Secret Payments For US Landings

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | other press Monday January 16, 2006 12:35 by Phoenix Reader

From the Phoenix - 16 Dec 05

Last month's Phoenix ran an interesting story indicating that the CIA are / were also using Baldonnel to refuel the aircraft that are used for their "extraordinary renditions". In the most recent January edition, the Phoenix reports that G2 (defence forces intelligence) have been trying to discover the source of this information rather than investigate the flights themselves.

Since this information is not available elsewhere online, it has been reprinted here in the public interest.

Goldhawk has obtained information which indicates that the CIA is using Baldonnel (HQ of the Irish Air Corps) for re-supply flights by the controversial Gulfstream and other aircraft including Beechcraft, Boeing and McDonald DC9 jets used in the special renditions programme. Payments for facilities obtained, including supply of aviation kerosene, are billed by the Irish Department of Defence to the DAO (Defence Attaché Office) at a Post Office Box rented by the US Embassy in Accra, Ghana. At least two accounts have been sent to this address by the Department of Defence in Dublin in respect of flights into Baldonnel by the Gulfstream G3 on July 15, 2005. The Gulfstream was back again on August 9 and on August 10 at Baldonnel.

Obscurely tucked away in West Africa, Ghana is an interesting place in the CIA scheme of things. The Americans run a "training centre" (known as KAPKTC) in Ghana for what they describe as "soldier- statesmen". US training officers there are described as "the point of the spear ... serving with distinction on all fronts in the global war on terrorism."

Other accounts rendered by the Irish Defence Department for facilities provided at Baldonnel have been sent to an even more obscure place ­ the DAO, Suite 1600, Santa Clara, California. This is only a partial address. A net search on Suite 1600, Santa Clara brings up a link to Paul Puri & Associates, a criminal defence law firm, licenced in Santa Clara County, but with an address at Suite 1600, 580 California Street, San Francisco.

It is probable that DAO in this case stands not for Defense Attaché Office but rather Defense Accounting Office, of which there is one in nearby Moffett Field, a former US naval air base.

According to its website, there are two long runways and substantial other accommodation there which once housed more than 5,000 military on a 2,000 acre site. "Moffett Federal Airfield (MFA) is currently operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)," it reads. "NASA has continued the tenant program begun by the Navy, hosting several other organizations at MFA including the Naval Reserve, the California Air National Guard, and Onizuka Air Force Base. Currently, NASA is continuing to operate MFA as a restricted federal airfield."

Irish Defence sources say that several of this year's US transits through Baldonnel have given their destinations vaguely to Air Traffic Control as "Orange County, California", while others have listed San Jose (which happens to be adjacent to Moffet Federal Airfield) as their destination. The cleverness of using Baldonnel is that CIA flights are camouflaged by regular flights on US army, navy and air force operations. Loca costs incurred by such "regular" aircraft, (unlike those which have accounts sent to Ghana or an obscure address in California), are billed by the Irish Department of Defence to DAO (Defence Attaché Office) Dublin, which is the address of the Defence Attaché a the American Embassy in Ballsbridge.

Some Defence Force members are convinced that there exists a secret protocol between Dublin and Washington (agreed ove a bowl of shamrock during a St. Patrick's Da White House bash) which allows the US unfettered access to Irish air space and vital refuelling facilities. There are a number of precedents. The best-known is the secret arrangement by which de Valera kept quiet about the building of the hush-hush US Nava Radio Station at Clooney Park, Derry, in 1941, before the Americans entered the Second World War, and the over-flying of neutral Donegal by Allied warplanes during the Battle of the Atlantic.