Secret Irish Defence Agreements Linked to CIA Torture Revealed
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Thursday January 12, 2006 17:23
by kahootz
The Screw Turns Another Notch on the Ahern's
Two previously unknown defence agreements with the US, one of which relates directly to Irish Government complicity in torture, were revealed today in the Dail Eireann by Labour's Michael D. Higgins.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahern therefore lied on January 26th 2005 that the state was a party to any secret international agreement.
The first agreement concerns security measures for the protection of classified information. It may be being used by the Taoiseach's office to refuse to give any information on the CIA's rendition programme which used Shannon, as reported by the Sunday Business Post last weekend. (http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS-qqqs=news-qqqid=10896-qqqx=1.asp)
The second agreement was reportedly signed in order to enable Irish troops in Kosovo to avail of US facilities.
***
This is the Labour party press release on the subject.
The President of the Labour Party and Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Deputy Michael D. Higgins, has written to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, seeking an explanation as to why two international defence agreements, reported by the United States to have been agreed with Ireland, have never been laid before the Dail as would appear to have been required under Article 29.5 of the Constitution.
Calling for the immediate publication of the agreements, Deputy Higgins today said that this was a potentially serious development that required an immediate response from the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
“The website of the U.S. State Department lists two recent agreements, which it describes as ‘bilateral defence agreements’ between the United States and Ireland. (http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaties/c15824.htm)
“The first is an “Agreement concerning security measures for the protection of classified military information”. It was signed at Dublin on the 31st January 2003, and entered into force on that date.
“The second is an “Acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, with annexes”, signed at Stuttgart-Vaihingen (US European Command HQ) and Dublin on the 26th and 27th February, 2004, entering into force on the later date.
“Article 29.5.1 of the Constitution requires that every international agreement to which the State becomes a party shall be laid before Dail Eireann although no timeframe is specified for this process. Neither of these agreements has ever been laid before the Dail. The two agreements are not listed either on the Irish Treaty series published by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
“In a reply to a parliamentary question from my colleague, Deputy Ruairi Quinn on January 26th 2005, in which Minister Ahern denied that the state was a party to any secret international agreement, the Minister also said that ‘while the requirements of Article 29.5.1. do not apply to agreements of a technical and administrative character (which are exempted under Article 29.5.3) it is the practice for these to be laid before Dail Eireann also…..’
“The failure to lay these documents before the Dail would appear to be in breach of the terms of the Constitution and also would also appear to be inconsistent with the procedures for dealing with such matters set out by the Minister in reply to the Parliamentary Question from Deputy Ruairi Quinn.
“I believe that the disclosure of the existence of these two agreements will cause considerable concern among the public against the background of the war in Iraq, the huge number of U.S. troops passing through Shannon and allegations of the use of Irish airports by CIA controlled planes for the illegal transport of prisoners.
“While we cannot pass judgement on the significance of these agreements until the texts are published, the failure of the government to publish them or to lay them before the Dail is an extraordinary failure on the part of the government to meet its responsibilities that requires an immediate explanation from Minister Ahern.”.
Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7Congrats on an excellent article.
It seems as if the state is almost begging Mr. Dubsky back into court.
Fair play to Michael D. Higgins, I don't agree with his politics, but I believe with all my heart that he would have made a worthy successor to Mary Robinson.
Even though he wasn't allowed to become president he still defends the constitution.
Sometimes its a good day to be Irish.
Sláinte
Seán
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs released a number of documents relating to rendition, including correspondence signed by the Taoiseach and communications with officials from his office.
When a newspaper with the time and money receives info from a FOI request can it then publish in full what it gets? Has it ever. (online)?
Some may be interested to know that, as the extract below shows, lawyer Jose Manuel Barroso (President of EU Commission) was informed regarding the Article 29.5.1 situation relating to Shannon in a letter sent to him through the registered post on April 27th 2005.
"A further difficulty for me relating to Article 29.5.1 of the Republic of Ireland's written Constitution relates to the international agreement between the Republic of Ireland and the United States which allows Shannon Airport to be used by US military aircraft engaged in the war in Iraq. This is another international agreement which has never (to the best of my knowledge) been laid before Dail Eireann. Concern relating to this problem is much increased by the fact that as far as international law is concerned, as distinct from US and UK law, every international lawyer I know of who has commented in the media on the subject appears to believe that the war which was started in March 2003 in Iraq was entered into unlawfully. I understand that the United Nations General-Secretary (Mr Kofi Annan) has similarly expressed the view in public that the manner this war was entered into was unlawful."
As can be seen at the following address, the e-mail version of the April 27th 2005 letter to President Barroso was copied to Prime Minister Bertie Ahern TD, Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, and, last but not least, President George W. Bush of the United States of America:
http://www.constitutionofireland.com/PresidentBarrosoEmail27April2005.htm .
No reply was ever received from European Union Commission President Barosso to my letter to him dated April 27th 2005.
the international arms trade than ever before"
In this weeks Galway Advertiser the redoubtable Michael D. scourges the present shabby crew in government for the fact that military equipment sales from Ireland has topped 300 euro since 1997 (30 million last year) and for "consistently" ignoring the advice of Amnesty International, and a report by Forfas two years ago that identified serious gaps in procedures for the monitoring and control of military exports from this country.
Full story by Kernan Andrews can be read on the online edition of the GA.
To boot, whilst you're at it, in the same edition, a fiery letter by the noted writer, Fred Johnston, can be read in the Comment & Letters section attacking Galway City Council for subsidising the pornography on wings obscenity that is the Salthill "Airshow".
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Political leaders of the European Parliament will give the green light on Thursday for an investigation into allegations that the CIA operated prisons in the European Union, one leader told Reuters.
Leaders of the Parliament's seven political groups and President Josep Borrell will meet on Thursday to finalize details of the investigation, said Brian Crowley, Irish MEP and leader of the Union for Europe of Nations (UEN) Group.
Link to report from Reuters
Our politicians face EU probe into CIA torture allegations Conor Sweeney Indo
Last night, Fine Gael's Simon Coveney, who hopes to play a prominent role in the investigation, said he anticipates the Shannon issue will feature.
"I expect that Ireland will be forced to give evidence," he said. "I expect the Government will have to establish the facts.
"If planes are landing, refuelling and taking off from Shannon, then Ireland has involvement and if called before the committee, the Government faces being asked to explain what it does know," he said.
The temporary committee's draft mandate will be to collect and analyse information to find out:
* If the CIA carried out abductions to secret sites where torture or inhuman treatment of prisoners was carried out in any EU member or candidate country.
* If countries were involved or complicit in the illegal detention.
* Should renditions justified in the fight against terrorism be considered a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights or other international treaties.
* If EU citizens were detained in these secret prisons. Altogether, 46 MEPs will sit on the special committee, expected to start work next week.
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1540682&issue_id=13534
FOI response via Paul Colgen the Examiner.
since it was first reported by this newspaper 17 months ago. Among the documentation are scores of pages downloaded from websites such as Indymedia, a left-wing blogging site that has focused on landings at Shannon.
Also included is the lengthy script of the Swedish television documentary that first helped to expose the CIA operation.
The department refused to release a number of files, including:
background notes prepared by the department's security policy section,
notes on meetings with US officials,
e-mails to and from US officials,
e-mails to and from the Irish embassy in Washington,
an e-mail from the permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva and
internal discussions between officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Transport.
Specific information on US flights into Baldonnel military airfield was also denied. An email between government officials about flights into the base has the dates on which specific planes landed blacked out. It was reported recently that rendition flights have been using Baldonnel for so-called “gas and go'‘ visits. The Taoiseach's department refused to disclose any information it had about extraordinary rendition on the grounds of national security.
While devising a draft reply to a question submitted by Labour Party TD Ruairi Quinn, an unnamed official in foreign affairs' political headquarters informed its legal department that “we are proposing to answer this question without delving into legal detail, consistent with the approach we have taken to previous PQs [parliamentary questions] on the subject'‘.
The specific reference to Guantanamo leaves open the possibility that the US authorities may not then have been in a position to deny that the planes had carried prisoners through Shannon to other locations, as alleged in numerous media reports.
A Department of Transport information note faxed to the Department of Foreign Affairs' security policy division six days earlier had stated: “On no occasion did the aircraft go from Shannon to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,” but it noted that “the aircraft flew to airports or airbases in the UK, USA or Canada'‘.
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Great to see Michael D. and others keeping the heat on the government. This story reminds me of something journalist John Pilger often writes "never believe it until it has been officially denied" (or something like that).
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