CIA watchers arrested at Shannon last night

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday November 30, 2007 15:45 by Coilín ÓhAiseadha

Gardaí again refuse to search torture aircraft

Gardai last night arrested Conor Cregan and retired army commandant Edward Horgan while they were observing suspected CIA jet N478GS at Shannon Airport.

This aircraft is listed in the European Parliament’s TDIP report as allegedly being involved in the CIA "extraordinary renditions" programme, under which civilians suspected of terrorism have been abducted and transported to destinations outside the United States, where they have been tortured.

Cregan and Horgan, who have been observing and reporting on suspicious aircraft landing at Shannon for five years, were in the public observation tower at the airport, acting on a tip-off. When the aircraft landed at 1.30 am, the two human rights activists called the Gardai to ask them to search the aircraft for victims of the CIA torture programme.

But instead of searching the aircraft, the Gardaí asked the two law-abiding activists to leave. When they persisted in attempting to identify and observe the aircraft, they were arrested at approximately 1.40 am under the Air Traffic and Navigation Act, section 33.1.

This incident follows a familiar pattern in which the Gardaí at Shannon refuse to investigate aircraft that are known to have been chartered by the CIA and whose flight logs suggest that they have been used to transport abducted prisoners for purposes of torture. Most recently, Cregan and Horgan sighted CIA jet N475LC at the airport on 30 October. They immediately asked Gardai to investigate, but the Gardaí refused.

Michael D. Higgins, TD, raised the issue in the Dáil yesterday and received the usual denial by the government. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Phone Mark Price for further details: 086 3454332.