Cowen's cow'rin, tim'rous beastie of a Government squeaks on the issue of Shannon torture flights

by Observer Sat Nov 01, 2008 18:42

My title says it all. That rant, and that is exactly what it is, fails to acknowledge the forward step just taken by the government. Now it is probably true to say that if the incoming President was a Bush-like figure this would never have occurred. However, the fact remains that they are going to do SOMETHING, which the FF/PD Government never did.
I will await to see the reaction of the Human Rights Commission who, along with Ed Horgan etc, should be congratulated for staying the pace.

by optimist - n/a Sat Nov 01, 2008 19:32

It is progress for sure, don't knock it.Our job now is to make it more than empty words by pushing the politicians to act. Even if we manage to stop Irish complicity in torture and rendition there is work to be done- the issue is, and has always been the hundreds of people who are stuck in these torture camps all over the world. Now is the time when we need to display that our anti-war and pro human rights stance is not just an anti -Irish Government posture. I reccomend treating the Government like puppies- when they behave well reward them and make a fuss of them(they love that) and when they let us down rub their noses in it..(oh and it goes without saying vote them out when we next have the chance..)

by Edward Horgan Sat Nov 01, 2008 21:12

The Government's decision to stop facilitating torture, if it eventually amounts to a decision, or any real actions, is to be welcomed, very cautiously. Stopping complicity in torture is like a father who decides to stop abusing his child, because he has been exposed. Torture is comparable with incestuous child abuse. Complicity with torture, and I accuse the Irish Government of complicity with torture at Shannon airport since 2002, is the equivalent of a mother who knows her partner is abusing their children, and not only refuses to intervene, but assists in the process.
The announcement by the Irish Government is likely to be a concession to the Green Party to encourage the Greens not to pull the plug on the Government over the ill-considered budget, that targetted the disadvantaged in order to protect the wealth of the privilidged. The Green Party have been in Government almost 18 months with Fianna Fail during which time the US torture rendition programme has continued, and CIA and US military aircraft have continued to be refuelled at Shannon airport. Irish complicity with torture, and crimes against humanity, has continued over this 18-month period. The number of prisoners tortured during this 18-month period, by this US-driven torture programme, in Guantanamo and in other prisons worldwide, probably runs to several thousand. The number of prisoners tortured since October 2001 could be as high as 20,000. Hundreds of prisoners may have died, or been executed during this period, especially in Afghanistan.
Now we are told:
“The GOVERNMENT will approach the incoming US administration on the issue of extraordinary rendition and will also act to ensure that Garda and airport authorities have powers of search and inspection of aircraft.” This amounts to a belated admission by the Irish Government that facilitating torture rendition at Shannon airport has occurred and is wrong. However, the Irish Government, including the Green Party, has also decided to continue its policy and practices of complicity with and facilitation of torture rendition at Shannon airport up until some unspecified time in 2009. This amounts to a positive decision by the Irish Government to continue facilitating the US torture rendition programme for several months into the future, and in particular for the months of November and December 2008, while George W Bush remains in office as US President.

There is no lawful justification for such a decision. The only likely reasons for the Irish Government continuing to breach international law, The United Nations Convention Against Torture, and Irish law, The Criminal Justice (The United Nations Convention Against Torture), Act, 2000, is that a formal or informal bilateral agreement was reached between the US President and the Irish Taoiseach, probably on or about 16th March 2002, to allow US military and CIA aircraft be refuelled at Shannon without any controls or conditions. The Green Party have now decided to take no action to prevent Shannon airport and Irish territory being used to facilitate torture of prisoners between 1st November 2007 and some as yet unspecified date in 2009.
I welcome the fact that at some unspecified time in the future, the Irish Government will no longer allow Shannon airport to be used to facilitate torture.

In the meantime, I, Edward Horgan, have been summoned to appear before Judge Joseph Mangan, at Ennis District Court, on 13th November 2008, to answer the charge that I did obstruct /impede an Authorised Officer at Shannon airport on 18th June 2008.
I went to Shannon airport on that date, because I received information from contacts in the United States, that an aircraft, known to be associated with the CIA torture rendition programme, and that has been to Guantanamo shortly before that, was due at Shannon. This aircraft, a Gulfstream executive jet registration number N54PA arrived as scheduled at about 8am. I gave the Gardai and the airport police the information that this aircraft was associated with the CIA torture programme, and asked them to have the aircraft searched. They refused to do so.
I was attempting to obstruct/impede the acts of complicity in the crimes of torture, and the crimes against humanity being committed by US forces and the CIA in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
See you in Court

by another optimist Sat Nov 01, 2008 21:27

I'm with 'optimist' ... after all, those of us who have been looking for an inspections process for so long cannot be overly critical of an announcement that the government will act to ensure searches can take place.

Having said that, there was nothing in our legislation to stop those inspections from taking place before now ... all that was needed was a ministerial order. But they've said they'll review the legislation ... seems we now need more effort than ever to turn the promises into practice. And we need them to look at much more than the civilian flights landing in Shannon. There are the other "aspects of international human rights" - the military planes that have been used for years to take torture victims to their suffering and death - most likely through Ireland in many cases; the uninspected munitions cargos that the US take through the airport; the rendition flights passing through Irish airspace that don't land ....

And why should they limit their request to the new US administration to just closing Guantanamo (which both candidates have already indicated they will close)? What about the secret torture chambers and hell-holes the US use to hold tens of thousands of prisoners all over the world, without respect for their rights or well-being, their families, or the international rules of morality and law?

Plenty more work to do before we can claim to take human rights seriously. But its a good start.

by Edward Horgan Sun Nov 02, 2008 21:15

Correction to my comments above, the executive jet N54PA is a Learjet 36 and not a Gulfstream.

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign Mon Nov 03, 2008 16:48

"The greatest evil is physical pain" (St. Augustine).

The obfuscation with weasel words of a clear, present and past, legal duty to inspect the torture taxis transiting through Shannon and the deliberate muddying of this issue; the relevant authorities may not have legal sanction to do this, the sanctity of private property and suchlike bullshit and now its kicking into touch with a government committee to buy time and the plaudits of the naive, maybe a "forward step ... progress for sure ... is to be welcomed ... " in some quarters and to the benighted, useful idiots of Fianna Fail/Greens but the welcomes entirely miss the motivation that engendered this deeply cynical move, cynical because it doesn't stem from a Damascene type conversion and "sea change" in the nature of the beast as Cuff would have it, the point of my posting is and was that the change, hook, line and sinker is a cynical PR job, a diseased fig leaf covering the arses of a government that criminally turned the blind eye to what was happening in Shannon and which makes all of us complicit, that it's also a shameless manoeuvre that's a sop to the spineless Greens sweaty and clamouring for something to crow about other than light bulbs and an acknowledgement that the winds of change over on the other side of the Atlantic have effected, in effect, a fait accompli with both US presidential aspirants confirming that at least torture site, Guantanamo Bay, will be closed once elected. After tomorrow there'll be fresh writing and commands on the wall for the US's shoe-shine boys; the Irish government and they will comply as is their wont, for this committee is a cynical PR holding action to reconnoitre the lie of the land for further lies and inaction, if need be, a holding action that permits them to skulk in the wings and take their bow in the limelight and warmth of universal approval, when and if extraordinary rendition is outlawed.

The Irish government during the past seven years signally failed to fulfil its obligations under international law and is now posturing with the new clothes of the hypocrite, more's the pity, most of the above comments never seriously address this salient fact but hum and haw with tentative approval at the window dressing of the committee, the commentators whinging caveats and encumbered with a curious tolerance of the bastards who have dirtied and made all of us complicit in war crimes.