The Shannon perspective from the Associated Press

Monday February 03, 2003 23:12

by AP - ap

The perspective from the Associated Press - manages to get a Red-scare slur on the CWM, calls the shinners 'ultranationalist' (not a fan of shinners, but that they certainly ain't) and makes reference to "overpowering the guard". Like Bertie's quotes tho...

Five arrested after second ax, hammer attack on U.S. Navy plane in Ireland
Mon Feb 3, 9:37 AM ET

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer

DUBLIN, Ireland - Police arrested five anti-war activists Monday on suspicion of overpowering a guard and attacking a U.S. Navy (news - web sites) plane with axes and hammers, the second such assault against American military flights through this officially neutral nation.

The latest arrests embarrassed Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and underscored inadequate security at Shannon Airport in southwest Ireland, where U.S. planes have been landing and refueling daily for the past 16 months en route to Afghanistan (news - web sites) and the Middle East.

Police spokesman Superintendent John Farrelly said three women and two men aged from their early 20s to 40s would be arraigned on charges Monday evening. All were billed as members of an anti-war group called the Catholic Worker Movement.

A statement issued in the name of the protesters said they had poured human blood on the airport tarmac, built what they called a "shrine" for Iraqi children, painted the slogan "pit stop of death" on the hangar door, and hacked and hammered at the plane. They also vowed to go on hunger strike.

Farrelly said that just after 4 a.m. (0400GMT) the raiders got through a perimeter fence using wire cutters, smashed a window into the plane's hangar and "did temporarily overpower the guard." He said the officer wasn't physically injured and eventually ran away to summon backup.

The plane has been grounded at Shannon since Wednesday, when a 50-year-old woman used a hatchet to damage the plane's nose, wheels and hydraulics. That attack caused an estimated 500,000 euros (US$550,000) in damage. Farrelly said little extra damage was inflicted Monday.

Ahern said police would more aggressively restrict protesters at Shannon, where left-wing activists opposed to any U.S.-led war in Iraq have spent several weeks living in tents outside the airfield dubbed the Shannon Peace Camp. The protests have been led by the Green Party and ultranationalist Sinn Fein.

"Now we see that we've maybe been over-tolerant with peaceful protests — when they're not being peaceful, they've been carrying axes and hammers, and that has to be reviewed," Ahern said.

Ahern, who had pledged to tighten security after Wednesday's initial vandalism, was asked whether the second attack was embarrassing. "Of course it is," he said.

Ireland's police commander, Commissioner Pat Byrne, traveled to Shannon to inspect its 7-mile (11-km) perimeter. Transport Minister Seamus Brennan said Ireland's minuscule army might be deployed to support police.

"To protect the seven miles is quite a hard thing to do, but it will be done, if necessary with the army," Brennan said.

Calls to the Irish phone line listed on the Catholic Workers Movement's Web site weren't being answered. The movement, which says its members "serve the poor, and resist war and social injustice," traces its origins to a Communist newspaper published in New York in 1933.

Ahern said Ireland would continue to support U.S. flights as long as the Bush administration observed United Nations (news - web sites) policies on Iraq. He accused some protesters of jeopardizing Shannon's survival as a state-owned business.

"Refueling is 40 percent of the business of Shannon, it's the economy of Shannon, and it's not just for Americans alone ... and we could lose that business because a group of people want to participate in malicious attacks. That can't be tolerated," he said.