garda/Brennan lie about Shannon incident

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday February 03, 2003 17:48

by Aoife Ni Fhearghail - personal

aoifenf at yahoo dot co dot uk

D88

087 7955013

According to an Ireland.com report (below) a Garda spokesman said this afternoon no officer was injured or hospitalised in the Shannon incident - despite what government ministers are saying. The government will no doubt try any trick to try and split the anti-war movement in the run-up to Feb 15 (like in the UK banning the Feb 15th march from assembling in Hyde Park). Congratulations guys on disarming part of the murder machine.

Government considers army to protect Shannon
By David Labanyi Last updated: 03-02-03, 15:13

The Government is considering ordering the army to provide security at Shannon Airport following an embarrassing third security breach in which a US military plane was damaged.

Security at the airport was heightened last week after a female peace activist caused an estimated €500,000 damage to a US Navy plane. She struck the plane with a hatchet, causing damage to the nose wheel, and electric systems at the front of the plane.

This same plane was damaged early this morning when five members of the Catholic Worker group, a pacifist organisation campaigning against war in Iraq, broke into a hanger at Shannon. A garda was on duty at the hanger but was briefly overpowered before reinforcements arrived and the group was arrested.

Asked about the incident this morning, the Taoiseach Mr Ahern said security breaches at Shannon threatened refueling contracts which contribute significantly to the airport's revenue.

"Refueling is 40 per cent of the business of Shannon, it is the economy of Shannon. And that is not just American alone, that's the whole business. And there is a real danger we could lose that and that would be devastating for Shannon all because a group of people want to engage a malicious attack," he said.

He added: "Peaceful protest is one thing, there is no difficulty with that. This is not peaceful protest. It is a very serious situation".

Mr Ahern added: "I think we are beginning to see that maybe we were a bit over-tolerant with peaceful protesters who are not one bit peaceful, carrying axes and hammers and lump-hammers. That has to be reviewed".

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, who had said on Friday the lessons of previous security breaches had been learned, today promised that any request for military assistance from the Garda Commissioner "would be considered very urgently".

Mr Brennan told RTÉ radio he has instructed Aer Rianta to make sure the airport police are on full alert and the Garda is on full alert.

"The perimeter of Shannon Airport is seven miles. Protecting seven miles is a hard thing to do but it will be done, if necessary, with the army.

"The blame here, and the fault here and the people who have questions to answer are small minority of peaceful [sic] protesters who attack the police force of our own State. They went and challenged a garda. The garda ended up in hospital doing his duty," he said.

But a Garda spokesman said this afternoon no officer was injured or hospitalised in the Shannon incident.