Missiles in Shannon

cork | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday September 03, 2003 10:04

by colm oconnor - Cork AntiWar Campaign

Hi all. Check out the great articles in todays Examiner. 4 in all on missiles passing through Shannon. Fair dues to all involved in the article. It would be a great time now for groups to issue press releases and write letters to the editors on the issue. We could call for full public disclosure of all documents relating to the use of Shannon by military flights..

Front page

03/09/03
Government allowed Shannon missile stopover

By Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter
THE Government sanctioned the passage of a consignment of 28 Patriot missiles through Shannon Airport, official documents seen by the Irish Examiner reveal.
According to official Government documents, the hi-tech precision weapons designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles were dispatched from Israel to the US in June 2001. The civilian cargo plane carrying the munitions landed in Shannon for a planned "technical stopover".

Each missile contained 44kg of high explosives and 498kg of rocket fuel. Despite the dangerous nature of the cargo, four separate Government departments raised no objections nor made any detailed comment.

Documents released to the defence teams of peace activists facing criminal charges over Shannon protests show the Departments of Defence, Justice and Foreign Affairs made no objections to the flight before permission was granted by the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke.

Details of the flight were confirmed last night by the Department of Transport, which has now taken over the role of licensing air traffic involving military troops and equipment. "If there are no objections, then the department will generally grant permission to land," a department spokesman said. The spokesman confirmed no objections had been raised.

However, a Government source revealed that up to a few dozen requests for landings of aircraft containing assorted armaments cargoes were sanctioned annually.

Government communications seen by the Irish Examiner also reveal permission was granted to two flights containing a possible cargo of cruise missiles during the Kosovo conflict in 1999, while another flight containing class A explosives was allowed land during Desert Storm in 1991.

Further documents reveal the Department of Public Enterprise knew that US troops in Shannon were accompanied by their personal weapons and ammunition as far back as five years ago.

Green party chairman John Gormley accused the Government of deliberately misleading the public. And Labour's Michael D Higgins said it confirmed that our policy of neutrality had been secretly ditched even before the row surrounding Shannon

Editorial
State putting our neutrality at grave risk

DEBATE on the status of Ireland’s neutrality is certain to be rekindled by today’s shock revelation that an Israeli request to transport 28 Patriot missiles to the United States through Shannon Airport was granted by the Coalition government.

Evidence also points to an American cargo of Cruise missiles labelled as rocket motors over-flying Ireland during the Kosovo war.

These disclosures go to the heart of bitter controversy surrounding the Government’s decision to permit the use of Shannon as a transit centre for American troops with weapons and ammunition destined for the war in Iraq which lacked the authority of UN sanction.

It

is worth noting that information about Shannon’s role in the transportation of Israeli missiles to be upgraded in the United States is not a figment of some anti-war activist’s imagination.

On the contrary, it emanates from official Government documents in the possession of the Irish Examiner. They were released during recent court cases taken against the State by opponents of the use of Shannon for military purposes.

In theory, strict rules govern the transportation of weapons and ammunition through this country but the latest revelations throw a searching spotlight on the ambivalence of successive administrations towards the concept of neutrality.

It is now known that as far back as 1988 the Government was aware that American troops transiting Shannon airport routinely carried arms and live ammunition with them.

However, it was only in January this year, following media revelations, that the Coalition conceded troops going to Iraq were breaching regulations by carrying personal weapons. Only then was an order issued compelling America to seek permission for that.

The question that arises is how much weaponry has been allowed to pass through Shannon in the course of several wars. Up to the Iraqi conflict, an average of a couple of dozen flights a year were permitted to carry arms over Ireland.

According to the official transport schedule supplied by Israel, each Patriot missile carried 44kg of high explosives and 498kg of rocket fuel. The transit request was made in April 2001 and the permit was granted in June of the same year. The over-flight of Cruise missiles occurred in 1999.

Understandably, the clearance process was complex, involving the departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Justice and the Irish Aviation Authority. Ultimately, the then Department of Public Enterprise under Mary O’Rourke gave the green light for the Patriot operation.

Apparently, none of the relevant departments nor the minister had any objection to the movement of these missiles through Ireland. Public concerns about the use of Shannon in the war on Iraq sparked the most heated debate on foreign policy since the foundation of the State. Despite lack of UN sanction for the war, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was determined to allow US forces to land and refuel at Shannon Airport and to overfly Ireland. Government policy was based on the premiss that US planes had landed at Shannon during the Vietnam War and the Kosovo conflict.

The Taoiseach claimed that if landings were banned, Ireland “would be the only country in the free world that would be withdrawing something”.

Significantly, the marked increase in the flow of troops and weaponry through Ireland coincides with America’s self-appointed and highly dubious role as international sheriff. Implicitly, by lending its unquestioning support to US military policy, the Government is putting Ireland’s neutrality at grave risk.