Shannon Airport, need for citizens' weapons inspections

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday August 02, 2002 18:00 by Eoin Dubsky - Refueling Peace info at refuelingpeace dot org (087) 6941060

As on every other day since September 2001, on Thursday 25 July a group of peace activists found the civilian airport at Shannon contaminated by military troops and cargo. Clearly though Aer Rianta haven't been spending their US military blood money on security, as the airport's protection measures against responsible citizens and terrorists alike are pathetic.

An American Trans Air passenger jet (reg # N160AT), which often visits Shannon packed with US marines, stayed overnight at the airport last Thursday at the boarding gate.

US Navy aircraft "RS 4606", a DC-9-33 from the 61st Fleet logisitcs Squadron (Whidbey Island, Washington State) was there too and parked close to the cargo section. This particular plane has been seen before at Shannon airport, and was with the two Hercules C-130s that made the news there earlier in the year.

( For maps of the airport and travel details for getting there visit our homepage: http://www.refuelingpeace.org/ )

Security at the airport is remarkably poor, dispite the police spooks ("Special Branch") who sit in cars here-and-there around the airport during the night reading crime novels and waiting to catch Osama hitching a lift to the pub or something. There are a number of places around the airport where responsible citizens could get over the fence to carry out a weapons inspection and do some crime prevention without being caught first.

Over the coming weeks there will be a number of workshops by Refueling Peace about direct action opportunities at Shannon Airport -- at the War Resisters' International conference in DCU, at the Trident ploughshares action camp in Scotland, and at Ecotopia in Co. Clare. If you can't make it to any of these but would like someone to speak with your group please drop us a line.