Shannon to Saudi
clare |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Sunday November 26, 2006 00:54
by Conor Cregan
Dick Cheney on the Democracy Express!
On Seat of your pants mission to save the Middle East Dick Cheney stopped over at Shannon Airport this morning.
US Vice President Dick Cheney passed through Shannon Airport this morning on his way to a meeting with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia. Cheney is due through Shannon again later tonight. According toUS news channel CNN “the brevity of Cheney's visit underlies the growing sense of urgency after a series of events highlighting an increasingly unstable Middle East”. It is also rumored that George W Bush will fly through Shannon Airport this Tuesday on his way to Jordan.
Earlier this week it was reported by a source at Shannon Airport that a US Air Force C17 Globemaster was on the runway. This massive cargo plane is one of 53 C17’s that operate from Charlestown Air, South Carolina, home to the 437th and 315th Airlift Wing. This is the second C17 to confirmed visit to Ireland this year. An Gardai Siochana and the Irish Defence Forces are guarding the plane in the centre security zone in the middle of the aerodrome. It is suspected that this plane carrying part of the security detail and an armored limousine should the Vice President need to leave the airport.
Local peace Activist Ed Horgan said “this suggests that Cheney will pass back through Shannon Airport”. Horgan an ex Officer in the Irish Defence forces has called for An Gardai Siochana to arrest Cheney, for war crimes, on his return to Shannon. During the week Horgan was accosted by a Sgt Mc Donagh and an Inspector Scanlan when he went to pick up his wife at Shannon Airport this week.
Last January a similar US war plane made an emergency landing as Shannon. In an unprecedented move Shannon Aviation Authority called for the adjacent industrial estate to be evacuated. Local plane spotters reported that the pilot informed air traffic control that he would ditch the plane in the river if he couldn’t land on the runway. After the extreme measures taken to ensure the safety of the workers in Shannon Industrial Estate the US embassy sent out a statement that the cargo plane was carrying the inert gas helium. It is widely believed that this plane was carrying a nuclear device heading for Iraq. None of this was reported by the mainstream media who took the official government line that nothing untoward is happening at Shannon Airport.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/73255
Today security was tight around Shannon Airport. Many travelers were asked to produce identification as the checkpoint on the main road leading into the airport. The Guards on duty made several id checks on the pulse computer before letting these innocent passengers on their way.
This presence of this war plane breaks a suspected agreement made by Dermot Ahern and the US Ambassador. It has been suggested that Ahern had asked requested that no obvious US military planes would land at Shannon Airport before the election.
The US Air Force Air Mobility Command stationed at Charleston has another connection to Shannon Airport. Tasked with “Global Reach airlift” the 437th Aerial Port Squadron has used a Russian cargo company to transport munitions of war to Iraq and Afghanistan. These Volga Dipnr Antonov AN 124 outsized cargo planes are a regular visitor to Shannon Airport where the company has a maintenance depot. Earlier this year Volga Dipnr was found to be in breach of Irish law. One there planes was found, at Shannon Airport, carrying nine Apache helicopters to the Israeli Defence force with out authorization for the Dept. of Foreign Affairs.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75316
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74563#comment140451
Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13Sunday World reports that the return stopover was expected early Sunday morning.
The region is coming apart at the seams thnaks largely to the agenda and profiteering of Mr Cheney.
Cheney arrived back at 1.45am. Around six secret service jeeps, an ulace and his armour car came out of the SRS hanger at 1.20am. Air Force 2 docked at gate 42, the other security zone and, for refueling. With in two hours he was gone. He may not of set foot outsde the airplane but he cost the Irish taxpayer alot of money.
Surprisingly my camera didn't get confiscated as I circled these US troops taking photos.
This was in the main departure lounge area in Shannon airport, two plane loads of troops walked in and went straight for the bar.
They were on their way home from Iraq, sipping "celebratory" drinks...
Soldiers at the bar in Shannon Warport returning from Iraq
Purchasing goods in the Duty Free
The queue for the bar..."celebration" drinks?
The queue again
Sampling the Irish brew in Shannon airport
It's about time that the so called protestors become democartic and accept the democratic wish of the people. Horgan should not have been questioned but rather shuld have been arrested as well as his military pension stopped. The invasion of Iraq was wrong but compounding the wrong by these purile efforts will not rectify the situation. Indeed if anything is required it is how to help the US and others get out of Iraq without causing a major civil war - if one is not already underway. Keep Horgan and others of his negative and infantile ilk away from the airport
The Sunday Indo reported Cheney arrival and also said a C-17 Globemaster arrived on Thursday and a limo and some APC was unloaded.
..... On indymedia.
Mr. Gormley: Information Zoom The Minister started by trotting out the usual rubbish about this being long-standing policy. It is not a long-standing policy. I remind him that in the Horgan case, Mr. John Rogers, SC, made it very clear that between 1945 and 1991 successive Irish Governments imposed very strict limitations on the use of Irish territory, even in peacetime. It allowed US troops transit on Irish territory only if they were unarmed, not engaged in war and not even engaged in military operations. I remind the Minister that a document from the security policy section of his Department, dated 16 December 2002, revealed that what was occurring at Shannon was not, in fact, normal, but rather “entirely exceptional”. The text noted quite explicitly that on an exceptional basis a decision was taken to provide landing and refuelling facilities, pursuant to the State’s obligation under a UN Security Council resolution. That is what it says, so for the Minister to say this is normal practice is nonsense. The fact is the Minister continues to kow-tow to George W. Bush. He and others who have supported the war in Iraq have been proven completely wrong. As I said in the question, the war has proven to be entirely counterproductive.
The Minister mentioned various UN resolutions. When he reads Resolution 1546, which talks about meeting the needs of the Iraqi people for security and stability, humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, will he agree that what exists is not stability? I should like the Minister to look at the facts on the ground, where 100,000 Iraqis are leaving each month, where the US central command in a classified briefing paper in mid-October said the situation was close to chaos, which the CIA confirmed, and where successive opinion polls in Iraq show that the US troops should get out if there is to be stability. Why does the Minister completely ignore all the facts and continue with a policy which the Irish people opposes? Some 100,000 of people came out on the streets of Dublin to say they did not want this war.
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20061123...#N753
"It is widely believed that this plane was carrying a nuclear device heading for Iraq."
wow - indymedia reporting standards as high as ever
that said, there was 100,000 people in dublin protesting against the war and while the unions were at the front with their banners it was people like me who made up the rest of it
. . . . beheadings, public floggings of up to 200 lashes, suppression of all political parties, rabid control of the press and media, one-party/family rule, biggest importer of arms from the US in the Middle East after Israel . . . . Ah! No wonder the US loves the place. It's a real beacon of Democracy in the Arab world. A light of Human Rights! Now I remember it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061127/ap_on_re_us/anti_pe..._sign
Hey Orla,
If i was an American soldier and i had gotten out of Iraq alive you can bet your ass i would be having a drink at the first bar i came across... dont blame the soldiers.
Like Vietnam, the blame lies solely and squarely on the shoulders of those in the American administration who lied and deceived everyone into supporting an invasion to secure Iraqs substantial resources.
It is them who are responsible ultimately, them who should be hauled before the hague, them who be stripped of their priveldge and forced to live among the very people whose lives they have ripped asunder.
Happy holidays(If only..)
Send Ahern too.
The Tanaiste at lunch:
*The flights through Shannon were legitimate military flights.
*no renditions (sure the CIA assured Ahern- Horseshit)
* fulfilled mandated obligations under UN thingy.
Tomorrow Dermot Ahern goes to the EU commission- which bible - The King James or the holy
Roman Missal?
http://www.newstalk.ie/
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