Blog Feeds

The Saker

Indymedia ireland

Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters

offsite link Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'

Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home

offsite link British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.

Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,

offsite link It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.

offsite link [Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.

The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Thu Jul 31, 2025 00:51 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Migration Adds 707,000 People to the Population of England and Wales in Just a YEAR ? The Second Lar... Wed Jul 30, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred
707,000 people have been added to the population of England and Wales in just one year ? 98% of them due to net migration ? making it the second-biggest rise in more than 75 years.
The post Migration Adds 707,000 People to the Population of England and Wales in Just a YEAR ? The Second Largest Jump Since 1945 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Masking Our Schoolchildren Was Child Abuse ? A Rare Chance to Stop It Returning Wed Jul 30, 2025 17:00 | Dr Gary Sidley
Thanks to the Declaration of Dumfries, parents now have a real shot at suing councils that unlawfully forced masks on their children ? and at making sure this form of child abuse never happens again, says Gary Sidley.
The post Masking Our Schoolchildren Was Child Abuse ? A Rare Chance to Stop It Returning appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Rotherham Police Sexually Abused Us Too, Say Five Grooming Victims Wed Jul 30, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Just when you think the rape gang scandal can't get worse, five Rotherham victims say police officers abused them too ? claims currently being investigated by South Yorkshire Police itself, sparking fears of a whitewash.
The post Rotherham Police Sexually Abused Us Too, Say Five Grooming Victims appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Online Safety Act is a Censor?s Charter Wed Jul 30, 2025 13:00 | Andrew Doyle
We were assured by Conservative and Labour politicians that the Online Safety Act was designed to protect children. In the last few days, its real, more sinister purpose has become, writes Andrew Doyle.
The post The Online Safety Act is a Censor?s Charter appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Shannon Airport may still be a Stop-off for Illegal Rendition Flights

category national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release author Monday December 21, 2009 11:45author by Shannonwatch Report this post to the editors

Shannonwatch are concerned at the ongoing use of Shannon airport by companies and planes associated with the illegal US rendition program. Since March 2009, five aircraft that have been identified by Amnesty International, the EU Parliament or other sources have been recorded there. One of these planes, a Gulfstream IV with registration N478GS made news in early October when it was met by British military helicopters on a runway at Birmingham International Airport. Six days later it was at Shannon, thus reawakening the possibility that the airport is still facilitating illegal kidnapping and torture.

N478GS is registered to L-3 Integrated Systems, a Montana-based subsidiary of a US defense corporation. The parent company, L-3 Communications, is a multi-billion-dollar defense corporation based in New York whose clients include several US government departments. It is known that this Gulfstream jet, which was identified in a European Parliament report into the ‘extraordinary rendition’ of terror suspects, is still very active around Europe. A report in the Guardian newspaper on 1 November of this year confirmed that it has been spotted at Glasgow Prestwick Airport and Stuttgart Airport in Germany, as well as Shannon.

Other rendition planes recorded at Shannon this year include N475LC which is also owned by L-3 Integrated Systems, and a Gulfstream IV with registration N404AC which was identified by the Amnesty International report, Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and 'disappearance'. N404AC visited Shannon on no less than four occasions in 2009 (2nd April, 2nd and 4th September, and 23rd October). A Learjet with registration N54PA which has visited Guantanamo Bay on numerous occasions also continued to use Shannon in 2009. So too did N71PG, a plane registered to Phoenix Air Group, Inc. This is a private company permitted - until recently at least - to land in US military bases worldwide (the list of companies with these permits has not been made public in the last 3 years). N54PA is also operated by Phoenix but its registered owner is a company called VPC Planes of Wilmington, Delaware.

Many of these aircraft land frequently at US military bases. N54PA left Shannon on 12 December, for example, on its way to Ramstein Air Base, which is a US Air Force base in Germany.

The term “rendition” is used to describe the transfer of individuals from one country to another by means that bypass all judicial and administrative due process. The practice has been used mainly (although not exclusively) by the US in its so called "war on terror", and has been carried out with the complicity of other governments, including the Irish government. Amnesty International has confirmed that the CIA systematically used civilian planes to circumvent the constraints of official flight information while transferring prisoners to countries where they have been tortured.

In January 2009 the Obama administration announced that the CIA's torturous interrogation program was to end and that its secret prisons were being shuttered. However the CIA is still permitted by the US administration to carry out renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the US.

Irish complicity in renditions was confirmed in several cases over the last few years. Aircraft N379P landed at Shannon on 22 July 2002, for example, on its return journey to the US after depositing Binyam Mohammed in Morocco where he was tortured. And on 18th February 2003 NV85VM landed in Shannon directly from Egypt where it had deposited a Muslim cleric known as Abu Omar. In November of this year an Italian judge convicted 23 CIA agents and two Italian agents for their role in the kidnapping of Abu Omar, and sentenced them to serve prison sentences for this unlawful and inhumane act. It is most likely that these convicted men traveled through Shannon in February 2003.

Even though these aircraft were not carrying the detainees while in Irish territory, as far as is known, they were in contravention of the Criminal Justice (UN Convention Against Torture) Act 2000.

At least 15 aircraft identified by the EU parliamentary investigation, Amnesty International and others as being involved in renditions have landed at Shannon since 2002. These are the known torture planes, and there may be many more not yet discovered. Up to 40 aircraft in total have been identified as being involved in the renditions program, with many more planes suspected of playing a part.

Given Ireland's known complicity in renditions, and given the continuing stop-overs of suspect rendition planes, there is every reason to be concerned that Shannon Airport may still be facilitating kidnapping, disappearances and torture.
Shannonwatch is calling on the Irish authorities to put procedures in place to determine if known rendition aircraft like N478GS, N404AC and others are still being operated as state aircraft taking detainees to be tortured or illegally detained. It is imperative that the operators and crews of non-scheduled commercial flights provide sufficient information to ensure the true identity and status of all persons on board, and to identify the true purpose of the flight. This information should be made public in order to allay concerns over Shannon's possible ongoing involvement in torture.

Attempts by human rights activists at Shannon to have suspected rendition planes investigated are dealt with inappropriately by the Gardai. Two activists have been arrested while making such complaints and charged, but found not guilty by the District Court. And even though the Irish Government set up a Cabinet Committee on Aspects of International Human Rights to review and strengthen legislation governing the search and inspection of such planes, nothing has been done to end Ireland's cover up of serious human rights abuse. After a full year of inactivity on the part of this committee, Shannonwatch is calling on it to do what it was set up to do without delay, and to make the outcomes of its review public.

For more information contact (+353) 87 8225087 or email shannonwatch(at)gmail.com.

Shannonwatch is a group of human rights and peace activists based in the mid-west of Ireland.

Related Link: http://www.shannonwatch.org
© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy