fully engaged in searching busses en-route to Shannon carrying peace activists. Thousands of police officers, loads of overtime.
They took everything from the passengers that they thought could be used (dont laugh here), 'as a weapon'. I remember the Seargent in charge saying that they were searching the bus 'under the weapons act'. Most of what they took from us was little sticks for placards- roughly 2 in x 1/8th in. I recieved a pile of abuse from some police for suggesting that mabey I could put some cops over my knee and give them a good spanking. But interestingly enough I think they were more afraid of our unthreatening manner versus their implied threat of force.
Near the end of their search I saw one policeman standing alone. I spoke to him only briefly and asked him ...'why dont the police search planes for real weapons which will be used tomorrow to kill and maim innocent men women and children?... ..head hung low, he muttered something about it not being his choice to be there. I followed up with another question following this humane response....do you know that we are engaged in the slaughter of thousands of innocent children?....do you have any children?.....would you like it if the cops in Baghdad were protecting planes being refuelled on their way to blow up your kids.....
...To my complete surprise when he looked up from the ground at me , his eyes had what looked like pools of tears ready to come flowing. I asked if he was o.k. and he walked away asking me to leave him alone that he cant be seen talking to us. As he walked away both his hands raised to his face to wipe under his eyes I suspect. There was no problem stripping our bus of anything at all that the police found 'offensive'....cont...